18 of America’s Best Short Par Threes
The 9-hole course I played as a kid, Canton Public Golf Course in Connecticut, culminated with a short, downhill par three that would make or break every round I played there, sending me home on my bike either smiling or steaming. Sadly, that terrific family-owned course no longer exists, but my memories of that 9th […]
6 Great Double Dogleg Holes
During the first few decades of the 20th century, architects A.W. Tillinghast and C.B. Macdonald often engaged in good-natured debates about course design. While Macdonald favored the strategy of implementing template designs, Tillinghast most often let the natural land dictate a hole’s inherent shape and strategy. That said, Tillinghast—who garnered the nickname “Tillie the Terror” […]
Los Angeles Country Club: Ready For Its Close-Up
Los Angeles Country Club’s storied, if mysterious, North Course earns the U.S. Open spotlight It’s time to pull back the curtains. After an absence of 75 years, the U.S. Open is returning to our nation’s second-largest city and to a first-time venue, the Los Angeles Country Club. Course connoisseurs are salivating at the prospect of […]
Matching Golf’s Most Noteworthy Architects With Their Hollywood Equivalents
Visionaries, craftsmen, and taskmasters, golf course architects and movie directors share many of the same talents—and temperaments Amateur golf architect George Thomas never emerged from a barranca yelling “Cut!” And he never audaciously insisted on cutting up a marble floor to get his strategic angles just right, a bit of legendary assiduousness attributed to a […]
Golf Writer Geoff Shackelford – LINKS Golf Podcast Ep. 143
Golf writer Geoff Shackelford joins the LINKS Golf Podcast to discuss the release of his latest book, Golf Architecture for Normal People. Shackelford also dives into his involvement in the restoration of Los Angeles Country Club’s North course and tells the audience what to watch for as the venue hosts its first U.S. Open. At […]
A Los Angeles Golf Getaway
If you’re willing to battle the notorious freeways, several fun and affordable golf courses in Los Angeles await you—and the weather is hard to beat Angelenos validate all of the worst clichés about this sprawling region. We arrive late and leave early. We travel down peculiar vanity and dietary excursions. But the golfers of SoCal? […]
