First Peek: Sheep Ranch
Bandon Dunes’s best-kept secret is a secret no more The fifth, and likely the final, 18-hole layout at Bandon Dunes—perhaps the most highly anticipated course in the world since its announcement in 2019—debuted on June 1. For years, the Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch sat hidden away from visitors to Bandon Dunes on an oceanfront plot […]
Union League National Channels Pine Valley, Calusa Pines, and Tobacco Road for Golf Course Overhaul
The first thing that catches your attention at Union League National Golf Club is a soaring, 60-foot sand dune, if only because it stands in such stark contrast to the pancake flat topography of the southern New Jersey shore region. But the dune is just the most visible part of this stunning, multi-year, multi-million-dollar project […]
American Dream Courses: Midwest (West)
In a land made up predominantly of plains, pastures, prairies, and relatively few golf courses (1,435 over an area of roughly 520,000 square miles), you might assume rattling off a dozen that fit into our American Dream Courses criteria—good, inexpensive, welcoming, under-the-radar, special in some way—would be pretty straightforward. It actually threw up a number […]
Destination Kohler Adding New Short Course Facility
One of the country’s great golf destinations is planning to make a splash with the development of its new short course facility. Desination Kohler, the Kohler, Wis., resort that is home to four Pete Dye golf courses in Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run, is introducing “The Baths of Blackwolf Run”—featuring a 10-hole par-3 course, a […]
TPC Harding Park’s Road to Glory
The venue for this week’s PGA Championship has enjoyed something of a wild ride since opening in July 1925. Designed by Sam Whiting and William Watson whose famed Lake Course at the Olympic Club had opened the year before, TPC Harding Park was originally named Lake Merced Municipal Links but soon was dedicated to President […]
Ranking The World: Asia/Oceania
In the third installment of our four-part series ranking the world’s golf countries (outside of the U.S.), we turn to the diverse landscape of Asia/Oceania The Asia/Oceania region is one of great contrasts. It is more densely populated than anywhere in the world, but home to some of the smallest countries and most sparsely populated […]
My Round at Harbour Town Golf Links
The intimidation started early. At first it was a sense of anticipation—I was about to play one of the top public courses in the entire country just a few weeks after the PGA Tour pros had done so during the RBC Heritage. The drive over the bridge onto Hilton Head Island and through The Sea […]
Modern Classics: Sand Hills
Kudos to the course that cleared the way for what we think of as architecture today Some twenty-five years later, I still remember the sense of wonder that overcame me when I first saw Sand Hills. The drive out there, six hours from Omaha, was mesmerizing, especially the last hour through the namesake Sand Hills—19,000 […]
Kasumigaseki (East) – Classic Courses
With the Olympics set to begin in Tokyo, we’ll finally get the chance to see this Hugh Alison gem Among the many disappointments caused by the postponement of the Summer Olympic Games was this: The world lost the chance to see what golf in Japan looks like. Because while we know the Japanese are crazy […]
Maine’s Island Golf Courses
I used to live on one of Maine’s coastal islands, and one thing I learned about visiting Maine’s island golf courses is that the journey is as enjoyable as the golf. Your tour will take you to tiny harbors lined by rocky shores. Saltwater bays dotted with lobster buoys. Inland lakes where loon calls echo […]
