When choosing the location for the perfect buddies' golf trip, three details must always be considered:

1) Abundance of golf courses.

2) Plethora of solid restaurants.

3) Reasonable hope of favorable weather.

With these criteria in mind, my annual buddies' trip landed in Myrtle Beach, home to 102 golf courses along a stretch of the South Carolina coast known as the Grand Strand. Average high temperature in October: 77 degrees. As for food, there are so many steak and seafood spots packed along the main drag, you could easily eat surf-and-turf for a month without repeating a restaurant.

So I was off with six friends: Stuart, Bill, Mark, Jose, Kevin and Brian. Most are based in Atlanta, where I used to work, and this was our third-annual golf trip -- and second since I began working at Golf.com. Last year's trip to the World Golf Hall of Fame was going to be tough to top, but once we rolled into town and devoured a meal at Soho Cafe & Bar, which has a great atmosphere, good service, and fantastic (wait for it) steak and seafood, we liked our chances.

Golf began the next morning at Tidewater Golf Club and Plantation, and our 8:30 a.m. tee time coincided with unseasonably cold temperatures, which were hovering in the high 40s. After we attempted to warm up on the range, the starter informed us that given the heavy dew on the course, we should play "lift, clean and place." Jose stared blankly at the starter, prompting Stuart to crack, "He thinks you're talking about drinks." This seems like a good time to mention that this isn't the strongest group of golfers you're ever going to find, but each of us knows full well how to lift, clean and place a drink back in a golf cart cup-holder.

Anyway, Tidewater is a great track, and the course really peaks at the par-3 12th hole [pictured above], which plays straight out to a green that's hard against the Intracoastal Waterway, and the par-5 13th, which runs along the scenic, boat-filled channel.

But this course is not the easiest way to start a weekend on the links -- I counted six holes with water hazards, and several others had elevation changes. In fact, my buddy Brian, a novice golfer and our group's fearless leader, experienced what can only be described as a complete physical and emotional meltdown on the tee at the challenging par-5 eighth hole [photo evidence at right], which led to his teeing off with a driving iron for the remainder of the trip. More on Brian's weekend shortly.

After getting knocked around by Tidewater, our group decided to ramp up the punishment by heading to the Dye Course at swanky Barefoot Resort. Has Pete Dye ever designed an easy course? His track at Barefoot is right in line with some of his other diabolical creations (Whistling Straits, TPC at Sawgrass, PGA West), and if you play this one, bring a beach towel, because you're going to spend some time in the sand. (Then again, what would you expect from a guy whose biography is called "Bury Me in a Pot Bunker"?) My group spent so much time in the bunkers we could've paid rent.

Still, the course was immaculate. If you're going to shell out $105-$185 for a round you should expect some luxury, so in addition to smooth greens and velvet fairways, be sure to swing by the Dye's posh clubhouse and lounge. (The course is so well-kept, I could've eaten lunch off the fairways, if I had ever actually played from one.) We played the finishing hole, a 471-yard par-4 dogleg left around a pond, into the setting sun [photo at right]. No one sniffed a par. A perfect way to cap Day 1.

The next morning our group opted to book a spur-of-the-moment, confidence-repairing round at River Oaks Golf Plantation. We played nine holes with a cart for $20 a pop, and it was exactly what we needed –- fewer bunkers, zero four-putts and practically no lost balls. Good times.

One other note from River Oaks: dedicated Golf.com readers might recall that a year ago, this man-cation helped launch a contest we dubbed "Worst Golf Shot in America." My buddy Brian provided the inspiration behind the idea, and one year after he unleashed some of the most wretched swings ever seen on the Internet, here he is on the 198-yard, par-3 eighth hole on River Oaks's Otter Course. (As a reminder, Brian is now teeing off exclusively with a driving iron.)

Yes, he placed his ball on a Brush-T (as seen on TV!), and yes, he was lined up at about a 45 degree angle away from the target, but hey, progress is progress, right? Someone else will have to uncork the worst shot in America this year.

