The Best Aussie Never to Have Won a Major got the monkey off his back in commanding fashion Sunday, with clutch shotmaking and the kind of determination that defines Masters champions.  Scott hung around the first page of the leaderboard all week, and when his chance came, he took it, rolling in clutch birdie putts at 18 and on the second playoff hole.  Scott honored Greg Norman in his post-round interviews and it was too bad that CBS couldn’t get Norman on the horn personally to get his response to Scott’s win.  After so many close calls at Augusta, Australia finally got its green jacket — and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer Down Under-er.  Will Scott’s win ramp up discussions about banning the long putter?  It hardly seems relevant.  Plenty of broomstick users were nowhere to be found Sunday afternoon, while all the other players in contention wielded conventional wands.  Whatever putter he’s using  in the future, you’ve got to believe that this Masters win will be the first of many majors for Adam Scott.

What a Stupid He Was…

You gotta feel for Angel Cabrera.  On a day custom-made for ducks, El Pato made a clutch birdie at 18 to get into the playoff with Adam Scott, that after just narrowly missing his birdie putt at 17.  His chip on the first playoff hole and putt on the second playoff hole both came within a whisker of going in.  And the way he plays the game — quickly and jovially — is 100% laudable.  As was the thumbs-up he gave Adam Scott after Scott had hit his stellar approach shot on the second playoff hole.  Cabrera is a good guy, and his two majors testify to the fact that he’s a great player and a true champion.  But what was with his decision at 13 to go for the green in two from the pine straw?  He was leading the tournament at that point and inexplicably went for it, only to hit into the creek and make bogey.  You never know what might have happened had he parred or birdied there, but it was the one mental misstep he made and it may have cost him his second green jacket.  The fact that Sunday was Roberto de Vicenzo’s 90th birthday only made the echoes of that Argentine’s 1968 Masters gaffe all the louder.

Aussies Rule

They say the Masters tournament doesn’t begin until the back nine on Sunday, and if that’s the case, it was practically an all-Aussie event.  Along with Scott, Australians Jason Day and Marc Leishman both were in contention as the drama of the last nine holes unfolded in the rain at Augusta.  The Aussies so dominated the leaderboard that TV coverage became a bit of a Down Under love-fest, with the CBS announcers repeatedly reminding everyone that golf fans in Melbourne were just popping open their first beers of the morning as Scott was fighting for the win.  Ian Baker-Finch practically had tears in his voice, and if viewers had been subjected to one more iteration of how important a first Masters win would be for Australia, they just might have started switching over to NHL hockey.

Not His Day

Let’s face it.  When you play the first two holes at Augusta National birdie-eagle to vault into the lead, you can be forgiven for thinking that it might just be your day.  But sadly it wasn’t for the eponymously named Jason.  In mid-round, Day stumbled.  Even after bravely battling back with three straight birdies on 13, 14 and 15, he just couldn’t keep two late-round killer bogeys off his card.  To his credit, Day admitted that part of the problem was nerves.  He’d been in contention at Augusta before, but leading a major and winning it are two different things.  Good on him for being the first to plant a bear hug on Scott after the 72nd hole.  One of the most likeable players on Tour, Day’s day will surely come and no one will be surprised to see him don his own green jacket sometime soon.

DropGate Exposes Tiger’s Achilles Heel

The game of golf isn’t fair, but sometimes its rulings are.  Tiger got hosed at 15 on Friday when he struck an approach shot so perfectly that it rattled the pin — and caromed into the water.  When he took a drop and saved bogey, that could have been the end of it.  But Woods just couldn’t resist telling the world how good he is, and when the Competition Committee members heard him talk about dropping his ball a couple yards behind the point from which he’d played his third shot — so that he’d in effect have a better yardage to the flag — the wheels were set in motion for the two-stroke penalty that dropped him, and ultimately kept him, out of contention.  This was classic Woods.  The World Number-One just had to tell everyone how precise his game is.  By dropping his ball a couple yards farther back, he implied, he could put the exact same swing on the approach shot and knock it close WITHOUT hitting the flagstick again.  Which, because he IS such a great player, is exactly what he did.  Unfortunately, the comment caused the Committee to reexamine its earlier decision not to penalize Woods.  Committee Chairman Fred Ridley even referred to Tiger’s prowess during the press conference in which he explained the Committee’s decision, saying that Tiger had admitted that “he was trying to create a situation where he would effectively have a shot that was not going to go quite as far as his first shot did.  That tells you a little bit about how good he is.”  To his credit, Woods apparently answered the Committee’s  questions in an honest and forthright manner.  But the damage was done.  You can’t help but feel a little sorry for Tiger, though.  After all, he hit nothing but perfect or near-perfect shots on the hole and ended up carding an 8.  Would missing the flagstick and making a birdie 4 there instead eventually have led to another Masters win for Woods?  We’ll never know.  But chances are, Tiger will be a bit more circumspect in the future when he talks to the press about on-course rules situations.

All Hail Thunder-Bear!

With apologies to 14 year-old Tianlang Guan, who amazed the world by making the cut at Augusta this week, the most remarkable young player in the 2013 Masters was Thorbjorn Olesen, the 23 year-old Dane who finished 4-under-par in his first Masters after shooting a fat 78 in his opening round.  Olesen, whose first name is really Jacob, goes by his middle name, which translates to “Thunder-Bear,” and he more than lived up to it this week.  You expect anyone playing in his first Masters to show nerves on Day One.  What you don’t expect is that a college-age rookie will follow up a jittery 78 with rounds of 70, 68 and 68 and finished in a tie for sixth.  Imagine — if Olesen had just shot even par during round one, something this kid is clearly capable of, he would have finished 10-under and the Scott-Cabrera playoff never would have happened.  It’s too bad CBS didn’t show more of Olesen playing.  He’s in the World Top-50 at the age of 23 and was close to being in contention in his first Masters.  Some day, you can bet that the roars of Masters “patrons” that thunder through the hills and dales of Augusta National will have his name on them.  Where the Golden Bear and Tiger stalked their prey, it will soon be Thunder-Bear’s turn.

“The subsequent information provided by the player’s interview after he had completed play warranted further review and discussion with him this morning.  After meeting with the player, it was determined that he had violated Rule 26, and he was assessed a two-stoke penalty.  The penalty of disqualification was waived by the Committee under Rule 33 as the Committee had previously reviewed the information and made its initial determination prior to the finish of the player’s round.”

