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Fred Brand, a Carnoustie village boy with a rangy build and thick, powerful hands, showed up at his home links one day in 1900 to play the round of his life. The Scottish Open was underway at Carnoustie and Freddie, straight out of high school, had somehow scrapped his way to the semi-finals. Brand’s next opponent would be the English champion, J.H. Taylor, holder of three British Opens titles and destined to win two more. But Taylor couldn’t keep pace with the local boy that day. Brand sent him back home to Surrey and advanced to the finals, losing the ...

Square pizza, the Sopranos and volcanoes are the first things most people think of when they think about Sicily. Starting this spring, they might add golf to the list. Italy has long been my favorite country, home of La Dolce Vita, “the sweet life,” where people know how to live, love and especially eat. My love affair with Italy has been going for years, and in that time, I have watched it take baby steps towards arriving a real golf destination. There are a couple of decent new courses in Tuscany, and two or three bona fide golf resorts, but Italy ...

Okay, I might be exaggerating a tad – Corey Pavin is not likely to make you one of his captain’s picks. But there is a unique way to get up close and personal with the team sporting the red, white and blue. I get a lot of releases and offers from golf tour operators and most of them are same old, same old – guaranteed tee times on the Old Course in exchange for your first born, Masters Tickets for your first and second born, golf safaris or drive-yourself around the b-list courses of Ireland “specials.” This one was different and it comes ...

Along with an über-zealous search for the perfect swing, avid golfers are on a never-ending quest for the ideal vacation. A golfer’s Holy Grail is not just a spike-tightening collection of fairways and greens, no sir. What makes the experience truly worthy is all that hedonistic other stuff—like exquisite dining, posh accommodations, can’t-miss recreation, Nikon-prompting landscapes and tempting side trips. Which pretty much describes my unwavering affection for Wintergreen Resort, the four-season destination situated among central Virginia’s rambling Blue Ridge Mountains. When unforgettable memories are crucial to a golf vacation, this 11,000-acre playground located about 25 minutes southwest of Charlottesville has ...

Just before nine o’clock on a late-July morning, Donald Trump emerges from his black Rolls-Royce and steps through the front entrance of Trump National Bedminster, a private golf club he founded in 2004 among the equestrian farms of Somerset County, New Jersey. Trump halts in the doorway, squints down at the latch and summons a nearby employee. Gouges on the strike plate and a scraping sound as the door opened have furrowed his now-famous brow. “This door has never been right,” he whispers. Within moments, three staff members convene. Trump instructs one of them to have the spring mechanism either adjusted ...

This came to me via email today-- if you love cigars and golf check it out . . .  And for more on great cigars, see my story En Fuego in the Lifestyles section, under golf . . . Open to golfers worldwide, the Second Annual Montecristo Cup and Esencia Cup golf tournament takes place from April 22 -24, 2010 at the Varadero Golf Club - the island's only international course in Varadero - Cuba 's no.1 holiday destination. The 18-hole international tournament is sponsored by Montecristo, one of the most famous Cuban cigar brands in the world.  Both amateur and professional golfers, with a ...

It’s not every day that a fourteen handicap sets a course record, but on a trip to Portugal’s warm, sunny Algarve region, I shot the lowest round ever recorded at Jack Nicklaus’s Monte Rei Golf and Country Club.  After I holed a twelve-footer for birdie on the eighteenth green, my record held until my playing partner, a young assistant pro, two-putted a few moments later.  The record dropped from 89 to 73.  It wasn’t exactly Al Geiberger posting 59 in a PGA Tour event (one of golf’s most enduring records), but it was mine—at least until it wasn’t. As a golf journalist ...

When visiting the Louvre, in Paris, for the first time, it was all I could do to keep from sprinting between great vaulted halls housing masterpieces that were as stirring as they were renowned: the Mona Lisa here, a gallery of dark, moody Rembrandt’s there, works from the Italian Renaissance around another corner. I always feel the same giddy anticipation when standing in the salt breeze beside the starters shack of the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland.  The ancient stone city is the Louvre of golf courses, themselves a sort of interactive art—no less beautiful or natural than, say, the ...

Not far from Area 51 in the Nevada desert lurks a secret as well-protected as any alien spacecraft and no less unlikely.  Tucked into the mountains above Boulder City thirty minutes from Las Vegas lies Cascata-- a golf club so private that it has no members, a place so exclusive that the most powerful people in the golf business are afraid to talk about it. To appreciate Cascata’s niche in American golf requires some context.  In the late 1980s, Steve Wynn, who was chairman of the company that owned The Mirage Hotel and Casino, built Shadow Creek Golf Club on a ...

Golf is full of animals—and not just the ones you notice ducking for cover in the shrubbery when they see you addressing your ball.  If you ever watch golf on t.v. you can catch the Golden Bear (Jack Nicklaus) the Walrus (Craig Stadler), the White Shark (Greg Norman), and, of course, Tiger.    Or how about Tim Herron, Ian Baker-Finch, Jonathan Byrd, Ben Crane, and, of course, Steve Elkington?  Following are a few courses worthy of the variety of species attracted to the sport. Dancing Rabbit, Crouching Plumb-bob Whether you think a rabbit’s foot is more auspicious than a dogleg, the Choctaw Tribe’s ...

Rumor has it that no man is an island, although a fellow named Gilligan made a career out of living on one.  Golfers, too, are occasionally faced with the challenge of safely landing on an island without getting lost at sea (or at lake, or stream).  The following golf courses all feature a putting surface surrounded by the wet, blue stuff.  At least when you’re lining up to make birdie, you can be assured that all putts break toward the water.  Try to “sink” the putt, and not your tee shot on these testing island greens. Island Green’s Island Green In ...

In which we describe locations where golfers don’t want to end up on the beach As if one type wasn’t enough, golf course architects mine their layouts with a wide variety of sand-filled hazards including framing, target, pot, waste, and cross bunkers.  Pros, the conventional wisdom goes, would rather play out of a bunker than thick rough, but most average players find these penal pits more frightening than Sandy Duncan.  Here are nine reasons to consider carrying a shovel as your fourteenth club. Put Me Down For an Eight Several hours north of Calgary, Alberta, Jasper Park Lodge is home to one of ...

Much like great music or literature, the best golf courses can ratchet up your emotions directly, but they can also create a rich nostalgia by stirring memories and feelings associated with other masterpieces of their artistic genre that you’re familiar with.  Chambers Bay, the new public course designed by Robert Trent Jones II outside Tacoma, Washington, immediately elicits intense, symphonic, even operatic tinglings.  At different moments the course resonates like a Mozart aria, a Hendrix guitar riff, an orchestra playing Wagner, and a crooning Hank Williams ballad.  It moves you directly with the sheer epic beauty of rolling grasslands pouring ...

