Big changes are coming to the PGA Tour in 2028; this we already know. This week, the new Tour Championship format was announced, and it’s a total shift from the current system.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we are looking forward seeing how the 2028 Tour Championship plays out.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

The FedEx Cup debuted in 2007. Since then, the Tour has tinkered and tweaked the format, all in an effort to make it coherent for fans and to crown a worthy season-long champions.

The problem is that 19 years later the FedEx Cup playoffs don’t feel like playoffs because they aren’t playoffs.

They don’t feel like March Madness. Or the NFL playoffs. Or the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The FedEx Cup doesn’t even seem like the pinnacle of the golf season.

That’s what makes the announcement of a completely new postseason format beginning in 2028 so exciting. The Tour isn’t tweaking the playoffs. The Tour is rebuilding the playoffs.

The new playoff format will look nothing like the current iteration of golf’s postseason.

The new format will take place over three weeks.

The first week is the PGA Tour Championship Series Finale. Ninety players will compete and determine the season-long champion based on points earned throughout the year.

Then, the following two weeks will be the revamped Tour Championship where the top 32 players will play… in match play.

Like the FIFA World Cup (before FIFA got extra, extra greedy and expanded the tournament for 48 nations), the 32 players will be divided into eight groups of four. Those round-robin matches will be played the second weekend of the postseason (the first of two match play weeks). The top two players in each group will advance to the knockout stage.

The final week of the postseason will feature a 16-player single-elimination bracket and the final match will be for the Tour Championship.

Will this be any good? I have no idea.

It does work, in theory, on multiple levels.

The concerns of match play not crowning a worthy “season-long champion” are alleviated by the Championship Series Finale crowning a champion based on points. This is similar to the NHL with the President’s Trophy and the MLS with the Supporters’ Shield recognizing the best season-long performance.

The match play aspect will make it feel like playoffs. The format is one many sports fans are familiar with, basically mimicking the World Cup group stage-to-knockout format.

An interesting aspect of the match play bracket is that all 16 players will play all days with consolation matches being played. This will help the broadcasters’ concern of having only one match on the course having a lot of non-golf time to cover.

This format gives fans a reason to watch. There is true jeopardy and danger. There is direct elimination chances and consequences for losing.

It’s easy to follow. It’s one player against another. Win and lose. Lose and be eliminated.

That’s what playoffs should be; players actually playing off.

But there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical.

Is 32 players too many for the group stage? The group stage means that fans will need to learn what certain results need to happen for their favorite players to advance. Golf has not been particularly good at explaining complicated competitive structures to casual fans.

We also don’t know all the venues. While there is talk about bringing the Tour Championship to smaller, more intimate venues because of the smaller fields, no courses have been announced.

We don’t know how television will broadcast it. That remains a big concern. With the likely large prize purse and limited matches on the course, how many commercials will we be subject to view? Sometimes watching golf, especially the big tournaments, feel like a slog because of the commercial load. Yes, I know that’s how the bills are paid, but it can ruin the viewing experience.

Does the PGA Tour even need a playoffs or postseason? Probably not, but we’ve had one for 19 years. It would be weird to just completely drop it. However, by eliminating it, the Tour would admit it is unnecessary; that doesn’t seem like a great business move.

At least the PGA Tour is recognizing the status quo isn’t working and overhauling the playoffs and postseason completely.

The most encouraging part of the 2028 overhaul might be something else entirely.

I don’t know if the new format is going to be good. I don’t know players will care. I don’t know if fans will care. I don’t know if the group stage will be easy to follow. I don’t know if the season-long champion versus the Tour Champion distinction will make sense.

I don’t know if we’ll look back in 2031 and wonder what the hell the PGA Tour was thinking and if we’ll go back to the drawing board … again.

But I do know the current system hasn’t worked.

At the very least, in 2028, the PGA Tour might finally have something that actually feels like a playoff.

That’s a pretty good place to start.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Play Skyway Golf Course with us on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required. Registration ends on August 31.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs started yesterday. Did you fill out your brackets? No?

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we are (more than) slightly unenthused about the playoffs.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

In sports, the word playoffs means something.

I’m not an MLB or NBA fan, and I can’t tell you the last time I watched a professional baseball or basketball regular season game on television. But I will tune into the playoffs.

Even in those best-of-seven series, there is a finality to losing. Mistakes matter. Successful seasons can end with one bad afternoon.

The PGA Tour has spent the last 19 years calling the FedEx Cup its playoffs even though they have never felt like playoffs at all.

The FedEx Cup playoffs try to accomplish too many things all at once. Its design is partially set up to reward the regular season consistency … while trying to produce some volatility in the playoffs … while trying to identify the a single player as the season’s “champion” … while distributing millions of dollars to the player’s bank accounts.

The PGA Tour’s playoffs is trying to be everything when in actuality it is nothing. Its one true success is bolstering players’ piggy banks.

It never captured the heart of the fans. Large bonuses don’t make fans tune in more or care more.

The FedEx Cup playoffs feels like golf with a points spreadsheet. Heck, in the beginning years of the FedEx Cup, Steve Sands was live at the course with a whiteboard trying to explain to viewers the scenarios! We shouldn’t need a CPA to figure out who is going to advance and who isn’t.

The idea of a PGA Tour playoffs makes sense. In 2007 when it debuted, the PGA Championship was played in August and felt like the end of the season. There was really no reason to keep watching the PGA Tour. So, to give fans a reason to care, the PGA Tour created the playoffs that would be played in September.

Now, with the PGA Championship moving to May, it almost feels like there’s no reason to watch after mid-July once the Open Championship concludes. Oh, the playoffs are in August? Who knew.

It’s kind of crazy to imagine this thing has been around for nearly two decades and I can’t name a fan who cares. Players care, for sure, there’s plenty of bonus money to be distributed.

To its credit, the PGA Tour has tried. It tried tweaking the formula. Resetting points. Changing field sizes. Altering the number of playoff events. Allocating “starting strokes” to the Tour Championship.

None of these changes worked.

Nobody knows when someone is actually eliminated.

When your favorite NFL teams loses in the Wild Card Round, you know it’s over. March Madness, lose and you’re headed home.

With the FedEx Cup, it’s impossible to tell without aid of on screen graphics who is projected to move from 32nd to 29th or who needs a birdie on 17 to qualify for next week or who gets eliminated when a player makes a birdie and moves up the leaderboard.

The stakes are calculated, not obvious.

And that’s because the FedEx Cup playoffs are trying to be too many things. Is the point to reward regular season play? Or is the objective to create chaos in the playoffs? It’s nearly impossible to have equal weighting to both.

The regular season is rewarded in the NFL and MLB, for example, by giving teams with better records higher seeds in the playoffs. But once the playoffs start, the teams play against each other and the regular season records don’t matter. They are playing off for a chance to move on. The 7th seed moves on? Then so be it.

In golf, there seems to be an aversion to “upsets” or “well, then their regular season didn’t get recognized” if they fall out of the playoffs. That’s sometimes what happens in playoffs.

If the regular season was the only thing that mattered, then there shouldn’t be any playoffs and the final points standings should be it, like in the English Premier League.

But in knockout rounds or playoffs, sometimes crazy things happen. Maybe the PGA Tour is starting to understand that.

When the competitive changes for 2028 were announced, a key aspect acknowledged this: the playoffs need to feel like playoffs.

A reimagined Tour Championship that may feature match play, or at least some portion of the playoffs including match play, is expected along with a rotating venue.

There is a common refrain that having match play tournament after playing stroke play all year is contradictory. But guess what, the NCAA changed their golf championships to match play and the championship has never been more popular. It’s easy to tell who is winning and who is losing.

Match play has been part of golf since the creation of the sport. The U.S. Amateur has used it for generations. The Ryder Cup is appointment television. No golf accounting degree required.

And even if nothing changes and the playoffs don’t become a must watch, then at least we can still make our tee time and play the game.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed to Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required. Registration ends on August 31.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

Happy National Golf Month!

We’re back after a two-week summer break. Sorry, we were busy playing some golf. Sue us.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we are venturing in the the audio world this week with an interview with Tom Layman, author of Level Par.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

First, forgive us for the audio quality. It was our first foray into the audio world (it kind of shows a little bit). But just like playing golf, we did our best and are posting a number (or, in this case, audio file). (Please note we also do swear a little in the interview.)

We talked about:

• His writing journey and how it landed him here, writing a fiction novel, Level Par

• Whether the book is a golf book or is a story with golf involved

• Golf, life, and the pursuit of perfection

• Loneliness, mental health, and golf

• Whether hitting out of a divot is a stupid rule

• His good boy, Reggie

  

You can also read the transcript, but here are some of our favorite excerpts.

FTDZ: So what was the impetus to make you kind of write this book, particularly a fiction novel?

Tom: I was a sports writer for the Boston Herald for about seven years, and I covered mostly golf, but I also covered kind of every major professional sport up here in Boston. And as you know, we had a pretty good run there for a little bit. I got a chance to see the World Series. I covered that. I covered the Malcolm Butler interception game when the Patriots beat the Seahawks. I was in the locker rooms and doing all these things, but I always kind of leaned more towards writing…

COVID happened and [golf] was really the only thing that we all could do. And I found myself like chipping in my living room and like putting in my living room. And I live in a 750 square foot apartment. And all of a sudden, like as soon as the golf course is open, I just found myself attracted to the game again. And as I was kind of like getting better at golf and kind of finding my swing again, getting a golf coach and really just going all in on golf again, I started to think about There’s kind of a story here. There’s kind of a story of what I had been through in my life in some capacity, which is kind of related and level par. But also, I started to kind of get an itch to write.

FTDZ: People are always like“when do you know when you’re ready to put out something?” You’re never ready to put out something. And nothing’s ever like perfect, right. Kyle Porter is one of my favorite golf writers now. He just put out a book about Rory’s Masters last year, 2025. When he tweeted it out, he had a thousand books in his living room to mail out. He goes, you can just do things. You can just do things.

Tom: I think about... We couldn’t fly as a species, but the Wright brothers created a plan. If someone told them, that’s a great idea, but you should keep that in your head. Keep that in your head, yeah. None of us would be able to go all over the country and all over the world. What a crazy... To me, I would say that the book, I wrote it a lot for myself. It was very cathartic, for sure. Once I finished it, So I wrote the first draft by hand. And so I basically started as a journal entry, right? And I’m like, okay, I don’t know what this is, but I’m going to just start journaling. And this is kind of going to start coming out of me. And I still have it. It’s over here in my, I think it’s in my desk drawer over here. And... The original bones of the story were there. I started sketching out what’s the rising action? What could be the pivot?

