Cedar River Golf Course, Shanty Creek Resort, Michigan
The management at the Shanty Creek Resort laid out the ground rules for Tom Weiskopf’s Cedar River’s design: “Do whatever you want with the 536 acres; just save us room for a lodge.” Everything he needed was there, in excess. Masses of tall oaks and beech trees. Hills that roller-coastered across 200 feet of […]
Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Virginia
For Donald Ross, the meccas are Dornoch and Pinehurst; for Bobby Jones, it’s Augusta National; for Jack Nicklaus, Muirfield Village. And for Robert Trent Jones Sr., “Trent,” as he was known, it’s his namesake club in the rolling hills of northern Virginia. Glenn Smickley was course superintendent during construction and grow-in back in 1989 […]
Upstate New York: An Overshadowed Golf Region
When it comes to golf in the state of New York, most of the attention is focused on the New York City metropolitan area—for good reason. After all, it is home to U.S. Open sites Bethpage, Shinnecock Hills and Winged Foot, not to mention courses like National Golf Links of America, Maidstone, Garden City and Quaker Ridge that […]
Nakoma Resort, California
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, surely you understand how small, seemingly simple undertakings can mushroom into major projects. You decide to replace a few tiles in the shower and three months later you’ve remodeled your entire bathroom. When Dariel and Peggy Garner start a project, it tends to build to a grand scale. They couldn’t seem to find the […]
Double Eagle Club
John McConnell believes in doing things right. That’s how this Columbus, Ohio, resident brought Worthington Industries from an $1,800 start-up operation in his basement to a Fortune 500 company with more than $1 billion in sales and 7,000 employees. His philosophy: Work hard, know exactly where you’re going and surround yourself with the best possible people. These same rules […]
The Kingsley Club
Two high-rolling businessmen gambled on an unknown architect and came up aces with this spiritual descendant of the classic Crystal Downs
Royal New Kent, Virginia
Royal New Kent opened in August 1996. From a playability standpoint, Royal New Kent features generous, contoured fairways, occasional blind shots, 140 bunkers and large, fast greens with bold swales and ridges. A thinking man’s course, each hole has several ways to play it and every shot has options regarding the choice of clubs and […]
Inwood Country Club
It has been generations since the Belt Parkway and Kennedy Airport bestowed their mixed blessings on the town of Inwood. Today a drive down the JFK Expressway and Rockaway Boulevard carries you past blank-looking freight warehouses and the backs of strip malls, with occasional, reassuring glimpse of scrub pines or an old bait shack. […]
Grayhawk Golf Club, Arizona
In an area known for high-end experiences, Grayhawk Golf Club set the standard for country-club-for-a-day facilities when its first course, Talon, opened in 1994. Tom Fazio’s Raptor opened the following year. Together, they pack a one-two punch worthy of Muhammad Ali. So do the service and amenities, which rival those of a top club. Inside the grand stone […]
Ballyneal Golf & Hunt Club Revisited
Back in 1979, Jim O’Neal and his older brother Rupert were mending fences on grazing land for the family’s cattle. Only 12 at the time, Jim was the family golfer, playing the Holyoke municipal course at every opportunity. Looking out across the unusual sand dunes known as chop hills, Jim proclaimed, “Rupert, you could […]
