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67 | SUMMER 2026

LU XU RY | L I F E ST Y L E | G O L F

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REMEMBER EPIC GOLF ADVENTURES FROM THE SEA OF CORTEZ TO THE CORNWALL COAST

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Cameron Young Lorena Ochoa Russell Henley Sean Walsh

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T H E O FFI C I AL S C OTC H W H I SKY O F T HE 1 26 T H U.S. O P E N® SHINNECOCK HILLS GOLF C LUB JUNE 18–21, 2026

Play our legendary fairways. Tucked into the rolling landscapes of Virginia’s Historic Triangle, Williamsburg is emerging as one of the East Coast’s top golf destinations. More than a dozen championship courses offer challenging play across scenic fairways and impeccably maintained greens. Tee off on acclaimed courses designed by legends like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Robert Trent Jones Sr., then unwind beyond the fairways with waterfront dining, local wineries, craft breweries, upscale shopping, and the thrills of Busch Gardens® Williamsburg. From luxury hotels and waterfront resorts to spacious condo-style retreats, Williamsburg delivers a refined golf escape that pairs world-class play with unforgettable experiences.

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 Golden Horseshoe Golf Club

 Colonial Heritage Golf Club

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Rates and availability are subject to change and excludes holidays. Club credit for promotional purposes only. Real estate and other amenities are owned by Oconee Land Development Company LLC and/or other subs solicitation of offers to buy OLDC-owned real estate in Reynolds Lake Oconee by residents of HI, ID, NY, OR, or any other jurisdiction where prohibited by law. Access and rights to recreational amenities may be sub this property. Void where prohibited by law. WARNING: THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE HAS NOT INSPECTED, EXAMINED, OR DISQUALIFIED THIS OFFERING. An offering statement has been filed with the Iow

The perfect pace. On and off the course. Just east of Atlanta, and one flight from just about anywhere, Reynolds Lake Oconee has welcomed Members from around the country for nearly four decades. Whether a weekend cottage or a home for the generations, Reynolds has a special magic all its own. For those interested in Real Estate and Membership, preferred rates in our cottages or The Ritz-Carlton are available. ®

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bsidiaries and affiliates of MetLife, Inc. (collectively, "OLDC") and by unrelated third parties. OLDC is not involved in the marketing or sale of properties owned by third-parties. This is not intended to be an offer to sell nor a bject to fees, membership dues, or other limitations. For OLDC properties, obtain the Property Report required by Federal law and read it before signing anything. No Federal agency has judged the merits or value, if any, of wa Real Estate Commission and a copy of such statement is available from OLDC upon request. OLDC properties have been registered with the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salesmen in Boston, MA.

When a Saturday afternoon becomes a celebration.

Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

An Incomparable Club A National Destination Rooted in the legacy of Texas golf icon Byron Nelson, the Club features 36 holes of Championship Golf and a pedigree forged by the greatest players in golf. Minutes from DFW International Airport and anchored by The Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas, The Nelson is a golf and sports Club built to be your playground away from home.

Local and National Members enjoy access to luxurious accommodations, dining and spa. Explore our invitation process The NelsonGolfandSportsClub.com

67 | SUMMER 2026

Publisher & Co-Founder

MATTHEW SQUIRE

Executive Editor

LESLIE YAZEL

Creative Director

MATTHEW HALNAN

Editors

ROBIN BARWICK (UK) SHAUN TOLSON (US)

Managing Editors

LORI BRYAN NIKKI PRANGE

Head of Advertising Sales

JON EDWARDS

Executive Director, Marketing

Photography

Joann Dost, James Hogg, Patrick Koenig, Larry Lambrecht, Evan Schiller Special Thanks & Contributors

Dana Dickey, Nick Faldo, Russell Henley, Joel Holland, Carrie Honaker, Lorena Ochoa, Hal Phillips, Gina DeCaprio Vercesi, Shivani Vora, Sean Walsh, Cameron Young

MORGAN BARBAY

Contributing Editor

ALEXANDRA O’LAUGHLIN

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Kingdom is a luxury lifestyle and golf magazine enjoyed by more than 2 million readers annually through our print publication, social channels, website, newsletters, and events. Co-founded in 2003 by Arnold Palmer, Kingdom continues the King’s legacy with original content that celebrates excellence and the modern golf lifestyle, both on and off the course. Printed in the USA

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K I NGDOM | I S SUE 67

PUBLISHER’S LET TER

By the time you read this letter, I will hopefully be enjoying my summer family vacation, playing some golf, and watching the Open! This year, the Open will be played over the hallowed turf of Royal Birkdale, scene of Arnold Palmer’s first Open victory in 1961. Despite not being located above the border in Scotland, this magnificent golf course is one of the very best links courses in the United Kingdom. Thinking of Scotland, I was fortunate enough to play during the opening weekend of Tom Doak’s Old Petty course at Cabot Highlands in May. This stunning new track is the perfect complement to the property’s existing 18-hole Castle Stuart course, and I urge anyone to make the trip to Inverness to experience it. What a great destination Cabot Highlands has become. I was also delighted when our editorial team asked me to dust off my ink and quill and contribute to this issue’s England golf feature (starting on page 78). As you will see, my homeland offers a wealth of amazing courses and some beautiful places to stay. So, the next time you are planning a visit to Scotland, Ireland, or continental Europe, why not build in a day or two to enjoy some great English golf and hospitality? As an added bonus, the strawberries are particularly good at this time of year! Lastly, I am sure you will all join me in welcoming Kingdom’s new executive editor, Leslie Yazel. Next year, we will celebrate 25 years of Kingdom, and we are thrilled to have Leslie join our team and be part of this very special time for the magazine. We have many exciting moments planned to mark this milestone—and I look forward to sharing details later this year. In the meantime, have a wonderful summer, and may your handicap tumble and your love of the game deepen!

John Paul

Summer Hopes

From top: Tom Doak’s Old Petty course at Cabot Highlands; Arnold Palmer training ahead of the 1961 Open at Royal Birkdale; me enjoying a round at Cabot Highlands’ Castle Stuart course.

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CONTENTS | I S S U E 67

F E ATURES

Lorena Ochoa Mexico’s most decorated golfer was World No. 1 when she shockingly retired. In a Kingdom exclusive, she reflects on her decision, her career, and what it all means today.

Russell Henley The six-time PGA Tour winner from Macon, Georgia, has somehow managed to fly under the radar—until now.

Ultimate Golf Getaways 66 Mexico From high-drama courses in Cabo to ultraluxe resorts on the Caribbean, this is where to play and stay (and eat and drink) on a grand Mexican golf journey.

78 England The links and parkland courses to play, the paths to walk, the pubs to duck into, and the corks to pop in this not-to-beoverlooked golf destination.

G&T A to Z No trip to England would be complete without an evening gin and tonic. Consider this your connoisseur’s guide.

The Century Club The Golden Age of golf design is alive and well at these six courses—from Riviera to Yeamans Hall—that are celebrating 100th birthdays in 2026.

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The Greg Norman–designed Solmar Golf Links at Rancho San Lucas

CONTENTS | I S S U E 67

APPROACH 22 33 36 38 40 42 44 48 50

100

DEPARTMENTS 17 Publisher’s Letter 124 Kingdom Clubhouse 130 Scorecard

106 LIFE & STYLE 100 Cocktails Refreshing summer elixirs from four of our favorite spots under the sun.

104 Wine Uncorking a few finds from Mexico’s hidden valley.

106 Cuisine Power dining is back in a big way from Manhattan to L.A.

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110 Outdoors Pickleball, padel, and tennis are all the rage at these luxury resorts.

114 Vacation Homes Top golf resort communities in the Lowcountry.

116 Love of the Game Augie Barrios of the iconic Nelson Golf & Sports Club.

Course Spotlights The Cut Handcrafted Machines & Gear Weekend Two Ways Full Round: Sean Walsh Alex on Course No. 19 Live Like a King

110

APPROACH | FA R M N E C K G O L F C LU B

Martha’s Marvel The starter at Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, clearly isn’t worried about managing expectations. “Just wait until you see the back nine,” he tells a new visitor to the club. “You’re going to love it.” In truth, it doesn’t take nearly that long for a first-time player to fall in love with this semiprivate course set on the north side of Martha’s Vineyard. The club opened in 1976 with nine holes designed by Geoffrey Cornish, eventually expanding with an additional nine created by Patrick Milligan. Most recently, a renovation led by Mark Mungeam cleared trees and introduced more than two acres of transplanted native grasses. The new plantings allow Farm Neck, which covers 425 acres, to better reflect the “sandplain grassland habitat” that once dominated the island’s landscape. “The natural areas they created don’t just harken back,” says general manager Tim Sweet, “they tie the whole course together.” As much as Farm Neck’s native areas offer a sense of place, it’s the holes that play along and above the Atlantic that, true to the starter’s words, will steal every golfer’s heart.

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the Approach Patrick Koenig

Sand Valley’s new course, the Oyster’s centennial, colonial cocktails, and more.

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APPROACH | B E R N A R D U S G O L F

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Dutch for a Day Americans might have invented the upscale daily-fee course, but the Dutch have taken the concept of “member for a day” to new levels at Bernardus Golf. It’s difficult to classify the eight-year-old club, where an 18-hole Kyle Phillips design is hosting the 20th Solheim Cup matches this September. A roughly $300 green fee (high season) buys anyone a day membership that includes unlimited holes. There’s also a swanky boutique lodge, a spa, and a Michelin-starred restaurant, Nami, each available à la carte to day members and nonmembers alike. Down to every last detail— including the sleek, modernist clubhouse inspired by the Sydney Opera House— Bernardus subtly subverts golfing convention, both public and private. So does the design of the course. Phillips made his name creating Kingsbarns, a modern Scottish links track that even hidebound Scots have come to respect. The Netherlands is home to some of Europe’s top heathland tracks, and Phillips’s work here, in the village of Cromvoirt, similarly riffs on that tradition to sublime effect.

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APPROACH | CO M M O N S

Simply Sand Valley Commons, the brand-new course at Sand Valley, is hardly common. Rather, it’s a one-of-a-kind, 12-hole adventure over the intentionally rumpled terrain at this renowned Wisconsin golf resort. The layout opens with a reachable par 5, albeit one with a heavily contoured fairway prone to uneven stances and a series of shaggy mounds and high-faced bunkers that partially obscure the green. After such a captivating introduction, Jim Craig’s first solo design project unfolds with four par 3s and seven par 4s, at least two of which could be drivable in the right conditions. In the beginning, Commons was meant to be a casual, seven-hole course created in the spirit of Scotland’s golf parks. But Michael Keiser, managing partner of Dream Golf Resorts (owner and operator of Sand Valley and Bandon Dunes, among others), eventually ceded the reins to Craig and told him to “just let it rip.” The architect didn’t hold back, and the resultant course, which made its debut in June, offers up an uncommonly enjoyable playing experience.

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Jeff Marsh ISSUE 67 | K ING D OM

APPROACH | O C E A N S O U T H AT P E L I CA N H I L L

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Seaside Renewal When Tom Fazio’s Ocean South course debuted at the Resort at Pelican Hill 35 years ago, it established California’s Newport Coast as a destination for discerning golfers. The layout’s large, boldly contoured putting surfaces, spacious landing areas off the tee, and postcard-worthy vistas of the Pacific Ocean worked in tandem to produce a memorable round of golf. Decades later, however, Fazio’s gem needed some TLC, so the resort hired course architect Brian Curley in 2025 to modernize bunkers, reimagine (and expand) teeing grounds, and restore greens to their original shapes and surface areas. Curley made notable landscaping modifications to reopen characteristic sight lines, and he spruced up the bunkers on holes 11 through 14 along Pacific Coast Highway, introducing a custom sand blend that echoes Crystal Cove Beach nearby. Reopened in May, Ocean South is a preamble to further transformation at Pelican Hill. In 2027, after a host of updates, including new interiors for the bungalows and villas, the 504-acre resort will be anointed the first St. Regis Estate—a new designation from the brand celebrating exceptional properties. A restoration of the Ocean North course, also by Curley, is slated for completion late this year.

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GIVE ME A BIRDIE ON 18 & A CLUBHOUSE MARTINI WITH

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APP ROAC H

the

CUT NEWS • EVENTS FAVORITE FINDS

Real DEPTH Clockwise from top: A Rolex newspaper advertisement from 1927; the new Rolex Oyster Perpetual 41; and the original Rolex Oyster from 1926.

This year marks the centenary of the first wristwatch with a watertight seal, the Rolex Oyster. The Swiss watchmaker achieved this by screwing down the bezel, caseback, and winding crown as one—a shell dubbed the Oyster because, like an oyster shell on the ocean floor, it protects against the elements. Then, with brilliant timing, came Mercedes Gleitze. In 1927, Gleitze became the first British woman to swim the English Channel. She and Rolex became partners, pioneering sports sponsorship in watchmaking and open-water swimming. The brand has been associated with athletes and adventurers who push conventional boundaries ever since. Today, the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 41, offered in a yellow Rolesor version, carries the spirit of the original, along with 100 years of innovation. The timepiece, which unites a bezel and winding crown in yellow gold with a bracelet in Rolex Oystersteel, is waterproof to a depth of 100 meters.

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APPROACH | TH E C U T

STAY AND PLAY

GOLFING ON THE FLY

Membership-based Exclusive Resorts is expanding its offerings with residences in prime golf destinations. New to the vacation club’s more than 400 luxury residences are properties affiliated with Montage Palmetto Bluff—a private community west of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, that’s home to Jack Nicklaus’s May River course—and a townhome at Nova Scotia’s Fox Harb’r Resort, which is putting the finishing touches on its second championship-caliber layout.

As the following travel options prove, flying privately can take a golf trip to new heights.

MACH SPEED Home to a classic Scottish links (courtesy of Old Tom Morris) and a modern marvel by David McLay Kidd, Machrihanish has sparkled as one of the world’s purest golfing destinations for 150 years. The only downside has always been its hard-toreach location on western Scotland’s Kintyre Peninsula. Fortunately, Machrihanish Dunes (above), home to McLay Kidd’s course, has solved that problem by offering a four-day golf journey bolstered by round-trip private jet charters from London.

PEAK EXPERIENCE Historically, the trade-off for enjoying the mountain lifestyle, championship golf, and luxury hospitality at Pine Canyon, a private golf community in Flagstaff, Arizona, has been a roughly two-and-a-half-hour drive from the Phoenix-Scottsdale area. Now, thanks to a partnership between Pine Canyon and PrismJet, it’s possible to get there from the Scottsdale Airport in about 30 minutes.

Trouble A-Brewin’

Plenty of golf enthusiasts have played at Cabot Cape Breton, Sand Valley, and Bandon Dunes (right), but few have experienced these resorts on a single trip. That’s the draw of Kalos Golf ’s Transcontinental Golf Tour, which relies on privately chartered flights and takes off in July 2026 and 2027.

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Evan Schiller

SINGULAR CHARTER

Famous Florida courses showcase statues of a grizzly bear (PGA National’s Champion Course), a viper (Innisbrook’s Copperhead), and . . . a dwarf ? Yep, holes 14 to 17 of Walt Disney World Resort’s redesigned Magnolia Golf Course have been dubbed Grumpy’s Gauntlet, and the resort recently installed a statue of the curmudgeonly character snapping a club across his leg. Harrumph, indeed!

Otey Returns

Arnold Palmer, Ben Crenshaw, and Nancy Lopez are on a long list of golfers who’ve played the putters.

Otey Crisman Jr., the 1940s-era golf pro from Selma, Alabama, couldn’t find a putter he liked—so he built his own. His putting improved dramatically, and fellow pros lined up for a putter like Crisman’s. When Jimmy Demaret won the 1947 Masters with an Otey putter, demand exploded. Arnold Palmer, Cary Middlecoff, Ben Crenshaw, and Nancy Lopez are on a long list of golfers who’ve played Otey putters, and now the small-batch Alabama company is back, under the stewardship of Crisman’s son, Otey Crisman III. The original designs, made by hand with brass inserts and hickory shafts, are a fascinating option if you’re looking for a new feel on the greens.

RARE AND RACE-READY James Bond famously drove an Aston Martin DB5, but the British marque’s DB4—in particular, the GT Zagato iteration—is the car Ian Fleming’s protagonist should have had in his stable. Aston Martin built the DB4 GT as a production variant of the racecar that won the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans with Carroll Shelby behind the wheel. In Monterey, California, this August, RM Sotheby’s will auction off a rare 1962 DB4 GT Zagato, one of only 19 built, with a celebrated racing and concours past. It’s expected to sell for as much as $15 million.

CONTRIBUTORS: Robin Barwick, Shaun Tolson

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Mike Bellame

APPROACH | H A N D C R A F T E D

ART of APPALACHIA The dulcimers, guitars, and mandolins from Kentucky’s Troublesome Creek are crafted with a true sense of place. by GINA DECAPRIO VERCESI

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Left: Master luthier and Troublesome Creek founder Doug Naselroad. Below left: The design of the Uncle Ed Series dulcimer dates back to the 1870s.

usic has long been central to life in Eastern Kentucky. For generations, locals have gathered on porches to pick and sing, carrying on traditions nearly as old as the mountains themselves. And because Appalachia has always been a land of making do with what’s available, the people fashioned their instruments from whatever the hills and hollers could provide. That tradition is alive and well in Hindman, a small coal town that is the birthplace of the modern mountain dulcimer, the hourglass-shaped instrument that became the defining sound of Appalachian folk music. It’s also the foundation on which master luthier Doug Naselroad built the Appalachian School of Luthiery, where budding artisans—most of them recovering from substance-abuse disorders—learn to craft some of the country’s finest dulcimers, guitars, and mandolins. A Kentucky native, Naselroad has been making stringed instruments since 1969, including a stint at Collings Guitars, the legendary custom guitar company in Austin, Texas. When he arrived in Hindman to establish the school in 2012, he found a community in crisis—gutted by the collapse of the coal industry and devastated by the opioid epidemic—and people searching for work, purpose, and a

Mike Bellame Artisans develop skills at the Kentucky nonprofit, turning their craft into steady work.

Appalachia is one of the richest repositories of musical wood in the world.” way forward. Luthiery, he discovered, provided all three. “Making a musical instrument requires attention to detail and dedication to a goal,” says Naselroad. “The gratification is not instant. It’s the exact opposite of drugs. But as time goes by, the memory of the gratification from drugs gets smaller and the gratification gained from luthiery gets bigger. I never thought instrument making could have that kind of social impact.” To increase that impact, Naselroad built a manufacturing facility where his students could turn their hard-earned craft into steady jobs. In 2019, the Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company was born. It’s the only nonprofit stringed-instrument manufacturer in the world. Troublesome Creek artisans produce more than 100 handcrafted instruments each year, including the Uncle Ed Series dulcimer, which is based on a template for one originally produced in Hindman in the 1870s. In true Appalachian fashion, the instruments are made from local tonewoods sourced from the surrounding hills. Appalachian

red spruce, quilted cherry, black walnut, and curly maple are used for backs and sides, while flamed maple, butternut, and sassafras are used for necks. “Suffice it to say, we don’t have to go to the rainforests of Brazil or Honduras,” Naselroad says. “Appalachia is one of the richest repositories of musical wood in the world.” Unlikely species find their way into the mix as well. “We love to try new recipes,” he says. “We use a lot of ‘trash trees’ that people wouldn’t normally associate with any kind of fine craft—like Osage orange and hackberry—but that result in wonderful instruments. I believe Stradivari would have used the woods of Appalachia if he’d known about them in his time.” The instruments made by Troublesome Creek continue a musical heritage that began nearly three centuries ago. “Folk arts are living arts,” says Naselroad. “Things that are culturally rooted in a place are always the best things to try to grow. We’ve reminded folks that this is our history.” As it turns out, it’s also their future.

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APPROACH | MAC H I N E S & G E A R

OVER LAND

Speed into a summer adventure on one of these high-tech wonders. by ROBIN BARWICK

FINN SCOOTER

GEN 3

It’s beyond fun to take a Finn Scooter out on the golf course, something we know from firsthand experience. The vehicles offer superb looks, comfort, and riding ease, and their max speed of 15 mph significantly increases pace of play without posing a risk to the rider, other golfers, or the course. This is a chill cruise, not dirt-bike central. The electric Finn Gen 3 operates with a high-torque, low-power motor, and it’s built with front and rear suspension for a smooth ride on or off the fairway. Wide, low-psi tires with offroad tread ensure that the lightweight machine leaves fairways unblemished. And because the Finn is a solo ride, players can scoot straight to their golf ball, avoiding the back-and-forth delays that come with sharing a cart.