In the minutes and hours since the committee issued its second (and presumably final) ruling, golf fans and golf writers around the globe have variously accused Woods, the Augusta National Competition Committee, its Chairman Fred Ridley, and even the USGA (who provides ruling assistance at the tournament) of acting in a way that’s detrimental to the game.

“It’s a sad day for golf,” one commenter said.

“Golf used to be the only sport based on honor,” said another.  “Not anymore.”

“If Tiger has any integrity, he will withdraw,” another person weighed in — and he had a lot of company in this sentiment.  The thinking is that Tiger knew (or should have known) that he had taken an illegal drop.  So in their view, he knowingly signed an incorrect scorecard and therefore should have been disqualified.  The fact that he ultimately wasn’t — and that he didn’t voluntarily withdraw or get disqualified — has made some people angry at both Tiger and the Competition Committee.

But it shouldn’t have.

The fact is, the Committee reviewed the evidence on Friday and decided there was no violation.  This COULD have been the end of it, regardless of what Joe The Couch Potato Rules Expert or anyone else feels.  The Committee made the call, Tiger signed his card, and that was that.  Had they seen a clear violation, they could have (and should have and probably would have) questioned Woods about it, giving both parties the chance before he signed his card to ascertain the true facts.  But in the Committee’s judgment, it wasn’t necessary.  Woods’ drop was close enough.  So Woods signed his card and that would have been all there was to it — if Tiger hadn’t subsequently been so “honest” about the nature of the drop he took.

In his post-round press conference, Woods said that he had dropped his ball “two yards” from the original spot where he’d played his third shot on the hole — the one so well aimed that it hit the flagstick and then caromed into the water.  Suddenly, the Committee had some new evidence to consider.  While they may have initially felt, based on video evidence, that Woods had taken a proper drop, here was first-hand testimony from the player himself that it was indeed Woods’ intention to drop some little ways away from the point where he’d played his third shot.  He had in fact NOT dropped his ball “as close as possible” to the point from which he played his unlucky pin-striking 3rd shot.

What’s the Competition Committee to do?

In my view, they did exactly the right thing — they interviewed Woods, reexamined the evidence, and modified their ruling.  They issued a two-stroke penalty to Woods for breaking the rule, but did NOT disqualify him from the tournament because they had NOT given him a chance to address the issue BEFORE he signed his card, as is common in such situations.  Rule 33 was instituted in 2010 precisely for these kinds of situations.

Woods took the penalty like a man, and the event went on.  So did the furor.

“He should have DQ’ed himself,” was the cry on Facebook posts and blogs across the world.

“Tiger and Augusta National have given golf a black eye.”

I don’t agree.

Golf is a unique sport, in that players routinely call penalties on themselves.  And unlike other sports, where final rulings are final (or immediately challenged and reviewed), in golf there is a way to right a wrong in a way that’s fair to the player, the field and the integrity of the game.

That’s why I think the Masters Competition Committee did exactly what they should have done.  They didn’t stubbornly stand by their initial ruling.  They reopened the investigation in light of new evidence.  They assessed a penalty that needed to be assessed.  Then they rightfully and fairly permitted the player to tee it up for round three, with a score two strokes higher.  To have disqualified Woods would have been unfair because he had not been questioned on the legality of the drop prior to signing his card — something for which there is plenty of precedent.  Dustin Johnson’s problem on the 18th hole of the PGA Championship at Whistling Straights in 2010 is just one example.  Johnson unknowingly grounded his club in a bunker and before he could sign his card was informed that he’d broken a rule.  In yesterday’s case, Woods wasn’t questioned about it at all.

Should Woods have withdrawn anyway?  Why?  To protect the integrity of the game?  To show the world what an honest man he is?  Sorry, but I don’t agree with that line of thinking.  A player is bound to play by the rules — and accept the decisions of rules committees.  In this case, the Committee made a ruling based on Rule 33.  Woods accepted it.  For him to withdraw would have been tantamount to doing what many have accused him of — putting himself above the game.  And without question, it wouldn’t have been fair to Woods.  Unless he’s disqualified for cause, every player deserves the opportunity to play — and indeed has an obligation to fans (“patrons”) and the tournament to play.

Are there lessons to be learned from this episode?  For sure.  Lesson Number One is that Competition Committees and rules officials need to try to do a better job of examining questionable situations BEFORE a player signs his card.  Had they done so in this case, Woods’ drop wouldn’t have led to such controversy.  Lesson Two is that players, including Woods, need to be more familiar with the rules — or at least be wise enough to ask for an on-course ruling before proceeding to the trailer to sign their cards.

In the end, I think this episode did the opposite of what many critics have said today.  To me, it proved that justice does prevail in golf.  The field was protected.  A Committee admitted its mistake and corrected it.  And a player accepted the punishment with grace.

How is any of that bad for golf?

The course will be on three separate islands.

The Maldives, an archipelago of over 1000 islands in the Indian Ocean, are sinking. Not all of them, and not all at the same rate – but many are in danger of going underwater, and this has spawned a golf course concept that is among the most ambitious of all time: a floating golf course.

The Maldives, with an average height above sea level of just five feet, is the lowest country in the world. But its government thinks big. It recently entered into a joint venture with a Dutch company, Docklands International, to build the world’s largest series of floating islands, three of which will comprise the golf course. The Dutch firm has already built floating islands for prisons and housing

Players will travel from one island to the next underwater.

from slabs of concrete and polystyrene foam. Another Dutch company, Waterstudio, is in charge of the project design. In addition to the floating course and resort, plans call for 43 private islands, each with its own jetty for yachts, swimming pool, palm trees and all the rest.  There will even be separate islands created just for workers.

The course will be part of a larger resort, offering watersports and luxury accommodations.

The proposed floating islands will be anchored to the seabed using cables or telescopic mooring piles, making landforms that will be stable, even in heavy weather. The islands will be constructed in India or the Middle east to reduce costs, then towed to their final destination in the Maldives.

In addition to welcoming golfers, who will travel to the course’s three islands via underwater tunnels, the islands will be designed so that swimmers, divers and even private submarines can enter them from below. Visitors will be able to rent these private subs, which will be able to surface right in the middle of their housing units.

All 18 holes will offer views of the sea.

Dutch International CEO Paul van de Camp said that the project will be an exclusively green development in a marine-protected area. That’s one reason why it will be a series of smaller islands rather than one large one – to minimize the shadows on the seabed. The course will be powered by solar energy and the designers claim that the entire resort will be carbon-neutral.