FTDZ: So, it’s not a golf book. It has golf in it. It has golf features. But that’s really what it’s all about. And some of Jake’s challenges in the book stem from loneliness. Something that really any golfer can think about and can experience. He notes that golf puts you on an island to fend for yourself. And then realizes that teamwork and camaraderie with his caddy and best friend Jonesy on the bag and the qualifier. So I think golf has an interesting paradox. So is that something that you’ve personally experienced in the game?

Tom: Yeah, loneliness for sure. I mean, I feel like, you know, especially I’m a single guy, like I just have me and my dog and Especially during COVID, I could have gone in another direction. I could have just sat around and drink wine or scotch all day. But I got out of the house, I started playing golf. I tried to mitigate that loneliness by finding things to do. One of my favorite podcasts is Modern Wisdom by Chris Williamson. And he always says that action is the antidote to anxiety. And so I suffer from anxiety. I suffer from, you know, just I think as a creative person, like your brain’s always moving. I think it’s you probably are aware of it, too. And so when you sit still and you kind of like ruminate and you start to think about all the things that have happened in your life and. If you’re not in the right place that you want to be, maybe you’re like striving for something, but you haven’t reached it. You know, we can all be our own worst critics.

FTDZ: This was like a very early in the book and I immediately wrote it down because it’s a, it’s a hot topic in the golf world. Jonesy [gets] up to [his] golf ball and Jonesy says, this is a stupid rule as the ball is in a divot. Is it a stupid rule?

Tom: (listen to the interview to find out!)

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed to Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

Happy Open Championship week!

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re pouring a cup of coffee (well, not really, we don’t like coffee, but are inserting our favorite energy drink here) and watching golf bright and early.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

The Open Championship and the United States Open are two of the most prominent open championships in the world. An “open” championship is called that because it is open to all players (well, at least those who meet entry criteria such as carrying a low enough handicap index). Qualifying for an open tournament is a key part of the championship.

The Open Championship has a field of the best golfers in the world. Even those who enter open qualifying are players of the highest ability.

Then there’s Maurice Flitcroft.

In 1976, the 46-year-old English crane operator decided he was going to qualify for The Open Championship. There was just one problem: he wasn’t really a golfer.

Flitcroft had only been playing for a short time but found through a loophole in the qualifying process. As an amateur he was required to have a handicap index and club membership; he had neither. But no such regulations were in place for professional golfers, so he entered Open qualifying by claiming professional status.

He found himself standing on the first tee at Formby Golf Club alongside players who had spent decades working toward this opportunity.

What happened next has become golf folklore.

He shot 121.

Forty-nine over par.

It remains the highest 18-hole score ever recorded in Open qualifying.

For most people, that would have been the end of the story. A little embarrassment, a few laughs from the newspapers, and life goes on. (He claimed to the media that his high score was the result of leaving his favorite 4-wood in the trunk!)

Not Maurice.

When The R&A banned him from entering future qualifiers, he simply kept trying under fake names and increasingly ridiculous aliases like Gene Paychecki and Arnold Palmtree.

He became known as "The Royal & Ancient Rabbit."

Flitcroft once recalled that he “was looking to find fame and fortune but only achieved one of the two.”

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed to Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

This week, I found myself walking the fairways of Baltusrol. Not to play, not to watch a professional championship, but to be a total golf sicko and watch the New Jersey Amateur.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re celebrating state amateur championships.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

The gallery wasn’t thousands deep. There were no hospitality tents, corporate chalets, or giant scoreboards flashing betting odds. There wasn’t a merchandise tent selling $90 hoodies.

Instead, there was golf. Just really, really good golf.

Some of the best tournaments happen every summer in every state or region in the country. And most golfers don’t even realize it.

If you love golf, you should absolutely make it a point to go watch your state amateur championship.

This year’s New Jersey Amateur — the 125th edition! — was conducted at famed Baltusrol. The venerable 36-hole club, with both courses, the Lower and the Upper, designed by A.W. Tillinghast and recently restored by Gil Hanse is a tough invite. Most of us will never play the course.

But by watching a state amateur, you can walk the course and fairways. There are no ropes, just an expectation of etiquette to make sure you’re a respectful distance away from the competitors.

If you’re a golf architecture fan, you can study the routing, feel the elevation changes, and notice the subtle contours that are hard to capture in photos.

Attending a state amateur is an opportunity to see the very best courses in the area up close and personal. Sometimes, seeing these courses is better without your own clubs, because you can really take in the entire course as opposed to just walking to your ball and only seeing the right side of the course because you can’t straighten out your fade.

Oh, and the golf is pretty good to watch to. One way to get better in golf is to watch players who are better than you.

Seeing how the players react to poor shots, choose a safe recovery shot and get back in play, and strategize with their caddy can help provide a new perspective on your own game.

Good golf isn’t always about playing the hero shot. It’s certainly not about lingering on the poor shot. It’s about getting back in play. It’s about thinking about where you want the ball to end up, avoiding the areas that can cause a big number on the scorecard.

State amateurs are a pure form of golf. FedEx Cup points aren’t awarded and no one is cashing a seven figure check at the end. These players are playing for the love of the game; the reason we all tee up every weekend, too.

Sure, there are opportunities that come from performing well in these tournaments such as exemptions into national tournaments. And playing in these championships provides preparation and experience for other tournaments, and for some, a potential professional career, but amateur tournaments remain a place for competing for the genuine joy of competing.

They’re chasing a title that means something not because of prize money, but because their name could be etched into the history of golf in their state.

State amateur championships are also sneak previews. The college player making birdies today might be playing in a U.S. Open a few years from now. The teenager carrying himself with confidence could become the next tour professional.

It’s easy to leave professional tournaments impressed. I left Baltusrol inspired.

Professional golf dominates our television screens. But some of the best stories in golf are happening much closer to home.

Sometimes all it takes is spending a summer afternoon walking the fairways of your state’s amateur championship.

You might discover your favorite golf tournament isn’t on television, but right in your backyard.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed to Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

On Tuesday, June 23, PGA Tour CEO — and soon to be PGA Tour Commissioner in 2027 — Brian Rolapp laid out the plan for reinventing the tour’s structure beginning in 2028.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re eager to see how the Tour plays out in 2028.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

Let’s say professional golf has never existed and you were tasked with creating the first league for professional golf. Would it look anything like today’s PGA Tour?

For review, here’s the high-level overview of today’s PGA Tour:

• A diverse group of golf course quality - some highly ranked golf courses, some purpose built for championship golf, some just holding events because they have the place for modern tournament infrastructure

• A lack of diversity in location - four tournaments in California, five tournaments in Florida, four tournaments in Texas, and none visiting New York or Chicago areas or the northwest

• A playoff which is ultimately not a playoff

• A mishmash of “higher-quality” events and front-loaded at the beginning of the season interspersed with more minor events, but all under the guise of the same product

No, you probably wouldn’t design today’s PGA Tour from scratch. Today’s PGA Tour is stuck in a strange place: a result of trying to evolve to protect its star players while also clinging to its meritocracy roots.

The PGA Tour is no longer the loose collection of individual tournaments it started out as; it is now a cohesive product, one which follows a cadence similar to other professional sports with a “regular season” and “playoffs.”

As it stands, the PGA Tour wants stronger fields while still giving rank-and-file members playing opportunities.

It has long pretended that every event is the same, when in theory and in practice, every event wasn’t the same.

The format that exists now tries to make fans care about the regular season, the playoffs, and the Tour Championship. But none of all of this feel entirely connected.

With the new PGA Tour CEO coming in last year (and the original potential competition from LIV, even though that seems like it’s weakening), there was an opportunity to reimagine the PGA Tour as we know it.

And so on Tuesday, the PGA Tour took that opportunity: it stopped tinkering around the edges and decided to redesign the whole thing.

Beginning in 2028, the Tour will move to a two-tier system featuring a top-level Championship Series and a secondary Challenger Series, complete with promotion and relegation. Think European soccer meets professional golf.

The biggest criticism of the modern PGA Tour has been simple: nobody knows what matters.

There are Signature Events. Regular events. Playoff events. FedEx Cup points. A Tour Championship that has changed formats more often than some people change grips.

This new format with the two series finally feels like the Tour is saying the quiet part out loud: every event wasn’t the same.

The best players will spend most of the season competing in the Championship Series, a collection of roughly two dozen premier events featuring 120-player fields and purses of at least $20 million. Meanwhile, aspiring players and those fighting to keep status will compete in the Challenger Series, where promotion opportunities are on the line.

For the first time in a long time, the Tour is creating a clear ladder.

Promotion and relegation is a longtime tradition in professional sports around the world. It is most popularly known in European soccer: particularly English soccer, which teams are part of a pyramid with the top and bottom teams in the league standings moving between different levels of competition.

The PGA Tour has a form of this pyramid as well, with the top-level PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry and PGA Tour Americas developmental tours. Players are currently not '“locked” into their level though, and it is common for Korn Ferry Tour players to also play in some of the smaller PGA Tour events.

The format beginning in 2028 more drastically defines the tiers.

The bottom performers in the Championship Series will lose their spots. The best performers in the Challenger Series will earn them. Annual movement between the tiers is expected to be a core feature of the new system.

Imagine a former major champion battling in August not for a paycheck but for survival. Imagine a young Korn Ferry graduate knowing a hot summer could launch him directly into golf’s biggest events.

Professional golf has struggled to create stakes outside of the majors. This may be the Tour’s most serious attempt yet.

When restructuring the Tour became a serious subject, it was said that its primary focus was for creating the best possible product for the fans.

The Tour believes fans want to see the best players competing against each other more often, and this format has a greater chance of accomplishing that. (Even though one of the biggest players on Tour [and one who wanted to improve the product] Rory McIlroy did say last week he’s already lessening his schedule.)

An event featuring Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Åberg, and Cameron Young is inherently more compelling than one where only two of them show up.

Golf is at its best when the stars actually play against each other. That’s one of the reason why we love the majors.

This format acknowledges that reality.

But what happens to the tournaments left behind?

Many current PGA Tour stops survive because they attract a handful of top-30 players each year. Under the new model, some events may lose access to those stars entirely. That could hurt attendance, television ratings, and sponsor interest.

The Tour is betting that stronger premier events will outweigh weaker secondary events. But if your favorite local tournament becomes a Challenger Series stop, it might feel like your team got relegated too.

