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In Ireland golf courses abound, both links and parklands varieties, about 410 in total, and this is a good number compared to the population of almost 6 million (4 million people in the Republic of Ireland, and 1.8 million in northern Ireland). Ireland is one of the world's great venues for a dream golfing holiday.

links golf courses are usually found around the coastline where they've been scratched out of the abundant sand dunes, where the wind often challenges players, especially on the west Atlantic Coast side of the island. Their designers have also used the proximity of water to make the game on these courses more interesting. One of the most famous links courses is the Ballybunion Old Course, whose contures and sea breazes challenge every player.

Parkland golf courses are mainly inland amongst the naturally hilly landscape where woodlands provide tree-lined fairways, which are used to advantage by their designers to test the competence of even the best of the pros. A notable parkland's course is the K club just outside Dublin, which has been chosen to hold the Ryder Cup in September 2006. The Slieve Russell course in the Irish midlands is also another fine example.

Seven of Ireland golf courses are included in a list of the best 100 golf courses worldwide (Golf Digest)

They are:

In northern Ireland: Royal Portrush Golf club (Dunluce) and the Royal County Down.

In the Irish Republic: the "Old" club of Ballybunion (in the 1st ten world ranking), Lahinch, Portmarnock, The european club and Waterville.

Golf high season: June, July, August.

Golf mid season: May, September, October.

Golf low season: November through to April.

book tee times well in advance of your vacation. About 20% of Ireland golf courses have their own website on which you can make a booking. Visit the author's website to see a list of them.

Take care of how you dress. You may have difficulty at some venues if you do not take notice of the following advice regarding clothing. Wear proper shirts with sleeves and collars, golf shoes and sports socks, trousers or smart, tailored shorts. Clothes not TO WEAR include - denims, short shorts, trainer shoes or runners, track suits, sweaters without shirts, clothing with slogans.

Always be at the course well before your tee time. Most courses allow spikes - some encourage their use in wet weather. many links courses do not allow motorised golf buggies because of the hilly terrain.

Take your handicap certificate with you as many golf courses will insist on visualising it. The handicap limit will usually be 28 for men, and 36 for women.

If you are taking your own golf clubs with you, you'll need to acquire a very strong golf bag to protect them during manhandling by luggage personnel. Some find an easier solution is to hire golfing equipment in Ireland, in which case this should be done at the earliest time, when booking tee times.

You'll find a friendly welcome not only from the Irish golfing community, but also from the population in general. Ireland has now become a very popular venue for a stimulating golfing vacation.

(Ron mills is an amateur providing information on his Ireland Golf Vacation website, endeavouring to raise funds for TEAR Fund, a worldwide relief agency.)

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Vince Lombardi

I want to get two points across. The first being that practice does not make perfect. The second being that perfect practice can make anybody perfect.

The first one is easy to explain: if you practice the wrong habits you ingrain patterns into your muscles that enable you to repeatedly hit poor quality golf shots with expert precision. practice makes permanent. Whatever you practice you make a habit. Therefore if you are practicing hitting shots with a terrible golf swing you're just making it harder to change to a good swing (hence the importance of a professional to see that you're working on the right things).

Before I start on the second one I've got to tell you that I am a sceptical person. I'm not a pessimist but I feel that most "You Can Do It!" style motivational stuff is very unrealistic and false. You could say I'm a scientifically minded guy. I like to see evidence.

For a long time scientists have been asking the question: what makes some poeple great and other's not? The presumed answer to this for most people is that genetics is the determining factor. But the research actually says the opposite and the more evidence pours in the more convincing it appears. What it suggests is that natural talent doesn't really matter at all in the achievement of excellence. Hard work is what it takes to get what you want, but not just any kind of work. It must be "deliberate practice." This is the term coined by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson in his landmark study into the acquisition of expert performance.

He also procured the figure of 10,000 hours as his estimated amount of deliberate practice required to achieve mastery in most skills for any person. Now the question becomes, what is deliberate practice? Deliberate practice is quite simply goal orientated practice, whereby you set targets for yourself to maintain motivation, measure results and experiment to find what works. over time you make micro adjustments until you get the results you want. And then you repeat it again and again and again.

