Cabo del Sol Desert Course, Mexico
Tom Weiskopf faced a couple of stiff challenges in designing the Desert course at Cabo del Sol, the 1,800-acre resort and residential playground located at the tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. First, he had a tough act to follow. The Ocean course—Cabo del Sol’s first layout, designed by fellow Ohio State alum Jack Nicklaus—is […]
Redtail Golf Club, Canada
The toughest part is finding the place. There are no markers for the front gate. Road signage is minimal. The farm country of lower Ontario, Canada, scarcely provides any sense of identifiable landmarks to visitors. Redtail Golf Club opened in 1992, before it was fashionable to talk about “minimalism” in course design. The name […]
The Royal Montreal Golf Club, Canada
Founded in 1873, Royal Montreal is the oldest golf club in North America, and many of its regulations are charmingly old fashioned in this 21st-century golf world. For example, golfers can wear shorts, but only in combination with high-top socks. Royal Montreal’s 80,000-square-foot clubhouse, tastefully festooned throughout with first-rate golf memorabilia and illustrations, oozes […]
Toronto Golf Club, Canada
The Toronto Golf Club keeps its own cutting garden, furnishing fresh bouquets for dispersal throughout its English manor-style clubhouse. Built in 1913, the clubhouse lies at the end of a half-mile, tree-lined road that winds past a classic Harry Colt-designed course. The club’s wooded grounds lie but a mile off the exit of a […]
Capilano Golf and Country Club, Canada
A Stanley Thompson masterpiece in Vancouver, Canada
Golf de Morfontaine, France
Eighty years ago, if you lived in Europe, had some land and some money, and wanted to build a top-quality golf course, the go-to guy was Tom Simpson—assuming you could put up with his act. Picture yourself, the course owner, at a site visit. You’re out on a boggy moor in your tweeds and […]
Belvoir Park Golf Club, Northern Ireland
In the early ’90s, when Yanks began descending en masse on Ireland’s mightiest links, they first gathered at the magisterial courses of the southwest (think Ballybunion and Lahinch), then east coast wonders like Portmarnock and the European Club, and more recently, the raw and secluded northwest. But without direct flights to Belfast and scared […]
Castlerock Golf Club, Northern Ireland
Castlerock Golf Club has long resided in the shadow of its illustrious neighbors along Northern Ireland’s Causeway Coast— Portstewart and Royal Portrush—but it would be a mistake to overlook this gem, which embodies all the essential charms of links golf. Its fine points include a pure seaside routing, firm greens, ferocious rough and an unmistakable […]
Portstewart Golf Club, Northern Ireland
Portstewart, a small town in Northern Ireland, suffered from a large inferiority complex in the late 19th century. Separated by only three miles of rugged Ulster coastline from the neighboring resort town of Portrush, Portstewart had been losing ground to its more fashionable and popular rival since the early Victorian era. When it […]
Buenos Aires Golf Club
Most people’s knowledge of Argentine golf is limited to 2007 U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera and possibly extends to 1967 British Open winner Roberto de Vicenzo, better known for his scoring gaffe at the 1968 Masters. But due to its relationship with England dating from the 19th century, golf has a long history in this […]