The Old Head of Kinsale is a startling peninsula that extends some two miles out into the Celtic Sea from near the bottom of Ireland.  On the morning of May 7, 1915, Old Head played small, sad role in World War I history; roughly eight miles off the peninsula, a German U-boat torpedoed the ocean liner Lusitania, which sank, taking the lives of 1,198 passengers and crew.  Drownings still occur daily from April through September, but the fatalities are merely Titleists and Nikes. And no one seems to mind. “Old Head is a special place, indeed one of my favorite places,” Keith ...

The veneration of local heroes often says as much about the locals as about the heroes.  Would Elvis be the King, for example, if Graceland were on Long Island? The matter of a cultural icon’s stature among the faithful occurred to me in prepping for a golf trip to the Costa Brava region, on the northeastern tip of Spain’s Iberian Peninsula.  Part of the Catalonian province of Girona, which is also the name of the capital, the Costa Brava’s favorite son – Salvador Dalí, best-known of the Surrealist artists and writers – made me curious as to what a visit there ...

It’s a fine day on the southern Oregon coast—warm and clear, with a nip of salt on the breeze blowing in off the Pacific.  I’m in the car with my new friend Al Greenfield, proprietor of A Bandon Inn, on our way from the renowned Bandon Dunes Resort to the Sheep Ranch— which is not actually a ranch, and has no sheep.  Nor is it a clever moniker for a house of ill repute.  It is, in fact, a nearly mythical linksland, but not really a golf course.  It is a magical domain right out of a Michael Murphy book, ...

One of the great dilemmas of golf travel is how to take on a collection of sometimes widely dispersed golf venues in an interesting foreign locale, visit the region’s cultural attractions, and also travel in a relaxed manner between them without becoming more tired during your vacation than you were before you set out. In Europe, Kalos Golf Cruises—a North Carolina Company—provides an answer: leave the traveling part to them while you’re dining on delectable International cuisine, ogling 14th-century architecture, and sleeping. Kalos currently operates eight European golf itineraries—including trips in the British Isles, Italy, Spain, and a handful of ...

The promotional literature of the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge includes the following guest book entry from 1925: A New York man reaches heaven, and as he passes the gate, St. Peter said, 'I am sure you will like it'. A Pittsburgh man followed and St. Peter said, 'it will be a great change for you.' Finally there came a man from Jasper Park Lodge, 'I am afraid' said St. Peter, 'that you will be disappointed.' The entry, penned by Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, certainly speaks to the incredible mountain scenery of the valley where the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge ...

Twenty-somethings who fantasize about Paris as a place where they can immerse themselves in a cloud of Gitane smoke, cheap red wine-fueled literary discussions and unbridled romance probably do not think much about the City of Light’s potential for golf.  For that matter, neither do golf travelers – though there’s a good reason they should.  “I’d wanted to look at France from a golf perspective for a long time,” James Dodson began, “even though it’s not a place where golfers traditionally went.  The opportunity came up when I became golf editor for American Express Departures magazine.  The piece I really ...

There is hardly a golfer alive who has not heard of the Old Course at St. Andrews, the birthplace of the game. But outside of St. Andrews, there is hardly a golfer alive who has heard about the Old Course in Reverse, the most fun you can have in Scotland without getting arrested. To explain, let me briefly take you back to the end of the last millennium, when the 20th century’s final Open Championship, aka British Open, was played on these hallowed links in 2000. Tiger Woods of course won, and in record fashion, but one of the more memorable things ...

A few years back, hedge fund magnate Julian Robertson was visiting Bandon, Oregon, where he hoped to play a few rounds on the renowned Bandon Dunes course.  On the second day of his visit, he was bumped from Bandon to play Pacific Dunes.  The story goes that Mr. Robertson was not very happy about the change in venues, as he hadn’t traveled across country to play this upstart course.  By the end of his round, however, he’d set his heart on having Pacific’s creator – Tom Doak – fashion his second course in New Zealand, Cape Kidnappers. Cape Kidnappers is perched ...

“Any golf course is nice when you’re on vacation,” Bob Vokey said, ruminating on a recent trip to the Maritime Provinces of Canada from his home in southern California.  “But when you come upon an assembly of courses like you find at Cape Breton, it’s really something special.  I hadn’t even planned to play golf on the trip, and didn’t have my clubs.  When I got a little taste of the courses there, I rented some clubs and headed out.” Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and blessed with both pine-covered mountains and verdant valleys, Cape ...

Links style golf has been successfully imported from the coastlines of Scotland and Ireland to points as far afield as Lake Michigan (Whistling Straits) and the Oregon coast (Bandon Dunes).  Perhaps its most unlikely export – and certainly one of its most successful – has been to the isolated coast of northern Tasmania, in the shape of Barnbougle Dunes. “A young entrepreneur named Greg Ramsay had seen the land at Barnbougle, which belonged to a potato farmer and businessman named Richard Sattler,” Michael Clayton began.  “Greg had worked as a caddie at St. Andrews, and had a love for links golf, ...

The notion of a private Caribbean island retreat is seductive enough in itself, but why stop there?  Why not up the ante and throw in a 7,000-yard golf course that sprawls much of the island, along with a luxe clubhouse and some oceanside villas?  Flying northeast from Belize City, this is exactly the spectacle you’ll witness off your right wing, a golfer’s Fantasy Island of sorts called Caye Chapel. Where to Play There is only one golf course on Caye Chapel (800-901-8938; www.cayechapel.com;); in fact, there’s only one golf course in the nation of Belize (once known as British Honduras).  ...

During the brighter days of the British empire -- that is, when there still was an empire -- it  was not uncommon for the colonizers to import a bit of the homeland to their outposts to make life away from home more bearable.  Trout were introduced into the streams of New Zealand.  Cricket was introduced in South Africa. And golf was brought to India. Thus it should come as no great surprise that the oldest golf club in the world outside of the British Isles hails from Calcutta; the Royal Calcutta Golf Club was established in 1829. (The oldest club, incidentally, is ...

Anyone can find the famous great courses, like Pebble Beach or Pinehurst Number Two or Muirfield. The question I get asked the most by avid golfers is some variation of “what’s a great course I don’t know about already.” I love discovering these hidden gems, courses that are not well know, but are excellent. They are usually also cheap and much easier to get on than the famous ones, and almost always better values. I have found these all over the world. This month, my Hidden Gem pick is the Classic at Madden’s Resort, in the Brainerd Lakes Region of Minnesota. That is ...

