10 of the Best U.S. Courses with No Water
Ask most golfers about the type of hazard that beckons most ominously during a round and there’s a good chance they’ll go with “water;” from oceans, bays, and Great Lakes to rushing rivers, tranquil streams and man-made ponds that can swallow golf balls by the thousands. At the same time, water can bring an undeniably […]
18 of the Best 27-Hole Golf Courses in the U.S.
When you think of a golf course, it’s natural that 9- or 18-hole layouts spring to mind. But what about 27 holes? More specifically, those facilities that have three 9-hole courses of fairly equal quality, to the point where if you’re only playing 18 holes, you wouldn’t really care which of the loops you were […]
Best Public Golf in South Florida
From the outskirts of Ft. Lauderdale to Boca Raton and greater Miami, compelling rounds of public golf await across all of South Florida. Here, we spotlight six noteworthy courses to seek out the next time you visit the southernmost stretches of the Sunshine State. Osprey Point Golf Club (Boca Raton) While it might be difficult […]
America’s Top 10 Munis
The chief requirement for making this list is that the golf course must be owned by a municipality. We’re judging here on the quality of the design, test of golf, scenic appeal, and tournament lore. For best-value munis? We’ll leave that for another time. Here then are the 10 best municipal courses in the U.S. […]
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 […]