Meet The Golf Travel Guru


Yeah, yeah, I know term the Guru is a bit pretentious, but I think I’ve earned the moniker through hard work and, well, traveling the globe for nearly three decades visiting golf resorts and destinations and writing about them.
I started playing golf as a kid at Mohawk Golf Course in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was a tree laden muni layout with shaggy greens and more Joe Golfers than Joseph Golfers. Back then, playing with my older brothers and friends, golf was pretty much a blood sport. We used to wrestle in the bunkers when we perceived cheating or some other injustice by another player.

My first introduction to people who really took golf seriously was actually through baseball, believe it or not. During my teens, I was the visitor’s clubhouse boy for the Tulsa Oilers minor league baseball team (a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals) and I marveled at how many of the pitchers loved to tee it up between starts. They exhibited a true passion for golf and something clicked and I became more enamored with the game, too.

Fast forward, I attended and graduated from the University of Tulsa. Forget student loans, I worked my ass off at virtually every job you can imagine. My college work resume included fork lift driver, flower delivery guy, grocery store clerk, assistant to an English professor, house painter and newspaper delivery person to name a few. My degree is in speech communications with a minor in hops and barley.

After graduation, I worked for a city magazine and ran the valet service for a large Las Vegas style nightclub (Ziegfield’s) in Tulsa. During that time I met and spoke with all types of big name entertainers like Rodney Daingerfield, Larry Gatlin and Leon Russell. 

I’m a big high risk/high reward guy on the links and often carry that over to my personal life. I bolted Oklahoma in the mid-1980s (my wife and I sold pretty much everything we owned) to work in Heidelberg, Germany as a travel writer for various American publications.

While in Europe, my travel writing career took off as I wrote about everything from “Shopping in Milan” to “Bass Fishing in Spain”. I got into golf travel writing in an odd sort of way. One of my editors offered me an assignment writing about golf in Mallorca. I’d never written a single word about golf, but accepted anyway. Uh, after spending a week on the courses and at the beach in Ibiza, I quickly realized golf writing was a pretty solid gig. 

We moved to Orlando in the mid-1980s and I absolutely love the city. It has been great to me on a personal and professional level. I’ve written thousands of articles and columns, three books and worked on a freelance basis for great companies like Golfweek, Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando. My byline has appeared in Golf Magazine, Travel & Leisure Golf, Robb Report, Spa Magazine, Islands Magazine and numerous other publications. I've interviewed a Who's Who list of golf icons including Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Gary Player, Nancy Lopez and Payne Stewart to name a few.

When Tiger Woods arrived on the scene in 1996, the golf world exploded in so many ways. I started writing feverishly about new golf courses, golf communities and golf travel destinations. Like many in the golf industry, I thank Tiger for propelling the game to a new level on and off the course.

I started this blog on a whim five years ago when I realized I had a lot more to say than what I was writing in magazines and on other sites. Little did I know that so many people are interested in golf travel. The site has attracted more than 850,000 visitors since my very first post. To say I’m amazed and appreciative would be a vast understatement. Interesting, too, is that some of my readers don’t know a golf ball from a tennis ball. They just seem to like my writing style.

The Golf Travel Guru Blog is my way of giving back and imparting the knowledge about golf travel I’ve gained from circling the globe for the past 30 years. It's probably no surprise I’ve played in golf travel havens like Scotland and Ireland numerous times, but I’ve also teed it up in exotic locals like Kenya, Morocco, China and The Canary islands to name a few.

Thanks for taking the time to read about The Golf Travel Guru. Enjoy my blog and I hope to see you on a fairway one of these days.

All the best...

Ed


11 comments:

  1. Ed,

    My name is Michael Huber and I’m the Director of Strategic Partnerships at PrimeSport. PrimeSport offers tickets, VIP hospitality, and travel packages for almost every major sporting event, including the Masters, PGA Championship, US Open Championship, 2014 Ryder Cup, Tour Championship, British Open and much more. A sample of some of our official partnerships include the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and Final Four, NCAA Women’s Final Four, NCAA Men’s Frozen Four, Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, BCS National Championship, and 15 NFL teams.

    I’m interested in speaking with you about a revenue share partnership with your site for these upcoming golf events. PrimeSport can offer an 8% commission on all ticket sales you refer. The average order value on PrimeSport.com is a little over $1,000, so there is a significant opportunity to earn some ancillary revenue for your site.