Here's an unusual opportunity to read what was one of the first national magazine stories ever published about the now-renowned Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.  This piece was originally published in Links Magazine following a visit to the course in 1999, about six months before it opened, before anybody had heard of it yet, before the legend.  I played the course with then General Manager Josh Lesnik, who was working out of a trailer in the woods and seemed grateful for some company.  When we finished the round we wolfed down a couple of sandwiches and went out to play some ...

If I were smart I wouldn’t tell you anything about my hometown of Portland, Oregon.  I would not mention that this green, eclectic, and eminently livable hamlet of half a million lucky people located equally near to an ocean and a glacier has been ranked by such magazines as Money and Travel & Leisure as among the most livable cities in America.  I wouldn’t even whisper that parks and fountains are as ubiquitous as the coffee shops and hand-crafted beers we’re known for: in fact, Portland is home to both the smallest park (24-inch Mill’s End) and the largest city ...

The response of my friends in Portland, Oregon when I told them I was headed for Kelowna, in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, for a golf trip: “Isn’t that in Germany?” They hadn’t even heard of this fine Canadian golf and winemaking destination a long scenic drive or short flight from many cities on the West Coast.  When I added that I was also headed for Kamloops they didn’t know where that was either, but them seemed to like saying ‘Kamloops.’ Possibly obscured by the tourism shadow cast by such famous nearby destinations as Whistler and Vancouver/Victoria, the Okanagan Valley lies in fertile high-desert ...

Living in Oregon, the Caribbean is not exactly an easy place to get to, but earlier this year, when I received an invitation from an old friend to play in a Member-Guest tourney at The Abaco Club—an exclusive Ritz Carlton property at a very private beach resort—it was tough to say no.  The bad news: I had the sneaking suspicion that my old friend was bringing me in as “a ringer”.  This was confirmed when, showing me around his breezy, spacious beach house built on a cliff above turquoise water, he pointed to last year’s runner-up trophy before he even ...

For serious students of golf course design, the chance to try their hand at sculpting a course of their own poses both a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a potential risk—the risk coming from exposing one’s work to the slings and arrows of those whose work you’ve critiqued in the past.  In 2000, just such an opportunity came to noted golf historian and author Geoff Shackelford; so far, the plaudits have far outnumbered the slings and arrows. “As long as I can remember, I’ve drawn golf holes and have been fascinated by both the game and its architectural aspects,” Geoff Shackelford began.  “When ...

Professional golfer and all-around nice guy Mark O’Meara does not mince words when asked about his favorite golf course.  “I’ve played on the Tour for 24 years, all over the world, and I’m hard-pressed not to put Pebble Beach at the top of my list.  Since before the first time I played there when I was 16 and participating in the California Amateur Championship, I’d heard so much and had so many expectations.  When I drove on to the 17-Mile Drive, it didn’t let me down.  It was incredible then, and it’s incredible now.  I’ve had the good fortune to ...

The desert is hot and full of sharp things like cacti, yuccas, pyramids, scorpions, and Las Vegas.  But it’s also home to some of the most beautiful and well-crafted golf courses on the planet—which isn’t to say that these won’t poke or bite you, as well.  Following are nine of my favorite places to seek green oases and the shimmering mirage of par. Amen Corner West of Tel Aviv on the shores of the Mediterranean, lies Caesarea Golf Club, Israel’s only 18-hole course.  Designed in 1961, the layout has been resurrected recently by Pete Dye.  The new course stretches to a nearly ...

Situated a mile high in the Canadian Rockies, Banff Springs is without question one of the most spectacular settings in the world for a golf course.  Visitors like James Levine travel across the continent to take in the scenery, and sometimes they get more than they bargained for – a very special round of golf. “My wife and I came out from New York to take a walking tour through the Canadian Rockies.  We arrived a few days before the tour began to take a look at Lake Louise, which we’d always heard about.  After taking in the Lake, I went ...

A couple of years back Tiger Woods was trying to describe how hard the set up for the US Open was and said something to the affect of “A single digit player couldn’t break 90.” He was simply making an observation but he unleashed endless debate, and as a result, for the last two years, Golf Digest magazine has offered its US Open Challenge, pitting better celebrity golfers and one member of the public against Tiger’s opinion. This year Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger went low, shooting an impressive 81, with help from his even better caddie, Rocco Mediate. Perennial golf course ...

The Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links rests just a few miles north of some of the priciest golf real estate in the world.  Yet despite its glamorous locale, there is no elaborate clubhouse, no bag drop, no parking attendant—and green fees are less than lunch for two at the Tap Room at the Pebble Beach Lodge.  These are a few of the reasons that Pacific Grove Muni has a special place in Peter Finch’s heart; it has nothing to do with the fact that the course was the site of Peter’s finest round! “I was out on the central California coast on ...

Golf writers love the thrill of discovering a new destination for their readers, a heretofore hidden gem.  Back in 1990, John Garrity experienced that thrill of discovery in a very profound way, uncovering an 1891 Old Tom Morris design on the isolated Scottish island of South Uist.  The course -Askernish - had not simply eluded American visitors.  It had literally been 
lost to the ages! I was on my first overseas golf assignment for Sports Illustrated, John recalled, to do a piece on the Royal & Ancient.  To make trips abroad cost-effective, the magazine would assign writers several pieces germane ...

When Pete Dye first visited the site near La Romana, Dominican Republic, that would one day become Teeth of the Dog in 1968, it was hard to imagine much of anything growing there, let alone the Caribbean’s most celebrated golf course.  “The land was pretty much useless, at least for human purposes” he recalled.  “It was too dry for growing sugarcane and there was too little vegetation to graze cattle.  No one much cared about it.”  After flying over the land by helicopter and drifting along the coastline in a skiff, Dye decided that he needed a closer look.  “I ...

For years, at least since Bobby Jones endorsed its charms while escaping the summer heat of Atlanta in the 1920s, the Cascades Course at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia has reigned supreme as the finest resort mountain course in America. Designed by William Flynn in 1923, the Cascades is a classic, a lovely, lay-of-the-land design. This is where Hot Springs native Sam Snead refined his syrupy swing and came of age as a golfer. Host of several USGA events, the Cascades is ranked No. 17 on GOLF Magazine’s ‘Top 100 Courses You Can Play’ list. It occupies the No. ...

