A great holiday gift I guarantee your golf pals do not already have!
Buying presents for golfers is not easy. Clubs are too personalized to just pick one for someone, as I recently posted, stupid golf gimmicks are just plain stupid, and a dozen golf balls, while always needed, just doesn’t exactly say I love you. A gift certificate for a lesson is a great idea, but you have to be careful about bruised egos since it can send the wrong message.
So what to get the traveling golfer? I usually recommend a book that will help plan dream trips, since this is something a lot of golfers don’t have, but first, special for this season, I have a gift that I guarantee your intended recipient does not have. If they do, my guarantee means I will eat my hat (preferably one with a prominent golf logo).
The item at question is a DVD of a new documentary, Scotland’s Caddies. The title is sort of self-explanatory as to the “plot.” Award-winning director Ron Colby interviewed loopers at St. Andrews, Turnberry, Gleneagles, Prestwick, Dornoch, Troon and more far flung locales, like Brora and Royal Aberdeen, then edited them a 69-minute film.
More good news: This also fits into the category of bargain gifts at just $19.99 plus shipping.
Let’s face it: Scotland is number one on every golfer’s dream list, and playing with a caddie is an integral part of the experience. I love playing with caddies, and have done it countless times around the world, but I am always surprised at how those how haven’t are often intimidated by the idea. After all the caddie works for you. So whether your intended is a student of the game who loves all things golf related or actually planning a trip and needs the icebreaker in the to the world of caddies, this is it. While the film is entirely based on Scotland, most of the practical caddie stuff applies equally well to that other dream destination, Ireland.
Among the film’s highlights are the caddies themselves telling stories about “being on the bag,” as we say, for a host of celebrity golfers like His Airness Michael Jordan, the only James Bond ever to play golf in one of the 007 movies, Sir Sean Connery, and leaders of the free world for every political bent, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.
More practical advice includes the caddies’ priceless and strongly felt opinions on tipping habits and personalities of golfers from around the word and from different parts of America and the world.
Besides the history and practical parts, the footage itself is great, almost all either shot on one of these unbelievably desirable and stunning links courses or in an equally desirable and stunning pub over pints – a caddie stereotype mainly because it is true.
Want a preview? Depending on your attention span, 30 and 60-second clips are currently posted on YouTube.
This is a great gift for any golf travel fan, but especially for one who is actually planning or contemplating a trip to the Old Sod. In that case, you can make it even more deluxe by wrapping it together with the absolute best book to read on the airplane en route to such a journey, Blasted Heaths and Blessed Greens: A Golfer’s Pilgrimage to the Courses of Scotland by one of history’s greatest golf scribes, James Finegan.
Where are two other book ideas that it is highly unlikely your golfer already owns:
The Most Expensive Golf Book Ever Published
A New and Helpful Guide to the Best Golf Courses in Nearly Every Nation on Earth
Happy Holidays!
