| For people who take golf holidays, golf breaks in | | | | can play the game the way it was designed to be |
| Scotland represent the quintessential golfing retreat. | | | | played - playing around the bunkers, through the gaps |
| There are three main reasons for this. Firstly, Scotland | | | | and really thinking about the challenge of the hole. |
| has all the best courses - including the world-class | | | | There are tournaments all over the world for |
| Turnberry, St Andrews and Gleneagles, all offering the | | | | modern-day hickory golf players, and for the last three |
| most fantastic golf holidays available. | | | | years one particular tournament has been held in |
| Secondly, the scenery is unparalleled and provides the | | | | Scotland - golf's birthplace. The 2007 World Hickory |
| perfect backdrop to a round of golf. Scotland's rugged | | | | Open took place last month at Craigielaw golf course |
| mountains, lush green valleys, thundering waterfalls and | | | | in East Lothian. As a golf course, Craigielaw is |
| ethereal mists all help to create an experience you can | | | | scenically located on the shores of the Firth of Forth |
| really savour. Thirdly, Scotland always is easy to get | | | | with the hills of Fife framing its magnificent backdrop. |
| to, either by road, train or air travel. | | | | Craigielaw golf course presents a challenge for both |
| Anyone who plans a golf break in Scotland is also | | | | short and long handicap players. As a result, the |
| probably influenced by knowledge of the country's | | | | course is a popular for golf breaks in Scotland for |
| long-standing affiliation with the game. It is widely | | | | players at every level. The layout at Craigielaw is such |
| accepted that golf originated in Scotland in the 1100s, | | | | that the wind is nearly always part of the course's |
| with the first recorded game played at Bruntsfield | | | | natural defence. The consensus among both pro and |
| Links in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1456. | | | | amateur golf players is that the organisers picked a |
| Even the word 'golf' comes from Scotland - it is | | | | course almost perfectly suited to hickory golf. |
| thought to have come from the Scots word 'goulf', | | | | There is a special physical sensation that hickory golf |
| meaning 'to strike or cuff'. When the game was in its | | | | clubs give you. You know if you've hit a good one just |
| early days and, in fact, right up until the mid-20th | | | | by the lovely feeling coming through your hands and |
| century, it was usually played with clubs made from | | | | you also know if you've hit a bad one (especially in a |
| hickory wood, which is why golf played with | | | | cold Scottish wind) as it feels like a cricket ball has |
| old-fashioned wooden clubs is now called 'hickory golf'. | | | | landed on your knuckles! |
| Traditional hickory golf is catching on in a big way. You | | | | I managed to come third in the Amateur section, no |
| see, there's a big secret haunting the manufacturers of | | | | disgrace but I'm coming back for more. And at last I |
| modern golf clubs - despite all the 'improvements' in | | | | know what I want from Father Christmas - All the |
| golf club technology, you can hit nearly as far with | | | | best hickory golf clubs: Persimmon woods with True |
| clubs made the original way - with hickory - as you | | | | Temper shafts, a set of matching hickory irons |
| can with the latest club being promoted on the US | | | | pre-1935, a Cleveland wedge and sand wedge and a |
| PGA Tour. What's more, with hickory golf clubs you | | | | Scotty Cameron putter. |