We capped our golf adventure by playing 18 of the 27 holes at Arrowhead Country Club, which is competitively priced (about $75 per round, with a replay rate of $45) and one of the best values in Myrtle Beach. Each of the three nine-hole courses is a unique test, and the two that we played, the Waterway and the Cypress, rolled neatly through wetlands and along the Intracoastal Waterway. Our beverage-cart girl Chrissy was our best of the trip, and if you couldn't tell from the photo at right, we had a pretty good time.

One last story from the course: During our round at Arrowhead, we were the last two groups on the course, and Brian, playing in the foursome in front of mine, thought it would be hilarious to turn around and hit a ball 150 yards back up the fairway at us. Naturally, he cold-shanked it, which prompted Bill to holler up at him, "Maybe you should try using a Brush-T!" It was that kind of trip.

We capped things off at one of my favorite seafood joints in town, Rockefellers Raw Bar. If you enjoy oysters and great drinks, and don't care about things like cloth napkins and fancy centerpieces, this is your place. We ate a mess of foods from the sea and laughed about the weekend. Yes, there were more Brush-T jokes. No, they are not printable on this website.

Obviously, it was a great trip, and I can't think of a better host city than Myrtle Beach. We're counting the days until our next adventure. Brian is counting the dollars to save for a new driver. We can't wait.

(Photos courtesy of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, Jose Alea, Jeff Ritter)

By John Garrity

The key to a January golf trip in Scotland is flexibility. My original itinerary had me right off the plane at Glasgow and down the road to ancient Prestwick for a quick 18, followed on successive days by rounds at Askernish, Castle Stuart, Royal Dornoch, Nairn, Carnoustie, the Old Course at St. Andrews, Kingsbarns, Kinghorn, Crail, Musselburgh Links and Muirfield (same day), Turnberry, Western Gailes and Girvan -- with 9 squeezed in at Maybole, if time allowed, on the way back to Glasgow. However, heavy snows across the country convinced me that I should alter my plans and spend the entire two weeks playing top-ranked Askernish Old.

"Is Askernish even playable?" an American friend asked in an e-mail. "I've heard that the Western Isles are brutalized by Atlantic gales this time of year. Plus, you've got what, four hours of daylight? And don't they have cattle and sheep on the fairways?"

Re-reading his words after a fortnight of challenging but delectable golf, I have to laugh. First of all, I don't think the wind ever got above 60 or 65 miles per hour while I played, and those were gusts, not sustained winds. Twenty or 25 mph was more the norm, and with the average midday temperature topping 40-degrees fahrenheit, four layers of clothing provided a nice balance between comfort and mobility. Squalls sweep in from the Atlantic with some frequency, but the local golfers have taught me how to squat with my back to the gale until the horizontal rain exhausts itself. That generally takes a few minutes, and it is common to see the sun pop out while you are collecting tee markers that have been uprooted and sent tumbling down a dune.

Neither is the Hebridean day as short as my friend suggests. The sun appears over the hills a little after 9 a.m. and takes a languorous turn across the southern sky, never rising more than thirty-degrees above the horizon, before plunging into the Atlantic a little before 4 p.m. A four-ball venturing out at noon finishes at twilight, making for an enjoyable 500-yard stroll in the moonlight to the two-room clubhouse.

Askernish does accommodate more livestock than you'll find on a typical American course, but I've never heard a visiting golfer complain because he was able to find his ball in the well-grazed rough. The greens are protected with single-strand fences that give the cattle a tiny shock when the batteries are connected. "They're not hooked up at the moment, but it doesn't matter," one of Askernish's 18 resident members told me last week. "The cows think they are!"

Another friend asked me if winter rules were in effect. No, they are not. The fairways at Askernish, an authentic links course, are as sound in January as they are in July, so there is no need to improve one's lie. The roughs are easier to play from, thinned out as they are by dormancy and grazing. The one local rule of any consequence, involving naturally-applied fertilizers, had an R&A committeeman scouring his decisions book last week, looking for references to "manure" or "cow poop."

"The rule at Askernish is simple," club captain Donald MacInnes told him with a smile. "Pick up your ball, lick it, and drop it."

