About 16 or 17 years back, and close to 600 golf courses ago, I was first exposed to a wonderland called Crumpin-Fox Golf Club. This is a delightfully hilly and serene walk through the woods in the northern Massachusetts town of Bernardston, adjacent to the Vermont border, and just a couple miles off of Route 91. When I first spied the terrain, still something of a golf neophyte in terms of my previous exposure to great courses, I was taken aback at the dazzling challenges the course presented—so unlike the standard parkland fare I was accustomed to. Sharp doglegs, thick ...

What do these two groups of golfers have in common? Group One: Palmer-Nicklaus—Irwin—Miller—Watson—Norman—Stewart-Faldo. Group Two: Loren Roberts-Stewart Cink-Glen Day-Jose Coceres-Aaron Baddeley-Peter Lonard-Boo Weekley-Brian Gay It might be more obvious as to what they don’t have in common. The former are all (or will be) Hall-of-Fame members, who are among the most accomplished players in history, and have combined for almost 50 Major championships. The latter group is a bunch of journeymen pros, zero Majors between them. But they are all connected by victory at Hilton Head - each has been crowned champion of the Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. Up until 15-odd years ...

It would be great being Geoff Ogilvy. He’s one of pro golf’s finest players, leading the 2009 Money List with nearly 3 million bucks, and closing in on 20 million in career earnings. He’s a former U.S. Open Champion, and has won 3 World Golf Championships in his career - more than anybody else in the world not named Woods. We hacking mortals can’t aspire to his skill level, but his sartorial level is well within reach. The affable Aussie is sponsored by Puma, which at first glance might remind you of a High School - retro brand, but in actuality ...

Just a quick note to let those of you in the blogosphere know that I am extremely honored to have learned that my latest book, titled Pete Dye–Golf Courses, was named as the Book of the Year by the International Network of Golf at last week’s PGA Show in Orlando. The award is a lovely piece of engraved crystal, and looks good on the mantle, but the bric-a-brac factor is far overshadowed by the recognition of my peers in the golf business. Writing the Dye Book was a serious undertaking, and I speak for the entire Dye Family when I ...

I had a unique experience this past Monday evening at venerable Coral Ridge CC in Ft. Lauderdale, where the 77th annual Doherty Cup was being contested. For the second time in three years I was asked to be the dinner speaker for this gathering of some of the world’s top women amateurs. But unlike in 2007, this time, Pete and Alice Dye (she the 1967 Doherty champ) were in the audience. The gist of my remarks were about my new Pete Dye Book, and of course by association, the man himself. Well—wouldn’t you know it, Pete ...

My just-completed visit to Sanctuary Cap Cana, on the easternmost tip of the Dominican Republic, was sensory overload in every capacity. The resort hotel is laid-back but luxurious, two separate structures (one in Spanish Colonial style, the other built to resemble a fortress) separated by a bougainvillea-filled path, restaurants, shops, pools and bars dotting the conduit between. The unmatchable beauty of the Caribbean Sea is close-at-hand, befitting a resort that’s mostly open air. The nearby golf course, an ethereal Jack Nicklaus signature design called Punta Espada, is a seaside venue with few equals in the hemisphere. And the real kicker? ...

It began as an innocuous and unrelated conversation in the winter of ‘06. It lead to Perry Dye hiring me to conceive and execute a major book that details the incredible highlights of his dad’s unprecedented career as a golf course architect. The book, so long in the making, is a reality. PETE DYE—GOLF COURSES is a 300+ page, 4 pound, full-color celebration of the master’s best - a highlight reel, as it were. Early reviews are stellar, as you can see by the following link to Golf World: http://www.vagabondgolfer.com/Golf%20World–review.pdf Anyway - it’s time to celebrate. In honor of the book’s ...

