Goat Herding: Who is the Game’s Best Ever?

Some thoughts on Jack, Tiger, and the question of which is the game’s best ever As Jack Nicklaus celebrates his 80th birthday this year, my thoughts turn to the day I met him. It didn’t go well. This was late September of 1976 in Pinehurst, where a tournament called the World Open was being played. […]

LINKS Golf Podcast Episode 34: A Golf Trip to Iceland; Thousand Greens

In this episode, George details and expands upon his published columns from the 2019 Fall Issue of LINKS Magazine. Al and George talk about Thousand Greens, a new social network expanding access to the world’s top 100 golf courses. George discusses his golf trip to Iceland and what he learned about the closest European neighbor […]

George Peper’s Golf Bucket List, Updated

LINKS Editor George Peper As a reader of LINKS Magazine, you’ve likely played golf for more than a few years—and with better than average skill. You’ve played on numerous courses and under all sorts of circumstances. You’ve made shots—and made friends—that will be with you forever. You’ve repeatedly experienced both the pure joy and utter […]

George Peper’s Golf Bucket List, Updated

LINKS Editor George Peper As a reader of LINKS Magazine, you’ve likely played golf for more than a few years—and with better than average skill. You’ve played on numerous courses and under all sorts of circumstances. You’ve made shots—and made friends—that will be with you forever. You’ve repeatedly experienced both the pure joy and utter […]

George Peper: Let’s Get Personal

By George Peper It’s time for the USGA and R&A to take a cue from Netflix and Amazon and make our handicaps adjust instantly to different types of courses So the USGA and R&A have spent a great deal of time, effort, and money recently on the development of what they’re calling the WHS—World Handicap […]

George Peper: 750 Courses and Counting

About a month ago, I played for the first time a fine links course on England’s Somerset Coast called Burnham & Berrow. Now, normally this would be an occasion of no particular significance—certainly not worth trumpeting in the first line of a LINKS column—but in this instance it meant something. You see, B&B happened to […]

Kiawah Island Golf Resort Expands into the Future

Thirty years ago, when I was editor of GOLF Magazine, we began recognizing America’s premier golf resorts with the presentation of a very limited number of gold medals. Among the first recipients was South Carolina’s Kiawah Island Resort, then just a dozen years old and sporting a pair of golf courses by Tom Fazio and […]

George Peper on Par 3 Courses

I’m afraid I have no interest in Par-54 courses… but I love the holes that comprise them Our Spring 2018 issue’s cover story focuses on the spate of high-profile Par-3 courses that have sprouted during the last couple of years. It got me to thinking about the love-hate relationship I’ve always had with the par […]

The Best Par 3 in Scotland? Hopeman GC Says So…

By George Peper I thought I knew something about golf courses—and Scottish links courses in particular. So imagine my surprise earlier this year, while on a visit to St. Andrews, when a headline in one of the local pennysavers trumpeted the “Best Par-3 in Scotland” on a course that rang only the faintest of bells. Hotfooting […]