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CAN-AM

MAVERICK R For committed off-roaders, the new Can-Am Maverick R provides the best of both worlds: It’s nimble yet intrinsically tough. The twoseater is designed for climbing over rocks and other challenging terrain while offering comfort in a spacious interior that remains sleek and seductive. The Maverick R is powered by a turbocharged, triple-cylinder, 240-hp Rotax engine, and the vehicle’s heavy-duty, tall-knuckle suspension design delivers maximum stability. Even the 35-inch XPS Hammer King tires draw you in. Indeed, those who take a Maverick R on a test-drive will suddenly find they need to have this all-terrain machine in their lives. (Disclaimer: All-terrain does not mean the Maverick is suitable for the golf course!)

3 KAWASAKI

JET SKI SX-R 160

With the SX-R 160, Kawasaki, the category pioneer, delivers a Jet Ski that lacks for nothing, whether it’s employed for highoctane excursions or for racing. A 1,498 cc, inline four-cylinder, four-stroke engine provides a powerful thrust that captivates the stand-up rider. The acceleration is boosted by serious power-to-weight ratio, while a V-shaped hull ensures exceptional agility and cornering. The hull carries the engine low and central for balanced weight distribution, to ensure stability throughout the exhilarating ride.

Don’t let its purity of design and ease on the eye overshadow the outstanding innovation.

AND SEA

4 FJORD

39 XL Don’t let its purity of design and ease on the eye overshadow the Fjord 39 XL’s outstanding innovation. The dayboat is an ultimate European collaboration, seamlessly joining elements of German engineering excellence with Scandinavian minimalism. The 39foot craft, powered by a pair of Volvo Penta D4 320-hp engines, can reach a maximum speed of 45 knots, and its luxurious master cabin provides plenty of space for a slow, relaxing evening.

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APPROACH | WE E K E N D T WO WAY S

Celebrated for its music, hospitality, and ever-evolving food scene, Tennessee’s capital offers far more than its bachelorette-party reputation might suggest.

Nashville

by ALEXANDRA O’LAUGHLIN

Golf Getaway

Nashville is not a destination built around golf, unless you can gain access to the private Tom Fazio–designed courses at Troubadour Golf & Field Club and the Golf Club of Tennessee, or the new-for-2026 Bounty Club, whose backers include (appropriately for Music City) megastar Justin Timberlake. And yet, beyond the downtown bustle, travelers can discover a quieter side of Tennessee, where rolling countryside, wellness retreats, and low-key public golf courses create an entirely different kind of getaway. The laid-back charm and slower pace make for a restorative long weekend.

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Southall Farm & Inn

Gaylord Springs Golf Links

Stay

Southall Farm & Inn is a luxury country retreat outside Nashville, set on 425 acres of working farmland in Franklin. The property combines elegant accommodations with a world-class spa, wellness programming, curated outdoor experiences, and one of the region’s strongest culinary offerings. This is a more relaxed kind of Tennessee escape, focused on open space and long views, with Music City close by when desired.

Eat

For Southall guests, the culinary program is reason enough to remain on property. Begin the day at Sojourner before venturing off for your tee time, return for a lunch overlooking the landscape, then settle in for cocktails before dinner at January, Southall’s Michelin-recognized signature restaurant. The farm-forward menu, shaped by the property’s own harvests, is complemented by an exceptional wine program.

Sojourner

Play

The drive to Harpeth Hills Golf Course winds through the Tennessee countryside and past spectacular homes before arriving at the beloved local favorite. Owned by the city of Nashville, the 18-hole layout stretches just over 7,100 yards from the back tees. The course, with its rolling terrain and tree-lined holes, is approachable for casual golfers but engaging enough for those who want a proper round. Other clubs to consider include Hermitage Golf Course, where Scottish Blackface sheep roam the property, Gaylord Springs Golf Links, and Franklin Bridge Golf Club. And for those who are fortunate to secure an invitation, Troubadour is a short drive from Southall.

Music City Sojourn

Nashville has been one of America’s fastest-growing cities in recent years, drawing transplants with its blend of opportunity, entertainment, and unmistakable Southern hospitality. And despite its rapid growth, luxury hotel openings, and increasingly sophisticated dining scene, the city has managed to hold onto much of the character that made people fall for it in the first place. For those wanting the quintessential Nashville weekend, downtown offers the perfect entry point into Music City’s energy.

Hermitage Hotel

Stay

Newer names like Soho House and 1 Hotel bring contemporary appeal, but nothing matches the history and timeless charm of the Hermitage Hotel. Opened in 1910 and restored in 2022, Nashville’s grande dame remains one of the city’s top stays. From the stained-glass lobby ceiling to the long-standing tradition of afternoon tea, it offers an elegant counterpoint to the neon-lit vibe Nashville is known for.

Eat Twelve Thirty Club

A Nashville getaway wouldn’t be complete without an evening at the Twelve Thirty Club, a polished venue on Broadway that offers the perfect blend of elevated dining and live entertainment before a night spent exploring the street’s famed honky-tonks (including Twelve Thirty’s own honky-tonk on the club’s first level). Craig’s Nashville brings the Los Angeles hot spot to Music City, while Hattie B’s remains a must for the destination’s signature hot chicken.

Grand Ole Opry

Broadway and its honky-tonks are essential to the Nashville experience, with a different ambience depending on when you go. By day, the stretch offers a more relaxed and entertaining way to soak up live music, pop into record shops, and take in the character of the city without the packed crowds. Weekend nights, on the other hand, deliver the full-throttle version of the Nashville scene. For a deeper connection to the city’s musical roots, make time for the Grand Ole Opry, arguably country music’s most iconic landmark and still one of Nashville’s premier liveentertainment venues.

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APPROACH | F UL L RO UN D

Content KING After six years chasing his dream of playing on the PGA Tour, Sean Walsh pivoted to YouTube, where he has settled in as one of Good Good’s core members and is strategically building his own channel. Recently, the 32-year-old sat down with Kingdom to talk all things content creation. Where did you play collegiately? Gonzaga [University], which was a great program for me. We hosted our own tournament at Bandon every year, so I ended up spending spring break at Bandon Dunes all four years. That’s not a bad spring break! You never know how good you have it until it’s gone, that’s for sure. What kind of player were you in college? I did some things during my freshman and sophomore years to validate that I was good enough. I qualified for the U.S. Amateur three years in a row and made it to the match-play rounds the first year at the Country Club in Brookline. Then, the summer after my junior year, I won the North & South Amateur at Pinehurst. And you turned pro after college? Yes, in 2017, and I went to Q-School every year after that. I played full years on the PGA Canada and Latin America tours; played a little in China; and had a Korn Ferry card a couple of times. I basically played all over the world and then got married at the end of 2022. Wifey knew what she signed up for, but at the same time, she wanted kids and the writing was on the wall—the funnel was getting tighter and tighter because of the changes the PGA Tour is making. What convinced you to make the switch to being a YouTube content creator? In 2023, a fellow pro golfer, Luke Kwon, who was with Good Good at the time, helped get me into the first Good Good Championship. I played my way through the 63-player qualifier and got one of 12 spots, and I was lucky enough to play well in the 36-hole stroke-play portion and finished second, which got me paid. I won $15,000, which was one of the biggest checks that I’d ever gotten in pro golf. That was the start of this whole thing.

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Did you make the switch right away? In 2023, I just missed qualifying through Q-School, but I was playing a lot of golf with Kwon on his YouTube channel, which kept me sharp. So, the following year, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. Am I a pro golfer? Am I a content creator? I didn’t really know, and I was taking some time to figure it out. Then Good Good called and asked if I wanted to join them to add some competitive balance. So I said yes. What challenges have you faced as a content creator thus far? With Good Good, the challenge is that we’ve got six very different personalities all in very different stages of life, and we’re trying to match up our schedules to come together and create content that we all like to make. And the challenges with your own channel? While I was still pursuing a traditional pro golf career, I was able to relax when I was home—unless I was analyzing my golf swing or planning travel. But now, with this creator mindset, I feel like I have to be constantly evolving and coming up with new ideas, so it seems like my brain just never shuts off. What has been one of your highlights as a content creator? Never in a million years did I think that I’d be sitting at Muirfield [Village] with Jack Nicklaus, drinking milkshakes with a pile of buckeyes between us. And then, five days later, that I would parachute in with the Folds of Honor team and deliver an American flag to Jack and Barbara Nicklaus on the 18th green on the Friday afternoon of the Memorial Tournament. As more aspiring pro golfers struggle to make it on the PGA Tour, it’s conceivable that many of them might pursue YouTube careers. Is there room for more content creators? I think so. But I will say that the barrier to entry is relatively high because it takes a lot of work to run these channels. But in the YouTube golf space, I don’t think there’s a limit. It seems like new people are coming out with new ideas every single day.

It’s the best dream that I never knew I had.”

How does being a YouTuber compare to what you imagined being a pro golfer might be like? Once I started committing to more of this YouTube golf stuff, I realized that I might’ve been playing pro golf because I just loved competitive golf. I also realized if the competition is against [content creators] Luke Kwon or Brad Dalke, it doesn’t change for me. I get the same juice out of it. So it’s just as fulfilling as the pro golf career you aspired to? I’m getting even more fulfillment. It might sound narcissistic, but I always said that I want to do something that makes a difference. I want to be impactful. And I always thought that was going to be through the PGA Tour, where one day I would go do a kid’s clinic and every kid would say, “Oh, there’s Sean Walsh, he’s on the PGA Tour and he’s so good!” But I would’ve had to be top 40 in the world to have the impact that I’ve been able to have through YouTube, and I’ve only been doing this for a year or two. It sounds like you don’t have any regrets. I’m still getting over the idea that this is what I do for a living. It’s the best dream that I never knew I had. The kids say, “That wasn’t on my bingo card.” Well, I have a bingo card full of things that I never thought in a million years I’d be doing. I’ve played golf in some amazing places, like at Old Head in Ireland, and I’ve played rounds of golf with celebrities like Steph Curry. I’ve had so many pinch-myself moments throughout this whole journey, and hopefully—God willing—I’ll have a lot more.

Interviewed by shaun tolson

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Sean Walsh of Good Good Golf reacts to a putt on the 10th hole during the 2024 Creator Classic, prior to the PGA Tour Championship, at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

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APPROACH | A L E X O N C O URS E

Catching Up with CAMERON YOUNG

Contributing editor Alexandra O’Laughlin is a golf correspondent and a host of Golf Channel’s The Drop.

year ago at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush, I hosted a live Q&A with Cameron Young in front of a crowd of golf fans. At that point, he was already a highly respected talent among those who follow the game closely. He had serious pedigree, immense ball-striking ability, and a growing list of close calls, but he was still without a PGA Tour victory and not yet a household name. The applause when he walked onto the stage was warm, though measured. Young was articulate and thoughtful, offering insight that reflected a deeper understanding of the game and life. Then came the simulator shots for the audience. His speed, power, and swing mechanics created genuine excitement and left even me caught off guard by how

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easy he made it look. I now see that it was a glimpse of what was to come. A week later, Young won the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club to claim his breakthrough PGA Tour title. Later in the year, with the Ryder Cup heading to Bethpage Black in his home state of New York, he became one of the most compelling storylines surrounding Team USA, his local ties and understated brilliance making him an easy player for fans to rally behind. Young’s low-key personality remains, but the résumé is now catching up to the talent. His Players Championship triumph at TPC Sawgrass this year cemented him as a top golfer in the world—and one for fans to root for week after week.

Father to Son Golf runs deep in the Young family. Long before Cameron was competing on the PGA Tour, his father, David Young, was carving out his own path in the game. As a high school player, David played a match at Sleepy Hollow Country Club and found himself thinking, “Boy, this would be a pretty special place to build a career.” Lo and behold, that vision became reality. He spent 25 years at Sleepy Hollow, ultimately serving as director of instruction and becoming one of the most respected teachers in the region. Then came the only opportunity compelling enough for him to leave: a second dream job traveling the PGA Tour to support and coach his son. Their father-son relationship appears to thrive on balance. David describes his role not as someone overhauling Cameron’s game week to week, but as the steady hand keeping things on track—“putting the bumpers on” his son’s swing mechanics while allowing Cameron the space to work through the finer details himself. The progress, he says, has been methodical rather than dramatic. “Incrementally, each facet of his game has gotten better over the years and has all added up to very consistent performances where, if anything gets hot for a week, he’s in contention,” David says. “A little bit above average in all categories adds up to something good pretty often.” For all of Cameron’s stoic on-course demeanor, David insists there is far more laughter away from the competition. “There are a lot more smiles off the course than on the course,” he says. “He’s figured out that, for him to play his best, he has to keep it that way.”

It’s all about trying to treat it like you’re 12 years old again.” —CA M ERO N YO U N G Young stands with his father, David (top right), and reacts on the 18th green after winning the 2026 Players Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass (right).

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APPROACH | A L E X O N C O URS E

Riding the Wake Wake Forest has long been one of the true proving grounds in collegiate golf. Arnold Palmer helped put the program on the map. Curtis Strange and Lanny Wadkins reinforced its championship standard. The Haas family became part of that story as well, with Jay Haas building a stellar PGA Tour career before Bill Haas carried the tradition forward as a FedEx Cup champion. More recently, players such as Webb Simpson and Will Zalatoris have continued that run. Cameron Young is now another name to emerge from a program that has consistently produced some of the game’s best. When Young earned his PGA Tour card, one of the players he naturally gravitated toward was fellow Wake Forest alum Simpson, who graduated 11 years ahead of him. The two played plenty of practice rounds together, giving Young an early opportunity to study one of the game’s most respected professionals up close. He speaks just as highly of Simpson as a person as he does of him as a player. That connection led to others, including Russell Henley, creating a circle of players Young could learn from while also feeling more at ease as he settled into life on tour. “That’s how I’m trying to learn,” he told me at the Open. “You just pick up general ways of how people look at things. Picking up the attitude with which they approach the game and how they think about certain shots. There’s so much to learn, and everybody has something out here that they’re exceptional at.”

Family Ties For someone whose name is becoming increasingly recognizable in golf, Young remains refreshingly private. At 29, he has no social media presence, a rarity not only in modern professional sports but also among his entire generation. The priorities are clear: golf and family. While David’s role as a coach is obvious, both father and son are quick to credit Cameron’s mother, Barbara, as equally instrumental in his journey. Over the years, she has filled whatever role was required—caddie, nutritionist, chauffeur, and undoubtedly many others. When I last caught up with the Young family, David and Barbara were looking after their grandchildren, a reminder that despite Cameron’s PGA Tour success and growing spotlight, family remains firmly at the center of it all.

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Cameron and his wife, Kelsey, live in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, with their three children, and the entire family travels together for most tournaments. In fact, they share a small ritual that says a great deal about how they navigate the constant movement of tour life: Upon arriving at each stop, they’ll often make a trip to local thrift stores to pick up toys and clothes for the kids, only to donate them back at the end of the week before moving on to the next tournament. His ability to stay grounded may help explain why Young has managed to keep his relationship with golf so healthy amid the pressure of professional competition. When I asked how he maintains his love for the game, his answer was strikingly simple: “It’s all about trying to treat it like you’re 12 years old again.” Everyone always asks me who my favorite players are to interview. Long before the wins started coming in for him, Cameron Young was part of my answer. Golf is built on connection and substance, and there’s something about the understated authenticity the Young family carries that makes it hard not to be invested in their success.

Young celebrates with his family on the 18th green after securing his victory in the 2026 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

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THE APPROACH | N O. 19

Patriotic PUNCH We’re elevating our semiquincentennial festivities with a powerful cocktail that dates to colonial times.

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Fish House Punch INGREDIENTS ¾ oz. Pierre Ferrand Ambré Cognac ¾ oz. Appleton Estate 8-Year Reserve rum • ¾ oz. Giffard Crème de Pêche de Vigne • ¾ oz. fresh lemon juice • ¼ oz. cane simple syrup • 2 oz. cold seltzer • •

PREPARATION Pour the seltzer into a Collins glass or goblet. Short shake the remaining ingredients with ice for about five seconds, then strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ice, then garnish with a lemon wheel and freshly grated nutmeg over the top.

Cocktail Illustration: Joel Holland

eorge Washington is best known for his fearlessness on the battlefield, his allegiance to a cause, and his confidence-inspiring leadership as the Continental Army’s commander-in-chief during the Revolutionary War. Perhaps less well known, the founding father also loved a good party and a stiff drink. After serving two presidential terms, Washington built what was then the country’s largest whiskey distillery. For his first inauguration, however, he went with a spirited concoction of rum and brandy as the drink of choice. Fish House Punch, as the cocktail was called, was a favorite of Washington’s and was made famous at the Schuylkill (pronounced SKOO-kull) Fishing Company, the first angling club (effectively an exclusive men’s social club) in the 13 colonies. Throughout much of the 18th century, members operated the club as if it were an independent North American colony set on the banks of Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill River. They later renamed it the State in Schuylkill once American patriots declared their independence. For years, the recipe for Fish House Punch was a heavily guarded secret. A member eventually shared a version of the recipe, and it found its way into Jerry Thomas’s How to Mix Drinks, a seminal bartending tome published circa 1862. These days, numerous iterations of the recipe are floating around, but the mixology masterminds at Gin & Luck—the beverage-oriented hospitality company responsible for Death & Co., among other cocktail establishments throughout the country—have scaled down the batched recipe for single servings. “Like so many of the most successful cocktails [reveal], great spirits, when thoughtfully paired together, are wildly complex on their own,” Tyson Buhler, Gin & Luck’s vice president of operations, says of the punch’s relatively simple construction, which relies on a split base of cognac and rum. “From there, it’s just about finding balance.” For those who, like Washington, enjoy throwing a good party, Fish House Punch is an excellent addition to the arsenal. “Learning how to make a classic punch is a great skill for hosting gatherings,” Buhler says. “And the simplicity of the Fish House Punch is a perfect starting point.” —shaun tolson

PROUDLY STANDING WITH FOLDS OF HONOR BECOME A WINGMAN AND JOIN ZACH JOHNSON IN SUPPORTING EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS FOR THE FAMILIES OF AMERICA'S HEROES

Few things have shown me the power of golf like Folds of Honor. Every scholarship represents a family whose sacrifice deserves to be remembered, and that's why I'm proud to be a Folds of Honor Wingman. TWO-TIME MAJOR CHAMPION, 2023 RYDER CUP CAPTAIN AND FOLDS OF HONOR AMBASSADOR, ZACH JOHNSON

BE C O ME A W IN G M A N T O D AY FOLDSOFHONOR.ORG/WINGMAN

APPROACH | LIVE L I K E A K I N G

Lessons learned from Kingdom co-founder Arnold Palmer

NO SUCH THING as BAD PRESS Arnold Palmer possessed a natural ability to connect with people, including the media. He treated journalists with the respect and humility he hoped others would show him—and it worked like a charm.

he college radio reporter froze in anguish. He had just interviewed Arnold Palmer at the end of a long post-round media session at the Western Open in Chicago in the early 1960s when he realized he had failed to press the red “record” button. He had nothing on tape. Palmer clocked the young reporter’s despair and immediately asked him to start again. The gesture was just one of many examples of Palmer’s generosity to the media: He was willing, candid, and patient. Universal admiration for Palmer was not for nothing. Marino Parascenzo covered sports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for more than 30 years and interviewed Palmer often. Parascenzo once wrote for Kingdom: “Arnold was the wrong guy for inexperienced sportswriters to meet. They might think all famous athletes were nice guys. Arnie [did not] prepare them for the egocentric, entitled, whining, ill-mannered, the surly.”

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Palmer talks to the press during the 1958 Masters Tournament.

Palmer was the first golfer to win the Masters four times, but in 1976 at Augusta National, with his playing heyday fading, he shot a second round of 81 to miss the cut by five. Reporters huddled around as Palmer sat staring at the locker room floor. Someone broke the awkward silence: “Arnie, we hate to have to talk to you at a time like this.” Palmer looked up. “Fellas,” he said, “we talked when times were good; we’ll talk when times are bad.” This helps explain journalists’ reaction in the media center after Palmer had played his final U.S. Open round, at Oakmont in 1994. Palmer, 64, could barely utter a word as he stifled sobs in a towel. Overcome, he departed with a silent wave, prompting the entire media corps to give him a standing ovation. His silence said it all that day. Parascenzo reflected: “My meetings with Arnie were intermittent. It only seemed we met regularly. That was how he made it feel.” —robin barwick

“I sometimes think both players and reporters of today are guilty of having forgotten—or simply abandoned—this old-fashioned ethic of mutual respect and admiration.” — A R N O LD PA LMER , A G O LF E R’S LIF E (1999)

America’s Favorite Island

From championship greens to quiet marsh paths, Hilton Head Island offers endless ways to explore.

