Why American Golfers Drink More BY MAX ADLER
golfer on our university team – now a physician practising in Edinburgh, fa- ther and well-travelled mid-amateur – sums it so: “Here, I can count on one hand the number of rounds I’ve played with a drink, and in the United States I can count the rounds I’ve not!” Appropriate that in golf the grass should be greener on the other side. The same way an American tourist grows misty recalling a trip when he went around an ancient links with a co- lourful caddie, my physician friend also gets that faraway gleam in his eye talk- ing about his recent holiday to Grove XXIII in Jupiter, Florida. With drones and servants on motorbikes delivering refreshing cocktails at top speed, he and his mates rarely went longer than three holes without ritual. “It was bril- liant! Though not sure I could do it ev- ery weekend,” he says. When in Rome, they say, especially if your group has hired a driver. For what it’s worth, this man is the only doctor I’ve met who, af- ter seeing him chip, you’d still welcome his operating on you. With golf and drinking, it helps to know the protocol so you can prepare. On a few occasions in Scotland, rather than a tee time I was told when to meet in the bar for a “sharpener.” Once, in a match where the social element out- weighed the competitive, a host club
AS WE READY FOR THE OPEN at Royal Portrush and fall in love with auld links golf all
cially walking on a hot day,” says Tom Ferrell of Dream Golf. Safety and sanc- tity aside, the pace of play across the re- sort is 15 minutes faster (!) since liquor was eradicated from on-course stations. Ferrell is all for free-spirited fun, but de- scribes the playing atmosphere of Sand Valley as “less alcohol-forward.” In this attitude, he says developer Chris Keiser probably feels even more strongly than his pioneering father, Mike, who built Bandon Dunes, an exceptional Ameri- can facility in more ways than one. Far be it from me to assume anything like a lecturing stance on booze. From a young teenager to present, the stream of my life has never run dry, including a real puddle of two years I studied in St Andrews, Scotland. Yet, in all my time there, it was very rare to encounter a golfer playing with a drink in hand. That golfers in the British Isles contain their drinking to the clubhouse and Americans only everywhere they’re permitted is the largest differentiator between the two golf cultures. The best
over again, two hot new destinations in the United States remind us how differ- ently we play the game – when it comes to drinking, that is. At the private and exclusive Fall Line Golf Club in the Georgia sand hills, a dedicated beverage cart can stay with your group the entire round, its opera- tor trained in both mixology and how to linger just so on the periphery. At The Lido at Sand Valley – C B Macdonald’s lost gem of classic templates recreated in Wisconsin – alcohol is not permitted on the course. An advance email ap- prises guests of the policy. Post-round libations are available in the member’s bar, and beer is sold on the resort’s four other courses, but the idea was The Lido warranted a more special experience. You know, like one you’ll remember. “The design is so unique and chal- lenging to navigate, guests really don’t need other variable conditions, espe-
14 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JULY/AUGUST 2025
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