http://chrisduthie.com Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:47:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A DEVIL OF A TIME AWAITS AT DURANGO MOUNTAIN RESORT For the moment, we’ve switched off the jets in the rooftop Jacuzzi—the swirling bubbles are soothing our powder-burned muscles, but the motorized hum isn't compatible with the incomparable view. Before us, burning with alpenglow, stand the Needles Mountains, a picture-perfect backdrop for the recently opened Purgatory Lodge at  Durango Mountain Resort. Here at 8,800 feet, at the snow-laden apex of the new day lodge where our ... ]]> http://chrisduthie.com/golf/skiing/319/purgatory-heats-up/ Friday, Feb. 19, 2010 THE THRILL AND AGONY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES The Olympics are all about big, heartfelt, wear-them-on-your-sleeve emotions, the kind that can soar like a Zeppelin dirigible -- but are as devastatingly explosive when things go wrong. The XXI Winter Games have been no exception. Last Friday on opening day, the world’s athletic showcase started off as it never has -- with death. Georgia luge team member Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died after a horrifying training-run crash ... ]]> http://chrisduthie.com/golf/blog/238/live-or-not-from-the-xxi-winter-olympiad/ Of all the world’s travel destinations, one stands out among the rest: Scotland, widely renowned as the country of choice for impassioned golfers. The country is rife with bustling cities, eclectic festivals, ancient abbeys and medieval castles, made all the better by scores of golf courses—there’s more than 500 in all—superbly set among emerald-green escarpments, valleys, lochs, rivers and coastlines. To ardent followers of this Royal and Ancient pastime, Scotland is a spirit-stirring portrait of heaven ... ]]> http://chrisduthie.com/golf/golf/190/scotlands-golf-gods-love-turnberry/ Along with an über-zealous search for the perfect swing, avid golfers are on a never-ending quest for the ideal vacation. A golfer’s Holy Grail is not just a spike-tightening collection of fairways and greens, no sir. What makes the experience truly worthy is all that hedonistic other stuff—like exquisite dining, posh accommodations, can’t-miss recreation, Nikon-prompting landscapes and tempting side trips. Which pretty much describes my unwavering affection for Wintergreen Resort, the four-season destination situated among central ... ]]> http://chrisduthie.com/golf/golf/150/chip-and-sip-sojourn-virginias-wintergreen-resort/ Rating golf courses is, at best, an inexact science. Just about everyone associated with the game has some personalized standard that builds points and platitudes for sizing up golf’s better courses. Criteria might include conditioning, defense against par, player friendliness, scenic locale and artistic shaping. Perhaps the most telling litmus test, the one that helps resolve whether a track is even worth a greens fee, is: “Who designed the layout?” A bit petty, perhaps. Nonetheless, whoever ... ]]> http://chrisduthie.com/golf/golf/personalities/93/the-games-new-guns/ It’s uncanny, really, the similarities to Dr. Emmett Brown, the wild-eyed, time-traveling inventor played by Christopher Lloyd in the hit movie trilogy, Back To the Future (Part 1-3). That hat-challenging mane, those cantankerous eyebrows, the mischievous smile and acute stare—everything’s there, sans the ghost white hair or the plutonium-powered flux capacitor. Doc Brown’s eccentric-scientist persona is a fitting alter ego for Tom Wishon, the celebrated and habitually rebellious golf club designer who, for the past 37 ... ]]> http://chrisduthie.com/golf/golf/equipment/63/caution-mad-scientist-at-play/ [caption id="attachment_31" align="alignright" width="519" caption="The Fairmont Banff Springs Resort in Banff, Alberta, is a can't-miss family destination."] [/caption] Growing up, my family rarely went on vacation. There being five kids, it was little wonder the Duthie Clan seldom ventured far from our own backyard. There was one time, though, that Mom and Dad gambled their collective sanity and station-wagoned us all from Durango, Colo., to Phoenix for a slam-bang summer vacation at the legendary Camelback Inn. It being ... ]]> http://chrisduthie.com/golf/golf/10/kids-travel-getting-it-right-in-banff/