Travel – Solmar Golf Links Cabo
The days of the sleepy fishing village here are long gone, following Jack Nicklaus’s powerhouse course designs that started the Cabo golf boom more than two decades ago. But to continue to grow as a must-visit golf destination, areas always need new layouts by new designers and that’s exactly what you have with the longtime […]
Travel – Portland, OR
Great golf history might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of this scenic sector of the Pacific Northwest, but that’s exactly what you will find when you visit – especially in the nearby Tualatin Valley, which covers much of the area. Portland has trees (plenty of trees), lots of […]
Cover Story – 2024 Charles Schwab Champ Davis Riley
Former Alabama golf star and Dallas resident Davis Riley felt right at home at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial last year. Facing a newly renovated Colonial golf course and a field that included World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Riley came out on top on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the storied tournament. Now preparing […]
Cover Story – Nelson Defending Champ Taylor Pendrith
AG: When you’re not playing or practicing golf, I know you’re spending lots of time watching the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. How would you rate a Maple Leafs Stanley Cup win, winning a Masters title and a Byron Nelson win? TP: Yeah, I think we have a pretty good chance this year. I’d say […]
Travel – Florida
Planning the perfect family vacation is often an exercise in compromise or the art of the deal, as one former president once wrote. But it’s hard to go wrong in the North Florida haven of Hammock Beach, the history of St. Augustine and, of course, a nearby side trip to Orlando and Mickey Mouse. Enough […]
Travel – Bahamas Bliss
When you use the term “royal blue” with the ever-scenic Caribbean, it can mean a lot of different things. It can certainly refer to the sky and the weather, which are blue and full of sunshine for a vast majority of the year. It can also refer to the Atlantic Ocean waters that lap up […]
Travel – Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta
The idea of first-class golf facilities, lodging and scenery all rolled into an amazing beach resort is hardly a new travel concept. But the new and ever-growing PGA TOUR site, Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta, takes it to a whole new level. Opened in 1997, Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta is a 2,500-acre property on a mile of beach […]
Travel – Northern California
When it came time to pick a college home, Tiger Woods, who hasn’t always made the best life choices (that’s a whole other story) did just fine by picking the lush, golf-rich environment of Northern California and nearby Stanford University. Perhaps outside of Long Island, New York, or maybe Philadelphia, there is no better concentration […]
Feature – Fred Perpall
Longtime Dallasite Fred Perpall achieved a couple of impressive firsts when he recently was elected to a three-year term as President of the United States Golf Association, which oversees amateur and some professional golf in the United States. He became the first Black ever elected at president of the USGA, as well as the first […]
Travel – Quivira
When you have one of the most popular and successful golf courses in this target-rich links environment on the Pacific tip of Mexico, designed by one of the most popular architects, what’s the only thing you can do to improve? Build a second one, like the first, by Jack Nicklaus. That’s exactly the plan for […]
Travel – Houston
While the PGA Frisco project looms large on the North Texas golf horizon, the Houston area also has been busy by adding three new public golf options, with Tour 18 Incorporated’s Highland Pines, the par-3 East River 9, and a modern putting course, PopStroke, designed by Tiger Woods and his design team. All three projects […]
Travel – Northern Majesty
Golf in the target-rich environment of Canada is known for spectacular views, lots of on-course wildlife and famous course layouts by famous designers. As the saying applies here, though, it’s a great season, but a short season. Translated, Canada, known as the Great White North for a reason, is under a blanket of snow and […]
Feature – Welcome Home, Paul!
