HALFMOON, N.Y. – Sometimes golf isn’t about historic clubs, Golden Age architecture, and major championship pedigrees. No, the beating heart of golf is found in the down-home, homespun, local public golf courses that are thriving, not just surviving as the post-Covid golf boom hurtles on. So meet Fairways at Halfmoon, a public course mid-way between...
Last week saw an excellent premiere of Golf Course Trades’ webinar series. The first subject was upstate New York’s Copake Country Club, a 1921 Devereux Emmet design. I interviewed restoration architect Mark Fine and Head Superintendent Mark Anderson for the segment. The link to the webinar is here.
(Pic above: THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE THREE-PUTT, photo by Mike Mosely) Golf Course Trades has a new webinar series of podcasts, interviews, and lectures that promises to be an interesting look at the golf, skiing, and resort industries. On February 23, at 1PM EST, I’ll actually be hosting an interview where golf architect Mark Fine and head...
As always, Golf Course Trades did a fantastic job with my article on Links at Hiawatha Landing, one of my favorite courses and an old home of mine way way waaaaaaay back in the day. The entire piece is here. From the article: “The year was 1994, and although the golf world didn’t know it or expect it, a tumultuous sea change had started. Golf had just entered...
It was an absolute joy to return to Albany area’s Copake Country Club this summer. As usual the Golf Course Trades team did a fabulous job in both print and on line. From the article: “When you stand atop the 12th tee of Copake Country Club on an early fall day, the entire valley around you blazes with glory: burning vermillion, fiery orange, shimmering...
Golf Course Trades did a remarkable job with my Green Lakes article. This one was fun, especially because I got a bunker named after me. You read that correctly. When you hole out a bunker shot, you get the bunker named after you. That’s Rule 36. (Rule 35 is have fun…). “…many of the bunkers had become so filled with sand or their faces so...
Golf courses in New York have been opened in New York State as of Friday March 27. According to the NYSGA: Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the New York State on PAUSE Executive Order, which went into effect 8pm on Sunday, March 22. “All non-essential businesses statewide will be closed, non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason are...
Thank yous all around on this one: GolfTripX, Green Lakes super Kevin Carroll, Rocky the PGA Head Professional, and the rest of the team, and Matt Mulcahy of WSTM. GolfTripX made the piece look great, Kevin was an invaluable resource regarding the restoration, and Matt, the reliable face of Central New York News for over a generation, has played the course for over...
FAYETTEVILLE, NY – We all know the rags-to-riches story of Bethpage Black: a municipal golf course built in the tumult of the Great Depression survives long decades of languishing and mismanagement before being restored to its former glory and ascends into the rarified air of a major championship venue. It’s an inspiration to every public golf course. But Bethpage...
[Golf writer to Your Author: “Why are you writing about a mountain? Your Author: “Because it’s there.”] BETHPAGE, NY – The putt that won Tiger Woods his fifth Green Jacket hadn’t even tumbled into the cup before golf media were almost uniformly waxing poetic about “the greatest comeback in sports history!” Let’s get something perfectly straight: Tiger Woods’s...
BETHPAGE, NY – Like a dragon incinerating Daenarys Targaryen’s enemies, a fire-breathing Brooks Koepka scorched Bethpage Black in round one of the PGA Championship with a 7-under 63 and a one shot lead over New Zealand’s Danny Lee. England’s Tommy Fleetwood is in third place, four shots back at 3-under. The rest of the field needs binoculars to see Koepka. The...
BETHPAGE, NY – Much has been made of Bethpage’s brute length, elevated greens, and deep, dangerous, whimsically shaped Rees Jones inkblot bunkering. Most players are convinced this PGA Championship will feel much like a U.S. Open in terms of difficulty, partly because the Black Course hosted the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens before becoming a PGA of America venue for this...
BETHPAGE, NY – The stars are shining brightly on Broadway this week as the reigning Masters champion Tiger Woods, the defending champion Brooks Koepka, and the world’s number player Dustin Johnson all are favorites to win the 101st PGA Championship this week at Bethpage Black. While not as relentless as Winged Foot, as penal as Oakmont, or as windy as Pebble Beach...
BETHPAGE, NY – Babe Ruth and Derek Jeter. Joe Namath and Bill Parcells. Mark Messier and Mike Bossy. Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing. The Harlem Globetrotters. Bobby Fischer. John McEnroe. If there were ever a Pantheon of New York Sports Immortals, those are names that would forever be enshrined. But who should represent golf as New York’s hero? Sure, they love Phil...
Once again, Golf Course Trades delivers in the biggest way. My Conklin PLayers Club article was a ton of fun to research and write,but all the good folks at the magazine made it look fantastic. From the article: “One night, out of a clear blue sky, Rick Rickard, who had never played a day of golf in his life, came home and announced to his wife Theresa, “Honey...