Kingdom 56

56 | WINTER 2022

Charleston

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Divine golf and pure spirits in the Holy City

LUXURY | LIFESTYLE | GOLF

The Kingdom List

Our picks for the best venues, experiences and more

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Choose from four golf courses in The Bahamas, Saint Lucia or Jamaica, two of which are 18-hole championship caliber golf courses, featuring layouts by Greg Norman Design. Swing into paradise with complimentary green fees and more when you stay at one of Sandals Resorts premier golf destinations.

WHERE SANCTUARY

MEETS LEGENDARY Live your legacy at Old Lighthouse Golf & Ocean Club Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

A place of unrivaled majesty, this secluded sanctuary is enlivened by Cabo’s culture and spirit of adventure. Only a mile from the heart of Cabo, this singular opportunity invites and inspires you to live your legacy. On land long held by one of Mexico’s most prominent families, dreams come to fruition and legendary tales of a life well-lived begin to unfold. Perched upon dramatic dunes, flanked by miles of pristine beaches, and featuring Jack Nicklaus Signature golf, the last of the best of Cabo awaits.

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1 - 8 8 8 - 8 6 4 -2 2 24 | www.L i ghtho us e . g o l f Obtain a property report or its equivalent as required by Federal or State Law and read it before signing anything. No Federal or State Agency has judged the merits or value, if any, of the property. This is not an offer or solicitation in CT, NJ or NY or in any state in which the legal requirements for such offering have not been met. Warning: The CA Dept. of Real Estate has not inspected, examined, or qualified this offering. Fees, memberships and restrictions may apply for certain amenities. Details available. Price and availability subject to change. ©October 2022. Old Lighthouse Golf & Ocean Club. All rights reserved.

unforgettable

HOLIDAY GETAWAY No matter your holiday wish, you’ll find a home here in the Charleston area.

THE CHARLESTON PLACE Celebrate In Charleston Celebrate the holidays in grand style starting with a champagne toast at check in. You will also receive a complimentary drink at the acclaimed Thoroughbred Club and a $100 food and beverage credit.

THE DEWBERRY Deck the Halls with The Dewberry Experience the magic of Christmas in Charleston as well as the famed holiday décor at The Dewberry. Let the branded Volvo house car transport you to the center of shopping & dining on King Street. Receive an exclusive welcome amenity from The Dewberry upon check-in, enjoy a festive daily tea & the cookie cart in The Living Room, and drink in the holiday season with a complimentary cocktail at the Living Room’s Brass Bar. WILD DUNES RESORT Holly Jolly Holiday Vacation Escape the holiday hustle and bustle for seaside relaxation in beautiful Charleston, SC. Spend your favorite holiday at Wild Dunes Resort, and allow them to do all the work while you enjoy this magical season with your family and friends. You will receive a $50 resort credit, a complimentary room upgrade (when available), and free parking. Milk and Christmas cookies will be delivered to your guest room every evening for a cozy holiday.

HOTEL BENNETT Holiday Splendor Make the most out of the festive season with a stay in the heart of downtown Charleston at the Hotel Bennett. Book your holiday stay and receive $100 hotel credit along with complimentary valet parking. From festive décor and a welcome holiday amentity to indulgent dining options, families and couples alike are sure to make lasting memories at Hotel Bennett.

Some call it hospitality, we call it the endless welcome.

CHRISTMASINCHARLESTON.COM

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56 | WINTER 2022

PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER

Matthew Squire EDITOR IN CHIEF

Reade Tilley ART DIRECTOR

Matthew Halnan

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CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Robin Barwick HEAD OF ADVERTISING SALES

Jon Edwards GM, KINGDOM

Joe Velotta DESIGNER

Kieron Deen Halnan FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Arnold Palmer PHOTOGRAPHY

Meghan Glennon, Matthew Halnan, Matt Majka, Greg Mandy, Evan Schiller, Jacob Sjöman, Getty Images SPECIAL THANKS & CONTRIBUTORS

Tony Abou-Ganim, Esme Benjamin, Gary Billingham, Ian Buxton, Colleen Cronin, Robert Ettinger, Alex Farrer, Harry Hall, Vaughn Halyard, Nick Hedges, Curtis Jeffries, Davis Love III, Lee-Anne Macdonnell, Brandon Matthews, Rocco Mediate, Bob Nolet, Carl Nolet Jnr., Alexandra O’Laughlin, Annika Sorenstam, Full-Time Travel

Enquiry Addresses ADVERTISING

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Cover Image 16th, Ballybunion Cashen Course, Republic of Ireland, as featured in the Kingdom List.

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KINGD OM — IS SU E 56

Kingdom magazine was first available to friends & associates of Arnold Palmer, members & guests of his designed and managed courses. Now it is available at distinguished private clubs and for discerning golfers everywhere.

Printed in the USA

EDITOR’S LETTER

Ming Emperor Xuande playing chuiwan, a game some believe was a precursor to golf

May You Live in Interesting Times “I think you will all agree that we are living in most interesting times. I never remember myself a time in which our history was so full, in which day by day brought us new objects of interest, and, let me say also, new objects for anxiety.”

—Joseph Chamberlain

J

oseph Chamberlain, British statesman and father to Prime Minister Neville, is believed to be responsible for the apocryphal notion that “May you live in interesting times” is an old Chinese saying. In fact, there’s less evidence for that than there is for ancient Chinese golf, but the phrase remains popular when things seem nuts, as they did in 1898 when Chamberlain lamented “new objects for anxiety”—and as they might now to anyone paying attention. Between the last issue of Kingdom and this one, the term “nuclear war” re-entered the lexicon, a hurricane tore across the Caribbean and Florida, and two men in Ohio filled their fish with lead weights and scandalized the competitive fishing community, previously known more for mullets than sharks. That last bit isn’t as calamitous as so much else, but the point is that all times are “interesting” no matter the generation, and so there’s no point focusing on what’s wrong—especially when there’s so much going right. The Jackson T. Stephens Cup, for example, held this year at Seminole Country Club (p120), showcased golf ’s future in a sincere display of camaraderie and sportsmanship.

Famous for the latter, Brandon Matthews (p90) continues to give cause for optimism, as do Landmand Golf Club (p46), which heralds an exciting time for course design, and Member For A Day (p57), which uses the game to help others. The City of Charleston, SC, knows a thing or two about tumultuous times, and stands today as an example of elegant transformation (p96), while multi-generational firms in leather goods (p148), whisky (p128) and clear spirits (p138) are testaments to how far a focus on quality can take you.

If all of that isn’t enough, check out the “best of ” honorees in our new Kingdom List (p68), a celebration of excellence and evidence that, as nuts as it is, the world remains a beautiful place. If you’d like to join us in raising a glass to that, might we suggest the cocktails of Bar 167 (p142). May they enliven your holiday season— and may you live in interesting times.

Warmly, Reade Tilley

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PUBLISHER’S LETTER

Castle Stuart, Inverness, as featured in “Best Golf Destinations” in the 2022 Kingdom List

Quite a year!

A

lot happened at Kingdom this year. We launched a new website and grew our print and digital capabilities, and we just held our flagship [sold-out] event, The Kingdom Cup, on Hilton Head Island, with some great sponsors and partners. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alexandra O’Laughlin for doing such a great job hosting the event, and to thank Davis Love III, Matt Kuchar, Cameron Young, Geno Bonnalie, Stan Smith, Roger Steele (WOW! — can he hit a long ball, even after a couple of Dewar’s!) and Jeff Klaiber for their time and support in helping to raise funds for Folds of Honor and making our event a success.

This issue of Kingdom sees the debut of the longanticipated Kingdom List, our contribution to the “Best of ” landscape. Other magazines do a great job each year of compiling lists of top destinations, of course. But many of the criteria they employ are quite technical, measuring sand in the traps and such, and whilst that’s absolutely appreciated we wanted to do things a bit differently. I think we all know that Augusta, Pine Valley, Cypress Point et al are some of the best courses in the world. Equally, we all know that the 17th at TPC Sawgrass is one of the most iconic holes in golf. We did our best to steer around the obvious (though no less deserving) and, befitting our “golf lifestyle” ethos, we based many of our inclusions on the experience. That

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KINGD OM — IS SU E 56

is, we considered how playing these courses or seeing these holes or meeting or watching these people made us feel—how they improve our experience of the game and of life in general. Is it objective? Hardly. But it is sincere and based on real experience. Also, we tried to adhere to the democratic outlook of our co-founder, Arnold Palmer, and stick to courses that are available for everyone to play. That’s not to say some on our list aren’t expensive or exclusive in their own ways, but for the most part you should be able to enjoy nearly everything on the Kingdom List—and again, all of it is genuinely chosen by, and enjoyed by, staff and our esteemed Kingdom List panel.

A big thank you to our panel members, including Annika Sörenstam, Rocco Mediate, Alexandra O’Laughlin, Tony Abou-Ganim and Esme Benjamin.

We certainly could not have done this without you, and we are grateful to you for sharing your knowledge, experience, and time.

For now, at the end of 2022, all that’s left for me to do is to wish you happy and safe holidays.

We look forward to seeing you back here in the New Year, when we will have a few more exciting Kingdom announcements!

Be well, Matthew Squire

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AP

ES

THE APPROACH

The Year Ahead In… HOSPITALIT Y

Evermore Resort opening

This $1.5 billion resort next to Walt Disney World aims to transform the vacation home business with an amazing new level of luxury and sophistication. Upscale homes, villas, apartments, a Conrad Hotel and a 20-acre tropical beach complex (with crystal lagoon) will sit on the 1,100-acre development, which is being built with environmental sensibilities in mind. Dining, bars, a Nicklaus-designed golf course and more will feature at one of 2023’s most exciting openings.

FACILITIES

WGHOF move

Next year is your last chance to visit a dedicated World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2024 the Hall is leaving St. Augustine, Florida, where it has been since 1998, and heading to North Carolina, where parts of its collection will become part of a new visitor experience at the USGA’s Golf House Pinehurst—the resort where the Hall was founded in 1974.

THE TOUR

New features

The PGA Tour will look a little different next year, with (among other things) a boosted Player Impact Program and Tour Championship; new officially “elevated” events; new guaranteed player payment arrangements; at least 20 guaranteed appearances by the top tour pros; progress on Woods/McIlroy’s TMRW Golf League and plenty more. Stay tuned…

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021

HR that turns pitfalls into possibilities Evolving labor laws, the competition for talent, leading hybrid teams while also cultivating an inclusive culture – for employers, the target is always moving.

Insperity can help you embrace opportunity as you adapt to the new world of work.

Change can create uncertainty, but it also brings possibilities. Turn today’s business challenges into tomorrow’s achievements with Insperity behind you.

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Learn more at insperity.com or call 800.465.3800.