When English author Thomas Hardy penned his famous book in the 1870s, ‘Return of the Native,’ there was no golf involved, focusing on romance and drama instead, but when the PGA of America found its new Director of Golf at its new 36-hole public facility in Frisco, they very much turned to a Lone Star […]
Travel – Luck of the Irish
To know Ireland golf is to know truly authentic and wonderful links golf, stunning scenery, quaint and charming villages, interesting (to say the least} weather, and a buddies’ golf trip you’ll remember forever. But if all you know is Ireland golf, then you will have missed out on a great deal of this most interesting […]
Cover Story – Ascendant LPGA Preview
An elite LPGA tournament, a great date and course, and a chance to win a pro tour event in their home state is the draw for several local LPGA Tour players, who have a Texas-sized interest in the $1.7 million Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America, to be contested at Old American Golf Club in […]
Feature – DFW Schedule Shuffle
Next spring’s opening of the new PGA Frisco golf headquarters and resort facility – along with the 26 announced PGA tournaments it will host, including the first major golf championship in North Texas in more than 50 years – will establish the area as the new home of golf competition for both professionals and amateurs […]
Feature – Justin Leonard
North Texas golf fans, who knew of the local golf rivalry between Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson only through the history books, and maybe only saw Dallas’ Lee Trevino on the Champions TOUR, certainly are reveling in the current Scottie Scheffler-Jordan Spieth rivalry on the course. Both Scheffler and Spieth are Dallas-bred junior golf products […]
Feature – Masters Memories
Former CBS Golf and NFL Executive Producer Lance Barrow grew up outside of Fort Worth, attended Abilene Christian University, and has lived in Fort Worth most of his life. He now plays golf and has lunch as a member at Colonial Country Club regularly and travels in retirement with his wife. But he will always […]
Feature – Hammer Time
Texas Longhorn senior golfer Cole Hammer, the latest in the seemingly never-ending Lone Star State assembly line of great golfers, is nearing the end of his amateur career after this summer’s NCAA Championships and looking forward to his next step. Hammer, 22, a native of Houston who is known by his friends and fellow competitors […]
Travel – Magic Awaits
Long ago, Mickey Mouse conquered the world for anybody with kids under the age of 12, especially for those who ventured to his headquarters at Disney World in Orlando. But if you combine another legendary figure who conquered the world for a slightly higher age demographic, Arnold Palmer Golf Management, with the orchestrators of “The […]
Travel – Mexican Majesty
The idea of great golf, great food and beverages of all variety, all during an 18-hole round, might be the greatest sporting combination since the afternoon tea break during the World Cricket Test Matches. The game, in its most refined form – golf, cricket or just about anything else – is a celebration; it’s not […]
Cover Story – Joe Trahan
Joe Trahan, Texas born and bred (with stops in South Carolina and Louisiana), replaced a true Texas TV legend when he took over from retiring WFAA-Channel 8 Sports Director Dale Hansen as the lead Sports Anchor in September 2021. Hansen spent 37 years as the leading sports voice in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, before retiring […]
Feature – Passion and Perseverance
The famous sports book, “Heaven is a Playground,” was a passionate ode to the game of basketball. But for TPC-Craig Ranch Assistant Golf Professional Brian Kleckner, heaven is the first tee on any local golf course, with the chance to grow the game and help others. Kleckner, who has battled and transcended Cerebral Palsy in […]
Travel – San Diego
Golf in December can mean a lot of things to golfers, depending on where you play on a regular basis. But golf in December in San Diego means about the same thing it does the rest of the year: perfect conditions, sunny days, light winds and spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and the adjacent […]
Travel – Streamsong Resort
Florida has long been known as one of the premiere destinations for golf in this great country of ours. From Bay Hill to Sawgrass and Doral, the sunshine state is one of the must travel places for great food, an adventure in culture and fantastic golf. Steamsong is another one of Florida’s finest golf resorts, […]
Feature – Tom Fazio
Tom Fazio has been called America’s greatest living architect by several publications, and for good reasons when you consider his highly ranked body of work. But looking through a Lone Star lens, he might be Texas’ favorite golf visitor. This month’s soft opening of the first nine holes at Driftwood Golf & Ranch Club just […]
Cover Story – A New Beginning for Colonial