43 private islands will be for sale, each accessible from below by private submarine.

“This will be the first and only floating golf course in the world,” Mr. van de Camp said. “And it comes with spectacular ocean views on every hole. And then there’s the clubhouse – you get on an elevator and go underwater to get to it. It’s like being Captain Nemo down there.”

Development on the course is expected to begin later this year, and it is expected that course may be ready for play in late 2013, with the resort’s full launch in 2015.

The proposed site is just five miles from the capital of Male, giving golfers the opportunity to make quick trips to the “mainland” for dining and entertainment.

The opening tee shot from the back tees calls for a driver or 3-wood to the fairway, which doglegs left in the driving area.  But which one?  Out comes the Tour Z6.  It gives me a carry distance of 213 yards over the bunker at the dogleg and 267 yards to the far side of the fairway where the heavy rough starts.  With a breeze in my face, I can hit the driver.  I block it a bit, but find the short grass.  The Tour Z6 tells me that I have 107 yards left to the hole.  A three-quarter wedge (there’s no sand wedge in the bag!) leaves me hole-high, 15 feet away for birdie and I make the putt.  Score one for the Tour Z6.

On the 4^th hole, my Bushnell tells me I have 114 yards to the flag, only the top of which I can see.  I nail another three-quarter wedge perfectly (or so I think).  Walking to the green, I can only see one ball on it – that of my partner who’s hit his shot a little long and left.  Did the Tour Z6 give me the wrong yardage?  Did a gust of wind come up and cause me to air-mail the green?  No.  The ball is in the hole for an eagle two.

Over the rest of the jaw-droppingly beautiful round at Machrihanish Dunes, I pull out the Tour Z6 on every full swing – and toy around with it in other ways.  Can it give me the distance back to the golf house from the middle of the 10^th fairway?  Yep – it’s 396 yards.  A bit farther than I can hit it, but nice to know that the Tour Z6 can see that far, even if I can’t.  Some people might say that yardages aren’t that important on links golf courses like Mach Dunes, where the game is played on the ground and the winds wreak havoc with your ball flight.  I totally disagree.  While it’s true that I may need to play a knockdown shot here or there rather than hit the ball high, or play a low running chip shot from 100 yards, I still want to know that it’s 100 yards and not 75 or 125.  Armed with the Tour Z6, I make two more birdies and shoot the best score I’ve ever recorded on this course.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  But maybe not.  Using the Tour Z6 in Portugal a few weeks later (in much warmer and sunnier weather, thank you), I find myself once again zeroing in on flagsticks and getting good birdie chances.  The fact that I only drop two of those birdie putts isn’t the rangefinder’s fault.

Bushnell’s Tour Z6 is one of the world’s best rangefinders.  Essentially a smaller, more compact version of the company’s much-heralded Pro 1M, it’s about as advanced as these units come.  It operates simply – no gimmicks.  It’s tour certified so it’s not one of those models that will automatically adjust for elevation, but I don’t want that from a rangefinder anyway.  What I want is a compact, accurate, easy-to-use unit that’s built to stand the test of time. This Bushnell delivers that and more.

LIKES

-Accuracy

Bushnell’s “PinSeeker” technology latches on to flagsticks quickly and lasers the yardage even more quickly.  “Lightning fast” would not be much of an exaggeration.  I don’t have the steadiest hands in the world, but I didn’t have to hunt for the stick with this Bushnell.  It saw it, lasered it, and it gave me true yardages every time.  Bushnell claims that the Tour Z6 is accurate to ½ yard.  I can readily believe that.  And as I mentioned, the Tour Z6 had no problem measuring to distant objects.  I measured to a flag 325 yards away at the Oceanico Victoria course in Portugal without any problem.  Bushnell says the unit will pick up a flag at 450 yards, but I didn’t have occasion to measure a shot quite that long.

-Visuals

The Bushnell Tour Z6 has amazing optics.  Bushnell’s “Vivid Display Technology” absolutely lives up to its name.  In bright sunshine or under dark rain clouds, the target was illuminated and easy to see.  It was dramatically sharper (and brighter) than other rangefinders I’ve used, painting the target in a pleasant orangey hue and offering yardages in a number display that almost looked 3D.  Very cool.  I don’t have the best eyesight in the world anymore (and can’t/won’t play with glasses) so the fact that the Tour Z6 offers 6x magnification was a big plus.  It’s really nice to be able to see the contours of the green and all the greenside features from 190 yards away.  Once I had adjusted the diopter, it gave me clear, accurate views the rest of the way.  Seeing what you’re shooting at is half the battle.  Seeing it this clearly breeds confidence.

-Size

The Tour Z6 fits nicely into the palm of your hand.  You can easily use it with one hand (though I generally use two).  It’s smaller than Bushnell’s Pro 1M, but offers pretty much the same technology and accuracy.

-Sturdiness

If you’ve ever used a cheap rangefinder, you know how unreliable they can be.  Some just feel flimsy, and others seem to burn through batteries faster than you can add up your score.  The Bushnell Tour Z6 is a well-built rangefinder that feels solid, like it could survive Armageddon.  The housing is metal covered with a perforated rubber that makes it easy to hold on to, even in wet conditions.  It’s also waterproof – something that came in handy on the 17^th at Machrihanish Dunes when the heavens decided to give us a wee soaking.  Even the lens has a “RainGuard” coating on it, so getting yardages in a Scottish storm is easily do-able.  Changing the battery is a snap, too.  I haven’t worn out the one that was included with the unit yet, but inserting the 3-volt battery that came with it was a cinch.

-APPEARANCE

Does appearance matter in a rangefinder?  Not really.  The performance is what counts.  That having been said, you use your rangefinder a lot during a round of golf.  It’s like a caddy – or a friend.  Ideally, you don’t want an ugly one.  You want one that inspires confidence.  The Tour Z6’s black, red and white design looks sleek, modern and professional.  I like it.

DISLIKES

There’s not much to dislike in the Tour Z6.  You’d really have to be a harsh critic to X this unit off your list for any reason.  There were only two things I’d change in the next model:

-Firing button could be a tad bigger – or seated in a way that makes it easier to find and push in the midst of a hurried round.

-Carrying case is larger than it needs to be – unless you have a tour bag, you can’t really store the unit (when in its carrying case) in the pocket of your golf bag.

