Matching Golf’s Most Noteworthy Architects With Their Hollywood Equivalents
Visionaries, craftsmen, and taskmasters, golf course architects and movie directors share many of the same talents—and temperaments Amateur golf architect George Thomas never emerged from a barranca yelling “Cut!” And he never audaciously insisted on cutting up a marble floor to get his strategic angles just right, a bit of legendary assiduousness attributed to a […]
10 Top Double Greens in the U.S.
Among the many unique aspects of the Old Course at St. Andrews, it has seven double greens. So, 14 of its 18 holes have a shared green. In a previous story, we highlighted 10 of the top dual greens in the U.S.—examples in which a single hole has two separate putting surfaces. But what about […]
Great Courses of Britain & Ireland: The Berkshire
Less well known than some other heathland courses west of London, this club’s two Herbert Fowler layouts deserve their due In a 2018 essay titled “A disappearing landscape: The heathlands of the Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey borders,” Alan G. Crosby of the British Association for Local History wrote that at the beginning of the 18th […]
Top 10 Jack Nicklaus Designs You Can Play
If there’s one thing that may eclipse Jack Nicklaus’s legacy as a player, it will be his legacy as a course designer. As Pete Dye once said, “It’s astonishing to me that the same guy who was gifted with the greatest golf skill of the 20th century should also be blessed with such deft creativity.” […]
7 Golf Properties Featuring Multiple Eras of Distinctive Course Architecture
As great golf properties go, a lineup of multiple courses to play is a must. But this isn’t strictly a numbers game. It’s one thing to offer numerous layouts, but it’s another when those courses also showcase varied styles of architecture. What was in vogue in the 1960s, for example, will starkly contrast with what […]
18 of the Best Dogleg Holes
It would be a gross overgeneralization to say all straight golf holes are boring. The Old Course at St. Andrews has a lot of straight or straight-ish holes, but thanks to a combination of tantalizing fairway/green contours, bothersome bunkers that really are best-avoided, firm ground, and an ancient stone bridge, there’s not a single hole […]
6 Must-Play Public Courses in Upstate New York
The PGA Championship’s return to Oak Hill serves as a strong reminder that upstate New York offers exceptional venues for golf—and not all of them are exclusive private clubs. With Rochester as your home base, there’s no shortage of great public courses all within a 90-minute drive, some of which are significantly closer. Here, we […]
12 Surprising PGA Championship Courses You Can Play
Quail Hollow, venue for the 2025 PGA Championship, has a storied history by any measure. Unfortunately, you have to know a member to get aboard. However, if you’re looking to bask in PGA Championship lore, there are plenty of public-access layouts that will accommodate, including some that will surprise you. We’ll omit the obvious trophy […]
The Greening of Oak Hill: A Master Restoration by Andrew Green
Meet Andrew Green, architecture’s low-profile master of restoring vintage golf courses, including the venue for the 2023 PGA Championship WHEN THE NEWS BROKE IN 2016 that Oak Hill Country Club had retained an architect to restore its Donald Ross-designed East course, a collective cheer erupted. When the club revealed that the architect chosen was Andrew […]
11 of the Biggest Par-Three Drops in the U.S.
There’s just something about a downhill par three in the way the green is invitingly laid out in front of you. And the more pronounced the drop, the more the golfer needs to consider—or reconsider—which club to use. Here are 11 of the most significant par-three elevation changes, the kind of exhilarating holes that mess […]