Golf, by TourMiss

When they talk about sheep and/or cows being on the tees or fairways of some Scottish golf course, I know first-hand what you’re talking about. I’ve made a couple of visits to Brora Golf Club in Scotland’s Highlands and where there is electric fencing around all the greens to keep the grazing sheep and cattle off the putting surfaces. It’s the same also at Barra Golf Club and the UK most westerly course in the Outer Hebrides. Though it seems those who play Brora have had enough with members ...

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 ...

In writing this article, I have been fortunate to play three golf courses boasting bunkers of a ‘different’ kind. When I say a ‘different’ kind, I am not referring here to the traditional sand-filled bunkers but concrete bunkers. “Concrete bunkers?”.  Yes, concrete bunkers and defence bunkers built during World War 11. There is the strong remnants of an anti-aircraft bunker still in position at the back of the seventh green on the Craighead Links course and my ...