Watching a big golf tournament can be a frustrating business.
You can walk for miles, but miss all the action that matters. A roar from the ninth green tells you that Tiger Woods has holed a vital birdie putt. Unfortunately, you are by the side of the eighth green, watching Phil Mickelson chip out of a bunker.
You curse your luck and perhaps try and catch up with Tiger’s match on the next hole. Disaster! You can’t see a thing because, by the time you reach the fairway, the crowds are 10 deep and you are too short to get a decent vantage point. Or, there is a humungous tree in the way.
Just as every golfer has hard-luck stories to tell at the 19th hole, so everyone who regularly goes to golf tournaments has tales of The One That Got Away.
In my case, this was a hole-in-one by Nick Faldo at a big tournament in Britain in the 1990s. I should have seen it. He was my favourite golfer and I had followed his match for three-and-a-half hours in howling winds. Then, at the worst possible moment, I stopped for a quick cup of coffee...
It says a lot for the magnetism of the world’s top players that, despite all the frustrations of watching tournaments live rather than on television, millions of people do just that, from Augusta to Shanghai, from Dubai to Carnoustie, from Melbourne to the Algarve – and just last week in Abu Dhabi, with the increasingly popular Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
They travel thousands of miles, spend a small fortune on tickets and hospitality packages and, often, have to endure foul weather conditions. But they wouldn’t have it any other way. To see the game they love played by their golfing heroes – played at a level they could never match, not if they practised for 365 days a year – is a fantasy made real.
The skill levels of the top players really are extraordinary and, the closer you get to the players, the more extraordinary their skills seem.
I remember standing directly behind Rory McIlroy at the 2012 Ryder Cup in Medinah, Illinois, as he spanked a 300-yard drive down the middle of the fairway. It was just a routine tee shot. But the sweetness of the timing, and the arrow-like accuracy as the ball soared through the air, will live with me forever.
Golf fans, as a breed, are friendly and well-behaved – far more than soccer fans – and create an ambience in which enthusiasm for the game does not degenerate into rowdiness or abuse. There is something rather touching in the way 5,000 excited, chattering fans will suddenly fall silent as a player lines up his putt.
It is important who wins a tournament, but it is not all that important. Good manners matter more than partisanship.
Every course is different, which is part of the charm of golf. To traditionalists, there is nothing to beat links golf in Scotland, the home of the game: all those pretty seaside courses pockmarked with bunkers and made devilishly difficult by gusting winds. But the great American courses – Augusta, most of all – have a manicured perfection that is equally beguiling.
Not all that long ago, Britain and America, between them, hosted all the golf tournaments that mattered. Not today. The European PGA tour travels as far as Australia and South Africa, while China and the Emirates are fast emerging as powerhouses in the sport.
Soccer aside, what other professional sport is so global in scope, with such a richly international cast performing on such a huge stage?
For the true golf fan, to be a spectator at that performance beats any rock concert.
SEVEN GOLF EVENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2014
1. Omega Dubai Desert Classic, January 30 to February 2
It is a quarter of a century since the first Dubai Desert Classic in 1989 and, in that time, the event has evolved from a quirky novelty to a firm fixture in the golfing calendar. Holding a European PGA Tour event in the Emirates, while the fairways of Europe were still covered with frost, was a masterstroke, and thanks to generous appearance money, the list of previous winners – Ballesteros, Els, Woods, McIlroy – reads like a Who’s Who of golf. The Majlis course at the Emirates Golf Club, backed by skyscrapers, forms a suitably dramatic backdrop and, with plenty of water hazards awaiting stray tee shots, excitement is guaranteed.
A season pass costs Dh675. Hospitality packages for the championship from Dh2,995. Visit www.dubaidesertclassic.com
2. The Masters, Augusta, georgia, April 10-13
For golfing romantics, the Masters represents a kind of perfection, which is why the first Major of the year, held at the same venue since the 1930s, is invariably a sell-out. The iconic Augusta course, zigzagging through the pine trees, is kept in such perfect condition that the fairways look as manicured as the greens on any other course. Every hole is a photo opportunity as well as a stage for high sporting drama. Not that drama is ever far away. The 2013 Masters was won by the Australian Adam Scott in a heart-stopping play-off, and whoever dons the famous green jacket this year will need to show equal skill under pressure.