PA RT N E R S P O T L I G H T

Chart Your Course on Hilton Head Island Enter a world on the pristine South Carolina coast where nature’s beauty and resort luxuries coexist like nowhere else on earth. On Hilton Head Island, you’re invited to explore wide-open spaces, magnificent live oak trees, and breathtaking sunsets that provide the perfect backdrop for relaxation and renewal. Whether you’re wandering across world-class beaches, navigating over 60 miles of scenic leisure pathways, or teeing off on one of 23 championship golf courses designed by the game’s preeminent architects, the island offers a unique rhythm and high-energy adventure for every traveler. Deeply rooted in rich Lowcountry culture, the island is a destination to be savored and remembered. Immerse yourself in the vibrant, centuries-old heritage of the Gullah culture, enjoy lively local festivals, or indulge in a sea-to-table culinary tour through more than 250 restaurants featuring fresh coastal cuisine. With over 200 boutique shops and an array of premier vacation rentals and hotels to suit the most discerning traveler, #LowcountryLife begins at HiltonHeadIsland.org.

Naturally World-Class

On Her

Own

Terms Ochoa at the Old Course in St Andrews during the 2007 Women’s British Open.

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Lorena Ochoa forged one of the greatest careers in modern golf, despite playing fewer than eight full seasons on the LPGA Tour. In an exclusive Kingdom interview, Mexico’s most decorated golfer reflects on her decision to walk away from the game in her prime—and what it means today. by SHAUN TOLSON

sixteen years ago, at the age of 28 and with 27 professional victories to her name, Lorena Ochoa was the undisputed queen of women’s golf. She was No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, a position she had held for a record 158 consecutive weeks. Then she did something inconceivable: She retired. During the season prior to her announcement, Ochoa made the cut in all 22 events she entered and had 13 top-10 finishes, including three victories. She won seven times in 2008, including her second major at the Kraft Nabisco Championship (now the Chevron Championship), and she stood on top of the podium eight times the year before that, highlighted by her 2007 Women’s British Open title at the Old Course in St Andrews. In fact, 17 of Ochoa’s 27 career victories came in the 24 months leading up to her announcement. Mexico’s most decorated professional golfer was clearly in the prime of her career. Although a surprise to many fans and fellow golfers, Ochoa’s retirement was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. Even at the start of her career, she envisioned playing

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ON HER OWN TERMS

Ochoa (right) poses on the Swilcan Bridge after winning the 2007 British Open. Opposite: She waves during her final competitive round at the Tres Marías Championship in 2010.

professionally for only a decade or so. And when she held a press conference to explain her decision ahead of the Tres Marías Championship in Morelia, Mexico, in 2010, she referenced the season’s first tournament, which had been played in Thailand two months earlier. Her mind had been elsewhere during those days of competition, she acknowledged, and her heart wasn’t in it anymore. Not that you could have guessed that from the leaderboard: While her tie for 18th was a lower-than-average finish, Ochoa never carded a round over par. Nevertheless, the LPGA Tour’s apex player was ready to go out on her own terms. “I was so anxious and motivated with a lot of energy to start living my life in a different way,” Ochoa says. “I never saw myself as [just] Lorena Ochoa, the golfer. I was a lot more than that. If you’re only focused on golf and the results and the way people think of you, I think your ego can get involved. But I was able to separate that, and I was ready and comfortable to live in a different way.” It’s hard not to wonder how women’s professional golf—and the record books—might look today had Ochoa decided to keep playing. Assuming her career lasted twice as long and she maintained the same level of success in the final eight years, Ochoa would have racked up 54 victories on the LPGA Tour, good for seventh place on the all-time list and six ahead of Nancy Lopez, who played for 20 seasons. Does she ever think of those things? Does she ever wonder what else she might have accomplished if she hadn’t retired so young? “No, I was done,” the LPGA Tour and World Golf Hall of Famer insists. “I was exhausted, and I couldn’t see myself doing it anymore. But I’m proud, because I retired at the right time.” The right time meant going out on top. Ochoa says that she always wanted to retire as the World No. 1, and she noted during her retirement press conference that she had “always dreamed of saying goodbye in Mexico.” In other words, Ochoa finished her career exactly as she had planned.

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Coming of Age in Golf Ochoa grew up next door to Guadalajara Country Club and had two older brothers who were constantly playing or practicing with their father. When she was still in preschool, she begged her dad to take her with them to the course. Finally, when she was five, he acquiesced. The rest, as they say, is history. Ochoa took to golf like a duck to water. Once she got a taste of what it was like on the course, that’s where she always wanted to be. “I would quickly change clothes after school,” she remembers, “and then I was running to the golf course.”

I never saw myself as [just] Lorena Ochoa, the golfer. I was a lot more than that.”

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ON HER OWN TERMS

Top: Ochoa (right) in 2003, with her LPGA Rookie of the Year trophy, poses alongside Annika Sörenstam. Above: Ochoa during her World Golf Hall of Fame induction speech in 2017.

As much as I dreamed of being the number one player in the world, I also dreamed of being a mother.”

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Ochoa’s passion for the game translated into immediate success. She won her first junior state event when she was six years old, and captured her first national title the following year. In all, she won 22 junior state tournaments and 44 national tournaments throughout Mexico. She also claimed five consecutive Junior World Golf Championships, winning her first at eight years old. Such a dominant stretch at the junior level suggests that Ochoa was grinding constantly at the practice range. In reality, she fell in love with the golf course as a free-spirited kid because, as she recalls, “I wasn’t serious [about golf ].” Being at the golf course meant being with her friends. Growing up, Ochoa’s parents had one summer rule: As long as the kids were playing outside, they were allowed to do what they wanted. That meant Ochoa spent quite a bit of time at the course, often without a golf club or ball in sight. “We were misbehaving,” she says with a chuckle. “We used to go fishing in the lakes, and we used to go to the course at night and play on the hills. We were just having a good time on the golf course.” As she entered her teenage years, however, long practice sessions and playing lessons replaced mornings or afternoons of unsupervised child’s play. By this point, Ochoa was often the only girl on the golf course, regularly playing with boys who were a year or two older and could routinely hit the ball 40 yards farther than she could. When she expressed her frustration with their disparate abilities, her coach, Rafael Alarcón, responded unsympathetically. “I don’t care,” he told her. “You just have to find a way to beat them.” To do so, Ochoa focused on her short game and putting— and that emphasis paid off. She remembers that around age 14 or 15, she started beating boys who were a couple years older. Those victories coincided with long days at the club. “We used to play all day,” she says. “We’d play 54 holes, from six in the morning until six at night.” By the time Ochoa was a freshman at the University of Arizona, her talent was undeniable. In just two years as a Wildcat, she earned 12 collegiate victories, including a seventournament winning streak during her sophomore season. She finished the year with eight wins, which set an NCAA record that still stands.

Ochoa (far left) with Nancy Lopez, Annika Sörenstam, and Se Ri Pak during the opening ceremonies of the 2019 Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.

Following her sophomore year in 2002, Ochoa turned pro and promptly finished first on the Futures Tour money list, earning her an LPGA Tour card and making her only the second Mexican woman to do so. She didn’t win during her introductory year in 2003, but with eight top-10 finishes, she easily claimed Rookie of the Year honors. Ochoa’s career gained momentum right out of the gate, but even then, she knew she would only have a select number of years to compete before her desire to start a family took precedence. “As much as I dreamed of being the number one player in the world,” she says, “I also dreamed of being a mother.”

A Life Away from the Course That dream became reality in 2011, when Ochoa welcomed the first of her three children with her husband, Andrés Conesa, the CEO of Aeroméxico. In addition to raising a family, she devotes much of her time today to her namesake foundation, which creates opportunities through high-quality education for children in underserved communities throughout Mexico. In alliance with the Becar Foundation—one of the country’s leading educationfocused organizations—the Lorena Ochoa Foundation AC funds nearly 2,400 scholarships annually to 24 schools in 11 Mexican states. In 18 years, it has granted more than 54,000 scholarships, and more than 7,200 students have graduated.

“It’s been beautiful to help so many schools throughout the country,” she says. “This was the best way [for me] to help: to give quality education to underprivileged kids.” Most of the golfing Ochoa does these days is affiliated with her foundation. She might teach a golf clinic or play in an exhibition, but if she is hitting golf balls, there’s a good chance it’s to benefit her charitable efforts. “I’m still in touch with the game,” she says, “but I don’t play competitions anymore.” That doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss professional golf. “Being on a beautiful course on a Saturday or Sunday with a chance to win a tournament . . . yes, of course you miss those good things,” she says. But in the next breath, she points to the many weeks spent on the road that are necessary to have those opportunities. Today, when she looks back on her career, Ochoa takes pride in certain accomplishments—especially her record for the most consecutive weeks as the top-ranked female golfer in the world and the fact that it still stands. She also points to the strength of the current LPGA Tour and how it’s pushing the women’s game—including some of her past accomplishments—into the spotlight. It’s as if golf fans are only now discovering Ochoa’s career. “I played for a short time, a really short time,” she says. “But 27 wins, you know? I think people are finally putting my career into perspective. People are just starting to realize how much I did.”

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A six-time PGA Tour winner and a Ryder Cup golfer, Russell Henley still flies somewhat under the radar— but not for long. The Georgia native spoke to Robin Barwick.

with three holes to play in the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, Russell Henley was tied for seventh, three shots off Eric Cole’s lead. A couple midrange birdie putts later, he was just a shot off Cole’s lead with one hole to play. He holed yet another birdie on 18, securing a place at the top of the leaderboard and forcing Cole into a playoff. As Henley marched off the green, there might have been a wisp of smoke coming off the 37-year-old’s putter. Henley found another fairway as he and Cole replayed 18, and then he worked a wedge to five feet. One putt later, Henley had completed a four-birdie finish to leapfrog Cole and claim his sixth victory on the PGA Tour. “Just unbelievable resilience,” said an admiring Trevor Immelman on the CBS broadcast. Henley does not attract a trail of cameras at tournaments like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy do. He is not yet a major champion the way Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, and Jon Rahm are. He is not a YouTuber like Bryson DeChambeau. But after his comeback at Colonial, on the last day of May, Henley was ranked fifth in the world, proving what everyone around him already knew: This Georgia Bulldog is hard to shake off. “It means so much to me to be able to compete out there, at the highest level I can, and to be able to try to win a tournament,” says Henley, speaking to Kingdom during a week off at the beach with his family, to recharge before the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. “When you do get it over

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Henley reacts after sinking the decisive putt in a playoff at the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge.

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MADE IN MACON

the finish line, it is just the best feeling, and I am trying to enjoy that.” An intense competitor, Henley grew up in Macon, Georgia, playing golf at Idle Hour Golf & Country Club, as well as basketball at Stratford Academy, where he was an all-state point guard. “I had a lot of energy, but I didn’t play with very much control,” says a self-deprecating Henley about his prowess on the court. “I would play very fast, and I was a little bit too excited, aged 15 or 16, and I think if I could have slowed down a little bit, it would have helped me.” Henley enjoyed plenty of success in basketball, as his high school team “won a decent amount” of games. But it became clear that his future was on the course, not the court. “I would have loved to play college basketball, but I just didn’t have the athletic ability,” he recalls. “I couldn’t jump high enough, I couldn’t run fast enough, and I was not big enough.” Golf, on the other hand, was a passion that grew. “I just fell in love with the game,” says Henley. “There was kind of a snowball effect with golf, and the more I played, the more I fell in love with the clubs, the grip, the shots, and the different ways to do it. I just loved all of it.”

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When you do get it over the finish line, it is just the best feeling, and I am trying to enjoy that.” He also became quite good. Henley would eventually set a course record of 61, nine under par, at Idle Hour’s treelined Donald Ross golf course (which reached its centenary two years ago). PGA professional Bobby Hix coached Henley from the age of 12 at Idle Hour, until the star pupil earned his PGA Tour card in 2013. “He always struck the ball very well, and he was always a good putter,” says Hix, who still teaches at Idle Hour, where Henley’s Walker Cup golf bag from 2011 takes pride of place in the clubhouse. “We’ve got a little six-hole par-3 course with eight bunkers, and on many a Saturday afternoon, Russ would be out there by himself, and he would throw a ball over his back into a bunker, and he would hit it out and putt it,” recalls

Hix. “If he couldn’t get that ball up and down, he would throw it back and do it again. He wouldn’t leave until he had got his ball up and down out of every bunker. That was a game to him. Russ liked the challenge, and he loved being out there.” Macon is about 120 miles from Augusta, and Henley and friends would try to make an annual day trip to the Masters. They would follow the lead of Payne Stewart and wear WWJD (“What Would Jesus Do?”) wristbands, and follow Stewart, Davis Love III, and, of course, Tiger Woods. Henley was there the day Mike Weir won the green jacket in 2003. “Outside the ropes, we would reach down and touch the grass with our hands; we thought it was carpet,” recalls Henley, who made his Masters debut as a player in his rookie season on the PGA Tour in 2013. “I hoped then that I could play in the Masters one day, but I don’t remember being like, I am definitely doing this. Augusta National seemed surreal.” By the time Henley was in his junior year of high school, he was the top player at Idle Hour, and the club took pride knowing he was going to the University of Georgia, where he played four seasons, from 2007 to 2011. His celebrity status at the club went meteoric when, in 2008 at age 19, he won the Georgia Amateur Championship on his home course. (The championship dates to 1916, when the first player to lift the trophy was a 14-year-old Bobby Jones.) Henley won the state title again in 2009, but he kept his feet on the ground. “All the kids knew Russ and looked up to him,” says Hix, “but it would be nothing for Russ to walk across the putting green and have a putting contest with one of the kids, just out of the blue. That is just the kind of guy he is.” Henley won on the developmental Nationwide Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour) when he was still a senior at Georgia, in 2011, after which he received one of Arnold Palmer’s famous letters of congratulations. Palmer died in 2016, but it is safe to assume he would have been delighted when Henley claimed the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in 2025, pipping Collin Morikawa by a shot. “It is so different to win than it is to have just a good finish, like a fifth place or a third place,” reflects Henley. “It is so adrenaline packed. In golf, we lose most of the time, perhaps more than in any other sport, so I try to remind myself how hard it is, and when I do win, I try to be thankful, for sure.” Henley might have found a new equilibrium on tour this season: confidence stoked by success yet tempered by calm. He may have more of those winning feelings to come.

Top: Henley poses with the trophy after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in 2025. Above: The golfer in 2011, when he was a senior at the University of Georgia. Opposite: Henley at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

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Mexico

ULTIMATE GOLF GETAWAY

It’s not just Cabo and Cancun. Golf is booming across the country, where visitors have their choice of big-name courses and ultra-luxe resorts. Here’s where to stay and play—and eat and drink—on your Mexican golf getaway. by SHAUN TOLSON

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The Bold and the Beautiful A fantasy round of Mexico’s ultimate nine holes takes us from the Caribbean to the Sea of Cortez.

Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo Costalegre

Hole 12 — 157 yards, par 3

When you arrive at the tee box of the ninth hole at Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo’s once-private golf course, you’ll encounter a severe drop-shot par 3 with a green complex perched precariously along the edge of a steep cliff that tumbles to the ocean. Remarkably, it’s not the course’s most picturesque hole. That honor belongs to a different par 3—the less extreme drop-shot 12th, which boasts a green complex backed by a collection of palms with a sliver of undisturbed beach beyond. Notably, it was along that beach where, years ago, the course’s owner found a rare tamarind tree, which gives the resort its name.

Bahia Course Riviera Nayarit

Hole 17 — 387 yards, par 4

Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo, Hole 12

The penultimate hole on the Bahia Course at Punta Mita—a resort community that’s home to two Jack Nicklaus Signature courses and hotels from Four Seasons and St. Regis—is a dogleg left that gives players free rein off the tee. With the ocean running along the entire left side of the par 4, golfers face an either-or situation: Either they take a more aggressive line down the left side of the fairway with their drives and face a shorter approach with a safer angle, or they play conservatively down the right knowing that they’ll need to hit a longer shot to the green, which could bring the ocean into play. In that way, the Nicklaus creation is spectacular on two fronts—for its scenic beauty and its inherent strategy. ISSUE 67 | K ING D OM

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Quivira Golf Club Los Cabos

Hole 13 — 635 yards, par 5

Channing Benjamin

Quivira’s cliffside holes on the front nine understandably steal most of the spotlight, but the second par 5 on the back—a long, serpentine-shaped adventure that plunges downhill—is one of the routing’s best-designed holes. Players enjoy panoramic views of the Pacific from tee to green while taking on risky shots with high rewards not once but twice. Those who decide to play more conservatively will benefit most by shaping tee shots left to right and second shots right to left. Throughout its 635 yards, this is a hole that forces players to be fully engaged at all times.

Dunes Course at Diamante

El Dorado Golf & Beach Club

PGA Riviera Maya

Hole 17 — 175 yards, par 3

Hole 16 — 151 yards, par 3

Hole 14 — 584 yards, par 5

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas is 5,530 miles from the Old Course, but Davis Love III was getting strong St Andrews vibes almost 20 years ago when he walked the site where his Dunes Course now sits. That’s thanks to the natural sand dunes that blanket this part of the Diamante resort. In fact, the hole that provides the course’s postcard image—the par-3 17th—commences from tee boxes that rise above the dunes and plays to a generously sized green that rolls quick but true, with the Pacific Ocean serving as a backdrop. There’s even a resemblance to the Old Course’s famous 11th hole.

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Los Cabos

Many of the holes included in this story— whether par 3s or par 4s—play adjacent to or along the periphery of the beach. At the final par 3 at this private resort community’s Jack Nicklaus–designed course, however, the shot plays directly over the beach. El Dorado’s signature hole features a green perched atop a sand-colored rock outcropping, giving it an almost sandcastle-like appearance. Not surprisingly, ocean breezes blowing in from the left often require players to aim their tee shots left of the putting surface. And you can bet that those same breezes regularly spritz the green with sea spray when the tide is in.

Riviera Maya

The first “wow” moment during a round played on Robert Trent Jones II’s PGA Riviera Maya course comes on the approach to the par-4 sixth, where the green is effectively guarded by a large cenote to the left. Yet the 584-yard, par-5 14th sees that drama and raises it with limestone rock walls that flank the playing corridor and provide a striking backdrop to the green (though, hopefully, not in a literal way). The natural rock amphitheater makes this marathon of a hole especially memorable.

TPC Danzante Bay Loreto

Hole 17 — 167 yards, par 3

Eric Ruben

Remarkably, Danzante Bay’s signature hole wasn’t a part of the course’s original routing. Once the site was discovered, however, modifications were made to incorporate the dramatic, drop-shot par 3. Perched atop the cliffs and encircled by a horseshoe-shaped bunker, the 17th hole’s 6,250-square-foot green sits 250 feet above the Sea of Cortez. Its creator, Rees Jones, drew inspiration from the orientation of the green on Augusta National’s famous 12th hole; but unlike Golden Bell, Danzante Bay’s iconic par 3 owes much of its difficulty to elevated tees. “You have to convince yourself that you need one less club,” Jones explains. “The hole gets into your head.”

Pacifico Course Riviera Nayarit

Hole 3b — 181 yards, par 3

The most dramatic and memorable hole at Punta Mita is the Tail of the Whale. The alternative par 3 on the resort’s Pacifico Course features an island green set about 200 yards from the shoreline, requiring players to hit tee shots over the ocean. A spit of rocky terrain connects the green site to the mainland and can accommodate golf carts. However, it’s traversable only at low tide, which means golfers who wish to play the Tail of the Whale may need to wait until the end of their rounds to finish the hole.

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An Agave Education

Nauka

Riviera Nayarit

Hole 3 — 356 yards, par 4

When you have two-and-a-half holes positioned directly on a white-sand beach, as Nauka does, it’s easy to understand how they serve as the private club’s primary selling point. That said, the most engaging and architecturally captivating holes are found elsewhere on the course (which is open on a limited basis to guests of the community’s Ritz-Carlton Reserve resort). The frontrunner, if you ask us, is the short, uphill par-4 third. The hole tempts players to be aggressive with their tee shots, although out-of-position drives will present challenging recovery shots to an elevated, boldly contoured green. The hole is equally tantalizing from an aesthetic standpoint, as the swath of rainforest behind the green provides a compelling background.

