NEW YORK. Here's a neat post on gadling.com about golf in Bulgaria. It's on our list, maybe for Golf Tour Europe 2007. . . .

NEW YORK. We did a round at an empty Forest Park Golf Course in Queens (NYC). A favorite of ours because it's normally a nice course and there's the potential for "subway golf"--being able to get there without a car. All in all, one of our top courses in NYC. Now we know why it was empty: it was in the worst shape of any course we've seen in recent memory. Greens torn up, plugged, and heavily sanded. And I'm talking seven holes with unplayable greens. We've played better maintained putt-putt courses. A night and day difference from when we were there in May this year. Our advice is to stay away until spring.

PRAGUE. We here love fall golf for one main reason: the crowds are thinning. Today, I stepped out to a lovely course I hadn't played before, close to the north-east of Prague, called Golf & Country Club Mstětice. I was the very first on the course at 9am, and had it all to myself for the duration. The consequence: a clean, easy, 3:05 round walking. Love it! Now, let me sing the praises of this 4-year-old (the back 9 opened just last year), 6296m (6885 yd.) course. The greens were by far the best I've played in years. I am not kidding. There is only one word to describe them: pristine. Likewise, the teeboxes were exceptionally well maintained, and so were the fairways. The sand is real sand, and it's been raked. (What a dream after Forest Park a few weeks back.) The course itself is a beautiful, wide-open, links-style 18-holer cut out of the corn fields in this breadbasket region of the Czech Republic. Very few trees, but beware of the rough, or bring extra balls--they're evoking Scottish links here. (Also, beware of the 2 meter deep sand trap right of the green on the 2nd!) If you play the whites (equivalent to the blues in the States) like I did, you'll be challenged by the carry from the tees--they are often long, filled with scrub grass, and the starts of most fairways are narrow. Only pull out the big guns if you shoot straight, or you'll suffer ('I coulda sworn it landed right here!'). Weekday rate: 950 Czech crowns (about $42 USD), and worth every penny. Highly recommended.

PRAGUE. Yesterday, I ventured out to the "second oldest" Czech golf course, dating back to 1928, a course whose members included the likes of Jan Masaryk (T.G.'s son, and an early leader of the Czech nation): Golf Club Líšnice. Today being the official anniversary of the birth of the Czechoslovakia nation, this deserves a blog (while hoisting an real Budweiser beer--not the rice 'beer' sold by Anheuser-Busch). (And it also deserves a timely mention that we here at welovebeerandgolf.com are still patiently waiting for the rightful return of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia to the Czech & Slovak lands, dammit!) Back to the story: this course is a 9-holer and cheap (550 Kcs/$25USD during the week for 18 holes, i.e., twice around). However, while it's only a very short 25 km south-south-west of Prague, you get what you pay for. While the staff and the other folks on the course are very pleasant, the course left this reviewer longing for greener fairways. Now, to be very fair, this is a terrific course for beginners. It's essentially what Americans would call an "executive 9," insofar as it's short (4948m/5411 yds). You can tell it's been built on some very rocky soil, with very few trees. It almost appears as if they could cut less of the grass and sculpt the course better, letting some areas go fallow but focusing more on the fairways, and throwing in some new landscaping to break between adjoining fairways. But, we're not course designers, we're players, and what do we know? Go there. Take your kids to play there (it's kid-friendly). Teach your significant other to play there. Introduce someone new to the game. Or, just use it for a quick (very quick) round. Unlike poor J.M., thankfully, you don't have to risk defenestration at the hands of Communists to play anymore.

PRAGUE. North Korea's only 18-hole golf course, Taesong, is hosting a tourney tomorrow. This is a promotion to--sit down for this one--spur business investment in NK. The managing director of the Korea Business Consultancy, the event's host, was even quoted as saying the event has "razzmatazz." Does that mean they've scheduled an above-ground test this weekend? We're sure the reviews for the event will be glowing.

PRAGUE. Although out of our reach because of the continuing U.S. embargo, we're waiting for the chance to go to Cuba and sample some of the local goodies. Those goodies include Varadero, Cuba's only 18-hole golf course. The Financial Times just ran a piece on the course that had us intrigued. Apparently, the back nine is still "green," in the sense that it's only a decade old. But, the environs sound awesome: it's on a spit on the north coast of the island, with "spectacular" eighth and eighteenth holes beachside. Varadero is Cuba's largest resort, so other amenities are found in abundance, particularly at the 5-star Hotel Melia Las Americas next door. The clubhouse, "Xanadu," once part of a 1328-acre estate, is the 1930's-era former Dupont family mansion (where the millionaire would winter). And one can't forget the 20-km-long white sand beach adjoining.

NEW YORK. So, the secret is out. We've found heaven in NYC. Chelsea Piers, at the end of Manhattan's W.23rd St. We're getting into winter and have to keep swinging the sticks, right? Beer can be done anytime of year. So, where to go? Hit the massive vertical driving range (52 stations on 4 stories) at the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, and then toss back a few pints downstairs at the Chelsea Brewing Company. So that's where we found ourselves recently. The range was nearly empty on a Tuesday night, after work, but the lights were bright (and they're open until 11pm!!). Nothing quite matches the feeling of firing balls off over the Hudson River, right at New Jersey. Several hundred golf-ball casualties later, we bellied up to the bar, staring at the big, copper vats. A big array of choices faced us, reading off the chalkboard menu: CheckedCab Blonde Ale, Hoppy Holiday, Sunset Red Ale, Amber Wheat, Blueberry Wheat, Chelsea Pilsner, and Imperial Stout. (They were out of the Chelsea Porter and Pale Ale.) We went for the Hoppy Holiday, the Pilsner, the Red, and the Amber. Fresh and delicious, all. The taste, however, was very much ale, mellow and smooth. We were particularly enamored of the Amber and they always do the Red Ale well (and we've taken down many Blondes in the past too). Rather than going into too much detail, get yourself down there ASAP.

