Golf in Scotland’s Kingdom: Fife
For a small country, Scotland’s a big place. If you’ve ever played an early morning round at Machrihanish Golf Club on the remote Kintyre Peninsula and then driven all the way north to Dornoch for a late dinner (as I did once… once), you will know that it’s not easy to bundle Scotland’s best courses […]
10 of Golf’s Scariest Greens
Okay—you’ve hit a green in regulation, and you’re feeling pretty proud of yourself. Two putts and you’re out of there with a solid par; maybe you can even steal a birdie. You’ve done the hard work, now it’s up to your flat stick to finish the job. Except that on some greens, your work will […]
My 10 Favorite U.S. Golf Hotels
Sometimes you’re looking for more. Like a hotel that from the moment you check in just blows you away. Here are our favorite golf hotels.
12 Golf Course Architects Reveal the Holes They Wish They Designed
Ask any golf course architect what course or hole he or she is most proud of having designed, and most will demur. Typically, they don’t want to single out one as being any better than another. But they do have opinions on the work of others. For this story, I asked 12 course architects to […]
Wales: The World’s Most Overlooked Golf Destination
Okay, so you’ve made your pilgrimages to Scotland and Ireland. What should you do for an encore? If you’re a links golf enthusiast, I suggest you proceed directly to Wales—home of some truly wonderful (and wonderfully affordable) links experiences. For those of you who slept through seventh-grade geography, Wales is located to the west of […]
My 10 Favorite Holes in Scotland
There are some golf courses in the world that you just cannot wait to play—either because you’ve fantasized about playing them for years or because you’re eager to return and have another go at them. For me, there are many such courses in Scotland. And as I look ahead to visiting certain clubs in the […]
David McLay Kidd: A Continuing Education in Course Design
After early acclaim led to stinging criticism, course architect David McLay Kidd has gone back to his roots David McLay Kidd had lost something. But he thought he might know where to find it. He took his design team to Bandon Dunes, the much-heralded links course he’d created a decade earlier at age 30 on […]
Darren Clarke Looks Back at his 2011 Open Win
You don’t win the Open Championship by accident. It has to be your week—your time. For Darren Clarke, that time came in 2011 at Royal St. George’s, which hosts the Open for a 15th time in 2021. Clarke’s immensely popular win there seemed like it was destined to happen. A native of Northern Ireland, Clarke […]
10 Fabulous 4th Holes
By the time the Fourth of July rolls around each year, golf in America is in full swing. On the PGA Tour, three of the year’s four majors have been decided. In cities and towns across the country, clubs are getting ready to host their club championships. Playing conditions are ideal, the days are long, […]
The Old Course, Stonewall: Tom Doak’s First Private Design
Surrounded by some of America’s seminal courses, this Tom Doak design near Philadelphia more than holds its own For a young golf course designer looking to accelerate his career, Philadelphia is a tough town. Within 20 miles of Center City you’ve got Pine Valley, Merion, Aronimink, and others. When Tom Doak got the chance to […]