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Rounds of golf in Mexico are often followed by (and sometimes fueled by) rounds of tequila shots and margaritas at the bar. At Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, golfers returning to the hotel after playing its Pacifico or Bahia courses (see previous pages) need not settle for salt-and-lime chasers and sugary frozen cocktails. In addition to a vast collection of premium tequilas—including a private-label bottling produced in collaboration with Jose Cuervo’s Reserva de la Familia—the Four Seasons offers a custom-blending experience for guests who want to dive deep into the famed agave spirit. The experience is led by a tequila expert, whose professorial approach to the process reflects the proud, centuries-old traditions of Mexican farmers and distillers from the highlands of Jalisco to the lowlands of Tamaulipas. More cerebral than celebratory, it offers a higher education in agave, exploring the science, culture, and horticulture behind the tequila-making method and the spirit’s unique flavors. The experience unfolds over a couple hours, gradually incorporating guided tastings of blanco, reposado, añejo, and gran añejo tequilas. Each is paired with small bites—morsels of Mexican chocolate, for example, to savor with the añejo— that bring out the spirit’s defining characteristics. After tasting the various tequilas, participants are instructed to experiment. Using science-lab beakers, they draw from four oak casks and sample different combinations to find the perfect blend for their personal tastes. The final blend is transferred to a bottle, which is then wax-sealed, numbered, and signed by the guest, who leaves with a one-of-kind souvenir to save for a special occasion. —bruce wallin

Cabo’s Coming of Age The seventh hole at Quivira Golf Club.

Over the course of three decades, the strip at the tip of the Baja Peninsula has emerged as one of the world’s premier golf destinations. There was a time when the mention of Cabo San Lucas conjured up images of one thing: marlin. Any foreigner who knew of the town, then a sleepy fishing village, was likely an avid sport fisherman. That was Cabo’s claim to fame. It still is, to be fair. But those old enough to remember the destination back when trolling for blue, black, or striped marlin was the main thrill—really the only thrill—are also old enough to remember Jimmy Carter’s presidency. In the mid-1980s, however, everything in Cabo began to change. Don Koll, a Southern California real estate mogul credited with jump-starting Cabo’s transformation into a golf destination, purchased land for the Cabo del Sol development in 1985 and acquired Hotel Palmilla (now the One&Only Palmilla) a year later. He soon commissioned

Jack Nicklaus to design golf courses at both developments, paying him a combined $2.5 million. By then, the Golden Bear was quite familiar with the region—he’d been flying to Cabo for inexpensive holidays for decades. “I stayed at the old Hacienda Cabo San Lucas, and we used to go out fishing and swim out under the arches,” Nicklaus said during the 2014 grand opening of Quivira Golf Club, his sixth course in Cabo. “We used to be able to come down here in the 1960s in a T-shirt, a swimsuit, and a pair of sandals with 20 bucks and stay for a week. Now you might not get out of the airport for that. So my friends joke that I’m the guy who ruined Cabo.” Yet, it was Nicklaus’s courses that served as the catalyst for Cabo’s golf boom. At Palmilla, he aspired to create “Palm Springs by the sea,” and he took an even bolder approach at Cabo del Sol, aiming to create the “Pebble Beach of Baja.” Even before those courses opened in 1992 and 1994, respectively, Nicklaus’s work—and the news of Koll’s developments— inspired other savvy resort owners and developers to take their shot along the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula.

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Developer Eduardo Sánchez Navarro hired Robert Trent Jones II to create an 18-hole course at his resort community, Cabo Real, which opened in 1993. A few years later, Cabo del Sol brought Nicklaus back to design nine additional holes at the development before tapping another major champion, Tom Weiskopf, to create the Desert Course with his design associate, Phil Smith, in 2001. (The course has since been renamed the Cabo del Sol Golf Course, and its 7,049 yards are currently benefiting from a renovation and redesign led by Dana Fry and Jason Straka.) As the first decade of the new millennium came to a close, even bigger developments were in the works. In 2009, Diamante Cabo San Lucas opened its first golf course, the Dunes, designed by Davis Love III. Five years later, the 1,500-acre gated resort community made global headlines when it opened El Cardonal, the first golf course designed by Tiger Woods. Other notable layouts opened in quick succession. The aforementioned Quivira, Nicklaus’s most dramatic routing in Cabo, wowed golfers with a trio of cliffside holes and massive par 5s that spilled down hillsides toward the Pacific. Greg Norman made his mark on the region as well, creating Solmar Golf Links inside the Rancho San Lucas community, where six holes play along the ocean. “Golfers can experience the sand dunes and winds along the beach,” Norman once said, “then drive over the dune line and back into desert terrain with arroyos and beautiful countryside.” By the time 2018 rolled around, Fred Couples and his partner, Todd Eckenrode, were putting the final touches on Twin Dolphin Club, a private course accessible only to members and guests of Montage Los Cabos. Nicklaus and Norman, meanwhile, were wrapping up their collaborative work on 27 holes at Puerto Los Cabos, a resort outside San José del Cabo, which marks the northern end of the stretch now known as Los Cabos (with Cabo San Lucas at the southern end). Some developers, however, were looking for more space, which ultimately led to the development of the first golf resort community on Baja’s East Cape (see “Escape to the Cape,” page 73). Looking ahead, Ernie Els’s first course in Mexico, Oleada Golf Links, is set to open in Cabo by the end of the year, while Woods and his design team are busy shaping and grassing the Legacy Course at Diamante, slated to open by summer 2027. Once the first tee shots are hit at Oleada, Cabo will be home to golf courses designed by six major champions. “Golf wise, it’s hard to find a destination like Cabo,”

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Cabo del Sol Golf Course at Four Seasons Resort Cabo del Sol.

says Ken Jowdy, the founder and CEO of Legacy Properties, LLC, as well as Diamante Cabo San Lucas. “It’s such a premier destination now. It’s a two-hour flight from Houston, Dallas, and L.A.; and if you add an hour, you get to Chicago and San Francisco. You’re so close to the United States, but you feel like you’re in a different world when you come down here.” In Jowdy’s estimation, golf is a natural fit for Cabo for many reasons, not least of which is the region’s weather. And he’s not at all concerned about the increasing number of neighboring golf courses: Oleada is next door to the west, with Solmar Golf Links positioned just beyond it, while Quivira sits only a mile (as the crow flies) to the east. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” he says. “I want them all to do well. We all have our ability to get our share.” When asked what differentiates Diamante, Jowdy points to the resort’s quantity and variety of golf experiences. “We have more [golf ] to offer than anyone,” he says. “It’s not whether you like it or don’t like it—we just have more. And we have enough variety for people that are really into golf.” Thirty-four years after the opening of its first resort course, the once-sleepy village of Cabo San Lucas can clearly claim the same.

Escape to the Cape

On the Baja Peninsula’s east coast, a low-key luxury resort offers a quiet alternative to Cabo. For those who remember what Cabo was like 30 or 40 years ago, Costa Palmas has undeniable appeal. The 1,500-acre, beachfront resort community is located about 65 miles northeast of Cabo San Lucas and roughly an hour’s drive from Los Cabos International Airport. But the tranquil property, with its two and a half miles of swimmable beach, feels worlds away from the densely developed resort destination to the south. Already home to a Four Seasons resort, Costa Palmas will soon welcome Amanvari, a boutique property from Aman that will include just 18 casitas and a collection of private residences. In addition to multiple restaurants—none more enchanting than the Four Seasons’ Limón, an alfresco, farm-to-table venue tucked within a secluded citrus grove—the development offers spas, fitness centers, a variety of pools, and an expansive marina where guests can embark on sportfishing charters, snorkeling trips, and more. Golf enthusiasts will be most enamored with the community’s 7,221-yard, championship-caliber course. Designed by Robert Trent Jones II, the layout traverses three distinct areas of the property: uplands, dunes, and a section that looks out over the marina. It plays notably fast and firm—and that’s a good thing. The greens roll swiftly and true, and the conditioning is immaculate. With limited rounds played and tee times staggered so that multiple groups are almost never on the same hole together, golfers will not feel rushed. According to Trent Jones II, it’s not just the tempo of play that has a soothing quality. “The real craftsmanship is within the course itself; it’s a painting,” he says. “There’s a repetition in nature. In the distance, if we have a silhouette of the mountains, we might replicate some of those shapes in the mounds that we’ve created, and therefore it feels harmonious.” Indeed, while it’s largely absent from modern-day Cabo, harmony with nature can still be found at Costa Palmas.

Right: La Condesa in Mexico City. Below: Chiki, a speakeasy bar, at Costa Palmas.

Lorena’s List While speaking with Kingdom for this issue’s profile feature (see “On Her Own Terms,” page 56), LPGA Tour legend Lorena Ochoa shared a few insights for travelers to her home country. Where do you recommend golf travelers go in Mexico? Golf is growing so much in my country, and it’s beautiful to see. When you think about golf courses to play, everyone thinks about Los Cabos, Cancun, and the Riviera Maya, but there are some beautiful places in the middle of the country along the Pacific Ocean. I recommend all golfers go to Punta Mita, close to Puerto Vallarta. It’s a beautiful area. You now live in Mexico City, a vibrant—and huge—destination. Which neighborhoods or places should first-time visitors check out? If you’re planning a trip to Mexico City, it’s really important to walk around the neighborhoods of La Condesa, Roma, and Polanco. It’s beautiful to also learn more about the city by going downtown for the history of the Zócalo [La Plaza de la Constitución]. As someone who grew up in Guadalajara, what’s your insider tip for travelers visiting that area? You can take the train and spend the day in the town of Tequila. There are some beautiful areas there, and the food and mariachi music are great. Are there public golf courses in Mexico you would recommend? We don’t have public golf courses in Mexico. All of them are private and expensive. We have to work really hard on that with the government—you shouldn’t need to be a member of a golf club to play. That’s our goal with the new president. Hopefully, we can change some of that and make the sport more popular and easier for everyone to play.

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A Taste of Mexico City

Long-weekend getaways to the largest city in North America are fueled not by rounds of golf, but by meals and drinks consumed in the metropolis’s renowned restaurants and bars. Sure, Club de Golf Chapultepec, which hosted a WGC event on the PGA Tour for four years, is only a 30-minute drive west of downtown Mexico City (traffic permitting). And Club de Golf Mexico, codesigned by Percy Clifford—a six-time Mexican Amateur and three-time Mexican Open champion—is less than an hour to the south. Both, however, are unequivocally private, so you’ll need strong connections to play at either club. Conversely, you won’t be turned away from Mexico City’s top-ranked bars and restaurants—so long as you have a reservation. The Mexican capital is famous for its cocktail culture and culinary scene, and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to serve as your caddie for an evening out on the town. If you’re in the mood for a good drink...

You’ll never go wrong saddling up to the bar at Handshake Speakeasy. With its Gatsby-inspired decor juxtaposed against a soundtrack of ’90s hits, the lounge is a thoughtprovoking mash-up, and its shaken and stirred creations follow suit. Insider tip: Don’t sleep on the piña colada. This clarified interpretation leans into the drink’s tropical fruit flavors while shedding the heaviness and cloying sweetness of the traditional version. Taking its name from the Náhuatl word for “place of fire,” Tlecān celebrates the agave plant in all its distilled forms. Twists on the classics include the Paloma Blanca, which combines carbonated and clarified grapefruit juice with lime

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Licoreria

juice, mezcal, soda water, and volcanic salt. The bar also offers its own take on the piña colada: pulque (a fermented beverage made from the sap of the maguey plant) is shaken with pineapple milk punch and mezcal fat-washed with coconut oil. Skillfully concealed within the ground floor of a modern apartment building in the Roma Norte neighborhood, Form + Matter specializes in complex libations served in a minimalist environment. The bar was founded by two Handshake Speakeasy alums and embraces the science of mixology, so expect plenty of infusions, fat washes, foams, and airy clouds, plus an entire section dedicated to complex cocktails that are carbonated in-house. If you’re looking for a memorable meal...

At Pujol, chef-owner Enrique Olvera continuously wows patrons with seasonal tasting menus that pair innovative components like sherry foam with traditional moles. If a progressive meal served in a traditional dining room doesn’t interest you, head to Olvera’s omakase bar, where a caravan of creative, small-bite tacos awaits. Two-Michelin-starred Quintonil, which opened in 2012, takes its name from an indigenous Mexican herb. Appropriately, chef Jorge Vallejo leans into traditional Mexican ingredients and techniques, which means diners here must have voracious appetites and an adventurous spirit to match. Vallejo often employs discreet use of a variety of insects. His June menu, for example, included a tomato stew accented by guajillo chilies and escamoles—fried ant larvae that are buttery, creamy, and affectionately called “Mexican caviar.” When chef Elena Reygadas opened Rosetta in 2010, the Mexico City native emphasized Italian influences and fresh pastas. Today, she’s intent on reinterpreting traditional Mexican dishes. While the menu is extensive, many of Reygadas’s creations are designed for sharing, allowing dinners to become full-fledged culinary explorations.

Above: One of the many innovative dishes served at Pujol. Below: Form + Matter’s Soufflé espresso martini.

Solitary Refinement Hidden within a 3,000-acre nature preserve, a luxury resort on the Costalegre is teeming with discoveries—including a dynamic, seldom-played golf course. On a map of Mexico’s west coast, Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo looks remote, but its isolation truly sets in upon arrival. Driving through the main gate and down a beautiful stone roadway—one that reportedly took more than three years to build—you travel over five miles and 15 minutes before reaching the hotel’s main lobby and welcome area. Set along the Costalegre in southern Jalisco, the resort sits on a 3,000-acre parcel of land—but only two percent of that acreage has been developed. What’s more, the vast majority of the undeveloped land will remain that way. “Our greatest strength is the awe-inspiring feeling the property evokes,” says Felix Murillo, the resort’s general manager. “Tamarindo remains largely untouched, so guests feel like they’ve arrived somewhere undiscovered.” The 157-room property, which includes 62 stunning cliffside suites, offers a variety of destination-appropriate activities, from daytime and nocturnal nature walks to scuba trips, sportfishing charters, and immersive temazcal rituals. For golfers, the crown jewel is the resort’s 6,682-yard course. For much of its three decades, the El Tamarindo course was ultra-private, built by the land’s owner—a Mexican businessman—who kept it in pristine condition mostly for himself, friends, and family. The course doesn’t boast the signature of a well-known architect, but its routing, which covers about five miles of the reserve in one giant, counterclockwise loop, is dynamic and diverse. That’s what the resort’s director of golf, Albert Sánchez García, appreciates most. “You have stunning oceanfront holes with incredible views—sometimes even whale sightings—and then you move into jungle holes that are just as impressive, more enclosed, and highly strategic,” he says. “That variety makes the course both visually spectacular and very fun to play.”

It doesn’t hurt that the resort books a shockingly low number of tee times each day. Should you play in the morning, you might encounter members of the grounds crew meticulously caring for the course. Tee off in the mid to late afternoon, and you might not see anyone at all. “Guests can play at their own rhythm, without pressure, and fully immerse themselves in the landscape,” Murillo explains. “It’s not just about pace of play; it’s about presence.” ISSUE 67 | K ING D OM

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CARIBBEAN SWING

For most golf getaways, where we stay is predicated upon the courses we’ll play. Golf takes precedence. On Mexico’s Caribbean coast, however, several top-notch resorts sit in close proximity to equally enticing golf courses, meaning we can pretty much stay where we want and play where we want. From Cancun and throughout the Riviera Maya, these are a few of our favorite spots to hunker down and tee off. mayakoba has set the standard on the Riviera Maya since opening nearly two decades ago. The 595-acre luxury gated community appeals to those who yearn for the Mexican Caribbean’s charms but prefer to avoid the region’s more congested resort towns. The development is home to four distinct hotels, all of which offer access to El Camaleón Golf Course, a championship design by Greg Norman that hosted a PGA Tour event for the better part of two decades. For the ultimate Riviera Maya golf retreat, book Rosewood Mayakoba, the development’s marquee property that is regularly ranked among the world’s top resorts.

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Just up the road, along the famed white sands of Maroma Beach, the recently renovated Maroma, a Belmond Hotel, is another exceptional option, complete with a mezcal bar, a beachside grill, and 72 guest rooms, suites, and villas. A pair of travel-worthy golf courses is also nearby. A 10-minute drive to the north brings you to Iberostar Playa Paraíso Golf Club, a P.B. Dye creation that’s hosted Big Break Mexico, the World Amateur Team Championships, and other notable golf events over the years. Another four minutes in the car brings you to the Nicklaus Design Course at Vidanta Riviera Maya, an engaging par-3 layout with holes ranging in length from 103 yards to 276 yards from the back tees. The Iberostar course is also a short drive from the Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai, which opened in 2024. The sprawling resort is set within a 620-acre nature reserve and features two miles of picturesque beach, a lagoon-sized pool, and 182 guest rooms and suites. (Its 27,000-square-foot Sky Rooftop Villa is said to be the largest penthouse suite in North America.) A 21-minute drive south from the Edition brings guests to Gran Coyote Golf (formerly Grand Coral Riviera Maya), a Nick Price creation that was routed to be minimally invasive to the

Zapote Bar at Rosewood Mayakoba (left) and a pool at the Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai (right).

Golfers should expect fairways lined with dense mangrove jungle, where accuracy is paramount.

site’s natural environment. As a result, golfers should expect fairways lined with dense mangrove jungle, where accuracy is paramount across all 7,043 yards. Located in Costa Mujeres, just outside Cancun, the adults-only Hotel Mousai Cancun will likely change your perception of what an all-inclusive resort is all about. The all-suite beachfront property offers access to numerous restaurants, including a rooftop venue with panoramic views, as well as options at the hotel’s neighboring sister properties, Garza Blanca and Villa del Palmar. Designed by Greg Norman in 2006, the championship course at Playa Mujeres Golf Club is about 10 minutes to the north and delivers views of the Caribbean. If you’re willing to drive twice as long to the south, tee times at Puerto Cancún Club await. There, you’ll enjoy even more dramatic views of the sea, as several holes of this Tom Weiskopf design play right along the shoreline. Just south of Cancun, the Waldorf Astoria Riviera Maya brings the brand’s signature elegance to the region’s white-sand coast, featuring 173 guest rooms and suites—the most enviable of which are the swim-up, oceanfront master suites. Staying at the Waldorf has other perks, too, most notably easy access to the Nick Price–designed El Tinto Golf Course, which challenges players to navigate more than 80 bunkers and water hazards. Also nearby is Moon Palace Golf Club, where golfers have their choice of three nine-hole layouts, each designed by Jack Nicklaus. For a boutique option, Hotel Esencia is a heavenly spot in the heart of the Riviera Maya, with 47 suites and four villas set along the edge of Xpu-Ha Bay. The resort is positioned halfway between Tulum and Playa del Carmen and was originally an exclusive hideaway for an Italian duchess. A short drive south brings golfers to PGA Riviera Maya, home to a championship routing by Robert Trent Jones II that carves its way through a former limestone quarry (and recently hosted a Korn Ferry Tour event). To the north, golfing guests can tee it up at Hard Rock Campo de Golf (formerly the Golf Club at Playacar), a Robert von Hagge design that meanders through the coastal jungle.

Hotel Esencia (top) and Hotel Mousai Cancun (above).

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England

ULTIMATE GOLF GETAWAY

From vintage London to the links of Lancashire, we have traveled the length of the old country to recommend where to tee up, where to hike, and what corks to pop to toast your next visit. by ROBIN BARWICK

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IN THE

Dunes

For a concentrated cluster of vintage links, you can’t beat the Lancashire trio of Royal Birkdale, Hillside, and Southport and Ainsdale, which lie side by side by side along “England’s Golf Coast.”

ir Nick Faldo—the last Englishman to win the Open Championship three times (Muirfield 1987, St Andrews 1990, Muirfield 1992)—has played virtually all the great British links courses. “For true links,” he told Kingdom recently, “the trio of Birkdale, Hillside, and Southport and Ainsdale would be tough to beat.” The three courses Faldo speaks of are literally next door to each other. Just weatherworn picket fencing separates Royal Birkdale—where the Open returns this summer—and Hillside. Railroad tracks form the border between Hillside and Southport and Ainsdale (S&A). All three courses sit within the UK’s largest dune system, the Sefton Dunes, which rises and dips over an 800-acre expanse of Lancashire coastline before flattening into a broad swath of golden beaches to the west and into the Irish Sea. From north to south, the dune system and the golf begin at the town of Southport, home to Birkdale. Hillside is to the southeast, with Southport and Ainsdale just past it and slightly farther from the shore. Heading two miles south from S&A, keeping the sea on the right, golfers arrive at the gates of Formby Golf Club. A nature reserve at Formby Point represents the southern reaches of the Sefton Dunes, after which the coastline turns southeast toward the Liverpool docks and another truly classic links challenge at West Lancashire, which dates to 1873. It is little wonder the regional tourism office brands this “England’s Golf Coast.” Open venue Royal Birkdale

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James Hogg

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The fourth hole at Southport and Ainsdale (left); the 13th at Hillside (right).