The evidence that the theory of "deliberate practice" is based upon on is real life case studies of people who have achieved mastery in a field. A classic example of a person who signifies the deliberate practice model is Michael Jordan- arguably the greatest sportsman ever. Not many people know that he wasn't naturally brilliant at basketball to begin with. He was even cut from his highschool team because he wasn't up to standard.

So how did he go from mediocre highschool kid to the most succesful player in NBA history? He practiced. And practiced. And then he practiced some more. After his team had finished their gruelling training sessions he would stay behind for more. He set himself goals as he went along and wouldn't allow himself a break until he achieved them.

As far as golf goes, this means setting yourself goals as you practice. They must be achievable and yet challenging. As you go on you increase the difficulty and keep on practicing until you get there. It's a lot like setting SMART goals in business. Your goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Related.

For example, I must hole 5 putts in a row from 10 feet and I can't go home until I do this. The next day make it 6 putts in a row. Whatever. Or it could be- I must hit 8 out of 10 eight-irons to within 20 feet of a target 140 yards away. All this time you are monoitoring performance and making appropriate adjustments (a professional is often necessary for guidance in making these adjustments).

This kind of practice is particularly gruelling and takes a lot of energy but it works. There is no evidence of anybody in history performing to a standard of mastery without deliberate practice. Aimless practice just does not cut it. It could even make you worse. Unless you have something constructive to work on it is probably best not to practice at all. (Note: warming up does not count as practice in this sense.)

A lot of people like to think that they probably have a natural talent in something and should they find it then success will just flow easily, but it doesn't work like that. This is both encouraging and daunting. It offers us all a challenge: how much do you want it? Are you prepared to pay the price and to make the commitment to yourself to take what you want? Personally I say STEP UP.

Take this article as an introduction. On it's own it is hardly convincing evidence. This has barely scratched the surface and I wouldn't be convinced by this article if I was you. Do some more research into this topic and if you're like me you'll find it fascinating.

Fraser Hasell is the owner of www.goodatgolf.com

If any of your friends or family are golfers, you may wonder what kind of present you could give them. It can be hard to choose, but, if you know how interested the player is, and how experienced they are, then you can make the selection process a little easier.

There are some golf gifts that any golfer will appreciate. If you can get someone vouchers for a round at their favorite course, then they will most certainly enjoy that. Usually, vouchers are good for a round of 18 holes, but many courses will allow them to be used in batches of 9, making them ideal gifts for even casual golfers. If you are buying vouchers, make sure that you buy them at the right rate if your friend qualifies for a certain discount, often vouchers will be available at that rate too.

Another great gift for golf lovers are golf balls. Golf Balls are another of the many golf gifts that most players will enjoy. bear in mind that the recipient may be partial to a specific brand ball. Nevertheless, if you give someone the gift of golf balls, there is an excellent chance they will appreciate them and use them. You should know that there are different compression ratings for golf balls and they are used in different weather, but these details may not be crucial for your weekend hobby golfer. Just make sure that you don't buy your male friends what may be considered to be women's golf balls.

Let Them Choose

If you are thinking of buying golf clubs, then perhaps you should reconsider. They are a very personal choice, and most golfers would prefer to test out the clubs themselves, and select them based on their own preferences. A gift certificate for a sports store would be much better than spending money on clubs that are unlikely to get used. Either ask them what set of clubs they would like, or give them a gift certificate, and let them choose their own.

Another golf gift that would be most welcome would be a towel that hangs on their bag to wipe their hands or club heads. A ball retriever would also be generally acceptable by everyone. They can be very handy and are used when fishing balls from water hazards. And for youngsters who may want to surprise Dad with a golf gift, a bag of wood tees would always be welcomed by any golfer.

You could also think about getting them a range finder, a stroke counter, or some other score keeping device, or some golf clothing such as gloves or a cap. There are lots of great golf gifts out there, you just need to find out what they already have, and what they may be interested in. The fact that you have chosen to take an interest in their hobby and selected an interesting gift for them will stand for itself, and they are sure to appreciate whatever you pick out for them.

Visit http://vacation.every1loves2travel.com for great golf vacation destinations, and helpful articles and tips about golf holidays.