BOTTOM LINE

The Bushnell Tour Z6 is the best rangefinder I’ve tested.  It’s solidly built, very accurate, easy as pie to use and its optics are flat-out brilliant.  Priced at over $350, it’s not cheap.  But I’m willing to bet that owning this sweet piece of technology will do more for your game than a new driver will.  Get your hands on one and you’ll see what I mean.

It’s been a long time coming and didn’t happen a moment too soon.

What’s odd about the news is that the club has made the announcement at all. Augusta National’s membership list has normally been a closely kept secret. As recently as last year’s Masters, Payne bluntly told reporters that membership issues would not be discussed. But in this case, the club has blurted the right news right out.

“These accomplished women share our passion for the game of golf and both are well known and respected by our membership,” Payne said in the statement released by the club. “It will be a proud moment when we present Condoleeza and Darla their green jackets when the club opens this fall. This is a significant and positive time in our club’s history and, on behalf of our membership, I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome them and all of our new members into the Augusta National family.”

It hasn’t been reported who the other new members are, and it probably won’t be. The club seems eager in this case to share the news that it’s done the right thing in bringing women aboard as members — but don’t expect much more than that.

It took Augusta National 58 years to find a non-white member, and 70 years to find these two celebrated female ones — including an African America female, which ticks two boxes if anyone’s counting (and they are).

Both women report that they are delighted to have been asked to become members, as all golf fans should be. Augusta National is a one-of-a-kind course and club, and The Masters is a tournament without peer. It’s great news that the club will not have to worry about being forced to change its policies “at the point of a bayonet” any more, as former chairman Hootie Johnson once said. Nor will it have to worry about being picketed by the Martha Burks of the world again.

The times, they are a-changin’ — and changin’ for the better.

Dr. Michael Jacuch, right, learning about the benefits of the ParaGolfer from Jerry Donovan.

For any avid golfer, a year and a half would be a very long time to go without playing golf.  Too long.  But imagine if you had to go that long without even being able to stand up outdoors.  Dr. Michael Jacuch can tell you exactly how difficult that is.  Following a trip to the hospital in 2010, the Portsmouth, N.H. cardiologist was left paralyzed from the chest down.

“For a long time, I didn’t want to acknowledge that it had really happened to me.  But there’s no denying the fact that I’m paralyzed, and the effect that it’s had on me and my family is almost impossible to put into words.”

Recently, though, Jacuch got a glimpse of a somewhat brighter future when Jerry Donovan of the Northeast Accessible Golf Association introduced him to the ParaGolfer – a high-tech golf cart made especially for handicapped golfers.  Donovan met up with Jacuch at Renaissance, a private golf club in Haverhill, Mass. to show him what the ParaGolfer could do.  Donovan, a paraplegic himself who owns and enthusiastically promotes the ParaGolfer, demonstrated this breakthrough machine – then gave Jacuch a turn.  It wasn’t long before Jacuch was grinning at his solid strikes — and joking once again about his slice.  A part of Jacuch’s life that had been taken away seemed like it might possibly return.  You can view a WBZ-TV news report of Jacuch’s emotional return to the golf course here.

"You're up" -- words that are music to the ears of paraplegics in more ways than one.

The ParaGolfer, also called the ParaMobile, comes from a German company called Parabasetec.  It was designed and developed by Christian Nachtwey (ex European champion of wheelchair golfer) and Anthony Netto (a wheelchair-bound golf professional), in partnership with Otto Bock Health Care, a worldwide manufacturer of wheelchairs, rehabilitation and medical products.  What makes this product so remarkable is that it actually lifts the golfer into a standing position so that he or she can swing at the ball standing up.  It’s a lot easier for a handicapped player to swing this way – and that’s only one of the many important benefits of the ParaGolfer.

“I always enjoyed playing golf, even though I was never a great player,” said Jacuch.  “Being able to use the ParaGolfer and to get out and play with my friends again would be great.  But the other advantages this technology offers are even more compelling.  There’s a lot to be said for being able to stand up.  An awful lot. ”

One of the benefits that Jacuch is referring to is the therapeutic benefit of being able to stand on your feet when you’re handicapped.  Being in a standing, vertical position promotes circulation, stimulates the metabolism, stretches muscles and tendons, reduces spasticities and enhances the mobility of joints.  Paraplegics need to be on their feet daily – and with the ParaGolfer and ParaMobile, they can do so anywhere and everywhere, with just the touch of a button.

Standing up has a host of other benefits, too – including a psychological one.  The day that Jacuch tried out the ParaGolfer at Renaissance was the first time in 18 months that he’d been able to hug his wife Alex without her having to bend over to do so – something that brought both of them to tears.  Jacuch was able to chase his young daughter Natalia around the practice range, too – which quickly had her squealing with delight and made him so emotional that he was at a loss for words.

Jacuch got choked up again when he talked about what a difference it makes to be able to look someone in the eye rather than constantly having to look up at people – and have them look down at him.

“Unless you’re confined to a wheelchair like me and Jerry, people have no idea how hard that is,” Jacuch said.  “In a way, the ParaMobile or ParaGolfer gives you some of your dignity back.  And that means so much – it really does.”

Being able to hug your wife in a standing position for the first time in 18 months -- priceless.

As you might imagine, the ParaGolfer is not inexpensive.  The technology involved in its design and manufacture gives it a sticker price of over $20,000.  And unfortunately, despite its proven therapeutic benefits, insurance doesn’t cover the purchase of a ParaMobile.   This is something that both Donovan and Jacuch believe should be changed.  The fact is, keeping paralyzed legs healthier can help keep paraplegic people healthier.

In Jacuch’s case, the ParaMobile could have one other amazing benefit, too.  It could allow him resume doing the kind of interventional cardiology procedures that he used to do – procedures that normally require the physician to be in a standing position.  That would benefit not just Jacuch – but all the patients he could be seeing and helping, too.

“This product is a godsend is so many ways,” Jacuch said.

Now he just needs to find a way to get one.

–

If you’d like to speak to Dr. Jacuch about the ParaGolfer or ParaMobile – or would like to help him in his quest to get one, he has provided this email address for direct communication: mjacuch@aol.com.

Forty years later, Anderson has released “Thick As A Brick 2 – Whatever Happened to Gerald Bostock?” – a sequel that like many sequels may be met with muted applause. It shouldn’t be. TAAB2 is unquestionably the best collection of songs that Anderson has penned and recorded in a very long time.  I admit, I had all but given up on Anderson, thinking that he had finally become, in his own words, too old to rock ‘n roll.  But I was wrong.  My apologies, Ian.

