Old Head: The World’s Most Spectacular Course Turns 25
The most spectacular course on earth celebrates a special anniversary There are bucket list courses. Then there’s the Old Head. More than two decades have passed since I boldly proclaimed the new Old Head Golf Links to be the most spectacular course in the world. Following a fall 1998 visit, I put into words what […]
12 Absolute Must-Play Resort Courses in Mexico
With more than 160 courses, some that embrace mountain and jungle settings, others that take in ocean and desert landscapes, golf in Mexico is all about variety. What the majority of the country’s greatest courses share, however, is their accessibility to resort guests. Not every top Mexican course is open to outside play, but many […]
12 of Golf’s Scariest Watery Graves
Whether you call them water hazards or penalty areas, golf’s lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans often become final resting places for our errant shots. You can recover from deep rough or a bunker. But there’s no coming back from a water hazard unless it’s a very shallow one and you’re feeling especially courageous. Here’s a […]
Pete Dye’s 9 Scariest Holes
Tiger Woods once asked me, “Has anybody ever built harder courses than Pete Dye?” I replied, “Nobody has ever built courses that are more visually intimidating than Pete Dye.” Tiger shot back, “Exactly.” Indeed, Dye himself stated, “My overall philosophy is to make the hole appear more difficult than it really is.” In reality, Pete […]
6 Things to Know: The Lido at Sand Valley
The Lido at Sand Valley Golf Resort is a faithful recreation of a long-gone layout once celebrated as the best in the world. The original version was built on New York’s Long Island in the early 1900s by renowned architects C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor but demolished by the U.S. Navy during World War II […]
Modern Classics: Lofoten Links
Inside the Arctic Circle. 24-hour-a-day summer golf. Awe-inspiring scenery. Norway. Need we say more? According to Rudyard Kipling, “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” A latter-day version of Kipling’s observation might be, “Only Norwegian golf course superintendents and bucket-list-chasing golfers venture out beneath the midnight sun.” Lofoten Links is fast […]
10 Great 18-hole Courses on Fewer Than 100 Acres
In January 1930, just 14 weeks after the Wall Street crash and the catastrophic collapse of the U.S. stock market, course architect Alister MacKenzie set sail from Hoboken, N.J., bound for Buenos Aires. During a roughly eight-week stay in South America, the Scotsman designed, or suggested improvements to, at least six courses in Argentina (including […]
5 Great Public Courses Near Detroit
Motoring around “Motor City” reveals a trunk-load of challenging designs from some world-famous architects As one would expect from a state with the most public golf facilities in the U.S, a host of verdant courses can be seen from the window seat of a plane flying into Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 5 COURSES — 98 MILES […]
The Most Resonating Courses in Golf
Some golf courses have a unique and unmistakable sense of place. The ancient Romans had an expression: genius loci, or sense of place. Their belief was that every city and town had its own spiritual identity, the way it was experienced, imagined, yearned for, and held in the heart and soul. Now, 3,000 years later, […]
Finest Golf on Monterey Peninsula
With sweet jazz in the autumn air—and arguably the country’s finest golf all year long—a visit to Monterey Peninsula is always music to one’s ears It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. —DUKE ELLINGTON, 1931 Those of a certain age may be familiar with the above song and its illustrious composer, […]