Tee times are not a problem this time of year. On a given winter's day, you might see a lone golfer striding up the par-5 sixth, parallel to the beach, with a wool cap pulled over his ears and no shadow in tow. On a god-given winter's day, such as Friday afternoon was, you'll encounter a four-ball sunning in the bowl of the multi-tiered 16th green ("Old Tom's Pulpit") while a sixsome, accompanied by frolicking dogs and darting lapwings, takes turns firing at the flag from cliff's edge on the dogleg ninth ("Brochan").

Askernish is not for everyone, I suppose. Maybe just for golfers.

Anyway, I'm heading home. If you'd like some help planning your own low-season Scottish golf tour, send me your e-mails. I'll forward them to the proper tourist agencies. And if you don't get an immediate response, be understanding. Their staff is probably wintering on the Costa del Sol.

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It's one of the great traditions in golf, sports and possibly all of humankind.

Man's Weekend.

After a hectic week of Ryder Cup-infused office work, I traveled to the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla., with five golf-crazed friends. What? You thought a Man's Weekend could only take place in Vegas? For this six-some, a St. Augustine Man's Weekend* was the perfect way satisfy a links fix while also taking in a little history of the game. How do you pass that up?

(* The trip actually spanned a Monday-Wednesday. Technically not a weekend. Semantics, I say!)

With TPC Sawgrass a 30-minute drive up the highway, the resort fills up each May during Players Championship week, but there's plenty to see and do all year round. World Golf Village amenities include a pool, gym, grass mini-golf course and an IMAX theater.

The resort also offers two sweet 18-hole championship courses, the King & Bear (the only Arnold Palmer-Jack Nicklaus collaboration in the world) and the Slammer & Squire (named after Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen, but designed by Bobby Weed). The staff is friendly -- props to beverage cart girls Kristi and Jeannie -- the practice areas are immaculate and the courses are tough but fair. Bonus points for the barrels of fresh, iced apples awaiting weary golfers on the first and 10th tees on both courses, which were directly responsible for a flurry of progressively unfunny How do you like those apples jokes among my group.

King & Bear is the more challenging of the two tracks, and if you only have time for one round, that's the course to play. Photos of Arnold and Jack in their heyday line the interior of the stone-and-wood clubhouse, and several holes offer an element of risk-reward. Arnie once selected the 15th hole for his all-time "Dream 18." With wind whipping (sorry about the audio), trees left and water right, here's my attempt at conquering that tight 360-yard par 4:

Hey, Arnie -- I parred it. How do you like those apples? (See? Not funny. Also, I double-bogeyed the next hole.) While 15 is charming, there are several memorable holes on the two courses, including the meaty 448-yard par-4 ninth at King and Bear, and the winding 522-yard par-5 fourth at the Slammer.

And then there's the 19th hole, Murray Bros. Caddyshack, a short cart ride away from the Slammer's 18th hole. Owned and operated by Andy Murray, Bill's younger brother, the spacious joint specializes in burgers and ribs, and there's a gift shop on site if you're hunting for movie-themed mementos like these.

Last but not least, the Hall of Fame museum is a must-see. One wing is dedicated to the history of the sport, and patrons can practice a few putts with replica antique clubs and old-time golf balls. (Think your putting stroke is a mess now? Try knocking around an oblong feathery for 10 minutes.) Next May new inductees Ernie Els, Masashi "Jumbo" Ozaki, Doug Ford, George H.W. Bush and the late Jock Hutchison will join more than 130 members in the Hall. Their bronzed mugs will be added to the wall in the museum's central area, and the inductees will also receive a spot in the Hall's locker room, where members customize their lockers to reflect their careers. Here's HOF tour guide extraordinaire John Abbott with more on the Hall's ultimate exhibit.

We could've killed two hours in that room alone, but it was time to check out of the World Golf Village and return to our normal lives. With another successful Man's Weekend in the books (the second annual for this group), we're already plotting the next adventure.

(Photos courtesy World Golf Hall of Fame, Jose Alea)