New Golf!
Machrihanish Dunes (Scotland) and Lough Erne Golf Resort (N. Ireland)

Our favorite news comes first: David McLay Kidd’s new Machrihanish Dues will open next year on the Kintyre Peninsula and Lough Erne Golf Resort with a new Nick Faldo design opened in September.

When Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club opens in 2008, it will be the first golf course built on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSi) since the days of Old Tom Morris himself. It will also be the first 18-hole links course built on the west coast of Scotland in 100 years and one of the last remaining natural links sites in the country. MacDunes lies adjacent to Old Tom’s fabled Machrihanish Golf Club for a set up akin to the Old Course and Kidd’s new Castle Course or Kyle Phillip’s Kingsbarns: legendary classic + modern classic…repeat! Luxury lodging has come to town as well in the beautifully and totally refurbished Royal Hotel five miles away on Campbeltown Harbor. Visit their site at Machrihanish Dunes.

Opened in September of this year, the Lough Erne Golf Resort is a 125 bedroom hotel positioned with views over Castlehume Lake and Lower Lough Erne in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It has 25 lakeside lodges which overlook the Nick Faldo designed golf course. These lodges offer a choice of 2 or 3 bedrooms with separate lounge and are fully serviced by the hotel. The resort also boasts a Thai Spa with a pool and Fitness Suite. Head this way and play the northwest coast: Rosses Pointe, Enniscrone, Donegal, and several more like Rosapenna and Carne that almost everybody misses. Visit their site at Lough Erne Golf Resort.

The Whisky Coast & PerryGolf 2008

We are entirely pleased to announce our partnership with The Whisky Coast – a collection of 16 Scottish whisky distillers on the west coast plus regional hotels, restaurants and golf courses who have joined to make your visit one of the most memorable in Scotland. The Whisky Coast stretches from Springbank Distillery in Campbeltown, Scotland’s oldest family-owned distillery in the south, to the Talisker Distillery on Skye in the north with some of the most magical names in Scottish malts in between: Bruichladdich, Lagavulin, Laphroaig and Isle of Jura. Adventurous PerryGolf clients have long known that west coast distillery tours are automatic when Machrihanish or The Machrie are on the schedule (Machrihanish Dunes will join that list in 2008) but the picture has changed significantly. What used to be too far out of the way for many schedules is now a 45 minute high speed water taxi from Troon.

See tour details at Links & Whisky.

Halleuhjah Terminal Five!
Heathrow Airport, London

After nearly six years under construction and $9 billion spent, March 2008 will seem like you’ve died and gone to heaven if you’re flying British Airway through Heathrow. Five times the size of its long haul predecessor, Terminal Four, new BA hub Terminal Five will include the largest airline lounge complex in the world and a shopping experience that will be second to none. The ground experience will now match BA’s historically outstanding in-flight standards thanks in no small part because baggage handling will be substantially improved as well. No longer will miles and miles of conveyor belt literally crossing the airfield stretch between your luggage and your connection.

PerryGolf has long enjoyed a prized working relationship with our colleagues at British Airways who we applaud them for a job exceedingly well done!

Delta Direct to Malaga, Spain.

In other airline news, Delta Air Lines, another PerryGolf Preferred Airline, will introduce nonstop service from JFK Airport in New York to Malaga, Spain on June 4, 2008. Initially the flight will operate three times weekly (Sunday, Wednesday, Friday) and then increase to four times weekly on July 7, 2008. They will operate this service using a two class Boeing 757. Malaga is at the eastern end of the Costa del Sol and an ideal airport for golfers traveling to enjoy terrific Spain golf, including Valderrama and La Reserva.

Monte Do Casal
Algarve, Portugal

We are delighted to welcome Monte do Casal as one of our highly recommended hotel partners in central Algarve. With only 18 guestrooms (6 suites), this Small Luxury Hotels of the World member promises to seclude you a step aside of the tourist trail. Monte do Casal is in a protected preservation area close to the ancient hill village of Estoi, yet only 15 minutes from the Faro airport; and less than 30 minutes from Quinta do Lago, Vale do Lobo, Monte Rei and Quinta da Cima/Ria along with the area’s world famous beaches. Enjoy the spa and the hotel’s proud tradition of specialized dining. We’ve been on the watch for such an experience, very much the feel of a country house, to compliment what is one of the most relaxing destinations in the PerryGolf portfolio. Visit their site at Monte Do Casal.

South Africa Hoteliers Have Game

We say it every chance we get, now Travel & Leisure (2007 Worlds Best Awards) says it too: South African hotels get it right. Nine may be found in the new world 100 including No. 2, Singita.. (Oberoi Udaivilas in Udaipur, India was No. 1).

“The Seventh at St Andrews” by Scott Gummer

Author Scott Gummer chronicles the creation of the Castle Course, the first new layout built by the St Andrews Links Trust since the Eden Course in 1914. The Seventh at St. Andrews weaves a yarn around the players and the politics, days in the dirt and nights in the pubs. It is an insightful and often amusing tale made possible by Gummer’s direct access to course designer David McLay Kidd and his team, as well as unprecedented cooperation from the St Andrews Links Trust.

To read an excerpt and to order click The Seventh at St Andrews.

“The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever” by Mark Frost

Mark Frost’s new book is going to be my Christmas present so not a witness yet to how good this must be. The bestselling author of The Greatest Game Ever Played returns with the story known in golf circles as the greatest private match ever played. The year is 1956, four decades since Eddie Lowery came to fame as the ten-year-old caddie to U.S. Open Champion Francis Ouimet. Now a wealthy car dealer and avid supporter of amateur golf, Lowery bets fellow millionaire George Coleman that two of his employees – hot shot amateurs Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi -- cannot be beaten. Coleman puts up on Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. The story plays out in Frost’s typically detailed and fascinating form at Cypress Point.

To order and use Amazon’s nice “Search Inside”, click here.

LINKS Magazine Visits South Africa(Nov/Dec 2007)
“Into the Wild”

After a distinctively simian introduction to an emerging golf destination, the author discovers the wonders of South Africa – safaris, cosmopolitan cities and one of the most spectacular courses in the world. By George Peper Click to Read the Full Article

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