The upcoming renovation at historic Colonial Country Club by architect Gil Hanse will restore the site of the 1941 U.S. Open, 1991 U.S. Women’s Open and current PGA Tour host to its original 1930s grandeur, according to members who voted in favor by a huge margin. All without missing a beat in the annual tournament. […]
Feature – Groundbreaking at PGA Frisco
The Swing and the Dance Floor are the two latest additions to the massive PGA Frisco project steadily rising in north Frisco near Highway 380 and just west of Dallas North Tollway. While North Texas golf fans undoubtedly are excited about the 26 PGA of America golf events already announced for the two-course complex being […]
Feature – Q&A With 2020 Schwab Winner Daniel Berger
The 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge was one for the record books as North Texas golf’s most historic event welcomed the PGA Tour back to full-field competition after a nearly two-month COVID-19 pause. With no professional tournament golf since the Players Championship in mid-March, players were left to own devices to get ready to play for […]
Travel – Island Vibes
For most travelers practicing and perfecting their golf game is not the number one reason they come to the Big Island of Hawaii. Practicing their suntan acquisition. Yes! Their beach walking and sea shell collecting. Yes!! Plus their Mai-Tai and Lava Flow drinking. Big, big yes. But the Fabulous Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on the […]
Feature – Private Club Shuffle
After a year of big changes in the North Texas golf scene, mainly related to the COVID-19 virus and the new PGA headquarters facility in Frisco, 2021 is starting out with some huge developments of its own as four of the area’s most prestigious private clubs are changing head professionals. While changes at the head […]
Travel – Mahalo, Hawaii
When it comes to golf sequels, the second edition is rarely as good as the original. Does Caddyshack II ring a bell? Sadly, it probably does to anyone who paid good money to see the disappointing sequel to the original. What about Tommy Armour 855 irons, Greater Big Bertha driver or any other club which […]
Feature – Taking a Look at the Ladies
Texas Golf ends its strangest, most stressful and in some ways most successful participation year ever this month, with two national professional events. The Volunteers of America Classic LPGA Tournament December 3-6 at Old American Golf Course in The Colony and the 75th U.S. Women’s Open December 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston. That’s […]
Travel – Hammock Beach
You can hammer it with hurricanes and close it with COVID, even change owners, but no matter what traveling hurdles you put in front of the spectacular oceanside Hammock Beach Resort it keeps improving and wowing golfing visitors to the East Coast of Florida. Now with industry leader Troon Golf, which arrived earlier this year […]
Texas Treasures – Starr Hollow
Marty Leonard has filled plenty of roles in her decades of service to Texas golf. The daughter of Colonial Country Club founder Marvin Leonard, she has served as a longtime committee member at Colonial, spent 18 years on the USGA Women’s Golf Committee, played and long promoted the game, but the one she enjoys the […]
Travel – Rancho San Lucas
Uneven and unloved could be the title of a country music song, but it just as well could be the title for some Greg Norman-designed golf courses built in the U.S. over the last several years. But with the debut of his new Rancho San Lucas course, which opened last February in this golf-heavy region, […]
Cover Story – PGA Frisco
Neither golf architect Gil Hanse or PGA of America COO Darrell Crall has any formal training in drama. Crall got plenty of traditional education at Duke University with a degree in history while Hanse has a masters of landscape architecture degree from Cornell University. But together, along with more than 200 daily workers at the […]
Cover Story – Fairways of Solitude
The COVID-19 Worldwide Pandemic has changed life for golfers and just about everybody else in the world over the last six months. From no live sports and fanless golf tournaments to out of work members to prolonged at home executives and on-line schooling for kids, everything which can been disrupted in the golf world has […]
Feature Story – Beaver State Anniversary
To build a new resort, where one doesn’t exist for hundreds of miles and most don’t think ever will, as Mike Keiser found out, first you have to be called crazy, delusional and a soon-to-be epic golf failure. And that’s just for starters. But thankful for golfers worldwide, Keiser and then-unknown Scottish golf architect David […]
Feature – Party on the Patio
This year’s Charles Schwab Challenge, forever known as Colonial, was the PGA Tour’s return to live golf. The greatest field in Colonial history made it the most eagerly anticipated tournament in the tournament’s 74-year anchor into local professional golf. But for all the eagerness to see North Texas’ annual rite of Tarrant County Spring, what […]
Defending Colonial Champ Kevin Na – Q&A
