Turn On to Turnberry

On July 27, the Senior British Open will return to the Ailsa course at Scotland's Turnberry Resort, but that's not the reason U.S. visits have doubled in 2006 to this gorgeous spot on the southwest Ayrshire coast.

Nor obviously is the feeble dollar, which has turned even the chintziest U.K. vacation into a wallet-emptying affair.

No, the reason for the recent popularity is the announcement that in 2009, the British Open itself, known here simply as the Open Championship and golf's most global and historic event, will be played on the links for the first time since 1994.

And when it comes to bag-tag-collecting status chasing, Americans are peerless. As golfers, anyway, we have all the anxiety of the nouveau riche.

But no matter what the reason for going to Turnberry, it's worth it. Late this spring, I visited the resort during its centenary celebration and enjoyed the kind of relaxed, spirit-replenishing trip that is the very reason for a pilgrimage to golf's home.

Teeing Off at Kintyre

I arrived on a red-eye from Newark into Glasgow, and was alone at the first tee of Turnberry's Kintyre course a short two hours later. ...