Old World Florida Golf Tour
So you’re planning a golf vacation to Florida. Which gleaming mega-resort will you visit? Some tile-roofed citadel with a half-dozen restaurants, 500 seaside guest rooms and three perfectly manicured golf courses? You could sift through a stack of slick brochures and easily locate such a destination. But perhaps you’d rather return to an era […]
A Great Heathland Course: Beau Desert Golf Club
Herbert Fowler is one of those architects whose name isn’t readily attached to the many great courses he laid out or substantially retooled. Cruden Bay? That’s a Fowler. Royal North Devon? Fowler’s renovation of this Old Tom Morris original (a.k.a. Westward Ho!) made it the superb course we know today. This lack of name recognition […]
Machrihanish Golf Club, Scotland
If you have heard of Machrihanish, you may know that it is situated close to the southern tip of Kintyre, a 40-mile-long peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic off the Ayrshire coast. Its backdrop is mountainous and the seascapes are shatteringly beautiful. You will doubtless know about its opening hole. The par 4 […]
Ballybunion Golf Club, Ireland
The speech and rhythms of the west country of Ireland are far different from the majestic lilt of Dublin, where English is spoken perhaps more beautifully than anywhere on earth. But the speech of western Ireland reflects the nature of the harsh and terrible land, which that gives off a beauty more memorable than […]
Cherry Hills Country Club
Once a frontier upstart in an Eastern-dominated sport, this William Flynn opus has proven its pedigree through a string of hard-fought national championships
Old MacDonald, Bandon Dunes
You don’t go to Bandon Dunes for spas, infinity-edge pools and thread counts. And you’re not there to play 18 leisurely holes per day on a cart before going to explore the resort on a bike. Bandon Dunes is all about Advil, knockdown shots and carry bags. You’re there to stand on the tee […]
A Course Record at TPC Sugarloaf
Golf is the ultimate game of self-centeredness. Case in point: While the rest of the world remembers the 1997 Masters for Tiger Woods’ breakout victory, for me the tournament will always be associated with my first—and only—course record. Sure, I remember Tiger’s epic performance. I walked nearly the entire way with him, from his front-nine 40 on Thursday […]
Engineers Country Club, Long Island
Herbert Strong’s name today brings scant recognition. Renowned in his day as a player, teacher and course architect, the Englishman has all but been forgotten. For decades, so too was his masterpiece—Engineers Country Club, located on the north shore of Long Island, considered when it opened one of the best courses in the United […]
Desert Forest Golf Club, Arizona
Any conversation about golf’s great visionaries ought to include the names Tom Darlington and K.T. Palmer. Never heard of them? That would probably suit Messrs. Darlington and Palmer just fine, as the founders of Desert Forest Golf Club seemed more intent on relaxation than recognition. To wit, in the early 1960s they dubbed their […]
The Evolution of Golf Course Architecture
Quite literally, the landscape of golf course architecture has evolved since LINKS began publishing 20 years ago. Since 1988, more than 3,500 courses have been built in the United States. Some, like Sand Hills, are among the greatest ever built. Others, like Shadow Creek, were unlike anything that golf had seen before. While overall quality of courses built […]