Kevin Na has been a regular visitor to storied Colonial Country Club over several years with plenty of success at the historic Fort Worth course. He has turned in four top-10 finishes, tied the course record with a 61 in 2018 and shot a 62 in 2017. But until last year he had never come […]
Feature – Colt Knost: Unplugged
In 34 years of golf and life, North Texas native Colt Knost has packed in plenty of both in a remarkable three-plus decade span which is still going strong now in its next chapter as a new media member. After a stellar high school career in Pilot Point, he arrived to play college golf at […]
Cover Story – The Byron Nelson and TPC Craig Ranch
The AT&T Byron Nelson PGA Tour event and the Salesmanship Club ,which has overseen it’s operation for more than five decades, has built the most successful golf fundraising event in the U.S., with more than $110 million raised for its charity through hard work, inspired vision, leadership and knowing where the next big thing might […]
Feature – Magic in Maricopa
It’s hard to believe that in the land of triple-figure golf courses and lots of triple-figure heat this time of year, that there might be a course so good it would be worth wearing out your travel GPS to find a desert hidden gem. In fact, it would be a grave golfing error to not […]
Feature – Royal Portrush
By: Art Stricklin The British Open, known as the Open Championship in most parts of the civilized golfing world, returns to Northern Ireland this month for the first time in 68 years, showcasing the fabulous Royal Portrush championship layout, the spectacular North Sea scenery and the golfing aura which is embedded in every part of […]
Cover Story – Q&A with 2018 Champions
Justin Rose Q&A 2018 Fort Worth Invitational Champion Justin Rose, a English veteran of the world golf circuit for nearly two decades, certainly proved his worldwide worth with a four-shot victory over current U.S. Open Champion Brooks Koepka in the 2018 Colonial. He started the final day at historical Colonial Country Club with a four-shot […]
Travel – Pinehurst
By Art Stricklin The Pinehurst Golf Resort has been in place in the rolling and wooded South Carolina Sand Hills, ever since James Walker Tufts came down from the snowy and cold Northeast and decided this tranquil and scenic area would make a fine place for relaxation and recreation in 1895. Then along comes Donald […]
Travel – On Wisconsin! Sand Valley Golf Resort
By Art Stricklin For a state roughly the size of noted golf hotbeds England and Scotland, Wisconsin has done a remarkably good job of producing special public golf resorts for its brief, but spectacular golf season, running from late April to October, possibly early November. First came the Whistling Straits Resort, the Herb Kohler owned, […]
Feature – We’ll Drink to That: Whiskey Ranch
Whiskey Ranch is crafting great spirits, while preserving Fort Worth’s rich golf history. By Art Stricklin Leonard Firestone never considered himself a Texas golf history restoration devotee, a golf architect or even a whiskey expert, but thankfully, the 10-year Fort Worth resident has become all three and local avid golfers are the grateful recipients. Because […]
Travel – Cabo’s Chileno Bay Resort
In a simpler, sleepier much more sedate travel lifetime, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and its nearby geographical cousin San Jose del Cabo, was basically known for only two things, deep sea fishing and Tequila plus other alcoholic liquid creations. In fact, back then, one of the most popular souvenirs from your trip here was a […]
Cover Story – Bryson DeChambeau
PGA Tour golfers have often been lumped into the same pro linkster stereotype. Tanned, trim, talented, with the exact same swing and same looking Tour wife as the last dozen pro golfers who strolled through here. Same appearance, same clothes, same success. Like out of the pro golf factory. To that similar narrative, allow us […]
Travel: Montage Palmetto Bluff – South Carolina Beauty
Hilton Head, the scenic, golf-heavy island which juts into the Atlantic Ocean and the Calibogue Sound, has been known as the low country for centuries for its ebbing tides and the proximally to the water with very little elevation change. It’s the combination of sun, sandy beaches, fresh seafood, not to mention dozens of high […]
Champions Q&A — Kevin Kisner
Champions Q&A — Billy Horschel
Billy Horschel arrived at the 2017 AT&T Byron Nelson Championship as a FedEx Cup Champion and a multi-PGA tour winner, but mainly as a golfer enduring four straight missed cuts and having gone more than a year since his last Tour victory. But what Horschel did have when he arrived in Irving for the last […]
Phoenix-Scottsdale — Under the Arizona Sun
The PGA Tour’s liveliest – and most well-attended – green grass party is held annually here each February at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, aka the “Greatest Show on Grass.” It’s where 500,000 of your closest or newest golf party friends gather to celebrate the world’s best golfers showcasing their skills in this warm weather […]
Old Classics, New Adventures
