Assigning Personalities to the Open Championship Venues

Examining the courses of the Open Championship, let’s view them not from best to worst but rather as unique examples of different personalities In a recent interview, rock icon Nick Cave revealed an unexpected interest in the Enneagram, a system of inter-connected personality types linked to the early-20th century mystic Gurdjieff. This interest in psychological […]
Geoff Shackelford: A Plea for the Wee Par Three

No hole in golf offers a richer combination of fun and fright for pros and amateurs alike than the short one-shotter The wee par three is having a moment. Surprising as it is to believe, the little knee-knocking, heart-stopping thrillers had fallen out of favor, one-shotters under 155-or-so yards becoming victims as developers and architects […]
Who Is Your Pick to Win the 2024 Open Championship?

Give Us Your Ranking of the Four Men’s Major Championships

Golf Course Architect Bill Bergin – LINKS Golf Podcast Ep. 168

Professional player turned golf course architect Bill Bergin joins the LINKS Golf Podcast to talk about his design of the Highlands Course at McLemore, and the new course he is building for the Georgia resort/community with Rees Jones called The Keep. The hosts also chat with Bergin about finishing 14th in the 1984 Open Championship, […]
Test Your Knowledge of St. Andrews—Take Our Quiz

American fascination with St. Andrews as a golfing destination has been evident for more than 150 years and is most memorably attributable to Bobby Jones, who fell in love with both the Old Course and the town when he said, “I could take out of my life everything except my experiences at St. Andrews and […]
The Leeds Triangle: England’s Underrated Golf Destination

With the world of golf shifting its attention to the northwest of England as the Open Championship returned to Royal Liverpool for the 13th time in the club’s 154-year history, many visitors from the U.S. likely secured tee times at Open venues Royal Birkdale (30 miles north) and Royal Lytham and St. Annes (65 miles […]
The 9 Greatest Royals Not on the Open Rota

There are a slew of superb Royals across the UK that do not host the Open Championship—here are the nine best not on the Open rota.
Royal Liverpool (Hoylake): Flat Out Great

Despite, or perhaps because of, its lackluster landscape, Royal Liverpool—better known as Hoylake—can still be counted on to provide a bumpy and exciting Open Championship By the time the opening tee shot is struck at the 151st Open Championship, avid golfers who have consumed every preview they can find will have grown weary of reading […]
Top Open Championship Meltdowns

Wind, rain, heather and gorse, insidious pot bunkers, and funky bounces are all part of the Open Championship experience. When you combine those elements with the pressure of competing in and contending for the oldest major championship in golf, well, occasionally things go terribly wrong. Here are the seven most epic fails in Open Championship […]