Twenty-Six Million Americans play golf, and many of them travel each year to tee it up, but only about 500,000 of them do so in Mexico. This troubled Carlos Kviat, the President of Discover Golf Mexico, a new website (www.discovergolfmexico.com) devoted to making travel south of the border efficient and worry-free. “We [Kviat and founders Marcelino Barrenechea and Luis Velazquez] detected the five most important destinations that attract the most international golfers.” In doing so, Kviat created what he calls the “first premier Mexican golf tour operator.”

Say "island golf" to someone and they’ll probably picture Hawaii or some other tropical destination. But the word “island” doesn’t always equal swaying palms and surfers hanging ten a sand wedge away from the fairway. After all, golf was invented on an island where weather is anything but balmy.

For most folks who journey across “the pond” to play golf, chances are pretty good they’ll want to play in Scotland at courses like St. Andrews, Turnberry and Royal Dornoch. While those courses and the enchanting towns they inhabit are steeped in history, those wanting a more diverse and dramatic golfing experience should consider Ireland, in particular its southwestern quadrant.

From the windswept dunes of Lahinch, Ballybunion, Portmarnock, Doonbeg and Waterville to the spectacular cliffs of Old Head and the rolling parkland of a former earl’s estate at Adare Manor, Ireland supplies golf that can’t be found anywhere else. In fact, if you ask most golfers who’ve vacationed in Scotland and Ireland which place they prefer, you’ll get a conflicted answer. While Scotland often gets the nod for pure historical significance, the traveling golfer frequently gives Ireland the nod for sheer diversity and its dramatic landscape.