Within the Sefton Dunes, Birkdale came first, with its earliest nine holes laid out in 1889. The course’s footprint covers approximately five percent of the entire dune system, but within Birkdale’s boundaries, only 20 percent of the land is occupied by golf holes. The remainder is left to nature’s will. Herein lies the secret to Birkdale’s singular beauty: so much magnificent duneland, yet only 18 holes of golf winding through the broader landscape. Tommy Fleetwood, Lancashire born and bred, describes Birkdale as “arguably the best Open venue.” Jonathan Seal, a longtime Birkdale member and former club captain, says, “Perhaps the greatest feature of Royal Birkdale’s golf course is that the dunes shape every hole into a self-contained golfing proposition, each one completely separate from the next. Every hole is very different, and each one follows a path that is dictated by the dunes. That is a huge part of the visual majesty of this golf course.” Modifications have been made to the course over the past two years, ahead of it staging the Open for the 11th time. Managed by links specialists Mackenzie & Ebert, the work has included establishing a new par-4 fifth hole and par-3 15th, raising the green on the par-3 seventh, updating the par-5 14th hole, improving course drainage, and adding a practice area. These are major changes to a golf course already revered deeply and broadly, and while they have been prescribed by the Birkdale membership, it will be fascinating to learn the verdicts of the world’s best players once the 2026 Open champion has been crowned.

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Over the Fence The majesty of Birkdale is matched, step for step, by the back nine at Hillside. After playing there in the European Tour’s 1982 PGA Championship, Greg Norman wrote to the club and famously said, “The back nine holes are the best in Britain.” Although Hillside was established in 1911, its seminal moment came in 1967 with the purchase of the duneland that borders Birkdale and is now home to the renowned back nine. Noted links specialist Fred W. Hawtree rerouted the course, bringing the right pedigree to the job: His father, Fred G. Hawtree, laid out Birkdale in the 1920s, in collaboration with five-time Open champ John Henry Taylor. The front nine at Hillside was once a gentler, flatter introduction to what followed on the back half. However, Martin Ebert completed a major revamp of the opening nine in 2021, and today Hillside could be considered the finest links course in the UK not to have hosted the Open, though it is regularly used as a qualifying course and has staged the British Amateur Championship three times.

Across the Tracks Southport and Ainsdale is the southernmost of the Sefton Dunes’ great triumvirate. Like Hillside, it has never hosted the Open, so it does not carry the same standing as Birkdale. Still, it is a treasure trove of history in its own right, having hosted the fourth Ryder Cup in 1933 and the sixth in 1937. Scotsman James Braid—the first golfer to win the Open five times—laid out S&A in 1925, just eight years before

James Hogg

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King of the Open

Arnold Palmer is indelibly linked to Royal Birkdale, where he won his first Claret Jug.

Palmer celebrates after the storm at Birkdale in 1961.

the course hosted the Ryder Cup. The Great Britain and Ireland team (as it was at the time) leveled the series against the United States at 2-2 with a victory that year, but in 1937, Walter Hagen returned to lead the visitors to their first Ryder Cup win in the UK. Hagen went so far as to state that it was “the greatest thrill of my golfing life.” The most famous hole at S&A is its mighty 16th—also known as “Gumbleys” after one of the club’s founding members. Its defining feature is what must be negotiated with the second shot, as a ridge of rugged sandhills converges across the fairway, in the middle of which lies a bank of railway sleepers above a cavernous bunker. The sleeperarmored sandhills rise over 20 feet, rendering the second shot blind, and a mishit shot played into the sleepers is dispiriting at best. Knitting together S&A and the other great links of the Lancashire coastline is the Merseyrail line between Southport and Liverpool. After a southbound departure from Hillside station, the Hillside course appears on the right, with Birkdale visible over the dunes. S&A looms to the left of the line before the train rolls into Ainsdale station. Formby then appears on the right, followed by West Lancs on the approach to Hall Road station. The entire journey time from Hillside to Hall Road? Just 16 minutes, including stops. The dunes might feel as if they carry on for miles, but the journeys between these golf courses do not.

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Knitting together S&A and the other great links of the Lancashire coastline is the Merseyrail line.

With four holes to play in the 1961 Open at Royal Birkdale, Arnold Palmer clung to a narrow lead over Welshman Dai Rees, who was mounting a late charge. Palmer’s tee shot on the par-4 15th bounded into heavy rough, lying virtually invisible amid blackberry brambles and willow scrub. His caddie, Tip Anderson—whom Palmer had first recruited for the Open the previous year at St Andrews—tried to hand Palmer his wedge. But with the fairway rising to a green 150 yards away, the American had his eyes on glory and opted for a 6-iron. “I swung as hard as I could,” Palmer later recalled. Brambles, divots, and debris went flying in the flash of steel—the packed gallery gasped audibly—but all that mattered was the ball. “[I] waited a second and looked up, watching my ball soar high and settle on the putting surface up the hill, 15 feet shy of the hole.” The ball never wavered. Henry Cotton, a three-time Open champion, was standing nearby and described it as “one of the greatest shots ever played.” That one brutal swing of a 6-iron summed up Arnold Palmer. That was his game, and it was why spectators flocked to Birkdale in the thousands despite inclement weather. He would always go for broke, and while it sometimes cost him, spectators couldn’t take their eyes off him. Palmer’s old friend and greatest rival, Jack Nicklaus, recalled: “He made the recovery shot a form of art. At times he played like no one else before or after him.” That was never more true than on the 15th at Birkdale in 1961. Palmer saved par and beat Rees by one, lifting the Claret Jug for the first time. “With that famous victory, he had become as popular in Great Britain as he was at home,” added Nicklaus, who would follow Palmer to the Open and make his debut in 1962. “Not only for his go-for-broke attitude and charismatic personality, but for the immense rejuvenating effect his presence and play were having on the oldest and most historic of golf championships by stimulating other top American players to cross the ocean each July.” The 15th hole played by Palmer at Royal Birkdale, which is hosting the Open this summer for the 11th time, has since become the 16th. A plaque marks the spot from where he struck that mighty blow. Several years ago, before Palmer died in 2016, Kingdom was at Birkdale when a starter of some considerable seasons quipped, “Please remind Mr. Palmer that he still owes us a bush for the 16th.”

Great(er) London Golf Like summer strawberries from an English farm, we’ve handpicked seven of the finest golf experiences for London visitors to savor. The Buckinghamshire Many visitors from the States arrive at Heathrow Airport, so we’ll start near there—but far enough away that you can quickly detach from the long journey. That is one of the many impressive attributes of the Buckinghamshire; it is a tranquil, picturesque haven removed from the hustle of West London, yet less than 10 miles from Heathrow and only 15 miles from High Street Kensington. The Buckinghamshire is a members-only enclave, but it offers international memberships, and upstairs in its clubhouse—a beautifully restored 17th-century manor house—are seven exquisite guest suites. The club wants to be a home away from home for its international members, and it certainly puts out the welcome mat for them, thanks to a great staff, exceptional service, and a recent renovation investment of more than $13 million. The Buckinghamshire’s excellent golf course—designed by European Tour pioneer John Jacobs and originally opened in 1992 on historic parkland—has also benefited from recent renovations, including an extensive new drainage system, updated bunkers, and improvements to its adjacent driving range. Back in the clubhouse, renowned London designer

The Buckinghamshire

Kim Partridge masterminded a restoration that marries the building’s heritage with contemporary luxury. The Orangery restaurant typifies how old-school golf conventions have been discarded in favor of modern furnishings, a sophisticated menu, a wine list, and service you would expect to find in Mayfair.

Stoke Park One of the finest parkland golf courses in the UK, Stoke Park sits just eight miles from the Buckinghamshire, and it feels equally insulated from Heathrow and the city. The legendary club is as famous for its golf course, originally laid out by Harry Colt, as it is for being on the silver screen, most notably hosting James Bond’s on-course encounter with Goldfinger in the 1964 movie named after the golf-cheat villain. Stoke Park is enjoying a stunning renaissance, having been closed for three years for an extensive renovation. The club, which is owned by India-based Fortune 500 company Reliance Industries, reopened in September 2024 in a level of pristine condition it had never previously known. Renovations to Stoke Park’s iconic mansion continue, and the estate’s 28-room Pavilion hotel and estate cottages are due to reopen this fall. The reopening of the guest rooms in the mansion itself will follow. Stoke Park used to sell 40,000 green fees a year, but today that figure is capped at 10,000 annually, with 15-minute tee-time intervals to protect the course and the enjoyment of those who play it. ISSUE 67 | K ING D OM

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Centurion Club

London Golf Club

Centurion Club In the space of 13 years, Centurion Club—just 20 miles north of central London—has established itself among the highest echelon of English golf. The club is located outside the attractive city of Saint Albans, which was the first stop on the northbound road from London in Roman times. Today, it’s known for its carefully preserved medieval buildings. Centurion Club’s championship golf course winds beautifully through mature pine woodlands and over the undulating Hertfordshire countryside. The course offers an array of shotmaking opportunities and, at more than 7,000 yards from the back, can challenge even the mighty. Still, with five sets of tees, Centurion Club was designed to be enjoyed by golfers of all abilities. Predominantly a members’ club, Centurion Club also welcomes international guests, who should call ahead to secure one of a limited number of tee times.

Sunningdale The Old Course at Sunningdale—southwest of London in the affluent town of Ascot—is probably the most revered inland course in the UK. It is the ultimate heathland layout, designed by Willie Park Jr.—the Open champion of 1887 and 1889—and opened in 1901. Plentiful gorse, heather, and pine woodland provide stunning definition on virtually every hole of the Old Course, while also serving as hazards. The greens, with subtle borrows, are usually wicked quick. The club’s New Course is a bit like the New Course at

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St Andrews—it’s old. Sunningdale’s version was designed by Harry Colt and opened in 1923, and it is sometimes rated even higher than the Old Course. Colt was Sunningdale’s first club secretary, taking the post in 1901 on a salary of £150 per year. He was deeply respected by the membership and was named club captain in 1924. Visitor tee times for 2026 are already sold out, so start planning for 2027. If you can also arrange a carvery lunch in the club’s dining room, you will experience a peerless day of English golf.

The Grove The Grove is situated on 300 acres of rolling Hertfordshire countryside northwest of London, near the town of Watford. It has the feel of a country retreat, complete with a luxury hotel and spa. The resort’s claim to fame is that it is the only golf course in the UK to have hosted a World Golf Championship event, which was won by Tiger Woods in 2006. The Kyle Phillips–designed championship course was little known at the time, having opened for play in the fall of 2003. Today, the imaginative layout is renowned for its quality conditioning.

London Golf Club London Golf Club brings tour-level golf facilities to the Green Belt outside southeast London. Neighboring the storied Brands Hatch motor racing circuit, the club opened in 1993, and a year later its 36 holes—designed by Jack Nicklaus across rolling North Kent terrain—opened for

The Royal Route

King Charles III himself officially inaugurated the new King Charles III England Coast Path this spring. The path will eventually stretch for 2,700 miles along the entire coastline of England, making it the world’s longest managed coastal walking route. Walking a portion of the path is highly recommended for visitors, as you will find much beauty and history to absorb—and several golf courses and pubs to experience—along England’s shores. Following are a few of our favorite spots along the way.

Seven Sisters, East Sussex

Seven Sisters

In March, when the coast path in his name was inaugurated, King Charles III took a walk along the steep cliffs of the Seven Sisters. Thankfully, the people here are friendlier than they used to be. According to local lore, the villagers here were “wreckers” who hung lanterns around the necks of their livestock along the clifftops at night, hoping to lure sailors into thinking there were ships ahead. Many ships and sailors suffered a horrible demise on the rocks below. Golf: Try Lewes Golf Club or Willingdon Golf Club, the latter featuring a course redesigned by Alister MacKenzie in 1925, shortly before he headed to the United States—a move that would eventually lead to his codesign of Augusta National. Pub: The Pilot Inn in Eastbourne is perfect for seafarers and wanderers alike.

Minack Theatre, Cornwall

play. Both of the club’s layouts run to more than 7,000 yards, although multiple sets of tees on each course ensure all golfers can enjoy this championship venue. London Golf Club, which has hosted events on the DP World Tour, offers day rates to guests, and the club has plans to build a hotel and new sports and leisure facilities.

Walton Heath The 1981 Ryder Cup was supposed to be played at the Belfry, outside Birmingham, but its new Brabazon Course was not fit for tournament golf in time. This heathland classic, south of London, stepped in to save the day. Walton Heath spared the British PGA some embarrassment, but it could do nothing to help the European team, which was soundly defeated 18½ to 9½ by one of the strongest U.S. teams ever assembled. To play Walton Heath is to walk in the footsteps of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Hale Irwin, Raymond Floyd, Ben Crenshaw, and Tom Kite, to name just eight from that squad. The Old Course at Walton Heath was designed by Herbert Fowler and opened in 1904 with an inauguration steeped in vintage glamour. The club pro was James Braid, and he played an exhibition game against J.H. Taylor and Harry Vardon—golf ’s original Great Triumvirate, whose members collected 16 Open titles between them. Braid remained club pro until his death in 1950, the future King Edward VIII was once club captain, and Winston Churchill was a member. The Old and New courses retain the outstanding heathland quality befitting their heritage.

Set into a granite cliff overlooking Porthcurno Bay, the Minack Theatre was built by hand in the early 1930s by Englishwoman Rowena Cade, with the help of her gardener and a handful of local laborers. Cade purchased the Minack headland for £100 in the 1920s and also built a home there. She loved the theater, and the first production to be held at the Minack was The Tempest (of course) by William Shakespeare. Golf: Cape Cornwall Club is to golf what the Minack is to the theater—it is equally dramatic. Pub: Along the coast, in the village of Treen, the Logan Rock Inn was built from stone in the 16th century and is a true Cornish classic, once frequented by pirates.

Camel Estuary, Cornwall

The Camel Estuary, along Cornwall’s northern coast, is flanked by some of England’s most idyllic beaches and sand dunes. This area is one of the country’s most popular summer spots, so it gets busy in July and August. Golf: The Church Course at St Enodoc Golf Club, designed by James Braid, is hard to beat for summer golf in England. Like much of Cornwall, it is stuck in a time warp, which is part of its appeal. Pub: The Mariners in the village of Rock serves great food and is perfectly located beside the village slipway into the estuary.

Cleethorpes Beach, Lincolnshire

Cleethorpes is the archetypal English seaside town, where the primary attraction is the long, broad golden sand beach. Donkey rides (for children only, with age and weight limits) are a seaside tradition that goes back more than 100 years. Golf: Lincolnshire is not celebrated for its golf in the way many other parts of the English coast are, but Cleethorpes Golf Club offers East Midlands charm—and excellent fish and chips. Pub: The Signal Box Inn, next to the Cleethorpes Light Railway, claims to be the “smallest pub on the planet.” Indeed, there is no indoor seating, but there are plenty of tables outside, some under cover and others in the sunshine (hopefully).

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Sparkling in Sussex

The Nyetimber estate (left), Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs (right), and the ridge view from Ridgeview (far right).

Fans of Champagne should make a detour to this English wine region, where the local bubblies are rising to new levels. there is history around every corner and down every valley in England, but the Nyetimber estate’s past is noteworthy even by English standards. The Sussex property is listed in the legendary Domesday Book of 1086, and King Henry VIII gave the estate to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, as a sweetener when she agreed to have their six-month-long marriage annulled. This was centuries before vines were planted at Nyetimber, and yet the ousted queen must have been intoxicated by the offering. For one, she never liked the king, and Nyetimber—a country retreat of rare beauty and tranquility, hidden amid the hilly, wooded countryside of West Sussex—would have been the perfect antidote to the pressures and unpleasantness of life around Henry VIII’s court. Located on the edge of West Chiltington in the South Downs, Nyetimber has retained its rustic charm, as well as its ability to create notable history. In 1988, it became the first wine estate in England to plant the classic grapes for sparkling wine: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot

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Meunier. These are the grapes on which Champagne built its reputation, and with average air temperatures rising in recent decades, the terroir in southern England has become ideal for the varietals. Much of southern England has the same chalky geology as the Champagne region, and now it has the climate to match. Nyetimber’s inaugural wine was a 1992 Blanc de Blancs made from a single vintage of Chardonnay. Today, the single-vintage Blanc de Blancs continues to excel as a specialoccasion wine, with an appealing hue of pale gold, citrus notes on the palate, and a long, creamy finish. Nyetimber’s multi-vintage Classic Cuvee, meanwhile, serves as an elegant introduction to the vintner that triggered England’s fastevolving sparkling wine trade. Visitors to Nyetimber can sample these wines and more during a tasting at the estate’s 15th-century Medieval Barn, which predates Anne of Cleves. Another worthy stop on a Sussex sparkling wine tour is Ridgeview, just 20 miles to the east of Nyetimber, outside the village of Ditchling. “Ridgeview is famous for fresher wines, with hints of hedgerow fruits, a little honeyed, but with an acidic, elegant style,” says Toby Peirce, owner of Quaff Fine Wine Merchant, who operates two shops on the Sussex coast. “This has really become the definitive English style. Ridgeview has set the benchmark.”

Southern Charmer

Set within yet another pretty and unassuming Sussex village, South Lodge has more than a whiff of Four Weddings and a Funeral about it—just without the chaos and farce. Guarded by towering rhododendrons, azaleas, and camellias, the hotel welcomes guests in the original reception rooms of the neo-Jacobean manor house. Hotel life revolves around its oak-paneled bar and two fantastic restaurants: the classic Camellia in the main dining room, and the Pass, a Michelin-starred restaurant led by English chef Ben Wilkinson. South Lodge’s restaurants bridge tradition and innovation, whereas the hotel’s expansive spa is a model of elegant, state-of-the-art indulgence. Its Mediterranean-inspired restaurant, Botanica, offers a third dining option, with Sussex wines served in all three. Throwing itself into the wine culture of Sussex—where the hotel is well positioned within a short drive of Rathfinny and other local producers—South Lodge has planted its own vineyards of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Its first harvest took place last fall, and the grapes have been carted off to Ridgeview, about 12 miles away, which will release the inaugural South Lodge sparkling wine in 2028.

Our guests literally dine within our vineyards, enjoying English tapas made from local produce.” — S IM O N RO B ERTS, HEAD WINEMAKER , RIDGEV IEW

Founded by the Roberts family in 1995, Ridgeview popped some corks in 2010 when its Blanc de Blancs 2006 beat every Champagne to be named the world’s best sparkling wine at the Decanter World Wine Awards. It was the first time a non-Champagne had claimed the prestigious award, and the village winery was immediately overwhelmed with orders from around the globe. Among Ridgeview’s other attention-grabbing moments in the years since, its sparkling Fitzrovia rosé was served to President Barack Obama at a Buckingham Palace banquet in 2011, and its Blanc de Blancs 2016 was featured at King Charles’s first state banquet as monarch, in 2022. The tasting experience at Ridgeview is elevated by the winery’s restaurant, which opened in 2024. “Our guests literally dine within our vineyards, enjoying English tapas made from local produce,” says head winemaker Simon Roberts, whose parents founded the family business. “People come down for a tour, tasting, and something to eat, and hopefully we have created an experience they want to come back to.” Tours and tastings can also be savored at pioneering Sussex vineyards including Rathfinny, Bolney, and Bluebell. Along with Nyetimber and Ridgeview, these wineries have elevated the once up-and-coming region and established it as a leader in the sparkling-wine space. “We now sell at least as much English sparkling wine as we do Champagne, if not more,” Peirce says. “It is not just a curiosity; it is core business.”