Perhaps the biggest part of this announcement is the reimagined postseason where the playoff is actually, you know, a playoff.

The end of the season will include match play. If it’s going to be called a playoff, have the players play off. And while match play isn’t the best for television, especially in the final match of a bracket where there are only two players on the course, the rumors of featured venues like Cypress Point or Pine Valley or Seminole will hold intrigue. (I’m holding my excitement though… I’ll believe “Tour Championship at Pine Valley” when I see it.)

The FedEx Cup has spent its entire life searching for an identity. It went through format changes. It went through points adjustments. It went through a calendar shift. The FedEx Cup will be 21 years old in 2028 - a full-grown adult. Maybe match play will be its coming-of-age moment.

Is the PGA Tour’s 2028 model perfect? No. Some tournaments will suffer. Some sponsors will likely withdraw their support of tournaments. Some players probably won’t like it. And there will of course be unintended consequences.

But for the first time, the Tour is acting like a sports league instead of a collection of independent tournaments. For the first time, the Tour is being proactive, not reactive. It’s taking a chance on itself.

Will it work? We’ll find out. But at least we’re talking about the future instead of arguing about the past.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed to Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

The World Cup begins this week, and with the focus on soccer (before you non Americans say “but it’s football Brian” all pretentiously, the word “soccer” originated in England in the late 19th century, but go ahead, debate Oxford on that…), we decided to ask the important question: what if the World Cup was golf?

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re we have World Cup fever.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

We took the World Cup groups and created four ball teams using the top two eligible players (those who have greater then 0.0 points) in the Official World Golf Rankings as of Monday, June 8, 2026. Sometimes we had to dig deep into the OWGR - like, way deep.

(Yes, I know LIV fans, the rankings are crooked and if LIV received OWGR points all along, those players would all easily qualify for all the countries and even some they have never stepped foot in, but alas, here we are.)

We didn’t rearrange the groups based on the rankings, these are the World Cup groups, but golf. (Not foot golf, actual golf.)

To qualify for the knockout stage of our World Cup but Golf tournament, a side must win their group or be one of the best four second place finishers.

To keep things easy, we’re just going straight chalk and advancing the teams with the best combined world ranking in each group as the winner, and then the best four teams who didn’t win the group.

Group Stage

Group A
Mexico - Carlos Ortiz (185), Emilio Gonzalez (202)
South Africa - Jayden Schafer (69), Casey Jarvis (78)
South Korea - Si Woo Kim (18), Sungjae Im (72)
Czechia - Petr Hruby (679), Filip Mruzek (753)

South Korea advances as the group winner, but this might be the most competitive group overall. All sides have teams with two players, and all are ranked below 1,000 - that is not something we can say for all groups (tough scene out there for some countries). South Africa will also advance as one of the four best second place teams.

Group B
Canada - Corey Connors (54), Nick Taylor (62)
Bosnia and Herzegovina - no players eligible
Qatar - Daniil Sokolov(a) (3302), Salleh Al Kaabi(a) (4218)
Switzerland - Joel Girrbach (306), Ronan Kleu (720)

Canada cruises to victory here only needing to beat a Qatari side with two amateurs and Switzerland. No eligible golfers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Group C
Brazil - Fred Biondi (1001), Rodrigo Lee (1248)
Morocco - Adam Bresnu(a) (1160), Ayoub Lguirati (1338)
Haiti - no players eligible
Scotland - Robert MacIntyre (17), Calum Hill (142)

Scotland advances with no problem here. With no Haitian side and Brazil and Morocco’s players being ranked at least 1,000 or higher, Scotland is the only side to advance from Group C.

Group D
United States - Scottie Scheffler (1), Cameron Young (3)
Paraguay - Fabrizio Zanotti (479)
Australia - Min Woo Lee (36), Jason Day (45)
Turkiye - Leon Acikalin (2054), Ediz Kemaloğlu (2091)

A strong U.S. side features two of the top three players in the world, but the match with Australia might be a fun one. Both those sides advance as Australia is one of the top four second place sides. While Paraguay qualifies for the tournament, having only one player in a four ball tournament is like having a red card and playing down a man.

Group E
Germany - Matti Schmid (70), Stephan Jaegar (95)
Curacao - no players eligible
Ivory Coast - no players eligible
Ecuador - Felipe Graces (1682), Renato Naula (3083)

Only one match in Group E; Germany advances.

Group F
Netherlands - Joost Luiten (221), Darius Van Driel (223)
Japan - Hideki Matsuyama (25), Roy Hisatsune (61)
Sweden - Ludvig Aberg (14), Alex Noren (20)
Tunisia - Rabeh Bedoui(a) (4391)

The Japan vs. Sweden match in Group F is competitive one; likely one oft the most competitive in the group stage. The Netherlands also can but up a strong showing with their players compared to some other groups. Both Japan and Sweden advance.

Group G
Belgium - Thomas Detry (65), Adrien Dumont de Chassart (166)
Egypt - Issa Abou El Ela(a) (2220), Adam Elshamy (3953)
Iran - no players eligible
New Zealand - Ryan Fox (60), Daniel Hillier (91)

New Zealand moves on. Belgium just misses out on advancing as a second place side.

Group H
Spain - Jon Rahm (8), David Puig (56)
Cape Verde - no players eligible
Saudi Arabia - Khalid Attieh (2574), Faisal Al Salhab (2596)
Uruguay - no players eligible

Even for LIV players, Spain has a strong showing in the OWGR, and with only one match in the group, easily advance.

Group I
France - Adrien Saddier (113), Marin Couvra (153)
Senegal - no players eligible
Iraq - no players eligible
Norway - Kristoffer Reitan (24), Viktor Holvand (33)

What happened to Viktor? Sliding down the OWGR that is no longer the top ranked Norwegian? No worries for our guy who always seems to have no worries; he qualifies for his country and Norway easily advances.

Group J
Argentina - Emiliano Grillo (120), Jorge Fernandez-Valdes (266)
Algeria - Rochdi Mekkaoui (3503)
Austria - Sepp Straka (19), Bernd Wiesberger (184)
Jordan - no players eligible

The southern-drawl Austrian Sepp Straka and his fellow countryman Bernd Wiesberger take Group J and move to the knockout phase.

Group K
Portugal - Ricardo Gouveia (216), Daniel Da Costa Rodrigues (2760)
DR Congo - no players eligible
Uzbekistan - no players eligible
Colombia - Nicolas Echavarria (49), Camilo Villegas (461)

Group K features only one match between Colombia and Portugal with Colombia advancing.

Group L
England - Matt Fitzpatrick (4), Justin Rose (6)
Croatia - no players eligible
Ghana - no players eligible
Panama - no players eligible

Talk about a crowning for England. Only one team with any eligible players so they take the three-match bye straight to the round of 16. Also, Tommy Fleetwood just misses out on the team, rankings seventh. Somehow, that feels symbolic of his career, though.

Knockout Stage

We took the actual knockout bracket from the World Cup and advanced teams to our WCBG bracket using the potential round of 16 matches from the World Cup. Everything slotted in nicely, except Belgium was a second team qualifying in the d/h/g grouping, so we slotted them into the j/k/l second place, where no second place teams from those groups advanced.

Round of 16
Match 1: Winner E (Germany) vs. Winner I (France)
Match 2: Winner F (Sweden) vs. second (a/b/c) (South Africa)
Match 3: Winner H (Spain) vs. second (j/k/l) (Belgium)
Match 4: Winner D (USA) vs. Winner G (New Zealand)
Match 5: Winner C (Scotland) vs. second (e/f/i) (Japan)
Match 6: Winner A (South Korea) vs. Winner L (England)
Match 7: Winner J (Austria) vs. second (d/h/g) (Australia)
Match 8: Winner B (Canada) vs. Winner K (Colombia)

We’re not sure if there are any really stand out matches in the round of 16, but since we are down to the knockout stage, there is a sense of unpredictability, similar to how the first round of World Cup knockout stage might be.

We’re not going to keep advancing teams because of that fact, just know that obviously the USMN(Golf)T will win the whole tournament based on OWGR rankings, but in actuality, will they?

Quaterfinals
Match 9: Winner 1 v 2
Match 10: Winner 3 v 4
Match 11: Winner 5 v 6
Match 12: Winner 7 v 8

Semifinals
Match 13: Winner 9 vs 10
Match 14: Winner 11 vs. 12

Finals
Match 15: Winner 13 vs 14

So what does this who WCBG tell us? Probably that I have too much time on my hands.

Enjoy the World Cup. I believe that we will win. (I don’t but that’s the chant.)

(Non-golf note: Let’s Go(maha) Mountaineers in the CWS!)

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed to Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

It’s June and that means golf clubs across the country have their courses in prime shape and are ready to open their tee sheets to their members’ guests at a time-honored tradition, the three-day member-guest.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re just here for a good time.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

The club championship is usually the biggest or the most prestigious tournament at a club.

And there are events where fewer transfusions are consumed before noon.

But nothing quite compares to a member-guest.

It’s part competition, part reunion, part wondering “what the heck is that team wearing,” and part endurance test.

For three glorious days, grown adults with mortgages will happily wear matching outfits (sometimes of a ridiculous nature), have a warm-up cocktail before a 7:30am match, and convince themselves this is the year they will take home the trophy that their wife will incredulously wonder where they plan to proudly display it.

Like most of golf, the actual game in a member-guest is only but half the story. There majority of the story and experience happens at the practice tee, in the clubhouse, around the dinner table, and during the inevitable 3:00pm suspension of play due to thunderstorms.

The best member-guests create memories that last far longer than any trophy.

Here’s how we recommend to make the most of golf’s most social tournament.

1. Accept now that you’re not going to win.

Golf is hard. It’s harder to win a handicapped event through five rounds of nine-hole match play, advance to a shootout and win that.

There’s another team out there with a guest from northern Michigan who only was able to start playing three weeks ago and who’s handicap has raised four strokes since the beginning of the year as he knocks of the winter rust and then suddenly finds his swing.

How are you supposed to compete with that?

You’re not.

Plus, the shootout looks like way too much pressure. It’s a lot easier circled up around the green with a transfusion in hand watching people skull chips across the green. (Cue Azinger: “pressure.”)

2. Make sure you can spend three full days with your member-guest partner without killing each other.

It may be tempting to invite the best golfer you know to the member-guest because this is the year you’re going to take home the trophy that ultimately your guest will have to figure out how to pack in their carry-on.

But if you don’t get along well, that can lead to a long three days.

