On Tuesday I travelled back up to St Andrews.

Sometimes I drive and sometimes I fly but a few days ago I chose the train from London Kings Cross.

Infact I was an hour early and so I wandered over to St Pancras International station next door as I wanted to see the redevelopment in the flesh.

Why I love rail travel.

Quite simply rail travel means I don’t lose a day of work. The East Coast trains comes with WiFi allowing me to work throughout my journey. I also have a Vodafone datacard as backup.

I do marvel at how easy internet access is becoming, soon everywhere will be one massive hotspot!

Only today I was reading that Alaska Airlines will be offering WiFi on all their flights. You may have already experienced this whilst flying on American, United, Delta, and AirTran.

So there I was … checking the time on my phone … 10:29

My train was due to leave at 10:30

A second later it eased out of the platform and I wondered if I’m the only one that gets a pleasant buzz whenever a train leaves on time.

I know there are no guarantees but somehow you are optimistic that all being well you will arrive on time.

I was due to arrive at 16:00 in Leuchars.

Up until the early 1960s St Andrews had its own railway station, but the government’s Beeching report put paid to that.

If you are ever in the Dunvegan Hotel and Restaurant, a 9 iron from the 18th green on the Old Course, you can see some great photos of how the line used to run adjacent to the 16th fairway.

Leuchars (pronounced more like “lookers”) is a 10 minute bus ride from St Andrews and so the remainder of the jorney has to be by bus or taxi.

It’s always so cool to look up from my laptop and take in the breathtaking scenery as the train travels from England to Scotland through Berwick-upon-Tweed.

At points you are so close to the waves you can imagine you are riding them – or maybe that’s just me!

As my own journey came to its end, it was a pleasure to reflect back on the fact that during the five and half hours of my journey I had completed the new renovation of GolfInsideCircle.com

Now it might not be on a par of the fine work at St Pancras International station but nevertheless I’m proud there is now one place to listen to all the great guests we have had since September last year.

I’m also very pleased to introduce this month’s guest, she is Jennifer Scott a certified clinical hypnotherapist who has appeared with Kelly Tilghman on The Golf Channel and gives 2-hour seminars on how to play in the zone at The San Diego Golf Academy.

In fact Golf Magazine rated Jennifer’s audio 2 CD Program, “Own The Zone(TM)” with its highest rating. The program includes specific methods to improve your focus and ease any anger or frustration you may feel on the course. Additionally golfers are taught proven techniques to develop a pre-shot bubble where nothing can distract you.

Please head over to GolfInsideCircle.com to hear Jennifer speak and learn more about how her work can help your game.

Alternatively you can listen to her by clicking on the orange button below:

Jennifer teaches golfers to be free of confusing extraneous thoughts by using the power of the subconscious mind to relax and focus. These teachings put an end to your confusion and allow you to play “in the zone” for longer and longer periods of time. When you are in hypnosis you are in the zone and Jennifer teaches golfers how to get into this state effortlessly.

Discover more by visiting OwnTheZoneGolf.com

After doing it’s best impersonation of the European Tour over the past couple of months, The Nationwide Tour has finally back on native shores this week as it travels to Bayou country for the Chitimacha Louisiana Open in Broussard, La. While that means the U.S contingent of Nationwide players gets their first chance to make their mark on the Top 25 on home soil, for those of us pros based in the U.S with little or no card, the Nationwide Tour returning to the states means one thing – Monday madness.

For those of you unaware, every Monday the PGA and Nationwide Tours run a qualifying tournament for those professionals and low handicap amateurs not already in the event for that week. There are 14 spots available for the Nationwide Tour’s Monday qualifying and 4 on the PGA Tour with the low scores of the day qualifying. Ties are determined by a playoff. The format boils down to, for all intents and purposes, “Go low, or go home.” 

Last week I logged more miles than a marathon runner attempting to qualify for the Chitimacha Louisiana Open and I thought I’d give you a run down of how it all went.

My roommate and I left Atlanta on Saturday morning at 9am and drove 5 hours south down interstates 85 then 65 to Mobile, Al where one of our traveling companions lives. As those who have been through Atlanta know, getting out of Atlanta on a weekday is virtually impossible. Rush hour in the morning stretches from 6am to 10am and from 4pm to 8pm in the afternoon. Needless to say we were fortunate to be traveling on the weekend and we made good time, arriving just in time to attend a friend and former tour player’s afternoon wedding on the beach.

