Though all eyes are on Louis Oosthuizen, Russell Henley and Mackenzie Hughes at the 121st U.S. Open, three former U.S. Open champions also made moves on Saturday and vaulted into contention. 2011 U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy started the day at 1-over, six shots behind Henley and co...
At a U.S. Open where PGA Tour uber-stars and wily veterans were expected to have an advantage a puzzling stranger and a promising young gun hold the lead after 36 holes at 5-under. England’s Richard Bland, obscure even in his own country, fired a dazzling 67, balancing seven birdies...
Two-time U.S. Open Champion Brooka Koepka started hot early, but then came back to the field late, surrendering an early lead as the first round of the 121st U.S. Open golf championship got underway. Koepka finished tied for third with a 2-under 69 after opening with four birdies in his...
Phil Mickelson picked out a few on the front nine and golf architect Rees Jones focused on 11-13, but perhaps the best aspect of Torrey Pines’ South is its wondrous variety. A mix of short holes and long holes, together with movable teeing grounds and hazards more closely menacing...
As one of my mentors once wrote, “If you’re gonna write about the U.S. Open, you have to be well-versed in the lore of Francis Ouimet’s knickers.” He was right. It’s important to have sense of history watching this, the 121st edition of America’s national championship of golf. So pay...
LA JOLLA, CA – There’s an old adage that should hold true for every United States Open Championship: the golf course is the star. Oakmont, Winged Foot, Olympic Club, Pinehurst…these are names from the oldest Golden Ages of the game. They materialize out of the mysts of history like a...
LA JOLLA, CA – Just like his father before him, they called him the Open Doctor, and he took up his father’s mantle and carried it with the same success and grace. Rees Jones has been prepping major championship venues for decades all across America. Now we return to one of his most...
Quick! Someone get Stephen Spielberg on the line! Or if he’s not available James Cameron! It’s a blockbuster, I tell ya! Marvel Studios will need ten Avengers franchises to match it. Bill it as a sequel to Follow the Sun, that Ben Hogan movie. We can call it Over the Moon or The Legend of...
While we get ready for the 2021 U.S. Open, Golf Course Trades has run my interview with new Golf Course Superintendent’s Association of America president Mark Jordan. From the article: “The policies and systems we set up – such as the website clearinghouse for information and...
Golfer Angel Cabrera, winner of the 2007 U.S. Open and the 2009 Masters, has been arrested in Brazil and is to be extradited to his home country of Argentina to face charges he assaulted three women, all of whom were ex-wives or former lovers. Nicknamed “the Duck” for his...
Have you felt it? A tectonic shift, a disturbance in the force, a change in the prevailing wind: whatever you call it, a life-long skier just like you or me is doing it. He’s fighting the big guys at their own game, and he’s doing just fine. Go Fish! Doug Fish that is, the founder...
Golf Course Trades has posted the webinar I did with Philly Cricket Club PGA Head Professional Jim Smith, Jr. and Director of Grounds Dan Meersman on YouTube. What a great time we had talking about Tillinghast and the amazing Keith Foster restoration. The link to the video is here. The...
Night has fallen at Kiawah Island, and an almost reverent hush has descended over the dunes. Gone is the hoopla, the circus, the whoop and crash. The course now belongs to the bobcats, the sea turtles, the rolling ocean and the inexorable breezes. Come tomorrow it will howl a...
Pete Dye counts about 80 golf courses in his lifetime repertoire, and at each and every one of them Pete was constantly on site – either actually living there (yes, even in far flung places like the Dominican Republic and Switzerland – or making regular visits from start to finish...
I had to hold back a teardrop or two as I wrote the ledes for my PGA Championship previews this year. This week’s tournament at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course marks the first time a Pete Dye designed course has hosted a major golf championship since the great man passed away in January of...
Golf Course Trades just published my article on Pete Dye and Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. Right on time! Enjoy the piece, everybody. From the article: “They bought the Kiawah land in 1988,” Pete told me, “and they looked at me, and I looked at the swamp they bought, and they said...