A member-guest involves a lot more than golf. You’re sharing meals, practice rounds, drinks, cart rides, and countless hours together.

Choose someone who makes the entire experience more enjoyable. Birdies are great. Good company is better.

And remember, you aren’t going to win anyway.

3. Play well enough to stay invited back.

Winning is nice. But since that isn’t going to happen, it’s still important to play well. You want to make sure you can at least contribute a few hole wins and maybe a skin or two.

After all, you want to win some money back in the prize pool (even if you just break even) so you can justify the $120 quarter-zip you bought in the pro shop.

4. Study the food menu more than the scorecard.

The best golf advice in a tournament setting is usually take one shot at a time and don’t look too far ahead.

But by knowing the next meal’s selections in the midst of being three down through four can ease the pain of that match. It helps knowing that buffalo chicken sliders and mac and cheese bites are waiting at the turn and a nice steak is coming for dinner.

Priorities.

5. You’re always “mathematically still alive” as you stand in front of and stare at study the scoreboard.

The scoreboard is a gathering place for every sicko after each round, watching as the pro fills in scores for teams who you have no idea who they are but are emotionally invested in.

When someone asks you how your team is doing, the proper answer is always at least “mathematically still alive,” even if you’re down seven points with one match to go.

6. Look out for the most dangerous player.

The 14-handicap who just made three birdies in a row? That’s him.

And he’s in your flight. And your team is playing against his team in the match he gets NBA Jam-level unlimited turbo.

7. Make friends with the beverage cart attendants.

Besides your partner and cartner, the relationship with beverage cart attendants might be the most important one all weekend. They’ll make sure you’re properly hydrated (and, seriously, always get a water each time too - dehydrated golf is bad, hungover golf the next day is worse).

8. Keep track of stories, not scores.

No one will remember your routine par on six.

Everyone will remember Frank falling out of the cart on six.

(Don’t be Frank.)

(And make sure Frank has an Uber home.)

9. Realize you’re participating in one of golf’s best traditions.

The member-guest remains one of the few places where golf’s social side is fully celebrated. Friends travel across the country to play together.

A member-guest is the only sporting event where a man can shoot 87 and still describe the weekend as a complete success.

Every member-guest eventually becomes a competition to determine who can tell the same story the most times in one weekend.

And for a few days, golf becomes exactly what it was always meant to be: a game played with friends.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed to Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

There are two USGA Championships in the books already this year: the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four Ball and the U.S. Amateur Four Ball. There are more than two handfuls of championships remaining in the year, and we’re looking at the logos of the championships.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’ve never a met a pro shop we didn’t like.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

Logos matter. More than golfers would like to admit. A great logo can turn an otherwise rational adult into someone contemplating a needlepoint belt, a waxed canvas duffel, and a fourth quarter-zip they absolutely do not need.

So, let’s rank the USGA Championships for 2026 not in terms of their history, their course, their pedigree, but solely on how much damage they can do to my bank account.

“I can restrain myself.”

I’ve never been a fan of logos with just letters as a monogram. I always read them wrong and unless you really know what the course is, those initials can be anything. So Barton Hills is a tough one for me.

The Daniel Island Club is trying to be a little too fancy with the curly lines on the bottom; those are unnecessary. I think the circle around the logo is also unnecessary.

Baltimore Country Club’s is interesting. I know it’s a “BCC” thing, but just doesn’t work for me.

Minimal time spent in the shop. Minimal damage on the credit card. Using the money saved toward an extra transfusion.

I can leave with dignity intact.

“I don’t need anything, but…”

Woodmont’s logo would be infinantely better without the crossing golf clubs.

Interlocking letters can be challenging, and I’m not sure if Montclair is pulling them off.

Shield logos can be good and Portland’s is just fine.

I don’t need anything but I’m getting something. Nothing major, but a thoughtful and intentional purchase considering price and value of the merchandise.

“Do you have this in a large?”

Desert Mountain’s geometric logo is not common in the golf world so it stands out and I think fits Arizona and the landscape nicely.

The Bel-Air logo is great. I know the flags below it represent the nations playing in the Curtis Cup, but I think it makes the logo too busy.

Scioto’s arrowhead does have interlocking letters, but it is clean and simple and fits inside its frame without overpowering the emblem. It almost can just be a design inside the arrowhead without being the letters.

Old Chatham’s is simple and clean.

The Honors Course’s trophy is appropriate.

Saucon Valley’s logo is another with interlocking letters, but something about it just works for me.

These are all solid logos and worthy of a pro shop visit. I might be on the verge of being reckless but common sense and fiscal responsibility ultimately reign. Two items.

“I’m going to have to increase my credit limit.”

Riviera’s logo is clean, bold, and modern-looking for a classic club.

Native American imagery is controversial, but Shinnecock Hills’ logo is one of the most well-known in the game.

Merion’s really captures the property the course sits on and its unique feature with the wicker baskets.

I think if you asked a graphic designer to create a logo for these two courses today, they wouldn’t be that intricate or detailed but sometimes the classic logos stand the test of time.

The Lido is the newest addition to the Sand Valley golf resort and matches the strength of the other logos at the resort. Simple, unique, and pays homage to the course’s history from the original Lido on Long Island.

These pro shops have taken over control of my body and whatever happens happens.

A great golf logo can ruin me financially faster than a poorly timed double bogey.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. It’s a nine hole course with views of New York City and we’re looping it twice. (Oh and the tee gift we have planned for this event is our best yet.) We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

Donald Ross designed about 400 golf courses during his career as a golf course architect. This week the PGA Championship visits one of those 400 when Aronimink plays host. Pinehurst No. 2 gets all the headlines as his masterpiece, but it was Aronimink that Ross considered his best work and two decades after its opening he said he “built [it] better than he knew.”

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where our hot take this week is that Donald Ross knew what he was doing when it came to designing golf courses.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

Prominent designers of the “golden age of golf course architecture” — the early third of the 20th century — are considered some of the best the sport has ever seen. It’s interesting because intentional golf course design was a relatively new phenomenon. And these designers of the era forging a new profession! A.W. Tillinghast was originally a magazine editor. Seth Raynor an engineer. Alister MacKenzie a doctor. Donald Ross was the only one affiliated with golf; he was originally a golf professional.

The designers of this era had no textbook to read. No landscape architecture knowledge. No history to improve from.

They had very limited, if any, machinery to build their courses. Some of the highest level of technology they had at times was a shovel.

In a world today where golf course architects have every tool imaginable to move dirt, dig water hazards, level plateaus, create mounds, and basically do whatever they want to change the earth the course is on, the architects of the early 20th century had just the opposite. Their courses had to follow the lay of the land. They had no choice.

But even as they were creating the rules of golf course architecture on the fly, their courses are revered as some of the best.

Is that because they were the “first” to do it? Or is it because the courses are actually good?

Their courses are good.

Last year, I walked Plainfield Country Club following the U.S. Amateur Four Ball championship. I’ve also played there. Last week I walked Mountain Ridge Country Club for the LPGA’s Mizuho Americas Open. I’ve played Pinehurst No. 2, the place many consider his iconic course.

Donald Ross knew what he was doing. No one gets a call 400 times without being skilled at their craft.

Spending some time on just a few of Ross’s courses, I’ve learned a few things about his designs.

There is a misconception of Donald Ross courses that he believed that opening holes should be a “gentle handshake.” A proper handshake isn’t gentle, it’s firm. And that is how Donald Ross believed a golf course should open. The first holes set the tone of the round, requiring thought and skill from the first swing.

He was a master when it came to routing a golf course. Golf, of course back then, was played by walking from shot to shot, from hole to hole. There were no golf carts; consideration must be made to keep green to tee transitions reasonable. What makes a good routing? It’s hard to say. To quote Justice Potter Stewart from his concurring opinion in Jacobellis vs. Ohio, “I know it when it I see it.” Like hard-core pornography, a good routing is obviously evident. A way I like to think of a good routing is the way you would walk to explore the property, even if a golf course wasn’t there: visiting all the landforms and returning to interesting points multiple times.

Landforms are used to their highest potential. Some greens are placed upon natural plateaus, many using the lay of the land to have steep falloffs. Bunkers are benched into hillsides. Golf holes feel like they were discovered rather than constructed.

Today’s golfers have so much data available about their games: carry numbers, launch angle, spin rates, and ball speed down to precision. Golf was played for centuries before launch monitors were ever present. On Ross’s courses, balls can bounce, feed, reject, release, move, and curve along the earth itself.

Ross’s courses don’t become less interesting once you understand them; they become more interesting. The more you learn about the contours, terrain, angles, and strategy, the more decisions reveal themselves.

A Donald Ross course is never truly solved.

While golf course design from the golden age was a new endeavor, architects of the era got a lot right about design, whether by accident, brilliance, or a combination of both.

Like a painting from the Renaissance or a symphony from the Classical Period, these courses still resonate today. Golf certainly has changed in the last century, but the reasons we favor golf courses hasn’t. Angles, options, imagination, restraint are still at the essence of how we play.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

We visit Charleston Springs on May 31 for the Parkway Playoff. It’s a battle of the exits. Loser pays the tolls.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

East Potomac Golf Links is in the news again. I haven’t heard of the golf course until last year when it got in the news for the first time.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we find ourselves invested in the story of a golf course we’ve never played.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

There are golf courses you love and remember because they are bucket list courses. Some you love because you remember the shots, the people, the weather, the feeling walking off the 18th green.

And then there are golf courses you care about because of what they represent.

I’ve never played East Potomac Golf Links. It’s about three hours away from me. I don’t have childhood memories there. I don’t know the breaks on the greens or whether to grab a hot dog or grilled cheese at the turn.

But I suddenly find myself caring deeply about its future.

Some golf courses matter beyond scorecards.

East Potomac sits on a narrow island in the Potomac River. There are 36 holes over, appropriately, a Red Course (par 27), a White Course (par 34) and the regulation Blue Course. The Blue Course is a Walter Travis design that hosted the 1923 U.S. Public Links Championship and was one of the first reversible designs.

There’s also a miniature golf course - the oldest continually operating ones in the country - that was just refurbished into its former glory, worth of its recognition on the National Register of Historic Places.

And there’s a driving range. And Foot Golf.

And there’s plans to work with golf architect Tom Doak to restore the courses.

The courses are in shadow of our nation’s most prominent monuments: the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial.

These monuments honor two of our founding fathers; people who believed in the people.

The golf course and park tell an equally important American story. It is one of the rare places where golf still feels like it’s for the people.

