What is it about teaching someone something you love that makes it so satisfying? I think it speaks to something built into all of us. Whether you're an uncle, a father, a grandfather, or simply someone who's been around a little longer, there is something rewarding about passing along a skill to someone just starting out. Golf is no different. Teaching young golfers isn't just important for the future of the game; it teaches patience, humility, honesty, and perseverance—qual

Vancortland Park GC The Bronx, 2024 After playing Bethpage Black on Long Island, I didn't think New York golf could get much better. Then I heard there was a golf course right in the middle of New York City, and I knew I had to see it for myself. It turned out to be nothing like I expected. When I plugged Van Cortlandt Golf Course into my GPS, it felt odd. From the GPS, the route was surrounded by apartment buildings and three-lane highways, and I kept wondering how a golf c

The other day we had a normal golf outing with the usual suspects. I'm sure your foursome consists of some of these archetypes: the brazen and brash elder statesman, who screams at bad shots and acts like a general maniac 80% of the time. The young fit father of two who “hasn't played much” but proceeds to stripe it 280 off the tee every other hole; the grizzled golf vet who has seen it all and has stories to fill a book nobody in their right mind would read. And then there w

PGA West Mountain Course July 2024 Palm Springs, CA I was somewhere in the middle of another questionable decision. A month-long road trip across the country with my wife, our dog, a truck, and a camper that was carrying far too many things for its own good had brought us back to the western desert. The kind of trip where you stop knowing what day it is, where your coffee is made from whatever survived the last grocery stop, and where your dog somehow takes up 70% of the avai

We have all seen it. Standing on the driving range, there is always one. The brand-new driver. The fresh irons. The shiny bag that still has that untouched factory look. Every club perfectly arranged, every headcover matching. A two-dollar swing with a twenty-five-hundred-dollar bag. I don't say that with judgment. I understand it. Golf is a beautiful and frustrating game, and part of the fun is dreaming that maybe the next piece of equipment will finally unlock something hid

Chambers Bay Chambers Bay 2024 My birthday was coming up, and I wanted to do something different. I had played golf for most of my life, but I had never experienced anything quite like a championship course. I had never walked the same fairways where the best players in the world had fought for a US Open title. Living in the Pacific Northwest, the options were almost unfair. Championship courses seem to grow naturally out of the landscape here. Maybe it's the weather, maybe i

Pacific Dunes Bandon Dunes Resort Day #2 After the day before, I didn't think golf could get much harder. I was wrong. The second day at Bandon would be another thirty-six holes, another march across miles of dunes and ocean cliffs. The previous day's excitement had been replaced by something closer to stubbornness. My feet hurt. My back hurt. I had already walked more golf in twenty-four hours than most reasonable people should. Yet somehow, at 6:30 in the morning, I was aw

Bandon Dunes Bandon Oregon 2024 Part 1 Living in Oregon in 2024, even for the short amount of time that I did, taught me to appreciate a few things: its beauty, its unpredictable weather, and the fact that nearly everyone you meet seems genuinely happy to be there. One afternoon before a long stretch of days off, I found myself staring at my phone debating whether I should call the holy grail of Oregon golf, Bandon Dunes. This was a dangerous proposition. For golfers, Bandon

Bamburgh Castle Golf Club 2024 In the fall of 2024, my wife agreed to what can only be described as an ambitious plan. We would pick up a motorhome in London, drive to Scotland and back, and spend several weeks exploring castles, villages, and as many golf courses as I could reasonably justify. The Old Course at St. Andrews was on the list. Prestwick was on the list. A collection of Highland courses I could barely pronounce were on the list. To her credit, she agreed to all o

The Schlern Mountain, Judging me In the winter of 2023, my wife and I spent a month wandering through Italy pretending we were scouting places to retire someday. In reality, retirement was—and still is—financial science fiction. But it gave us an excuse to drive aimlessly through mountain towns, coastal villages, and valleys that looked too beautiful to belong to ordinary people. Somewhere above Bolzano, winding our way into the Dolomites, we began searching for the Seiser Al

Bethpage Black Course 2024 Arriving at the campground beside Bethpage State Park at six in the evening, I could already feel the mixture of excitement and dread settling into my stomach. That feeling only intensified knowing what the night ahead involved: Sleeping in a parking lot for the chance to play the Black Course. For golfers, Bethpage Black Course occupies a strange and sacred place. It’s known as “the people’s course,” one of the few public layouts in America where a

Cabot Citrus Farms 2026 It’s hard to believe, driving north from Tampa at six in the morning, that something this beautiful could exist out there among the flat pine forests of western Florida. The Suncoast Parkway rolls past endless subdivisions, gas stations, and stretches of land that all begin to blur together after a while. Cookie-cutter neighborhoods fade into forests. Forests fade into cattle land. Nothing about the drive prepares you for what eventually appears hidden

St. Andrew Old Course 2024 “After the year I’ve had, I don’t think I deserve another one.” That was the thought running through my head as I turned the corner onto Golf Place in St Andrews, Scotland My wife and I had spent the past two weeks wandering through Scotland in a tiny VW Class B motorhome, chasing golf courses along the coast like pilgrims searching for something sacred. Somewhere along the way, the trip had become less about golf and more about searching for a feel

A story of an short Irishman and a tall American trying to figure out the most famous course in American history

How I got here...