This one is from a different trip. Not a golf trip at all, as it happens. I was in New Zealand with my family over the New Year, and we had stopped for New Year's Eve in a town on the North Island called Napier. Napier deserves a paragraph of its own. The town was largely destroyed in 1931, when a large earthquake hit Hawke's Bay and the fires that broke out afterwards finished off most of what the quake had left standing. What makes Napier remarkable is what happened next

Booking Old Petty was one of those things I almost talked myself out of. The preview window only ran through August and September of 2025 and you had to commit to playing Castle Stuart the same day, walking only, £190 a round, and the trip up to Inverness from anywhere outside Scotland is not a casual undertaking. I sat on the booking page for about ten minutes telling myself I'd wait for the proper opening in May 2026. Then I clicked book. I'm glad I did.

St Patrick's Links is the newest of Rosapenna's three courses: a Tom Doak design through huge Donegal dunes that feels ancient and brand new at the same time.