I recently had the distinct pleasure of spending some 24 hours at the only golf club officially named for the world’s foremost architect. The Pete Dye Golf Club, like its namesake, is quirky, unforgettable, and pure genius. There are three things to note about this magnificent walk through West Virginia woodlands. The first is that the construction dragged on for a full 16 years—longer than it took to build the Brooklyn Bridge, about as long as it took to construct India’s famous Taj Mahal. One of the principal reasons it took forever to produce is because ...

Visited Athens, Georgia this past Saturday, where our daughter is a freshman at the University of Georgia, and attended our first-ever Bulldogs game. The pageantry of major college football is unforgettable, but both the opponent (Western Carolina, which lost its twelfth straight, and hasn’t won a game in literally a full year) and the weather were disappointing. While this was an out-of-league game (and the opponent was completely out of its league, losing 45-16) the game time temperatures were definitely SEC-caliber. (Sauna-like, Extremely Clammy.) The remorseless sunshine, lack of breeze and metal benches combined to induce a sweat-fest ...

Just back from a four-day foray to Destination Kohler–the Five-Diamond Mega-Resort and Spa that has made the unlikely blue-collar outpost of Sheboygan, Wisconsin one of the most sought-after destinations in golf. The trip began with a bang—a one-hour face-to-face with the Billionaire owner, the Grand Poobah of Plumbing himself—Herb Kohler. Our chat was illuminating, as he was providing some excellent insight into the subject of my next book - the great golf course architect Pete Dye. But the conversation, no matter how stimulating, was an absolute yawner in comparison to the opportunity to play the quartet of stunningly beautiful courses, ...

The concept of employing a caddie makes a significant percentage of the golf public rather uncomfortable. I conduct straw polls wherever my travels take me, (60-something new courses played this year through August) and the laundry list of reasons why golfers eschew caddies when they’re available include the following: • I don’t like to walk, I always take a cart. • They are too expensive. • I’m not good enough, and I don’t want to be embarrassed. • ...