While the festivities kicked on a little to late for the dedicated professionals amongst us, the three of us playing in the qualifier managed to drag ourselves out of bed Sunday morning and drive the final 5 hours to Louisiana, arriving in the mid afternoon. The final 30 minutes of the drive stretched on along rural back roads, winding through farmland and dirt-poor towns with front yards piled high with disheveled children’s playground swings and neglected, rusted Chevrolets and Dodge pick-ups. My roommate’s GPS couldn’t find the road we were on, planting us firmly in the middle of a field that didn’t exist. I guess satellites don’t hit that part of the country much. These are the places we have to qualify sometimes.

But we followed our noses and finally arrived at Squirrel’s Run Golf Course where we would all be qualifying the following day. We played a late practice round and practiced a little before heading to our hotel where we would attempt to cram the three of us into two king size beds. As you might imagine we take our drawing of straws very seriously. I would be teeing off at 8am the following day and both my mates would be off in the afternoon field at around 1.

My 6am wake up call came very early and I was on the range by 7 even though the sun was barely up. Despite making 4 birdies in 5 holes around the turn I couldn’t get anything going all day. Unfortunately, I also played a wrong ball during that stretch, halting any momentum I was building. It’s something I haven’t ever done, and I bogeyed the last two holes when it really didn’t matter to shoot 75. That certainly wasn’t going to be good enough to get through with a 64 already on the board, coming from the first couple of groups. On top of that I had to wait another 5 or 6 hours to find out if my travel companions had done any better.

I decided I may as well do some work on my game and following lunch I spent the next 4 hours practicing. I watched as many, many players walked off the 9th green, straight past the 10th tee to the parking lot, slammed the trunks of their cars and high-tailed it out of Louisiana. The boys finally got done around 6pm, neither of them had made an impression on the scoreboard, so we packed up the cars and got back on the road. After 5 hours cruising along I-10 we made it back to Mobile and got into bed (or couch in my case) around midnight. I felt absolutely exhausted after such a long couple of days driving and playing.

We rose early again and headed back to Atlanta, another 5 hours away, and got home around 2 in the afternoon. When it was all said and done we had traveled a grand total of 1180 miles in three and a half days and thrown a couple of rounds of golf in between. It may seem like it was all for nothing, but the greats like Nicklaus and Woods try and take positives out of every experience, and that’s just what I did, telling myself I had handled the wrong ball catastrophe with poise and strength – birding the next three holes I played. It was something I could take with me to my next round at least.

Monday qualifiers can be a funny thing. You can shoot 66 and still not make the tournament if the course is playing easy, or you can gut out a 71 and get through if it’s playing tough. I missed out in a playoff for the Knoxville Nationwide Tour event a couple of years ago, shooting 68 to get into a 13 man playoff for 4 spots. 13 for 4! Four players birdied the first hole, 8 made par (including myself) and one made a bogey. The four birdies went through to the tournament, the rest of us got back in our cars and headed home.

The best example of the psyche of the Monday qualifier I can think of came last Monday. My playing partner that day in Louisiana, a veteran pro who played several years on the PGA Tour and who shall remain nameless, was -2 for the day through 11 holes and playing solid, if unspectacular, golf. By the 17 tee he was making a call on his cell phone to change his flight home for the week. That’s kind of how Monday Qualifying goes.

But that’s also the beautiful thing about Monday qualifying; it’s a crap shoot and any week can be your week. I remember an interview with Camilo Villegas on TV a couple of years ago where they asked him if it was tough having to Monday qualifying each week because he didn’t have a Nationwide Card.

“If I have to Monday every week to get to where I want to be (the PGA Tour), then that’s what I’ll do. I don‘t have a choice” he replied.

I couldn‘t have said it better myself. That’s why we drive 1200 miles over a couple of days to Monday Qualify; because we want to be better, because we want to move forward. Because, to get to where we want to be, we have to.

A couple of weeks ago I was playing a Hooters Tour event in Amelia Island in Florida. The tournament finished on Sunday and as we were so close we decided to make the quick drive down to the TPC at Sawgrass practice there on Monday. Although Sawgrass is a public facility (for those willing to pony up a mere $400) we were fortunate to have access to Sawgrass in a way that only a rare few have. I say we because my roommate I live with in Atlanta is David Skinns, an Englishman who plays on the Nationwide Tour. Being a member of the PGA or Nationwide Tours allows a player total access to any of the 29 TPC layouts throughout the continental US. And so, on a sunny Monday morning in March we drove into the Sawgrass parking lot in my dinged-up 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage with 213,000 miles on it and parked in the “player parking” section so close to the font door we might as well have been inside the club house. We were greeted in the pro shop by head professional Matt Borocz, who graciously showed us around the facilities, giving us a guided tour of the practice areas, clubhouse and closing holes on both nines. He then headed inside and returned with Titleist range balls and showed us to the back of the range where we were to warm up before our round.