CONTENTS

Moving Ahead

Photo: Evan Schiller Photography

Issue 56

68

82

The Approach

26 28 30 35 36 40 45 46 49 51 54 57 60 64

Major Tradition

68 The Kingdom List

96 Charleston

82

104 Great Conversations

Our favorite golf places, experiences, holes, cocktails, people and more

Elevated Big & Beautiful Full Round Urban Game Now Open Scorecard Tech Live Like A King

96

Features

On the Water No.19

Winter 2022

Davis Love III Victorious Presidents Cup Captain reflects on the spirit of leadership

90 Brandon Matthews

Moving up to the PGA Tour the old fashioned way—by earning it

Oysters, golf, jazz and a little rain in South Carolina’s divine Holy City

Kingdom contemplates some of our favorite fall chats with NFL stars and others

108 Five-Star Mardi Gras

Keep your clothes clean and your reputation intact with our upscale festival guide

Giving Game Away Home Host Venue

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CONTENTS

120

138

Life

Drinks

116 New Year’s Resolutions

148 Handcrafted

128 12 years’ Waiting

120 The Stephens Cup

152 Celebratory Season

138 City of Windmills

124 RainDance

158 Well Traveled

142 Winter In The Med

You’ve thought about it enough: 2023 is the year to finally play these courses

Seminole Golf Club saw golf ’s future in fine form at the elite college event

Fred Funk and Harrison Minchew on designing the nation’s longest golf course

134 Warm Vibes

Cutting-edge fashion and accessories + vintage sounds to get you through winter

024

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Ettinger shows us how some of the world’s finest leather goods are made

Gifts for the holidays or for any days; start your year-end shopping here

Tranquility, mindfulness, great golf—and a lot of room to think in Big Sky, Montana

The latest generation of 12-year-old whiskies might just be the best ever bottled

We head to the Netherlands for a tour through three centuries of distilling

Colorful Mediterraneaninspired cocktails from the mixologists at Bar 167

Last Page

162 Visionary

Herb Kohler leaves us with a lasting legacy and a beautiful vision of the Scottish sunrise

THE KINGDOM LIST

GOLF DESTINATION

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THE APPROACH Major Tradition

Whistling Straits The Ryder Cup venue is a grounded experience that marries the best of golf ’s origins to the modern-day game

Two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. That’s the land that helps to define the windswept home of the 43rd Ryder Cup and three PGA Championships (2004, 2010, 2015). With Blackwolf Run it’s part of Destination Kohler, but Whistling Straits is so much more than that. The venue has become one of golf’s defining stages, a timeless expression of why we play, of how history impacts the future, and of why this game is good for all of us. If you don’t leave here feeling better than you did when you arrived, we’re sorry that you weren’t able to seize the opportunity.

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THE APPROACH On the Water

Aurora Anguilla Golf in the Caribbean has never been more compelling, as the latest championship addition in Anguilla proves

The only 18-hole golf course on the stunning island of Anguilla is a stunner itself, raising the bar for the whole of Caribbean golf and giving the magnificent 300-acre Aurora Anguilla Resort a crown jewel. Recently re-imagined by Greg Norman (who also built the new Avalon short course here), the sun-drenched championship layout officially opened at the beginning of November under the able stewardship of Salamander Hotels and Resorts. Much of the course runs alongside Rendezvous Bay and the Anguilla Channel, with St Maarten dominating the southbound vista—and the whole picture dominating our dreams.

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THE APPROACH Elevated

Moonlight Basin With the Big Sky overhead, this Montana getaway offers plenty of breathing room—along with breathtaking sport

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KINGD OM — IS SU E 56

In some ways The Reserve at Moonlight Basin, in the Montana town of Big Sky, doesn’t have a lot to offer: “No highways, no cities, no urban sounds,” as the Nicklaus Design website has it, “and we like it that way!” So do we.

Aside from hosting the fourth edition of The Match, the forested escape sits a million miles from Hollywood or anywhere else. And with its 7,500-foot elevation, even the 777-yard No.17 (pictured here, and you read that right) can be reached in two by heavy hitters. Big Sky, big yardages, big swings and even bigger stories to tell when you get home. An easy choice for the 2023 Kingdom List.

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Photo: Evan Schiller Photography

Courses

32°08’06.2”N 80°45’53.8”W

s

THE APPROACH No.19

Beef.

It’s what’s for Drinking.

Beef extract and dry sherry?

Sounds like an English thing.

And of course it is. One of the best-kept secrets of the British halfway house, the “Shovril” looks like coffee, smells like dinner, and just might be the best winter warmer you’ve never tried

A

fter being rescued from cold French beaches in director Noël Coward’s 1942 film on the Dunkirk evacuation, In Which We Serve, Allied soldiers were given Bovril and sherry to beat the chill and calm nerves.

And why not? It had been working for British golfers since the early 20th century.

Bovril (findable in the U.S. if you look for it) is a paste made from beef extract. It’s thick, salty, dark brown and exactly the kind of thing you’d imagine tough men ate in the 1880s, making it no surprise to learn that that’s when it was invented, by a Scottish butcher no less.

The Brits spread it on toast or mix it with hot water to make what used to be called “beef tea,” but a halfway house tradition has it kicked up with dry sherry.

Just as it does for soups and beef stock, sherry brightens the “Shovril,” offering a sort of soup-and-a-nip all at once.

Royal Cinque Ports, the classic links and former Open venue on the Kent coast, has Shovril at the halfway hut till for £3 a cup, and you can sip it at Goodwood and numerous other chilly UK courses as well.

In the States you might have to make your own—and you should. It’s easy enough and, as Coward showed, at sea, on course or anywhere else, it’s what the good guys drink to stay warm.

Shovril in the halfway house at The Centurion Club, London Picture: Matthew Halnan/Kingdom

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THE APPROACH Triples

3

’s

Far from the putting surface, triples are all the rage

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Morgan Super 3

Corsair 880

and from 1911 to 1952 the storied British marque

Corsair 880 is something of a

Morgan’s debut design was a three-wheeler,

featured some manner of triple in its lineup. A 2011 reintroduction was a bit of a throwback, but this

year’s Super 3 is all-new, Morgan’s first car ever

to feature unibody construction without wood in the frame. Making 118hp with 110lb-ft of torque

and weighing only 1,400lbs, the 5-speed manual is

tremendous fun. And with optional luggage racks it

would even make for a spirited weekender—in a dry climate, we’d think. Hugely customizable in terms of colors, graphics and accessories, it invites one to don goggles, tie on a scarf, and do battle with the Red Baron on backroads anywhere.

Debuting late last year, the

perfect family trimaran, with an aft cabin that sleeps five, enclosed heads and standing headroom.

What’s more, Corsair’s trimarans are foldable: the ancillary hulls

can be folded back, meaning the boat is easy to trailer. Available as a solid cruiser or in a high-

performance “Sport” model, this might be the best way to catch the wind en route to postcardworthy destinations.

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037

Hennessey Venom F5 Roadster

Four wheels, a V8, a “5” in the name…

“Where’s the ‘triple’ here?” you might

ask. It’s in the top speed, projected to

exceed 311mph. Texas-based Hennessey is known for “making fast cars faster,” as the company has it, modifying others’

vehicles into head-spinning performers.

In 2017 they launched the Venom F5,

featuring their first in-house “Fury” engine, which a Top Gear editor claimed sounded “like a pissed-off T-Rex.” The 24 available coupes sold out at $1.8 million each, and now Hennessey is back with a roadster version, of which 30 will be built at

$3 million each. With 1,817bhp and carbon

fiber everywhere, if you hear a roar coming out of Texas, you’ll know what it is.

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Four wheels, 1,817 brake horsepower and no roof: leave your hat at home

Cornish Connection PGA Tour rookie Harry Hall schools us on cheesy dips, “Long” Jim Barnes, trees, and where to buy a flat cap

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THE APPROACH Full Round

PGA Tour rookie: How’s it going so far?

Well, I pulled my first tee shot as a PGA Tour player and I was stuck behind a tree! For my second shot, I had to play it backwards Seve-style from the side of my body; that’s not what you want on your first hole.

Does the tour feel worlds away from Cornwall?

It does. I grew up playing at West Cornwall Golf Club, which is 5,500 yards long. By the time I was 18 I would hit a 5-iron off every tee, wedge it in, then chip and putt.

It wasn’t until I came to America and I went to UNLV that I had to learn how to swing fast.

First impressions of America?

That visit to UNLV, with my dad, was the first time I had been to America. Phil [Rowe, also from Cornwall, then coaching at UNLV] took us to Southern Highlands Golf Club first and I was like, “Wow, what a place.

This is the best golf course I have ever been to in my life.” Then we went to Shadow Creek and I was just drooling. I didn’t say anything for 45 minutes on the way back to campus. I was speechless. It was the greenest golf course I had ever seen... I just couldn’t believe it.

How early did you start golf?

professional three years ago I have taken some comfort from knowing that a guy from West Cornwall came over and had a lot of success.

Did he inspire your cap?

In 2018 I played in the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach and I bought this really cool cap—a flat cap similar to what Barnes used to wear. It is nice to have a tie to an historic figure who comes from the same place as me.

What’s it like living in Las Vegas?

I still go out to Shadow Creek every day. MGM owns it and they are one of my sponsors. Everyone at the club is like family to me now. The course stills blows my mind.

It is the best course I have ever played—that and Pebble Beach. Shadow Creek is like a fairyland for a golfer, it feels like you are in a forest. I would be very surprised if Augusta National is any better than Shadow Creek, and a lot of people compare the two.

You played the Arnold Palmer Cup twice. Happy memories?

In 2017 we played at Atlanta Athletic Club, but on the second day we [Europe] lost 9 ½ points to a half. I’d lost 7&6, and everyone was so deflated because it meant that if we lost a single point the next day we would lose the Arnold Palmer Cup. We had a team meeting and I stood up and gave this speech, telling each of the guys how good they were, getting the whole team pumped up, so much so that David Ingles, the assistant coach at Northwestern, put me out first the next morning.

Cutting a long story short, the next day the boys saw me walking off the 12th green against Doug Ghim and they were saying: “Harry’s done it! Harry’s done it!”, thinking I had won my point, but I had just lost 8&7! I had lost even before our last guy had teed off. It’s funny now, but it was brutal at the time.

I go out to Shadow Creek every day; the golf course still blows my mind

From the age of five my parents would take me to West Cornwall every Saturday morning. For £1 us kids would have a lesson with the pro for an hour, then play 9 or 18 holes, depending on how good you were. In the summer I would be at the club every day. I would play with the junior section in the morning, eat cheesy chips [French fries with grilled cheese] for lunch, then go out and play again.

How were the practice facilities at West Cornwall?

The range was 180 yards long and we had to use our own balls. When I was a little chubby kid I didn’t want to walk too far so I would only practice my wedges and then I would spend the rest of the day around the chipping and putting greens, until my mum would pick me up at 8pm.

Were you insipred by “Long” Jim Barnes? Also from Cornwall, played 100 years ago, won four majors...

I knew that Jim Barnes had left Cornwall for America at the age of 18—which is what I did—and since turning

And now you and Doug Ghim play together on Tour

Funnily enough I played with Doug in the third round of the Shriners in October, and he was using a Palmer Cup headcover. I wondered if he was doing that to remind me that he beat me 8&7! Five years after that Palmer Cup it was nice to walk down the fairway with Doug on the PGA Tour. We all laughed about it.

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PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. KETEL ONE BOTANICAL. Made With Vodka Distilled With Real Botanicals And Infused With Natural Flavors. 30% Alc/Vol. © Double Eagle Brands, B.V. Imported by Ketel One USA, Aliso Viejo, CA. KETEL ONE BOTANICAL Vodka Spritz. Made With Vodka, Botanicals, Natural Flavors, And Sparkling Water. 3.6% Alc/Vol. © Double Eagle Brands, B.V. Ketel One Botanical Spritz, Indianapolis, IN.

