EAST COAST USA

Amongst the oldest (some claim the oldest) golf clubs in the US and is built along the north eastern seaboard facing the Atlantic Ocean. While not truly links land – the grass of the fairways and greens is more of an inland texture - it is as close as you will get in America to matching the historic seaside links of Ireland and Scotland. The strong prevailing winds off the Atlantic , the sandy and rolling terrain ,the thick reed-like grasses that boarder the fairways and the bleakness of the surrounds makes you think you are at a British seaside links. This is classic links golf on an American canvas

Designed by Charles B. Macdonald, who had been schooled at St. Andrews in Scotland during the 1870s. He started his golf in America at Shinnecock, but quit Shinnecock and founded the new club. He set out to design a course that would rival the prominent golf courses located abroad, looking at potential sites in Cape Cod and Napeague before settling on a plot of land on Sebonack Neck next to Peconic Bay. The National has inspired a number of golf architects who have made frequent visits to study some of its challenging and enduring features

One of America’s newest and most elite golf clubs (with one of the world’s highest entry fees). It was built on the vision and determination of its owner, Michael Pascucci. Employing his friend and business partner, golf legend Jack Nicklaus and world famous golf designer Tom Doak to build the course. It was designed to be golfer friendly, challenging and in harmony with the ecology of the original land. Nicklaus and Doak were an unlikely team as they have opposing design styles. The idea was that Doak would do the major routing and be responsible for the look of the course, while Jack would help on the risk/reward decisions and design. Who knows what the real truth is or what the dynamics of the two partners were when designing and building the course? Rumor has it that it was a tense relationship

A private country club on the Atlantic Ocean in the village of East Hampton. The Club derives its name from the original name for East Hampton, which was Maidstone, named after Maidstone in England. It was founded as a 7-hole course in 1894 and expanded to eighteen holes in 1899. The Club was the summer retreat of New York City’s most wealthy and socially connected families. Maidstone is considered to be the most elite, prestigious and difficult to get into of all the clubs in “The Hamptons”.

New York’s Only Pete Dye Design. Pound Ridge Golf Club has emerged as one of America’s premier public golf courses. Located an hour north of New York City in Westchester County. Conceived in the late 90s and over ten years in the planning and execution, the Pound Ridge Golf Club has taken its place in the pantheon of great metropolitan golf courses. The signature wit of Pete Dye’s designs, his enduring challenge for golfers to bring their best game and his sometimes maddening, more often inspiring, mathematical genius make Pound Ridge one of his most memorable courses. In his own words, “If you create in the mind of a golfer that he can remember some of the holes, that’s extraordinary. And then, if you make it look, and it will look, very demanding, if it’s still playable you’ve hit a home run.”

Bethpage is a mecca for public golf featuring five 18-hole regulation golf courses, including the world-renowned Black Course.In addition to Bethpage Black hosting the United States Open Championships in 2002 and 2009, it was also the site of The Barclays PGA Tour events in 2012 and 2016. In 2019, Bethpage hosted the PGA Championship won by Brooks Koepka and is the venue for the Ryder Cup in 2024. Over 200,000 rounds are consistently played annually on the five courses at Bethpage, all of which start from the Clubhouse area. With approximately 15,000 golf courses of all different types and sizes in the United States, the Black Course at Bethpage State Park has consistently ranked among the top 100 Greatest Golf Courses in America per Golf Digest for nearly twenty years.

home to a waterfront golf course. Designed to rival the look and feel of the legendary links courses of Scotland and Ireland, this awe-inspiring course is the centerpiece of an exclusive club that has garnered countless accolades since it’s unveiling in 2006. Members are CEO’s

The Links Golf Course in Isle of Palms, was Tom Fazio’s first. Today, he says it’s still among his favorites - and he’s not the only one. From the rustling palms lining lush, rolling fairways to a finishing hole overlooking the glistening Atlantic Ocean, the Links Course is South Carolina golf at its finest. When Tom Fazio set out to create Wild Dunes Links, his was hardly a household name, even in the golf world. But almost as soon as it opened, the young Fazio’s first solo creation was gracing national magazine covers and earning a spot among the top 30 courses in the world.