New York. Spring is coming to NYC slooowly. But there are places in the world, fortunately, where golf has already arrived. And--sniff, sniff--people other than us are playing in those places. Ok, enough of the wimpering.

We're pleased to discover that one of those places, the Czech Republic, may get known for it's golf, as well as it's beer. And that could be because now professional bloggers have started to take notice.

Take a look here: our buddy J.B. White is blogging about his experiences on Czech links, at WorldGolf.com. We hope you check it out, and, even better, take a trip and check out the courses yourself!

We're not too surprised. Golf is spreading. A recent NY Times article noted that fully 75% of all golf courses planned or under construction are outside the U.S. According to the article, the number of courses in Eastern Europe skyrocketed from 10 in 1992 to 134 last year!

Zdar nad Sazavou, Czech Rep. It was off to the links for two of us, on a fantastically beautiful Sunday afternoon, here in the center of the Czech Republic, the Moravian Highlands. The course? An out-of-the-way, very short, very hilly, very narrow 9-holer called Svratka, that boasts a single American member, your correspondent.

The views on this day, like most others, is straight out of Switzerland (minus the big cow bells--the nearby cows don't have bells, but we're thinking of supplying them, for effect--and snow-capped peaks in the distance). Fields of rape flowers (rape seed is where canola oil comes from), now in season, made the distant hills shine an incredibly bright yellow.

The course is actually pretty challenging, and it's one of the oldest in the country. It will slay a big hitter who can't keep it straight and narrow (good luck finding your ball in a pasture); it requires accuracy. You've got to be able to hit uphill and hit downhill with control. Think of it as a hellish pitch-and-putt on steriods. Don't let the CR/SR of 64.9/113 and length of 4604m (5035 yds.) fool you.

But, another awesome part, aside from the golf? The have a nice little chalet built into the hillside, which serves as the clubhouse, with fresh kegs of pilsner waiting. And it's Rychtar, a fantastic, crisp, light 12 degree pilsner with a great head, sharp hops bite on the back pallate, and a beatiful color. Very refreshing. It hails from the nearby town of Hlinsko (check out their webcams).

PRAGUE. Ah, the season is upon us. So, we ventured out for a round this morning, to a place we hadn't been before: a beaut' of a 9-holer, Golf Club Benatky, aka GC Resort Paradise. It opened in 2000, and it's being expanded to 18 now (a 10th hole, the new #2, is playable). It's about 30 minutes northeast of Prague by car, in the interestingly-named Benatky nad Jizerou (which literally means 'Venice above the Jizera River'), a cute village of 6700, founded back in the 1300s, with the requisite castle on the hill.

The course sits high on a plain, with great, open views, and is pure wide-open links style. It's well kept, with terrific greens. The sand is so lucious, you'll want to take the family there instead of to the shore. The wind can hit you so hard, you'll think you're in Scotland, but the rough is manageable, just in case you end up there.

Like most Czech courses, the first tee time is 8am, and on this Friday, at least, there were only three other golfers on the course ahead of us. So, a rip-roarin' three hour round ensued on this beautiful, sunny day in Prague.

It ain't easy, a CR/SR 73.2/139. Do yourself a favor--watch the monster bunker hidden behind the green on the watery and short #6, and beware of the tough #7, which has you threading through some small trees to an island green with limited visibility from the tee. Ouch. But it's a great place and will be awesome as a full 18-holer.

Garrison, NY. About an hour and twenty minutes straight north of NYC, there's a patch of grass that's high above the Hudson River, with great views of the river gorge and West Point. It's the Garrison Golf Club.

The greens and fairways are in terrific condition, and only a tad hard, even considering how dry and cold it's been this spring. For $90, you'll get a cart and a lot of distance between you and other golfers. We were a threesome, and were never crowded and only waited once, near the turn.

Golfing near New York City doesn't get much better than this. With the views, you'll think you're in a mythical course above the Columbia River Gorge. With the golf, you'll forget you're a few miles from America's mega-city.

Austin, TX. While folks up in the N-E are still freezin', it was over 90 degrees the last couple of days in Austin, double the temp in NYC. We were lucky enough to get in a round yesterday morning, at Grey Rock Golf Club, formerly Circle C. It's conveniently located south-west of the center city, and consistently ranked high in the Austin area for public courses.

It's a lovely course, moderately challenging, with greens of impeccable quality. The greens have very few flat spots and were pretty lush. The course itself was a bit on the dry side, and you could occasionally see dust kick up when balls hit. There's not much tree cover, so we'd assume it's pretty tough playing in the summer sun, but we give it a recommendation.

Birmingham, AL. We all spent a weekend in 'Bama recently, sampling a few of the Robert Trent Jones Trail courses. Oxmoor, a bit to the southwest of downtown Birmingham has two 18-holers, plus an executive course. While both courses (Ridge and Valley) are worth playing, the Ridge course was tremendous. Wicked fairways drop off on both sides, big elevations up and down, water traps teasing. This course was a mental game. Everything was well-maintained, and the staff was friendly and accommodating. And, best of all, one of us finished with the putt of his life.