Golf’s Most Beautiful Courses
Incomparable eye candy: Cypress Point reigns as golf’s ultimate beauty queen In 1920, architect Alister MacKenzie articulated 13 essential features that define an ideal golf course. Number seven stated: “The course should have beautiful surroundings, and all the artificial features should have so natural an appearance that a stranger is unable to distinguish them from […]
Home Game: Phoenix
Mountain panoramas, cactus-studded terrain, diverse experiences, and don’t-forget-the-sunblock winter days make Phoenix a one-of-a-kind draw
Six Tough Questions for Six Top Architects
A half-dozen of course design’s finest practitioners share their thoughts about dream collaborations, underrated architects, and plenty more The Cast DAVID MCLAY KIDD In a career spanning 25 years, the Scottish-born Kidd has earned every honor possible for designs that include Bandon Dunes, Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley, Nanea, and the Castle Course at St. […]
Top 10 Penultimate Par Threes
Typically, the 18th hole is a course’s grand statement, the big finish that settles all bets. On occasion, however, it’s the 17th hole that steals the show. On a fistful of courses, it’s the next-to-last hole that resonates strongest, where history has been made, especially when that hole is a par three. Combining challenge, lore, […]
7 Toughest Golf Courses to Play in the Wind
As the Scots like to say, “Tis nae wind, nae golf.” However, when a balmy breeze stiffens into a howling wind, an already demanding golf course can become almost unplayable. Admittedly, even friendly tests can turn torturous when a freak wind blows through. In the first round of the 2021 Bermuda Championship at Port Royal […]
7 Great Courses You Didn’t Know You Could Play
There’s a small but significant roster of courses that is part of a special breed. You’ve watched these courses on television, seen the photos, and noted the rankings—but you thought that getting to play them was out of the question (unless you had connections). Not so fast: Some of the courses on this list are […]
Toughest Set of Par Fours
It’s neither length nor configuration alone that makes for a tough par four. It’s any combination of those two traits, plus lack of width, invasive bunkers, adroitly placed water hazards, terrain, wind, and the severity of the green complexes, including extra-speedy or wildly contoured greens. We’ve identified the 10 toughest sets of par fours in […]
When is Your Golf Course Ready for a Renovation?
Your course’s renovation clock is running. It’s not a matter of if, but when. To the untrained eye, nothing looked out of place in 2018 at Reynolds Lake Oconee’s Great Waters, a lakeside stunner designed in 1992 by Jack Nicklaus. Beauty can fade, however. So can infrastructure. It was time for a facelift. “Every golf […]
Greatest Finishing Holes in Golf
A great finishing hole might offer supreme challenge, dazzling aesthetics, myriad risk/reward options, or historical impact. The elite offer a combination. Merely because the hole is hard and drama-drenched, however—I’m winking at you, Carnoustie, Bay Hill, and the Blue Monster at Doral—or because it’s iconic in other ways—Hello, Olympic Club, Riviera, and Merion—doesn’t make it […]
Meet the Masters of Restoring Golden Age Classics
As countless clubs across the globe approach their centenaries, it’s clear that many Golden Age classic courses deserve restorations. Fortunately, there’s a supremely skilled assemblage of architects to help them find their way back. We asked five prominent restoration experts to share their experiences and insights into this ever-burgeoning aspect of design. These days, the […]