Oklahoma architect Tripp Davis has had plenty of successful and positive experiences in his two-decade career as a stellar amateur player who then transitioned to a top architect with plenty of well-respected courses all over the U.S. But this May, he will record another significant first when his Old American Golf Course, which he designed […]
Reynolds Lake Oconee — A Luxury Resort in Rural Georgia
Reynolds Plantation, um, er, Reynolds Lake Oconee can change its longtime name, but nothing can change this always top-notch Southern golf (and now outdoors) outpost, complete with luxury lodging and natural hardwood scenery. More than 30 years ago, businessman Mercer Reynolds III and his family began to develop the thousands of acres of family land […]
The Bahamas – The Abaco Club
The Bahamas Islands chain, which sits just southeast of Florida, contains 700 different islands spread out over several thousand miles, but only 30 of them are actually inhabited. But it’s highly unlikely that any of them are as pleasant of a hidden resort find as the secluded and welcoming luxury golf and fishing enclave of […]
Travel – Silvies Valley Ranch
Dr. Scott Campbell has played plenty of business roles in his long and distinguished work career. The Eastern Oregon native, who lives less than 50 miles from where he grew up in the small town of Burns, Oregon, has been a farmer, a rancher and veterinarian, successful and wealthy entrepreneur, business advocate, not to mention […]
Bangkok, Thailand — The Gem of the Far East
Enter any golf course in the kingdom of Thailand and you will quickly be hit by a traditional greeting of “Sah wah dee khaa,” which, roughly translated, means an all-purpose “hello, how are you, glad you are here and nice to meet you,” followed by two hands pressed together and a short bow in the […]
The Texas Stay-Cation
While there will always be extensive and expensive vacations to tourism hotspots nationally and internationally, one concept taking hold for the summer of 2017 is the North Texas family staycation. The idea of fun, food, family golf, sights and resort pools all within a tank of North Texas gas is a Texas-sized, economically friendly idea making […]
Branson, Mo. — A Backwoods Boomtown
Missouri businessman Johnny Morris built a national hunting and fishing empire under the title of Bass Pro Shops with his father and other local visionaries from his dad’s humble ice and liquor store into the largest privately held outdoor shop in the country. But the golf mecca he is currently constructing near Branson, Mo. – […]
The Re-Prioritization of Hunter Mahan
Once the Lone Star State’s most promising young golfer, McKinney boy Hunter Mahan is now a 35-year-old father who has found his life’s truest passion – his family THE PLAYERS Championship, golf’s so-called Fifth Major, draws one of the best annual fields on the PGA Tour, with nearly every top player competing or commentating if […]
Myrtle Beach, S.C. — The Magic of Myrtle Beach
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – First time or fairly regular visitors to Myrtle Beach golf will find exactly the kind of Myrtle Beach experience they are expecting or have heard so much about. The original Godfather of discount public golf for more than 30 years provides outstanding, value-priced golf options along with similar accommodations plus a […]
Decades of Memories at the AT&T Byron Nelson
Past champions, players and staff members recount their best memories and favorite things about the Byron Nelson Championship at the TPC Four Seasons Compiled by Art Stricklin Ernie Els (1995 Champion) It’s sad they’re leaving, but the best memory I have came when I was the reigning U.S. Open winner in 1995 and I […]
Lessons From a Legend
Through nine decades of his incredible golfing life, Houston’s Jack Burke, Jr., has lived and embraced almost every instance of the amateur and professional golf experience: from a hard-working caddy at Houston’s River Oaks Country Club, who shot dice and hauled clubs with the other caddies while his dad served as head pro, to a […]
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic — Caribbean Canine Delight
As the original golf resort in the Caribbean, opened by still relatively unknown Pete Dye in 1971, the Casa De Campo resort and its signature Teeth of the Dog layout has always set the standard for golf in the scenic Caribbean. But with its recent international showcase, hosting the Latin American Amateur Championship in February, […]
Executive Spotlight: Brent Harman
Originally featured in the January 2010 issue of AVIDGOLFER Magazine. Story by Art Stricklin Brent Harman has hundreds of employees and multiple locations in his multi-million dollar Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse Empire. But the 38-year-old says he uses the game of golf to remain sane in the pressurized industry, staying connected with his family and the […]
The Ryder Cup – Land of a Thousand Chants
CHASKA, Minn. – One of the first lessons you learn in journalism school is that a real golf writer keeps his or her personal feelings strictly personal. That means you can be secretly happy when a favorite golfer wins (which I am when Jordan Spieth, Nick Price or Ben Crenshaw ever does) or even glad […]