The morning was cold and a cutting wind blew over the Old Course like a knee in the groin.  As my friend and fellow golf writer Tom Harack and I watched a couple of guys we knew teeing off on the first hole of the most famous golf layout on the planet-- a gorgeous, rugged place of power and pilgrimage, a sacred place of homecoming and deep emotion-- we huddled close in the freshening breeze and whispered “Miss it.  MISS IT!” at their back swings. Despite the weather a ragged gallery clustered around the first tee: golfers awaiting their times, caddies ...

If banishment to Australia were still the common punishment for British felons, golfers in England would be embarked upon a continuous crime spree.  The island continent is home to a collection of the world’s best links courses, including Royal Adelaide Golf Club, located about eight miles outside the small city of Adelaide and two kilometers from the coast.  The history of this great sandbelt track is as colorful as the course is sublime.  The natural links at Adelaide roll through dune grasses and low marshes, between pines and swamp oaks, and across gently sculpted and strategically brutal moundings, all buffeted ...

A few miles from the epicenter of high-tech wizardry, CordeValle is high-class resort that runs at a low-pressure pace Turn north out of northern California’s San Jose airport and you’re quickly in the middle of Silicon Valley, where the emphasis is on speed and progress is measured in nanoseconds and gigabytes. But turn south and the journey is in a very different direction, somewhat back in time and to a more relaxed kind of valley. Within a few minutes you are driving past fields lush with cherries, mushrooms, artichokes, garlic, and the state’s first vineyards. Head toward the foothills of the Santa ...

Watching the out-of-state traffic speed through Alabama en route to points south circa 1990, Dr. David Bronner had an epiphany of sorts.  He surmised – quite correctly – that the trunks of many of those cars held golf bags.  And he believed that there was no good reason why many of those sojourners would not linger in the Heart of Dixie to tee it up…that is, if there were high quality, affordable courses for them to play.  Three wouldn’t be quite enough.  Nor would five.  Or ten.  18 would be just about right.  And since Dr. Bronner was CEO of ...

When I visited the Coeur d’Alene Resort, on the shores of the lake of the same name in the Idaho panhandle, I admit I was quite skeptical. When it comes to golf, I don’t go for modern gimmicks, be they geometric greens and hazards or the typically poorly executed “replicas” of famous holes. The claim to fame here is potentially this kind of gimmick, the first and only “moveable” island green on earth. Basically, the putting surface on a par three is built on enormous raft, which in turn is mounted on two sets of cables, allowing it to be ...

Hole 3B is not an inspiring name, so I can understand why a player looking ahead on the scorecard at the Pacifico course at the Punta Mita resort might not be all that excited about what’s coming up. Big mistake. Hole 3B at Pacifico is one of the most breathtaking holes on the planet, and certainly the most unique. In fact, it is truly one of a kind. About ten years ago, Jack Nicklaus was down here looking over the site of yet another Nicklaus Signature course in Mexico, when he spied something he had never seen before… Quick interruption. For those of ...

Move over Pine Valley. Augusta, what’s that? What could impress your golfing friends more than finding out you are a member of the world’s oldest golf course? Of course, it would help if they knew what that course was. Hint, it’s not the Old Course at St. Andrews. It’s not venerable Muirfield either, but it is in Scotland. How about Musselburgh Old Course? The course can be found at Musselburgh Links, just East of Edinburgh, and is officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest surviving golf course in the world. Anyone who reads my column knows that I pretty much ...

Thirty minutes from both Heathrow Airport and Big Ben, The Grove Hotel, in Hertfordshire, imparts a modern twirl to the former longtime home of the Earls of Clarendon.  The first house was built on the 300-acre wooded estate during Elizabethan times.  In the 18th century, one particular Earl essentially created the notion of the “country weekend” house party on the property.  Guests included all manner of royalty, including Queen Victoria.  Today the family-owned five-star hostelry exudes a decidedly whimsical, anti-corporate stance.  Startling modern art (much of it expressing visual puns) adorns 227 richly appointed guest rooms, suites, and other facilities.  ...

Dale Concannon has a favorite quote about Swinley Forest:  “‘If Augusta National is the cathedral in the pines, Swinley is the holy grail.’  The quote comes from Henry Cotton.” Swinley Forest is a lovely ‘heath and heather’ course in the town of Ascot, county Berkshire, 25-odd miles west of London.  It was designed by the venerable Harry S. Colt in 1910 and stands among Colt’s great treasures, though it’s a treasure that has escaped the notice of all but aficionados.  “What makes Swinley so special is that it’s a stone’s throw from two other famous courses by Colt—Sunningdale and Wentworth—but few ...

It’s possible that, in our lifetimes, robots with ray-guns will mow every blade of grass on the links and a drone hovercraft guided by GPS will re-cut cups in the pre-dawn darkness. If and when that happens, golf course maintenance won’t be as different from today’s version as today is from greenkeeping’s earliest days. Course managers and superintendents may love the game’s stout traditions, but most of them push the envelope on techno-turf care as far as their budgets will allow. New waves of R & D within the turfgrass industry (and borrowed from other fields) make it possible, while ...

Very few people know that Portugal has pousadas. That is a real shame. Pousadas are a very special hospitality option unique to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain has the same thing, but they are called paradores). Back in the 1940s, the Portuguese government faced two challenges: to increase tourism, and to rescue and preserve many of its ancient and historic wonders. By creating pousadas, they solved both problems at once, and travel loving golfers today should be very, very thankful. The Portuguese began converting historic structures, including castles, monasteries and churches, most of them centuries old, some constructed nearly a millennium ago, into ...

John Barton traveled to the Himalayan nation of Bhutan to go hiking.  But, as has happened more than once in his life, golf came calling.  “My wife and I love the Himalayas,” John said.  We’d been on trekking adventures in Nepal and India, and were planning a trip to Bhutan.  When the lady in New York who arranged our trip heard about what I did for a living, she mentioned it to one of her contacts in Bhutan, a man who is an avid golfer.  He was thrilled that I was coming, and made sure to arrange some golf.” Most westerners ...

The European Club, thirty-five miles south of Dublin, is a vibrant tribute to the twin passions that have ruled Pat Ruddy’s life:  cultivating an understanding of what makes a good golf course and finding the wherewithal to put that understanding into practice with one’s own hands.  “My ‘training’ as a golf architect started at the same time as my ‘training’ as a golf writer,” Pat recalled.  “It was in a small west of Ireland town where my father was one of the foremost golf enthusiasts and where the local golf club was so ill-funded that it had to move location ...