The TPC at Sawgrass has a large practice range, and extensive greens for chipping and putting right next to the Spanish-inspired clubhouse, but we were not going to be using those facilities. No, the VJ Singh’s and Jim Furyk’s that practice at Sawgrass have their own area and that’s where we were warming up. The professional’s practice area is a sanctuary. Tucked away in the back corner of the range are two massive teeing grounds (one rumored to have been built just for VJ), a phenomenally large and undulating putting green that was running about 12 on the stimpmeter, and three chipping greens all in perfect condition. As we drove to the back of the range we could already see somebody back there. We had hoped that it was VJ himself, pounding ball after ball into the morning sun, but alas, it was only PGA Tour player Kevin Stadler. I hoped he didn’t see the disappointment on my face as I walked past him to warm up.

We warmed up and struck a few putts before Matt returned and told us that if we wanted to jump off the front nine immediately we would have the course to ourselves. And he wasn’t kidding. We hit off the 1st and never saw another player, barely even a maintenance worker, the entire time we were out there. To keep things interesting we had decided to put $10 on the outcome of the day, and as we turned to the back nine I had a one shot lead with an even par 36.

We were playing from the absolute tips as well, ignoring the tee markers and walking to the extreme back of every teeing ground. As we got deeper into the back nine, the holes, so memorable on TV, were becoming more and more familiar. On almost every hole there were small flags placed where plaques had been laid down to commemorate famous shots from The Players‘ champions like David Love III, Fred Couples and Hal Sutton, and we were now treading the same grounds as those legends.

As any golf fan knows the final three holes at Sawgrass are three of the most charismatic and dramatic finishing holes anywhere in the world. The drama and excitement of The Players comes down to the risk-reward par 5 16th, the iconic and dangerous par 3 17th and the merciless par 4 18th. We came to the 16th tee all square in our match.

Ordinarily the 16th is a pretty reachable par 5 for professionals such as ourselves, but today, with temperatures on the cold side, we would not have the opportunity to go at the green in two. There is a large fairway bunker on the right hand side of the hole and this is where my ball ended up. David’s was in the left rough.

Down the left hand side of 16 is a large tree which blocks out a safe lay-up down, which is the safe side to play if you want to avoid the water which hugs the right hand side of the fairway and cuts in behind the green. Showing a distinct lack of local knowledge we both laid up too far down the left side and were blocked out by the tree. I was slightly further back and elected to go over the tree with a 60 degree wedge. however, in avoiding the tree I couldn’t get the ball to the back of the green where the hole was cut. David got creative with his shot, punching one under the branches and scurrying his ball up to the middle of the green where my ball sat. I putted up and tapped in for par and waited for David to putt, gazing back across the pond, past the tree island in the middle of the water, towards the most intimidating hole on the PGA Tour. David putted out for par to keep the match all square and we drove over to the 17th just as a tour bus full of visitors pulled up behind the tee. We had a gallery for our match at last.

I assume they were after blood. Not actual blood of course, but metaphorical, golfing blood. They type of blood that they see on Sunday at the Players when Sean O’Hair dunked his ball into the water while trying to chase down Phil Mickelson. Or when Bob Tway, four shots off the lead and making a charge, airmailed the green not once, but twice on his way to making a 12. Yeah, that’s what they were after. It wasn’t 25,000 screaming fans on a Sunday at The Players, but this tour bus sure felt like something similar to us.

Most of the back portion of the tee was roped off to protect the grass for the tournament which was still two months away, but there was still a small section at the back of the tee pros could hit off. That’s where we teed off. The hole was cut on the front slope of the green, making the shot a lot shorter than it would normally play. However, from the tee it looked like the pin was sitting about 6 feet out into the water. It was intimidating to say the least.

We paced off the yardage and figured it to be 132 yards with the breeze helping a little from the left. Dave took a deep breath and hit first, his ball looked like it was going to be short the whole way, but the wind carried it all the way to the front of the green, pitching half way up the slope, taking one bounce forward before backing up to 6 feet from the hole. It was a hell of a shot and he drew enthusiastic applause from our audience. I was next.

