Well on the eve of the start of the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open I feel it’s a great time to give thanks and bid adieu to everyone and anyone involved in myself being able to take part in this unbelievable golf adventure The Greatest Golf Job Ever! Namely Ryan Starr and Ian Dawson. Their efforts in facilitating and arranging the four amazing locations were above exceptional. Please contact them and their respective associates Bruce’s Golf Rewards and Merit Golf Vacations for the best professional service of all your travel needs. These guys get it done i’ve seen their work!
Looking back, and again thanks to Ryan and Ian, I still can’t believe I was able to do such things as play rounds of golf in Ireland, Bermuda, Arizona, and Florida within 6 weeks time! All the while being accomodated at world class lodging facilities and eating at some truly amazing and memorable restaurants.
Thanks so so much to all sponsors for making this such a truly wonderful experience for me. WestJet, TaylorMade, Golf Ireland, and NetGen.
Connemara Golf Links, Carne Golf Links, and Enniscrone Golf Links truly are hidden gems of courses in Northwest Ireland. And to stay at Abbeyglen Castle Hotel and/or Mount Falcon would be considered top shelf arrangements.
In Bermuda there are only so many golf courses OR lodging options and I got to play golf at Tucker’s Point, Riddell’s Bay, Port Royal, and Fairmont Southampton course AND staying at the Fairmont Southampton and Fairmont Hamilton Princess.
Scottsdale Arizona is a truly great place to go play golf. Staying at The Westin Kierland and Fairmont Scottsdale Princess was such a treat added to the awesome golf we experienced at Troon North Pinnacle, TPC Scottsdale, and Westin Keirland. I can’t wait to watch future action on the 16th in Phoenix and say “I’ve played that hole!”
Topping off the four trips the first week of January at Innisbrook Golf Resort in Florida couldn’t have been a better way to start 2012. Four excellent courses on one property. Above and beyond.
I am truly lucky to have been able to experience this and I can’t thank you all enough.
I’m now patiently awaiting the upcoming golf season here in Southern Ontario which is still several weeks away. Oh well. The Greatest Golf Job Ever sure helped break up my Winter that’s for sure.
Again, thank you so very very much.
All the best in 2012.

Craig.

In a couple of words, awesome and amazing.
Innisbrook is a world class resort that should be visited by anyone who wants to get away to play great golf courses and be pampered and catered to all day long.
With the four top caliber championship courses available to play, with the fantastic dining options, the amazing accomodations(condo style apartment units), the 24 hour tram service, fitness centre, Spa treatment centre, tennis centre, and to top it all off you get top shelf service with smiles from every single staff member there. If you want it, they’ll get it for you.
If funds and logistics allowed, I would never leave the property! I’d be on those golf courses every day of the week!! To Innisbrook Resort and all it’s wonderful staff THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I’ll never forget the great times I had while staying there with The Greatest Golf Job Ever.

There are two main restaurants on property at Innisbrook. The Osprey Sports Bar/Marketalamander Grill, and Packard’s.
Both places are really great with Packard’s being the more upscale fine dining experience of the two.
We ate at each place twice over the four nights we were there.
The atmosphere at Osprey was very fun and there were always patrons there having a meal and/or drink watching football. Americans are nutty over football and there was grid iron action on every sin gle monitor. We kindly asked them to switch the one monitor closest to us to Golf Channel though!! Huge portions of awesome saucy ribs, burgers, fresh caught fish of the day, pasta, fresh veggies, and a vast array of apps like spring rolls, shrimp, fries, etc.
At Packard’s we tried apps like crab cocktail, chicken meatballs(very unique and flavourful), and oysters with main dishes of succulent cuts of meat, lobster tails, pasta offerings with chicken and shrimp, and side veggies consisting of yukon gold cheese mashed potatoes, creamed spinich, and asparagus.
These meals are truly the kind you wish you could have every day! And with the atmosphere and service you get at Innisbrook it’s truly hard to leave behind(especially Packard’s). YUM YUM YUM!!