How did TAAB2 come about?  Anderson’s answer can be found on the Tull website: “A few years ago, Mike Andrews and Royston Eldridge, two ex-Chrysalis Records gents pressed me to consider a follow-up to “Thick as a Brick.” I gave it some dutiful deliberation – for a couple of minutes – and politely declined. Nice idea, nice chaps but, after reflection, no-oooooo. Then, in 2010, a re-aquaintance with seventies Prog Rock vocalist-turned-record exec Derek Shulman – yes, he of Gentle Giant fame – restarted the old refrain. Yes, but…. no, but, and finally – OK, I’ll give it some more dutiful deliberation (four and a half minutes, this time) which eventually produced, in February of 2011, the synopsis of the idea.”

“The idea” revolves around the central figure of the original “Thick As A Brick,” Gerald Bostock. Bostock was the fictional child poet, “the Little Milton,” who purportedly wrote the lyrics to the original Brick. In the 17 songs that comprise TAAB2, Anderson contemplates what might have become of young Gerald as he aged. Would he have become a crass and evil banker? A so-called man of the cloth? A soldier or captain of industry? A homeless grifter like Anderson’s seminal character, Aqualung? A boring shopkeeper with no aspirations beyond playing with his model Mallard train and stationing his belly in front of the telly each evening? Lots of possibilities to explore, both thematically and musically, in this tight album’s songs, which culminate appropriately in one called “What-Ifs, Maybes and Might-Have-Beens.” They’re stories of some of the possible paths that Gerald’s life could’ve taken, but also in a cumulative way they reflect upon the choices each of us have made along life’s by-ways to become who we are.

Ian Anderson (front) with from left to right guitarist Florian Opahle, drummer Scott Hammond, keyboard player John O'Hara and bassist David Goodier.

The music contains obvious hints of the original, starting from the very beginning, when strains of a menacing bass, guitar and organ section from the second side of TAAB1 approach out of the mist to usher you along on this pseudo-nostalgic adventure. In several other places, such as in parts of “Old School Song,” musical phrases conjure the first record but don’t overtly mimic it. They pay homage in a pleasantly familiar way, but do not simply regurgitate. There’s a hint of a TAAB1 Hammond organ riff here, a dash of a TAAB1 rock guitar line there.  But they’re new and they fit the new material.  There are lyrical references to earlier Tull songs, as well, notably “Locomotive Breath” and “A Passion Play” – but interestingly, none to the original Brick as far as I could tell beyond the mention in both albums of soldiers and military duty.

The complexity of the music on this album is astounding. Along with “Ian Anderson Touring Band” members David Goodier (bass), Scott Hammond (drums), John O’Hara (keyboards) and Florian Opahle (guitar), Anderson has produced an album that is meant to be listened to in its entirety. Yes, you can pull up individual songs on your iPod and snack on them, but the album progresses in much the same way as TAAB1, moving from one musical/lyrical theme to another – and back again. Never does the music stay in one place for long, even within individual songs. A moment of flute here, a fanfare of concertina-speckled notes there, and suddenly Anderson’s harshly sputtering (or majestically soaring or carefully tiptoeing) flute give way to Opahle’s thundering Les Paul as it rumbles through like a freight train, upsetting the tea cups and hearkening back to the early days of Tull, when pensive orchestral sections would explode into full-frontal rock at the twirl of a flute.

This is the album that Tull fans have been awaiting for a long, long time. But it’s not a Tull album per se – and that should be addressed, I suppose. From almost the band’s beginning, Ian Anderson WAS Jethro Tull. The number of times he’s been called “Jethro” by enraptured, if ill-informed, fans will attest to that. But even as other band members came and went, Tull guitarist Martin Barre remained a constant. Until now. This album doesn’t bill itself as a Tull album, but rather as having been put out by “Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson.” Martin Barre does not play on it, and he will not tour with Anderson when it’s performed, in its entirety, along with TAAB1, which will also be performed in its entirety.  Barre is still listed on the group’s website, along with Doane Perry, as being part of the “Jethro Tull Band,” but this Brick is not his.

Anderson then...

...and now.

“When I do something as Ian Anderson rather than Jethro Tull,” said Anderson in an interview with Billboard, “The riff-raff stay home and the people who come are usually supportive and more open-minded.” He went on to say that Barre and Perry “understood” his decision, and joked that “they must feel a slight bit of relief they don’t have to learn how to play a lot of difficult music and remember it all.”

Tull fans should not mourn Barre’s absence. Martin Barre is a very good guitarist, and no one can be blamed for harboring hope that he and Anderson will pair up again sometime. But Opahle’s work on this album is both broad in scope and superb in its execution. In songs like “Banker Bets, Banker Wins,” “Swing It Far,” “Old School Song,” “Confessional” and others, Opahle channels Barre’s precisely fuzzy and suitably heavy “Tull” guitar bits very nicely. But it’s clear that Opahle has his own bag of tricks, too. He varies his instrument’s tone with alacrity and in sometimes surprising ways that add to the rich and multifaceted texture of these songs. Sometimes the guitar sings, sometimes it stings. On one song (like “Adrift and Dumbfounded”) it might provide a prodding baseline, while on another (“Banker Bets, Banker Wins,” for example) it soars into a slick-fingered solo featuring one impressively denoted lick after another. So while I love Martin, I’m also eager to see Opahle play with Anderson when the TAAB2 tour comes to Lynn.  Anderson has stated that he composed TAAB2 with touring in mind (trying to avoid layering flute solos over vocals passages and things of that sort), so it will be interesting to hear how true to the recording the live performance stays – and also how it strays.

The troupe’s other members are equally impressive. Goodier and O’Hara have traveled and recorded with Anderson before, and if you know anything about Ian Anderson, it’s that he’s a perfectionist. They wouldn’t be on the team if they weren’t very good musicians. In recording TAAB2, they had their work cut out for them, as it’s one of the more ambitious rock albums either of them will likely ever be called upon to perform. O’Hara chips in with the original TAAB’s Hammond organ sound and adds a plethora of other keyboard and synth arrangements. Goodier’s bass is probably the least “visible” of the players’ parts, but an album with this many time and tone changes throughout requires precision from your bass player and Goodier delivers. Equally impressive is Scott Hammond’s work on drums. It’s not every drummer who can shape-shift from quiet orchestral rhythms into pounding hard rock and back, with stops at a couple other stations in between, and do as good a job as this. The more you listen to this album, the more different parts of the percussive fabric underlying it you will come to appreciate.