We were having a fine run-up to this, the 103rd PGA Championship, even before Rory McIlroy’s TaylorMade TP5x golf ball tumbled into the cup at the 72nd hole of the Quail Hollow Championship two weeks ago. Nearly all of golf’s young gun stars and marquis names had won since the turn of the...
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Dappled sunshine off the lapping ocean waves or a howling gale bending flagsticks to their near-breaking point? Which Kiawah Island Ocean Course will we see for the 2021 PGA Championship? The windless one that surrendered a winning score of 22-under to Colin...
We’ll be reporting all week with 2x daily reports starting Tuesday from the PGA Championship for Golf News Net. In the meantime, he are the odds to win the 2021 PGA at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course: Rory McIlroy +1000 10/1 Jon Rahm +1200 12/1 Justin Thomas +1200 12/1 Dustin...
In perhaps its biggest score yet, founder/owner Doud Fish nailed down Powder Mountain as the latest resort to join the IndyPass revolution. Already celebrated as, perhaps, the most affordable multi-venue pass in skiing/boarding, IndyPass also added two more resorts to bring the total...
I’ll be hosting a half-hour Golf Course Trades event with the folks from Philly Cricket Club on May 27, 2021 at 12pm. PGA Head Professional Jim Smith, Jr. and Director of Grounds Dan Meersman will join me for a talk about their wonderful renovation by architect Keith Foster, their...
So a big thank you to Golf Course Trades for running my interview with Dr. Richard Hurley, PhD., a.k.a. Dr. Turfgrass. From the article: “For 40 years Dr. Hurley has been at the forefront of turfgrass development. He’s named strains of grass after Arnold Palmer and Ben Crenshaw...
So both Golf Course Trades and Resort Trades magazines are running a second Loon Mountain story that I wrote after my January trip. (Jay Peak is next, by the way.) It was quite an impressive place, but best of all, it was low impact, fun, and easy in every respect low hanging fruit for...
It was either going to be the Green Jacket or a straightjacket; there was no middle road for Hideki Matsuyama. Japan’s newly-minted greatest golfer ever won the 2021 Masters, but only after nearly squandering a 6-shot lead and hanging on narrowly after late charges by Xander Schauffle and...
It was a bullet-grey sky that blanketed Southport, England, on a July Sunday in 1998, but the low clouds that hung oppressively over Royal Birkdale Golf Club were parted by the radiant sunshine of a young, fresh-faced high school kid who carried all of England on his shoulders. Skinny as...
Everyone always says the Masters doesn’t begin until the back nine on Sunday, but you can’t get to the back nine without playing the front nine. And that’s no walk in the park. Maybe Tiger Woods can fire a front nine 40 during the first round and still win the Masters, but mere mortals...
Odds to win the 2021 Masters Championship, April 8-11, Augusta National Country Club Dustin Johnson +850 17/2 Bryson Dechambeau +900 9/1 Justin Thomas +1000 10/1 Jon Rahm +1100 11/1 Jordan Spieth +1200 12/1 Rory McIlroy +1400 14/1 Brooks Koepka +2000 20/1 Xander Schauffele +2000 20/1...
A huge thank you again to the National Ski Council Federation for running a portion of and posting a link to my Loon Mountain article. (Click the link above.) As usual, they do a fantastic job; we’re grateful for their support. By the way, join a local ski club or two: it’s a...
It’s still a sure bar bet winner: what’s the oldest country club in America? It’s Philadelphia Cricket Club, founded in 1854. It’s always a joy to get a day at Philly Cricket, but now that restoration architect Keith Foster and head super Dan Meersman have their...
(Pic courtesy of Loon Mtn.) Border War! Vermont vs. New Hampshire Skiing Part 9 – Loon Mountain —by Jay Flemma LINCOLN, NH – Day 1 of 2, circa 1:00 pm – It’s not often that one can tiptoe past a sleeping dragon, but occasionally even dragons must doze. And so it was that I caught...