Classic Courses: Essex County Club
For well more than a century, this Donald Ross gem has required having the full repertoire of shotmaking skills When Essex County Club hosted the 1938 Curtis Cup match, it represented a homecoming of sorts. Harriot and Margaret Curtis began their golfing lives at Essex, in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., about 30 miles north of Boston. The […]
5 of Canada’s Top Golf Resorts
A glance at the top ranks of players on the PGA Tour these days brings many red Maple Leaf Flags to the forefront. Any given week, it’s likely that a good chunk of the Tour’s top 50 players will be Canadian born. Yes, the Canucks are coming on strong at the professional level, but when […]
Top 10 “Red” Courses You Can Play
Seeing red—being overcome with anger—isn’t much fun, but playing red can be a blast. Dozens of stellar courses worldwide identify as “Red,” with the spectrum’s boldest color an integral part the course name. In other cases, Red is the actual course name. We’re speaking to such renowned international layouts as England’s The Berkshire (Red), designed […]
Golf’s Most Exhilarating Courses
Ireland’s Old Head is golf’s most exhilarating experience There are moments in golf that you wish could be frozen in time: Stepping onto the first tee of the Old Course at St. Andrews; emerging from the trees to greet 15, 16, and 17 at Cypress Point; staring down the daunting approach over the Pacific at […]
The Legacy of Sand Greens
Donald Ross’s original greens for Pinehurst No. 2 lacked one critical component—grass Only a dozen years old yet already a burgeoning golf mecca, the Pinehurst Resort saw its reputation soar soon after Donald Ross expanded and redesigned Pinehurst No. 2 in 1907. Dozens of golf ’s most influential figures praised the layout in reverential terms. […]
Best Public Golf Around Pinehurst
Come for one of the country’s premier golf resorts—but stay (or come back) for the incredible collection of public courses around Pinehurst Let’s cut to the chase. There’s one reason every golfer wants to haul their sticks to the middle of North Carolina: taking on Donald Ross’s “Mona Lisa,” Course No. 2, and the rest […]
First Peek: Pinehurst No. 10
Pinehurst Resort’s first new course in nearly three decades is part of a property that will redefine the Cradle of American Golf There’s not much out at the Pinehurst Sandmines (yet), the 900-acre, mostly wooded parcel of land in development at Pinehurst Resort about four miles south of the main clubhouse. But there is a […]
13 Years Later: Bill Coore Reflects on the Restoration of Pinehurst No. 2
Of course they were honored—which golf course architect wouldn’t be? Of course they were humbled—again, would anyone whose vocation in life was to build, renovate, and revive great golf courses not question if they were up to the task, if only for a moment? And yes, of course they were a little nervous about the […]
Donut Greens: 5 Holes with Bunkers on the Putting Surface
When George Thomas designed Riviera Country Club’s championship layout during the late 1920s, he introduced a unique element that gave the course instant notoriety: a pot bunker set smack dab in the middle of the par-three 6th hole’s putting surface. Since then, the design feature has been replicated in other parts of the country (and […]
Top 10 Kentucky Courses You Can Play
Unfortunately for visiting golfers, 2024 PGA Championship host Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., is private, as are most of the region’s top courses. However, the Bluegrass State boasts a slew of value-oriented, scenery-soaked, public-access layouts. Here are the 10 best courses you can play in Kentucky. Lassing Pointe—Union Long heralded as one of the nation’s top […]
