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Mr. Smith Goes to Gaylord
Signature course sixteenth hole While no stranger to Michigan golf, I’ve never made it to Gaylord before, and my immersion today reminded me of a dip I took years ago in chilly Lake Michigan at the...
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Premier Time (and Space)
Cast of "How I Met Your Mother" One of the reasons I like the television show “How I Met Your Mother” is that it often imaginatively plays around with notions of fate and time—if this didn’t happen...
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Great Scotland Golf Giveaway
Turnberry Travelpro WalkAbout Lite 4 Suiter The A Position has partnered with world-class travel company PerryGolf to give away a trip for four to Scotland that is pretty mouth-watering. The contest...
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San Diego Makes the Doozy Dozen
Barona Creek Golf Course Here at The A Position we’re given a topic to address (or not) each month for The A List feature, in 150 words or fewer. For September we did as we have in the past few months,...
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To the Golfing Glory That is Greece
Seventh hole at Navarino Dunes framed by olive trees There is a statue in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens dated to about 510-500 B.C. At its base is the representation of two men, holding...
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How to Plan a Golf Trip (or Not)
Does anyone snore? is not the first question that needs to be answered when planning a golf trip with fellow players. It’s probably about the sixth, though it should be asked, since if room sharing is...
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What Happens in Vegas
I was about 12 the summer of the big family trip out west, thundering along the roads in the old man’s massive Lincoln Continental, large enough for me, my brother and sister to sprawl out in the back...
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Five Reasons to Play Royal Links
1) Replica holes for those who have never played in Scotland or England. 2) Replica holes for those who have played the classic courses in the Open Championship rota. 3) The chance to watch a foursome...
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Veterans Day
I was lacing up my golf shoes before our round at the Bali Hai Golf Club when Sam Brown came into the locker room. We got to talking, and Sam told me about how the Humvee he was in rolled over an IED...
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Some Enchanted Afternoon
I knew it was going to be an interesting day from our opening hole at the Bali Hai Golf Club. Well, it had already been an interesting morning, leading up to the Golf Road Warriors participation in the...
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In the Pines
Photo © Robert Kaufman I took away three quick lessons from today’s round at the Desert Pines Golf Club, our last in this whirlwind Golf Road Warriors extravaganza: 1) The three courses in the Walters...
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Skinned By the Bear
[In different form, this piece first appeared as a web exclusive in the June 1, 2012 issue of American Way, hence a few dated references.] If PGA Tour pros start to quiver approaching the three-hole...
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Avoiding Mirrors in Maui
Maybe I broke a mirror or walked under a ladder on my last trip to Maui? It’s been seven years. If that’s not bad luck, what is? But now I’m heading back, seven years later almost to the week, with our...
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Heeding Voices at Wailea
About to tee off on the Wailea Golf Club Gold Course On Earth Day I was quite a bit removed from my usual portion of the planet. After a long, endlessly snowy winter in Vermont, standing on the first...
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Maui’s Mr. Blue
Let’s start with a quiz—namely, what the heck is this a photo of?: Answer below, but for now I’ll say it can be found right outside the pro shop at the Wailea Old Blue Golf Club in Maui, part of the...
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McCallen on the Rocks
Tough lie Only time for a quick post this evening, but since I know all the fellow Golf Road Warriors will be wanting to put this one up, I thought I’d try to sneak it in. This is an actual golf shot...
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It’s Good to Be the King
A glance at the scorecard is enough evidence that the King Kamehameha Golf Club is a unique entity. How often have you seen quotes from two different architects on a card, only one of them a course...
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Life on the Plantation
The greens were like lightning, the land forms were massive and rolling, the wind was blowing about 30 mph. In other words, it was just another day on the Plantation Course at Kapalua. I played my...
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A Day in the Life of Brasada Ranch
Another Golf Road Warriors adventure begins, this time to Central Oregon. I’ve only been here twelve hours, but I’ve already seen the shift from sunset to sunrise here at Brasada Ranch near Bend,...
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Brasada’s Grand Canyons
The sixth hole at Brasada Canyons It was intriguing, as well as fun, to have the chance to play the Brasada Canyons course twice during our stay at Brasada Ranch. Although I don’t know whether to chalk...
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One of the Golden Bear’s Best at Pronghorn
A Ghost Tree frames the eighteenth green at the Pronghorn Nicklaus Course Though it may not have been what the original investors were hoping for, Pronghorn, once a private golf community and real...
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Tetherow: Are You Kidd-ing Me?
We invite you to retain your tickets for noticing things— how sunlight is wide and democratic, how the rain doesn’t care who you are, how sounds will follow you home and become songs that play back...
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Not Feeling Lonesome Down in San Antone
JW Marriott, San Antonio According to the invitation I received, I’m among the top echelon of golf’s social media stars, and hence the request of my presence at a TPC Network media event in San...
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The Travel Issue
The Travel Issue 2013 How’s this for service?–members of The A Position team have not only written articles about some of the best places to travel to for golf vacations–they even tell how to pack for...
