THE WORLD OF GOLF

There are those who go away somewhere to hit a ball. There are others who travel to play golf. Travelling is more than just about going away somewhere – much more. And playing golf is more than just about hitting a ball – much, much more.

You can tell a lot about a person by the words they use. How we choose to see things often reveals a lot about how we feel. There’s a story that illustrates this.

A couple of thousand years ago, two men were sitting chipping away at stone blocks. A third came up and asked them what they were up to.

“I’m chipping away at a stone block,” sighed the one.

“I’m building a temple,” said the other.

Both were right, but only one of them had the courage to see his labour as part of a greater thing. I’m convinced that we all benefit from seeing everything we do in the grand scheme that is really each and every person’s greatest and most important project:

To live life to the full.

For many people, golf is an essential ingredient of the Good Life recipe. When I first started to play, I listened to my friends with fascination at how so many of them could see the very wholeness of the game. They talked about the pleasure of being out in the fresh air, about the clubhouse, about the clothes, and – not least – about the sense of wellbeing and joy they felt during a round. I recognised this articulated sense of wellbeing and joy from many of Select Travel’s customers, who have told us how much they’ve benefited both physically and mentally from the destinations we’ve helped them to find.

So I felt inspired to locate the world’s top golf courses and hotels, which would add to the pleasure of their own game to create the perfect conditions for eliciting this very sensation. Each one is different – yet not.

For there is a common denominator to all our golf destinations: world class of the highest degree.

My own best golfing memory? No, it’s not a hole-in-one, but the sheer aestheticism of playing on a course cut into a jungle, and arriving at a green upon which a colony of crabs is basking in the sun…

Now that’s travelling and playing golf.

LEIJA GRAF, OWNER/MANAGING DIRECTOR