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THE APPROACH Urban Game

Don Riddle / Four Seasons

STAY Four Seasons Houston

Houston

Short trip to America’s fourth-most-populous city? You still have time for a round. Here’s where to play/stay/eat: GOLF East River 9

This brand-new (just opened at press) development one mile from downtown is our kind of playground: A par-3, linksstyle 9-hole golf course and adjacent range are fully lit for night play, and there’s a 12,000sq ft social putting green where drinks and banter are encouraged. Set along the edge of the Buffalo Bayou and including the Riverhouse restaurant and patio bar, East River 9 is the perfect spot for getting together with friends, co-workers—or just your game.

We’re fans of the Four Seasons brand anyway, but the downtown Houston location has just completed a massive multi-phase renovation and it’s a sight to behold. The design refresh is accompanied by a new range of in-room curated experiences (we’ll take the “Bourbon Steward” experience, please, a complete education complete with tastings and hand-crafted cocktails…). With that and more, except for golf and business, there’s little reason to leave the hotel.

E AT

On a quick business trip we might just set up camp at East River 9 and enjoy the on-site Riverhouse restaurant (why walk away from the game?) or go upscale at Chef Richard Sandoval’s excellent Toro Toro steakhouse at the Four Seasons; but if you want something casual, Texan and off-course, TRUTH BBQ is the spot.

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THE KINGDOM LIST

NEW COURSE

LANDMAND GOLF CLUB

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THE APPROACH Now Open

One of the most anticipated projects in recent memory, Nebraska’s new field of dreams is a bold vision for golf ’s future

I

feet, the duo’s first 18-hole design is a startling addition to the golf landscape, as inspiring as it is unbridled, the kind of course that rekindles passion for the game and whets the appetite for what comes next. Named after the Danish word for “farmer,” Landmand was built on old farmland owned by the local Andersen family, cleared of trees some 50 years ago and mostly left fallow since then. As Collins told Golfweek regarding his approach to Landmand’s design, “You had to just put the pedal down and go for it...

Every time I go out there, I laugh about it. Things that are gigantic in reality just shrink in this landscape... We had to build features that embraced that boldness.”

Photos: V.Halyard

f you haven’t heard of Sweeten’s Cove, you must have spent the last decade focusing on your tennis game.

The 9-hole course 25 miles outside of Chattanooga, Tenn., quickly built a cult following after it opened in 2014, not least due to its metal-shed clubhouse and the fact that its designers, Rob Collins and Tad King, were so committed to the project (Collins mortgaged his life and took over the property’s lease to get it done, with the final cost coming in around $1 million). Lauded by many as a 3,300-yard course in which not a single inch was wasted, it begged the question of what King-Collins would do if given more space. The answer is Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska. Sitting on 580 acres and featuring at least four greens in excess of 25,000 square

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THE APPROACH Scorecard

Chill Game

40 SECONDS

Time allotted for making a shot on the PGA Tour, with 10 more seconds allowed for those playing a shot first

33 SECONDS

Chill temps and chill pros go low & slow on course

Average time it takes PGA Tour pros to play a shot on the green

2:26

21%

Percentage of PGA Tour pro respondents to a 2017 SI/GOLF.com questionnaire who voted Ben Crane as the slowest player on tour. Playing with Crane at the 2005 Booz Allen Classic, Rory Sabbatini famously played out No.17 on his own and walked to the next tee, leaving Crane to finish by himself.

# of holes in the longest-ever major playoff — Billy Burke winning the 1931 U.S. Open over George Von Elm

Avg minimum temp at the WGC Accenture Match Play, the Tour’s coldest tournament of the year [pgatour.com]

+ 3+ MINUTES

Time it took him to hit a 70-yard iron shot at the same tournament

4hrs 51min

72

40.8

Time it took Bryson DeChambeau to assess and then to hit an 8-foot putt at the 2019 Northern Trust. He missed.

29

Avg Jan temp

at Akureyi GC in Iceland, the world’s northernmost course

Time it took DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas to play their round at the 2019 Northern Trust

–19

Low temp

at Uummannaq’s World Ice Golf Tournament

–280

Temperature on the moon

where Alan Shepherd hit a 2.5-mile drive during the Apollo 14 mission All temps ˚F

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CREATING STUNNING PERFORMANCE SINCE 1959.

To shop, visit honmagolf.com

THE APPROACH Tech

ENTER THE GOLF M E TAV E R S E The metaverse offers “anytime” tee times, no crowds, and no bad weather. Maybe you need a vacation from reality...

Virtual reality headsets are now available at Target and other retailers for less than the cost of a new driver, and the experiences they offer can be transformational: launching into outer space, visiting the ocean floor, skydiving and a lot more. And then there are the VR golf games. They’re not serious training tools yet (the hardware is too limited for that) but the games are great fun, and for long winters, late nights or any day you can’t make it to a course, they offer a good escape.

Here’s a quick look at our favorites, all good arguments to go virtual.

Walkabout Mini Golf gameplay still / TouristTrap

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Besides space to swing, here’s what you’ll need:

VR HEADSET

Meta Quest2

Meta released the Quest Pro recently, but as much as we like

to have the latest/greatest, honestly, it’s overkill. Save yourself

$1,000 and get the Quest2. It doesn’t need to be tethered to a computer, it’s widely available, and it’s perfect for VR golf.

Valve Index VR Kit

Sony’s eagerly awaited successor to

graphics and performance, it could

for anyone who participates in the

a tethered headset) but in terms of be the best PC-based VR headset you can buy.

ACCESSORY DriVR Pro

Swinging VR controllers feels nothing at all like swinging a golf club; this gadget helps, with a weighted core and proper shaft/grip feel that

offers a much better VR golf game experience.

Secure your VR system’s controller at the end via the Velcro straps and then swing away.

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Sony PSVR2

It’s pricey and it requires a PC (it’s

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PSVR could be out any day now, and PlayStation universe, it could be a

worthwhile purchase. Stay tuned...

GAMES

Walkabout Mini Golf

For those happy to completely abandon reality, this epic mini golf game features wild environments, preposterously fun

challenges and the opportunity to play

some crazy themed courses, including one based on Jim Henson’s Labyrinth.

The Golf Club VR

Adequate and visually fine as a VR golf

game, this 2017 title still has appeal due to its interaction with VR controllers, a

range of difficulty settings, and satisfying putting experience.

Everybody’s Golf VR

This PS4 title is a great first VR golf step

GOLF+ TopGolf with ProPutt

for PlayStation owners, who should enjoy

Our top choice, as much for what you get

but it is a very good time and perhaps a

nicely rendered real golf courses being

its fun gameplay. A pro game this is not, good way to get someone interested in the game...

as for the engaging gameplay. Along with available, such as Wolf Creek, Kentucky’s Valhalla, Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course

and more, there’s a proper Topgolf game

built in and incredible putting courses via

exVRience Golf Club

This game, available to play but still being

developed, offers sharp graphics, immersive landscapes (such as red rock canyons

with flowing water), and a tranquil overall

environment, with soft nature sounds and absolutely beautiful golf courses.

ProPutt by Topgolf.

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THE APPROACH Live Like A King

LIVE LIKE A KING

Where Arnold Palmer shows you how to be a better person

Believe

“What if I shot 65?”

I spoke up, chewing my burger.

“Two-eighty always wins the Open. What would that do?”

I meant exactly what I said. But they all looked at me as if I’d grown a second head, and [journalist Bob] Drum gave his usual cynical snort of derision. “Two-eighty won’t do you one damn bit of good,” he pronounced bluntly. I’d only taken a couple of bites of my burger, but I stopped chewing, ready to explode with anger at his remark. “Oh yeah?” I said.

“Watch and see.”

Edited excerpt from A Golfer’s Life, by Arnold Palmer

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eople who are winning often love to tell people who are struggling to “keep your chin up,” “make lemonade when life throws you lemons” and so on, which can be incredibly annoying when you’re down. Better not to catch lemons at all, and here we can take a cue from Arnold Palmer.

Starting the final round seven shots back and with 14 players in front of him, Palmer had no chance to win the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, or so everyone not named Arnold Palmer thought.

Palmer stormed out of lunch and smashed his opening drive to the front of the green on the par-4 first hole, making birdie there and on five of the next six holes, ultimately carding 65 for the day and winning the U.S. Open with a score of 280 for the championship.

Regarded as one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, it was perhaps the paramount example of Palmer’s positive mental attitude, which he summarized thusly: “I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.” The words of a champion, and a great perspective with which to start any day.

Magic or Mindset?

Paul Lawrie

1999 Open Championship Ten strokes back after the 3rd round, Paul Lawrie didn’t appear to be a likely Open champion in 1999. But then the leader, Jean Van de Velde, fell apart just as Lawrie came together. The Scotsman eventually forced a sudden-death playoff and won over four holes, beating Van de Velde and Justin Leonard with birdies on the last two holes.

Lasse Virén

1972 Olympics Not quite halfway through the 10,000m run at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Virén—a small-town policeman from Finland—stumbled and fell. Falling more than 20 meters behind while down, he nonetheless climbed to his feet and worked his way back into contention.

After an incredible burst that saw him pass Britain’s David Bedford, who’d led for much of the race, Virén went on to win the gold medal and to set a new world record in the event.

Buffalo Bills

1992 AFC Wild Card Game With Buffalo trailing the Houston Oilers 28–3 at the half, Bills backup QB Frank Reich, in for an injured Jim Kelly, threw a pick 6 just 1:41 into the second half and the game seemed over. But then the Bills scored 28 points in the third quarter, cutting the deficit from 32 points to 4 in just 6:52. Overtime and a 32-yard Buffalo FG attempt ensued. Though kicker Steve Christie was 50% from that range, he gave Buffalo the win and the largest comeback in NFL history. Incredibly, Reich had done the same thing in 1984 as the backup QB at Maryland, leading them from 31–0 at halftime to a 42–40 victory over Miami in what was then the largest comeback in college football history. Years later, as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, Reich had this to say to his players: “Create the mindset that you are built for anything.”

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SAINT VINCENT COLLEGE H O M E TO T H E W I N N I E PA L M E R N AT U R E R E S E RV E

P

reparing for a successful, meaningful life starts here.

More than ever, colleges must ask: what is our role in

97% of recent graduates are employed or furthering their education

preparing young people for the future of work and for

building a society of shared responsibility, values and justice? At Saint Vincent College, faculty, students and staff learn to walk the walk, but never alone. You learn that only when we can lift up human dignity can we move the world forward.

U.S. News and World Report: First-tier national liberal arts college

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2897

THE APPROACH Giving Game

Member for a Day

L

Eric Sedransk gets laid off, starts an organization that offers once-in-alifetime experiences, raises millions for charity, and does it all through golf.

We like this guy.

Eric and Hilton Head

ike many who were laid off during COVID, Eric Sedransk used his unexpected free time to reflect. He’d been working in business development with New York City tech companies, but the pandemic— and a few days on a golf course—shifted his perspective and priorities a bit. The result was Member for a Day, an effort that auctions off “member for a day” experiences at some of the nicest private clubs around, and gets auction winners behind the gates to play golf and to enjoy the clubhouse with a member.

Enthusiastically supported by such venues as Shinnecock Hills, Mid Ocean Club, Prestwick in Scotland, and others, Member for a Day has raised millions for a wide range of charities—and it all started with the loss of a job.

“Everything was going well, life was good, and then COVID hit and I got laid off,” says Sedransk. When NYC officials announced that the bridges and tunnels would close as part of the city’s lockdown protocols, Sedransk felt he had to make a choice: stay and weather the storm for who knows how long, or get out of town.

