Courtesy: Golf Industry Online

The dream of every serious golfer is to make a pilgrimage to the home of the game: Scotland. And once there, of course, to play on some true Scottish courses, perhaps even one or two of the venerable names like Carnoustie or St. Andrew's Old Course.

The Old Course, it's fair to say, is the most famous golf course on the planet. And with good reason.

Start with its history. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club was founded on the site of the Old Course in 1754, more than 250 years ago! Keep in mind that is NOT when the game was invented.

Those who make their living dusting off weighty, aged tomes and poring over them for hours at a time (i.e., historians!) believe golf was played in Scotland perhaps 100 years before Columbus discovered America. And to refresh your memory, that was in 1492.

Now, the difficulty in organizing a trip to Golf's True Home from this side of the Atlantic is not knowing the "ins and outs" of pulling together all the elements to make a memorable experience.

It would be far too easy to screw up just one small but significant detail and have it bite you hard when you arrived. Or perhaps ruin your entire stay.

I haven't been to Scotland but I have traveled extensively throughout England and, believe me, you can't just stop at the first Motel 8 or Howard Johnson you find. Because you won't find any.

So you need someone on the far side of the ocean who knows where to go, where to stay, when and where to play.

There is a tour company expressly for golfers called Perry Golf that has been in business since 1984. Their sole business is arranging golf holidays around the world but chiefly in Scotland, Ireland, England and Europe.

And they have a spectacular Scottish golf package this year that culminates with the final round of The Open (remember, that translates as The British Open!) at Carnoustie.

Nine days and eight nights start at under $7 thousand, all in, on the ground. Now, that's before airfare but there are plenty of cheap flights out of New York to the UK.

The best part of Perry Golf's package is that all the traveling is done by ship! You will literally circumnavigate the Scottish coastline.

It sounds like a truly wonderful golf holiday especially with the Scottish courses that Perry Golf has lined up to play!

Listen, if I had the money and I already had the BMW I badly want, this golf trip would be the very next cheque I write!

Alas, I can't make it this year.

But I encourage you to make the journey to golf's Mecca...on behalf of all of us duffers who can only pay homage at our local "churches" for the time being!