With a bogey free 5-under 65 San Francisco-born, Texas native Will Zalatoris surged into the lead at the 104th PGA Championship. The second year pro who was runner up in his first Masters in 2021 took advantage of an unexpected, but favorable change in the weather to fire a 31 on the back nine, including three consecutive birdies at 11-13 in sunny, windless...
Golf architect Perry Maxwell’s life and legacy were, and still are, filled with ironies. You have the southern gentleman banker who moved to the dust bowl of Oklahoma during the Great Depression to raise a family. You have a man who turned to golf design almost has an accident (and at the suggestion of his wife no less) become so proficient he became partners...
The Southern Hills Country Club that the touring professional golfers will face in the 2022 PGA Championship will bear only a passing resemblance to the 2007 Southern Hills systematically dismantled by Tiger Woods as he won his 13th major and his fourth Wanamaker Trophy. Happily, Southern Hills will appear far more similar to its origins in 1935-36 when Golden Age...
It’s the dawn of a new era, albeit with strong overtones of our beloved history. The Jay’s Plays Radio Show on Golf News Net and Sirius XM has moved. We are now Jay Flemma Sports Report – JFSR for short. Indeed, all your favorite shows in the GNN radio lineup have been picked up, and you can hear us all on iHeartRadio. (See GNN for the portal.)...
I’ll be hosting Golf Course Trades’ short webinar series on one of my all time favorites and an instant and forever classic: Bayonne Golf Club. Arguably the greatest build of the 21st century, architect owner Eric Bergstol designed an Irish-style links on an old waste disposal site overlooking New York harbor. Few people could manage the ludicrous...
“We have lost our iconic clubhouse:” with those words the entire golf world wept. Oakland Hills Country Club president Rick Palmer confirmed what everyone feared Friday morning – a devastating fire that broke out Thursday morning completely destroyed the century-old clubhouse, which had stood sentinel over six U.S. Opens, nine major championships...
This is some of the biggest news in golf. Not the pro tours, not the latest equipment, the rebuilding of C.B. Macdonald’s lost masterpiece, Lido Golf Club, in the middle of the sand wastes of Wisconsin by Tom Doak and the Kaiser family is the quantum leap the Second Golden Age of Golf Course architecture has resulted in. Run, don’t walk to...
Once again, Golf Course Trades does a splendid job of running my story about New Hampshire’s Rees Jones-designed marvel, Baker Hill. Truly one of the best Rees courses I’ve played, the club also will have one final year to celebrate the career of the only head superintendent they’ve ever had: Bob Turcotte, a.k.a. Baker Hill Bob. All across the east...
MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. –You don’t see a lot of New Hampshire golf courses on many mainstream top-100 lists. Why not? When pundits discuss the best states for golf, they often overlook New Hampshire, and that’s a shame because Donald Ross, a colossus of golf course architecture, left behind a legacy of exceptional golf in the Granite State, easily the...
Call it an encore: the USGA has announced their second U.S. Open Anchor site, and it is being met with the same widespread acclaim as when they announced the inaugural site at Pinehurst. Fabled, venerable Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh has been given the honor, and will host the 2025, 2034, 2042, and 2049 U.S. Opens, with an eye toward eventually hosting the...
So Golf Course Trades has posted the link to the webinar I did on Forsgate’s Banks Course with course owner Chris Schiavone, architect Stephan Kay and head superintendent Don Asinski. It was a brilliant redux of the Banks Course, and the Macdonald-Raynor-Banks canon. The link to the video is here. Forsgate’s Banks Course just hosted the 13th annual Writer...
In anticipation of my webinar this Thursday on Forsgate Country Club (click here to register for free), Golf Course Trades also ran my latest article . We interview course owner Chris Schiavone, golf architect Stephen Kay, and head superintendent Don Asinski at 12pm on Thursday July 29. From the article: Knowing full well that Forsgate was the last course he would...
Big shout out to Golf Course Trades for running another in my webinar series, this time on my beloved Forsgate Country Club and their magnificent Banks course. The webinar will feature course owner Chris Schiavone, restoration architect Stephen Kay, and head superintendent Don Asinski, and will be a fascinating look at how they rediscovered, then recreated the lost...
We’ll be writing the Open Championship at St. George’s in just three short weeks, but in the meantime, here’s a sneak peak at some coming attractions for Golf News Net and Golf Course Trades – two of New Hampshire’s best private courses: Bald Peak Colony Club and Baker Hill. BALD PEAK COLONY CLUB In the shadow of Lake Winnepesaukee...
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 companion Golf Course Trades article I wrote is here.