    I look forward to speaking with you to discuss this opportunity in more detail.

    Best regards,

    Michael Huber

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your interest in my site, Michael. Please contact me through my twitter @golftravelguy and we can discuss.

      Delete
  2. Dear Mr Sherman,

    My name is Anthony Viellevoije, I’m a fellow golf enthusiast from Amsterdam, also making the effort to create a valuable platform for the online golf community. Having started an own business a little over a year ago, this month we’ve finally launched our website: a social travel network (think “Facebook meets TripAdvisor”) for golfers only, called www.Like2Golf.com.

    I much enjoy your site and, given the overlapping focus on travel between our two platforms, hope that you will find the story of our launch an interesting item to write about on your site. The full story can be found in the attached document and if you wish to find out more, of course we are open for a call (contact details below).

    Many thanks in advance and I look forward to your next blog post!

    Best regards,

    Anthony Viellevoije
    www.Like2Golf.com
    Amsterdam, The Netherlands
    E: Anthony@4elementstravel.com
    T: +31 6 42 000 512

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ed,

    My passion is to be able to travel different courses following the lead of inspiration like you. Can't grind all my life! I'm going to try Casa de Campo in DR.

    Check out the start of pursuing my passion with my blog on the Mayakoba Camaleon.

    http://goo.gl/PBwE4

    Thanks,

    Joe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi there from Pitlochry, Perthshire....,
    Your thoughts on booking early for 2014 Ryder Cup are correct, however I can not help but feel you have ommitted a shout out for the vast array of smaller Bed & Breakfast accommodations Scotland has - such as our own Beinn Bhracaigh (www.beinnbhracaigh.com). The properties are often equal in standard to many hotels, but operate on a smaller scale where the emphasis is on a more personal service. Yes it would be fair to say that B&B's do not have the vast array of facilities you would expect with a larger corporate hotel, however if this is less important than getting a real `Scottish` experience to remember for many years, I do suggest a `Google` for Bed & Breakfast accommodation using the appropriate filters, possibly also with `Trip Advisor` feedback comments in tandem, may be a better way to go?

    Regards,

    James

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mr. Watts,
    Thanks for your comment. I do mention "boutique hotels and B&B's" in my "Arrange Your Own Trip" segment. However, I must admit, only passingly. I appreciate you pointing that out. In the next few months I'll post a Ryder Cup piece on smaller hotels and B&B's. I have followed you on Twitter so I'll try and keep updated about your property. Thanks for your interest.

    The Golf Travel Guru

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ed,

    I love your site, and I'm about to launch my own blog. When you began yours, how did you create/get advertising on your site? Your advice/help is greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,

    Adam Joyce
    fusiongolf@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great site, would love to play the new TPC Bahamas course with you. Shoot me an email when you decide to come down here, im a member of The Ocean Club and can set us up to play there too. Simon
    Fieldercsimon@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Simon, Thanks for the compliment about my site. Hopefully, we can tee it up at the new TPC someday soon. All the best. Hit'em straight.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Greetings Ed.
    Congrats about your site and excelent content!
    We would like to present you our organization and partnership proposal.
    We created Madrid Golf Tour to put all our knowledge and dedication in assisting golfers from all over the world with unique golf experiences in the city of Madrid.
    Madrid Golf Tour is specialized in the advisory of golf trips, for individual and groups, and offers a complete booking service of greenfees so golfers can play at the top golf courses of the city.
    We also would like to guide the clients into an unforgettable visit to Madrid, its special places, tasting the delicious specialities of the Spanish gastronomy and culture too!
    A one-stop-shop concept in golf travel.
    Experience and the best offers! All our offer is trough Abreu Tours, a travel agency since 1840.
    Our team has more than 27 years of experience in golf. We are golfers so we understand all the player’s needs.
    Madrid Golf Tour is committed to delivering the best product tailored to the needs of the golf traveller.
    For more information, please visit our website www.madridgolftour.com
    Under request we can also offer other destinations in Spain and Portugal.
    About our partnership proposal, we think that could be interesting to study a collaboration, the idea is to complement our offer with new destinations.
    Hope to hear from you soon.
    Best Regards.
    David Vidal Pinheiro
    CEO
    info@madridgolftour.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Ed,

    I enjoy your blog posts. Please also check our out at
    https://www.chakatravel.com/blog/

    ReplyDelete