Setting aside Donald Trump’s politics (if you can), his redesign of the famous Ailsa course at Turnberry is simply fantastic TURNBERRY, AYRSHIRE, Scotland — You can hate his politics, and ego. You can snicker at the self-aggrandizing ostentatiousness and opulence that characterizes much of what Donald Trump touches. But if you are a golfer, if…
Dating to 1851, site of the first Open Championship, Prestwick is more than a relic PRESTWICK, AYRSHIRE, Scotland — Old Tom Morris laid out the first 12 holes of Prestwick Golf Club in 1851, though golf had been played there even earlier. In 1860, the very first Open Championship, known in the United States as…
Whereupon the writer shoots a front-nine 39, but … MACHRIHANISH, ARGYLL, Scotland —On Sunday, the sun came out, and the wind disappeared, and you could see, very clearly now, the islands of Islay, Jura and Gigha beyond Machrihanish Bay in the North Atlantic Ocean and, to the south, much farther in the distance, Ireland. But…
A relatively new course conjures the golf of 130 years ago MACHRIHANISH, ARGYLL, Scotland — If I have ever before used the phrase “wild and woolly” to describe a links golf course, please forgive that exaggeration. I wrote too soon; that is, before playing Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club, a place where the phrase is apt….
A long journey is rewarded by an inspired, and inspiring, golf course MACHRIHANISH, ARGYLL, Scotland — We had already been on the road for 24-some hours, flying from Seattle on Wednesday morning to Dallas to London to Edinburgh, Scotland, and now it was late Thursday in a new time zone and we were three hours…
Seeking the enduring spirit of golf in Scotland, from Old Tom Morris to David McLay Kidd (and Donald Trump) Golfers don’t simply take a trip to Scotland to play courses there. They make a pilgrimage. That word conveys the historic nature of the game there, the bucket-list allure. Wrote the late James W. Finegan in…
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