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The Insider’s Guide to Winged Foot for the 2020 U.S. Open

This week mighty, venerable Winged Foot Golf Club hosts its sixth U.S. Open, 13th USGA event, and seventh major championship, (it hosted the 1997 PGA). The par-70 layout will play to a bloated 7,477 yards; seven of the twelve par-4s are 467 yards or longer. It also features 4-1/2 to 7-1/2 inch rough, and green speeds around 13 on the stimpometer. In other words, the...

Rough Justice – Winged Foot’s Other Hazard is Just as Deadly as the Bunkers

For everyone who relishes U.S. Open week for its sheer bloodthirstiness, welcome to Winged Foot West. It just became your new favorite course. Like will-o-the-wisps feeding off the agonizing cries of their dying victims, everyman golfers will spend this week, pointing at the pros and laughing. Chunks, chili dips, fluffs, fliers, skulls, and walks of shame...

Winged Foot, Graveyard of Champions

—Of cruel and mighty Winged Foot now to you I sadly sing And all the lost and broken men who felt her deadly sting Who wander now as shadows in her darkness ever more To roam her haunted passageways forsaken and forlorn But chief among the cursed souls that in that valley dwell A phantasm malevolent, most terrible and fell The Ghost of U.S. Opens Past is her...

Golf Course Trades Runs my Hollywood Golf Club Article

“A crown jewel of the Travis diadem” – that’s New Jersey’s Hollywood Golf Club. They have recently completed a sparkling restoration. There is just one green left to restore, and that one will be a museum piece when it’s done. You can read the article here. Here’s a snippet: The project has been a runaway success, and many in...

Golf Course Trades Runs my Monterey Peninsula Country Club Story

Thanks again to Golf Course Trades for making my piece on Monterey Peninsula Country Club sparkle. I love both courses; Strantz’s Shore Course is a masterpiece and a west coast pantheon to his legacy, while the Dunes Course is one of Fazio’s unqualified best in the world.From the story: “Strantz knew he was designing between Pebble and Cypress...

Forsgate Country Club to Host Jan Stephenson, Writer Cup

Within five days of each other, venerable Forsgate Country Club’s Banks course will host the 12th annual Writer Cup and welcome LPGA immortal Jan Stephenson for an exhibition. The Banks course, the last course designed by the triumverate of C.B. Macdonald, Seth Raynor, and Charles “Steamshovel” Banks has hosted a galaxy of PGA and LPGA stars since...