How Do You Match Up Against the Average Golf Handicap in 2020?

Serious Golfer

Judge Smails: Ty, what did you shoot today? Ty Webb: Oh… Judge, I don’t keep score. Judge Smails: Then how do you measure yourself with other golfers? Ty Webb: By height. Unlike Chevy Chase’s character in Caddyshack, if you’re among those who post scores and maintain an official golf handicap, you’re probably pretty serious about […]

What’s the Ruling? 5 Unique Rules Scenarios Explained

Rules

On many levels, the game of golf is a huge part of my life. Along with writing about, watching, and playing the game as often as possible, I spend a large chunk of my weekends caddying for my two sons. Both boys are competitive junior golfers, and being on the bag for hundreds of rounds, […]

The Real Cost of Hosting a USGA Event

Hosting a USGA National Championship can bring a club notoriety and prestige—along with a major financial headache During the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship this past March, Innisbrook Resort owner Sheila Johnson sipped on a cocktail at a media reception when her phone buzzed. After checking the incoming e-mail message, a smile creased her faced. She […]

Classic Courses: Sankaty Head Golf Club

After almost a century—and a discreet restoration—this Nantucket nugget is ready for some well-deserved attention To the pantheon of one-hit-wonder architects like George Crump (Pine Valley) and H.C. Fownes (Oakmont), add the name, H. Emerson Armstrong. Son of a golf pro and a good player himself, Armstrong moved to the island of Nantucket, in the […]

Winged Foot’s Championship Pedigree

winged foot championship

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This year’s U.S. Open marks the sixth time the championship has been contested on the West Course at Winged Foot. As players continue to tee off on this A. W. Tillinghast brute (updated in 2017 by Gil Hanse), viewers should expect to see Winged Foot be every bit as difficult as in past championships there. […]

Winged Foot’s Challenging U.S. Open Setup

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Winged Foot. The name conjures images of sidewalk-thin fairways, ball-devouring rough, and concrete-hard greens that repel approach shots—and make three-putting from five feet all too possible. In other words, it’s the perfect U.S. Open venue. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Open is returning to Winged Foot’s renowned West Course a few months later than […]

The Ultimate U.S. Open Course

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We asked a panel of players, architects, officials, and media to look at the USGA’s five favorite Open venues and rank them, hole by hole. Here are the results. Not long ago, the USGA expressed publicly its devotion to an elite quartet of U.S. Open venues—Oakmont, Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, and Shinnecock Hills—with the […]

Why OnCore’s Reach Now Extends Far Beyond Golf Balls

Golf balls have always been the core of OnCore Golf’s business—pun intended—but diversification was a fait accompli with Keith Blakely’s involvement. Blakely is the Chairman and CEO of OnCore, having started (and initially funded) the company about a decade ago along with his son, Bret, and his son’s friend, Steve Coulton. A serial entrepreneur and […]

Music on the Golf Course: Pro or Con?

It used to be that all you’d hear on a golf course was birds chirping, brooks babbling, and human voices chatting—or cursing. But golf’s soundscape has changed. Today, golfers are just as likely to be listening to the latest release from Drake as the bucolic quacking of wood ducks. Proponents of the trend say it […]

5 Changes to Know for Golf’s New Handicapping System

usga

The start of a New Year, and a new decade, brings major changes in the golf handicapping space. If you haven’t yet heard about the World Handicap System (WHS), which has been freshly rolled out in the U.S. at the start of 2020, it’s time to familiarize yourself with this global initiative that took about […]