Gil Hanse’s Architecture 101: Where Bunkers Lie
The placement of bunkers on a course is one of the key elements in creating strategy Having started our examination of golf course architecture with greens—and appropriately ascribing sovereignty to them over all other features—we turn to the most visible feature on any course, the sand bunker. Bunkers have always had two distinct characteristics as […]
10 of Golf’s Polarizing Par Fives
Sometimes a golf hole just doesn’t fit our eye. But that’s the beauty of golf, too: The playing field can be endlessly different, from design and difficulty to setting and strategy. It’s why two golfers in a foursome might love a particular hole while their two buddies lambaste it. Here we take a look at […]
Rick Shiels: Golf Equipment’s YouTube Guru
It’s hard to pinpoint Rick Shiels’s English accent. Predominantly Lancastrian, there’s a lot of Mancunian in there too, and just a trace of Yorkshire perhaps. Fortunately, despite the mix, he has no problem communicating with an audience, be it online or fans of Golf Channel’s Driver v. Driver 2 on which he was a judge. […]
Advice from the Architects: How to Approach a Trip to Bandon Dunes
Over the past two decades, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has built quite a base of loyalists—some of whom return for a buddies’ trip every single year. But the ever-growing golf destination on the Oregon coast also continues to expand its fanbase with first-timers eager for a remote escape and a taste of authentic links golf […]
9 Signature Golf Course Drinks
Golf resorts and communities are always thinking of new and different ways to stand out—some have decided to get creative in the mixology department and craft their own signature beverage for members and guests to enjoy during cocktail hour. Here we detail the what, where, and how for nine different signature links libations—so that you […]
Plans Revealed for Tiger Woods’s New Short Course at Pebble Beach
Tiger Woods already had a well-known relationship with Pebble Beach Golf Links after his thrilling 15-shot U.S. Open victory two decades ago. Woods and Pebble Beach have since decided to formalize that relationship with the announcement that the 15-time major champion and his TGR Design team would be overhauling the former site of the Peter […]
8 Questions with Mark O’Meara
Imagine waiting almost 20 years to reach the pinnacle of your sport, and then suddenly see it happen twice in a span of three months. That was the flood of success that Mark O’Meara experienced back in 1998. After winning his first major title at the Masters, at age 41, O’Meara backed up his green […]
LINKS Golf Podcast Episode 56: A First-Timer’s Guide to Bandon Dunes
It’s all things Bandon Dunes in the final episode of Season 5 of the LINKS Golf Podcast. LINKS contributor Erik Matuszewski joins Digital Editor Al Lunsford to break down Erik’s first-ever trip to Bandon, which aligned with the June 1 opening of the resort’s newest course, Sheep Ranch. You can subscribe to the LINKS Golf […]
Ben Wright: The Beatles and Me
The return of the Open Championship to Royal Liverpool has me recalling the day I booked the Fab Four—out of sheer desperation—for a 10-minute gig at a rate of 500 pounds,
and how singularly unimpressed I was
American Dream Courses: Northwest
If you’re into cool, small towns with more breweries than grocery stores, snow-capped volcanoes (dormant since Mount St. Helens blew in 1980), arid high desert, and primitive beaches backed by dark coniferous forests, then you’ll likely fall as hard for the Pacific Northwest as I did. The golf gets pretty sensational, too. You know about […]