Letter from St. Andrews: They Watched In Awe
Memories of Jack and the 1978 Open
Letter from St. Andrews: Window into History
Born during one of the most difficult periods of the past century, the Masters has been a bellweather of our achievements and challenges for the last 75 years
The History of Golf and Royalty
No country takes royalty as seriously as the United Kingdom does. Although the British crown is no longer the seat of government, it still holds plenty of historic, symbolic and popular interest. Members of the royal family are celebrities, and titles bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II are coveted rewards of status and accomplishment. It’s an […]
Letter from St. Andrews: A Closed Open
I’m not sure why—maybe I haven’t fully and truly expatriated, or maybe it’s just that I’m a congenital jackass—but I get uncommon pleasure from tweaking my fellow St. Andreans with a question. When the 19th-hole conversation turns to the game’s majors, I ask, “So who do you like in the LCSE?” “What?” they say. “The […]
French Lick’s Third Century
New owners of the French Lick Springs Resort & Spa recently announced plans to renovate the Donald Ross-designed Hill Course there. It was hard to hear the news and not feel anxiety. Followed by trepidation. Angst, even. The Hill is an 85-year-old heirloom, one of the last virtually untouched Ross designs anywhere. To play […]
The Royal St. George’s Golf Club, England
The founding of England’s first major-championship golf venue might easily have been dubbed the Great Escape of 1887. It was conducted by a group of frustrated golfers from Wimbledon Common in the suburbs of London, where the game was played by two golf clubs on the same course—in opposite directions. The search for new ground […]
Wentworth Club, Surrey, England
South of London, the Wentworth Club boasts two world-class layouts. The East was laid out in 1924 by Harry Colt, the father of British course architecture. Colt ran the East through a forest of fir and silver birch that afforded a natural sense of isolation. Patches of purple heather lined the fairways and large […]
Golf de Morfontaine, France
Eighty years ago, if you lived in Europe, had some land and some money, and wanted to build a top-quality golf course, the go-to guy was Tom Simpson—assuming you could put up with his act. Picture yourself, the course owner, at a site visit. You’re out on a boggy moor in your tweeds and […]
Panmure Golf Club, Scotland
No plaque exists on either the 2nd or 17th fairways at Panmure Golf Club commemorating the time spent there by a golf legend more than 50 years ago. And that’s just the way Ben Hogan would want it—keeping the focus purely on golf at one of Scotland’s finest yet lesser-known courses. Panmure was already […]
North Berwick Golf Club, Scotland
The vast majority of golfers, even those natives of the game’s homeland who ought to know better, mention of East Lothian generally brings the knee-jerk response of “Muirfield, magnificent Muirfield.” Yet in historical terms, the present home of the ancient Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers is a Johnny-come-lately upstart on the peerless stretch of […]