The Ultimate San Diego Golf Vacation
By David Weiss San Diego is coming of age quite gracefully, graduating from swabbies and flip-flops to Jimmy Choos and start-ups in what seems like the blink of an eye. Gone are the downtown days of soup kitchens and thrift shops. The Gaslamp Quarter—version 2.0—is now home to income-disposing millennials in search of the perfect […]
Eddie Hackett: Ireland’s Most Famous Course Architect
Given the timeless quality of the country’s links, it’s surprising that golf arrived in Ireland at roughly the same time as it did in the U.S., in the late 19th century. The Emerald Isle’s most famous architect was a “Johnny Appleseed” type who by sheer prolific force helped the game reach new levels of popularity: […]
Mix a Golf Tune-Up Vacation with Baseball Spring Training
For the golfer who’s also a major league baseball fan, the dream vacation is one that combines the two. There’s no better time to do that than right now, mixing your pre-season tune-up with spring training. You have two options—the Grapefruit League in Florida and the Cactus League in Arizona, with 15 major-league teams based […]
Meet Under Armour’s Ryan Kuehl
He was the classic journeyman professional football player, never knowing from year to year whether he’d be paid for a full season or paid at all. Such was life for Ryan Kuehl, who kept his job in the NFL for a dozen seasons because he could rocket a spiraling football back to a kicker as […]
BallenIsles Country Club: The Home of the PGA Tour
In the hotbed of golf that is Palm Beach, it’s hard to find a community with more history than BallenIsles. Before there were houses, it was the original home of what became the PGA Tour. The still-challenging East Course—one of three 18-hole layouts—hosted the 1971 PGA Championship. From this proud pedigree grew a big and […]
Fazio II Course Launches at St. Andrews Country Club
It is truly out with the Olde at the 30-year-old St. Andrews Country Club, where the Olde course just underwent a top-to-bottom renovation by Tommy Fazio (Tom’s nephew) that made the lushly landscaped layout more playable and more fun. It also makes the Fazio II course, as it’s now known, a more suitable complement to […]
There’s More than Great Golf at The Cliffs Communities
If you’re into golf, The Cliffs must be on your radar. Each of its seven communities—three in the mountains of the western Carolinas, three on 26-mile-long Lake Keowee, one minutes from Asheville—has its own course, and one membership means belonging to all seven. It’s the ultimate in choice. Yet as good as the golf is […]
Desert Highlands is Upgrading Homes in a Novel Way
Scottsdale is synonymous today with high-end communities featuring golf courses from leading architects. But it’s worth remembering that the northern reaches of this area, 30 miles from downtown Phoenix, were little more than cactus and rocks three decades ago and that the transformation began with a development called Desert Highlands. Over Thanksgiving weekend 1983, the […]
In Praise of the PGA Championship
A few years ago, Sports Illustrated asked 50 PGA Tour players which major they most wanted to win. The Masters took half the votes, the British and US Opens about 25% each. And the PGA Championship? 2%.Pity the poor PGA. It’s the Ringo Starr of major championships: Definitely one of the Fab Four, but not […]
Royal Portrush Prepares for 2019 Open Championship
By George Peper Unfurled across a rocky rampart of Northern Ireland’s Antrim Coast, the Dunluce Course at Royal Portrush is blessed with one of the game’s most idyllic settings, and its architect, the redoubtable Harry Colt, crafted a links that is equally arresting, making full use of dramatic natural valleys, ridges, and plateaus. Among its […]
