Golf, by TourMiss

This week’s 2025 Joburg Open being played at the Houghton Club is yet another tournament that brings back fond memories. It was two weeks into 2000 and my first time in South Africa. A fortnight earlier I had stood in darkness, apart from the lights of one or two motor vehicles, on the first tee of the Tonga Golf Club and at the stroke of midnight I super-proudly hit the first shot on a golf course in the new Millennium. Soon after I journeyed from the eastern Pacific Ocean shoreline in Australia, ...

There seems to be always someone you meet in the course of travelling to report on golf touraments who leaves a lasting impression, an impression in the nicest manner. Someone other than those working on the Tour and travelling back and forward to tournaments. Those volunteering to drive the courtesy cars or the buses back and forward from the hotel to the golf course or a security person working the tournament media centre simply checking each day your entry badge while it could be someone ...

There is plenty of golf courses around the globe when you mention their names, straightaway has you are thinking  ‘how did the course attract that name?” Courses such as the famed Crooked Strick where John Daly won a PGA Championship while there is host of the not-so-knowns such as the Purgatory Golf Club in Indiana, Kissing Camels in Colorado and reminding me of that photo of Michelle Wie kissing a camel, Mad Russian Golf Club and also in Colorado and Devils Knob in Virginna. What about ...

I have been asked often during the course of so many decades reporting on men’s pro golf: ‘Who is the toughest golfer you’ve ever had to work with?”. The answer to that question is unquestionably Darren Clarke. You see, as a freelancer I was writing for a number Irish-based outlets including the Irish Independent, the Irish Star, the Irish Examiner and Irish Golfer Magazine, so if Clarke was playing well I needed to speak with him. Though Clarke was not always obliging, including ...

With over 80 golf courses and sunshine practically all year, Portgual has always been a mecca for golfers boasting as it does five strong golf regions – the famed Algarve, Lisbon, Porto, the Azores and Maderia. It’s the Algarve that is most widely known boasting 10 seperate golfing destinations including Villamoura where you’ll find such courses as the Victoria that played host to the Portugal Masters and others including the Old Course, Pinhall and Millennium courses. And while ...

There is three golf courses I’ve played that boast bunkers of a ‘different’ kind. When I say of a ‘different’ kind I am referring to concrete bunkers.  I hear you say: “Concrete bunkers?”.  Yes, concrete bunkers and defence bunkers built during World War 11. There is an anti-aircraft bunker still in position at the back of the seventh green on the Craighead Links course at my home club in Crail, Scotland.  The bunker at Crail faces the North Sea is among ...

I have spoken often of the great pleasure in travelling the world reporting on the ancient club-and-ball game and also equally teeing-up in so many different countries. This includes also teeing-up along the shoreline of the world’s oceans and seas and to then have the good fortune to enjoy a round on the opposite shoreline of the same ocean or sea. An example of what I am referring is Australia’s Crescent Head Golf Club course and recently featured on this website (See: http://www.golfbytourmiss.com/2024/12/crescent-head-country-club-a-stunning-6-hole-gem-overlooking-the-mighty-blue-pacific/ ...