Greens fees are affordable. The courses are accessible to all skill levels. They are unpretentious.

That combination is becoming increasingly rare in modern golf.

Washington D.C.’s golf courses should be hallmarks of what public golf can be. A place that welcomes players of all ages, abilities, and income levels.

Municipal golf has always been about participation. It is where many beginners learn the game. Where retirees walk nine holes after their morning coffee. Where high school kids sneak in twilight rounds and try to beat the sun. Where workers stop by after a long day. Where someone can decide, on a random Tuesday, to try golf for the first time without needing wealth, connections, or a country club pedigree.

East Potomac is this place for the golfers our nation’s capital. It is a shining example of what public places should be. It should be a place for the foundation of the game.

The foundation is the public golfer.

And East Potomac feels like a symbol of that idea.

The island the golf courses and facilities sit on is also home to a public park. One with the oldest continually operating miniature golf course (which was just refurbished and is on the National Register of Historic Places.) One with a pool, tennis courts, a playground, and a picnic area. One with a perimeter road used by countless runners and cyclists. And that’s important. Public land should serve the public. Not just the affluent public. Not just tourists. Not just those who already know the game.

Public parks are one of the few places in American live where people of all different backgrounds still gather. Walkers, runners, golfers, families, tourists, workers on lunch breaks all share the same landscape. These places are not isolated from daily life; they are part of it.

East Potomac is belongs to the city it’s in. It belongs to the people.

The nation’s capital is our symbol of democracy. Municipal golf is democratic. Golf in Washington, DC should be for the people. A patch of grass, a few clubs, and couple hours outside should not be a luxury.

The future of public golf depends on whether places like East Potomac survive not just physically, but philosophically. Of course courses need investment. Of course facilities can improve. But improvement should not come at the expense of affordability or openness. The goal should not be to transform public golf into a private-club imitation. The goal should be to make public golf better at being public golf.

Maybe that’s why I care about East Potomac even though I’ve never played there. Sometimes a golf course represents an idea bigger than itself. Sometimes it stands for the version of golf we hope still exists twenty years from now.

A version where a kid can fall in love with the game for the cost of a bucket of range balls. Where a city resident can walk nine holes after work without spending a week’s paycheck. Where public land still feels public.

Where golf remains connected to ordinary life.

Every golfer should care about places like East Potomac, even if they never tee it up there.

Because if courses like that disappear, something essential disappears with them.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

We visit Charleston Springs on May 31 for the Parkway Playoff. It’s a battle of the exits. Loser pays the tolls.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

College golf is soon to be center stage with regional and national tournaments taking place across the month of May in all divisions. We had a conversation with Lydon Patascher, a freshman at Rocky Mountain College to talk about his journey to collegiate golf and what keeps him playing.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re trading in our green for plaid.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

FTDZ: Right now, you’re on the Rocky Mountain College golf team. Go Bears. But take us back to the beginning—how did you first get into golf, and what was your journey through junior golf like?

LP: I first got into golf because of my dad. He worked at a driving range near us part time, so I would always be hitting buckets of balls ever since I could walk. I remember my dad telling me stories that I would keep asking for more to hit every time I finished a bucket. My journey through junior golf changed a lot. I started playing a couple of tournaments when I was younger but stopped right about when I was 11 years old. I didn’t really start getting big into golf again until my 8th grade year, when the high school coach allowed me to practice with the team. That was the turning point when I realized that I could actually be solid at this sport because I was keeping up with all of the high schoolers (and beating most of them).

FTDZ: Any moments particularly stand out from your junior career?

LP: I feel like every big moment of my junior career came from the end of my junior year to senior year of high school. Junior year I qualified for the state tournament and that really gave me momentum going into my senior year. On our first day of qualifying for my senior season, I made a hole in 1 on a par 4 on the second hole of the day. I ended up shooting -11 through 2 rounds of qualifying. 2 weeks later I ended up shooting 60 to break Arnold Palmer’s course record at Allentown Municipal Golf Course.

FTDZ: I played high school golf, but we won’t talk about how many years ago that was. But since then, golf has become a lot more “athletic.” How important is fitness and strength training these days in terms of performance on the course?

LP: I think strength training is one of the most beneficial parts of golf nowadays. I have realized that so many junior or college golfers leave so much out there because they aren’t lifting. You can add so much distance to your game just by doing strength training. Another benefit is just staying healthy. If you’re lifting, you’re going to be a lot less prone to injury by building up your muscle. I really started getting big into lifting the last 2 years and there has been exponential growth in my game.

FTDZ: So far, what’s been the best part about college golf?

LP: I would say the best part about college golf is just the amount of free golf you get to play. Here in Billings, we can call any course and get on for free basically. I also like that everyone wants to work as hard as me here. In junior golf, there weren’t many local people that could push me to be my best but here I can go with anyone to the course and it will be a close match.

FTDZ: Looking ahead, what goals have you set for yourself during your college golf career, both individually and as part of your team?

LP: My main goal during my college golf career would be to win a tournament. Lots of people do not realize how hard it is to win at the college level compared to junior golf. As part of the team, I would love to be a part of a championship team, whether that’s a conference championship or a national championship.

FTDZ: Any goals individually for state or USGA championships?

LP: This summer I am playing in the U.S open qualifiers, and U.S am qualifier. I will probably play in the state am also. My goal would be to make it to the second round of the U.S am qualifier. Just playing in these high level tournaments gives me great experience for my golf game.

FTDZ: Golf is hard. What is it about golf that keeps you coming back and makes you love the game?

LP: Golf keeps me coming back for the memories. So many of my memories with people have been on the golf course. Whether it's playing a goat track or a top level course, memories can be made anywhere within golf.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

We’re visiting Charleston Springs on May 31 for the Parkway Playoff. It’s a battle of the exits. Loser pays the tolls.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

The PGA Tour heads to Harbour Town this week for the RBC Heritage. After a stressful week of a major championship, a relaxing trip to the South Carolina low country never hurt anyone.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re trading in our green for plaid.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

There are bigger courses. There are harder courses. There are higher ranked courses.

But Harbour Town is my favorite golf course.

It kind of goes against everything I think makes a good golf course.

While the houses are pretty set back from the corridors of play, the majority of the course runs through residential areas of Sea Pines which means there is out of bounds on one or both sides of many holes. This can also make for some longer green-to-tee walks, although none are too far.

It’s narrow. Trees are being taken out of golf courses everywhere, whether that is to improve playability, improve the turf, or return to the original architecture. On some holes, the trees can feel constraining and claustrophobic.

I know I’m not making it sound like a great place. But trust me, it is.

Harbour Town is my favorite golf course because it understands what it is.

There is no pretense here. It’s feels laid back. It feels like it belongs in the low country.

In an era where golf courses stretch over 7,500 yards from the back tees (PSA: never play from that far, you’re not that good), Harbour Town sits at 7,100 yards and doesn’t require brute force. In the low country, an area where the lifestyle is more laid back, the course feels like a stroll through the oaks and Spanish moss.

That’s not to say it’s a pushover. Hardly. It is a Pete Dye-designed course after all.

The course doesn’t overwhelm. It tries to overthink. Fairways pinch. Angles matter. Precision is paramount. Harbour Town isn’t meant to be played with ego; it’s meant to be played with constraint.

Pete Dye was among the best of modern golf course architects. While Harbour Town wasn’t his first design, it is often the course that is considered to launch his career.

And it’s interesting to see Dye’s early design and how his philosophy and features that were started at Harbour Town continued throughout his impressive design portfolio.

Small, penal pot bunkers dot areas right where slightly wayward shots might land. This is especially evident at the 14th hole, where a pot bunker sits just past the middle of the green on the left side away from the canal on the right. Golfers will likely pull the ball slightly - often subconsciously - to avoid the water; pulls go farther; so the pot bunker just past pin high on the left is both brilliant and devilish.

The influence of Alice, Pete’s wife, is also apparent. Most well known in golf architecture for her “why don’t you just make it an island” suggestion for the 17th at TPC Sawgrass, she built the green at the 13th hole with the cedar planks pushing up the green surrounded by a bunker.

The famous finish, in front of the lighthouse, doesn’t hurt either. After 15 holes of tree-lined golf requiring precision, Harbour Town changes the script.

The closing stretch opens up to the Calibogue Sound. The wind arrives. The corridors widen, but the challenge doesn’t ease.

The finish wasn’t supposed to be this way either. In Pete Dye’s memoir, Bury Me in a Pot Bunker, he noted the original routing (which was designed by George Cobb) was meant to have the finish parallel the 10th hole. Instead, when the construction company who was building the harbor needed somewhere to put all the sand, they dumped it on the area of what is now the 17th and 18th holes. This lead to a perfect, iconic finish along the water. This “happy accident” is similar to the instantly recognizable island green at Sawgrass.

When Harbour Town opened, it brought a new era of golf course design. It had unique features that were rarely seen on courses. It launched Pete Dye’s architecture career. It is loved on the PGA Tour. It requires players to hit golf shots: draws, fades, low shots and high shots.

Harbour Town is a perfect reflection of its place. Its layout stays on the low lying ground without a lot of earth movement. It roams through stately oaks and palmettos. Its canals and waterways are home to an alligator or two. The golf isn’t relaxing - it’s demanding - but the walk is like a nature walk.

Whether it’s a par on the famous 18th or a ridiculous ricoche off of the planks lining the greenside bunker on 13, there’s always a story from the course after the round.

And it doesn’t hurt that it’s over a Lighthouse Blonde Ale.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

We tee off our season with our flagship event, the Cart Rider Cup on May 2 at Neshanic Valley. It’s our version of the Ryder Cup.

Then we visit Charleston Springs on May 31. It’s a battle of the exits. Loser pays the tolls.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

Nearly every golf fan looks forward to this week.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re celebrating Masters week.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

Are there are bigger championships? Maybe.

Are there are tougher tests? Maybe.

Are there are louder crowds, higher purses, and deeper fields? Maybe.

But on the second week of every April, that thought experiment doesn’t matter. Because it’s the Masters.

Tradition in golf used to mean something. It’s probably fair to say that tradition in many things used to matter. In the third decade of the 21st century, though, the world the fast-paced, ever-evolving, rapidly-changing.

Professional golf doesn’t look anything like it did 50 years ago, let alone five years ago. The Western Open, a once venerable tournament, has become the BMW Championship. There is a (somewhat convoluted, almost unnecessary) playoff on the PGA Tour

A new league called LIV entered the picture and shook up the golf landscape. The PGA Tour now has small-field, no-cut, mega-purse signature events. Those have went through at least two changes since they were introduced as designated events in 2023 and appear to be undergoing another redo in 2027 or 2028.

