Bandon Dunes Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary
Twenty-one years ago, Bob “Shoe” Gaspar delivered a load of mulch to a construction site just south of North Bend on Oregon’s southern coast. Unsure of what was being built, he walked over a dune and saw a half-finished golf course. There was no clubhouse, the back nine was dirt, the front nine was being […]
What Golf Resorts Are Doing to Stay Relevant
In case you haven’t noticed, golf resorts are stepping up their game like never before. Putting courses and short courses are all the rage. Developer Mike Keiser is opening a new must-play course on almost an annual basis. And while new course design has taken a back seat, resorts are pumping significant money into restoring, […]
Cabot St. Lucia—Keiser and Cowan-Dewar Head South
By Adam Schupak Ben Cowan-Dewar still remembers the first time he saw pictures of what will be Cabot Saint Lucia. They were tantalizing enough to get him to hop on a plane and see for himself in June 2016. What he saw did not fail to impress: 1.5 miles of jutted coastline overlooking the Cas […]
The Best Course I’ve Never Played
By Adam Schupak As the old American Express tagline suggested, membership has its privileges. For some big-name golfers, celebrities, architects, and administrators, membership in the game’s A List means access to the cathedrals of the game. As Wayne Gretzky put it, “I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but since I’ve retired I’ve played Augusta, […]
What Next for the Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch?
By Tony Dear It has become decreasingly mysterious with every passing article—and there have been many—but the Sheep Ranch still possesses sufficient intrigue and anonymity to ensure the golfer recounting his experiences of the place speaks mostly to a hushed audience. Images and stories have been filtering through for nearly two decades, and its […]
Coul Links: Scotland’s Next Championship Links?
By Adam Schupak Editor’s note: In June 2018, Coul Links received approval to enter the construction phase of the project. This article, written in fall 2017, provides useful background on what will be the newest course in the Scottish Highlands. Ever since he first played Royal Dornoch 40 years ago, developer Mike Keiser has […]
Five Questions for Mike Keiser, Founder of Bandon Dunes
If you were building Bandon Dunes today, would you do anything differently given what you now know? Bigger kitchens and dining room. Simple as that. We had no idea how popular it was going to be. It was perfectly possible that no one was going to turn up. And being the cheapskate that I am, […]
Sand Valley: Bandon in the Heartland
By James A. Frank Nearly 20 years ago, I was one of the first golf writers to find his way to the southern coast of Oregon and a new golf resort called Bandon Dunes. Back then, there was just one course—designed by a little-known Scotsman named David McLay Kidd—and a wonderfully bare-bones lodge just […]
Cabot Links: A Great Course?
This Nova Scotia layout has been the most hotly anticipated new course of the year. Following his visit in September, LINKS Senior Writer Thomas Dunne found himself struggling with a simple question. What emerged was a (messy) search for the elusive border separating good from great—as well as a captivating conversation with a fellow linksophile.
The Evolution of Golf Course Architecture
Quite literally, the landscape of golf course architecture has evolved since LINKS began publishing 20 years ago. Since 1988, more than 3,500 courses have been built in the United States. Some, like Sand Hills, are among the greatest ever built. Others, like Shadow Creek, were unlike anything that golf had seen before. While overall quality of courses built […]