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An evening gin and tonic is a must during a golf trip to England, where a thriving trade in craft gins has emerged in recent years. Here, we dive into a few of the finest examples— and the three cardinal rules of a proper G&T. by ROBIN BARWICK photos MATTHEW HALNAN

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he first rule of the gin and tonic is ratio— something the manager of the rooftop bar at the InterContinental Bordeaux Le Grand didn’t seem to comprehend. I was eager to try the locally distilled G’Vine Gin, which is infused with grapes and vine flower. The sun was still high on a beautiful late afternoon in the South of France, but my heart sank when the well-proportioned copa glasses arrived, each filled to the brim with tonic. A good gin is powerful, but not invincible. I’m sure the manager was thrilled to hear me explain that the ideal ratio for a G&T is one part gin to two parts tonic, regardless of the units of measure. Unfailingly courteous, he thought I was asking him to mix drinks with more gin. “You want to put me out of business,” he countered. But the requirement was not more gin, just less tonic. To the unaccustomed, the 1:2 ratio might pop some eyeballs at first sip, in which case a modest tonic top-up can bring the drink to a more comfortable level. Still, 1:2 is where to start to ensure you can taste whatever subtle flavors might lie within a distillation. Rule No. 2 is plenty of ice. This is not to dilute the G&T, but rather the opposite: The more ice in the glass, the colder it keeps the G&T, and the slower the ice melts, thereby diluting the drink less. Rule No. 3, which especially applies when tasting a particular gin for the first time, is to use a good, plain tonic. Some gins pair very well with flavored tonics, but to taste the subtle flavor notes of a London Dry gin, you need plain tonic. Let the gin dictate the taste, not a mass-produced, artificially flavored tonic. On that note, as we were searching for the ideal venue to photograph our English summer G&Ts, we asked the Buckinghamshire Golf Club what kind of tonic it could supply. “We only stock plain tonic,” was the response, “as that is what our members prefer.” So I knew we had found the right place. We give our thanks and highest regards to the Buckinghamshire; its bar manager, Mark Szabo; and mixologist, Hayden Wood, all of whom helped ensure our photo shoot sparkled. All gins featured here are produced by English small-batch distilleries—each from a different region— and all our G&Ts are mixed with premium plain tonic.

The London Dry Method

A London Dry gin does not have to originate in London. The name refers to the distillation method, and London Dry is to gin what Champagne is to sparkling wine. To qualify as London Dry, all botanicals and ingredients must be added to the white spirit prior to distillation. Compounding flavor into a gin after distillation is much easier and usually less subtle, so London Dry is a mark of production quality.

Sipsmith V.J.O.P. Gin’s reemergence, or “gin-aissance,” as a drink of choice in the UK was no coincidence, and Sipsmith played an integral part. Since 1823, British law favored the giants of drinks production by granting licenses only to stills with a capacity of at least 1,800 liters. But in Hammersmith, West London, Sipsmith was starting up with a three-man band and a 300-liter still. The fledgling distiller petitioned the government, and the law was changed in 2008, enabling Sipsmith to become London’s first small-batch distillery in nearly 200 years. The new law triggered the emergence of an array of small-batch distilleries in the UK. In a tribute to Sipsmith, we present its V.J.O.P. (Very Junipery Over Proof ). This one is for the gin connoisseur. Made to a navy-strength 57.7 percent ABV (as opposed to the usual 40 to 45 percent), V.J.O.P. is to be handled with care. Sipsmith doubles the amount of juniper berries compared to the recipe for its excellent London Dry Gin, and V.J.O.P. goes through a three-part juniper infusion. The result is a very strong, very dry gin that packs a strong juniper punch. The Buckinghamshire softens the edge of this G&T by adding a dash of lemon juice, complementing the gin’s citrus notes. Garnished with juniper berries and a lemon twist, this is not a session drink but rather the nearest a G&T gets to that old flash of lightning.

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G&T A TO Z

The distillery wraps its bottles . . . as a throwback to 19th-century apothecaries.

Bathtub Gin Cask Aged Kent-based Bathtub Gin takes its name from the popular British tradition of centuries past: distilling illicit gin and other spirits in a bathtub. The distillery also wraps its bottles in brown paper and seals them with wax and string, as a throwback to 19th-century apothecaries. We chose the Cask Aged gin because it is aged for six months in small, 50-liter oak whiskey casks, giving the gin a dark hue, oaky complexity, and rich flavors of vanilla and malt. Yes, it has a hint of whisky, but it works, particularly when garnished with a wheel of dehydrated orange (because a wheel of fresh orange would flood a G&T with notes of Sunkist).

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A Flash of Lightning

Gin originated as a medieval elixir in the Netherlands (jenever is Dutch for “juniper,” which later became shortened to gin), before the British took to it with such resolve that much of London became intoxicated during the notorious 18th-century Gin Craze. Glamorous gin palaces emerged a century later as the growing middle class began to splash out on a “flash of lightning,” as a shot of gin was known.

Batch Buddha’s Hand Gin For our final gin we head to Burnley, a roll-your-sleeves-up town in Lancashire, in the heart of England’s industrial northwest. The Batch distillery produces around 1,000 bottles of gin per month. “Quality can be lost in mass production,” says company founder Phil Whitwell. “If you are distilling in large volume, you just can’t afford to take risks because if you make a mistake you might be throwing away thousands of liters of gin. At Batch, we are constantly innovating and tweaking our recipes. Botanicals change and you can’t always get exactly the same flavor profile.” Buddha’s Hand Gin epitomizes the experimental nature of the Batch distillery, here exploring Chinese botanicals like the fragrant Buddha’s hand and pomelo citrus fruits. It sounds weird but tastes great, with a gentle, peppery finish. We garnish with pink grapefruit. If you are heading to the Open at Royal Birkdale, keep your eyes peeled for Batch gins in the pubs of Southport, which is just 40 miles from Burnley.

Westward Farm Tanglewood Pink Gin St. Agnes, one of the idyllic Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall, is England’s southwesternmost inhabited dry land. Measuring just one mile across, St. Agnes can be reached only by boat or seabird. Fringed by white-sand beaches, the island has one pub, the Turks Head (named after 16th-century Turkish pirates who raided the island), and up the track is Westward Farm, which has been operated by the Hicks family for as long as records show. The farm produces beef, cider, soaps, and, since 2017, an awe-inspiring range of small-batch gins, mostly using botanicals foraged from the islands. How small is small batch? Just 28 bottles at a time. Every Westward Farm gin is a triumph, but perhaps its finest is the pink gin it created in cooperation with the Tanglewood Kitchen shop on neighboring St. Mary’s island. Pink gin normally means sweet, but not this time. The pink comes from Angostura Bitters, which is apt for this seafaring community, as these bitters were added to gin to cure seasickness in the 19th century. This is a gently spicy gin with hints of Szechuan pepper, and here it is served with a squeeze of lime and garnished with a lime wedge.

Royal Navy Standard

Back as far as the 16th century, when Royal Navy officers would buy barrels of gin or rum, they were wary of it being watered down. To test the product, an officer would mix a drop of gin with a pinch of gunpowder. If the gunpowder still lit, it was proof that the gin was at least 57.7 percent ABV. To this day, “navy-strength” gin must be at least 57 percent ABV.

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FEATURES | THE C E N T URY C LUB

Hole nine at Yeamans Hall

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00 The Century Club

Six renowned American golf courses are turning 100 this year. Their stories are celebrations of preservation, perseverance, and passion. by SHAUN TOLSON

Larry Lambrecht

he mile of unpaved drive leading to Yeamans Hall Club meanders through the woodlands north of Charleston, South Carolina, bisecting the course’s first fairway before spilling out in front of a charming Country Colonial–style clubhouse shaded by stately live oaks. There’s a timelessness to the club that’s palpable, even to the uninitiated. Rooted in modernity yet dripping with history, Yeamans Hall embodies the preservation of both the game and the club’s 100-year-old golf course. There was a time, however, when that wasn’t the case. In its earliest years, the course dazzled. In 1926, when Seth Raynor’s Lowcountry masterpiece officially opened for play, it showcased classic architectural features and template green complexes—all strategically positioned across the property. In the estimation of golf course architect Tom Doak, that was Raynor’s greatest strength: “to find the right places on a property to locate the template holes that his mentor [C.B. Macdonald] had taught him.” Yet only a handful of years later, sparked by the Great Depression and succeeded by gasoline rationing and supply shortages during World War II, a series of unfortunate circumstances forced the maintenance team’s hand. Yeamans Hall’s greens shrank to half their original

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South Carolina Historical Society

THE CENTURY CLUB

size and lost their innate character. Those Redan, Biarritz, Punchbowl, and Double-Plateau putting surfaces, among other intriguing templates, slowly evolved into nondescript circles of grass. Doak first encountered Yeamans Hall while traveling across the country researching for his book The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. His observations told an unfortunate story: “The sad neglect that plagued much of golf course maintenance during the Second World War ravaged Yeamans Hall . . . which spoils the course completely,” he wrote. “Fixed up, Yeamans Hall would be terrific.” It was far from what the club had hoped to read. Fortunately, Doak’s commentary didn’t fall on deaf ears. “It was motivational; I’ll tell you that,” says Charlton deSaussure Jr., the club’s current president and resident historian. “Tom inspired us just to go back to the basics.” The club’s Green Committee solicited Doak to lead a comprehensive restoration of the golf course, but some of the changes that he proposed—reinstalling cross bunkers in front of the fifth green to recapture a subtle reference to the Alps hole at Scotland’s Prestwick Golf Club, for example— seemed radical to many members. Too much time had passed since Yeamans Hall existed the way Raynor had intended. “The membership didn’t realize the historical value of the architecture that was essentially lost,” says Brian Boss, the club’s general manager. Doak, on the other hand, could see what once was.

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Using his experience studying Raynor’s work at other sites, he sniffed out faint tracks of compelling golf course architecture that had rested upon those grounds decades earlier. He knew intriguing green contours “had been buried under decades of topdressing.” When Raynor’s original blueprints were uncovered in the club’s attic, the membership finally shared Doak’s conviction. “The map reinforced everything I’d been saying,” he explains, “and it gave them more courage to act.” Today, the course that trundles over gently rumpled Lowcountry terrain is every bit the masterpiece that Raynor originally created.

The clubhouse (above) and 18th hole (right) at Yeamans Hall.

raynor never referred to his work as “template holes.” Neither did his mentor, C.B. Macdonald. Such nomenclature gained favor in the late 20th century, though its implications are generally misleading. The term suggests that the architects looked to replicate existing holes, finding space that would accommodate the Old Course’s famous Road Hole, for example, from tee to green. Instead, Raynor and Macdonald hewed to the ideals of exceptional golf holes. While this mostly applied to the nuances of compelling green complexes, it also allowed for other architectural elements, such as the Principal’s Nose bunker, which Raynor implemented into the first fairway at Yeamans Hall. Working this way gave Raynor the freedom and flexibility to devote himself equally to two important tenets: bringing many of those green complexes to each project, and accentuating and celebrating each site’s natural beauty. That ethos ensured that his courses never felt as though they were mere variations of themselves. The proof can be found by comparing Yeamans Hall to Yale Golf Course, which opened only months apart.

Larry Lambrecht

when yeamans hall opened for play, the ’20s were still roaring. Babe Ruth was in his Yankees prime, and Hollywood starlet Greta Garbo was making her American film debut. Golf in the United States was also burgeoning, propelled initially by Francis Ouimet’s stunning U.S. Open victory in 1913, and later buoyed by Walter Hagen’s showmanship and Bobby Jones’s championship play. To keep up with the demand, new courses were being built at an ever-growing pace. In time, the 1920s would be crowned America’s “Golden Age” of golf design, with 1926 serving as an exceptionally good year. Three of Raynor’s most striking creations, built at the height of his power (and just before his untimely death), formally opened for play: Yale Golf Course, Fishers Island Club, and Yeamans Hall. Concurrently, George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell were creating two of Southern California’s most revered courses, Riviera Country Club and Bel-Air Country Club. Meanwhile, a relatively unknown Irish-Canadian designer etched his name into the Bay Area’s terrain just south of San Francisco with the California Golf Club.

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“They couldn’t be more different,” says Gil Hanse, who recently completed a comprehensive restoration of Yale Golf Course and, in 1995, conducted a similar restoration effort at Fishers Island Club in New York. “You’ve got gently rolling Carolina Lowcountry, with beautiful vistas across marshes, and then you’ve got this massive scale and character, with rock and earth and trees.” As Hanse explains, Raynor and his team moved copious amounts of earth to create the collegiate course, which was the most expensive ever built at that time. In response to the scale of the site, Raynor produced an equally expansive golf course. The greens average 13,500 square feet, enough putting surface to accommodate two greens built to traditional parameters. “The thing that ties them together is the template holes,” Hanse continues, finishing his comparison of Yale and Yeamans Hall. “You’ve got the whole set, but they’re in such different settings, and that gets to the brilliance of Raynor.” Or, as Doak puts it: “Seeing a Raynor course is like seeing an old friend in a new place.”

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The greens average 13,500 square feet, enough putting surface to accommodate two greens built to traditional parameters.

Patrick Koenig

Evan Schiller

THE CENTURY CLUB

Yale Golf Course (top left) and Fishers Island.

Another Raynor comparison shows off his ability to let the site dictate the design: Contrast the bunkering at Yeamans Hall with that at Fishers Island, a course set on its namesake isle just off the coast of Connecticut, though technically part of New York. At Yeamans, dozens of fairway bunkers add dimension, character, and intrigue to otherwise benign terrain. But at Fishers Island, where every hole offers a view of the ocean, you’ll find only three fairway bunkers on the entire course. To add any more, Raynor astutely observed, would only detract from the views that each hole provides. To appreciate and understand such a striking golf destination takes time, as Hanse discovered. “It doesn’t take long at all to figure out the beauty of the place, with every hole having a water view,” he acknowledges. “However, the architecture is so good, it takes years to figure out the nuance of the place. At first glance, all the templates are there, but they are woven so well into this amazing landscape that they also take on the scale and character of the surrounds.”

just as yeamans hall, Yale Golf Course, and Fishers Island were opening for play, a trio of golf courses on the country’s West Coast was preparing for a century of action, prosperity, and—at times—perseverance. It started just south of San Francisco, with the grand debut of a course built for the California Golf Club of San Francisco, an organization that was founded eight years earlier. Arthur Vernon Macan, a lawyer by trade and an accomplished golfer, took the reins of the course’s design. When his routing opened for play in 1926, plans called for additional fairway bunkers to be added later. However, when it came time to build them, it was Alister MacKenzie who handled their design and construction. The rest of the 20th century presented a steady stream of obstacles and decisions that negatively impacted the course. The biggest blow came in 1965, when an eminent domain action imposed by the State of California took away a chunk of land and forced the club to relocate much of its front nine. The rebuilt holes were shoehorned in with little

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Photos: Evan Schiller

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Riviera Country Club’s 17th hole (above), California Golf Club’s third (below), and hole 10 at Bel-Air Country Club (opposite).

consideration for how they would blend with the remaining historic holes. Later, membership turnover in the ’70s and ’80s brought in more transient golfers, and for a time, the prevalence of golf carts defined the club experience. It wasn’t until about two decades ago, when California Golf Club hired Kyle Phillips to oversee a bold restoration— and, where necessary, a redesign—of the course, that the club finally began to reclaim its lost glory. “If you go and play it now, you’d have no idea about that history,” Phillips says. “The scale is great; everything ties together. You don’t even feel a hiccup.” The core membership of the club has shifted as well. According to Al Jamieson, a former club president and the committee chair in charge of the course’s renovation back in 2005, it’s the quality of the golf course that attracts new members. In fact, longstanding members have often told him, “This is a golf club for people who are serious about the game.”

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for as long as it has welcomed members and guests onto its fairways and greens—a period that began in 1926, when the first few holes opened for play—Riviera Country Club, some 370 miles to the south, has satisfied a similar clientele. Routed across what was a treeless canyon west of downtown Los Angeles and south of Hollywood, Riviera was designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and William P. Bell and immediately earned effusive praise from some of the game’s movers and shakers. News outlets published stories recounting MacKenzie’s visit to the course around the time of its completion, during which the esteemed British course designer declared, “Riviera ranks among the world’s best. Some of its features are unique in American golf architecture . . . [It is] as nearly perfect as man could make it.” Since then, a few prominent golf course architects have had the opportunity to leave their fingerprints on the terrain. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw tackled a restoration of Riviera’s bunkers and greens in the late 1980s, and Tom Fazio has since dabbled in minor modifications. The course may not look exactly as it did in the late 1920s, but its evolution can best be described as aesthetically minor. Riviera also fared far better than Yeamans Hall in Doak’s The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. “Individually, the holes are almost unanimously solid, brilliantly set off by eucalyptus trees and a smattering of Thomas’ superb bunkers,” Doak wrote. “In the contouring of sand hazards, not even MacKenzie was a greater craftsman.” Not long before Riviera made its grand entrance onto the world’s golf stage, another of Thomas’s and Bell’s creations, Bel-Air Country Club, opened for play. Though it was located roughly four miles northeast of Riviera, here the two designers faced a more daunting landscape: The site encompassed four canyons, each sporting ravines and washes that tested the architects’ routing skills. The final product is nothing short of an engineering marvel that includes four tunnels, an elevator, and a 350-foot suspension bridge. Like Riviera, the holes at Bel-Air have seen their share of modifications over the years. The architects responsible for the majority of those changes—Dick Wilson, Robert Trent Jones Sr., and Tom Fazio—took great liberties, at times incorporating artificial water hazards. Once again, Doak had his say on the matter, and not just through his Confidential Guide. Rather, the club hired him to oversee a major restoration, completed in 2018, that returned the course to its original ideals and reinstated Thomas’s signature bunkering.

today, as these six courses celebrate their centennials, each is thriving. Yale and Bel-Air continue to impress with their bold routings and dramatic landscapes. Riviera entices with its strategy. Fishers Island will forever astonish thanks to its seaside setting. Yeamans Hall and California Golf Club deliver playing experiences that are remarkably pure. While their milestone anniversaries remind us of a Golden Age of design that has long since passed, they may also offer a glimpse of how some of the game’s modern gems might someday be viewed. “Over time, there’s a certain patina and maturation through the presentation of a golf course,” Hanse says. In other words, as trees mature and an ecosystem establishes itself around a course, the layout forms a connection to the land that elevates its look and feel. It’s the je ne sais quoi of exceptional golf design and likely one of the contributing factors that make that era’s golf courses so appealing to so many people, even 100 years later. “A lot of newer golf courses still feel young,” he adds, “and the hope is that, in 50 or 60 years, some of them will have that patina and will get to that point. But that can only be earned through time.”

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Life & Style Boston Sling Raffles Boston

It’s fitting that a Boston-inspired riff on the Singapore Sling was created at the Long Bar & Terrace inside the city’s Raffles hotel. After all, the gin-based original was invented by barman Ngiam Tong Boon at the Long Bar inside Raffles Singapore in 1915. In this modern-day rendition, the classic cocktail gets a Massachusetts makeover where a cranberry compote replaces Cherry Heering liqueur and apple shrub subs in for pineapple juice, preserving the drink’s bright acidity without overpowering the cranberry notes. “While the original Singapore Sling leans quite sweet and fruit-forward, our version introduces additional acidity and a subtle touch of bitterness, creating great structure and complexity,” lead bartender Dan Savagae says. “The house-made cranberry compote is the secret weapon. Beyond its local connection, the compote contributes a vibrant tartness that balances the sweetness, adding depth and helping the flavors feel more refined and nuanced.” —shaun tolson

GLASS TYPE

COLLINS

LIST of INGREDIENTS

1½ oz. The Botanist Islay Dry Gin

1 oz. cranberry compote

½ oz. Pama liqueur

1 oz. apple shrub

½ oz. Amaro Nonino Quintessentia

½ oz. lime juice

¼ oz. Drambuie

Soda water, to top

METHOD for CRAFTING the PERFECT DRINK In a shaker filled with ice, combine the first seven ingredients. Shake vigorously until well chilled. Strain into an ice-filled Collins glass, top with soda water, gently stir to combine, and garnish with a teaspoon of fresh pomegranate seeds. Jean-Georges Philadelphia

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SUMMER CLASSICS Refreshing cocktails from four of our favorite spots under the sun.