Wednesday morning we teed it up on the North Course at Innisbrook.
From the back black tees wer were looking at a total of 6325 yards so not overly long by any means. Nevertheless the course presented challenging shots and as per usual stunning course conditions and natural beauty on and surrounding the course.
Water hazards come into play on nine of the holes and I did send one of my golf balls for a permanent swim.
After nine I was one shot over bogey golf knowing that I should have been doing better. One excuse I did have was that it was raining(the first rain we’ve seen since Bermuda). The rain was on and off and by the time we were on the 13th green we could see it was definitely going to get worse plus there was some lightning so we went back to the clubhouse/Osprey Lounge.
There we sat and had some lunch and a drink waiting for the weather to pass, which it did.
We decided than instead of going back to the fourteenth hole we just started over again on number one.
This time around the track I was feeling much better about my game and started to string some scores together. After the front nine I was one under bogey golf at 43 with some even better plays ahead of me on the back nine.
I tend to talk myself into things a bit too much on the course. For instance, i’m standing on the 18th tee box. It’s a very short dogleg right. If I par the hole I will have a 38 on the back nine for a total of 81 which would be the best score on the WHOLE trip. What do I do? I play the hole to a goofy double bogey!
Oh well! Man I love this game. I REALLY REALLY do!
After the round we got cleaned up and headed to Packard’s for dinner.
Packard’s is a more upscale fine dining type of restaurant on the property named after golf course architect Larry Packard. I’m telling you their lobster bisque soup is AMAZING! Not to mention most everything else on the menu. Awesome cuts of meat perfectly cooked to your liking, seafood dishes, pasta offerings, and a good dessert selection to top it all off. The service was fantastic as our servers seemed to want to go the extra mile to make sure everything was to our liking. It was a really nice spot to have a nice dinner. Upon traveling to Innisbrook Resort you must have a meal at Packard’s.
What another awesome day at Innisbrook. Another 32 holes of golf played and another amazing dinner in our bellys!
It was a bummer that night thinking of how we only had one day left and the whole trip would be finished!
We went to bed knowing that we were leaving the next afternoon but not of course until we played the front nine of Copperhead once more before we were to leave!
I attacked those nine holes like it was an important competition. Three pars, a birdie, TWO doubles and three bogeys put me at a 42. I was content with that even though I three putted the last green. Oh well.
Goodbye Copperhead. It was seriously nice knowing you!

When we arrived at the front entrance of the resort I couldn’t help but be excited at knowing that the next handful of days of my life were going to be perfect. At a place like Innisbrook you can not find much of anything to stress you out.
Built in the early 1970′s the resort is over 900 acres. There are the four awesome golf courses but there is also their top class tennis facility, pool, the Indaba Spa, the fine atmosphere and cuisine at Packard’s, the fun atmosphere at The Osprey lounge, not to mention just literally the grounds themselves. Walking around the resort there is so much to look at and take in as far as natural beauty. It was almost overwhelming.
The rooms we had were not really rooms but more like condo/apartments. A full kitchen, living room, dining room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, storage closets, and regular offerings like coffee maker, iron, etc.
There are lucky folks that stay in these places for months or some even permanently! For me that would really be heaven. Living at and playing golf at Innisbrook everyday. Sign me up!!
The units are all placed throughout the property and named after specific Scottish places like St. Andrews (my unit), Royal Aberdeen, and Merion, etc…
I enjoyed walking to and from our points of interest but if didn’t feel like walking, no problem. Innisbrook has a 24 hour tram/bus that will pick you up and take you anywhere on the property. The drivers were all of different ages and from different areas of the US and they were all friendly, talkative, and informative.
The more I think about it the more I miss it!
I would absolutely love to be able to go back there again!