“I thought, ‘I’ve gotta get out of here,’” he remembers, “and thankfully I had a car [many NYC residents do not keep a car in the city]. I left on March 16th, it was 25˚F, and I booked it to Hilton Head Island where my mom lived. Twelve hours later I was there, and it was 72˚F and sunny. The weather was perfect and, though the beaches were kind of closed, the golf courses stayed open.”

Sedransk spent the days playing golf, visiting with his mother and mulling over what to do next. In contrast, his friends, many of whom remained in the NYC area, were dealing with urban pandemic realities, and it hit him hard.

“I was looking on social media and all of my friends are taping their windows

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Member for a Day gets people on amazing golf properties—for great causes

shut,” he says. “I had one friend who didn’t go outside for two weeks. I started feeling really guilty about my surroundings, thinking ‘I wish I could take 20 of my friends and have them camp out in my back yard.’ I’d just lost my father, it was a really powerful time for me, and I had this moment where I’d been speaking to a couple of companies, but I hit the pause button and thought, ‘Why don’t I do something positive?’”

Sedransk said he saw reports that frontline medical workers in NYC were eating out of vending machines—“frankly, I thought that was a bunch of BS”—and so he decided to start by helping them, raising money to purchase and deliver food to the medical community. The only question was “how?”

During what he calls a “fateful bike ride,” Sedransk had an epiphany of sorts: what if he could get people behind the gates of some of golf ’s most storied clubs, get them on course for a member experience?

How much would someone pay for a day like that, he wondered.

Sedransk says he reached out to Rolling Green Golf Club, the beautiful

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1926 William Flynn design outside of Philadelphia, to ask if it would be possible to auction off a “member for a day” experience, and he says he only half expected a response.

“They wrote back in 5 minutes and said ‘We’re in,’” he remembers. “Two weeks later I got 20 more exclusive golf clubs to say ‘yes,’ including Shinnecock Hills.”

With his first auction, Sedransk says he figured he’d raise $20,000 or so—but he did a bit better than that...

“We ended up raising over $101,000 in a week, which equated to 12,000 meals that we purchased from local NYC restaurants that were struggling, and hand-delivered to frontline workers,” he says. “That was the start.”

While some clubs’ bylaws prevent them from participating, the response from venues has been tremendous. To date, Member for a Day has auctioned off rounds at 75 of the top 100 courses in the United States. Additionally, they’ve auctioned rounds of golf with celebrities such as Bo Jackson; Clyde Drexler; Ken Griffey Jr.; Bill Murray; Rob Riggle and other athletes, actors and VIPs.

The proceeds—more than $3 million so far—have benefited a wide range of charities, including the American Cancer Society; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; First Tee; Hope Connections; and many, many more.

“We’ve worked with 75 nonprofits,” Sedransk explains. “They often use their contacts to get the golf experiences. So ‘donor X,’ who donates however much per year, is a member of Winged Foot or Bel Air, and instead of saying, ‘Can you cut another check?’ they ask if he could maybe play another round and we’ll auction it off. When the members go to the head pro and say ‘I want to auction off a round for charity,’ 99 percent of the clubs say yes, and 80 percent of every dollar we raise goes to charity.”

Member for a Day doesn’t just auction off the round; they also do the scheduling and the fulfillment of the golf experiences.

Sedransk says that he’s been heartened by the change made possible through golf, and he’s beginning to see it firsthand. This year, he’s hoping to visit Africa to see the change effected by Golf Fore Africa, an organization founded by Hall of Fame golfer Betsy King that’s working to end the water crisis in Zambia. Sedransk says that $15,000 builds a well that gives clean water to a town that hasn’t had it previously, and that Member for a Day has helped to fund the building of 15 wells.

“Hopefully I’ll see it with my own eyes, film it with my own cameras,” he says. “You get to play Crystal Downs and Fisher Island, and that’s wonderful. But the $18,000 you spent to play funded a well in Africa and that’s incredible.

“Everything that’s happened since we first fed the frontline workers was never planned; I was just trying to help some people. This whole experience, it’s been this amazing journey—and it’s only just beginning.”

To learn more, visit memberforaday.com

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THE APPROACH Away Home

OLD LIGHTHOUSE GOLF & OCEAN CLUB Luxury living and sublime golf where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortés

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E

very now and then a golf destination offers a feeling of discovery, one that revitalizes your perspective on the game and which inspires some kind of life shift. Old Lighthouse Golf & Ocean Club is one such destination for us, sited in a dynamic natural environment at the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula. The private neighborhood is adjacent to the Quivira Los Cabos Resort, not far from downtown Cabo San Lucas, and is gilded by golden beaches and the bold waters of the Pacific Ocean mixing with the Sea of Cortés. The on-site Quivira Golf Club features a Jack Nicklaus Signature course that offers ocean views from every hole and stunning play that begs to be revisited. It’s the kind of place that compels you to raise your head, look around and exclaim “wow” every now and then, natural beauty and vibrant modern luxury mixed with a rich history. That includes the 1905 El Faro Viejo Lighthouse for which the club is named, and the dramatic bluffs, soft dunes and native desert that populate the property. A complete experience, and one that could be a home away from home, ready to be discovered south of the border.

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LA VIDA BONITA

Old Lighthouse Golf & Ocean Club offers a range of luxury residential options, in addition to world-class amenities that can only be found in private communities of this caliber. Options are viewable at Lighthouse.golf, but here are a few highlights:

Luxury Residential

The most dramatic piece of land in all of Cabo San Lucas, this exclusive gated neighborhood offers homesites in addition to carefully designed villas featuring a variety of floorplans, with exceptional views and the serenity of t rue indoor/outdoor living.

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Beach Club

Residents of Old Lighthouse Golf & Ocean Club will have exclusive access to a private beach club featuring a collection of pools, dining and fitness facilities, and a wave pool where members and guests can refine their surfing and body boarding skills in the privacy of their own backyard.

Private Nicklaus Signature Golf

In addition to the Quivira golf course, Old Lighthouse Golf & Ocean Club members will have their own private club and course, reserved for those who appreciate the most exclusive access.

LUXURY GOODS | CRAFTED FOR THE DRIVEN | FILLED WITH PURPOSE

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THE APPROACH Getaway

Sandals Emerald Bay Complimentary green fees at a pro tournament venue—and an inclusive luxury resort experience? We’re in

T

hat PGA Tour events take place in beautiful destinations is no surprise, but few offer the combination of idyllic setting, compelling competition and real accessibility as The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay. Staged each January (the 2023 event runs January 12–18), the season-opening Korn Ferry tournament showcases serious talent on one of the Caribbean’s best tracks. What’s more, the fan tournament experience eclipses what’s available elsewhere, with all guests receiving complimentary spectator passes (on resort), “we should do this” pricing for golf buddies and a pro-am that brings tremendous experience-for-cost to the consideration table. Even if you can’t make it for the tournament proper, the resort is an unbelievable golf destination, with seemingly iridescent turquoise waters framing white-sand beaches next to a Greg Norman-designed championship course. As an all-inclusive resort, the adults-only Sandals Emerald Bay offers daily land and water sports, elegant villas and suites, 11 outstanding restaurants and six bars along a pristine, mile-long beach, and that’s enough to compel anyone in need of a break to the stress-free destination. Add three pools, 500 tropical acres and— amazingly—no green fees for multiple rounds on the golf course, and it’s a no-brainer. Truly, this is the stuff of which island dreams are made.

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BEST PART OF THE JOURNEY

STOPOVER IN ISTANBUL

Terms and conditions apply, visit turkishairlines.com *50 countries (departure point): Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Ghana, Greece, Ireland, India, Iran, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States of America. **Planned 7 countries (departure point): Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bahrain, South Korea.

Turkish Airlines invites passengers to discover unique wonders of Istanbul with stopover accommodation service.

As the airline that connects more countries than any other, Turkish Airlines offers the opportunity of discovering world’s connection center Istanbul and its unique wonders with stopover service for the passengers with lengthy transfer times.

For passengers with long stopover time in Istanbul, Turkish Airlines provides 1-night stay in a 4-star hotel for Economy Class and 2 nights stay in a 5-star hotel for Business Class. Passengers will also have the option of staying at contracted hotels with special prices starting from 49 USD. Transfer passengers from 50 countries* experienced the privilege of discovering Istanbul with stopover service so far.

The scope of the service will be expanded with 7 newdeparture countries** in 2022.

2 0 2 2 Recognizing the best in Golf & Lifestyle

Y

ou should know that no measuring tapes, robotic product testing or sophisticated AI-driven scoring setups were used for our first ever “Best of ” list. We didn’t list TPC Sawgrass’ No.17 as an iconic hole, because you already know that it is. In fact, we steered around many deserving but obvious inclusions on the following pages, some of which might be your favorites, and that’s absolutely fine.

What you will find in The Kingdom List are honest celebrations of fantastic places, people, and things, with a few cocktails and good meals thrown in. All of the following are favorites of staff or of our esteemed List panel, which includes Annika Sorenstam, Rocco Mediate, cocktail legend Tony Abou-Ganim and others. Basic criteria for inclusion were simple: “Does it make you happy? And would you bring your friends?”

The following met our standards, and we hope that they meet yours. Listed in no particular order, here are our favorites:

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Photo: Jacob Sjöman

New Zealand Getting here is part of the allure, but courses like Cape Kidnappers (pictured), Tara Iti and the new courses at Te Arai Links will keep you coming back

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Photo: Christian Hafer

Wisconsin Courses like Erin Hills (pictured) along with Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run and more make Wisconsin a game destination

Best Golf Destinations It takes more than just one great course to be a great golf destination—and the following places have plenty to offer

Hilton Head Island, SC 23 great golf courses and a range of accommodations Nebraska Sandhills America’s largely unheralded golf superstar Inverness, Scotland Lots of whisky, too; worth a journey off the beaten track Oregon Coast Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails…

N. Island, New Zealand (Featured on previous page)

Belek, Turkey Challenging Portugal for Europe’s first choice as the ultimate golf getaway Novia Scotia Cabot Cape Breton, Cabot Cliffs, Fox Harb’r and an emotional landscape Netherlands Beautifully rising up the European rankings Northern Ireland Coast Links don’t come better than these

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Favorite Holes Is it the strategic puzzle it presents?

