The A Position

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Ailsa Amber Ale is currently available in only one place in the world, and I’m lucky enough to be here--at the Turnberry Resort in southwest Scotland. The beer is named after the Ailsa golf course, easily among the world’s most enchanting as it plays along the Ayrshire coast. In most recent memorable memory, it was the scene of the 2009 Open Championship, when Tom Watson ... Read more

<Previous: Birdies and Brews: Introduction Next: Birdies and Brews Part 2: San Diego, California> Having dissed Ireland, we’ll salve the Celtic soul at the venerable home of golf, St. Andrews. As for the beer, consider four words: college town, real ales. Scotland’s first university was founded here in 1413. With classes in session this compact seaside town’s population effectively doubles to 14,000, invigorating the many charming shops, ... Read more

Jeff Ritter demonstrates simple tips for more power is this episode of The Golf Digest Clinic! For more information on coaching with Jeff, visit JeffRitterGolf.com Download The Jeff Ritter Golf App FREE! Read more

Congratulations to the U.S. team for its Presidents Cups win in Melbourne earlier today. Watching some of the play on the Royal Melbourne course put me in mind of the time I was fortunate enough to play there. So I thought I’d pull this one out of the vaults as a nod to the land down under, part of a trip I took eight years ... Read more

I have travelled to what some Kiwis describe as the end of the Earth, and guess what? It’s rather more lavish than one would have expected from such an extreme location. There’s an outstanding golf course perched precariously over the edge of a jagged cliff, a spa tucked into a ferned glade and a lodge and cottages that live up to lofty Relais & Chateaux ... Read more

  The uphill approach to the 11th green at the Azalea Course at Dancing Rabbit in Mississippi features a hole tucked far to the right-hand side of the green just beyond the bunker.  Would you attack this flag?  Find out what you might want to consider below.   When should you aim for the hole or flagstick, and when shouldn't you? Three factors determine when you become aggressive and ... Read more

The last time I visited Ireland, my brother and I chaperoned the old man around the Southwest, taking in the links at Doonbeg, Lahinch, Tralee and Ballybunion. That was nearly three years ago and our timing couldn’t have been better. I don’t want to go all Jim Dodson on you, but my dad has since been diagnosed with lymphoma. He’s hanging in there, but my ... Read more

Welcome to another installment of The Curmudgeon, the golf podcast here at halphillips.net. The Curmudgeon was created to, well, complain about those golfing pieties and sacred cows, which, while legion, no one else seems obliged to touch. In this edition, your host Hal Phillips speak with Spencer Robinson, longtime editor of Asian Golf Monthly magazine, about the paucity of links courses in Asia, which is ... Read more

Golf en Provence is actually a very good idea, but it's a bit like golf en honeymoon. There’s so much to do, and the region’s delights so brilliantly couples-oriented, the golf can seem a bit superfluous, n'est-ce pas? That said, my wife and I didn’t honeymoon anywhere in the vicinity of the Four Seasons Resort Provence at Terre Blanche, just west of Aix in the Var ... Read more