After having such a great time on the Copperhead course, which was obviously a VERY awesome golf course, we were wondering what the other courses at Innisbrook that we hadn’t played would be like. Tuesday we got to play the Island Course. What was interesting was that since first arriving at Innisbrook we had a number of staff telling us that they liked the Island Course the most, even more than Copperhead. I soon found out why they might say this.
The Island Course is stunning. It was very fun AND very challenging. The elevation changes on some of the holes were enough to ask “what State are we in again?” The greens were pretty much perfect. For me, just the right speed, fast. The fairways and tee boxes were beautiful and the surrounding foliage and wildlife made it a truly awesome experience.
Playing from the green tees at 6816 yards was no small feat. The Island course demands you show up with some game if you want to try and get a lower score. I was starting to hit play abit better once we were warmed up. We teed off early and time allowed us to go around for a second turn at the course. I played both rounds with a score of 90 which was bogey golf. In the two rounds I had seven pars and two birdies which for me is pretty good. Playing well, or not playing badly, ALWAYS makes your round that much more fun and we had some real fun playing The Island Course twice in one day.
So, did I enjoy Island more than Copperhead? I’m going to have to say it’s a tie! No matter, we were at Innisbrook getting a tone of golf under our belts which is definitely very cool!

Monday morning we woke up and met at the Market Salamander Grill for breakfast. The breakfast experience there is everything I expect for my morning meal. Bacon, eggs, toast, coffee, orange juice, water, and fruit. Perfect. Eggs are offered in various choices of course as well as french toast and pancakes if desired. All three of us were anticipating the upcoming round as we were teeing up at the Copper Head Course.
The Copperhead Course is the most famous of the four courses at Innisbrook. It’s the host course of the annual PGA event The Transitions Championship. Thanks to The Greatest Golf Job Ever I have played three PGA courses this season! Copperhead was built in 1971 by architect Larry Packard. Mr. Packard also designed the other three courses at Innisbrook as well as many other championship courses all over the world.
The morning tee times were solidly booked and the pro shop added a fourth player to our group. His name was Scott and turns out he’s from Ottawa. Furthermore he has mutual friends with Ryan who worked in Ottawa in the past. Small world as they say! Scott was a truly great addition to our group and he helped us have even more fun on the wonderful course. Scott, if you’re reading this, high fives buddy!
The Copperhead Course, no surprise, is rather difficult. Well placed bunkers can be a menace. The fairways are tight with trees/hazards not far away seemingly on every hole. Each of us had some great moments and not so great ones as well. The Snake Pit, which is the name of the difficult stretch of closing holes, did manage to sting us a tad but the four of us were having way too much fun to let a couple bad shots put any downer on our day.
I managed to take a few decent pictures of our experience there of which you can see on our Facebook Page.
After our great time at Copperhead we were definately anticipating playing the other courses at Innisbrook we had yet to play, Island and North. We were also thinking that after playing Copperhead those other two courses might perhaps be a let down. NOT SO!
More on that to come.

Our experience at Innisbrook was absolutely fantastic. We played a TONNE of Golf. Every morning this week I will be blogging about our experiences there(mostly golf filled).
Sunday afternoon we arrived at the very nice airport in Tampa and we had no problem getting our luggage, finding our driver, and getting quickly on our way to the resort.
We had nine holes booked to play once we got there. Normally on our trips we arrive on Sunday and start golfing Monday morning so it was great to get right to the course and start playing Golf on Sunday afternoon.
We teed it up on the South Course around 3pm. It was so great to be back on a golf course and the South Course at Innisbrook was a very fun way to start our week. Probably the most forgiving of the four courses at Innisbrook, the South Course is slightly more open and flat. One thing the South Course has in common with the other three courses is that it’s very well kept and pleasing to the eye. Immediately I was taken with the various birds flying about. This place is a haven for bird watchers. A very cool moment was on the 2nd green. There was a huge hawk eating a fish while standing on a branch of a tree hanging right over the green. I don’t get to see that every day back home!
We got 13-holes in as it got too dark to finish. I was pleased with my score sitting at two shots under bogey golf(which was my goal for the week) after those 13 holes.
We made our way back to the clubhouse looking forward to our first meal. We ate at the Osprey Sports bar as we wanted to watch the PGA action in Hawaii while we ate.
A great meal and good times were had. My dad and I were happy that they had Ginger Beer available(we’re now huge fans since getting a taste in Bermuda). In fact we drank them out of the wonderful soda!
Fresh caught fish of the day, ribs, spring rolls, shrimp, and potatoes were spread throughout our table for us to savour and enjoy. The Osprey is a very comfortable and fun place to dine at Innisbrook. The decor is upscale casual with a number of monitors throughout the place for good views of popular sporting events.
We had a great first day experience at Innisbrook playing most of the South Course and dining at The Osprey Sports Bar. All the while, of course, we were anticipating what awaited us for Monday morning……COPPERHEAD!!
Check back tomorrow.

