Category: Other Places

Straight Doping the Straits at Whistling Straits

Straight Doping the Straits at Whistling Straits

I don’t know what billionaire owner and developer Herb Kohler asked for when he hired Pete Dye to design and build the Straits Course at Whistling Straits, but if he wanted a true homage to an Irish links he didn’t get it. Though it looks the part in a sweeping glance there’s scant opportunity for the creative or interpretive play that real links…

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Seaside at Sea Island — In Its Element

Seaside at Sea Island — In Its Element

No one has ever accused Tom Fazio of being a minimalist. In fact Fazio seems almost hostile to the idea that there’s virtue in building holes with as little construction involved as possible. If the option is presented, why not take full control of the design process? Had modern industrial machines and equipment, Fazio has conjectured, been widely…

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FarmLinks at Pursell Farms – Field (& Mountain) & Stream

FarmLinks at Pursell Farms – Field (& Mountain) & Stream

The remarkable par-3 5th. It can be a little difficult to describe FarmLinks, one of the more unique and entertaining golf destinations in the Southeast. FarmLinks is the name of the golf course located on a bucolic 3,500-acre family-operated preserve about an hour south of Birmingham. The Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry design wanders freely just about…

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Mad About Mid-Pines

Mad About Mid-Pines

Trying to describe the essentials of good golf course routing calls to mind Justice Potter Stewart’s old brief about classifying porn — I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it. Bad golf course routings can be spotted miles away but truly great ones can be sublime. You often don’t realize they’re…

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Goin’ Back to The Farm

Goin’ Back to The Farm

Golf courses built on sloping terrain usually feature distinct sections or acts, as the land transitions from high to low ground and back. Depending on the topography and architecture, some holes may fit better on the ground and offer highlights other areas can’t match. But the key on such sites is to unify all of it and make…

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Bringing the Sticks–Golf in Atlanta

Bringing the Sticks–Golf in Atlanta

Let’s get one thing out of the way — the greater Atlanta area in one of the weakest golf markets of all major American cities. Which is ironic because, for many people, Georgia represents a very specific type of American golf ideal. Most of that feeling, of course, is tethered to the fantasy of Augusta National. It isn’t so…

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The Standard Club: Atlanta’s Overlooked Standard of Excellence

The Standard Club: Atlanta’s Overlooked Standard of Excellence

Debates regarding the best golf in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia typically revolve around tier 2 and 3 courses, as general consensus exists about the clubs there that are truly elite. Not so Atlanta. Once past Peachtree Golf Club, widely considered no. 1 by knowledgable players and panels (including me), the conversation about what’s good in Atlanta quickly devolves…

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