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Driving Toward 100 at the Brattleboro Country Club
History does not record when the first oath flew or who uttered it after a wayward shot at the Brattleboro Country Club. But the odds are good that it was on July 1, 1914, the day the course opened for...
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Masters Trivia You Can’t Live Without
As part of The A Position’s new Masters issue of The Grain I was willing to put my future tournament credentials on the line and, as “The Curmudgeon” host Hal Phillips puts it, “speak truth to power.”...
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Golf Road Warriors Land in Fort Myers and Sanibel
In our latest golf campaign, intrepid Golf Road Warriors Brian McCallen, Hal Phillips, David Whyte and yours truly, put our skills to the test at a trio of excellent courses in and around Fort Myers...
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The Real Golf Courses of the Jersey Shore
Stockton Seaview Hotel & Golf Club Reality shows haven’t been doing New Jersey any favors the last few years. The antidote to the staggering lack of televised character, we humbly suggest, is an...
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Life Without Bunkers at Raptor Bay
Raymond Floyd [Apr. 28,2014] I’m in the midst of A Difficult Par, a new biography about RTJ Sr. by James R. Hansen, who writes: “No one can play a Robert Trent Jones golf course anywhere in the world...
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Get Your MOTO Running
We’re underway at the 2014 U.S. Open on the Pinehurst No. 2 course. The A Position has it all covered in our new interactive e-magazine, The Grain. I was lucky to play No. 2 and some of the other...
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The Dunes Saga
After playing Raptor Bay yesterday, a course without a single bunker, I took only two shots to find the first available kitty litter today at The Dunes Golf and Tennis Club. Well, three if you count...
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Nicklaus Tightens the Screws at Old Corkscrew
Why is this man smiling?: The Golden Bear at Old Corkscrew Because he knows that some days you’re the corkscrew, some days you’re the cork. Not that we hadn’t been warned about the sometimes daunting...
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Pete Dye and the Mighty Oak Tree
Jay Don Blake Last October Champions Tour player Jay Don Blake was warming up for the AT&T Championship at TPC San Antonio. As he came off the eighteenth hole of his practice round at the Pete...
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Once More to Ireland
Good morning, Dublin The Links Portmarnock was the very first course I played in Ireland, back in 2001, so a return to it this year—as the first of five courses a band of media golfers would play—felt...
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The Compelling Drama of Golf
Greg Norman didn’t play in the U.S. Senior Open at Oak Tree National this year. But he’ll certainly be present for next year’s tilt, as he’s scheduled to be in the broadcast booth when Fox Sports...
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Back to Mississippi
PGA Tour player Justin Hicks (left) with former caddie Jeff Willett In early November, in what used to be considered the end of the PGA Tour season, the fourth tournament of the new 2015 season was...
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Chambers Bay Ups Its Game
The former Lone Star mine in University Place, Washington, has served Pierce County well. The gravel pulled from the mine for over a century paved the county streets, including nearby Tacoma, and,...
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Read the Books, See the Movie
It should have been no great surprise that one of the positive pre-release blurbs for “The Squeeze” was from Phil Mickelson, since the movie is all about golf and gambling. The film, which debuted in...
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Hold the Open Championship in Australia!
Photo courtesy Royal Melbourne Golf Course When one of Ireland’s great courses was announced last May as a likely venue for the 2019 Open Championship an understandable frisson shot through the world...
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Good Old Days, Brand New Swing
Sit by yourself in a restaurant, start doodling on the paper tablecloth, and you never know where it might take you. Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger wound up all over the road in the United...
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On the Road and in Your Head
As a journalist frequently reporting on golf travel I’ve stocked up on my share of frequent flier miles. But I know quite a few colleagues who have burned through more passports than I ever will. John...
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An Omni Top Five
An announcement rolled in a couple of days ago that anyone staying at any one of the eleven Omni Hotels & Resorts golf properties can celebrate with a free birthday round of golf. It doesn’t even...
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Falling for Myrtle
[According to an app on my phone, winter is still 38 days, nine hours, 13 minutes and 30 seconds and counting away. But it’s getting closer every moment, even as you read this, so let’s enjoy autumn...
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Of Time and Tide
It’s a minor annoyance to me when traveling to distant courses that few of the hosts seem to know what kind of trees we’re playing alongside of (or into). Once past coniferous or deciduous I don’t know...
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You Say Tomato, I Say Branson
The second annual Reeds Spring Tomato Festival was held last August, near Branson, Missouri, complete with a Little Miss Tomato contest. A local fund-raiser, the festival’s thematic underpinning was a...
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Where and How to Play
Tom Doak is back with the second installment of his planned five-volume compilation of “The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses,” this one concentrating on warm weather destinations in the Americas. The...
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California Sweet: Pints and Pars in San Diego
I tend not to drink and drive, but when the beverage cart rolled around at the Maderas Golf Club I went a little google-eyed and changed my plans. Right on the side of the cart a menu listed three...
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The Good Luck Skunk
Bleary-eyed a little after four in the morning and that many hours sleep, I drove through the dark toward the airport and another Golf Road Warriors adventure, this one to Gaylord, Michigan. My first...
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