The A Position

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

While dining in the clubhouse at Pont Royal, one is obliged to meet the head chef, Thierry Candaele, a barrel-chested man with curly gray hair and an obvious gift for bonhomie. In traditional Gallic fashion he glides from table to table doling out multi-lingual pleasantries, accepting deserved compliments and making sure everything is just so. At our table, however, something is amiss. With a quick, ... Read more

When it’s mid-July, a golf writer’s thoughts carry across the pond to land, with backspin, on the greens of Britain and Ireland Those who write about golf may not be amply rewarded financially, but we’re lucky enough to play some marvelous venues, often including the finest courses in Great Britain and Ireland, where the game took root. In honor (make that honour!) of next week’s ... Read more

  Golf course architects may bemoan the sunny 1990’s, when new layouts debuted virtually daily, peaking at 398 in 2000. Such days are unlikely to return: there were fewer than 50 new course openings in 2010. But it does makes it easier to spot the winners. Castle Stuart Golf Links, Inverness, Scotland The accolades are stacking up like revetted bunkers for this Highland course overlooking the Moray ... Read more

      It’s hard to find “comps” for New Zealand. It’s quite British in character, obviously; it’s a Commonwealth nation. Kiwis honor the Empire (and their place in it) in ways Australians, for example, never would. That said, there is a personal reserve and conservatism to Kiwis, and a cultural socialism, that struck me as downright Scandinavian. It’s not an austere place, but there is an awful ... Read more