Resting at the fulcrum between Europe and northern Africa, cloaked in exotic robes long before the release of the movie Casablanca, Morocco is a colorful kingdom that has long enticed adventurous travelers.  Roughly the size of California, Morocco is a land of tremendous contrasts, a place where snowcapped mountains rise from the edges of an inhospitable desert, where millennium-old neighborhoods survive in the midst of modern cityscapes. And thanks to King Hussan II it’s also a land of quality golf courses.  “If you want to golf and have an adventure that departs from your typical American resort experience, you’ll find Morocco ...

In October 2001, the inaugural Alfred Dunhill Links Championship was played on three of the greatest links golf courses on the planet: the Old Course at St. Andrews, the Carnoustie Links, and Kingsbarns Golf Links. Kings who, you might well have asked?  How could a course that was younger than some of the golf balls in the bottom of your bag suddenly be hanging with two of the oldest and most revered links tracks on earth? Designed by Kyle Phillips with the help of co-owner Mark Parsinen, and opened in 2000, 7126-yard Kingsbarns is clearly a child prodigy.  Although most folks had ...

“I love golf, but I also really enjoy English football (soccer),” Bob Wood began.  “Merseyside is home to some of England’s most outstanding golf courses, plus seven premier league football teams.  If you go over during the season (August through May), you can combine a fine game of golf with first-rate football spectating, even in the same day.  For me, it doesn’t get much better!” The county of Merseyside in northwest England officially incorporates the boroughs of Birkenhead, Wallasey, Liverpool, Bootle, and St Helens, radiating north and south from the banks of the Mersey River.  From a golf visitor perspective, ...

As far as golf travel to Great Britain is concerned, Wales – the small nation of three million souls tucked between the central  section of England and the Irish Sea -- is simply not on the radar for most Americans.  John Hopkins, the golf correspondent of The Times (of London) and a Welsh native, has a practical explanation.   “Wales doesn’t have the pure number of courses (approximately 200) that Ireland and Scotland have, nor do we have so many marquee courses. Just as importantly, we don’t have the tourist spend that those countries have. What most outsiders don’t realize is ...

Mexico presents a menu full of tough choices for travelers.  Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, or Cancun?  Tecate or Corona?  Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones II, or Greg Norman?  For golfers, our southern neighbor proffers a rare collection of oceanside desert courses designed by the best architects in the game.    Wide green fairways cross dusty arroyos, sweep past stately cacti, and often play down to the edge of the ocean—or across crashing surf.  Following is a spicy combination plate of Mexico’s best golf venues.  Muy bueno! You Don’t Know Jack John Wayne loved to stay at the Palmilla Hotel, in San Jose del ...

It’s a chilly December morning and Bandon Dunes is festooned in white. Sub-freezing temperatures are not typical along the southern Oregon coast. An “Arctic Blast” has spread over the Pacific Northwest (the phrase makes my fellow traveler Paul Riffel, chortle; an Iowa native, he knows what real cold is like.) Slight frost delays aside, early December is a great time to be at Bandon. The skies are bluebird blue, the whales migrating south from Alaska may be within view from Pacific and Bandon Dunes (December is prime whale watching season along the Oregon coast) and greens fees have plummeted to ...

Here’s today’s geography quiz: as you tee up your golf ball, you look out over yucca, creosote bushes, and other western American desert flora. In the distance, however, you notice the black outline of an Egyptian pyramid silhouetted against the blue horizon.  Beside it, the buildings of New York’s skyline crowd together like uneven teeth.  Not far from the Chrysler Building, Arthurian knights battle within medieval castles, Caribbean pirates clash swords aboard ship, and Roman gods come alive atop ancient ruins.  Where are you? If you answered ‘Las Vegas,’ you advance to the bonus round.  If you said something like, “Right here ...

All photos by Rod Hanna. If you think miners were busy hauling ore out of the ground in the border area between California and Nevada in the 19th century, just try harnessing the vein of great golf courses (45 within a 90-minute drive) that have sprung up a hundred years later.  Get a fast car, a lot of drinking water, and a passel of golf balls for a thrilling yee-haw road trip covering the best layouts this wild western locale around Reno, Carson City, Lake Tahoe, and Truckee has to offer. Although there are as many ways to route this trip as ...

The best golf resort in the world is Bandon Dunes in Oregon, but the best region in the world for a golfing holiday is the west of Ireland.  Bandon has borrowed some of the Irish spirit to make the resort a welcoming place, just as the designers of its courses drew inspiration from the great links of the British Isles.  The constellation of courses arrayed along Ireland’s Atlantic coast distills the essence of seaside golf, and the residents of the towns are as proud of their courses as they are generous with their hospitality.  In 1991, my friend, Edmund, invited me ...

The six short weeks that Dr. Alister Mackenzie spent around the state of Victoria in 1926 had an immeasurable impact on the sport of golf in Australia.  In that short time, he and Alex Russell, a talented Australian amateur player and able assistant, routed the 18 holes at Yarra Yarra Golf Club, built bunkers at the Victoria, Kingston Heath and Metropolitan Golf Clubs—and designed the West course at Royal Melbourne.  While some celebrate Augusta National as the greatest achievement of one of the world’s greatest architects, many aficionados recognize Royal Melbourne as Mackenzie’s finest accomplishment. Among this group is Nick Faldo. “I’m ...

The Danube River flows through the heart of central Europe, coursing past Budapest, Vienna and some of the most memorable Bavarian scenery in southeastern Germany.  There are opera houses, cafes and more than a few cathedrals and monasteries. And then there’s the golf. “In the early 90s, I’d been organizing themed trips for a company that specialized in luxury cruises,” Jim Lamont began.  “One trip might have an archaeological theme, another a history theme.  In 1996, a new boat, the River Cloud was launched.  It was designed especially for cruising the great rivers of Europe – the Danube, the Rhine, the Moselle.  ...

Just a couple of year ago, before the international financial crisis hit, the Mayan Riviera, as the 100 mile coastal stretch south of Cancun in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is known, has become our hemisphere’s version of Dubai. Luxury hotels could not open fast enough, including such high end Asian chains as Mandarin Oriental and Banyan Tree, which interestingly chose this are for its first venue into the Americas. Not to be outdone, companies closer to home like deluxe Rosewood jumped in, joined by Fairmont and Viceroy. Then there are a handful of the most exclusive all-inclusive resorts on earth, including one ...

