April 2007

This is where I’ll be on Monday, April 30th.

Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park golf course in south central Kentucky.

That picture is from the fairway looking back up the hill to the tee box.

Click on it to enlarge it to full-screen size.

Here’s some of the accolades it’s received:

Ault-Clark Associates, the golf course architect, did a magnificent job with the land and made it a very friendly golf course, even though the elevation changes could have rendered it impossible to play.

I’ll try to remember to take some photos, but it’s really hard to show just how beautiful, peaceful and serene this part of my home state actually is. You really need to be there to experience it.

Here’s your chance to own a set of Ping irons for a very reasonable price.

Over the winter, I bought 2 sets of irons off eBay. I thought I wanted to get rid of the 3 sets I now have and thought I needed the game improvement help. I don’t and I don’t.

I have need to sell them to pay for another purchase I made last week. It involves a seminar on starting membership sites, which is going to be an addition to our blog network. It was kind of very costly. Very.

I do this to myself, on occasion, to force myself into action, as I’ve been known to sit too long on personal issues, which is 180 degrees different than I do for my customers and clients in my daytime career.

Set #1 is Ping Zing’s, 3-PW, Black Dot, with Winn Grips that need to be replaced.

The irons are in great shape and I’ll be glad to take an actual picture, if anyone needs to see them. I used a stock picture to remind everyone what Zing’s look like.

I’m asking $200 (firm) and I think I can ship anywhere in the US for $20-$25.

These sell for for more than that on eBay every day, but I don’t want to hassle with an eBay auction if I don’t have to.

And I’d like to reward a loyal Travelling Golfer reader who wants a great deal.

Set #2 is Ping I3 Blades, with nice, new Winn Grips. They are 2 degrees upright, which is a Green Dot and the are 1/2″ over-length.

I’m asking $250 (firm) for these and again, I’m sure I can ship them in the uS for $20-$25.

The Buy It Now’s on eBay are around $350 on these.

This is your chance to get a great deal on some Ping irons and help out the Travelling Golfer in the process.

Leave any questions you have in the comments section or send me an email.

First come, first served and I’ll be delighted to take PayPal, so you can have some buyers assurance.

In fact, I’d insist on sending you a PayPal invoice, so you and I are both protected.

Thanks for shopping at your friendly, local Travelling Golfer store !

Finally ! Huntsville, AL and me got to be friends.

Two of my golf friends, Rick and Ken, went with me to the RTJ Golf Trail courses at Hampton Cove just outside of town.

We stayed at a local Hilton Garden Inn, which was extremely nice and only about 6 months old. I highly recommend you stay there if you get the chance, as they has the absolute nicest people I’ve ever stayed with.

Their breakfast was a work of art ! Good coffee, juices, real grits, gravy, biscuits, eggs any way you want, more fruit than a rain forest, bagels, sausage, bacon, cereal and all of it prepared fresh and by some tremendously friendly people !

The beds were like sleeping on air, the pillows were perfect, the rooms were way above the usual hotel room and their foyer was like sitting in the Biltmore House !

The business center had 2 computers, so I could keep up with email without having to wag along a laptop and they had a Pantry to provide anything you might need, but had forgotten.

And where else can you look out your 4th floor room to see the sunrise and 2 rockets ? Yes, rockets. Real ones. Huntsville is home to a Space Center. I can’t wait to go back and take along my better half by far. The local eateries were all just as friendly. I’m sensing a theme here - Huntsville = friendly people.

Once we got to The Highlands Course for our 8:20 am tee time on Friday, they had taken the liberty of putting a gentleman from Canada with us.

We didn’t mind, but it would have been nice if they’d asked us first.

Rob was from Toronto and was in town for a wedding. he was a good golfer and was a great guy, so it worked out okay. We were glad they had joined us up with him.

The Highlands Course is still trying to green up, as it’s still early in the year. That made the lies kinda tight, but rolling the ball around the greens was easier, so that was a good tradeoff.

The Highlands Course also winds it’s way thru a very high-end subdivision, but never once did a house come into play.

It’s supposed to emulate a Scottish links, but this was just a hilly course that wanted to be a links style course.

It’s hilly, lots of terrain changes, kinda tight in spots and the greens are not very user friendly.

Tour pro’s would boycott having to putt up and around this many humps and bumps. Even 3 foot putts had too much break.

Hint to golf course architects - Make the greens large, flat and leave room to run the ball along the ground for the average golfer to enjoy your course.

All in all, the 3 of us agreed we’d never want to play this course again. Sorry.

The River Course at 11:20 am on Saturday was our next round and we showed up pretty early to hit some practice balls on the very well manicured range. They had buckets of water to wash your clubs and the grass was perfect. Nice touches all around.

There was also a grill going at that hour and the cheeseburgers were $5.50. A tad high, but since neither course brings you back to the clubhouse after 9 holes, you need to take food out with you.

The beverage carts were very regular in coming around and they were driven by some very nice kids who were generous with cups of ice and were as friendly as everybody else was.

Again, they had taken the liberty to add a gentlemen to our group and again we could not have gotten a better guy to join us. Greg, a lobbyist from Montgomery, was a great ball-striker and very fun to be around. All 3 of us liked him and hated to see our time with him end.