Bulls Bay is a private enclave set against the Atlanta Ocean and its tidal salt marshes. It personifies the vision of its founder owner Joe Rice, and the imagination of its artistic designer, the late Mike Strantz. Strantz transformed a once flat stretch of lowcountry coastline into a landscape reminiscent of the great links courses of Scotland and Ireland. At Bulls Bay, there is no traffic or intervening real estate, no tennis courts or swimming pools to detract from the pure golf experience. This is strictly for golf and nothing else.

One of the world’s supremely challenging championship links, this layout was designed by the legendary golf course architect Pete Dye. The clubhouse at The Ocean course was recently upgraded to the tune of $US22 million. Located on the eastern end of Kiawah Island it was the venue for the PGA Championship in 2012 won by Rory McIlroy and 2021 won by Phil Mickleson. What is magical about the Ocean Course however is what you can not see - the unpredictable wind dancing overhead. Unless you are playing from the back tees then finding the fairway from the tee box is relatively manageable. The real trick is finding the right spot for a good look into the greens. On hole after hole, a ton of sand, cavernous bunkers, grassy dunes, a fair bit of water, and everchanging sea breezes make for daunting approaches. Once players reach the often long and narrow greens, putting is not difficult. The greens are not significantly contoured and break very little. The par three 17th is a fearful hole that requires a tee shot over a large lake. Just one year after the famous Ryder Cup, the lake was dredged and 34,000 golf balls were recovered from in front of the green.” We don’t sell balls here” they joke in the pro shop “we only rent them”.

Kiawah Island Club’s Cassique Course was created by Hall-ofFamer Tom Watson and his crew from old farm fields along the tidal marshes of the Kiawah River. As a five-time Champion Golfer of Year, Watson wanted his design to demand the “touch, feel and imagination” of links-style golf, so he framed most holes with choppy faux dunes, rumpled the fairways and installed some of his favorite links features: a burn a la Turnberry, Carnoustie-inspired Spectacles and a Hell Bunker from St. Andrews. With the front nine in open land and the back nine among trees, Cassique poses bump-and-run opportunities everywhere, and even has a couple of blind shots. (Golf Digest)

Sea Island Touring Professional Davis Love III and his brother Mark redesigned the THE PLANTATION COURSE in 2001. Carefully blending players’ preferences (including their own) from the earlier design, as well as devoting a lot of close personal attention, the brothers created an original design that while dramatic is very playable and interesting. The Love brothers added 300 yards of length to give Plantation an open feeling with a lower profile. The course is defined by pine trees and bunkers but allows players to swing freely for the target. Davis Love III changed the way the course plays so that everyone might enjoy the game as much as him.

Rated #4 out of the 75 Best Golf Resorts in the U.S., SEASIDE at SEA ISLAND offers three exceptional 18-hole championship courses. The Seaside Course, home to the PGA TOUR’s McGladrey Classic, is a links course graced by majestic ocean vistas in the tradition of St. Andrews. Seaside is the pinnacle of links golf and Sea Island’s most demanding layout, this oceanside course places a premium on careful shot selection, recovery, and putting. Built in 1929 by famed architects Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison, the Seaside Course was updated in 1999 by Tom Fazio – earning it a prominent place on Golf Digest’s list of “Top 100 Courses in the United States.” Unlike most resort courses, Seaside abounds with centerline hazards and its subtle contours tend to slip away toward calamitous sandy waste areas, marsh, and thick vegetation beyond the wide fairways.

Designed by Pete Dye, Bobby Weed and player consultant Jerry Pate (1982 PLAYERS Champion), Dye’s Valley at TPC Sawgrass is adjacent to THE PLAYERS Stadium Course. Opened in 1987, the course has played host to several professional Korn Ferry Tour events and

Pablo Creek Club, built in 1996, is a Tom Fazio-designed private golf course with natural pine flatwoods and rolling terrain. Golf Magazine picked the course 62nd among the Top 100 Courses in the U.S. for 1999. The flat landscape of Northeast Florida is almost exclusively covered with pine, flatwoods, wetlands and swamps, and thick underbrush. Fazio managed to make it look beautiful at Pablo Creek, one of the area’s best efforts of using the ground cover to create vibrant, sharply framed golf holes. Tonight is the Final Dinner (included) in the Clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass and a chance to eat, drink and reflect on a magnificent golf experience