Monthly Archives: October 2017

The inaugural Donald Ross Invitational was a smashing success. The two-person team competition was hosted at spellbinding Royal Dornoch on October 8 – 12.

Played beneath clear blue skies in lovely 60 degree weather, the tournament brought together members of Donald Ross golf clubs and fans of the famed course designer.

Born in the town of Dornoch in 1872, Ross immigrated to America in 1899 and became known as the “Father of U.S. Golf Course Architecture.” His world-class designs include Pinehurst No. 2, Aronimink Golf Club, East Lake Golf Club, Seminole Golf Club, Oak Hill Country Club, Inverness Club and Oakland Hills Country Club. Over 100 U.S. national championships have been played on his courses.

A special congratulations must go to the winners of the three divisions of the inaugural Donald Ross Invitational.

• Weekly Best Stableford: Tom Scarbrough and Sean Tobin (Country Club of Orlando)
• Weekly Best Gross: Nikki Christie (Carnoustie Golf Links) and Gareth Hall (Royal Dornoch Golf Club)
• Best Ball Stableford (from tournament sponsor Donald Ross Sportswear): Nathan Hoffman and Rob Stein (Brookfield Country Club)

The event kicked off with a practice round at Brora Golf Club, the fine James Braid layout established in 1891. After a fun and challenging 18, participants enjoyed a welcome drinks reception and buffet dinner at Royal Dornoch Golf Club.

All three tournament rounds were contested at famed Royal Dornoch, rated No. 5 by Golf Digest in its “World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses,” where Ross developed his passion for playing golf as a boy. Acclaimed as one of the finest links-style layouts in the world, its superb routing and use of raised putting surfaces was a major influence on his roughly 400 design projects.

The lively competition was complemented by nightly entertainment. Following the first round, participants headed to the Carnegie Courthouse, an important part of the Dornoch community since the mid-1800s, for a memorable evening. After a buffet dinner, they were treated to an audience with noted golf course architecture writer Bradley Klein, author of “Discovering Donald Ross” and winner of the Donald Ross Award. Klein was kind enough to answer audience questions on Donald Ross golf course architecture as part of an informal Q&A. A whisky tasting capped off the festive evening.

After the second round, guests dressed up for a gala dinner and entertainment at the Royal Golf Hotel. Prior to being seated for the gala dinner, the entire party stood for the address to a haggis, a great Scottish tradition.

In the end, the competition was won by Tom Scarborough and Sean Tobin playing out of the Country Club of Orlando. When speaking of the charismatic Scarbrough, tournament participant, Julian Douglas said. “Tom is a great gentleman who must have drunk the elixir or everlasting youth and has a wicked sense of humor. He’s retired from insurance but could have made as much money telling jokes. He was supported by a super golfer in Sean, who hits the ball further than I could jog.” To read his his recap of the Donald Ross Invitational, click here.

The event concluded with a prize giving ceremony at Royal Dornoch followed by a farewell dinner at Luigi Restaurant. For photos of the tournament, click here.

“It was a thrill to host this joyous occasion at Royal Dornoch as it celebrates the genius and memory of Donald Ross on the course where he learned to love the game,” says Marty Carr, executive chairman of Carr Golf. “Due to the incredible inaugural success, we look forward to announcing exciting details on our plans for 2018 as we now have another signature event for our guests and clients on our annual calendar.”

Championship winners, Sean Tobin and Tom Scarbrough celebrating the win with their better halves.

Non-golfers also had an action-packed trip joining the golfers for the evening activities and exploring Dornoch and the surrounding area during the day. Their itinerary included a candle-making master class workshop at Coast Candle Co. and visits to the Historylinks Museum, Urquhart Castle, Dunrobin Castle and Balblair Whisky Distillery.

While dates for next year’s tournament haven’t been finalized yet, it’s not too early to start getting excited for the second annual Donald Ross Invitational. Information about the 2018 event will be posted here as it becomes available.

Last week I spent three days golfing in Scotland with my great friend and golf tour operator Marty Carr.
The occasion was the Inaugural Donald Ross Invitational, organised by Carr Golf Travel and held at Royal Dornoch Golf Club. The course, founded over 400 years ago is about 50 miles north of Inverness, a mere well-struck 2 iron from John o’ Groats. Donald Ross was a Scotsman and golf apprentice with Old Tom Morris at St. Andrews, who emigrated to America over 100 years ago without a ‘bean’ in his pocket and started designing golf courses. Golf was exploding in America at the time and Ross became one of the most prolific and famous golf course designers in history. His courses include well known Pinehurst No. 2, Oak Hill Country Club and East Lake Golf Club. The competition held in Ross’ birthplace of Dornoch is open to members of any Donald Ross designed course.

So, expecting Baltic conditions I packed my best polar exploration gear but was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by clear sunny skies, very little wind and warm weather which held for all three days.
As most of the playing teams were Americans that I had never met I was a little concerned that current worldwide events would dominate the conversations and there would be a few sticky moments. Also, my love of golf has certainly waxed and waned over the years mainly due to the endless rules, dress codes, members, committees….. but in this case I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were the nicest and easiest-going bunch I had met in a long time. We had great fun.

In the end the competition was won by Tom Scarborough and Seán Tobin (pictured below) playing out of the Country Club of Orlando. Tom is a great gentleman who must have drunk the elixir of everlasting youth and has a wicked sense of humour. He’s retired from insurance but could have made as much money telling jokes for a living. He was ably supported by a super golfer in Seán who hits the ball further than I could jog.

Organising events is a skill that requires talents quite foreign to me. You need to be extremely organised, plan well in advance, have the hospitality gene switched on and be able to completely change all those well laid plans in an instant. Having the patience of a saint wouldn’t go amiss either. I can confirm that the Carr Golf team have all those attributes in spades. It was a super event, seamless organisation and great, great fun.

A highlight of the week was meeting the hugely well respected golf author Bradley Klein. Apart from caddying for Bernhard Langer on tour many years ago, Brad is a senior writer for Golfweek magazine and the author of seven books on golf course architecture. His speciality is his knowledge on the designs of Donald Ross and his gentle demeanour and love of golf course architecture is only rivalled by his love of chainsaws (go figure – as they say!). We had many laughs but if you really want to put a smile on Brad’s face he has many books available on Amazon entirely suitable for corporate gifts, birthdays, Bar Mitzvahs and Christmas presents.

The week would not be complete without a shout out to the super Carr Golf team that looked after us. Hospitality done well is like all things done well – it feels genuine, effortless and real. It takes a special type of person to do it and either the hospitality gene is switched on or it’s not. Nothing ever seems like too much trouble. So thanks to Ciara, Susan, Mark and Seán at Carr Golf, Neil Hampton and all at Royal Dornoch, Rob from Donald Ross Sportswear and last but certainly not least the legendary Peter Keighery. Peter (photographed above with Ciara from Carr Golf) is a man of unique charm, an entertainer, guide, piano player and a kind and wise counsel to Marty and his Carr Golf team. His autobiography about his many years of adventures at the ‘coalface’ of corporate and private entertainment is in the works as we speak – to be ghost-written of course by none other than Bradley S. Klein! Isn’t that right Peter?