The River Course was almost daylight to The Highland’s night. Flatter, except around the greens, which are built up and surrounded by LARGE mounds and humps for some strange reason. No houses and extremely quiet and peaceful. It wound in, around and thru a lot of the Flint River, hence the name, a lot of trees.

Neither of those should trouble you though, as this course was very, very playable, generous and user-friendly.

We all 3 agreed we could play it every day and never get tired of the surroundings, the course or the challenge.

All in all, I can’t wait to get back to Huntsville, AL and have some more great food, play some more great golf and interact with some of the friendliest people on earth.

Take my advice and stay at The Hilton Garden Inn , and tell ‘em Mike sent you.

And if you need a second course to play around Huntsville, head over to Fightin’ Joe in Muscle Shoals, like we’ll do next time.

Hmmm…maybe next month will be a good time.

Okay. I admit it. I want one of these shirt. I’m a golf shirt freak. I wear one almost every day to work. Almost.

The fact that I have to be ready, on a moments notice, to play golf with a customer or supplier has a lot to do with it.

One shirt. XXL size. University Blue, to match my eyes.

Send it along and I’m your buddy for life.

Text link, sponsored post, whatever you want, you got it.

The Coeur d’Alene Golf Resort is one of my dream golf vacations.

I will make it and I will hit balls until I hit that dang floating green.

If you can’t make it to or aren’t near Coeur d’Alene, feel free to send any other XXL golf shirts you happen to buy for me as a bribe for getting me to pimp your golf product, website, course, book, etc.

Did you happen to see that Wolfdancer Golf Club was named one of the “Top 10 That You Can Play for 2006″ by Golf Magazine ?

I’m guessing that “Website” was not one of the criteria.

I checked out their website, which happens to suck big and loud !

Here’s a screenshot from the site, which is part of Hyatt’s site, which is a terrible way to market a golf course.

• Feel free to click on it for a full-screen shot that shows -

1) No photo.

2) The architect is listed as Arthur Mills, not Hills.

3) No details about the course.

I could go on and on and really bury them, but what would purpose that serve. If anyone can get thru to Hyatt’s big king daddy’s, tell ‘em to fix this before somebody else gives ‘em an award for “Worst Golf Course Website of 2007″, like I just did.

Have you seen Etonic’s new G-Sok golf glove on the shelves yet ?

Me neither, but I hope to find one soon, because I love their G-Sok golf shoes with an unhealthy passion, as golf shoes go.

The image you see at the left is from their intertactive golf glove edutainer.

Their site will tell you all you never wanted to know about their new golf glove, but I’ll bet it won’t rank as well in the search engines as this post will after about 2 days.

If the glove feels anywhere near as good as their G-Sok golf shoes do, they have a real winner, because those shoes feel better on my feet than any pair of shoes I own.

Let me know if you’ve tried one of these yet.

A couple of friends and I are headed down Thursday night to the RTJ Golf Trail courses at Hampton Cove outside of Huntsville, Alabama.

After a leisurely dinner at Outback that night, we’ll play The River Course on Friday morning. If we’re not too worn out from a lack of playing any this year, we may play The Short Course or head over to Muscle Shoals to play Fightin’ Joe.

Another Outback steak is in the plans for Friday night and then on Saturday morning, we’ll tackle The Highlands Course for 18 before the 4 hour trip home.

I’ll have a picture or three, some tips and reviews and maybe even a new cuss word to tell you about after we get back.

We only have three players, so if you’re available to play on Friday and Saturday, shoot over an email or leave me a comment.

Just in case you’re one of those who like to visit and interact using one of those social sites( I’m not that type), feel free to visit the 19th Hole and join in on those types of things.

Over there at the 19th Hole, they have :

• Public & Private Member Created Groups
• Blogs
• Calendar of Events by Location
• Photo Galleries
• Video and Audio Uploads
• Expert Advice
• Member Polls
• Live Chat
• Discussion Forums
• Guestbooks
• Classified Ads

Visit ‘em and enjoy the festivities at The 19th Hole !

I’m not sure how many of you have shops in your area that carry PUMA golf apparel, but I don’t.

Not one in Kentucky.

The nearest to me is in Nashville, about 2 hours away.

Whatever I have to do, I will find one of these tops, from their Travel Golf Collection, in XXL and I will absolutely be the best dressed golfer on the RTJ Golf Trail this summer.

It’s tailored, wrinkle free and has a removable collar.

The Puma graphic logo, the palm trees and the 18 hole graphics are understated and the look will be just as good in a local Outback as it does on the golf course.

Be on the lookout for me on the course and at Outback !

Did anyone else notice those funky ( in a gooood way) golf shoes that Geoff Ogilvy and Johan Edfors were wearing in the Masters.

Those were the new Gold Concorde GTX’s from PUMA and they had them on in practice rounds and during competition.

They were also wearing matching apparel to compliment the shoes, highlighting their “golden” moment.

No doubt, the shoes were very funky and definitely stood out on the course.

Those “special limited edition” shoes helped celebrate the first year of PUMA’s golf collection.

A special thanks to Sara at PUMA for helping clarify exactly what was what for me.

And thanks to my friend Rob, who was there for Tuesday’s practice round, to tell me all about one of my favorite golfers, Geoff Ogilvy, and all that he was wearing and how he was playing.