Golf Ontario is pleased to announce a new partnership with Golf Away Tours, which sees the Toronto-based travel company become the presenting sponsor of the Golf Ontario Member Golf Trips program. This partnership is designed to provide Golf Ontario members with unique golf travel experiences, connecting them to top destinations around the world.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Golf Away Tours,” said Golf Ontario CEO Kyle
McFarlane. “TJ and the team at Golf Away Tours are known for their exceptional service and expertise in golf travel. Their concierge-level approach is highly valued, and I’m excited for them to bring that experience to Golf Ontario members.”

Founded in 1998, Golf Away Tours is Canada’s premier boutique golf travel company, specializing in customized golf travel experiences for more than 25 years. Their core destinations include Ireland, Scotland, Portugal and the Caribbean. The Golf Away Tours team spends several weeks each year visiting destinations around the globe and scouting the best hotels, transportation, restaurants, activities and, of course, golf courses. Clients have also been set up with dream golf trips in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and continental Europe.

“At Golf Away Tours, we’re passionate about creating unforgettable golf travel experiences, and we’re thrilled to partner with Golf Ontario to bring that expertise to their members,” said TJ Rule, owner of Golf Away Tours. “Whether it’s a bucket-list trip to Scotland, a winter getaway to the Caribbean or a customized golf adventure, we look forward to helping Golf Ontario members experience the world’s best golf destinations with the same concierge-level service we’re known for.”

Golf Ontario members should keep an eye out for exclusive travel insights, destination highlights and curated golf trip opportunities from Golf Away Tours.

If you are looking for a different kind of getaway this June, one that combines your love of history along with passion for golf, Robb Lucy has the answer with Beaches and Bunkers.

Beaches and Bunkers is a trip of a lifetime created in honour of the 70^th anniversary of D-Day for the descendants of soldiers who took part in the storming of the beaches of Normandy, along with history and golf enthusiasts. The nine-day tour, from June 8-17, will visit historical sites in France, Belgium and Holland, but also has a golfing aspect that will allow the participants to play four different courses along the tour.

Lucy came up with the idea for the tour in part thanks to his father Bob who was among the soldiers that landed on the beaches as a gunner in 1944. A scratch golfer, Bob carried with him a lucky 3-iron, hitting rocks, twigs and lumps of dirt to ease the stress of war during his tour.

For the 50^th anniversary, Lucy and his father went back and followed the footsteps Bob had walked during his original tour. It inspired Bob to turn his stories into a book, Ubique-A Gunner’s Story. For Lucy, the experience made him want to do something else for others to see the history behind the event. Bob passed away four years ago, but it didn’t prevent Lucy, a passionate golfer himself, from trying to come up with the idea for a trip.  After attending a service on November 11, at the Cenotaph in Vancouver, Lucy began chatting with a friend about the idea. They wondered what they could add to make the trip more fun and that’s when it hit him to include golf stops along the way.

“I’m pleased to see so many of us at our local cenotaphs each November 11, but saddened so few really understand what happened 70 years ago,” says Lucy. “I hope this tour will be an admonition for people not to let the stories of their parents and grandparents disappear. These experiences forged their tools for life. And it is with those tools they raised us.”

The tour is open to singles, couples and foursomes and will visit key locations of the ‘39-’45 war, as well as Vimy, as the group travels from Paris to Dieppe, Normandy, Belgium and finally to Holland and Amsterdam.  The four golf courses that have been included are: Golf Omaha Beach in Normandy, that overlooks the beaches that were stormed, Golf Club Toxandria, De Hoge Dijk and Spaarnwoude all in Holland.

Guiding the tour is Canadian military historian Terry Copp. Copp is a long-serving professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and the founder of the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies. He is the leading scholar of Canada’s military role in World War II.

Lucy connected with Copp before the trip with his father 20 years ago. He knew he would be the perfect guide for this tour.  “I knew we needed the best guy and Terry’s it. We talked a few times and Terry said ‘he’d love to’. With him on-board, we were a go.”

For those interested, more information about the trip is available at www.beachesandbunkers.ca.