From the year Arnold Palmer turned pro (1954) to the year Jack Nicklaus won his last major (1986), high-quality public golf in Massachusetts had its headquarters on Randall Road in Stow. Minding the store were the three Page brothers, blue-collar entrepreneurs who worked like plow horses to turn rugged woodland into two courses Arnie and Jack wouldn’t have minded playing, themselves.  The brothers, first-generation Americans, were warned by their father not to follow him into the Waltham foundry where he molded iron to earn a hard wage. The two oldest—twins Robert II and Fred—set themselves up in the heating oil business, ...

I love the Rivera Maya as a travel destination, and explained why the region is so charming in my last post. Now it’s time to look at the golf. Iberostar is a global Spanish chain of higher-end all-inclusive resorts with several properties in Mexico. At this particular location outside Cancun, Playa Paraiso, or Paradise Beach, there are actually four different Iberostar all-inclusives combined into one vast resort, and at each price point you get to use the facilities at your resort and all the ones below you, meaning more dining options, pool facilities and so on. The fanciest is the Paraiso Maya, ...

Today I am wrapping up my recent return visit to the Rivera Maya where it started, at the Mayakoba Resort. I love this area as a travel destination, and explained why the region is so charming in my last post, then looked at some of the best golf courses. This is the final installment from South of the Border.   Mayakoba is the only golf resort I visited that is not all-inclusive. In fact, it’s at the whole other end of the spectrum from all-inclusive. It is a large master-planned development full of homes and to date, three independent hotels/resorts, ranging from luxury ...

Four hours of golf reveals more about a person's character than three days around a conference table, right? Absolutely, but the character-revealing process starts earlier than you think—with your choice of which golf course to play.  You may have a decent swing and a courteous manner, but your selection of a golf- outing course makes its own separate impression on people, serving up clues about your judgment and personal style. If you’re the one gathering colleagues and clients together for some bonding mixed in with skull sessions, you need to understand how and why one golf venue differs from another.  And you ...

When Americans think of golf and Portugal – if they think of golf and Portugal – the Algarve region springs to mind.  Portugal’s answer to Spain’s Costa del Sol, the Algarve rests on the country’s extreme southern coast and boasts more than 30 courses, heavily patronized by Brits and other northern Europeans seeking a bit of sun to go with their golf (one might think of it as a less hurly-burly version of Myrtle Beach for the Old World). The Lisbon area, 150 miles or so up the coast, presents a different – and perhaps slightly more refined retreat.  Often overlooked ...

Northern Ireland is sometimes the Rodney Dangerfield of golf: it gets no respect. It’s not like anyone is knocking the place, it’s more that considering how good the golf is, you don’t hear that much about it compared with the Republic, as the rest of Ireland is known. Part of the problem is historical, as it is in Northern Ireland that “The Troubles” occurred. This very understated term refers to the decades-long religious and nationalist animosity between England, which Northern Ireland is a part of, just like Scotland or Wales, and the Irish independence movement, especially the IRA. The troubles were ...

I think almost every golf travel pundit would agree that Portstewart is the third best course in Northern Ireland, after the two heavyweights, Royal Portrush and Royal County Down. In golf terms, that’s sort of like being the third best looking gal at the Miss America contest. A few years ago I would have made an argument for my favorite sleeper, Ardglass, but after a return visit last month I have to give Portstewart the edge. Before recent renovations, the course had a reputation as a one-hit wonder. The one-hit is still great, but I am very happy to say, so ...

The preceding article post (“Pick the Right Course for Your Business-Golf Event,” Mon. Feb 15) is Part One one of a Two-Part Series. Read the second and concluding part here to learn more about looking good when you select courses for your business outings. THE TERM A GOOD RESORT COURSE RETAINS LITTLE MEANING Any golfer with a fairly keen eye for course design is unlikely to utter the phrase good resort course very often. In the days when public courses were either low-budget munis or nine-holers built by hand on family farmland, a resort course simply meant a public course built to country-club ...

Scott Kauffman’s Global Golf and Leisure Real Estate Report Vol. 1, No. 2   When real estate lawyer Jimmy Crawford started looking into a vacation home two years ago for his family, the foreign investment had to meet several criteria to be considered. Most importantly, the destination had to be English speaking by nature and located in a stable environment. The tropical place also had to have a similar legal system and be within close proximity to Crawford’s Orlando-area home. Being relatively affordable would be a bonus. Belize, as it turns out, fit the bill perfectly. For those not familiar with Belize, contrary to what many ...

(Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) – High-net worth individuals and corporations have a new way to entertain themselves and clients thanks to the recently announced Tour Club. Owned and operated by Golf Club Holdings LLC, under license by the PGA Tour, the Tour Club is the first national sports entertainment club membership that offers corporations and individuals with access to more than $1 billion in combined assets. Included in membership is a network of luxury residences, private and resort golf courses, previously inaccessible golf-centric experiences, VIP access to PGA TOUR events, TOUR-level golf instruction and event concierge services. The Tour Club’s corporate ...

While I was out at Pebble Beach for U.S. Open media day (see my earlier report here), I had the pleasure of playing two other courses of nearly-as-great renown: Spyglass Hill and Pasatiempo. It’s been a few weeks, but such is the power and beauty of both layouts that I recall them very well and very fondly. I’m tempted to say Spyglass needs little introduction, but it actually may require re-introduction if you’ve not seen it in the last decade. I hadn’t been since 1992, and what I remembered were lovely opening oceanside holes followed by a long, claustrophobic slog through ...

‘Show Me the Monkeys!’ That is my overriding desire as I step to the first tee of the dazzling golf course at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo. Instead, who do I see astride a log in front of the tee but Petey the Iguana. Then-director of golf Rob Oosterhuis makes the introductions. Petey is a huge mottled specimen, imperious of eye, a direct link to the dinosaurs. He is impressive, and trees he can climb, but a monkey he’s not. And so I concentrate instead on an engineering marvel seemingly airlifted by Arnold Palmer and his design team into ...

Last Saturday morning I arrived in Beijing after several days in Spain and Italy, lugging a suitcase full of polo shirts and golf caps to leave with a colleague in China so he can give them to clients and friends. I normally don’t check luggage, even when I’m gone for as many as three weeks, as on this trip. In the summer it’s especially easy to travel light, but I can manage with only carry-on any time of the year. But I checked two bags on the first four legs of this trip to get the gifts to China. I left the ...

Billy Casper Golf, the Vienna, Va.-based company that owns and operates more than 110 golf courses in 26 states, has been selected to manage the full-service, private Heritage Hunt Golf & Country Club in Gainesville, Va. Heritage is an active adult community of 1,863 residences located 45 minutes west of Washington, D.C. It marks Billy Casper’s ninth property in Virginia and 24th in the Mid-Atlantic region, a testament to the company’s growing portfolio of private clubs under management. BCG will turnkey all aspects of Heritage Hunt’s golf course and golf-course maintenance, staffing and training, food-and-beverage operations, merchandising, membership programs, marketing and public ...