Ordinarily, 132 yards is a very little nine iron for me, but with the wind helping I decided to try and jump on a wedge and take my chances. I tried as hard as I could to go through my routine, and struck the ball very, very well. The ball jumped off the club and my first impression was that I had hit it too far. Half way across the water the wind knocked it down a little and I thought it had to be wet. Then, as if according to plan, it landed just past the hole, took one bounce forward, spun, and began trickling back down the slope towards the hole. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t breathing as I saw the ball track back towards what had to be a hole in one. I’m still not sure how it missed, but it did. It ended up 4 feet below the hole.

As we drove around the pond we waved at our small gallery, the tour guide laughing at what great shots we had just hit. I’d love to tell you that we both brushed our birdie putts in with ease, but David’s putt broke across the hole, and he had to settle for par. I made my putt and walked to the 18th with a one shot lead.

If the 17th is a tough hole, the 18th is the double bogey on the cake. This is especially true if there is a tournament (or in our case, something much more important, on the line). It is 462 yards of terror; a slight dogleg left with water screaming down the entire inside of the hole with wood planks built into the side of the lake making it seem like the water and the fairway are on the exact same level, one blending seamlessly into the other.

Thanks to my birdie on 17 I was first to take the tee. I aimed at the small sliver of fairway and took an aggressive cut at the ball. But half way on my downswing I flinched slightly, my subconscious wandering towards the trouble on the left, and I bailed it out just into the right rough. David, who had been struggling with his driver, decided to unleash his best of the day, a 300 yard bomb down the middle. I was going to have my work cut out for me to win this one.

My ball had come to rest just behind a very small and thin tree that guards the right rough where many balls, trying desperately to avoid the water, end up. If I was to get to the green I was going to have to start the ball towards the water, and cut it back ten or fifteen yards to the middle of the green where the pin was cut, just on top of a tier. I chose a 5 iron and opened the face, taking an aggressive swing. The ball started left and started to fade and for a moment I thought it was perfect, but the wind, off the left again, pushed it a little too far and the ball came up just short and right of the green. David stepped up and flushed a 7 iron to fifteen feet behind the hole, now the pressure was squarely on me.

Watching golf on TV does a couple of things to the observer. One of the things it does is flatten out lumps and bumps. I can attest to this because the slope that runs through the middle of the 18th green at Sawgrass is much, much larger than it looks on TV, and I had to hit a chip that would have to tip-toe across the top of the slope, being careful not to trip and fall which would send the ball falling to the bottom tier of the green. I selected a 54 degree wedge and pitched the ball onto the top of the slope. It ran down towards the hole but slowed up quickly, like it had pulled a hamstring on the final straight, and settled 3 feet short, leaving me a tricky downhill putt for par.

David, still one shot behind, looked over his putt like it was the last he would ever hit and poured it in the middle of the cup for a birdie. He pumped his fist and looked at me with a grin that suggested he had just stolen the last cookie from the pantry. The ball was in my court. But with the near perfect greens it was going to be a hard putt to miss, and I got up and stroked it confidently, the ball hitting the back of the cup and bouncing slightly into the air before settling at the bottom.

It was a gentleman’s half, as we call it in strange countries over the seas, and we were happy with that. That was until Matt came to greet us as we drove towards the clubhouse.

“How’d it go guys?” he asked.

“Awesome, wonderful, fantastic.” we replied.

“Well, you’re in luck. VJ is at the back of the range hitting balls. You should go back and hit some with him.”

We looked at each other.

“Or you could go out and keep playing, the course is wide open on the back nine still.”

“Nine hole playoff?” I asked Dave.

“Let’s do it.” he said.

We thanked Matt and drove off towards the 10th tee again for a rematch with the back nine at Sawgrass. VJ could wait, he‘d probably be there a while anyway.

The Middle East state of Oman has one golf course. Even this is a sandy nine-hole facility in badly in need of maintenance.

However, in a few more years time, Oman will have at least 10 luxury golf courses, all with the aim of luring the tourist dollar.

The recent three-tournament Gulf Swing in the Middle East, where the European Tour played events in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai, proved that golf is a viable form of entertainment in the region.

And Oman is hoping to jump on the growing role golf tourism is playing in the countries west of the Persian Gulf.

Falling oil prices and the shift towards alternative power are more reasons the Omani government are looking at other forms of revenue.

According to a Reuters report, 10 golf courses are at various stages of planning or construction, including the US$400 million Muscat Golf Course. This is addition to projects in Blue City, Salam Yiti and Murya, all totally more than $10 billion.

Another one is The Wave project, which is a 18-hole course designed by Australia’s former two-time British Open champion Greg Norman.

Cyril Piaia is CEO of the Murya project, which is located in the southern port city of Salalah. He said:

“Golf is seen as one sure way to attract wealthy European tourists to the country, besides the beaches and the sun.”

