An entertaining and informative series, Adventure Golf is a guide to the ultimate golfing getaways. From Scottish Highlands to the deserts of Dubai, host Ian Cross travels the globe to seek out the ultimate experiences both on and off the course. Brought to you by the producers of Globe Trekker - the most watched travel show in the world!
The US state of Florida has over a thousand golf courses making it a true golfing mecca. Ian Cross starts his journey in Miami where he stays at the fabulous & historic Biltmore Hotel and plays its newly renovated course. After checking out its famous beaches he hitches a ride on an airboat out in the Everglades. Then it's onto Orlando, the state's golf capital where Ian goes behind the scenes at the Bayhill Invitational, a PGA Tour competition. After taking a tour of the exclusive gated golf communities of the rich and famous, it's north again to Jacksonville. Here he finds a whole complex dedicated to the wonders of golf, the World Golf Village, where he tucks into a meal at the Caddyshack restaurant owned by Bill Murray. Finally, Ian plays a round at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, whose amazing seventeenth hole is one of the most photographed in the world.
Ian Cross is a fairly recent convert to the pleasures of golf; he took up the game in 1994 upon turning 40 years old and soon became a keen aficionado of the sport. He believes it's a perfect recreation for men of his age as it's not too strenuous, very healthy, and good for stress-busting for the busy executive. Although Ian has discovered the game comes with its own stresses - he's occasionally lost his composure and taken it out on the greens. Whilst filming for Adventure Golf on the King's Course in Gleneagles, he met his downfall at "Whaup's Nest", the 8th, where he took 18 shots to get out of a bunker. Bunkers are his most feared golf hazard.
Ian was born in Melbourne, Australia and grew up in Canberra where he began his sporting interests as a junior tennis and cricket champ. He began his professional career here as a cadet journalist for the Canberra Times. Ian's media career in newspapers, radio and television spans 30 years and three continents - the United States, his native Australia, and the UK where he now lives with his wife and two children. For three years he was European correspondent for ABC-TV, then in 1988 he produced the Beyond Tomorrow science series for Fox Networks in the United States.
When he's not on the course, Ian is the Managing Director of Pilot Productions, the television company he founded in 1991. Specialising in factual programming, in particular travel, Ian has been the Executive Producer of over 250 hours of quality television including 11 series of the multi-award winning adventure travel series Globe Trekker, the most watched travel program in the world, food and travel series Planet Food & World Café Asia, and Adventure Golf. The company now have offices in Los Angeles, London, and Singapore. After years spent sending film crews and presenters to some of the most exotic and intrepid places in the world, he thought it was about time he joined them on the road.
Ian is a handicap 18 golfer who leads a nomadic-cum-jet-setting golfing life; he has no homeclub but enjoys playing the game internationally - particularly in Northern France and Links Golf in Scotland and Ireland. During the first season of filming for Adventure Golf, Ian has experienced some of the greatest golf courses in the world in Scotland, Dubai, Southern California, Japan, South Africa, and Florida. He was bowled over by the high-tech and futuristic golf experience in Japan, in particular the Gotemba Course overlooking Mount Fuji.
His dream trip would be to take a year out to travel the four corners of the world, Phileas Fogg inspired, to play the world's best golf courses and explore the most exotic regions at a leisurely pace - notably Hawaii, Bali, and the little explored courses of Latin America. He enjoys international travel for work and pleasure and regularly jets off to his favorite spots of the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, skiing trips, and city breaks in Paris and New York.