Crossed an important milestone last week in Michigan’s leafy Upper Peninsula. Played course no. 600 on my lifetime list - an absolutely stellar and challenging venue in the town of Iron Mountain called Timberstone, as lovely a walk in the woods as a golfer will find. Backtracking down Memory Lane, the 500 course barrier was crossed in March of 2007, at the Dye Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Palm Springs, California. Number 400, sometime in 2005, was much closer to home - the ultra-exclusive Cherokee Plantation in Yemassee, South Carolina, where the initiation is seven figures, the annual dues are ...

Had the distinct pleasure of playing Oakland Hills about six weeks ago. The golf course is a wonderful combinations of roller coaster terrain, thoughtful bunkering and puzzling greens. It was plenty to handle from 6,500 yards, and the pros about to tee off at the PGA Championship will be equally challenged from the tips. Just as memorable is the venerable Townsend Hotel,not even 20 minutes from the golf venue, not only the best digs in posh Birmingham, but truly one of the best boutique hotels you’ll find anywhere in the nation. Oakland Hills is only available ...

There’s an expression that’s become common in Jackson, Wyoming over the last couple of decades. The billionaires are pushing the millionaires out of town. The incredibly rustic terrain, the soaring drama of the Tetons, the accessibility to Yellowstone National Park, the world-class skiing, climbing and fishing in an hard-to-get-to location have combined to make Jackson one of the most sought-after, and consequently priciest locales in the west. The golf scene is also getting richer by the day, and the unquestioned heavyweight is the remarkably attractive, meticulously conditioned Snake River Sporting Club, about a dozen-odd miles south of town, hard ...

Played a very worthwhile muni, in the downtrodden Catskill Mountains of New York, of all places, that was an extremely pleasant surprise. Tarry Brae in the village of Loch Sheldrake is well-conditioned, with lots of interesting elevation changes, modestly priced, uncrowded, and an excellent option for a half-day’s worth of golf entertainment. And here’s a better option if you have the profound misfortune of booking a cottage at the generically-named “Guest House” in the nearby burgh of Livingston Manor. Sleep on a park bench instead. ...

When my hometown of Savannah becomes a late-spring steam bath, there is nowhere I’d rather stray to than the cool and refreshing grandeur of the great Northwest. Oregon’s Bandon Dunes Resort has become one of the game’s most desirable destinations in the last decade. Washington’s year-old Chambers Bay is the “new new thing,” an amazingly authentic links course near Tacoma, future host of both the US Amateur and Open. But from a pure golf perspective, neither venue has anything on the remarkably capacious and totally thrilling Circling Raven Golf Club, in the Idaho Panhandle, just east of Spokane. Circling Raven is ...

I had the good fortune of enjoying a wonderful golf course I’d never before seen on Georgia’s St. Simons Island not long ago. The Hampton Club was once home to Hampton Plantation, an 18th century, antebellum plantation where cotton, indigo and rice dominated. This Joe Lee-designed beauty doesn’t get the attention it should, considering the thousand-pound gorilla of Golden Isles golf is undoubtedly the Sea Island Golf Club, with their triumvirate of great resort courses—Retreat, Plantation, and most notably, Seaside. But the Hampton Club, located on the northern end of the island, and affiliated with the King and Prince Resort, ...

24 of the first 28 winners of the Players Championhip were also Major winners. From Jack Nicklaus in 1974, through Tiger Woods in 2001. These include a passel of current or future Hall-of-Famers named Floyd, Trevino, Norman, Price, Couples, Sutton and Love, among other luminaries. But that stellar roster of champions has slowed to a crawl in recent years—only two of the last six champs have hoisted Major hardware, though the resumes of several of these latter victors like Fred Funk and Adam Scott are impressive regardless. Not so Craig Perks, who followed Tiger to the winners circle at Sawgrass by ...

I’ve had every nickel in the Wachovia Bank since they gave me a free toaster some eleven years ago when i opened my first account, and times are looking tough. It’s not enough that their one-year stock chart resemble a ski slope. But now the world’s best golfer, and the defending champion of this week’s Wachovia Championship, isn’t in the field. Tiger is nursing his bum knee, and Wachovia is nursing a stock price barely half of what it was a year ago. Hopefully the bank and the game’s most bankable superstar will be in much better ...