The A Position

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 ... Read more

It’s the end of December and everyone else is doing it, so why not me? And given that there are only a few days left in the year and I’m at home in Manhattan and unlikely to be taking the clubs out for a few months at best, it’s unlikely I’ll be adding to my course list for 2009. So here are my most memorable ... Read more

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 ... Read more

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 ... Read more

Surely it’s more than mere happenstance that the game of golf and the drinkable artwork that is Scotch whisky were both created in the gorgeously green, wind-swept, salty-aired duneslands of Scotland. Although the origins of golf are slightly shrouded in mist, many believe the game was invented as early as the 14th century by fishermen returning from beach to village across rolling links.  If one fisherman ... Read more

You must remember this: There’s more to golf in France than chasing a little white ball around. The game as it’s played in Gaul is not a card-and-pencil affair. In fact, it would be criminal to plan a buddy trip to this venerable nation where the five senses, not just the desire to crack a drive or hole a putt, are fully engaged and satisfied. ... Read more

Sure you can smoke a 460cc driver off the tee, but do you know the intricate fundamentals of smoking a good cigar? I've had all the golf lessons I could ever want (no, they didn’t help).  But for a primer on choosing the best cigar to enjoy between lousy shots I turned to Bill Shindler, manager of downtown Portland, Oregon’s Rich’s Cigar Store, who has been ... Read more

1.  Show some courtesy.  And cogency.  If you think of my seat back like a trebuchet, and my head like the projectile you'd be shooting with said trebuchet, every time you pull on my seat back with all your weight to lift yourself up to shuffle useless crap in and out of your too-large bag in the overhead rack, you snap my head forward at ... Read more

Dramatic settings abound at Shiskine, with new woders on every hole.      Hidden Gem of the Month: November 2009   Shiskine, an old and off the beaten track Scottish seaside layout, may be the only 12 hole course in the world. Even if there are others, I am 100% sure Shiskine is the best. In fact, it is the only 12 hole course consistently ranked in the Top 100 Courses ... Read more

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 ... Read more