Dubai is leading the way in terms of golf tourism in the region, and now Oman believes that it will have to make major investments into the industry if it is to keep up with the game.

Once in a while, you find a news report about how golf is starting to gain a foothold in some far flung place in the world.

I’ve read about a golf course at the foot of a volcano in Indonesia, people yelling “fore” while negotiating landmines in Cambodia and a crude form of the game in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Now we have Cuba. In a report from Reuters, Communist Cuba is gradually opening up to the bourgeois pastime with Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, now at the helm.

Still, this is not one for the locals. Apparently, Canadian and European investors are proposing a gated communities, villas, condos and luxury hotels around expansive golf courses all over the island. One of the projects features Norman Foster, the top British architect.

Mark Entwistle is the former Canadian ambassador to Cuba. Nowadays, he advises foreign companies wanting to do business with Havana. He said in the report:

“Old-school objections to golf on ideological grounds have fallen away. Golf is seen as important to develop a more sophisticated and repeat tourism beyond sun and sand.”

The newest golf course in Cuba is the 18-hole Varadero Golf Club on the grounds of Xanadu, a sprawling seaside manor.

In the capital, Havana, there is only a nine-hole course with sticks as flagpoles, where former Argentina football captain Diego Maradona used to play when undergoing treatment for cocaine addiction.

There are a handful of projects in the pipeline which have yet to be approved because Cuba is not that keen on giving foreigners long leases on land.

But if Cuba want to compete with neighbouring countries in luring tourists, then the government might need to rethink its police. And with Raul now in charge, anything might be possible.

Jack Nicklaus and Asia have a close relationship. After all, he has designed dozens of courses in the region and has always been a supporter of Asia’s up and coming players.

Nicklaus, 67, who has a record 18 Major titles to his name, was there for the start of the Pine Valley Beijing Open earlier this week when he presided over the opening ceremony for the club’s phase II course he designed as well as a junior golf clinic.

The Golden Bear believes Asia will be at the forefront in the future growth of golf around the world, both as a golfing destination and as a source for the world’s best players.

What many forget is that two of the world’s leading golfers, world number one Tiger Woods and seventh-ranked Fijian Vijay Singh, are of Asian heritage.

Nicklaus said on the Asian Tour wesbite:

“Asia is the place where the most growth will come from and there will be more young players being introduced to the game here than in any other place by comparison to what we have seen in the past.”

Nicklaus, however, said that while the Asian Tour is gaining in strength, Asian golfers must play outside the continent in order to improve their skills

He cited the success of players such as China’s Zhang Lian-wei, and Korean pair Charlie Wi and Choi Kyung-ju as an example of what the region’s golfers can achieve abroad.

“Asian players can improve if they keep playing tournaments across the world and compete against the best, that’s how to be the best. The world is getting smaller. Now the Asian Tour has events with the European Tour and I think this is a big step in making the world smaller as the game is becoming more global.”

China, which was last year voted the best golfing destination in Asia, is one country where golf has the potential to boom, given its increasingly affluent population and huge market.

Indeed, the Omega China Tour is fast emerging as a viable circuit by itself. The Tour returns for a third season in May with a record eight events, up from six last season, all of them offering at least $100,000 in prize money.

The aim of the Tour is to provide the next generation of Chinese golfers the opportunity to play as professionals and enhance their skills.

The circuit starts on May 10 with the Sofitel Championship at Nanjing Zhongshan International Golf Club and also has stops in Qingdao, Guangzhou, Yanji, Shanghai, Kunming, Xiamen and Beijing.

Among the players taking part is rising Chinese golfer Liang Wen-chong, who in March won the Singapore Masters, which is jointly sanctioned by the European Tour and the Asian Tour.

Organisers of the China Tour want to make it one of the best in the region, as Nick Mould, of promoter World Sport Group said:

“We have a long term commitment with the China Golf Association to build the Omega China Tour into one of golf’s strongest domestic circuits and we have been thoroughly satisfied with the progress the Tour has made over the past two seasons.”

A golf trip to the British Isles can be something of a puzzle. Which courses accept visitor play and when? What options are available for playing the Old Course? Where should you stay? What can you do when you’re not playing? How much will it cost?

Thus if you are serious about such a holiday I recommend joining PerryGolf President Gordon Dalgleish for a 30 minute online webinar and find out more . He’ll cover the bases in two webinar sessions, Thursday April 12th at 2:00 PM and Thursday April 19th at 7:00 PM.

Register at Webinar@PerryGolf.com or 800.344.5257 x227

Each session is limited to 20 participants.