Berried Alive Old-Fashioned Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North A refreshing cocktail is apropos any time of year amid the boulder- and saguaro-strewn peaks of the Sonoran Desert in Scottsdale, Arizona. Here lies the Four Seasons, an oasis of low-slung stucco abodes encircling a sparkling swimming pool and looking out to the sprawl of city and desert below. Perhaps the finest vistas are from the Onyx Bar & Lounge, an ideal post-round retreat (Troon North Golf Club is just up the road) for a sunset cocktail. Like the view, the Onyx’s interpretation of an old-fashioned is unmistakably Arizona. “The cocktail was created to capture the entire Arizona experience in a single glass,” says Todd Baril, the resort’s director of food and beverage. “The bourbon represents the frontier spirit of the Southwest, the mezcal honors the deep cultural connection between Arizona and the borderlands of Mexico, and the mixed-berry purée symbolizes life thriving unexpectedly in the desert.” The honey syrup, he says, ties it all together. “Harvested from bees feeding on desert blooms like mesquite and cactus flowers, it carries the flavor of the land itself—floral, earthy, and sun-soaked.” —bruce wallin

GLASS TYPE

LIST of INGREDIENTS

MARTINI

1½ oz. Woodford Reserve bourbon

MARTINI

½ oz. mezcal

1 dash cherry bitters

½ oz. mixed-berry purée

¼ oz. Arizona honey syrup

METHOD for CRAFTING the PERFECT DRINK Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with an expressed orange peel. Top with cherrywood smoke from a decanter.

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Balsamic Rhapsody The Hope Farm

Summer is all about showcasing garden-fresh ingredients and celebrating aromas and flavors in bloom. That’s the ethos of the Hope Farm near Gulf Shores, Alabama, where farm manager Dominique Kline oversees the hydroponic gardens and raised beds that supply the property’s kitchen and bar with fresh ingredients daily. Born from the season’s bounty, the Balsamic Rhapsody takes inspiration from the Mediterranean’s agrodolce (sweet and sour) traditions. Despite its appearance, the drink isn’t a julep. Instead, it’s a complex, layered libation that showcases the impact that balsamic vinegar can have when properly mixed. “Vinegar in cocktails provides an extra little zip to a drink and creates an additional level of flavor,” says Lane Ezell, the Hope Farm’s beverage director. “Juicy strawberry, the right amount of sweet and sour, and the ice-cold julep tin to cool you down make this a fantastic summer drink.” —s.t.

GLASS TYPE

LIST of INGREDIENTS

MARTINI

2 oz. strawberry-infused Jameson Irish whiskey 1 oz. lemon juice

¼ oz. fresh-squeezed orange juice

½ oz. Luxardo cherry and balsamic cordial

¼ oz. Fino sherry

JULEP TIN

METHOD for CRAFTING the PERFECT DRINK In an ice-filled shaker, combine all ingredients and shake vigorously. Strain into a julep tin filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a strawberry slice and an edible flower (optional).

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Negroni Tropicale San Ysidro Ranch

San Ysidro Ranch has been a favored getaway of the Hollywood elite for generations. Secreted away in the oak-covered coastal hills of Montecito, California, the 38-cottage retreat is prized for its privacy and tranquility. A hideaway within this hideaway, the Speakeasy is a place for high-profile patrons to unwind undisturbed, though by no means unengaged. The convivial atmosphere within the basement-level bar invites even the most private among San Ysidro guests and Montecito locals (Prince Harry and Meghan Markle among them) to let down their guard and enjoy a stiff cocktail in shared company. Among the many inspired options is this tropical spin on a Negroni. “The Negroni Tropicale brings a bright, summer-ready twist to the classic cocktail,” says Josh Blumenthal, San Ysidro Ranch’s food and beverage director. “Grilled pineapple adds a subtle, smoky sweetness that feels reminiscent of a backyard summer barbecue, while a higher ratio of gin keeps the drink lighter, crisper, and easier to sip in warm weather.” —b.w.

GLASS TYPE

LIST of INGREDIENTS

2 oz. Monkey 47 gin, infused with grilled pineapple ½ oz. Campari ROCKS

½ oz. Carpano Antica Formula sweet vermouth

METHOD for CRAFTING the PERFECT DRINK For the infusion, combine one pound of grilled pineapple slices with one liter of gin in a sous vide bag. Cook two hours at 135 degrees, strain with a coffee filter and chinois, and refrigerate. For Negroni, stir together ingredients and serve over a large ice cube with a brûléed pineapple wedge and two pineapple leaves.

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Hidden Valley The Valle de Guadalupe is closer to Los Angeles than Napa is. So why has it taken this long for its wines to appear on U.S. shelves? by CARRIE HONAKER

outh of San Diego, about an hour’s drive from the border, the landscape transforms into red-dirt roads, olive trees, and ancient bush vines, with the Pacific close enough to taste in the air. This is Baja California’s Valle de Guadalupe (VdG), a viticultural region that—despite being home to more than 150 wineries—is still a mystery to most people north of the border. A typical winery in the Valle de Guadalupe produces only about 2,000 cases per year. “One single winery in Chile is bigger than the whole production in Mexico,” says Lulu Martinez, winemaker and partner at Bruma, one of the region’s most celebrated estates. That scale makes

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American distributors nervous, and most VdG producers sell the bulk of what they make to visitors who pilgrimage down La Ruta del Vino. There’s simply not much left for export. The Valle de Guadalupe also has a perception problem. “Mexico has this image of cheap,” Martinez says. “You go to Mexico for inexpensive tacos, inexpensive beers, and wine has the connotation of being high-end. People don’t relate those two.” Those who taste top vintages from the VdG—whether locally or at luxury resorts and restaurants throughout Mexico—quickly shed such misconceptions. Now, a growing number of the wines can be found closer to home, with Whole Foods, Total Wine, K&L, Wally’s, and

Central Market all having added VdG producers to their offerings in recent years. The VdG wines making it north of the border tend to share a signature style: minerality rooted in sandy, limestone-flecked soils, and freshness that the region’s arid, diurnally extreme climate makes possible. “The best wines in the world have great minerality,” Martinez says. “Burgundy, Champagne, Italian, Greek wines—they have that nice brine. You find that quality in all of our wines.” Whites from the VdG tend to be floral rather than fruit-forward and are built for food. Reds deliver “polished but grippy” tannins, according to Martinez. For those willing to seek them out, here are five bottles that represent the VdG at its finest.

Bodegas de Santo Tomás Chenin Blanc Pétillant Naturel

Casa Magoni Reserva Nebbiolo

If Lechuza’s Pluma (below) is the introduction, Magoni’s Reserva is the graduate seminar. Camillo Magoni arrived in Baja in 1965 and spent nearly 50 years overseeing the planting of many of the valley’s oldest vines. Martinez considers him the region’s godfather—a figure whose institutional knowledge is impossible to replicate. Reserva production is tiny, and the wine is serious. “He makes the best Mexican wine,” she says.

Bruma Ocho Rosé

Martinez grew up in Ensenada, left at 18 for Bordeaux, and spent more than a decade at Château Brane-Cantenac in Margaux before returning to a valley she barely recognized. She brought a classicist’s discipline to a winery that farms the northernmost end of the VdG—drawing about 40 percent of its fruit from the estate and the rest from her uncle, a legendary grower in Valle de San Vicente. Fully organic since 2021, Bruma relies on animals for soil regeneration and natural ground cover. The Ocho, a rosé made from 100 percent Sangiovese, is bone-dry and emphatically not fruity, with a crisp, savory precision and floral aromas that pair naturally with the region’s Pacific tuna, oysters, and clams. “That’s my everyday bottle,” she says. “I really, really love that wine.”

Lechuza Pluma Nebbiolo

Kristin Magnussen, a Santa Barbara native, put down roots in Baja in 2013 and named her winery after the burrowing owl her grandfather discovered living on the land when he came to christen it. The Pluma Nebbiolo carries the fingerprints of Italian pioneers who brought the grape to these sandy soils, where it has thrived ever since. Martinez calls it “young and vibrant”—a sunlit, accessible take on a varietal that demands decades of patience in its native Piedmont.

Baja’s oldest winery, Santo Tomás dates back to 1888 and has anchored the VdG’s wine culture since before the modern valley took shape. The area’s elevation and dramatic daily temperature swings suit Chenin Blanc exceptionally well, yielding wines with a distinct saline edge—full and classical in one expression, effervescent in another. This pét-nat, drawn from 60-year-old vines, lands in that second camp without surrendering any texture. “You can feel depth in there,” Martinez says, “but in a very seamless way.”

Mogor Badan

Natalia Badan’s Swiss-French parents established El Mogor Ranch in the 1950S, farming it organically from day one. The Cavas del Mogor winery produces this Bordeaux-style red blend as well as one of Baja’s rarest whites: a Chasselas grown from Swiss cuttings that exists almost nowhere else in the valley. After her brother’s death, Natalia took over and became the valley’s environmental conscience, championing water conservation and regenerative agriculture amid mounting development pressure. “Their wines are an institution for me,” Martinez says, “and one of the region’s most iconic.”

Despite being home to more than 150 wineries, the VdG is still a mystery to most people north of the border.

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Power Surge From the banquettes of Delmonico’s to the patio tables at the Polo Lounge, opulence and opportunity are back on the menu. by SHIVANI VORA

n a recent monday afternoon at Delmonico’s, New York’s old-school power lunch was on full display. Inside the Financial District institution, a sharply dressed business crowd filled the dining room, brokering deals over steaks, seafood towers, and the occasional salad. Some drank icy martinis, others sipped red wine. Servers darted between tables, carrying trays of food through the buzzing space with acrobatic grace. For a stretch during the Covid-19 pandemic and in the years that followed, the tradition of power dining faded as remote work and Zoom calls replaced in-person meetings

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and client entertaining. Today, as professionals return to offices in New York and other major U.S. cities, the ritual is making a comeback. Restaurants known for see-and-be-seen dining experiences are once again full of the working set treating midday meals and dinners as opportunities to build relationships and conduct business face-to-face. Come evening, the martini count tends to increase, the wine pours are a bit heavier, and the lines between work and play can blur. The short list of names includes the Grill, at the landmark Seagram Building in Midtown Manhattan; the Michelin-starred Fiola, in Washington, D.C., a networking mainstay for politicians; the Polo Lounge, inside the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles; and Stillwell’s, a Michelinrecommended steakhouse in Dallas. Few restaurants, however, embody this resurgence like Delmonico’s. Amid varying legal disputes, the historic steakhouse shuttered during the pandemic. Restaurateur Dennis Turcinovic, whose father, Branko Turcinovic, was one of the previous owners, led a multimillion-dollar investment to renovate the bi-level space, which reopened in September 2023.

The younger Turcinovic, whose hospitality background includes Midtown’s Asian-fusion hot spot Sei Less, previously worked at Delmonico’s as managing director. “On the last day of service, I wrote on a wooden coat hanger in black marker, ‘I’ll be back,’ ” he recalls. “I was determined to make it the great institution again that it used to be. I want to bring back the Gilded Age opulence and preserve our history.” That heritage spans nearly two centuries. The SwissItalian brothers Giovanni and Pietro Delmonico opened their first restaurant in 1827 in Lower Manhattan, in a space selling pastries and coffee. A decade later, the duo expanded the business into what is widely considered the country’s first fine-dining restaurant, complete with printed menus and white tablecloths. Today, Delmonico’s claims to have created or popularized dishes that are a part of America’s culinary canon, including the Delmonico steak, eggs Benedict, and Baked Alaska. The sprawling dining rooms still channel Delmonico’s old-world grandeur. Dark-wood paneling, globe-shaped chandeliers, leather banquettes, and polished brass details evoke a handsome early-20th-century clubhouse. According to Turcinovic, the appetite for this atmosphere has only intensified. “We have 500 diners a day, seven days a week, and the average has gone up each year,” he says. “More than half of our guests are here on business.”

Come evening, the martini count tends to increase and the lines between work and play can blur.

The main dining room at Delmonico’s (opposite) and the restaurant’s Baked Alaska (above). Below: The Polo Lounge.

The menu showcases steakhouse classics and Frenchinfluenced dishes under executive chef Adam Plitt, who previously spent 12 years at the Michelin three-star Le Bernardin in Midtown, including two as chef de cuisine. Delmonico’s famed eggs Benedict, said to have originated here in the 1860s, gets a dedicated section on the menu. In its 21st-century iteration, the dish marries poached pasture-raised eggs, toasted brioche, butter-poached king crab, and béarnaise sauce, with osetra caviar as an optional luxury upgrade. Steak remains central. Delmonico’s 18-ounce signature rib eye uses beef from Brandt Family Farms in California, while a 22-ounce dry-aged, bone-in rib eye from DemKota Ranch Beef in South Dakota caters to traditionalists drawn to classic steakhouse excess. Coastal fare also commands a prominent place on the menu—understandably so, given Plitt’s pedigree from one of the country’s most celebrated seafood restaurants. A Maine crab cake wrapped in crisp potato, golden osetra caviar linguine with Parmesan cream, and a brioche-crusted halibut are additions reflecting the modern Delmonico’s. “The stereotype is that steakhouses are all about the steak, but we want to appeal to everyone with a diverse choice of dishes,” Plitt explains.

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Restaurants of Delmonico’s ilk are regaining relevance . . . in part for their timeless qualities. For dessert, Delmonico’s Baked Alaska, created at the restaurant in 1867, is flambéed tableside and combines layers of banana gelato, walnut cake, and apricot jam, topped with a mound of meringue. Unapologetically sweet, it’s a dramatic finale befitting of a spot built on spectacle. Delmonico’s reopening has been such a success that, for the first time in its nearly two-century history, the steakhouse is expanding. A Midtown outpost called Delmonico’s Reserve, slated to debut in late 2027, will occupy a 12,000-square-foot space being designed by the noted architect Glen Coben. Turcinovic describes it as his “interpretation of a modern-day Delmonico’s,” complete with a glass wine cellar and lofty ceilings. “If Delmonico’s Downtown is classic, Midtown will be sleek with a contemporary edge,” he says. Whether classic or contemporary, restaurants of Delmonico’s ilk are regaining relevance in the modern dining world, in part for their timeless qualities. “Even in the digital

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era, doing business is still fundamentally human,” says Valerie Pascoe, the former head of public relations for the Michelin Guide in the United States and now a consultant for the group. “People are craving in-person social and business connection, especially in relationship-driven businesses. Luxury hospitality is more popular than ever because affluent professionals increasingly value socially visible experiences.” Pascoe recently enjoyed what she describes as a “fantastic” two-hour, three-martini steak lunch with a key client at La Tête d’Or, chef Daniel Boulud’s French steakhouse in Manhattan’s Flatiron District. “It delivered a special moment with Michelin-recommended cuisine, tableside carving, and exceptional service from a white-jacketed staff,” she says. “I’m confident the business relationship is stronger because of this shared in-person meeting.” It’s powerful connections like this, adds Pascoe, that help explain why the ritual of power dining “never goes out of style.”

Lobster Newberg at Delmonico’s (left) and a trifecta of steak from the historic establishment.

KINGDOM CUP RETURNS

Join Hilton Head Island & Kingdom as we celebrate the fifth annual Kingdom Cup — an unforgettable weekend of golf and coastal luxury at The Sea Pines Resort, featuring Atlantic Dunes and the newly restored Harbour Town Golf Links. SEPTEMBER 10 - 13, 2026

KINGDOM.GOLF/CUP-2026

LIFE & ST YLE | O U T D O O RS

all the

RACKET Led by pickleball, the rising popularity of racket sports has prompted a wave of new courts and complementary amenities at luxury resorts from Utah to the Maldives. by DANA DICKEY

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Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa

’m cruising in a golf cart through a black lava field amid the red rock mesas outside St. George, Utah. A staffer from Black Desert Resort is at the wheel, narrating the surrounding wonders as we go—towering 200-million-year-old rock walls ahead, chunks of obsidian beneath us, and swaths of phthalo-green fairways all around. We stop near the 16th hole of the resort’s Tom Weiskopf–designed course, but I’m not here to play golf. We’ve arrived at Black Desert’s brand-new pickleball complex, a four-acre, 21-court, state-of-the-art facility dedicated to America’s fastest-growing sport. A multicomponent luxury resort that began opening in phases in 2025, Black Desert completed its new pickleball complex—which includes a championship tournament court—in March. Later that month, it hosted the inaugural Greater Zion Cup, welcoming a packed house of players and spectators (1,000 people fit in the championship court’s stands alone). The event was the first in a projected multiyear lineup of tournaments, exhibitions, and special events supported by the Professional Pickleball Association; the group’s efforts are bringing attention to the courts in much the same way that recent PGA and LPGA Tour events have highlighted Black Desert’s golf course. As a longtime tennis player and newbie pickleball player, I’m in the sweet spot of racket sports today. According to industry analysts RacquetX, playing habits among racket-sport enthusiasts are becoming more fluid. “Tennis, pickleball, and padel are no longer separate lanes. They are one connected ecosystem, driven by players who already move between sports without thinking twice,” the group stated in its 2026 trend analysis. Marcos Landavazo, the head pickleball trainer at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico, agrees. “Many of our guests enjoy exploring multiple racket sports during their stay,” he says. “It’s common for tennis players to try pickleball, and vice versa, creating a dynamic and inclusive environment.” The new style of play is more social (thanks in part to pickleball and padel doubles play) and multigenerational (because both sports require less power and are played on smaller courts) than yesterday’s tennis-only culture. It’s also easier than ever to find a game, as top resorts expand their racket centers, add new courts, incorporate emerging sports like padel, and host professional-led clinics. The following are a few of the finest options for a first-rate racket-sport retreat.

Parker Palm Springs

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One of two red clay padel courts at Parker Palm Springs (left); the Rebound Ace tennis courts at Four Seasons Resort Hualālai (right).

Padel

A tennis-squash hybrid, padel is the next big thing in racket sports. Participation in the United States has skyrocketed 154 percent since 2024, according to Playtomic, an app that matches players with games globally. Worldwide, new padel clubs are opening at a rate of nearly two per week. The game, especially popular in Southern Europe and Latin America, involves rocketing what’s essentially a smaller, softer tennis ball around a court that is about one-third the size of a tennis court and has playable 12-foot-high walls made of glass, brick, or fencing. “The walls are the biggest differentiator,” says Pablo Carro, Playtomic’s chief commercial officer. “Because the ball can bounce off the glass, rallies last longer, points are more dynamic, and beginners can enjoy a real game from their very first session—something genuinely rare in racket sports.” Padel is on track to become a household word in the U.S., thanks to its speed and social aspects (it’s always played as doubles). “It’s genuinely inclusive,” Carro says. “This isn’t a sport for a specific age group or fitness level. A 65-year-old and a 25-year-old can share a court and have a competitive, enjoyable game.” Among U.S. resorts, Parker Palm Springs has converted two red clay tennis courts to padel. The Cliff Drysdale Tennis Camp at the Ritz-Carlton, Key Biscayne, Miami, offers a weeklong padel clinic on its three courts, hosts international tournaments, and even organizes a Valentine’s Day mixer. Farther afield, Mexico’s Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita has two padel courts and a weekly beginner’s clinic.

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Grand Hyatt La Manga Club Golf & Spa in Cartagena, Spain, maintains 12 floodlit padel courts. And on the Spanish isle of Formentera, Rocalla is a new padel club with three red clay courts next to a stunning Mediterranean bay. Guests balance their daily padel sessions with yoga, boating, and beach cocktails, with nights spent at the nearby Hotel Casbah. For an ultimate padel getaway, the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi in the South Malé Atoll is hosting top-10-ranked international player Marta “The Doctor” Ortega Gallego for a residency August 16 to 19, when the Spanish pro will offer meet-and-greets and playing sessions.

Pickleball

Believe the hype: Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S., according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which cites 24 million current players in the country—a whopping 171 percent increase in three years. Pickleball now has televised tournaments, a Nike-sponsored

Worldwide, new padel clubs are opening at a rate of nearly two per week. player, and a growing number of resorts doubling down on facilities and programming. In addition to Utah’s Black Desert Resort, pickleball enthusiasts are flocking to places like Rancho La Puerta, which built its first two courts in 2013, later added six pro-level lighted courts, and last year inaugurated multiple pro weeks featuring structured clinics, drills, and match play led by master instructors. Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, features 24 pickleball courts, where players of all levels can choose from morning round-robins, clinics, and private lessons. Arizona’s JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa has a pickleball center with 17 lighted courts and private instruction. And on Maui, the Ohana Pickleball Club at Kā’anapali Beach Resort—home to hotels from Outrigger, Westin, and more—is kitted out with 12 covered pro courts.

Tennis

The surge in popularity of pickleball and padel has not left tennis behind. In fact, the sport of kings is rallying, according to the United States Tennis Association, which reports a 54 percent increase in players since 2019. (That includes soaring participation among women and diverse populations.) Long a favored destination for tennis aficionados, Puente Romano Marbella in Spain features eight clay and two Plexipave courts, has served as a training ground for world champs Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and is home to a robust junior academy. Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic is famed for its golf courses, but the resort also excels in racket sports, with 11 Har-Tru courts and a team of scholarship-funded ball boys and girls. Stateside, South Carolina’s Kiawah Island Golf Resort has 19 Har-Tru and two hard courts. On Hawaii’s Big Island, the tennis club at Four Seasons Resort Hualālai features seven Rebound Ace courts and a well-stocked pro shop, all set in jewel-green tropical landscaping carved out of the island’s dramatic black-lava-rock landscape. Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa in Rancho Santa Fe, California, has 13 Plexipave and three red clay tennis courts and runs annual Rafa Nadal Academy junior and adult tennis camps. This October, the resort will welcome tennis legend Andy Roddick, who is hosting a four-day intensive clinic for select guests.