Considering China’s new infatuation with capitalism, it’s not surprising that the number of golf courses here is increasing at an exponential rate—from zero twenty years ago to approximately two hundred in 2004 to an estimated twelve hundred by 2008.  Though the number of courses has increased dramatically along with the quality of the designs, Golden Pebble remains a highlight on the Sino golf spectrum.  It’s distinguished by its spectacular setting on dramatic cliff sides above the Yellow Sea, on land that’s essentially a national park area.  “Though the course would ultimately have some homes as part of the overall development, ...

Not sure how I missed the following report, reprinted here courtesy of the lovely people at TourismIreland. If golfers need any more reasons to go to Ireland (and trust me, they don't), this might be the deciding factor. IRISH ACCENT IS VOTED THE WORLD'S SEXIEST! THE IRISH ACCENT HAS BEEN VOTED THE WORLD'S SEXIEST OUSTING THE FRENCH FROM THE TOP SPOT! The Irish accent was yesterday voted the world's sexiest - knocking the Gauls off the top spot they've held for decades, according to The Daily Mail. Men with an Emerald Isle brogue, as promoted by stars like Colin Farrell and James Nesbitt, came ...

The world famous TPC Sawgrass is a dream destination for most traveling golfers. It also has nice sister TPC course and recently revamped Marriott hotel. But it still did not make Conde Nast Traveler's new best golf resorts in Florida list. What beat it out? Among others, two different hotels sharing the single just okay course at Orlando's Grand Lakes. Over the past two days, I have analyzed the stupidity of the “Top 80 Golf Resorts” reader poll in the June 2010 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. To reiterate, I am not doing this because I hate Condé Nast or its ...

As I wrap up my recent visit to Northern Ireland I have a stunning confession to make: I did not play Royal County Down. Why is this such big news? Because RCD, as some fans call it (though the Irish tend to shorten it just to County Down) is indisputably one of the greatest golf courses on earth, and by consensus the best in Northern Ireland, and by most rankings, the best in all of Ireland period. To put it bluntly, I know some golf experts who are as knowledgeable about architecture as they come, who would argue that RCD is not ...

In years past, on my way to Newport and points east, I used to drive by Meadow Brook, a public course in the tiny town of Richmond, R.I. Slowing down to 30 m.p.h. to observe the scraggly layout, I wondered to myself, “Why on earth are golfers wasting their time on this goat ranch?” It was like that back then. No longer. Reopened in April, 2010 after four years of reconstruction, the new Meadow Brook is the result of Yankee ingenuity and a new design partnership that carries the torch for the late Robert Trent Jones. Anchored by an old roadside farmhouse ...

Superb accommodations and a cherished old links beckon on this beach-ringed island Adrift in the Atlantic 22 miles south of Cape Cod, Nantucket exhales cool sea air on a hot summer day. But spring and fall, before the world descends on this privileged atoll, may be the best seasons to visit—especially if you want to tee it up on a Bay State sleeper. The most elegant place to stay on this sandy isle steeped in maritime history is The Wauwinet (pronounced “wau-WIN-it”), which occupies a narrow spit of land on the island’s northeast tip adjacent to a wildlife preserve. Flanked to one ...

If you’ve never been to the Sand Hills of north-central Nebraska, prepare to be amazed. The prairie land isn’t flat but looks very much like parts of Britain that golfers will recognize, with sandy soil, big dunes, and short grass perfect for grazing (there it’s sheep; here it’s cattle). Resembling golf’s homeland, it’s no surprise that a number of very good courses have already opened in this part of the heartland, including Jack Nicklaus’ Dismal River, Graham Marsh’s Sutton Bay (in southern South Dakota), Tom Doak’s Ballyneal (in eastern Colorado), and of course Sand Hills, the Ben Crenshaw/Bill Coore creation ...

Tom Doak and Jim Urbina reinterpreting Charles Blair Macdonald, the father of American golf course architecture, on 400 acres of glorious Oregon linksland high above the Pacific? Regarding the most keenly anticipated new course of the year, this one's a no-brainer. Especially when you consider that resort founder Mike Keiser, whose favorite course is the National Golf Links of America, Macdonald’s masterpiece in Southampton, N.Y., is on record as saying that he’s not employing Doak and Urbina as architects. “I’m employing them to design as C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor, his apprentice and successor, would build it if they were ...

What makes one golf course adored, and another merely respected or admired? As with all such matters of the heart, definitions defy description. You might be able calculate why one course makes you think or another instills terror, or how another amazed because of a beautiful shoreline or other particular or peculiar features. But for those that simply make you flutter and smile? Love is ineffable. To better try and understand this phenomenon we look to Irish golf. Here we can find common, reasoned ground in assessing the thrill and grandeur of Country Down, for instance, which is universally spoken of with studied ...

Cypress Point in the morning, Pebble Beach in the afternoon. It was one of those dream golf days at the end of a memorable family vacation to Northern California. But the best part of the trip occurred on our drive back from Monterey Peninsula to the San Francisco Airport, when we spent our final evening at CordeValle, a cloistered retreat nestled among the arresting California mountain valleys just minutes off Highway 101 and 20 miles south of San Jose. An idea that had originally started as an afterthought became the blue-ribbon highlight of the week. Its name derived appropriately from the ...

The ancient Mayan culture invented one of the earliest forms of ball games, so it’s only fitting that golf thrives among the stone pyramids, jungles, and gorgeous shorelines of their homeland.  Visiting golfers will be glad to note, however, that unlike in early Mayan times, the winners of modern contests will not be sacrificed to the gods. The state of Quintana Roo, on the eastern edge of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, makes for a perfect happy/sunny destination combining golf, archaeological tours, fine resorts, water sports, shopping, fiery cuisine, and hip towns such as the charming, beachy Playa del Carmen.  While some visitors ...

Some thoughts heading into the British Open: The Road Hole Extension A new tee has been built for the 17th hole, adding 40 yards to make it a 495-yard par four. There has been much gnashing of teeth about the change from those who don’t like seeing one of the most famous holes in golf tampered with. Some of the criticism is leveled at the fact that the new tee is located in an area that is used as a practice range and is out of bounds as the Old Course is generally played. But is that really inappropriate? Remember, the ...

