In December golfers from 24 nations will converge on the island of Barbados for the 2006 World Golf Championships-World Cup and experience one of the three golf courses at the Sandy Lane Resort. The Tom Fazio-designed Sandy Lane Country Club is a 7,060-yard, par-74.7 links-style course that features open fairways with angled slopes and five lakes (one of which sits across from the 18th hole). This is only the third time that the Caribbean has hosted the international tournament with Puerto Rico playing host the previous two times.

Puerto Rico continues to own bragging rights to some the best golf, with the largest number of courses in the region. Not to be outdone, Jamaica too has a number of golfing favorites, including Tryall's 6,772-yard, par-72 championship course which was designed by Ralph Plummer and has played host to such prestigious international events as the Johnnie Walker World Championship, Mazda Champions, and Shell's Wonderful World of Golf. Consistently placed right up there is the 6,719-yard, par-71 White Witch Golf Course, named after Annee Palmer (the notorious former owner of the 19th century estate on which the course is built). Designed by golf course architects Robert von Hagge and Rick Baril, it is said to be one of the most adventurous in the island beginning with an intimidating opening hole as you hit through huge white rocks and fairway bunkers on both sides to a green on a hill. White Witch is also characterized by its caddies, all dressed in white overalls, much like those at the Masters. In fact, these "golf concierges" go beyond the role of a regular caddie - thanks to the service of The Ritz-Carlton that manages the course as part of its Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall property.

The names Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, and Arnold Palmer are well know to both golfers and non-golfers alike, but now the names also go hand-in-hand with golfing in St. Lucia. All three are instrumental in the design of the newest courses on the island, with Jack Nicklaus describing the land at Cas en Bas as "Pebble Beach warm." A layout which is already visible from the surrounding hillside is the Greg Norman course being built on the undeveloped southeastern coast as part of a development called Le Paradis. Much of the hype surrounding this course is the No. 14 par-3 hole described as a 175-yard one-shotter with a 100-foot drop onto the Galet Bay peninsula. With its opening in 2008, guests of the Westin Le Paradis will be able to enjoy this Troon-managed course. Just a few months later, The Ritz Carlton, St. Lucia (which is scheduled to open in 2009) will boast access to two 18-hole golf courses overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The main course will be designed by Arnold Palmer while the second will be designed in a "links" style by the Irish golf course architect Christy O'Connor Jr.

For more information on golfing in our destinations, or ideas and themes for your meetings, incentives, and special events, send us an email or an RFP from our web site.

Newsworthy Tidbits Trinidad and Tobago's national airline, BWIA West Indies Airways will cease operations by December 31, 2006 and be replaced by a new company, Caribbean Airlines. The airline, which has continued to lose money despite efforts to recover, has been a part of the Caribbean landscape for the past 66 years. Chukka Caribbean Adventures, based in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, has achieved certification under the Green Globe certification program, which measures tourism operations worldwide and assesses their environmental practices. Chukka also operates nature adventure programs in Belize, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands. An alliance between the government of Jamaica and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company will bring training in the service principles for which the luxury chain is known, to over 1,000 airport employees. According to research conducted by T-Mobile, more than a third of BlackBerry users said that they would feel more stressed if they had to leave the office without it and over two thirds felt that the device improved the way they were perceived by clients. Does this resonate with you? Cross-Cultural Tips & News CBS's reality show "Survivor" starts tonight with tribes this season segregated by ethnicity, or as some report, race. Perhaps given all the brouhaha that has accompanied the announcement of this "Cook Islands" edition, it seems that no one has realized that the two terms (ethnicity and race) are defined differently as so many are using them interchangeably. According to author Richard T. Schaefer, a racial group is one socially set apart because of obvious physical differences while an ethnic group is set apart from others because of its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns. Ethnicity is a key factor in cross-cultural understanding given that one cannot automatically identify a person's ethnicity by his or her physical features, nor does ethnicity readily indicate one's values. In fact, different ethnic groups may or may not have the same culture. Take for example the reach of satellite television which will allow tonight's show to be seen in Peru, Jamaica, Japan, Ghana, and the Philippines. As the tribe members begin to interact with one another, someone in Ghana or the Philippines might conclude that African-Americans and Asian-Americans have more in common with each other culturally as Americans than they do with Africans or Asians respectively. What Survivor: Cooks Island will prove, one has yet to know, but here are some tips that we can use in approaching intercultural exchanges with the right attitude: • Try not to be defensive about your own culture, or aggressive to another. • Know that it will take time to recognize and understand different nuances. • Try to enjoy the opportunity to learn about a different culture. • When uncertain, ask! • Share what you learn with others. • And, just be yourself!   SNC Destinations, Inc. email: info@sncdestinations.com web: http://www.sncdestinations.com blog: http://sncdestinations.com/cblog PERMISSION TO REPRINT: The contents of this e-newsletter may be copied, reproduced or freely distributed for all non-profit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author's name and contact information are included. This e-newsletter is sent to all individuals who signed up for our mailing list at www.sncdestinations.com or www.sncdestinations.com/cblog, and to friends and clients of SNC Destinations. We treat your contact information as private and confidential. We will never sell or distribute our subscriber list.