The length? The view? Or is it all of the above? For so many reasons, these leave us satisfied

Ballybunion, Ireland No. 16 (cover) The Cashen Course’s beachside beauty Tralee, Ireland No. 17 Stunning par-4 that runs along the shoreline Pebble Beach, CA No. 7 Short, puzzling, and timeless all at once Manele, HI No. 12 A tropical beauty of a clifftop par-3

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Mauna Kea Beach, HI No. 3 Another par-3 with a lot of carry over the sea, but with a tee box for every level Moonlight Basin, MT No. 17 A dramatic par-5 that falls off the mountain TPC Jasna Polana, NJ No. 8 Beauty and the beast in one par-3 on this jewel of a Gary Player design Whistling Straits, Straits Course, WI No. 4 Rated the toughest hole on his Pete Dye masterpiece

Trevose, England No. 4 A short par-5 in amongst dramatic dunes at this Cornish Harry Colt classic

Photo: J. Lovett

Bay Hill, FL No. 17 Perfect Palmer expression of a high-pressure par-3

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Photo: Ricky Robinson

Te Arai Links (South), NZ A links masterpiece by Coore & Crenshaw

Best New Courses Plenty of new golf courses appear, not all of them have us packing our bags in anticipation—but these do

Les Bordes New Course, France Home to Gil Hanse’s first-ever design in Continental Europe RainDance National Resort, CO High altitude golf on the Harrison Minchew/Fred Funk creation Driftwood Golf & Ranch Club, TX A Tom Fazio design surrounded by vineyards on an 800-acre property Fasano Las Piedras, Uruguay Following up on the original nine by Arnold Palmer, APDC adds nine more

Jonathan’s Landing, FL Gil Hanse has redesigned the Jupiter course Cola De Lagarto, Atlixco, Mexico A Jim Engh design laid out at the feet of the Popocatepeti volcano American Dunes, MI Jack Nicklaus redesign at the club devoted to the Folds of Honor charity Costa Navarino, Greece The Hills Course and International Olympic Academy Course Landmand GC, NE Dynamic innovation from the Sweetens Cove team

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Leopard Creek, South Africa Championship golf on the edge of the Kruger National Park

Best Golf Experiences Places that add a little something extra, a bit of magic beyond the round

Big Cedar Lodge, MO So much to do beyond its five courses, including one from Woods

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Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland Spectacular clifftop golf matched by the finest Irish hospitality

St Andrews, Scotland The Home of Golf, where all golfers can still enjoy access to the world’s original 18-hole golf course

Quinta do Lago, Portugal Setting the European golf resort standard

Linna Golf, Finland 24 hours of around-the-clock golf in mid-summer; coffee, please

Copper Creek, CO Flattering distances at the highestaltitude course in the U.S

Four Seasons Lana’i, HI The ultimate Hawaiian golf and luxury hospitality getaway

Pinehurst, NC One of the world’s most comprehensive golf destinations

Streamsong, FL There’s something different about this sun-splashed Florida track...

Game Changers Making a difference in the game we love—for better or worse

Tiger Woods Arguably the game’s greatest player, now leading champion of the PGA Tour’s future Annika Sorenstam Driving the game forward with an LPGA Tour event, foundation and youth program Herb Kohler The man who brought the majors and Ryder Cup to the shores of Lake Michigan Se Ri Pak The legend is still leading and inspiring golfers in South Korea and beyond Rory McIlroy Still in the prime of his playing career, McIlroy has become an authoritative voice for preserving the game

“It’s incredible. It’s a moment I will remember for a long, long time. It’s my 21st PGA Tour win and one more than someone else”

Greg Norman There’s no questioning that “The Shark” shook things up with his LIV Golf Kieron Van Wyk The first black golfer in CAA history to win league medallist honors; future star?

Pierson Huyck Youngest golfer ever to compete in the U.S. Amateur, aged 12, setting a new bar Mike Whan CEO of the USGA, with crucial influence over the U.S. Open and more Phil Mickelson Led the player revolt to LIV, had an explosive interview, forever altered his legacy

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Nothing like celebrating (or forgetting) a round; here are our favorite ways to do either

Black Velvet Half Guinness, half Champagne, it might sound unlikely but the combination is velvet smooth Bay Hill Hummer Invented by Arnold Palmer himself, this works as a drink or dessert Bay Harbor Old Fashioned A Michigan/Hemingway twist on the classic cocktail, swapping-in rum for bourbon Desert Heat Out of Mid-century Hollywood and the Omni Rancho Las Palmas, a jalapeño and tequila beauty Dewar’s Lemon Wedge The official drink of the U.S. Open is a simple and refreshing whisky cocktail for summer

Best 19th Hole Cocktails

Makai Tai Fresh-pressed juice meets spiced rum and Hawaiian vodka at the Makai Princeville Wild Rose Lemonade Created at the Fairmont Banff Springs with the local wild rose plant Azalea The Masters favorite made from dry gin, lemon, pineapple and grenadine Transfusion Some say President Eisenhower invented this at Eldorado CC: ginger ale, vodka, grape juice and lime Upper Course 75 (Baltusrol, NJ) Elderflower balances with gin and grapefruit before being topped with Schramsberg Blanc De Blancs

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Aqualuce Terme di Saturnia Resort, Italy Perfectly executed Italian food, and a Michelin star

Best Club Food & Beverage Great clubs have great restaurants and bars— we rate the fare at all of these

The Immigrant Restaurant American Club, Kohler, WI A tribute to workers, and a brilliant dining experience

Ocean Room, Kiawah, SC Offering a seasonal menu, local produce and meticulous execution by a polished team

Panorama Cabot Links, Nova Scotia Stunning views, stunning food, amazing wine list

Japanese Grill Beaverbrook, England Authentic Japanese cuisine at one of the finest young clubs in the UK

Andrew Fairlie Gleneagles, Scotland Centerpiece of the famous Gleneagles hotel, this is Scotland’s only 2-Michelin star restaurant

Palmer’s Steakhouse, The Landings, GA Great steaks, beautiful setting and architectural innovation combined

Plancha, Tranquilo GC, Four Seasons Orlando Straightforward fare (e.g. a great Cuban sandwich) plus sips & cigars

Dismal River, Nebraska Exactly where you want a steak and bourbon—and both are great here Vistas Rui Silvestre, Portugal Chef Rui Silvestre brings creativity and refinement to this Michelinstarred restaurant

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Gem Carts Luxury golf carts that are street legal and perfect for the resort residence

Scan for full list

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Best Products & Accessories Our favorite tools for playing or celebrating the game this year, on course and off

Luxury Mullybox A surprise array of golf ’s latest accessories and apparel delivered four times a year Bushnell Pro X3 Rangefinder Our absolute gold standard for rangefinders this year Scotty Cameron Phantom X5 A beautifully balanced mallet with the topline aesthetics of a traditional putter Vessel Pro Staff golf bag The finest tour-level golf bag on the market, to our minds Ping Chipr The innovative new chipping iron out-selling supply

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Holderness & Bourne King’s Vest Warm and insulated yet light and flexible, Kingdom’s gillet of choice Stewart Golf Q Follow The latest generation golf caddie that follows its golfer via Bluetooth connection Ecco Biom Golf C4 Fashionable spikeless shoes for on and off course Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 speaker Portable speaker with luxuriously detailed sound

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FEATURE Leadership

LEADING WITH HUMILITY For a sensitive guy who would rather not make speeches and who feels the pain when he has to sit players out in team golf events, Davis Love III has made one heck of a captain for the United States, across the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. Ahead of his appearance at the 2022 Kingdom Cup on Hilton Head Island, not far from where he grew up, Love spoke to Robin Barwick about the highs and lows of being the skipper, and shared his candid views on how LIV Golf is trying to redefine tour golf

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D Davis Love III brought a special brand of leadership to the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow. His job was to prepare and lead 12 American golfers into match play competition against 12 Internationals, not to be the spokesperson for the PGA Tour in its ongoing, foreboding battle against the breakaway LIV Tour led

by Greg Norman. But this crisis has engulfed tour golf at the highest level and, rather than ignore the unwelcome distraction in Charlotte, N.C. in September, Love ran at it head-on and spoke on behalf of everyone involved in the Presidents Cup, the biennial event owned and operated by the PGA Tour.

“We have 12 guys on each team who support the PGA Tour and who want to play in the Presidents Cup and who are fired up to be on these teams,” stated Love, 58, in a preview press conference. At the opening ceremony he talked about 24 golfers at Quail Hollow who were “committed” to the PGA Tour. Carefully selected words saved for the most impactful moments. Love stepped into the breech so that his players didn’t need to.

He took care of the politics so they could concentrate on the golf. In other words, he displayed Captaincy.

A few weeks later—after Love had steered the United States to a 17.5 – 12.5 victory over Trevor Immelman’s Internationals, and before he joined Kingdom magazine and friends at the 2022 Kingdom Cup on Hilton Head Island—he had more to say on arguably the most significant rift ever to blight the tour golf fraternity.

“Our guys [playing on the PGA Tour] are just fed up with it,” starts Love, who has become a model for modern American team captaincy, having now captained the Presidents Cup team once and the Ryder Cup team twice (on the losing team at Medinah in 2012 and then basking in redemptive glory at Hazeltine in 2016).

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“There was never a discussion or a question or even a mention by our team of the LIV players during the Presidents Cup. No one even said: ‘Man, too bad we don’t have Dustin [Johnson].”

Former world number one Johnson surely would have found a place on Love’s team had he not resigned his membership of the PGA Tour to join LIV in June. Other defectors to LIV who could have figured on the Presidents Cup team include Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, while the Internationals might have drawn on the talents of [British] Open champ Cameron Smith, Branden Grace, Charl Schwartzel and Joaquin Niemann, among others.

As the American team focus now shifts back to the Ryder Cup, to be held at Rome’s Marco Simone Golf and Country Club from September 30, 2023, there is little prospect of any LIV golfers making a prodigal return.

“From the American side, there is no intention of letting the LIV golfers playing on our teams,” adds Love.

“It is pretty cut and dried right now.

[Left] Davis Love III wins the PGA Championship at Winged Foot in 1997; partnering David Duval in the 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club, Brookline

“I think Greg Norman misled some golfers”

“Those guys made their decision and it’s over. We won’t be wondering if Dustin will be able to play or not next year—that will be the furthest thing from our minds—we’ll be wondering if Keegan Bradley is going to play his way onto the team again.

“I think Greg Norman misled some golfers to think that they would get World Ranking points and that everything would be hunky dory, and that the PGA Tour would settle the lawsuit out of court; that the PGA Tour can’t suspend players. I think some of the younger guys who went to LIV might now be questioning how things are working out.”

Setting the new standard

A winner on the PGA Tour 21 times, Love became a major champ at the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot in New York. Love bettered Justin Leonard by five shots that week, having battled through heavy rain in the final round. A rainbow appeared over the clubhouse as Love holed the final putt of a particularly emotional

victory, as Love’s father, Davis Love Jnr., was a renowned club pro and PGA of America member, who died in a plane crash in 1988 at the age of 53. It was all the more fitting that Davis Love III’s brother Mark was on his bag for Love’s crowning moment.

Six times a Ryder Cup player, six times on the Presidents Cup team, six times an assistant captain across both teams and one of the most popular and respected golfers in America, Love was even more certain to become a United States team captain than he was to win at Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island, which he did five times on the PGA Tour between 1987 and 2003.

“I am a pro golfer, meaning that I play in professional tournaments, but my dad was a golf professional, which to me means something completely different,” reflects Love, in considering his approach to team captaincy. “My dad was a custodian of the game; he was there to teach and to help his members enjoy playing golf and to be the host of the club, the teacher, the starter on the first tee. He was all those things to his members and I always admired that. My father’s members and students looked up to him and got enjoyment from the game through him.

“As a player on tour you don’t really get to contribute to others like that. You might help a younger player or some kids, but for me, being a captain was a way of doing this.”

When his captaincy debut arrived in the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, Love was a figure of organisation, calm and control in contrast to his European counterpart, Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal, who didn’t communicate with his team or with the media with the assurance of Love, and who wrestled all week with the emotion of captaining the European Ryder Cup team just a year after his great friend, compatriot and past Ryder Cup teammate Seve Ballesteros had died (aged 54).

