Colleton River Club

  Despite two engaging courses from two of the game’s masters, this community cherishes its peace and quiet The size and serenity of Colleton River Club is the first thing visitors notice as they make the four-mile drive in from the community’s gate. The road winds through untouched wilderness into the 1,500-acre property until it […]

The Best Par 3 in Scotland? Hopeman GC Says So…

By George Peper I thought I knew something about golf courses—and Scottish links courses in particular. So imagine my surprise earlier this year, while on a visit to St. Andrews, when a headline in one of the local pennysavers trumpeted the “Best Par-3 in Scotland” on a course that rang only the faintest of bells. Hotfooting […]

Portstewart Golf Club, a Place Worthy of Praise

By Nick Edmund   Too long in the shadow of its northern neighbors, this renovated links has earned another look The country of Northern Ireland is smaller than the state of Connecticut, and yet in recent years has produced three major champions: Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell, and, of course, Rory McIlroy. It can also boast […]

The Perfect Golf Trip to Pensacola, Florida

By George Peper Far away from the “other” Florida, you can find the ideal combination of good golf, good food, and great prices Pensacola is one of the thousands of U.S. towns named after its Native American settlers. It’s also a lilting, fun sort of word, a word that trips off the tongue, impossible to […]

Sand Valley – Mike Keiser has Done it Again

By James A. Frank   Everything you’ve heard is true: It is possible to build Bandon Dunes in the Midwest. And the fun has just begun. Mike Keiser has done it again. The man who gave us Bandon Dunes—and got us flying off to play great courses in out-of-the-way places—has brought his magic formula to […]

Congaree – A South Carolina Golf Club with a Mission

By Graylyn Loomis   When a new world-class course is being built, the golf world typically knows about it—and talks about it—years in advance. But not Congaree, in Ridgeland, S.C., about 30 miles northwest (inland) from Hilton Head. Even the locals didn’t know what was being built on the former rice plantation, while a dive […]

Older Golf is Better Golf

I recently played a round with a friend in his early 70s who said he’s anxious to turn 80. Seems his club has a “rule of 90”—he can’t play tournaments from the forward tees until the sum of his age and handicap total at least 90—and he’s desperate to gain the additional yardage. Which is just […]

100 Years of Pebble Beach: Building Spyglass Hill

 By James A. Frank In 2019, Pebble Beach Golf Links will celebrate its 100th birthday and host its sixth U.S. Open. To commemorate these milestones, each issue of LINKS Magazine and LINKSdigital between now and then will tell the unique story that is Pebble Beach. Those articles will also be shared here on our website. The […]

The 21st Century Wave of Breathtaking Golf Courses

21st golf

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 […]

Los Angeles Country Club (North) After its Makeover

Restored to its original strategic splendor, the tinsel-town treasure is ready for its close-up Los Angeles is a city with little tolerance for yesterday: Venerable buildings are razed to make way for mini-malls and not-so-freeways cut through old neighborhoods without mercy. Thus, it was a blessed anomaly to see the wiser heads at the Los Angeles Country […]