18 of the Best Dogleg Holes

It would be a gross overgeneralization to say all straight golf holes are boring. The Old Course at St. Andrews has a lot of straight or straight-ish holes, but thanks to a combination of tantalizing fairway/green contours, bothersome bunkers that really are best-avoided, firm ground, and an ancient stone bridge, there’s not a single hole […]
5 Unique Events at U.S. Golf Resorts

Every year, I anxiously await the mid-summer member/guest tournament at my buddy’s club. The format, camaraderie, and competition spread over several days is an annual highlight, and I know I’m not alone in circling that type of event on the golf calendar. Just over a year ago, in celebration of a milestone birthday, I took […]
Golf Destination Face-Off: Northern California vs. Southern California – LINKS Golf Podcast Ep. 133

There is plenty of great golf to go around in California, which measures as the longest U.S. state from top to bottom. In this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast, co-hosts Al Lunsford and Joe Passov split the Golden State in half and compare the golf offerings in Northern California versus Southern California. You can […]
Four Golf Resorts with Extraordinary Training and Practice Facilities

The old adage “work hard to play hard” only sometimes applies to golf. Yes, plenty of avid golfers focus only on the “play” when they jet off to a resort for a golfing getaway. But others recognize that those resorts can be ideal places to put in some hard work on their games, too. For […]
10 Courses with Great Collections of Par Threes

Nearly 30 years ago in the pages of LINKS Magazine, author/broadcaster Ben Wright opined that the Golden Horseshoe’s Gold course in Colonial Williamsburg, Va., featured the best set of par threes on a single course of any he knew. Bentley was a shrewd, well-traveled judge—and a designer himself—so I’ll give him his due. I also […]
12 of Golf’s Scariest Watery Graves

Whether you call them water hazards or penalty areas, golf’s lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans often become final resting places for our errant shots. You can recover from deep rough or a bunker. But there’s no coming back from a water hazard unless it’s a very shallow one and you’re feeling especially courageous. Here’s a […]
The Most Resonating Courses in Golf

Some golf courses have a unique and unmistakable sense of place. The ancient Romans had an expression: genius loci, or sense of place. Their belief was that every city and town had its own spiritual identity, the way it was experienced, imagined, yearned for, and held in the heart and soul. Now, 3,000 years later, […]
Finest Golf on Monterey Peninsula

With sweet jazz in the autumn air—and arguably the country’s finest golf all year long—a visit to Monterey Peninsula is always music to one’s ears It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. —DUKE ELLINGTON, 1931 Those of a certain age may be familiar with the above song and its illustrious composer, […]
10 of Golf’s Most Dramatic Cliffside Courses

When you think of the elements that create drama on a golf course routing, two of the first that jump to mind are probably “on the water” and “significant elevation change.” So, it’s small surprise that cliffside golf holes elicit such interest and fascination. Some courses fully embrace their cliffside location, putting the perched prominence […]
Players’ Favorite Holes on the PGA Tour

Ask any avid golfer for their favorite hole on courses that they play regularly, and their answer—should they have one—will likely highlight a hole that they always (or at least most of the time) play well. Tour players aren’t immune to this train of thought, either. “My favorite hole on tour is No. 6 at […]