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HIGH LIVING South Carolina’s tranquil coastal region offers plenty of excitement for those lucky enough to play its acclaimed golf courses. Several new developments also make it easier than ever to call the Lowcountry home. by SHAUN TOLSON

ignorance, they say, is bliss; it’s just not as blissful as a round on Anson Point, the newest golf course at Bluffton’s Palmetto Bluff. Opened for play in January and set within more than 500 acres that will forever be devoid of homesites, the Coore & Crenshaw gem looks as though it’s been there for decades. Meandering among palmettos and live oaks and routed so that golfers are transported to marshlands more than once, the 6,909-yard, members-only course exemplifies the architects’ minimalist approach. Instead of siting homes along the course’s perimeter, Palmetto Bluff is making a number of new real estate opportunities available across the broader 22,000-acre community, all of which include memberships that make rounds of golf at Anson Point possible. Tucked within the Moreland Forest neighborhood, Bramble Park will afford a dozen homesites (starting at $2.5 million, including construction), all of which can accommodate any of four home plans. These residences will boast spacious back porches and can include private pools. They’ll also have steep, gabled rooflines and a mix of board-and-batten, lap siding, and textured masonry on their exteriors. Inside, homeowners will enjoy vaulted ceilings, exposed beams, and open gathering spaces. Also on offer are several single-story cottages—part of a limited collection known as Montage Residences Palmetto Bluff—that echo the resort’s 50 larger cottages scattered throughout the idyllic Wilson Village and perched along the May River. Debuted in 2015, the Montage neighborhood is entering the final phase of its development, with eight homes to be constructed by Palmetto Bluff Builders. White clapboard exteriors and silver-grey roofs distinguish the residences (starting at $2.9 million), which feature antique heart pine floors and expansive living areas that flow into back porches with direct access to a shared green.

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just over 100 miles from bluffton, on a private barrier island along the Atlantic coast, Kiawah Island Club grants its members exclusive access to certain amenities throughout the resort community, among them dedicated beach clubs, restaurants, and what will soon become a trio of private golf courses. Currently, members enjoy sole tee times at the Tom Fazio–designed River Course, which opened in 1995, and Tom Watson’s first solo course design in the United States, Cassique Golf Club, which opened in 2000. To complete the triumvirate, construction recently began on Orange Hill, a Beau Welling design that will be the cornerstone of a new residential community spanning 933 acres on nearby John’s Island. For those who are most excited about the forthcoming golf course, a variety of cottages, homes, and homesites will soon be available for purchase. Additionally, the final phase of built-for-sale residences at Cassique is underway. These homes (starting at $4.75 million) showcase a British Arts and Crafts–inspired aesthetic; they also incorporate expansive windows and outdoor living spaces to maximize enjoyment of the nearby waterscapes. Inside, prospective buyers will find custom cabinetry, refined trim and molding, and distinctive stone accents. On the west end of Kiawah Island, the club’s luxury condo-style residences, known as Ocean Pines, are entering the next phase of development, which is slated for completion by mid-2027. These 30 residences (starting at $2.75 million) are spread across three buildings and come in two-, three-, and four-bedroom floorplans. Inside, design elements evoke the outdoors, enveloping homeowners in ocean blues, boardwalk grays, marsh-inspired greens, and neutral beach tones.

A living room (rendering above) at Ocean Pines, the ninth hole at Wexford (below), and the 17th at Anson Point (opposite).

for the better part of three-quarters of a century, Hilton Head Island has attracted vacationers looking for leisure, nature, and Southern hospitality. The barrier island is more than three times the size of Manhattan but home to less than 40,000 year-round residents. In other words, there’s plenty of room to stretch out and explore. There’s also no shortage of high-quality golf courses, some of which are accessible only to residents who live at the respective clubs. Take the Long Cove Club, for example. The membersonly community is home to a picturesque Pete Dye golf course that spans 7,000 yards and plays through a variety of landscapes, including up to the edge of wetlands and marshes along Broad Creek. It’s so beautiful, in fact, that 26 years ago, Hollywood used portions of the course to film scenes for the Robert Redford–directed The Legend of Bagger Vance. As this story went to press, six homes within the Long Cove community were for sale, ranging from around 2,400 square feet to more than 5,300 square feet and starting at just over $1 million. Effectively next door, the private residential community of Wexford boasts a captivating golf course of its own, this one a signature Arnold Palmer design featuring holes that play alongside the club’s deep-water harbor. The water feature is one of the club’s biggest selling points, as it’s outfitted with one of only three lock systems on the East Coast, which minimize tidal fluctuations and keep the harbor at a constant depth of eight feet. Whether they wish to drive or sail into Wexford, prospective members will need a residence at the club to call home; at press time, only a trio of homes were available for purchase. Starting at $1.6 million, they provide four bedrooms apiece but range in size from just over 3,500 square feet to more than 6,500 square feet.

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Augie BARRIOS

LIFE & ST YLE | LOV E O F T H E G A M E

fter more than three decades in the golf industry, Texas native Augie Barrios has developed a two-pronged appreciation for the game. “I have a love not only for the business of golf, but for the game itself,” says Barrios, 62. For the past three years, Barrios has served as the general manager of the Nelson Golf & Sports Club in Irving, Texas. Previously known as the Four Seasons Golf & Sports Club, it became famous as the host of the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson tournament from 1983 through 2017. In 2022, Century Golf Partners acquired and renamed the club, which is now in the midst of a notable transformation. Kingdom sat down with Barrios to learn more about the enhancements at the club, as well as his own journey in golf.

What’s something you’re particularly proud of at the Nelson? Since we promoted our director of agronomy, Landon Lindsay, the courses have been in pristine condition for the last three years—the greens in particular. On any golf course, the greens make or break it, and every year we consistently have our bent grass greens in top shape. There’s a saying in the golf business: If the greens are great, the beer tastes colder and the burgers are better. Landon has really outdone himself on the greens.

What are some of the other recent upgrades? Members also have a renovated clubhouse with a new, beautiful patio that overlooks the golf course, as well as a renovated bar and grill, Byron’s, which opened in March.

You also just introduced a national membership program. How does that work? We’re in a unique position here at the Nelson because only a breezeway separates us from a Ritz-Carlton resort [the Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas]. So it makes a lot of sense to have this type of membership for executives around the country to be able to stay at the resort when they’re here doing business in Dallas and invite local guests to play at their club.

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Are there other clubs that have inspired you in your role as general manager? Pinehurst Resort, PGA West, PGA National, and Barton Creek nearby in Austin are the inspirational properties where I’ve played. It starts with the history of the courses—knowing that you’re playing in the same place where some of the world’s greatest golfers have played is enriching. All of those properties are also pristine and inviting, with history on the walls. That matters to a person who loves golf. Couple that with facilities that offer great service, have fantastic food, and provide a comfortable place to enjoy a beer after your round, and that’s how all of those venues have inspired me.

Tell us about your game.

There’s a saying in the golf business: If the greens are great, the beer tastes colder and the burgers are better.”

I started pretty late. I was 20 years old when I took up the game. Today, I’m a 14 handicap, and if I play 20 rounds in a year, that’s a better-than-average year for me.

What’s been the highlight of your golfing life? It was caddying for my 14-year-old son when he won the San Antonio Junior Match Play Championship in 2001. It was pretty cool to carry the clubs for a kid who was working his butt off and was way better than me at that point. I remember it like it was yesterday: We were tied going into the 18th hole, and he won the tournament on the final hole.

Do you have any favorite moments where a caddie helped you with your game? When I was living in Midland-Odessa, I was invited to play in a stroke-play tournament down in Juárez, Mexico, just outside of El Paso. You got to pick your caddie, and the caddies were categorized by experience. The more experience, the bigger the tip. I went with the most experienced guy I could find. The bunkers at the course were more dirt than sand, and I was struggling to hit out of them. So on one particular hole, when I hit it into a greenside bunker, the caddie didn’t hand me my sand wedge. He gave me a 5-iron and just said, “Hit that.” He didn’t tell me how to hit it. He didn’t tell me what to expect. He just said, “Hit that.” It was something that I couldn’t even comprehend. But I ended up hitting it to about two feet. He was pretty quick to recognize that I didn’t know what I was doing getting out of those bunkers, and he probably had 30 years of experience on that course, so having him guide me through it was pretty cool. Byron’s, the recently renovated bar and grill at the Nelson Golf & Sports Club, opened in March.

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SUMMER EDITION For this issue’s Club Collection, we headed to three elite private courses that offer ways for nonmembers to play.

Montecito Club

MONTECITO CLUB The emerald of the American Riviera. Real estate in Montecito, California, is among the most expensive in the world. So while 114 acres might seem like a small plot of land for a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, it is an outright luxury of space in this tony enclave along the American Riviera. Nicklaus and his team made the most of the magical slice of Montecito they were presented with at the historic Montecito Club. Completed in 2019, their overhaul of the club’s golf course maximized both the space and the views it affords, which take

in the Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands from several holes. The rerouted layout cuts back and forth along the gradually sloping site, where sidehill lies are inevitable but playable, thanks to the club’s policy of keeping its Platinum TE Paspalum turf at fairway height throughout the entire course. Founded in 1918, Montecito Country Club, as it was previously named, was one of California’s first golf courses. The Nicklaus redesign was part of a $120 million transformation of the club led by Beanie Babies founder Ty Warner, who acquired the property in 2004. More than just a golf club, the property now has amenities that span everything from an ocean-view pool complex and tennis and pickleball courts to a batting cage, a bowling alley, and a turf sledding hill. The intricately restored, Moroccan-style clubhouse is home to a movie theater, multiple dining venues, and more. While highly exclusive, Montecito Club offers a way in for nonmembers: Guests of the nearby San Ysidro Ranch—a beloved hideaway steeped in Hollywood history that is also owned by Warner— can book a day on the course through the hotel.

THE NELSON GOLF & SPORTS CLUB A longstanding club’s new nationwide appeal.

TPC Las Colinas, the marquee course at the Nelson Golf & Sports Club (previously the Four Seasons Golf & Sports Club), hosted the PGA Tour’s Byron Nelson Championship for 35 years. It was a fitting tribute considering Lord Byron served as the Irving, Texas–based club’s founding member. The tournament was last contested there in 2017, and the championship layout, along with the entire club, has only grown stronger since, thanks in part to a change in ownership several years ago. In 2022, Century Golf Partners and HKI America acquired the Four Seasons Golf & Sports Club, rebranding it the Nelson. More recently, the property and its amenities have been undergoing a $20 million renovation. These changes include the hiring and promotion of key individuals, such as the Nelson’s director of agronomy, Landon Lindsay, whose meticulous care of the club’s bent grass greens has enabled members to roll putts on championship-caliber surfaces every

day. The practice facilities have also improved, thanks to the implementation of Trackman Range technology. Together, these enhancements have transformed the club into a place that many PGA and LPGA Tour players now call home. Also in 2022, the Four Seasons resort adjacent to the club was acquired (via a separate joint venture) and, as part of a $55 million renovation project, rebranded as the Ritz-Carlton Dallas, Las Colinas. To capitalize on all these investments, the Nelson recently unveiled a new national membership program. “[The club] has such nationwide appeal with the history of the Byron Nelson Classic golf tournament, the fact that it was Byron Nelson’s home, and the benefit of being affiliated with the Ritz-Carlton hotel and resort,” says Jim Hinckley, founder and CEO of Century Golf Partners. Adds the company’s partner and COO, Doug Howe, “The upgrades to the hotel experience, along with the extensive improvements of the club, make it a very enticing national membership opportunity. The club is 10 minutes away from DFW [International] Airport, so it’s super convenient to have a stay-and-play experience as part of a weekend away.”

T H E C LU B C O L L E C T I O N

SUMMER EDITION

BAY HILL CLUB & LODGE

Matthew Majka

Scott Watt

Arnold Palmer’s legacy lives on in Orlando.

Arnold Palmer said he was twice struck by love at first sight: first, when he set eyes on his wife-to-be, Winnie, in 1954, and again, in 1965, when he played an exhibition game at a young course in Orlando called Bay Hill. Palmer later wrote, “With its splendid isolation and Eden-like abundance of wildlife, it really was a little bit of paradise on earth.” Palmer signed a five-year lease for Bay Hill in 1969 before buying it outright in 1975, and the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational has been played there since 1979. The club is one of the most revered stops on the tour, posing a stern test when set up for the world’s best players. In fact, Bay Hill has a knack for revealing the best of the best—Tiger Woods won there eight times, after all. Stretching along the shores of Orlando’s Butler Chain of Lakes, Bay Hill was originally designed by Dick Wilson and opened in 1961. Palmer and his design team updated the course over the years. “Mr. Palmer wanted the golf course to play like a U.S. Open off the tee and like Augusta around the greens,” says Brandon Johnson, who worked for the Arnold Palmer Design Company for 17 years. “For the U.S. Open, he meant tight fairways and thick rough, and around Augusta’s greens, you can find situations where it seems the ball is never going to stop rolling. He took two very different characteristics [and] brought them together to create something different.” Bay Hill remains part of the Arnold Palmer family of companies today. Nonmembers can play the course by staying at the Bay Hill Lodge, which completed a renovation of its guest rooms in 2025.

KINGDOM CLUBHOUSE Publisher’s picks and other Kingdom staff favorites for summer.

It’s hard to complain about attending a business conference in Cannes, which is where this fall’s International Golf Travel Market will take place. To make a good thing even better, I plan to tack on a couple post-conference nights at the newly opened Zannier Île de Bendor, a 93-room hotel set on a 17-acre private island between Marseille and Saint-Tropez in the South of France. —bruce wallin

Zannier Île de Bendor

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SQUIRE SELECT

I love this time of year, when there is enough daylight and warmth to hit the range or the golf course after work. The versatile Vessel Pencil Stand Bag is perfect for both. It comfortably fits six clubs and is super lightweight, yet still provides several pockets, including a magnetic pocket lined with antimicrobial microfiber for scratch-free protection. —matthew squire

If you get to Royal Birkdale for the Open, look out for the new Ben Lomond Open Limited Edition 2026 Gin distilled by the Luss Distillery specifically for the 154th Open. Like Birkdale, the gin promises to be “wild, windswept, and rich in character.” —robin barwick

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When I am well organized, I play better golf. To get me there, I turn to Jolly Golf ’s Pilgrim. This organizer is the ideal golf travel accessory. It’s compact and incredibly light, but with space to neatly carry tees, ball markers, pencils, divot tools, and more. It’s the solution to a problem you probably never knew you had. —shaun tolson

SQUIRE SELECT

Don’t forget to pack some Zero Biodegradable Golf Balls this summer. American-made by Splash City Golf, the Zero balls can be hit into oceans, rivers, and bays with no negative environmental impact. The nontoxic balls degrade in less than three weeks. —jon edwards

Summer it may be, but for that morning chill my “must-have” item is G/FORE’s 100% Cashmere Crewneck Sweater. Made with super soft cashmere, this is the most comfortable sweater I have ever owned! I also love the detailing on the cuffs, and this crewneck is suited to a work meeting or dinner as much as it is to golf. By the way, it pairs perfectly with G/FORE’s All Play Polo, designed with a four-way stretch material for ultimate mobility, with UPF 50+ for an added layer of defense for when the sun does shine! —m.s.

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SQUIRE SELECT

The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas promises its upcoming Milano Suites at the Palazzo are a “new expression of modern opulence” and “designed to redefine the very meaning of luxury hospitality.” Those are some bold statements, but we’re willing to bet they’ll be the new top spot to stay on the Strip. —b.w. Dormie Workshop makes high-end, handmade, and personalized leather products that last. The attention to detail is incredible, and my only problem was choosing my first headcover, as they have such a great collection! My BGY FREE driver headcover is made from premium, soft Italian white leather with a velvety liner and hand-stitched embroidery, displaying a level of craftsmanship rarely found nowadays. —m.s.

One of my favorite ways to eliminate travel stress is to have ShipSticks deliver my golf clubs to my destination, anywhere around the globe. The company collects your clubs and delivers them to the golf course, guaranteeing they arrive before you do. Complimentary insurance and real-time tracking are included. No more dragging the clubs around airports for me! —j.e.

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SQUIRE SELECT

The Golf Quarter Sock from Bombas is perfect for the summer months: It is built with sweat-wicking Softec yarn, enhanced mesh ventilation, targeted reinforcement, and a seamless toe. Honeycomb arch compression provides added support, giving new meaning to a technical golf sock. Success comes from the small details! —m.s.

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Congratulations to Nelly Korda, who won her fourth major title in June’s U.S. Women’s Open. Korda received some criticism earlier in the year when she decided to miss some of the earlyseason events on the LPGA Tour, but not from Kingdom. We featured Korda in our spring issue, when she told us, “It is a hard schedule and every year it flows differently, and the main goal is to have a flow where I play a few, then take a week or two off to work on my game, reassess, sharpen up, and then come back and try to compete to the best of my ability again.” It made sense then, and the strategy has been vindicated. —r.b.

I am always proud to wear the badge of Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to the spouses and children of fallen or disabled military service members and first responders. Folds of Honor is now collaborating with premium brands including Peter Millar and G/FORE—great move! —j.e.

We published the first edition of Kingdom’s Ultimate Golf Getaways last fall, and we were blown away by the response—so much so that we’re doing it again. Keep an eye out for Volume 2 of this now-annual coffeetable publication debuting in late September. —b.w.

The recently released 2020 Nurseryman Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, by winemaker Jenny Wagner of Caymus Vineyards, honors Wagner’s maternal grandfather, Frank Emmolo, whose family emigrated from Sicily to Napa Valley in 1923. He later became a pioneering supplier of grapevines in the region. Crafted from fruit grown in some of the valley’s finest soils, the wine is rich, layered, and textured, just like its heritage. —j.e.

The Gozney Tread is already my purchase of the year. Setup takes minutes: Unfold the legs, connect the gas, and you’re firing within seconds. It goes wherever the summer takes you, whether that’s the backyard or a weekend away with friends. The pizzas speak for themselves: properly blistered, leopard-spotted crusts with a charred base. A genuine game changer for outdoor cooking. —matthew halnan

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SCORECARD

Leading

A recent survey by the National Golf Foundation counted 8.1 million on-course women golfers in the United States in 2025—an all-time high. Here we pay tribute to the tour golfers who have led the way in the women’s game.

LADIES

SOLHEIM CUP SCORERS

WEEKS AT WORLD NO. 1 The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings were inaugurated in 2006, with Annika Sörenstam becoming the rankings’ first No. 1 player. She held the top spot for 61 weeks before ceding the title to Lorena Ochoa, whose 158 consecutive weeks at No. 1 are a record and overall rank second only to Jin Young Ko. Keep an eye on Nelly Korda, who continues to climb the ranks with a dominant showing so far in 2026.

Patty Berg

MAJOR TITLES

The United States has won the Solheim Cup 11 times to Europe’s seven, and Europe retained the Cup in a tie in 2023. However, four of the top five career points winners in the match-play event (one point for a win and half a point for a halved match) are European.

Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, and Babe Zaharias are among the 13 founding members who established the LPGA Tour in 1950. Given the global reach of the modern-day tour and its ever-increasing depth of talent, Berg’s record of 15 major wins may stand for generations to come.

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Jin Young Ko South Korea

Lorena Ochoa Lydia Ko Nelly Korda Yani Tseng

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Mexico

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United States

115

New Zealand Taiwan

125

109

Patty Berg

Mickey Wright

Louise Suggs

10 10 8

United States (1937–1958)

Suzann Pettersen

United States (1958–1966)

Laura Davies

United States (1946–1959)

Annika Sörenstam

Sweden (1995–2006)

United States (1940–1954)

Cristie Kerr

United States (1951–1969)

Suzann Pettersen

Annika Sörenstam Babe Zaharias Betsy Rawls

England

(46 matches)

Sweden

(37 matches)

Scotland

(37 matches)

Catriona Matthew

United States (38 matches) Norway

(36 matches)

Finding the Fairway There’s nuthing better.

Hit the course with your buddies and a bag of Hubs.

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