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[Top] Ryder Cup celebrations at Hazeltine in 2016; Arnold Palmer & Love at the Presidents Cup in 1996 when Palmer was captain

“I relished the captain’s role because I wanted to give something back to the players,” adds Love. “I have played for some great captains—the greats of the game like Arnold Palmer, Hale Irwin, Ken Venturi, Jack Nicklaus— and then there have been friends like Tom Kite, so I wanted to do for the players what these guys had done for me. As Tom Watson said at my first Ryder Cup: ‘We are going on a great adventure,’ and I wanted to carry that on.”

Love’s plan and pairings seemed faultless until late in the day on the Saturday, when Europe’s Ian Poulter summoned a flurry of some of the finest match play golf ever played to steal the American momentum. Still, the home side took a four-point lead into the Sunday’s decisive singles matches.

But instead of top-loading his singles order with his in-form players to win the early points and re-gain the momentum, Love left too much form too late in his order, including Tiger Woods. Europe held the momentum and mounted the biggest comeback by an away team in Ryder Cup history. They call it “The Miracle in Medinah” in Europe, not so much in America.

“In 2012, at the end of that Ryder Cup I had that feeling that we had done something wrong, that I had done something wrong, and that I had contributed to the bad Sunday we had,” admits Love.

“I sat down with Darren Clarke [European assistant captain in Medinah], late that night, out the back of the hotel with a cigar and he asked: ‘Why didn’t you load the boat? That is what we have done to you guys and that is what you did to us at Brookline in 1999’.”

“I explained that we did this, that and the other with our singles order and he said: ‘That’s B.S. Always, always load the boat early’.”

“If you pick up the phone to Tiger, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk and ask them what we should have done differently at Medinah, they would all say that we should have put out the players who were playing best out first in the singles. We should have led with Tiger, Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson, the guys who were on a roll.”

Unfortunately for Europe, the PGA of America invited Love to return as Ryder Cup captain four years later, for the 2016 chapter at Hazeltine. There was a sense of irony as Love’s great friend Clarke was European captain that year, and perhaps Clarke regretted the advice he had given Love four years before, as come the singles at Hazeltine, the in-form Patrick Reed defeated European talisman Rory McIlroy in a riveting opening match to

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[Left] The victorious 2022 US Presidents Cup team; Love on-course with Max Homa

“Don’t go rushing around in a panic. Act like we have this all figured out” quell another European fightback. Love had top-loaded his singles order. It was close for a while but Love’s United States team eventually came out convincing winners, lifting the Ryder Cup for the first time since 2008.

“Thanks to Darren and other conversations we have had, whether we are four ahead or four behind, we want to grab the singles momentum early,” adds Love. “We have done that ever since. In Charlotte [in the 2022 Presidents Cup] we were four ahead going into the singles but we had a specific singles order to get us as many points as possible early on and then to have a guy or two at the end in case something went wrong.”

Now that Love has mastered the difficult, all-consuming, multi-faceted art of team captaincy, he is ready to take a step back.

“I feel like I have over-stayed my welcome at a friend’s house and it is time for me to go home,” says Love with a laugh and some typical modesty. “I know Zach [Johnson] has a great plan for Italy and I am going to help him out where I can, but I am done with captaincy now and I can pass it on to the next generation.”

Johnson can look forward to receiving this kind of advice from his good friend Love, if he has not already: “Bob Rotella, my sports psychologist, told me early on: ‘If you act like it’s no big deal, and act like you have it all figured out—even if you don’t—it will calm down the

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players’. That was great advice and I said to my assistant captains at the Presidents Cup: ‘Don’t go rushing around in a panic. Act like we have this all figured out’. When we get excited it’s very easy to run around.

“I didn’t know I would still be a captain this long but I really wanted to pass on what I received. It was always part of my upbringing; to do for others and to have a servant’s heart.”

A case in point was the Sunday night before the recent Presidents Cup. Max Homa, fresh off his victory in the Fortinet Championship at Silverado, California, didn’t get into Charlotte until 2:30am on the Monday, yet Love joined tour staffer Matt Horton to collect Homa from the airport.

Recalls Love: “Max was like, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, ‘I am helping with your luggage’. The next day Max said, ‘I can’t believe you came to meet me,” and I said, ‘That’s what we do’.”

That’s a captain for whom a team of golf mega-stars wants to give their all.

“It’s been fun for me,” says Love. “The guys who have played around me on the Ryder Cup know that I am just there to help. I am not there to tell them what to do or to be a coach. I am there to do whatever I can to help them to succeed.”

As long as the leadership, thinking and compassion of Davis Love III remains in the picture, the succession of American team captains could not be better grounded—a bright future, indeed.

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FEATURE Brandon Matthews

Many roads lead to the PGA Tour, some longer and more twisty than others. At 28, Pennsylvania’s Brandon Matthews has endured his share of potholes and hard turns, but it all helped to hone his unfathomable natural talent into a game that’s ready for the PGA Tour. Here, Matthews speaks to Robin Barwick about the journey, and why it’s just begun...

A As Brandon Matthews settles into his rookie season as a card-holder on the PGA Tour, it is worth taking a moment to consider how the epic battle between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf looks to a new recruit on golf ’s preeminent stage.

Matthews has been around the rollercoaster of feeder tour golf, paying his dues on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour LatinoAmerica since turning pro in 2016.

Seven top-25 finishes in the first half of this year on the Korn Ferry—highlighted by victory in the Astara Golf Championship in Columbia—sealed Matthew’s first PGA Tour card, yet just as he realizes his boyhood ambition, the Pennsylvania golfer finds a pro game divided and the two sides digging in.

“I am a big believer in hard work,” starts Matthews, 28.

“I grew up in a little town called Dupont, PA, and I was fortunate to grow up realizing what a great work ethic and dedication can achieve. I have never been handed anything out there in my life. I have always gone out there and earned it, and that is kind of the model of the PGA Tour.

“The PGA Tour goes hand in hand with the way I have treated my entire life. Hard work solves a lot of problems—and so does winning. If I can put in the work and play some good golf, everything else will take care of itself.”

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PL AY ING

WITH

HEART

Matthews is not suggesting that LIV Golf players don’t work hard—of course some of them do—but it is a reference to the reportedly incredible sums of money paid to players on the Greg Norman-led enterprize, much of which has been paid no matter how they perform, and in tournaments without a halfway cut.

Adds Matthews: “There comes a point when you have to ask: how much is enough money? If I play solid golf on the PGA Tour there is no way I could say that I am not making enough money. In my opinion that is how everyone on the PGA Tour should feel, but not everyone does. It is about hard work and integrity.”

As a point of comparison, for its 2022-23 season the PGA Tour is staging 47 events—including the four majors and FedExCup Playoffs—with a combined purse of $490 million, with another $145 million slated for player bonuses. It is the biggest prize offering by the PGA Tour ever, compared to the $405 million offered by LIV for its 14-tournament schedule in 2023, on top of fees simply for signing on.

“For me, being a rookie this upcoming season is the best time ever to be a rookie on the PGA Tour, with the increase in purses,” adds Matthews. “At the end of the day, I would never give up the opportunity to play on the PGA Tour.”

Phily flyer Dupont is a little over 100 miles north of Philadelphia, and about the same distance west from New York City.

Before golf took over Matthews’ life in his mid-teens, the die-hard Phillies fan started on the mound, burning holes in catchers’ mitts with a killer fastball in Little League, at high school and on travelling teams. He was a power hitter too, but there can often be a downside to being a pitcher of rare ability and aspiring to be the next Cole Hamels, as too many coaches want to focus on pitching only and leave the batting to the others. That can take a lot of fun out of baseball when you pitch 80mph yet can also crack 40 homers.

“I was all-in with baseball from the age of nine to 14,” recalls Matthews. “I fitted-in golf when I could back then, but it was around my sophomore year of high school that I went all-in with golf, and from that point I didn’t really play any other sports competitively.”

Matthews’ dad, Ted—also a talented athlete who turned from baseball to golf—started taking his son to Emanon Country Club when he was five, and where the young Matthews could play for $50 a year.

“It is a great, great club,” says Matthews. “The course is less than 6,000 yards long and it has some of the greatest guys you could ask for as members. It is very blue collar and laid back and everybody pokes fun at each other all the time. So I learned to give it out and to take it at a very young age. That place is all about fun and it was really a blessing to grow up there around all those people.”

Ted Matthews told his son to hit the golf ball hard— as Deacon Palmer told his son Arnold a few decades before on the other side of Pennsylvania, at Latrobe CC—but the problem with the young Matthews was that with a driver in his hands, he soon outgrew the 5,665yard track at Emanon, and he has continued to out-drive most golf courses ever since. In the recently completed 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season, six-foot-four Matthews

Matthews awaits the trophy at the Astara Golf Championship at Country Club de Bogota [left]; and making his majors debut in the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club, Brookline [right]

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“At the end of the day, I would never give up the opportunity to play on the PGA Tour” was ranked fourth in driving distance with an average of 323.4 yards, but this stat does not tell the full story, and Matthews regularly bombs tee shots beyond 400 yards.

Once Matthews’ game began to get noticed among the high school ranks he was invited to play at Fox Hill CC, where the Tillinghast layout gave him almost 900 more yards to play with from the tips.

“I was fortunate to play at Fox Hill Country Club,” adds Matthews, “which was an outstanding place and really I made a bunch of lifelong friends there. Both at Emanon and Fox Hill I would get dropped off early in the morning and I’d get picked up at dark. There was a street light that lit up the corner of the parking lot and it was just bright enough to light up one corner of the putting green where they usually cut a hole. So after dark I would just putt for 20 minutes while waiting for one of my parents to pick me up.”

Matthews was crowned Interscholastic state champ in 2010 and starred at Temple University before joining the professional ranks.

A moment of class Fame came to Matthews unexpectedly. Playing in the 2019 Open de Argentina, Matthews reached a playoff against Colombia’s Ricardo Celia. At the end of a frustrating season plagued by back troubles and inconsistency, Matthews needed the win to earn Korn Ferry Tour status for 2020. Celia holed a birdie putt from 30 feet and Matthews needed a 12-footer to drop to keep his chance alive, but as he pulled the putter back a shout from the gallery distracted Matthews and the ball missed.

Trying hard to contain his emotions, Matthews could only remove his cap, shake hands with Celia and accept defeat. In the locker room afterwards Matthews was informed that the fan who disrupted the decisive putt has Down Syndrome and had become over-excited in the moment. It was Matthews’ immediate reaction that made him a social media sensation.

He asked to meet the fan, went out into the crowd, talked to him, hugged him and signed a glove and ball for him.

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“This is just the beginning. I have played some of the best golf of my life this year but I need to keep on getting better”

Matthews with his PGA Tour card after the Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha in August

“I just wanted to make sure he didn’t have any hurt feelings,” Matthews said afterwards. “I wanted to make sure it was a positive day for him. I wanted him to feel good about being there and continue to be a fan of golf.”

Displaying such empathy and perspective in a moment of profound disappointment earned Matthews worldwide acclaim, a Golf Channel interview and even a place in the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational on a sponsor exemption.

Things have turned around for Matthews since then.

He has made adjustments to his swing to keep his back troubles at bay, and in 2021 he won twice and was named Player of the Year on the PGA Tour LatinoAmerica.

“It is a constant process to make sure the swing stays where it needs to be for me to have sustainability with my body,” admits Matthews. “When old habits creep in, that is when I feel my back giving out a little bit. I have learned that even though I am only 28 I can’t just get up, grab a coffee and start warming up on the course. It took some

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time to realize that putting in that little bit of extra effort really was not that big of a deal in the long run. If I have a 7am tee time that alarm goes off at 3:15am, but it is all worth it. My exercise routine is a full hour and 15 minutes long before I even get to the golf course.