In the end, though, the credit goes to Anderson, who has seemingly come out of retirement to create what in a better (read: more patient and musically sophisticated) world would be a drop-dead chart-topper. Song by song, brick by brick, the album tells a story in both words and sounds. There are multiple, very memorable melodies here – something we haven’t really received from Anderson since “Roots to Branches” and “The Secret Language of Birds” came out in 1995 and 2000 respectively. His flute playing, whether on one leg or two, remains sharp and expressive – but not excessive.  There is no gratuitous flauting on TAAB2.   Even Anderson’s voice, which Tull enthusiasts could barely stand to listen to during past live shows, seems to have improved to the point where some of the range and intonation Ian used to be able to conjure up with ease can put in a reappearance.

Anderson's talent -- and intellect -- is in full bloom on TAAB2.

Whatever the condition of Anderson’s singing voice, it’s clear that his poetic voice has lost none of its satiric power.  While TAAB2 may be a sequel, it is by no means a nostalgic look back at the world of 1972.  Anderson addresses very modern issues in his lyrics here, which are well worth listening to and examining over and over again, ideally with a search engine of some kind close at hand.  The five possible life stories Anderson hypothesizes for young Gerald in TAAB2 are at the same time vehicles for Anderson’s scrutiny of the screwed-up world we inhabit today.  He “bears down hard” on homophobia, Starbucks, “Give ‘til it hurts” televangelists, pederasty, “broken societies, selfish, uncaring, addled brains clutching at chemicals soothing,” the living death of suburbia (where “I lay me down to live” and “all the time life slips away”) – and even eBay.   I can’t think of many songwriters who would have had the nerve (or the intelligence) to so adroitly and artistically tackle topics like these, particularly while at the same time trying to create listenable music.

“Banker Bets, Banker Wins,” in addition to being the best rock song Anderson has written in almost 20 years, is perhaps the most scathing take on the recent banking and mortgage crisis any artist has produced to date.  Its protagonist, a greedy “pig-a-troughing,” a Canary Wharf gambling-man investment banker who has “never missed yet, for all his sins,” is perfectly content to “test a Porsche, snort a line, eat Hermione for lunch,” but when the mortgage meltdown hits, it’s certainly not his fault – “non est mea culpa” in the words of the bard.

Anderson takes on warmongering in TAAB2, as well – and it’s not the Vietnam conflict he’s talking about.  In “Wootton Bassett Town,” a first-person lyric from the point of view of a combatant in Iraq or Afghanistan (it doesn’t really matter which), Anderson painfully expresses the hopelessness of the soldier, who lies in sweat and writes “a letter to my mum, my wife, my God unseen, Who never thinks to intervene.”   There’s no escape from the terror of the world Anderson describes here, where “IED’s lie patient, sleeping, wake when soldier boots come creeping.”  No escape that is, bar one: a perfunctory funeral back home, where “black hearses crawl and church bells sound” and everyone from bikers and burghers to shoppers and tradesmen “Stiffly stand and shed a tear for the military man.”

The song that may be the album’s best, “A Change of Horses,” seems to me to have a more autobiographical bent to it than the others on this concept album redux.  Amidst its dizzying flute passages and adroit percussive refrains, the sense of the song here is about the passage of time – the central theme of TAAB2, but also one that almost certainly had Anderson himself doing some soul-searching during the creation of this album.  ”Four hundred thousand hours have come and gone;” the “lateness of the hour” has given way to “a new dawn,” a new meadow morning” brings “light airs to call” and “resolute, the optimist, I ride a fresh horse and spur it on.”  Anderson has certainly mounted a new steed with TAAB2, and one can only hope it carries him on to explore other horizons that are equally fruitful in the future.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a nod to mixing engineer Steven Wilson, who certainly rose to the occasion on this assignment.  Wilson, who was the founder and lead guitarist/singer/songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, had originally been called on to do a new surround mix for TAAB1 (after also re-mixing the Aqualung Special Edition album released in 2011).  When Anderson revealed that he had TAAB2 up his sleeve, Wilson wasn’t sure at first that he wanted to be involved.  But in talking with Anderson about the concept and the musical direction the new album would take, Wilson became as excited about it as Anderson clearly was.  His work here is stellar – the Special Edition includes both a 5.1 mix and a 24-bit LCPM stereo mix.  (A vinyl release is also on the way – one whose excellent fidelity Anderson has gushed about in online interviews.)  Said Anderson about Wilson’s TAAB2 mixing work: “He has great regard for the original so he can bring about something with a lot more sonic clarity and authority without making it sound too unfamiliar.”  Wilson clearly understood the way Anderson wanted this album to echo TAAB1 at times, and at other times to be able to shift from its quieter pastoral moments, with their delicate acoustic sections, into drown-the-dog rock assaults.  He handles these shifts brilliantly and seems to choose the right tonalities and settings intuitively.  The presentation of this music is nothing less than masterful.

My only criticism of TAAB2 is a minor one – but it’s a disappointment that could have (nay, probably should have) been avoided.  At the end of the album’s last song, the melody morphs into the final few measures of the original TAAB, and Anderson sings, as he has famously done so many times, that “your wise men don’t know how it feels… to be thick… as a brick.” Unable to help himself at that point, he then adds the final word “two” – and thusly links (or maybe smashes is a better word) the two Bricks together. To me, this “flashback” ending seems both ham-handed, particularly for Ian Anderson, and also unnecessary. Not to mention that the transition back to Brick I from a musical standpoint is a somewhat jarring conclusion that robs this new work of the great finale it rightfully deserves.  Perhaps Anderson will handle it differently in live performances. I hope so.

Anderson & Co. will be playing both TAAB1 and TAAB2 during their 2012 tour.

I think you will enjoy this album if you give it time to present its charms properly. There’s certainly a lot to like on it. And since we’re in the digital age now, you can experience the phenomenon of TAAB2 in ways other than aural, too. Anderson has created StCleve.com as a descendant of the St. Cleve Chronicle newspaper that accompanied TAAB1 in its old-media, 1972 vinyl-release form. The pseudo news site is full of occasionally interesting bits, including a mention of one Ian Anderson’s performance in a hot-chile-eating contest, which can be found on the site’s sports page. You can also follow the ongoing exploits of Gerald Bostock on both Facebook and Twitter if you feel like diving in that deep. It’s all in good fun, and like the album, a good deal headier than what you’ll find other bands putting out these days under the guise of social media.

