Back in 1974 while covering Super Bowl VIII, writer Hunter S. Thompson discovered that all he had to do to make deadline was to take the Super Bowl article he wrote the previous year, change the name of the losing team from “Washington Redskins” to “Minnesota Vikings,” and fax it in to Rolling Stone. The Miami Dolphins slowly strangled both...
California golf conjures up fond reveries of golden sunshine, rhythmic waves lapping peacefully at rocky shorelines, and flagsticks snapping briskly in the breeze, silhouetted nobly against the blazing sunset… …just not at TPC Harding Park. Let’s see: Olympic Club, Meadow Club, California Golf Club of San Francisco, San Francisco Golf Club, Pebble...
DATELINE: A SECRET UNDERGROUND BUNKER, SOMEWHERE IN U.S.A. So a PGA Championship in August means this is Glory’s Last Shot, right? Not exactly. This season the PGA Championship is actually Glory’s First Shot. The Coronovirus kayoed world professional sports since March, leaving stadiums empty, athletes playing to pre-recorded crowd noise, and many events...
[Author’s Note: Continuing our rewind series, we celebrate Father’s Day with the letter from me to my Dad on Father’s day at the end of the tournament.] SPEECHLESS IN SEATTLE – DJ 3-JACKS HANDS 2015 U.S. OPEN TO JORDAN SPIETH [Editor’s Note: Bringing back an old favorite column, Jay writes this U.S. Open wrap-up in the form of a...
Future President’s Cup venues:
2019 – Royal Melbourne -Composite, Melbourne, Australia
2021 – Quail Hollow, Charlotte, NC
2023 – TBD
2025 – Harding Park Golf Club, San Francisco, CA
PEBBLE BEACH, CA – For the fourth consecutive day, June gloom hangs oppressively in the sky, so it’s no wonder golfers that prefer U.K. weather are doing so well on the leader board at the 119th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Hopefully, blue skies and golden sunshine will return just in time for you, dear reader, to hit the links yourself, before heading to...
PEBBLE BEACH, CA – Louis Oosthuizen found the poem, the song, the fragrance that is Pebble Beach Golf Links so irresistible, he had to stop and take some pictures. “I was out there, probably looked like a tourist taking all the pictures on my phone and forgot I was playing a practice round. But, yeah, that’s what this place does to you,” he...
PEBBLE BEACH, CA – With all the pomp and circumstance of the U.S. Open’s long and storied history at Pebble Beach, as well as the course’s glorious 100th anniversary, it’s easy to forget that the PGA Championship also was contested by the shores of Carmel Bay, and that it gave us as zany, wild, and dramatic a major as it has at many of its U.S...
PEBBLE BEACH, CA – It’s called June Gloom, that cold, grey mist that descends upon Monterey Peninsula that turns the otherwise green and golden Pebble Beach into a scene out of Hound of the Baskervilles. Under this chilly blanket of clouds, it’s easier to understand how our beloved Pebble, perhaps the shortest of America’s informal rotation of...
The USGA announced a dozen courses to host sectional qualifying for the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. While the most groundbreaking part of the announcement was the revealing of the first ever Canadian venue, Rattlesnake Point Golf Club (Copperhead and Sidewinder Courses), Milton, Ontario, the courses that arouse the interest of well-traveled American golfers...
Having been, at various times, both the celebrity in the pro am as well as a player, I can attest to the bedlam, mayhem, and chaos a pro am round can devolve to. I once watched a guy playing in a pro-am in Jamaica smack a stone tee marker in front of him, (a giant tiki…decorative and festive, but bad idea for a tee marker) and had the ball catapult into the...
My first Golf Course Trades article is up! It’s my review of the architectural and agronomic changes to Poppy Hills, the great RTJ, Jr. course on the Monterey Peninsula that shares hosting duties with Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, and Spyglass Hill. You can click on the entire article here. Here’s a teaser: “Pine Valley’s...
GNN is running my piece discussing Wine Valley, Chambers Bay, Palouse Ridge, and Coeur D’Alene. What a fantastic trip for you and your golf buddies – all the best the Evergreen State has to offer. Up next: Foo Fighters at Fenway and golf at George Wright and Granite Links!
[Editor’s Note: Bringing back an old favorite column, Jay writes this U.S. Open wrap-up in the form of a Father’s day letter to his 91-year old Dad.] SNOQUALMIE, WA – Dear Dad: For the 11th year in a row, because of the U.S. Open I’ll miss seeing you for Father’s Day. I’m really sorry for that, and I wish it were different. The...
UNIVERSITY PLACE – “It’s too brown! It’s too bumpy! It’s too British!” they moan plaintively. Yes, the whiny blockheads are out in force this year, as they usually are at the U.S. Open, complaining about how unusual golf’s annual Final Examination is. It’s actually flabbergasting: They’re not complaining about how...