Match play may be decide the FedEx Cup champion in the future.

Players left the PGA Tour for LIV. Some came back.

It’s been dizzying.

In the whirlwind of it all remains the Masters. The major championship that, while it does evolve, preserves tradition.

The Masters is held at the same course. With the same rituals. With the same bird chirps from the pines on a Thursday morning.

Augusta National invites the best of the game, both current and legends, back home.

The familiarity here doesn’t breed contempt. Familiarity here breeds consciousness.

Memories of Rory’s collapses before his long awaited victory. Phil’s charge through the trees on 13. Tiger’s ball hanging on the edge of the cup on 16 before dropping in. Jack’s win in 1986. Greg Norman’s heartbreaks.

Augusta National is a place of reverence.

Amen Corner. Rae’s Creek. The Hogan, Nelson, and Sarazen Bridges. The (now fallen) Eisenhower tree. Butler Cabin.

Golfers know these places without even having been on the grounds. It’s a place that feels mythical. But it is very real, even if many of us will never win the ticket lottery.

The Masters builds legends.

Golfers earn their way in through their exemplary play. It’s the smallest field of the majors. This year, 91 players are entered. Compare that to the 156 in the other three majors.

Win and you’re in. For life. Past champions are able to return to play every year. Many do. Many use their final walk up the 18th fairway as their farewell to competitive golf.

The reigning champion hosts the Champions Dinner, open only to past Masters champions and the current chairman of Augusta National.

Fifteen minutes before the first competitive tee shot on Thursday, the area near the first tee is unusually abuzz. “Fore please” is announced for legends of the game who hit ceremonial opening tee shots. After those tee shots, the Masters “has officially begun.”

Golf is a multigenerational sport. Augusta National and The Masters recognize that.

There is no over-the-top branding and no corporate naming rights at the Masters. The beer choices at the concession stands are domestic or imported. Every element of the broadcast isn’t sponsored.

It’s a breath of fresh air and pureness in a corporately-sponsored world.

But most importantly, The Masters arrives when the golf world is just starting to wake up again.

Grass turns green. The air softens. Golf courses reopen in the north. For many, it’s the true start of the golf season.

Tee sheets are filled at the local muni on Saturday and Sunday morning, with golfers finishing up their rounds before the Masters comes on TV.

In a fragmented professional golf landscape, the Masters offers a sense of comfort, renewal, and timelessness.

Register for From the Drop Zone Events

Our event schedule is the perfect place for good golf courses, friendly competition, and camaraderie.

We tee off our season with our flagship event, the Cart Rider Cup on May 2 at Neshanic Valley. It’s our version of the Ryder Cup.

Then we visit Charleston Springs on May 31. It’s a battle of the exits. Loser pays the tolls.

Our member-guest, The Bucket, is headed Skyway, to the people’s Liberty National, on September 12. We welcome all, membership not required.

All events include golf, live scoring, premium tee gifts, and prizes. And a fun day on the course.

Event information and registration is available in our event portal.

Golf season is officially here for many golfers across the country. If you have a handicap, “active season” means you must post your scores to be part of the handicap calculation. Part of that calculation comes from a course rating and a slope rating. These numbers may appear mythical but there is a defined procedure to getting these numbers.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re celebrating National Cocktail Day.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

R&R. Par three adjustment. K. W. D2. B. Minus B.

Those were just a few of the letters, codes, and jargon I heard on my visit in 2023 with the New Jersey State Golf Association’s course rating team to Francis Byrne Golf Course, a public golf course owned by Essex County in West Orange, New Jersey.

I met the volunteers of the course rating team - clad in their powder blue NJSGA polos and red caps - at the clubhouse at 8:00am.

The team of 12 started their task of rating the course by having a brief meeting with the Director of Golf Operations who discusses the anticipated green speeds and rough lengths for regular daily play.

After that short discussion, two of the more experienced and expert raters, known as Captains, split the team into two smaller groups of six. One group was assigned to evaluate the front nine, the other the back nine.

Our group headed to the first tee with our hole rating worksheets, range finders, USGA Course Rating Manuals, sunscreen and water bottles (the New Jersey summer sun is hot and strong!) in tow.

Stepping on the first tee, a Road Hole template design with a bunker on the right of the fairway rather than a hotel, it was clear why we were rating the golf course. The first hole at Francis Byrne Golf Course is completely redesigned from its previous version. So is the second hole. And the third. And nearly every other hole on the golf course.

The USGA requires that golf courses are re-rated at least once every ten years. This accounts for updates or revisions of course rating methods. Our visit to re-rate the course was for a different reason: the golf course because the golf course underwent significant updates and revisions.

In 2023, Francis Byrne underwent a nearly year-long $6.8 million renovation (restoration? rehabilitation?) to return to its original design principles of the course’s architect Charles Banks. New Jersey-based golf architect Stephen Kay along with the county’s Director of Golf Operations added tees, introduced new bunkers, redesigned and recontoured greens, and remolded and added holes fit Banks’ classic design templates and style.

This work is immediately evident as we stepped on the first tee... and the next two: a biarritz template followed by a punchbowl green. A double plateau green at the eighth hole, a thumbprint green at the ninth, an Eden at the 14th, and a reverse redan at the 17th are other highlights. The golf course is visually spectacular and fun to play; it will certainly become a public golfing gem of not just Essex County, but the entire state of New Jersey.

Course rating is the pillar of World Handicap System. Without course ratings, there would be no score posting, no handicap index calculation. And without accurate course ratings, these handicap indexes would be inconsistent and unreliable. But with course ratings, golfers from different clubs, different states, even different countries can compete equitably in net competitions with their World Handicap System Index.

With the redesigned course at Francis Byrne, it is essential that the course be re-rated to maintain the integrity of the course rating and handicapping system, not just for golfers who play Byrne, but for golfers nationally and internationally.

The teams who perform course rating tasks are volunteers of Allied Golf Associations. You probably know yours as your state or regional golf association. The members of course rating teams engage in online and in-person training, apprenticeship and mentorship, and guidance from experienced course raters called Captains. The training focuses on the methods and intricacies of the Course Rating System.

Back on the first tee, the course rating process commences.

While the majority of a course’s difficulty is dependent on its length, golf courses have obstacles and hazards on the way to the green. The greens also can contain lots of slopes and undulations. Course raters consider and scrutinize these factors.

The rating and evaluation of each hole begins just as you would play a hole: standing on the tee and observing at the hole. If there are any trees that may stand in the way or block part of the fairway from the tee, that severity is noted on the hole’s rating worksheet.

Once in the fairway, the raters go to two separate landing zones. The first landing zone is 200 yards from the tee to evaluate the hole from a bogey golfer’s perspective. Here, the width of the fairway and distance to hazards are measured. Naturally, this is easier with today’s technology: range finders and GPS units and carts certainly take less time than walking off paces or using rope or string! These distances are marked on the worksheet.

The topography of the landing zone is considered: is the lie an uphill, downhill, or sidehill lie? Does the slope of the fairway make the effective width of the fairway smaller? Is the entire green visible from the landing zone? Is there an elevation change from the fairway to the green? All of these questions are answered by the course raters.

Bunkers, hazards, or, fescue and tall rough near the landing zone are also examined and their presence is indicated on the worksheet.

These measurements, observations, and an examinations are again conducted at a landing zone of 250 yards from the tee. This allows the hole to be evaluated from a scratch golfer’s perspective.

(These landing zones are for course ratings for males; course ratings for females have distances adjusted.)

On longer par four holes or par five holes, a second landing area may need to be evaluated for the factors and obstacles.

Each of the members of the smaller group which is assigned to either front or back nine are further assigned a set of tees and a gender to rate. The measurements and evaluations described above are conducted individually. Once the entire group completes their landing zone evaluations, they get together on the green.

On the green, the group collaboratively discusses the bunkers, lateral obstacles, and hills or valleys surrounding the green. They also discuss the green contours and tiers.

The group also reviews the hole together to ensure all raters accurately evaluated the hole. During this conversation is when codes like K (lost ball penalty), W (fairway width adjustment), B and minus B (for bounce away from and towards the green, respectively), and D2 (a measure of green-side bunker depth) are used.

To the uninitiated in course rating like myself, it sounded like a foreign language. But to the experienced raters, it is an easy and concise way to communicate. After all, these raters have to rate at least nine holes.

This evaluation may all seem subjective. However, notes and measures are checked against a table from the USGA Course Rating Manual and converted into numerical values. These values are grounded in objective data. This ensures courses across the country - and around the world - are rated with the same consistency.

Once we were done with the first hole, a process that took approximately 15-20 minutes, we moved on to the second hole, split up to our assigned tee to rate, reconvened at the green, and had another discussion.

This process transpired for the rest of the holes on the front nine until we ended back at the clubhouse. The group working on the back nine underwent the same procedure for their holes.

After about two and a half hours, the entire course rating team was together again. It was time for lunch and preparation to play the golf course.

The course rating team plays the course after its measurement and evaluation. The purpose of this is twofold. It is a small appreciation to the team for volunteering, and also allows the team to confirm their work through hitting actual golf shots.

(Since the course was completely overhauled and essentially a brand new course, someone in our course rating group had the chance to set the course record when we played! Unfortunately, a line of strong thunderstorms came through on the 13th hole, and the horn sounded. No (18-hole) course record was set that day.)

The end result of this process will give the course a Course Rating and Slope Rating for each tee that was rated.

When golfers step to the first tee their local golf course or bucket list course, they can know that their handicap will properly reflect their score relative to the challenge and features of the course. Just like every course in the world.

If you’ve been around here, you know that we at From the Drop Zone believe that some of the best of golf is sharing the stories of the round while enjoying a cocktail in the clubhouse.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re celebrating National Cocktail Day.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

There’s an old belief that there are 18 holes of golf because there are 18 shots in a bottle of whiskey. That is a myth. Well, there are 18 holes in a round and there are about 18 shots in a bottle of whiskey, but those two things are not connected.

But the lore goes that golfers took a shot on the tee of each hole and by the time the round was over, so was the bottle.

This legend gave rise to the 19th hole, where the drinks continue in the clubhouse after the round.

It’s easy to imagine in 1852 a foursome of golfers walking off the 18th green after a round on St. Andrews to enjoy another adult beverage or two. Now, that pilgrimage at St. Andrews is made by many golfers each day down to the Jigger Inn, one of the most famous 19th holes in golf.

