From St. Anne’s to Royal Liverpool: England’s Golf Coast
It’s a bit fresh today,” a member said cheerfully, referring to the wind. (My transcription of his remark is based partly on lip-reading: the gale made hearing unreliable.) The course we were playing—St. Annes Old Links, on the Lancashire coast in northwestern England—has a few small water hazards, of which the largest is smaller than […]
Liam Higgins: Waterville’s First and Only Professional
The next time you make it to Waterville in southwestern Ireland, keep an eye out for a spry figure, average height and build, with tufts of white hair peeking out from beneath a stocking cap. Most likely he’ll be flying solo around the links, bag on his back, bombing drives and carving irons beneath the […]
The Honors Club Reopens as Maridoe Golf Club
Asuper-ambitious and passionate owner (with the means to deliver) and a vastly experienced and imaginative architect (inspired by the opportunity presented). It sounds like a heady mix and one that could make for a wonderfully exciting golf cocktail. Such was the potential when owner Albert Huddlestone and architect Steve Smyers agreed to collaborate and redesign the Honors […]
The Honors Club Reopens as Maridoe Golf Club
Asuper-ambitious and passionate owner (with the means to deliver) and a vastly experienced and imaginative architect (inspired by the opportunity presented). It sounds like a heady mix and one that could make for a wonderfully exciting golf cocktail. Such was the potential when owner Albert Huddlestone and architect Steve Smyers agreed to collaborate and redesign the Honors […]
Timbers Kaua’i Ocean Club & Residences at Hōkūala
Many golf communities boast of their “resort-like” atmosphere. Hōkūala actually is a resort, where Timbers Kaua’i owners can enjoy all the amenities—and get a few of their own. First and foremost is the Ocean Course, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design that has been updated since it was the Kiele course at Kauai Lagoons. The front […]
Highlights of Arnold Palmer’s Course Design Career

Arnold Palmer’s involvement in golf design was a lifelong pursuit. He was the son of a greenkeeper, after all, and was involved in hands-on course work during his youth at Latrobe Country Club in western Pennsylvania, at Wake Forest University, and even during his stint in the Coast Guard. Palmer’s legacy as an architect is […]
Seminole Prepares for the 2021 Walker Cup
One of the most exclusive clubs in the world, Seminole has done its best over the past 88 years to guard its privacy, keeping its highly esteemed Donald Ross course a secret except to the fortunate few. Now, however, it’s ready to share a bit, having accepted an invitation from the USGA to host the […]
Seminole Prepares for the 2021 Walker Cup
One of the most exclusive clubs in the world, Seminole has done its best over the past 88 years to guard its privacy, keeping its highly esteemed Donald Ross course a secret except to the fortunate few. Now, however, it’s ready to share a bit, having accepted an invitation from the USGA to host the […]
The Addington Golf Club, England
Idiosyncratic, brilliant, characterful, heroic. These are a few of the adjectives associated with The Addington. Located just 10 miles south of London’s Piccadilly Circus and hemmed-in by dense suburbia, it was built during the early years of the so-called “Golden Age” of course design with J.F. Abercromby creating and completing it either side of the Great War. […]
Alister MacKenzie’s Finest Works

Alister MacKenzie receives a fair amount of attention every year around April thanks to his central role in the creation of Augusta National. However, the home of the Masters represents only one thread in a design career—arguably the greatest of all-time—that spanned the globe. MacKenzie was born in 1870 to Scottish parents living in the […]