The challenging dog-leg left 8th hole at Portstewart Golf Club

This most recent iteration of our Golf & Music Tour took us to Northern Ireland and the Dublin area.

I believe I could say, without a doubt, we have created 20+ new links golf lovers.

Before we headed to the North, several people came into Dublin early and took advantage of visiting Malahide Castle (owned for 800 years by the Talbot family) and later in the week got to go to the Guinness Storehouse and other downtown Dublin experiences when we had our free day.

Starting with Portstewart (founded in 1894) and then taking on Royal Portrush (founded in 1888) and Royal County Down (founded in 1889), the G&M Tour group got a powerful dose of challenging links golf.

Any lost balls or lost matches were washed away with great music (and a few pints) every evening after the thrills of playing golf over magnificent dunes.

Non-golfers (I was one of them this time!) spent time exploring Dunluce Castle (ruins dating back to the 13th century), the Giant’s Causeway (mind-bending area full of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns) and then going on to the Titanic Experience in Belfast. The museum building itself is extraordinary — rising to the height of the massive Titanic, which was 10 decks high.

We also made a stop at the Irish Linen Centre in Lisburn, where we were immersed in the whole history of Irish Linen and could watch the expert spinner, Angus, turn coarse flax into fine yarn. I was transfixed to see the hand loom-weaving, which is a craft skill that has all but died out.

Once back in Malahide, day trips to nearby courses included Royal Dublin, The Island and County Louth, also affectionately known as Baltray. Since the Women’s Amateur Championship was being held at Portmarnock Golf Club, our group was scheduled to play at Jameson Links. With continuous upgrades to Portmarnock Hotel and the course, both have gone from strength to strength.

Paul Carroll and the Begley Brothers rocked our crowd with a wide range of eclectic songs from Fire and Rain to It’s a Dirty Old Town to country tunes like Wagon Wheel. Oh, and some Irish standards like Galway Girl.

We have found a winning formula and have already sold out our Golf & Music Tour to Scotland 2025.

A big hand to everyone who made this G&M Tour so fabulous, but especially to the musicians, who are all golfers too!

The Portmarnock Clubhouse looks splendid with all the flags from the ninth fairway

Secession Golf Club in Beaufort, South Carolina

Playing golf at Kevin’s beloved Secession Golf Club in Beaufort, South Carolina was a perfect break from intense work on the new Terroir. While the massive presses were running – printing the pages, we were enjoying the walking-only course at Secession.

Secession is most assuredly one of the greatest golf experiences in the Lowcountry, if not all of America. A very unique aspect is that the club takes its name from the small town of Beaufort being where the original Articles of Secession from the Union were drafted in 1860.

I had the pleasure and privilege of playing Secession not once, but four times in six days. We were joined on our first round with friends from Texas, Tad Nelson and his partner Kristinna Berkland. We had great fun and some fantastic dinners with them for a few days. The final round, when it was just the two of us and we were first off that day, was the most enthralling.

Enchanting presence of the wild life

Starting with the giant grey heron, identified by its white head and black eye stripes that extend to slender, black feathers, standing so still on the first tee, we got a fascinating glimpse of wildlife that inhabit the tidal marshes. To make sure I knew exactly what kind of bird I was looking at, it took flight — long neck retracted in an S-shape, and skinny legs extended straight behind — it was a grey heron, no doubt!

It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I actually captured this miraculous moment. Over our several rounds, I marveled at the big group of basking turtles at the edge of the pond on the 7th hole. Here and there, the resident gators came up onto the banks of ponds, like those on the eighteenth hole.

Peaceful landscapes of tidal inlets and marsh land

But it was a solitary live oak that imprinted itself as a majestic symbol of the whole Secession environment of tidal inlets and marsh land. Just gazing at this tree allows all the busyness of life to dissolve.

However, it is the magical sunrise that greeted us on our way to play our final round that may leave the longest lasting impression. It is this sort of vision that enables us to realize why the French artists of the late 19th century strove to capture the light. In doing so, they showed us how our lives are composed of countless fleeting moments.

And so, as I often say, travel is transformational…