“My swing has become a lot more efficient. When my swing is efficient my body is working better and in a more fluid way, and so I don’t really lose a ton of power, but I try not to go full bore any more.”

Now a graduate from the Korn Ferry Tour, Matthews is bringing his talent, experience and sense of perspective to the main tour: “When I was a teenager my dad told me that if I actually wanted to continue to do this and work really hard at it and perhaps make a living playing golf one day, that I can never look at this as a job,” recalls Matthews, who tied the knot with wife Danielle in September.

“When you look at this as a job, then it becomes a job in your head, which makes it way less fun. He told me never to change the attitude that this is the greatest game in the world, and to never stop having fun with it.

“This is just beginning. I have played some of the best golf of my life this year, but I need to keep on getting better. I still need to improve on certain things and that is a mentality I have always had: to never be satisfied. It is cool to be at that stage where I am starting my career on the PGA Tour and I am going to put in the work to ensure I stay out there for a very long time.”

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FEATURE Holy City

Sunrise through the backseat taxi window was a pink peach blown kiss across the steeples of the Holy City. The sea was sat there waiting, content to hold the new light still until the wind blinked and scattered it all to pieces. I could’ve used a coffee but Clerks was still closed when I rolled downstairs in the dark, cold water on my face, not trying to bang my bag across the elevator floor. To be back in the hotel bed dreaming, and then another day with the salt of oysters, a bright warm breeze and the guy at the next table talking about the golf down here, the best ever, get your friends, you gotta do it. But I was flying home, stepping off the cobbled streets that lead forwards and backwards all at once. Time’s a funny thing in Charleston: there’s a lot of history, you’ve gotta keep up.

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C Charles Towne, Charleston, Chucktown, Chas, Silicon Harbor if you’re in tech, Holy City if you like your churches. There are some 400 of those here, although the moniker predates most of them, harkening to the 1700s when people and religions poured in from all over the world. The be-clocked spire at the city’s iconic St. Philip’s stands over a still-active congregation formed in 1680. But blocks from its cemetery, where signers of both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are buried, there are craft breweries, Safe Space rainbow stickers on shop windows, upscale galleries and a gastronomic scene to rival any major American city’s. That’s not to suggest Charleston is looking to leave anything behind; quite the contrary.

There are honey-slow days and stirring palms and chicken and waffles and ghosts tangled in Spanish moss and horse-drawn carriages and bless your heart and all of that “South,” as compellingly romantic and paradoxical as ever. But there’s more than magnolias going on here, no matter which century brings you.

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L-R: Cemetery at St. Philip’s; Waterfront Park; cake at Clerks; Charleston Market during morning setup

I’ve been here 20 years but they don’t call me local.

In Charleston, they measure time in generations

HAZEL “I’ve been here 20 years but they don’t call me local,” said a waiter at Frannie & The Fox. “It’s ‘my family has been here three generations, four generations.’ People in Charleston measure time differently.” I thought about that while I ate my pizza, enjoying good fennel sausage and a beautiful Nerello Mascalese. The woman next to me ordered the same and we struck up a conversation.

Turns out we had a friend in common, parallel careers, knew the same people. It takes forever to belong to Charleston, or maybe just one drink.

Nights found me at the elegant Spectator Hotel, where everyone gets a butler. Mine pressed me about pressing my pants and seemed genuinely disappointed to learn this quick trip was casual carry-on, everything wrinkle-free. He seemed downcast enough that I offered to run out and buy something worth pressing, but he said no, it was OK. And did he look a little disappointed? Between him and the rest of staff, The Spectator is proof positive that Southern hospitality is no myth. A lovely place to lay your head.

Mornings were coffee and a biscuit at Clerks, in the nearby Emeline hotel (home also to the excellent Frannie & The Fox), and then a walk through the

Charleston City Market, watching vendors set up along the four blocks of low buildings. A city father, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, ceded the land to Charleston in 1788 on condition that it be used as a market in perpetuity, and though it’s had ups and downs (there were only four vendors exhibiting in the 1940s) the market is as robust as ever today. It’s also easy to find.

[Hint: look on Market Street.] In general, Charleston is easy to get around, whether you’re marveling at old mansions south of Broad or assessing eateries on King Street. There are some navigational quirks, however: “Just Gogol it, look own-line.” That’s what a guy said when I asked directions to an historic house, and suddenly I was far less interested in the house and far more interested in making him say more words.

Charleston’s accent is a lowcountry boil of European, English, Gullah (historic African American community), Southern drawl and gin fizz. Some of it is real seersucker suit stuff, like “rivah” for river and “ro-ahd” for road, but there are curveballs like “hoose” for house and “stey-it” for state. And if you want to go deep, Legare St. is “luh-gree,” Huger is “you-gee,” and Hasell is “hay-zel.”

At least it’s easy to order oysters.

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Three days, three oyster bars, each a fantastic journey through the city, its people, and its food OYSTERS “It’s a food and beverage city, definitely,” confirmed Trevor, a bartender at the vibrant Bar 167 who said Charleston’s foodie reputation compelled him here from out of state. The new (opened this summer) Mediterranean-inspired space where Trevor works is a perfect example, with its luminous Italian Agate bar and dishes like Crispy Maitake with Pistachio Puree and Summer Truffle Honey. A brilliant place for a bite, the bar was meant to be a chance to grab a drink while you wait for your table downstairs at sister restaurant 167 Raw. And the wait there (no reservations taken) can be looooong, because Charlestonians love their oysters.

The first I had were at Pearlz, a local chain, and it’s here that I met Alex. Like Trevor, Alex is from out of state and, also like Trevor, Alex is particularly good at his job. I went through a tray of oysters while he schooled me on how the density of water determines how quickly oysters filter it, and how various seas and bodies of water have differing water densities, salinity and so on, accounting for the wide range of tastes among oysters. He mentioned that one of his favorite varieties—“among my top five, and I’ve tried hundreds”—is the Sunken Meadow. Loved the name, hadn’t heard of it. Upon learning this, Alex shucked one right up and refused to let me pay for it. “You’re going to get olive and brine and more,” he said confidently, and that was it exactly. The man knows oysters. My next stop was Leon’s Fine Poultry & Oyster Shop, home of “cheap

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beer and expensive Champagne.” It’s hard to go wrong here, listening to good music and eating fried chicken and Dixon Points, Belle du Jours and other oysters in a converted auto body shop with a bunch of friends you just met. Three days in town, three oyster bars, and my last was the simply named O-Bar at Oyster House, opposite my hotel. As straightforward as its name, the place was a perfect late afternoon oyster-and-a-cold-beer spot. It’s also where I met Kelly Roper, shucker and Charleston local. “I’ve been here my whole life,” he said.

We talked about Hammerhead oysters and North Shore Golds, living in Charleston and watching the tide of tourists fill the French Quarter and then empty out each season. “It’s like the rain,” he said. “If the tide’s high and it rains for 30 minutes, it floods.” “What floods?” I asked. “All of this,” he replied, gesturing out the window, “everything outside.” And it does.

KIAWAH & THE SEA In Chaucer’s The Man of Law’s Tale, the sea isn’t often specifically mentioned, but it drives and shapes the plot and main character. It is at once terrifying in that it is vast, unpredictable and untamable, and an example of divine goodness in that it protects the protagonist and, in some ways, effects her happiness. Charleston’s relationship with the sea is similar. The city has worked and played upon the sea since its earliest beginnings, but it also has tried to protect itself from the sea, with examples of original fortifications on display at the excellent Charleston Museum (the nation’s oldest museum, as it happens). The sea shapes the city, but the sea isn’t exactly the point of so much of what makes Charleston special. And even with a new seawall project currently under way, there’s no hard line between land and water here. With every good rain, the historic

L-R: Leon’s; Kelly Roper and the board at O-Bar; upstairs locker room at Kiawah’s Ocean Course, used by Rory and the gang

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The old guy in the dunes just staring out over the course? That’s Pete Dye; he does that all the time downtown floods and then eventually drains. Locals accept it as part of Charleston life.

“I’ve often had a bow wave on the front of my car,” said Michael, my car service driver and for 22 years a submarine sonar man. “I joined the Navy to see the world and they sent me here,” he laughed, explaining that he’s from Augusta, Georgia, about 150 miles west.

“I fell in love with Charleston as soon as I got here, and then I married a Charleston girl. You see something different every day, and the food is so good.”

No kidding. A week away from his 46th wedding anniversary, Michael told me he’s not particularly bothered about rain or driving through flooded streets.

“Well, you wouldn’t be,” I offered. “Even semi-retired, you’re still working under water.”

Like Charleston, Kiawah Island has a symbiotic relationship with the sea, and in the case of Pete Dye’s Ocean Course that relationship manifests pure beauty.

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Sited at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, on the easternmost end of the island, there are ten seaside holes here, but the entire layout is married to the Atlantic. It’s wind in your hair, salted sunshine, sea grasses whooshing like a Southern belle’s crinoline and one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had. The course was emboldened by Pete’s wife, Alice, a designer in her own right, who suggested the entire track be raised so that every hole had a sea view.

“There’s a funny story,” begins Bryan Hunter, the resort’s pansophic PR Director. “Some years ago, four guys came in from a round of golf and went up to a course attendant. ‘It’s not a problem and we don’t want to make trouble, but there’s an old man just sitting up in the dunes. He’s not causing any harm or anything, he’s just staring over the course, but it’s kind of weird.’ ‘That’s Pete Dye,’ the attendant replied. ‘He does that all the time.’

And then the four guys were like, ‘Hey! Can you take us back out there? We really want to meet him!’”

Some clubhouse walls are decorated with pictures of their golf course, some with pictures of members or tournaments. Much of the Ocean Course clubhouse is an homage to Pete and Alice: a statue of him out front, photos of the couple on the walls, architectural plans and so on. The feeling throughout the clubhouse is one of respect, and not just for the Dyes. And while I can’t speak for everyone, my personal experience at Kiawah was free of pretension, pleasantly absent at the majorand Ryder Cup-hosting venue. And did I mention the hamburger? Tremendous.

There’s not much left to write about the Ocean Course, which has [accurately] positive adjectives piled high on nearly every inch of its sublime layout.

It’s easy to forget that there are four other wonderful courses here as well, each with its own personality and clubhouse. Fazio, Nicklaus, Player and Clyde Johnston all have designs, and there’s a huge community besides with pools, a waterpark and nature center for kids, the lauded Roy Barth Tennis Center (now run by Roy’s son, Jonathan) and so much more. It’s a lifestyle and a destination, and with Wild Dunes Resort not far away and many other courses around as well, the guy at the next table had it right about the golf in Charleston: the best ever, get your friends, you gotta do it.

SUNRISE Bryan gave me a lift back into town, and on the way we stopped by the Angel Oak, a sprawling, tentacular Southern Live Oak tree estimated between 300 and 400 years old. That puts its birthday somewhere near the city’s. The older parts of the trunk are fragile and vulnerable, they no longer hold up, while the oak’s new offshoots are young, vibrant and strong. It’s a curious complement to Charleston, a city that owns and carries its past—the country’s past—but long ago moved forward, growing stronger and more vibrant each day. Dining with new friends at the excellent Hall’s Chophouse on my last evening in town, live jazz downstairs gilding the moment, I thought that I could stay in Charleston if I didn’t have to go. It’s one of those cities that makes you wonder what might have happened if you’d found it earlier. But then time’s a funny thing here, and there’ll be soft pink light and a waiting sea at the edge of town tomorrow. Perhaps now is the best time to be in Charleston after all.