As the lucky chosen candidate for The Greatest Golf Job Ever it’s my duty to use this blog to describe my times at all the wonderful spots this venture has taken me. For some reason, some how, I forgot to mention one of the wonderful places we dined at in Scottsdale. It’s called The Capital Grille and I must tell you about it.
The name kind of describes it well really. A dictionary meaning of capital states it as “principal” and “highly important.” This place is that for sure. A semi-formal attire would be advised for this very nice restaurant. Tiffany Nelson from TPC Scottsdale mentioned before we were to go that “you don’t really go to The Capital Grille and NOT order a meat dish.” In truth, this place is a vegetarian’s nightmare! Much of the decor is taxidermied creatures from size small to Bison. It’s a truly top place in Phoenix/Scottsdale to eat steak.
I took Tiffany’s advice and ordered a perfect seared tenderloin with lobster tails on top. WOW. My dad went for the 24 ounce porterhouse and was not disappointed one bit. Our server was very friendly and professional and hit home runs with her dessert suggestions. Their centrally located wine cellar makes wine lovers salivate at the glance. I really enjoyed the experience there. Thanks again to the city of Scottsdale. I’ll be back again you can count on it 100%.
I’d also like to take this opportunity wish everyone all the best in this new year of 2012. Thanks to The Greatest Golf Job Ever my 2011 was truly most memorable and I can’t be happier with starting 2012 off with our fourth and final leg this Sunday at Innisbrook in Florida. I can not wait to tee it up there. There are five different courses there with the Copperhead course annually hosting the PGA Transitions Championship. Please check our Facebook page and look for Tweets on Twitter in regards to my experience at this world class Salamander resort in Palm Harbor!

This saying couldn’t be more true. Being lucky we were able to play Westin Kierland, Troon Pinnacle and the TPC Stadium course but those are merely three of well over 200 quality golf courses in the Scottsdale area. Mostly desert and parkland style with the odd links style to play as well. The very best quality that Scottsdale golf has to offer is pretty much PERFECT weather. Calm, sunny, and warm. What could be better?
For any golfer out there thinking about where to travel to on their next(or first) golf vacation I HIGHLY suggest you give Merit Golf Vacations a call and arrange for a trip to Scottsdale. You can not be disappointed.
And from my experience I also STRONGLY suggest you dine at deseo restaurant in The Westin Kierland hotel. It was the best and most memorable dining experience I have ever had. Sapporo was a fantastic sushi/teppanyaki restaurant but also has a very pumpin’ and happening night life. You must also check out Old Town to stop in at The Rusty Spur. When there you can’t help but imagine what it would have been like walking down that street 100 years ago. The Wild West! Such an interesting time and place in history, anything but boring that’s for sure.
I suppose you could say I kind of fell in love with Scottsdale. It would be a dream to live there and play golf on awesome courses all year round! Perhaps more realistically as a “snowbird” spending winters there in my elder years! Either way Scottsdale you’ll be seeing me again in the future that’s for sure.