Tailor-made five-night packages, inclusive of accommodation and admission tickets, but exclusive of flights, are available from £6,425 (Dh38,581) from www.luxurygolfholiday.co.uk
3. The Players Championship, Sawgrass, Florida, May 8-11
Golf fans have a sadistic streak and get as much pleasure from seeing Tiger Woods get a triple bogey as an eagle. So, they are in their element at the TPC course at Sawgrass, Florida, where the signature hole, the 17th, features an island green that can make the best players in the world look like 24-handicap hackers, particularly when the wind is blowing. The Players Championship is often known as the “fifth Major” and always features one of the strongest fields of the year. The stadium course is tailor-made for spectators and, with so many other courses within easy range, makes the perfect centrepiece for a golfing holiday.
Five-night packages, exclusive of flights but inclusive of accommodation and admission to all four days of the championship, from US$985 (Dh3,617) with www.sportstravel.com
4. US Open, Pinehurst, California, June 12-15
Pinehurst No 2 is one of the most respected courses in the United States, having already hosted the 1999 and 2005 Opens, and it will provide another stern challenge in 2014. Birdies are at a premium at the US Open, where lightning-fast greens and brutally thick rough have become the accepted norm, and it can be an exhilarating tournament to watch, with huge, enthusiastic crowds lining every fairway. There are a staggering eight golf courses at the Pinehurst resort, not to mention three hotels and a spa, so what better excuse for a golf fan to spend a week in California?
Tailor-made, five-night packages, exclusive of flights but inclusive of hotel accommodation in Southern Pines and ground passes for all four days of the championship, are available from $4,745 (Dh17,426) from www.sportstravel.com
5. Open Championship, Royal Liverpool, July 17-20
To the purist, there is no sterner test of golfing skill than links golf in Britain, the home of the game. You need imagination rather than brute force to conquer these most teasing of courses, and it is no accident that the last three winners of the Open have all been over 40. The 2014 Open is being played at Royal Liverpool, also known as Hoylake, where Tiger Woods won the last of his three Opens in 2006. He is sure to be among the favourites again this year, as a star-studded field competes for the famous claret jug. Fine weather is never guaranteed at the Open – which is all part of the fun.
Packages, exclusive of flights but inclusive of five-night accommodation and tickets for all four days, from £915 (Dh5,496) with www.luxurygolfholiday.co.uk
6. US PGA, Valhalla, Kentucky, August 7-10
It is a tribute to the calibre of the Jack Nicklaus-designed Valhalla course in Kentucky that it was chosen as a venue for the 2008 Ryder Cup. There are some superb vantage points from which to watch the world’s top players parade their skills and, at the PGA Championship in August, the final Major of 2014, they will need to parade those skills in punishing heat and humidity. Not many visitors to America make it to Kentucky, but the Bluegrass State, with its rich musical heritage, has far more to offer than fried chicken. It would be a fascinating area to explore by car when the last putt has been holed.
Packages, exclusive of flights but inclusive of five-night accommodation and tickets for all days, from $1,650 (Dh6,060) with www.sportstours.com
7. Ryder Cup, Gleneagles, Scotland, September 26-28
You don’t have to be European or American to be swept up in the unfolding drama of the Ryder Cup, a biannual event that never fails to produce a stirring climax. Other golf tournaments are contested by individuals, but the team format introduces additional subtleties and generates passions of an intensity not normally seen on a golf course. The great Gleneagles course in Scotland will make the perfect setting for an event that every true golf fan should aim to attend at least once in their lives.
Five-night hospitality packages, exclusive of flights but inclusive of hotel accommodation in Edinburgh and admission to all days of the Ryder Cup, from £2,320 (Dh13,936) with www.rcts.co.uk