A Few Opinions

 and be sure to check my blog for up to the minute opinions

Watering Holes

Golf Digest Magazine, generally renowned in the cubicles and hallways of redanman.com headquarters for loads of teaching articles and very skewed opinions about travel has on its current newstand issue (Fill in the month) the "Best 19th Holes".  This is a topic near and dear to my heart, but there are different kinds of 19th holes.  Traditionally the Bar and Lounge areas of a clubhouse or the patio where drinks are served overlooking the course are referred to as the 19th hole, however the 19th hole actually exists on some courses and is also known as the "Bye Hole". Some courses make a big deal about it others have them tucked away.  Old Sandwich southof Boston has one accessed from tees placed adjacent to the ninth and final greens.  The original 18 hole course at Forest Creek near Pinehurst, N.C., has a Bye that must be driven past as one heads to the clubhouse (Walkable Course? Yes, but separations reach beyond the nuisance level, so yes - drive past). Lehigh Country Club has one just a short walk back from the eighteenth green and it also functions well in teh winter and as a replacement hole if a hole is closed for work.

I am more interested in the traditional 19th hole just now and I have a very short list that is headed by one that Golf Digest's pampered, out-of-touch editors have missed - and depending on your tastes, it may be the best, if there is such a thing.  

California Golf Club of San Francisco (CA)

An extremely impressive seamlessly cohesive meeting place this very large volume room (l x w x h) connects the North and South Locker Rooms and has a very large Horseshoe Bar that is easily accessed after nine holes as the walk takes you right to the door before you go to ten tee. It ties the entire place together. This is a place to meet with your 20 most intimate friends for a cocktail. You simply must have a drink at this bar in your golf lifetime. It is a shrine to golf and its history entwined with the art of making alcohol. Plenty of choice kinds of seating are available and there is the dominoes room at the southeast corner with table service.  Perfection, very civilised.

Carnegie Abbey (RI)

A cozy little space that is a mere short walk from the "Wall of Malts" which dominates the south dining space a few yards away. Oval in shape it is very cozy and is a walk straight back from the main entrance by the concierge/front desk. A very short walk out teh back door takes you to Narragansett Bay and the lovely little sub 300 yard 18th hole, but leaning against or sitting at the bar is just fine.  The Wall of Malts is the trophy here. Fifty malts from common (as if there were such a thing as a common Malt Whisky!) and certainly not-so-common malts are here completely covering the range of this delectible addiction. From Aberlour to Tobermory and beyond.  Here I first tasted the 30-year Old Laphroaig (Still hoping to try the 40 this year - £1000 per bottle) and of course here one can sample the elusive Knockando, Royal Lochnagar Reserve and of course the Carnegie Malt. Members can work their way through the wall and upon completion each receives an engraved tasting glass with his three digit number of where in the queue of members he stands as having completed the wall. This of course means that one lucky middle-aged bastard became 007.  Quite an honour - indeed!  It is an honor just to have a few in this bar.

Garden City Golf Club (NY)

This place exists on so many ethereal planes, it has one of the finest essentially flat golf courses in the world, indeed has the rattiest truly great locker room of the world and has the wonderful quaint gentlemanly requirement of "Jackets Required".  Attending the Member-Guest Lobster Bake after winning the big silver trophy (Gross, ofcourse) with my host Owen H. in 1992, I met the Jackets Required criteria in my shorts, jacket and zoris on that HHH day.  I'm certain that more than once one has met the requirement with less wardrobe than I chose that suffocating day, but I chose just enough to be a gentleman.  Nary a soul looked askance.  Oui, d'accord, Monsieur.

St. Andrew's Bay Fairmont Hotel (Fife)  link

There are the Devlin and Torrance Courses (Modern design) here and they are serviceable places for golf but not up to the Old Course nor Kingsbarns in Quality, however the watering hole has a very fine selection of draughts and malts including Edradour, the smallest distillery in Scotland.  What excels here is the setting and the views are unparalleled. It is a virtual 270º panorama overlooking the Grey Auld Toon, the Firth and Angus across the way whilst parking yer behind in teh grand Kingdom of Fife.  Simply fantastic and they have a small but great malt selection, it is a Fairmont after all.

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Golf Resort (SC)

Here you are virtually sitting in the course not at it and right on the ocean on a south-facing beach - the best orientation there is. This is the best in public American Golf, period.

 .(Photo coming)

That about says it all, hereby saving thousands of words.

On the topic: Proudly linked is the Royal Mile Whisky site. If you can't find it here, good luck. They are just down the Royal Mile from The National Whisky Centre if you are in Edinburgh. The National Whisky Centre has a variety of oddball bottlings that you are unlikely to find elsewhere, but the prices are not as good for the standard stuff as down the street at the Royal Mile Shops.