Get to Know J.P. Harrington, Wedge Mastermind
James Patrick Harrington remembers wrapping his Cleveland RTG wedges in a wet cloth and leaving them in the bathroom overnight to hasten the rusting process. This was sometime in his early teens and the first indication he might be a golf club geek. Twenty years on, Harrington, now 35, has his own wedge label and […]
The 21st Century Wave of Breathtaking Golf Courses
If you like courses that are about real beauty rather than real estate (and who doesn’t?), then you have to agree that we are in the midst of a very special period in the history of golf architecture. Gone, hopefully for good, are the days of large-scale developments anchored on courses whose sole purpose was […]
Stoatin Brae – Michigan’s New Course from Renaissance Design
By Tony Dear In his 16 years with Tom Doak’s architectural firm Renaissance Golf, Erik Iverson has worked on numerous incredible sites. He was a design associate and shaper on the jagged, finger cliffs at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, the sandy knolls at Barnbougle Dunes in Australia, the beautiful Long Island coastline at […]
What You Should Know About Royal Birkdale
By Tony Dear The Open, Open Championship, and British Open all began at the same time yesterday on the historic links of Royal Birkdale Golf Club, a couple of miles south of Lord Street and Southport’s handsome town center. The club, founded as Birkdale Golf Club in 1889, moved to its present location in […]
Wisconsin – America’s Next Great Golf Destination
The national spotlight doesn’t fall on Wisconsin very often, and when it does the subject invariably seems limited to cheese, beer, or the Green Bay Packers. This week though, the Badger State is front and center—in golfers’ households anyway, as the U.S. Open unfolds at Erin Hills, a dramatic 650-acre, glacier-formed course 35 miles northwest […]
Will Golf’s Future Emerge from Iceland?
By Tony Dear Lost among recent news items that included the long-awaited sale of TaylorMade, Rory McIlroy’s signing with the Carlsbad-based company, surprise wins on the PGA Tour by Brian Harman and Si Woo Kim, and the European Tour’s rather contrived but undeniably enjoyable Sixes event in England, was an announcement from the Golf […]
Mountain Shadows Short Course is Reborn – Just What Golf Needs?
The conversation surrounding what makes golf fun, and where we can find it, has increased significantly of late. Frankly, fun was missing on most new courses over past decades, but with designs such as David McLay Kidd’s Gamble Sands and others roaring onto the scene, “fun” is making a comeback. One such place where fun was clearly the […]
A Golf Course to Suit Every Style of Play
By Tony Dear Want to get maximum enjoyment out of your next golf vacation? Choose a course that matches the character of your game. You toil hard to earn yourself a little vacation time with your clubs. You book the flights, hotel, rental car, and tee times, excited to play a highly ranked course. But […]
A Different Day, Different Pin, Different Hole at Augusta National
The characteristics of Augusta National’s greens—large, contoured, quick—create very different holes when the pin is moved. The Masters distinguishes itself from other tournaments in so many ways, but one of the most fascinating is that competitors here aren’t playing the same 18 holes four times. Rather, they face 72 distinct challenges. There are obviously […]
Silvies Valley Ranch—America’s Next Reversible Course
By Tony Dear Reversible golf courses are like London buses; you wait 100 years or more for one, then two come along at once. The first of them—Tom Doak’s “The Loop” at Forest Dunes GC in Roscommon, Mich.— opened in June of last year, and attracted the almost universal acclaim you expect of any Doak […]
