Top Mountain Courses in 10 American West States
Mountain golf is different. It’s three-dimensional chess, with elevation changes that factor into the way you approach just about every shot. America’s western states are blessed with dozens of superb mountain tracks, from hillside bucking-bronco rides to others that are gentler canters through quiet valleys surrounded by towering peaks. Many of the west’s more impressive […]
The Art of Restraint in Golf Course Architecture
It’s a word that has become increasingly familiar to fans of great golf course architecture. The dictionary says “restraint” involves moderate behavior and self-control, and it’s an important trait for a designer to be able to call upon. Tom Doak says it is “deciding not to do something which is just as active a decision […]
Golf Course Architect David McLay Kidd – LINKS Golf Podcast Ep. 155
Golf course architect David McLay Kidd talks about designing the first course at Bandon Dunes in 1999, what makes a good match play course, his current projects in Washington and Nebraska, and more on this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast. This episode is presented by Wild Dunes Resort. You can subscribe to the LINKS Golf […]
Q&A: Golf Course Architect David McLay Kidd
It’s almost 25 years since David McLay Kidd burst onto the scene with the design of Bandon Dunes’s original and eponymous course. Since then, the Scot, who now calls Bend, Ore., home, has established himself as one of the leading architects of his generation with a number of top-ranked designs both public and private. At […]
Great Downhill Golf Holes
Jack Nicklaus said golf is a better game when played downhill. The Golden Bear doesn’t speak for everyone of course, but he’s won more of the really big tournaments than anyone and is one of just a handful of architects to have worked on 300 courses or more. It doesn’t take a multi-major champion or […]
David McLay Kidd: A Continuing Education in Course Design
After early acclaim led to stinging criticism, course architect David McLay Kidd has gone back to his roots David McLay Kidd had lost something. But he thought he might know where to find it. He took his design team to Bandon Dunes, the much-heralded links course he’d created a decade earlier at age 30 on […]
Our Favorite Putting Courses
The current trend among golf resorts to add expansive putting courses to their offerings has its roots in the Home of Golf, where the St. Andrews Ladies Putting Club was created in the 1860s to give respectable ladies a place of their own to enjoy the game. Better known as “The Himalayas,” the enormous, undulating […]
Sand Valley: America’s Next Great Golf Resort
Bountiful Barrens: Less than five years old, Sand Valley is already America’s next great golf resort—and so much more Gazing out on an August evening from the back porch at The Lodge at Sand Valley, I found it difficult to imagine what this land must have looked like just 10 years ago, before more than […]
Top Short Course Openings for 2021
One of the noteworthy shifts the golf industry has experienced in recent years is the increased popularity of shorter courses, frequently as a complement to traditional courses at established facilities or in golf-rich locations. As such, this installment focuses on some of these alternative offerings: par-3 courses, 9-holers, and courses featuring a non-traditional number of […]
5 Public U.S. Courses I HAVE to Play in 2021
I’ve been extremely fortunate to play some of the country’s finest public courses over my 30 years of life. I got my first taste of Pinehurst playing No. 2 shortly after it’s restoration in 2011. In 2012, my dad and I took on Pebble Beach and for the first time I was able to enjoy […]
