Normally, the renovation of a once-public golf course in Kansas City wouldn’t warrant a news story. Hundreds of courses undergo significant work and ownership changes each year, so what makes this significant? The group acquiring the old Hillcrest Country Club is one that’s different than any other in the industry. Links Golf Club is a Read more…
The Rules of Golf allow you to remove loose impediments, like stones, from the bunker, but it turns out golf course superintendents have a strong preference for where you should put them.
The 2025 U.S. Open will be held at a familiar locale for fans of the championship as the USGA brings its marquee event once more to Oakmont Country Club just outside of Pittsburgh. This will be the 10th time that the famed Henry Fownes design will host the national championship, more than any other venue, Read more…
On a warm day while staring down a birdie putt, you’ll realize how lucky you are to be in the Fort Myers area. This historic and tranquil town along the gorgeous Gulf of Mexico is like no other in Florida, with secluded beaches, lush nature preserves, a blossoming food scene and amazing golf. The islands, Read more…
If you are a person of certain means with access to private jets and destination club memberships, the last 10 years have been a golf revelation. Exclusive private clubs have opened in remote, difficult to get to locations in Nebraska, California, South Carolina and south Georgia, and new velvet-roped doors continue to open in off-the-beaten Read more…
When you finally decide to take a once-in-a-lifetime golf trip, don’t just take a trip. Go on a journey. Have you ever reached your destination and traveled through time? That’s part of the adventure of traveling to New Zealand. Because you cross the International Dateline when departing from the U.S., a trip to New Zealand Read more…
For all the history, adoration and accolades Pebble Beach receives, it is not a particularly strategic golf course. One exception is the short par-4 fourth hole.
Twenty-five years ago, it was impossible to imagine the places people would now be rushing to for world class resort golf: the cold southwest coast of Oregon; the austere shore of the mighty St. Lawrence River in Nova Scotia; agrarian central Wisconsin; the quiet Ozarks of southern Missouri. The golf resorts that have been developed Read more…
Tom Doak’s new course at Pinehurst possesses all the elements that define golf in the Carolina sand hills, but it’s arranged in ways that make #10 seem fresh and explorative. The essential components are familiar: deep sandy soils, rolling but not extreme elevation changes, pine forests and contrasting grasses and sedges for texture. From there, Read more…
Pete Dye didn’t invent the terrifying par-3 hole, but he revolutionized it. Architects from the beginning have positioned greens in precarious places that require extreme tee-shot precision—across lakes and rivers, on benches above deep bunkers and ravines, in dunes surrounded by sand and gorse—but Dye took it to another level. His all-carry par 3s played Read more…
During his tenure as executive director and CEO of the USGA, Mike Davis had the fortune of playing and studying most of the great golf courses in the United States. For over 30 years he traveled the country to explore potential tournament sites for the 15-20 events the USGA organizes each year, and Davis’ job Read more…
There was a time when a beer and a dog at the turn were as sure of a thing as a three-putt after a birdie. Heck, Golf Digest even did a definitive* ranking of the best golf hot dogs in the country. The days of the on-course glizzy, it seems however, might be over. A Read more…
Golf course construction will never again approach the frenetic pace of the 1990s and early 2000s, but it is on the uptick. Plus, the quality of the courses we’ve seen open the last five years has rarely been higher. The work being done by top architects is exemplary, and developers are selecting sites and the Read more…
Most golf fans are familiar with Kapalua Golf Club’s Plantation Course, home of the PGA Tour’s opening event each year. Located on the north shore of the Hawaiian island of Maui, the Plantation was built from open, windswept pineapple fields on the pronounced slope of a volcano and is irrigated by sprinklers pressured solely by Read more…