Ian Anderson may be in his mid-sixties now, but there are moments in this new album when you can almost picture him as the crazed, mad-dog minstrel he used to be. It’s an Anderson I never thought I’d meet again – and there may be more of that particular Ian coming. In recent interviews, Anderson has said that he’s working on a few other things of note. There’s an orchestral Tull music project he’s in the midst of now (could be a snoozer, we’ll see), some stripped-down singer-songwriter stuff (with the right melodies, could be worth a listen), and also what he calls a “real rock” album that he may or may not complete and produce in 2013. That album, if it comes to pass, may not earn him another Heavy Metal Grammy, but if it’s anywhere near as nuanced and powerful as “Thick As A Brick 2,” it should sell a lot of copies. And from there, who knows.  Another concept album perhaps? A rock opera? A Tull release that features Martin Barre on guitar again? One can only hope for all of the above. It’s all but certain, though, that there aren’t any other sequels in Anderson’s future. As Anderson has stated in interviews since TAAB2 came out, even the best nursery rhyme should only go around twice once.

The World Golf Movies iTunes Movie-App helps golfers make the most of their visits to the world's great golf courses.

The first time I met Don J. Snyder, it was just after my son, a friend and I had finished playing the wonderful little seaside links course in Elie, Scotland.  Don and I had some mutual friends, and he was living in the area while caddieing up the road in St. Andrews.  All the previous winter, Don had been preparing to be a St. Andrews caddy by carrying a golf bag full of rocks around the course at Elie in conditions that can most succinctly be described as lousy. When it’s February and the icy wind is whipping in off the North Sea, walking Elie is no walk in the park.  But Don was doing it, daily, in order to make himself a better caddie — not just for the people he’d loop for in St. Andrews, but also for his son, Jack.

You see, when Don was a  young father just teaching his son the game, he promised him that if he ever became good enough to play on a pro tour he would be his caddie. The years turned and Don was nearing sixty when, in the summers of 2008 and 2010, he left his home in Maine to go work as a caddie in St. Andrews, Scotland — first at Kingsbarns Golf Links and then at The Castle Course and The Old Course — all to help prepare him for the job of caddying for his son on The Adams Golf Tour, which he did just this past winter.

During these two tours of duty in Scotland, Don discovered that the average golfer who travels around the world to play the great Scottish courses usually arrives on the first tee blind, without a strategy for how to attack the eighteen holes in front of him.  He has his digital sky caddie hanging from his bag to give him distances, a stroke saver yardage book falling from his pocket, the wind is howling, his caddie is a total stranger starting out with him on a four-hour blind date, everyone is nervous, there is another foursome breathing down his back, then the rain blows in, and by the seventh hole the golfer who has dreamed for years of getting here, has shelled out thousands of dollars to make it happen, and traveled thousands of miles with great expectations, has already made too many mistakes to recover a decent round.

One afternoon while caddying on The Old Course, Don began to consider that with the new technology available in smart phones, golfers could prepare for their journey to Whistling Straits, The Old Course, or Tory Pines by downloading to their cell phone or iPad a 20-minute interactive “Movie-App,” consisting of a hole-by-hole walking tour with a local caddie who explains the best way to play every hole. A better prepared golfer has a more satisfying experience, pace of play picks up, and that golfer becomes an eager ambassador for the golf courses where he has played his best.

When Don returned to his home in Maine, he started World Golf Movies with the belief that his Movie Apps would bring something new and meaningful to golfers — and also provide a new revenue stream for the individual golf courses; each time a Movie-App is purchased on iTunes, $3 goes directly to the course.

In early April, World Golf Movies presented its first Movie-App, which presented the magnificent Kingsbarns Golf Links.  Reviews for the app have been outstanding.  Recently, the Movie-App for The Carrick on Loch Lomond also went on sale.  By the middle of June, even more courses will be featured with Movie-Apps in the iTunes store: Royal Aberdeen, Royal Dornoch, Turnberry, and Prestwick.

World Golf Movies plans to produce forty more movie-Apps in the next eighteen months, profiling the top tourist destination golf courses in the world.

Even the most established courses must keep an eye on the future, and Don plans to present his Movie-Apps to the emerging markets of golfers in places like Asia as a way of introducing more golfers to the world’s fine golf courses that are preparing to welcome them.  The proliferation of smart phones over the past several years has now reached a critical threshold. The iPhone, the Android, the iPad are as sure to be in a golfer’s luggage as his putter.

Author and World Golf Movies founder Don Snyder

Don believes in the important role that golf plays in the lives of so many people.  Fathers and sons, old friends, and business colleagues are drawn closer to one another by the game.  He sees his Movie-Apps playing an important role as new generations of golfers access the great golf courses of the world with World Golf Movies guidance in the palm of their hand.

World Golf Movies produces each movie-App  at no cost to the individual golf course. Filming takes no longer than one day and can usually be accomplished in four hours. All that is required of the golf course is that the cinematographer be the first out on the course in the morning, and last out in the late afternoon. Two weeks after filming, the completed Movie-App goes up for sale in the iTunes store and the golf course begins earning revenue, both from direct sales via iTunes and from displaying a link to their Movie-App on the home page of their website.

If anyone can make a concept like this succeed, Don Snyder can.  He is the boots on the ground for World Golf Movies, but he also has had a long and celebrated career as an author. He spent thirty five years writing critically acclaimed books for the most respected publishers in New York, and movies for the best producers in Hollywood.  You may have seen him on Oprah or watched his Hallmark Hall Of Fame movie, “Fallen Angel,” which plays around the world every Christmas and stars Gary Sinise. Don wrote most of that movie script while living one winter in the Rusacks Hotel overlooking the 18th fairway of  The Old Course and playing the course fifty-seven times.  In the spring of 2013, Don’s latest book, Walking With Jack, will be published by Doubleday.  It chronicles his journey in golf with his son, culminating in their experiences on the Adams Golf Tour when father caddied for son this past winter.  Don would love to hear from golfers who want to share their thoughts about World Golf Movies. He can be reached at hancockpt@aol.com.

Our ever-dependable and totally personable PerryGolf driver, Angus McIntosh, with the luxury VIP coach in which he escorted us around Ayrshire.

When the Golf Road Warriors trekked through southwestern Scotland last week, we didn’t do it on our own.  We had an ally in-country in the form of one of the world’s foremost golf tour operators: PerryGolf.  Our PerryGolf driver, Angus McIntosh, was invaluable in a host of ways, not the least of which was doing all the driving so that we could rest, or write, or just converse about the experiences we were having.

