Christmas Gift Guide

The 19th Hole

Want to avoid novelty socks or a sleeve of duff balls with a St Andrews logo? Check out our Christmas gift guide and then drop a few hints to the relatives.

BOOK: REMARKABLE GOLF COURSES – “Golf’s stage is special”

Authors Iain Spragg and Frank Hopkinson have not searched the world in a quest to find the greatest golfing tests, they’re quite happy to leave others endlessly scratching heads whilst attempting to solve that riddle. Instead they celebrating the entire range of golfing challenges across the globe.

Featuring wonderful photographs and great tales their journey takes in a huge variety of astonishing place to play the game.

Traditional, modern; linksland, inland; famous, unknown; high, low; 9 hole gems, 216 hole resorts – it’s got the lot.

Perhaps the highlights are the venues with most unusual backdrops, from the English course with a Bronze Age hill fort (Painswick) to the Indian layout containing ancient temples (Delhi) via the Colorado test which sneaks between red sandstone pillars (Arrowhead).

‘Remarkable Golf Courses’ by Iain Spragg and Frank Hopkinson is published by Pavilion Books.

GADGET: ALCOSENSE – “Drive long, drive straight, drive safe”

Most golfers now use a handheld device to hit a safe drive and it should be no different leaving the 19th hole: no-one should be risking anything other than a safe drive home.

But how do you know for certain if it is safe to set off? And if you’ve had more than a few drinks and had a lift home, how do you know if you’re safe to drive the next morning? Truth is, there is a lot of guesswork involved.

The pocket-sized AlcoSense Excel and AlcoSense Pro are breathalysers which use an extremely accurate sensor, used by several UK police forces, together with a colour screen that clearly shows whether you’re over the limit.

They’re sleekly designed and easy to use. The comparison with playing golf with gadgets really works: you can make quality decisions quickly.

AlcoSense Excel retails at £99.99 and the AlcoSense Pro £149.99. For more information visit the website – http://alcosense.co.uk/

DVD: TOMMY’S HONOUR – “The soul of a rebel. The heart of a champion.”

Filmed in St Andrews where the production team recreated The Old Course of the 1860s when Old and Young Tom Morris changed the sport forever.

It was never an easy relationship between the two men, nor did their wives get on, but these clashes provide all the drama (on and off the course).

A solid introduction to a key period in the transition of golf from genteel pastime to professional sport, and a decent reproduction of the “auld grey toun” in the 19th century (and the rudimentary nature of the game at that time).

Directed by Jason Connery (son of Sean), it stars Peter Mullan, Jack Lowden and Ophelia Lovibond, and won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Feature Film.

Trailer –

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