Posts on courses, architects, the lefty experience, and the books that change how I think about golf. Specific over general. Honest over polished.
August 27, 2026 · Anticipation
Six weeks out from Streamsong, the countdown post gets an update. Two Club Championship qualifiers from the tips reweighted the prep: the approach is a weapon (+4.2 SG), the driver is a fix in progress, and the putter is the entire gap between 81 and par. The data says the irons are ready. The trust is the project.
August 25, 2026 · Round Report
14/18 GIR from the tips. Approach SG +4.2 — elite again. Driver improved from -3.3 to -2.1. The lesson worked. But two four-putts, four missed 3-footers, putting SG -6.4. The putting IS the over-rating. Fix the putter and it's par from the tips.
August 20, 2026 · Instruction
85 from the tips in the Club Championship Qualifier. Driver —3.3 SG, putter —7.7. Both had the same root cause: holding off the release through impact. Two lessons with Dave Theise, two weeks apart — and the fix was the opposite of what I thought.
August 13, 2026 · Anticipation
Eight weeks out from the HSC Golf Club's 10th anniversary trip. Three architects, one mine, 54 holes. Where the game is right now — 4.8 HCP, career round at Patterson, putting setup work with Dave Theise — and what the next 56 days look like.
August 16, 2026 · Round Report
7,140 yards from the black tees. Club Championship Qualifier — every putt holed, no gimmes. 85 with two or three bad swings all day. 12/18 GIR from the tips. Putting SG -7.7. The margin from the tips is unforgiving.
August 7, 2026 · Round Report
Even par 71. Three consecutive birdies on 13-14-15. Approach SG +4.6 — career-level. 15/18 GIR. The putter cost 2.6 strokes. The ball striking is real. The putting is the last layer.
July 25, 2026 · Round Report
A 4-iron from 205 uphill to 7 feet on 6. A 315-yard drive and 7-iron to 15 feet on 18 — missed eagle by two feet. Two birdies, two different shots, one round. The 4-iron is becoming a signature shot.
July 18, 2026 · Photo Essay
I wrote the essay before I played the round. 78 at Crooked Stick, 5.0 diff, 4.8 HCP. The course where Pete Dye invented everything.
July 23, 2026 · Architecture & Instruction
Seth Raynor's 12th is a Cape template — water left, green angled away. A lesson with Dave Theise on the push-fade miss that keeps finding the creek — and what Broadie's dispersion framework says about why.
July 14, 2026 · Round Report
Three birdies on the back nine — holes 15, 16, and 18. Finally birdied 18. 32 putts, 36 on the back. The closing stretch that changes how the week feels.
June 3, 2026 · Course Notes
Three birdies, a Bryson bunker shot, and a missed 2-footer because everyone was walking to the bar. A round at RTJ Sr.'s Patterson Club.
May 16, 2026 · Architecture
Carved from coral by hand. Guarded by the sea. How Pete Dye built his first masterpiece beside the Caribbean — and chose to spend eternity at its 8th green.
May 14, 2026 · Architecture
Cape Arundel and Walter Travis's wildly undulating greens — false fronts, chocolate-drop mounds, and why a 5,900-yard course still beats you up.
May 14, 2026 · Architecture
25 feet of sand, railway sleepers, and a blind second shot — the 16th at Southport & Ainsdale is named after the man who couldn't get out of it.
May 2, 2026 · Travel
Four days on the English coast — Royal Liverpool, Royal Lytham, Formby, Southport & Ainsdale. What links golf actually asks of you, and the lefty who once won here.
Apr 22, 2026 · Architecture
Redan. Biarritz. Alps. Eden. The four templates that built American golf architecture — and where to play each one.
May 23, 2026 · Architecture
Sweetens Cove, Landmand, Inness — how Rob Collins and Tad King broke from template, built a cult following from a gravel pit, invented the no-tee-time model, and changed what a golf course can be.
May 24, 2026 · Architecture · Heavyweight Contenders
One lets the land decide. The other decided for it. Two philosophies that reshaped American golf — from Kiawah to Streamsong, Blackwolf Run to The Loop.