I’ve had the distinct pleasure of traveling with PerryGolf on many occasions — and in many places.  The first time I ever visited Scotland I was traveling with PerryGolf.  Ditto for the first time I ever went to Ireland.  In subsequent years, I joined the good people of PerryGolf on many other trips to the British Isles, by land, sea and air.  My wife and I traveled with them on golf cruises around both Scotland and Ireland — one of which culminated at the Open Championship at Muirfield.  We even celebrated our 20th anniversary with PerryGolf in China, where we saw some unforgettable sights and played some stunning golf courses.  So this is a company I both know and respect.  And it starts with their people.

Colin Dalgleish, shown receiving an achievement award from Nick Hunter of Golf Tourism Scotland.

PerryGolf is owned and operated by two Scottish brothers, Colin and Gordon Dalgleish.  Colin is a former Walker Cup player — and also a two-time Walker Cup captain for the Great Britain and Ireland team.  He heads up the company’s U.K. operation from its Helensburgh, Scotland headquarters.  Gordon Dalgleish is a fine player in his own right, as well as a respected golf travel blogger and commentator; he’s stationed in the U.S.  Together, they’ve built a company that is one of the most highly respected in the business.  If you’re thinking of taking a golf trip, you’d do well to consider making it with them.

Why can I so readily recommend PerryGolf?  Lots of reasons.

Professionalism

Golf travel isn’t just a passion for the people of PerryGolf.  It’s a business.  And while Colin, Gordon and the others at their company pride themselves on having first-hand knowledge of all aspects of the golf trips they arrange, they never lose sight of the fact that it is YOUR trip they’re planning.  They put their customers first, and it shows in everything they do.

Gordon Dalgleish, PerryGolf's man in the USA.

Attention to Detail

If you’ve ever planned a trip in a foreign country — or even in your own country, for that matter — you know that there are a multitude of details to be overseen.  Transportation.  Accommodations.  Tee times.  Caddies.  Meals.  Finding an ATM.  Communicating in a foreign language.  Finding your way around — and judging how long it might take you to get from one place to another.  Thanks to the internet, a lot of the information you might need to ponder a golf trip is available.  But making all the pieces fit together isn’t so easy.  Having a company like PerryGolf that can think through every aspect of a golf trip for you is worth its weight in gold.

Dependability

When you’re taking the golf vacation of a lifetime (even if you do so annually), you want things to go smoothly, with no surprises.  A company like PerryGolf that has been there and done that is invaluable in this regard.  And when something unexpected does come up — like needing to find a pharmacy, or needing to reschedule a tee time because of weather, having an experienced and well connected ally like PerryGolf can give you peace of mind that you’ll be able to roll with the punches without missing a beat.

Value

Some people think that using a golf tour operator costs a lot more than booking everything on your own.  In some cases, this may be true.  But the fact is that most tour operators receive discounted rates from hotels, golf courses, etc. and this is reflected in their rates.  Oftentimes, you can take advantage of the golf tour operator’s expertise without paying much more than you would if you booked on your own.  Plus, tour operators often have access to things you couldn’t get access to yourself.  Like guaranteed tee times on The Old Course.  And at the end of the day, when you think about all the time you’d spend booking everything yourself, whatever you pay on top of that to tap into the expertise of a company like PerryGolf is a small price to pay in my opinion.

PerryGolf's VIP coaches let you travel in comfort and style.

Knowledge

No matter how much you think you know about golf travel, it’s likely that a tour operator like PerryGolf knows more.  Not only can they probably arrange a smarter itinerary (and save you time and money in the process), they can also think of things that you might not.  Like making a stop to see Archie Baird at his golf museum in Gullane. Or arranging some time with “Old Tom Morris” in the form of actor David Joy.  Sometimes, it’s the things you don’t know that can make a tour operator like PerryGolf so valuable.

Range of Programs

Because of their heritage, the Dalgleish brothers and their PerryGolf staff are a great choice for trips to the British Isles.  But their programs extend far beyond places where the King’s English is spoken.  Take a look at the PerryGolf website and you’ll see that they offer lots of other programs, from golf cruises in the Mediterranean to excursions to New Zealand to barge cruises down European rivers.  This year, they’ve even added golf trips around Nova Scotia to their offerings.  What’s more, PerryGolf has expertise in planning and operating trips for groups of all sizes — from groups of more than 100 like the cruises I was on, to small groups like our Golf Road Warriors group, to couples programs.  They take good care of the non-golfers in their charge, too.  My wife didn’t take a single swing during our trips and she had a blast seeing all the gardens, museums, national parks and even distilleries.

Simply One of the Best

PerryGolf isn’t the only golf tour operator with experience at this level.  There are a handful of companies that have very good reputations for delivering seamless golf travel experiences, and I know and could recommend several of them.  But PerryGolf is the company I’ve traveled with most and one of the companies I know best.  So I can heartily recommend them to anyone looking to take a golf vacation.  Who knows — if you’re lucky, you may even get Angus McIntosh as your driver.  If you do, though, don’t ask him about our Golf Road Warriors trip.  When it comes to those details, he’s sworn to secrecy.

Planning a Trip to Scotland

I have no doubt that after witnessing the escapades of the Golf Road Warriors in Scotland, you are champing at the bit to get a taste of the great links golf opportunities in the Home of Golf yourself.  And if I’m right, you’ll want to know about a great resource for anyone considering a visit to that bonnie land.

VisitScotland, the country’s official tourism authority, can provide you with  a massive amount of golf and travel information at their website.  In addition to info about Scotland’s great golf courses — parkland, heathland and links — you’ll find comprehensive hotel information, as well as special offers on golf packages that can make your pilgrimage to that blessed place both easy to arrange and affordable.

Winning a Trip to Scotland

What’s more, VisitScotland also wants to give you and a friend the chance to win a 5-day golf trip.  And it’s not just any 5-day golf trip, either.  Winning THIS trip earns you a spot on the North America vs. Europe Ryder Cup-style competition that VisitScotland is sponsoring at Gleneagles, site of the 2014 Ryder Cup.  Other prizes include tickets to see the Ryder Cup matches in person.

Click here to register for your chance to win.  With any luck, you could follow in the footsteps of the Golf Road Warriors yourself — and do battle on that scared soil in beautiful places like Machrihanish Dunes just as we have recently done.  Good luck!