Joe’s StoneCrab Restaurant, a Miami Beach tradition since 1913, reopens for its’ 97th season October 15. Seafood fans and the usual glittering see-and-be-seen crowds cracked and munched crab claws at the historic eatery. 2,000 people per-night don bibs and dine on white tablecloths at Joe’s during the Stone Crab season – as many as 500 at a time – most having waited up to two hours for a table. This is an American tradition to be cherished, especially in light of the recent news that another legendary restaurant, Tavern on the Green, in New York City, had gone bankrupt. Joe’s open-air ...

As an author and golf and travel writer who frequently broadcasts from golf-related destinations around the world, I am often asked the question: “What is your favorite golf course?” This is a very, very difficult question to answer, since golf courses are so individual, depending on their designer, locale, and the intent of the developer. Nevertheless, since I’ve written for most of the major golf magazines and still serve on the Cigar Aficionado “Best of Golf” rating panel, I felt perhaps it was time I stepped up and answered the question. The major magazines use various criteria for their ratings, including defense ...

Hey you. Yes, the one with the golf bag shaped like R2D2. The one that looks like you’re overcompensating for something. Yeah, we’re talkin’ to you. Does your bag have to be so large? We’re playing golf here, not smuggling barrels of oil. You have the same number of clubs that we do, the same band-aids and rain gear, yet your bag comes with a horsepower rating. In this economy—in any economy—that thing is pretentious. It’s obscene. Unless sponsors pay you to walk around with that traveling billboard, lose it. Even if they are, it’s still too big. Nobody is impressed, ...

I don’t remember the exact year in which I first played golf on South Carolina’s Grand Strand. It was sufficiently long ago that you could still see Arnold Palmer playing on the PGA Tour, and you wouldn’t have been entirely out of your mind to root for him to win. Back in those days, golfing on the Grand Strand was like finding Cutter and Buck shirts selling for $10 apiece at an outlet mall.  There were perhaps two dozen courses dotting the pine forests along the 60 mile stretch of coast that begins at the North Carolina border and extends ...

Call me fussy (I prefer discerning) but I don’t want to spend my well-deserved winter vacation wearing a tacky plastic bracelet that entitles me to unlimited greasy buffets and watered-down drinks at some all-inclusive resort. Why would I sleep in a cookie-cutter, 2,000-room hotel when I can stay somewhere intimate with tropical style—and where the staff knows my name. I’ve chased the dimpled white ball over five continents and in doing so I’ve experienced some grand golf. But if I had to name my holy trilogy of destinations where everything—from the courses to the accommodations to the service—rates twenty out of ...

Born of volcanic eruptions more than 45 million years ago, the eastern flank of Oregon’s Cascade Range has evolved into a lava-built plateau where the game of golf has flourished beneath the snow-capped peaks. In the past 25 years, dozens of public-access layouts have sprung up in and around Bend, gateway to central Oregon and one of the bona fide golf capitals of the Northwest. Courses range from high-desert links routed at 4,000 feet and higher, their fairways framed by lava rock outcrops, twisted junipers and peppery sagebrush; to parkland-style layouts stretched across broad meadows and staked out by mighty ...

Few golf courses have been as misbegotten and accursed as the Tournament Players Club at Avenel, in Potomac, Maryland. Deane Beman, the PGA Tour Commissioner back in the 1980s, was its father, though the architect of record was Ed Ault. Beman grew up in the national capital area, and he intended Avenel to be a showcase in his hometown, both for the PGA Tour and for his lasting contribution to the game, the stadium golf course. Like Pete Dye’s original example of the genre (the Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL) Avenel was designed as a site for professional golf and ...

In 1969, during a CBS evening news broadcast, Walter Cronkite reported that the EPA had just named Chattanooga “the dirtiest city in America” for its onerous air pollution. Today it’s difficult to imagine any such physical blight. Geologically, Chattanooga is one of the South’s most well endowed cities, poised as it is at a dramatic confluence of land and water at a point where the Tennessee River carves gorges into the southern Cumberland Plateau in a series of sharp twists and buttonhooks. Bracketing the river, the city surges upward from both banks into the surrounding foothills, while Lookout Mountain, a tall, sheer-faced ...

I asked myself, What makes these old courses hold up today? They're not just museum pieces. They're still fun and exciting to play, a lot more fun and exciting than most modern courses. -- Mike Keiser When George Peper was the editor of Golf Magazine, he gave a harsh review to a new course by a well-known professional whom I probably shouldn't name (Greg Norman). Norman let him know he wasn't happy about the review, and in the ensuing dust-up Peper tried to get to the essence of what he valued in a golf course. He came up with this formula: ...

Rating golf courses is an inherently subjective enterprise, much like rating restaurants and novels. I may like F. Scott Fitzgerald while you prefer Jane Austen, and who’s to say which position is correct?  But while elements of personal taste and preference inevitably affect a golf course rating, I try to infuse as much objectivity as I can into the process.  When I worked for the Golf Magazine panel that ranked public golf courses and when I assessed resorts for Travel and Leisure Golf, I developed a 200-point rating system. It’s mine, but it’s not much different from the systems used by most ...

Chics with sticks go west Last September, our female foursome, dubbed “chicks with sticks,” headed west for a swinging Rocky Mountain getaway. Women may be latecomers to the sport of kings, but we have high standards. A no-frills condo, a fridge full of beer and a Big Mac for dinner are not for us. Along with remarkable golf, we want stylish digs, gourmet meals, massages and martinis. The Fairmont Banff Springs hotel, that legendary Canadian castle in the mountains of Banff National Park, was our unanimous choice. “Finest hotel on the North American Continent,” was how the Banff Springs was advertised when ...

For Milton S. Hershey, it was always about family. From the moment he began planning “his” town at the turn of the 20th century, the chocolate magnate made a commitment to create an array of recreational and cultural opportunities for its residents, his employees. It began with a picnic and pleasure grounds called Hershey Park (the name changed to Hersheypark in 1971), where factory workers could spend time off with their families, and ultimately evolved to include countless facilities and activities. Among those activities was golf. In 1932, Mr. Hershey hired Scottish golf course architect Maurice McCarthy, whom he had tapped ...

When most golfers talk about their home course it's not usually called, well, The Home Course.  Unless you happen to live in Dupont, Washington, an hour south of Seattle and not very far from the already-renowned Chambers Bay Golf Course, which will soon hold the US Amateur followed a few years later by the US Open.  The Home Course will work in a supporting role in the upcoming Amateur, hosts a couple of other Championships (the Sahalee Players Championship and WSGA Champion of Champions), and can also play host to you and your buddies. First, a quick history lesson.  The site ...