May 9, 2026 · Industry
KSL bought Invited for $2.6B. Bain bought Concert Golf for $1.3B. Topgolf sold for $1.1B. Inside the wave of private equity consolidation reshaping who owns American golf.
July 6, 2026 · Architecture
Pete Dye's laboratory in Carmel, Indiana. Gil Hanse's renovation. The course where Dye invented everything — and the architect who restored it decades later.
July 9, 2026 · Architecture
Coore & Crenshaw, Tom Doak, Gil Hanse — three of the most important architects alive, each given a piece of the same Florida phosphate mine. The most architecturally significant resort in America.
May 8, 2026 · Course Stories
Cherokee (1900) and Seneca (1937): Kentucky's oldest muni and A.W. Tillinghast's public masterpiece where Gary Player won his first PGA Tour event. The story of Louisville's fight to save its municipal golf.
May 8, 2026 · Course Stories
Dyker Beach, Forest Park, Marine Park, and Silver Lake — four munis, four boroughs, one idea: golf belongs to everybody. The NYC public circuit that's been serving working golfers for over a century.
From Brooklyn to Louisville, America's oldest public courses are democratic infrastructure — not interchangeable assets on a spreadsheet. One anchor essay and nine course portraits.
May 11, 2026 · Muni Series
Cherokee fought off closure. Seneca gave Gary Player his first win. The Park proved restoration works. The case for treating public golf as infrastructure.
Louisville · 1900
The course that refused to die. Built against Olmsted's wishes. Saved by a high school golf team.
Louisville · 1937
Where Gary Player became Gary Player. Tillinghast designed. First PGA Tour win, 1958.
Louisville · 1937
Tillinghast's other Louisville muni. Same year as Seneca. Still in the shadows, still standing.
Bronx · 1895
Where American public golf began. First public course in the country. 130 years running.
Brooklyn · 1897
The muni that hosts weddings. Olmsted parkland. Brooklyn's second-oldest public course.
Queens · 1901
The course that absorbed the expressway. Bendelow on glacial debris. It never closed.
Brooklyn · 1964
RTJ Sr. on a reclaimed tidal flat. 7,000 yards, links-style. The wind is the defense.
Staten Island · 1929
The Working Man's Country Club. Pro shop is a trailer. Two par 5s. 95 years running.
West Palm Beach · 2023
When a city bets on public golf. $55M, Gil Hanse, NCAA regionals. Proof of concept.
August 6, 2026 · Instruction
A putting lesson with Dave Theise revealed the root cause of inconsistent misses: not a stroke problem, a setup problem. Eyes over the ball, handle thru impact, and the hockey analogy that fixed it.
August 1, 2026 · Book Review · ★★★★★
The range and the library are the same room. Newport's argument that focused, distraction-free concentration is a trainable skill — and that most practice is shallow work with a golf club in your hands. Why the phone goes in the bag.
July 19, 2026 · Book Review · ★★★★★
The book that told me my putting wasn't the problem. My 7-iron was. Broadie's strokes-gained data says the long game accounts for two-thirds of scoring differences — and the putting-wins-tournaments cliché is backwards.
May 10, 2026 · Book Review · ★★★★★
The book that teaches you how to read a golf course. Doak's philosophy before he built Pacific Dunes. Required reading for anyone who thinks about architecture.
Apr 18, 2026 · Book Review
Pia Nilsson's VISION54 philosophy. The mental game book that actually gives you something to do on the course.
Apr 18, 2026 · Book Review
Pete Dye's autobiography. How a life insurance salesman became the most controversial course designer in history.
Apr 17, 2026 · Essay
How I rank courses: a physical wall of golf balls, one from each favorite. When a new course earns a spot, everything shifts.
Apr 17, 2026 · Analysis
Analyzing my top 50 courses to find the biggest gaps. Where should the next trip go for maximum impact?
Apr 17, 2026 · Essay
Left-handed golfers face fewer equipment choices, fewer demo days, and less representation. Here's what's actually missing in 2026.