At the Jigger Inn, a specialty beer was crafted and brewed beginning in 2010 specifically for the pub called Jigger Ale. (Now that Destination Kohler owns the Jigger Inn, it is also available for purchase stateside at the Horse & Plow at the American Club in Kohler.)

A specialty cocktail or beer exclusive to the course or clubhouse can add to the sense of place and enhance the experience. Sometimes, golf beats you up. And by having a nice specialty cocktail after the round, that can numb the pain.

The transfusion is still the undisputed clubhouse cocktail. Vodka, ginger ale, grape juice. It’s simple. It’s refreshing, especially when leveled up with a lime. It’s the cocktail equivalent of the reliable 7-iron, never flashy, but seemingly always gets the job done.

But now, the transfusion has competition.

Golf courses used to differentiate themselves with routing, architecture, and their logo.

Now? They’re doing it with cocktails. Drinks are inspired by the landscape, the course name, and local culture. It’s branding you can sip.

The Azalea might be the most well-known specialty cocktail. A blend of vodka, lemonade, and grenadine, the pink shade looks like Augusta National in bloom at The Masters.

The Sawgrass Splash at The Players at TPC Sawgrass highlights the fruit Florida is known for: oranges. With orange vodka, lemonade, and fresh orange juice, this is the kind of splash everyone is looking for at Sawgrass, as opposed to their ball splashing in the water.

Two cocktails we’d rather be sipping than playing from their namesake lies are the Fescue Rescue at Erin Hills and the Gunch Punch at Prairie Dunes.

After searching for wayward or windswept drives in golden fescue at Erin Hills, the Jameson, ginger beer and lemonade concoction may provide some relief.

Similarly, the frozen slushy of vodka, Sprite, sweet-and-sour, and cranberry juice can remove the memories of playing from the waist-high gunch grasses at Prairie Dunes.

Pinehurst is a place that seems to get all the small details right. And besides the brewery serving up delicious craft brews (I’ll take a Pivoted, and then another one, please), there are two specialty cocktails that stand out.

The first is at the halfway house at the intersections of Nos. 2 & 4 called The Nest. There, Woodpeckers are the preferred way antidote to golf balls being rejected from the turtleback greens. Named after the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker in and around Pinehurst, it is a combination of vodka, Sprite Zero and grenadine.

The Cradle is a great hangout spot after a long day on No. 2 (or anytime really). The short par-three course, where the tradition is to play barefoot, is also home to the Cradle Crossing, a bar overlooking the course with firepits and Adirondack chairs. It also serves as the defacto halfway house of the nine-holer, which you pass twice while playing. Sure you can get the transfusion, but the Pinecone is the way to go. Its color from the mix of Makers Mark and pine lemonade replicates the pine straw and pine cones found in the area. They go down pretty easy too as you can watch golfers try to make holes in one on the punchbowl third hole at the Cradle.

The best golf cocktails live in the same space as the best places in the golf itself. Simple, thoughtful, and just elevated enough to feel special. Not pretentious. Not boring. Just right.

Something you can order twice without thinking… and remember long after the round.

There are few more iconic golf holes than the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re taking a look at the island green at TPC Sawgrass and island greens across golf.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

It’s one of the most photographed holes on the planet. The penultimate hole at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship; is the topic of discussion everyone asks after finding out you played Sawgrass, “did you hit the island green?”

All this, for a golf hole of 137 yards (from the professional tee!). Why the commotion about it then, you ask? Because all the hole consists of (except for a walkway) is a tee box, a green, a small pot bunker, and water. Lots and lots of water. The island green hole.

But is it a good golf hole? Are any island green holes good?

The Accidental Island Green

The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass was not the first island green. In fact, it was not intended to be an island green at all.

The original plans for the design of the 17th was to be a “par 3 hole that ran along a relatively small lake.” However, the area around the hole contained a lot of sand - a key material in the building of golf courses - and the builders kept digging and digging and the lake got bigger and bigger.

It got to a point where the builders of the course had no choice. It was either have a 17-hole golf course - hardly ideal for a course designed to hold a flagship championship(!) - or have an island green. Pete and Alice Dye “decided to go for broke” and completely surround the green with water.

And the rest, they say, is history.

Where Was The First Island Green?

Short answer: no one knows.

Wee Burn Country Club, a Devereux Emmet designed private course in Darien, Conn. which dates back to 1896, has an island green on the short par-4 16th hole.

Before A.W. Tillinghast routed the two courses (the Upper and Lower) at Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J., there was an island green on the 10th hole of the original course. This hole was actually in play during the 1915 U.S. Open!

While Tillinghast removed the hole at Baltusrol, he incorporated island greens into his designs: the par-4 18th hole at Shackamaxon in New Jersey and the “moat hole” at Galen Hall in Pennsylvania.

Of course, golf started well before it was first played in the United States. So are there courses in Scotland with an island green? According to Forrest Richardson, a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the design may date back to the ancient links at Leith which has “greens” surrounded by wet, sandy areas.

So, it appears that there is no definitive answer of where the first island was, who’s idea it was, or how they entered the golf courses architecture world.

What Kind of Holes have Island Greens?

Holes of all sizes, lengths, and par values have island greens.

They range from the aforementioned short par-3 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, whose island consists of only a green, save for one small pot bunker, to the 15th hole at TPC Scottsdale, reachable par five with the island containing the green in addition to fairway, rough, and two bunkers.

Another par five with an island green is the finishing hole at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills, home of Poppie’s Pond, which can play up to 646(!) yards. When the LPGA held the ANA Inspiration (RIP) at the course, tournament organizers often moved the tees up to encourage the players to go for the island green in two. The hole played 531 yards from the back LPGA tee.

Par four holes also feature island greens. At Valhalla in Louisville, host to PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup, the 13th hole contains an island green. This hole is a relatively short one, playing 355 yards from the championship tee, usually requiring just a wedge for the approach.

Contrast that to the finishing hole at Hokuala’s Ocean Course on the island of Hawaii which is 459 yards from the back tee. The more forward tees don’t offer much of a reprieve, playing 430, 402, and 324 yards: still at least a mid-iron approach for many golfers.

Returning to the one-shot holes, the 17th hole at the Stadium Course at PGA West, called Alcatraz, mimics (as does much of the three hole finish) its more famous sibling. Playing 168 yards from the back tee, this island green is slightly larger and surrounded by rocks, a slightly wayward shot be rewarded with a lucky bounce on to the green or suffer a watery grave.

Is One Type of Hole Better Suited for an Island Green?

With such a variety of styles of island green holes, is one style better than another?

Par fours and par fives increase the challenge of reaching the island green, because there is at least one shot prior to the approach to the green. If that shot (or those shots) are not ideally positioned, it could result in not having a reasonable - or any - chance to hit the green. For this reason, if an island green is a feature on a par four or par five hole, it is better for the island to contain more than just a green: a patch of fairway and rough increasing the area of the island will allow for players to still recover from a wayward tee shot.

An added reason for an enlarged island on longer holes is for amateur, recreational golfers to have the ability to have a wider miss area while still providing enough challenge. No one wants to keep sinking balls into the water; this results in frustration, despair, and slows pace of play.

Smaller islands could be featured on par three holes - especially shorter ones - because every player has a perfect lie on the tee shot (even hitting off of a tee!) and has no potential disaster prior to the approach to the green.

So, Are Island Greens Good Golf Holes?

Another short answer: it depends.

It depends on the style of the course. Does it fit in with the rest of the course? Or is it just included as part of a marketing ploy?

It depends on the style of hole. More forgiving island greens are probably better on longer holes than shorter holes.

Like most penal or outrageous golf course architectural features, there will be some supporters and some detractors.

One thing about island greens is true, however. Whenever a golfer plays a course with one, and gets the question “did you hit the island green?” It’s always satisfying to respond with, “yes.”

Happy Players week to all who celebrate. Eight years ago, my brother and I played at TPC Sawgrass. One shot during that round led to a story for the inspiration behind the name.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re celebrating the stories told about the game.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

A name is important. It provides identity, sure. But it also represents a culture, fosters connection, and guides decisions.

So when it came time to name this whole thing, I kept coming back to one idea: golf isn’t necessarily about the shots you hit, it’s about the stories you tell afterwards.

Conversations you have over cocktails in the clubhouse. (I’m a sucker for a specialty cocktail or proprietary craft brew at a golf course.)

Golf stories. Architecture. Trips. The moments that make this dumb game worth obsessing over.

So the name had to come from a story.

For me, that story comes from the 17th at TPC Sawgrass.

I thought about it the minute I hit tee shot on the first. The moment I drove on property. At breakfast. When I got on the plane. I thought about it the instant I booked the trip. The island green consumed my golf thoughts.

When the time finally came, it was right in front of me: the island green. The most famous 137 yards in golf.

I put my tee in the ground, the ball on the tee, and the caddy handed me my nine iron.

And my tee shot looked pretty good. Too good almost. It flew toward the pin. Landed on grass!

The logo is the photo of me hitting my tee shot on the 17th hole. I was eyeing the tee shot. I held the finish for an eternity.

But the ball landed on the slope next to the lone bunker on the hole. Then slowly, painfully slowly, the ball rolled down that slope until finally, plop. My shot ended in the water.

Which meant, of course, the next shot was played from the drop zone.

That’s a story in golf I’ll always remember. It’s a story I’ll always have. It’s my story from TPC Sawgrass. It’s the moment my brother and I talked about as we had a transfusion in the clubhouse after the round.

Golf lives in those moments. The shots, but also the misses. The stories that lead to laughs and fond memories. Even if they end up with playing the next shot from the drop zone.

The PGA Tour began the “Florida swing” last week at PGA National. To us, that course doesn’t look like a lot of fun, but it looks like a typical (or stereotypical) Florida golf course.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re wondering if Florida golf is bad or just misunderstood.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

There’s a moment on almost every Florida golf course when you look down at your ball, look up at the forced carry over water, and think “oh, again?!”

Florida golf doesn’t hide what it is. It is flat. It is wet. It is engineered.

And if you came here looking for rumpled fairways and wind-shaped greens that bleed into the horizon like the ones you walked at Royal County Down or Portstewart, you’re in the wrong place.

But that doesn’t mean Florida golf is bad.

It just means it’s a product of it’s environment.

The best golf in the world begins with movement.

Natural contours create strategy. Elevation creates decisions. Firm ground creates imagination.

Florida offers almost none of that.

