Talking GolfGetaways, Ep. 92: Emergency 9 Travel Quiz with Longtime Golf Journalist Tom Mackin
Talking GolfGetaways

Talking GolfGetaways 92: Emergency 9 Travel Quiz with Longtime Golf Journalist Tom Mackin

Tom Mackin launched an obsession with Scotland’s Brora Golf Club among many traveling golfers, us included (Photo by Brian Oar / GolfNewsNet.com)


As one of our game’s most well-traveled journalists and best storytellers, Tom Mackin, senior editor of Troon Golf & Travel Magazine, is the perfect subject for this Emergency 9 episode of the “Talking GolfGetaways” podcast.

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Tom describes in glowing detail the choice of Brora Golf Club in the Highlands of Scotland as his “Favorite Course Anywhere in the World” (an obsession that has taken on a life of its own throughout more than 90 episodes of our podcast) and follows it up with why would love to experience the golf courses of Northwest Ireland to knock off some of the courses that remain on his admittedly short Bucket List.

He explains why he consider Eichardt’s Private Hotel in Queenstown, New Zealand, to be on a par with the Old Course Hotel and the Lodge at Pebble Beach, and why he considers them all worth of the “Best Places He’s Ever Stayed.” Tom then descriptively details why his discovery of Sticky Toffee Pudding (henceforth known as “My Old Friend, Sticky”) after a round at Doonbeg in Scotland makes it the “Best Thing He’s Ever Eaten on a Golf Trip,” so much so that he now even makes his own homemade version.

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You’ll find out why Tom considers the weather the key ingredient of any golf trip (other than golf), why his Sun Mountain Club Glider travel bag is the piece of equipment he can’t live without, and why rock icon Alice Cooper is the “Most Interesting Person He’s Ever Played Golf With.”

And then you’ll hear a great story about the Tillinghast-designed Brackenridge Park Golf Course (the oldest public course in Texas) and understand why Tom thinks it is the “One Course He Wishes Everyone Knew About” (besides Brora, of course).

And, finally, Tom’s answer to our “Strangest Thing You’ve Ever Seen or Done on a Golf Course” bonus question is an epic (and somewhat disconcerting) story about a round at South Korea’s Whistling Rock, 20 miles south of the DMZ, that left him thinking about world peace while playing golf.

Truly a world-class Emergency 9, from world-class Tom Mackin.

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“Talking GolfGetaways with Mitch Laurance & Darin Bunch” is sponsored by 2UNDR.com (#AssetManagement) and can be found on GolfNewsNet.com and across the Golf News Net platform. New episodes post semi-regularly (for the most part, except when we’re traveling or golfing or generally having other kinds of fun). “Talking GolfGetaways” is also available on audioBoom, iTunes and Stitcher.

Follow us on Twitter @GetawaysGolf and @MitchLaurance, and use #TalkingGolfGetaways and #2HaggisBags to hit us with your favorite golf-travel stories and recommendations — you just might make it onto a future episode of “Talking GolfGetaways.”

About the author

GolfGetaways

The GolfGetaways crew of Darin Bunch and Mitch Lauarance have decades of golf travels and adventures to share, which they do here at GNN, on their "Talking GolfGetaways" podcast.

“Talking GolfGetaways with Mitch Laurance & Darin Bunch” is sponsored by 2UNDR.com (#AssetManagement) and can be found on GolfNewsNet.com and across the Golf News Net platform. New episodes post semi-regularly (for the most part, except when we’re traveling or golfing or generally having other kinds of fun). “Talking GolfGetaways” is also available on audioBoom, iTunes and Stitcher.

Follow us on Twitter @GetawaysGolf and @MitchLaurance, and use #TalkingGolfGetaways and #2HaggisBags to hit us with your favorite golf-travel stories and recommendations — you just might make it onto a future episode of “Talking GolfGetaways.”