Mount Rushmore of Golf Course Architects
On our Mount Rushmore of golf course architects, we’re not talking about our four favorites, necessarily, or even the first four.
Top 10 Courses: France
Here’s our list of the top 10 courses in France 1. MORFONTAINE (GRAND PARCOURS), Mortefontaine Arguably the finest (and most exclusive) course in Europe, this 1927 masterpiece by flamboyant Englishman Tom Simpson unfurls in an idyllic forest an hour north of Paris, its holes weaving artfully through tall pines. 2. LES BORDES (NEW), Saint-Laurent-Nouan […]
The Best of Harry Colt’s Lesser-Known Courses
U.S. readers will certainly know the name Harry Colt (born Henry in London in 1869)—the man who showed the world amateur golfers (though he did make the cut at the 1891 Open Championship) were capable of designing golf courses and doing it so well it could become a legitimate profession. A Cambridge grad, Colt gave […]
The Eden Course at St. Andrews
Overshadowed by the other courses in town, this St. Andrews sleeper provides one of Scotland’s most enjoyable rounds
The Greatest Golf Architect of All Time: Harry Colt
In LINKS’s Silver Anniversary issue last fall, readers may recall the surprise atop the leaderboard of the 25 greatest architects of all time. The winner of that survey was Harry S. Colt (1869–1951), a lawyer and former Cambridge University golf captain who left his position as club secretary of England’s Sunningdale Golf Club to become the pivotal figure in golf’s first truly global design firm, Colt, Alison, & Morrison. In this partnership, C.H. Alison took on projects in far-flung locales like Japan and New Zealand, while Colt worked primarily in the British Isles and Continental Europe.
The Next Great Irish Links
In the way that legendary breaks like “Jaws,” off the north coast of Maui, or “Mavericks,” near San Francisco, are magnets for big-wave surfers, it’s a certain kind of golfer who is attracted to big-dune links courses. They’re hardy and fun-loving, more accepting of quirky design, and, perhaps, a bit more interested in pulling off heroic shots than strictly adhering to a card-and-pencil mentality.
Scotland has its share of big-dune designs—Donald Trump’s new layout in Aberdeen is just the most recent—but the west coast of Ireland is its equal. There’s Lahinch, of course, and bruising Enniscrone, and Robert Trent Jones Sr.’s intense Cashen Course at Ballybunion. But the Big Daddy of them all is Carne, which this past summer opened a new nine that should quickly gain renown as one of the best big-dune circuits in the country.
County Sligo Golf Club (Rosses Point) Revisited
Senior Writer Thomas Dunne explores a fascinating links on Ireland’s west coast
Swinley Forest, England
A century later, one of Harry Colt’s first designs remains very much the way he and the club members planned it—a haven of tranquility
Kennemer Golf & Country Club
One of the best courses in continental Europe, this 27-hole layout near the North Sea proves that the British Isles don’t hold a monopoly on great links golf
Stoke Park Country Club, Spa & Hotel, England
A remarkable resurrection has transformed this English patient into one of the most stylish clubs in all of Europe