Most of the state sits barely above sea level. The water table lurks inches below the surface. What isn’t swamp is sand. What isn’t sand is housing.

So architects do what they have to do. They have to dig lakes for drainage and use the spoil to elevate greens. They have to build courses between corridors of homes, condos, and HOA clubhouses. These courses have to manufacture interest.

The best architecture has holes that are “found.” But in Florida, holes are built.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some great golf courses in Florida. There are.

Seminole Golf Club has land that moves with a rare Atlantic dune ridge gives it elevation and wind exposure that most of South Florida can only dream about. Donald Ross didn’t have to invent drama here. He shaped within it.

The greens are subtle. The angles matter. The wind dictates.

But Seminole was built in 1929. Decades before the master-planned golf community exploded across the state.

A more recent entry into Florida golf is Streamsong Resort. Florida’s most dramatic golf exists because of environmental destruction.

Phosphate mining left behind massive sand dunes and elevation changes that simply do not exist naturally in the state. Tom Doak, who designed the Red Course, and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who designed the Blue Course, leaned into it, and suddenly you have bold greens, exposed wind, and ground that can actually run.

Florida needed a mining scar to get some of the best golfing ground in the state.

If Florida is going to be artificial, it might as well be theatrical.

When designing TPC Sawgrass, Pete Dye understood that the land in Ponte Vedra Beach wasn’t going to give him romance. So he gave us spectacle.

The finishing stretch of the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass provides drama and theater perfect for the ending of a championship tournament. And if you play it, the 17th hole gets in your head from the minute you book the tee time.

Sawgrass weaponizes Florida’s flatness into something psychological.

Now let’s talk about the typical Florida template.

You’ve seen it. You’ve played it. Houses tight left and right. A 160-yard carry over water on a par three. An elevated green built from dredged soil. Soft turf that erases the ground game. The holes start to blur together. Everything becomes target golf. Fly it here. Don’t miss there. Avoid the hazard. Sometimes it feels like a water park with flags.

There are fewer options. Fewer angles. Fewer moments where imagination beats execution. It becomes hazard management. And that’s rarely the highest form of the game.

Even good public courses can fall into this rhythm: wide fairways bordered by water, elevated greens, and repetition born from necessity rather than creativity.

But these designs aren’t necessarily incompetence.

And this is where perspective matters.

Florida golf isn’t built to be walked in the wind. It was built to drain after a thunderstorm. To survive hurricanes. To anchor housing developments. To host 200 players a day in February.

It is a product of climate, geography and commerce.

And while most Florida golf may not be great, it’s better that there is golf than no golf. After all, I need a place to play when there’s 14 inches of snow on the ground or its 11 degrees in the New Jersey winter.

The PGA Tour returns to Riviera this week. Much is made of the drivable par four tenth hole.

Welcome to the From the Drop Zone newsletter, where we’re about to take a dive into the modern “template” hole that is the drivable par four.

I know there are a lot of newsletters out there, and I’m thankful this one found its way into your inbox. Let’s hang out, pour a cocktail, and talk some golf.

This issue of the From the Drop Zone Newsletter is brought to you by members of The Circle Golfing Society. Join The Circle today, the official golfing society of From the Drop Zone, to support our writing and other projects, get discounts to events and merchandise, and be a part of a community of golfers who don’t mind a cocktail in the clubhouse after the round.

This issue is also brought to you by Acorn Hills. Manufacturer of the official From the Drop Zone Polo, we partner with Acorn Hills because of their industry-leading eco-friendly way of giving back to the environment and community. Their clothing tags are seed paper that can be planted and to eliminate waste. And their clothing is high-quality. Use code DROP15 at Acorn Hills to get 15% off your order.

Golf course design has evolved since the playing of this dumb game called golf started at the Old Course at St. Andrews in 1552, which I can only assume wasn’t called “Old” back then.

In the beginning, golf was played over the same fairway out and then back to the same holes. As the game became more popular, groups of golfers would be playing the same hole, albeit in opposite directions hitting toward each other. Eventually, common sense prevailed (and maybe insurance companies intervened?) and fairways and greens were separated so that golfers weren’t firing projectiles at each other.

The Old Course’s influence on modern golf course design is apparent. The course was first established with 22 holes, but eventually the first four holes and the last four holes were combined into to two holes in each direction (out and in) because they were too short (I guess there were “roll the ball back” and “distance is killing the game” cries in 1764!?) and now we have 18 holes as a standard round of golf.

Early on in golf course design there was no “formula” for a golf course; holes were simply laid out across the land. As design philosophies became more solidified, architects like Charles Blair MacDonald had a multitude of “template” holes he used on his designs, taking cues from the courses around Britain: Redan being among one of the most popular, and Short, Long, Eden, Punchbowl, Cape, Biarritz, and Road, among others also employed on his designs.

These types of holes are used by golf course architects -- both old and new -- and have stood the test of time. (And I hope to explore them in future articles.)

But as the modern game places an emphasis on power and distance, a new type of “template” hole has emerged: the drivable par four.

Are Drivable Par Fours Really Par Fours?

Golf courses built in the early 1900s often had long par threes, some reaching 220 or 230 yards. In those times -- and let’s be honest, it would be for many golfers in these times -- driver was likely the club selection on those par threes.

Oakmont Country Club’s par three eighth hole is currently listed as 288 yards from the US Open tees -- and played over 300 yards(!) as a par three in the 2016 US Open -- stands out as a hole from a classic era, which likely played as a driver par three when the course opened, to the modern era which requires a driver off the tee today. At many courses, a 288 or 300 yard hole would be listed as a par four.

The 16th hole at the Pete Dye Course at French Lick is listed at 301 yards from the back tee ... and as a par three. (Granted, those back tees are an absurd 8,100 yards.) When looking at the hole, Dave Harner, French Lick’s Director of Golf said to Dye that the hole would be a good candidate for a drivable par four, Dye responded, “if you can drive it, it’s not a par four.”

“If you can drive it, it’s not a par four.”

It’s hard to argue that point. If you can get it on the green in one, then take the “regulation” two putts, that adds up to a par three.

But making those shorter holes as par fours make the game more fun. Especially if those short, drivable par fours are well designed and bring decision making and evaluation of risks and rewards into play.

It’s Hard To Design a Good Drivable Par Four

For the sheer amount of short par fours on the planet, good, quality drivable par fours are few and far between.

And that’s because it’s hard to design them well. From recreational golfer’s vastly different driving distances (what exactly is a “drivable par four” and for whom is it drivable?) to the potential inconsistent short iron/wedge play from a lay up, good drivable par fours also rely heavily on a golfer’s ability.

With high-level statistics and analytics becoming prominent in the professional game -- and that information basically saying to “send it” -- there is essentially no laying up on drivable par fours in the modern professional game. But how challenging, how difficult, how insane can you make the green surroundings to have a risk of a high score? After all, that is the point of a drivable par four, isn’t it? To bring a score of 2 and a score of 5 or 6 into play? For professionals, maybe Pete Dye was right: drivable par fours are just 300-yard par threes.

But even one of Pete Dye’s masterpieces haven’t become immune to the drivable par four. Originally designed without one, the PGA Tour remodeled TPC Sawgrass’s 12th hole to a drivable par four in 2017. And then redesigned the hole slightly in 2018. While Pete Dye apparently ok’d the hole, Alice Dye called the hole awkward, not fitting of the course, and not a Pete Dye design. And through the redesign of the 12th -- and then the re-redesign -- it shows Pete may have been right: that hole is probably now just a long par three.

Does Par Even Matter?

This is probably a whole other topic entirely: the question of par having any meaning. (Spoiler alert: probably not.) But in a drivable par four, par does matter. It seems more palatable to call a 260-300 yard hole a par four, especially for the amateur player.

Calling these length holes par fours brings in a sense of decision making. After all, if the hole was labeled a par three, would anyone even consider laying up? No. By calling them a par four, laying up still has a psychologically appealing option: drive, approach, two putt. After all, that is the “appropriate” way to play a par four.

But the possibility of sending a long drive toward the green -- maybe even on the green(!) -- and chipping or putting in for an eagle two? Now that sounds like fun!

In the end, does par matter? No. The score is the score. The analytics don’t care what par says. But golf is a mental game, too. And what we call something matters.

My Favorite Drivable Par Fours (That I’ve Played)

There are many famous drivable par fours in the game. (Whether they are good or not is another question.) Among these include the aforementioned 12th at TPC Sawgrass, the 10th at Riviera, the 17th at TPC Scottsdale, and the 15th at TPC River Highlands.

It’s hard to judge a hole without actually playing it. So, I guess this list will be my two favorite drivable par fours that I’ve played.

6th Hole - Center Nine at The Ridgewood Country Club

Playing 275 and 259 from the two sets of middle tees, golfers playing the appropriate tees likely have a chance to send it to the green here. Nicknamed the “five and dime” hole -- many originally played it as a five iron and wedge to the green -- many golfers stand on the tee and ask their caddy for their driver. (I did - I didn’t go there to lay up.)

The green is elevated, no more than 10-12 yards wide at its widest point(!), and protected by a hillside covered in fescue left (leaving a downhill chip), a drop off behind, and deep bunkers front and right.

A layup off the tee still leaves a difficult approach to this narrow, closely-guarded green, while a drive to the green may find a deep bunker or a downhill lie from fescue. The penalty for a poor drive is not too severe - you’re likely to find your ball -- but will leave a challenging chip ... which may result in second challenging chip for your third shot.

6th Hole - Hilton Head National

Playing 273 and 254 yards from the two sets of middle tees, this hole also presents an option off the tee for golfers.

With a lake down the entire right side of the hole, the penalty for a missed drive right is a full stroke. But, it’s a red penalty area, meaning lateral relief is available, so depending on where the ball crossed the margin of the penalty area, the distance may not be too severe of a penalty. This makes sending a driver an appealing option; even if the drive is to be so unfortunate to find the water, par can still be in play.

Complicating the layup off the tee is a cross bunker about 70 yards from the center of the green. Playing short of that bunker leaves a longer approach, and hugging the water right leaves a better angle to the slender green, which is guarded by mounds and bunkers on the left and water on the right.

There Is No Ideal Drivable Par Four

There are some great, some mediocre, and some just plain bad drivable par fours. Unlike other template holes like the Redan, Alps, and Biarritz, the drivable par four is only identifiable by the distance of the hole. They are all different in character. The greens are all different; the bunkering is different; the shaping of the holes is different.

But the most dangerous thought in golf is “I think I can get there.” And that is the lure of the drivable par four.