Private Aviation: The Only Way to Fly
For well over two decades, many homeowners have arrived at the Mountain Air community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina by plane, landing their personal propeller aircraft—Pipers, Cessnas, and Cirruses—at the highest private runway east of the Mississippi. At an elevation of 4,600 feet, the paved airstrip is steps from the retreat’s country club and sits between several holes of a ruggedly […]
My Experience Playing in the Kapalua Pro-Am
Playing in a PGA Tour Pro-Am is a sure-fire bucket list item for any golfer. Playing in the Pro-Am event for the winners-only Sentry Tournament of Champions on the Hawaiian island of Maui takes that experience to a whole other level. Not only are you playing in paradise at the Kapalua Resort’s impossibly scenic Plantation […]
Plantation Course at Kapalua Reopens Following Coore & Crenshaw Renovations
Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore faced a daunting task three decades ago: How to create a golf course on a mountainside in Maui that would be playable and enjoyable. The building of the Plantation Course “absolutely tested us to the max,” Coore says of a project that served as a springboard for arguably the preeminent […]
Revetted Bunkers in Mexico? You’ll Find Them at this New Cabo Course
By Erik Matuszewski Revetted bunkers were introduced to golf in Scotland, almost 5,500 miles from the windswept shores of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. They were originally designed as a way to stop wind erosion, helping shore up the face of bunkers whipped by the wind. Anyone who’s visited the ever-growing golf hotbed of Los […]
Bunkers in Baghdad: Bringing Golf to Our Military
In the mountains of Afghanistan, a U.S. Marine Officer carefully lines up his shot. He stands atop a small platform built from two-by-fours, squeezes his grip a little tighter, and fires at his target about 200 yards away. A puff goes up as his dimpled white Callaway hits the rocky slopes about 20 feet […]
Wynn Las Vegas — Saved from the Chopping Block
Tom Fazio says it’s shocking that a golf course even exists on the Las Vegas Strip, and he’s the one who built the unlikely oasis in the Wynn Las Vegas’s backyard. Built and rebuilt it, actually. After getting a chance to play the second-coming of the reinvented Wynn Golf Club, it’s tough to disagree. You’d […]
Six of the Most Interesting Driving Ranges in Golf
I tend not to hit more than a dozen balls warming up before a round of golf. Like many golfers, I might joke with those next to me that my good shots are limited, so why waste them? But during my travels I’ve come across a number of unique or unusual practice ranges where it’s […]
A First Look at Hoiana Shores Golf Club
The newest course in the world’s fastest-growing golf market is open for limited preview play, and those lucky enough to get an early look at Vietnam’s Hoiana Shores Golf Club are in for a unique treat. For starters, the Robert Trent Jones Jr. design doesn’t have any flapping flags to help golfers deal with the […]
Quebec: European Golf Right Next Door
After hopping into a golf cart just outside the main entrance of the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu, the winding, uphill drive to the golf course clubhouse takes several minutes and traverses well over a mile before you get close to the first tee. Scenic views abound along the way, but once reaching the clubhouse’s hilltop […]
A Tour of Payne’s Valley
By Erik Matuszewski As our dusty camouflage utility vehicle squeezed past several excavators on one side of the gravel path behind Big Cedar Lodge’s Mountain Top clubhouse, a group of workers armed with compressed-air devices called air spades was on the other, painstakingly clearing dirt and rock from a wall of limestone outcroppings. Minutes […]