Perhaps Sam Torrance said it best when he expressed, “I wish I could bottle this (week’s experience) and take a wee sip every day for the rest of me life.” While we in the Helensburgh office were decidedly excited with the Europeans winning back the Ryder Cup, we were even more pleased at the entire outcome of the Matches and the goodwill they generated for the game of golf. Congratulations to both teams and their captains!

Combined with Ernie Els’ stunning victory at The Open Championship at Muirfield, Padraig Harrington’s sudden death win at the Dunhill Links Championship and the dynamic duo Ryder Cup pairing of Montgomerie and Langer sharing the European Tour’s season ending Volvo Championship at Valderrama, it was another stellar year showcasing golf in Europe.

And, well done to Nick Dougherty, a former member of the winning 2001 GB & I Walker Cup Team, for narrowly beating out team mate, Graeme McDowell, for the coveted Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award for the European Tour.

There’s exciting news from the “Home of Golf,” St. Andrews with the announcement, by the St. Andrews Links Trust, of the planned seventh course to be designed by Scot David McLay Kidd (Bandon Dunes, Queenwood). The course will be located just south of the town before St. Andrews Bay Resort and Kingsbarns Golf Links, offering spectacular views of the town and the bay. The entire release on the new course is featured later in the Advisor. And the Links Trust is also again offering a programme to play the Old Course in Reverse (the original way) next April.

We are constantly vetting existing accommodation partners and looking for new marvelous properties for our clients. The addition of the PerryGolf Private Collection, detailed in depth this issue, complements perfectly with travel by our fleet of Mercedes VIP Golf Coaches, and they can be used exclusively on an itinerary or combined with other larger deluxe accommodations and hotels. We look forward to expanding our offerings in this programme in future seasons.

For the past few years there have been several new “modern classic” championship courses opening each year in the British Isles, and they are a welcome addition to any itinerary featuring the classic links and layouts. Golf World,UK identifies five new outstanding designs that should make future Top 100 Courses in the UK lists as; the O’Meara Course at Carton House in Dublin, The Devlin Course at St. Andrews Bay, Greg Norman’s Doonbeg in Ireland, Donald Steel’s The Kintyre Course at Turnberry and David McLay Kidd’s Queenwood outside of London. With the exception of Queenwood, which is private, these new courses all offer great golf experiences to add to your future itineraries.

We look forward to seeing you in the British Isles and Europe, to visit old friends and new classics, in the near future.

Good Golfing

The Helensburgh Staff

e-mail: operations@perrygolf.com