Golf, by TourMiss

One of what I would say is a first delight in nearing the Bay Hill Club and Lodge is there are no security gates, no security guard box, or even a simple electronically-operated boom gate. This is so vastly different to the scenario across America where, and even at some public courses, unless you have prior permission or a suitable pass, you just cannot get past the front gates. Of course, in this dangerous world, that’s how sometimes it must be. Though not in driving down South Apopka Vineyard ...

For 16-years the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has been the starting point for many of the best competing on the now renamed DP World Tour. The tournament in the UAE capital has also seen some of the best in the world win on the National course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club that boasts the stunning falcon clubhouse. And winning the equally stunning falcon trophy has been a who’s who in golf including double-major winning Martin Kaymer, who’s won the event three times along with Ireland’s own Shane ...

Colin Montgomerie fears new technology could see this year’s 150th Open Championship be the last to be played on the Old Course at St. Andrews. Monty, and like so fellow tour pros, believes big-hitters like Bryson DeChambeau, and given calm conditions that may prevail at the Home of Golf, could turn the Home of Golf venue into one big birdie feast. This year’s Open Championship will be the first at St. Andrews for DeChambeau and company since 2015 when American Zach Johnson won a Monday play-off ...

A dozen years ago early on a Saturday morning in January, a handful of the media were taken out to the eighth hole of the Yas Links Golf Course. The par-3 eighth hole was then the only grassed hole on the newest golf course in the United Arab Emirates. Meeting the handful of media was Kyle Phillips, the Yas Links course designer who had arrived a few hours earlier on a flight from the U.S., and after a short visit to his hotel, he also was heading to the eighth tee. It was the week of the 2010 Abu ...

One of the rewards in reporting on tournament golf is to admire first-hand how new golf courses hosting new tournaments have matured. I was present at the 1991 Dubai Desert Classic and have been amazed not only at how the Majlis course has matured but how much Dubai has grown.  It is the same in attending the second Qatar Masters and admiring how the Doha Golf Club has matured and also how the course, once on the outskirts of the Qatar capital is now surrounded by buildings. Scotland’s Kingsbarns ...

In working the PGA Tour, we’ve spent many hours driving the Interstates of the U.S. I could probably mention every bend on the I-95 between West Palm Beach and the Georgia border and I could tell how many ‘bumps’ there are on the I-10 between Jacksonville and Texas. Of course, I’m exaggerating but you get the idea. A great thing about driving between Tour stops is the opportunities it presents compared to flying.   I cannot remember the number of occasions we’ve ended-up ...

For the Emirates Golf Club and host to the 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, it was an exercise delving into the past in looking ahead to the future. It’s remarkable that the first golf course to be built on the Arabian Peninsula will at the end of January 2022 celebrate the 34th anniversary of the tournament. The Carl Litten-designed course was built in 1987 and two years later joined the European Tour schedule. Back then, the course was sitting all by itself laid out in the desert far away ...