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FEATURE Conversations

Everyone’s Game

Like so many, we at Kingdom are given to a little reflection around New Year’s. Recently, we’ve been looking back on just a few of the great conversations we’ve had with VIPs over the past two decades, interviews that have borne out Arnold Palmer’s assertion that “golf is the most democratic game on Earth; it punishes and exalts us all with splendid equal opportunity.” Here, then, are a few snippets from NFL heroes, rock stars and others, all equally entranced and frustrated by the game we love so much.

Hines Ward

FORMER NFL WIDE RECEIVER

On not killing it:

I always played and loved all the other sports: basketball, baseball, football… All those sports came easy to me. I love challenges, so I picked up a golf club, swung three times, and missed the ball. I was probably 17… Golf is more mental than anything. And it hurts as a pro [football] guy, being a running back or a linebacker, because you just have the drive to kill it every time. And that works against people who are strong, guys that have so much testosterone.

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Dan Marino

FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK

On not looking back:

The one thing in football that you have to learn as a quarterback—and golf helps you with this—is to stay focused and in the moment. You have to be thick-skinned as a quarterback. If something bad happens, like an interception or a fumble, you have to let it go away and look for the next opportunity. The game of golf is like that, too. You might hit a bad shot. You might miss a putt that you needed to make. But you are going to have more opportunities so you have to let it go.”

“There are not a lot of other things in life that I can compete in that are similar to what I experienced playing football. Golf is one of them. You are out there playing against the course… That gets the competitive side of me going again, and I enjoy that part of it.

“Mostly, I am one of those guys that takes my golf shoes out of the trunk, puts them on in the parking lot, hits a couple of balls and then goes and plays.”

Jim McMahon

FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK

On golfing barefoot:

I had my feet stepped on so many times by linemen that the restrictions I suffer wearing golf shoes now bring back those pains. It’s not a rule of golf that you have to wear shoes to play. In any case it helps me keep my tempo. It’s fine when I’m playing on grass or out of sand traps, but a little more awkward if I have to go into the cactus and rocks we get here in Arizona. That gives me an incentive to keep it straight! Mr. [Arnold] Palmer, who I met a few times, once asked me why I did it, and upon hearing the reason he commented that Sam Snead used to do it, ‘and it never did him any harm.’

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TOM GLAVINE

RETIRED MLB PITCHER

On strategy:

I look at a golf hole and try to figure out how I am going to attack that hole and execute my game plan. That means knowing what I do well and what I don’t do well and trying to stay away from getting into trouble by trying to make shots that I am not really capable of making, just like I do on the pitcher’s mound. You try to get beat (in baseball) with your number one or your number two pitch, not with your number three or your number four pitch. And the same is true for me on the golf course. If I am going to make a mistake, I am going to try to make the mistake hitting the shot that I think that I can hit, not pulling off the shot that I think that I can maybe hit one out of a hundred times.

DON FELDER

EAGLES GUITARIST

On being an individual: I first got involved in golf in Miami when I was on tour with The Eagles around 1975-76. We went there a lot. One week we chartered a boat and the sea was so rough that one of the guys went green around the gills. So we said, ‘let’s do something different, let’s go play golf.’ Three of us went out, rented clubs, wore jeans and sneakers, took a load of alcohol with us, and we had a wonderful time. We had so much fun we did it again the next weekend. After going home to LA we carried on playing, and Bill Szymczyk [who was producing The Eagles’ albums at the time] started hitting the ball further than 200 yards. So I started taking lessons because I certainly wasn’t going to be outdriven by him. As time went by, I fell in love with the game—and I got quite good at it at one point. It’s a game that suits people who are individuals. You have to rely on your own skills and talents. Musicians are like that. You can relate to it and you need coordination.

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CARSON DALY

MEDIA PERSONALITY

On finding the game:

[My stepfather] never tried to force anything in creating a relationship with me and my sister [Quinn]—we called him ‘Richard’ for a long time until we felt comfortable—but he led by example. The guy went to work and supported our family, and after a while you think, ‘This guy’s pretty solid.’ He played golf on Sundays and we would go to the club. I got lessons; didn’t like it at first and it wasn’t the greatest thing, but he never pushed it on me. And then the summer before my freshman year in high school I got bit by the golf bug. I came to the sport, and that summer all I wanted to do was golf.”

Carson Daly’s stepfather, Richard Caruso, died in 2017, after a career that included running the golf shop at Riviera Country Club. Daly caddied at Riviera and other courses as a young man, and at 18, chasing a career in golf, he dropped out of college and tried to qualify for the U.S. Open.

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TRAVEL New Orleans

M

ARDI

GR S A Kingdom’s civilized approach to Big Easy mayhem

I

f you find yourself standing amidst the fetid quiet of Bourbon St. after the last Mardi Gras parade has passed and the last tune has played, you will look down and think, “Oh hell, my shoes are ruined.” So vile is the slush of discarded cannikins, broken beads and human ejecta that one could be forgiven for writing off the Crescent City’s spring as the dominion of college Greeks, nomad bikers and those who’ve long since watched the wagon roll over the horizon. But hold, as the vibrant visage of booze, bared skin and no bathrooms is not the only face of the fête.

There are craft cocktails, luxe luncheons and black tie balls in the heart of the action—but not covered in the action—and it’s in this realm that the Kingdom Krewe of Golfus likes to play. Here’s how to keep your shirt on, your shoes clean and your cup filled. Allons-y to a five-star Mardi Gras.

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Stay

Four Seasons New Orleans. More than just a superlative five-star accommodation, the luxury hotel and private residences housed in the city’s former World Trade Center (previously home to foreign consulates and the Port of New Orleans HQ) is well-sited only a few blocks from the madness. The parade route is just blocks away, so getting to the revelry is easy enough.

Likewise, when you’re ready for some peace and quiet or a [clean] bathroom break, your luxury oasis is at hand.

The Four Seasons offers Mardi Gras-specific touches as well, and staff are always ready to help with a friendly recommendation for where to go (or not go). The 34th floor features incredible city viewing, as does the outdoor resort pool, which is a great place to gather for an afternoon cocktail or two. Get a river-view suite, start (or end) your evenings in the brilliant Chandelier Bar in the lobby, and this aspect of your trip will be well sorted.

Also, the hotel can arrange private tours and special experiences to suit any taste, making this an ideal home base from which to laissez les bons temps rouler.

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Just blocks from the action, the Four Seasons offers a relaxing oasis amidst the madness of Mardi Gras Watch

There’s nothing wrong with “winging it,” walking the town, viewing floats and catching beads as they fall from anywhere along the parade route, but if you’d rather have a dedicated viewing area, seating and, crucially, private restrooms, book VIP grandstand seating with a service such as NewOrleansParadeTickets.com. Reserved grandstand seating is available at various points along the route, and a VIP tent option adds shelter and facilities. This option is particularly good for families as one can still get right up to the floats, catch beads and so on, but you’re far less likely to be bumped-into (and spilled on) by someone who’s over-indulged.

Eat

Gents press your suits and ladies grab your fancy hats: lunch at Galatoire’s on the Friday before Mardi Gras is the place to be. Trouble is, Friday lunch here is popular any time of year, and during the festival the premium on seating goes to another level. Upstairs seats at the 1905 tony eatery are offered to guests who dined here the year before, and a Galatoire’s attendant assures us that patrons rarely give up their tables, with some groups and families making it an annual tradition. Short of having a friend with a standing reservation and spare chairs, your best bet is to attend the Galatoire Foundation’s annual charity auction, at which pre-festival Friday lunch seating for the entire first floor is auctioned off.

This year’s auction looks to be scheduled for the end of

January, it takes place in the restaurant, and it’s a festive affair in its own right. If that won’t work but you still want to dress up, Commander’s Palace in the Garden District has been a go-to since 1893, with an enforced dress code and an alumni list of chefs (including Emeril Lagasse, Paul Prudhomme, Jamie Shannon and others) that underscores its quality. More casually but still upscale, it’s hard to go wrong at Pêche, the James Beard award-winning seafood staple that brings live-fire cooking techniques to South American, Spanish and Gulf Coast cuisine, while the recently opened Margot’s is the new spot for wood-fired pizza, natural wine and Italian cocktails. If it all seems exhausting, the Four Seasons has two excellent eateries as well.

New Orleans is one of America’s great food cities— feel free to indulge

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Party

For those who don’t know, Mardi Gras primarily is driven by “krewes,” organizations or groups of friends who create a float, host a party of some kind, help the community throughout the year and so on. There’s more to it, but that’s the gist. Of the 50+ krewes in existence, the oldest is the Mistick Krewe of Comus, which has been participating in Mardi Gras since 1856.

We’re partial to the Krewe of Orpheus, founded in 1993 by musician/actor Harry Connick, Jr., and his father, a former city District Attorney. While most krewes’ activities involve some sort of membership, the Krewe of Orpheus hosts an annual ticketed black-tie ball that’s open to the public. Called the Orpheuscapade, past events have featured Connick, Jr., Nicole Scherzinger, Finn Jones from Game of Thrones and other celebs alongside fantastic musical entertainment and dancing.

In the evening, amidst the merriment, the floats roll into the center where the celebration is held, beads and dubloons fly, and the party keeps going until you’ve had enough. It’s a great way to celebrate the week, and an experience not necessarily had by many among the French Quarter throng.

Exit

If you have an early fl ight out of Louis Armstrong International the next morning, stop by the airport location of Café du Monde and cap your trip with a beignet and café du lait. If it’s an afternoon or evening fl ight, make it the airport Bar Sazerac in Concourse B. Either way it’s New Orleans in style—and Mardi Gras with your reputation, and your shoes, intact.

Harry Connick, Jr., leading the 2020 Krewe of Orpheus parade on the traditional Uptown parade route

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New Year’s Resolutions

TRAVEL Next Year

If you’re like us, you have a running list of golf courses that you definitely, absolutely, 100 percent are going to play someday. Well, we here at Kingdom have sucked in our guts and taken a long look in the mirror (not bad!) and decided that “someday” is on the calendar for 2023. So push your other resolutions out of the way, buy yourself some new golf shoes and whatever else you need to stay motivated, and say it with us: “Before the ball drops on 2024, I will play one of the following courses.”

And if you ever feel like faltering, just remember: we believe in you

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Princeville Makai Golf Club

Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s first-ever solo design effort, sited on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, is one of those courses that seems almost too good to be true.

It’s the kind of place you play and want to join, but then you remember that, incredibly, it’s a public course. Named Top 3 Best Courses You Can Play in Hawaii by Golf Week, Top 100 Greatest Public Golf Courses in America by Golf Digest, and

awarded plenty of other top designations by other media, this immacculate track has six oceanfront holes, views worthy of a Hollywood epic, and an adjacent new hotel set to open this winter: 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay, which will replace the former St. Regis Princeville Resort. With great dining nearby and endless waves on offer, playing here is a resolution that shouldn’t be hard to keep.

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1.

Yeah, OK, we get it: it’s hardly original to have Pebble Beach on a list like this. Thing is, if you’re a certain type of golfer, you know you’re going to have to play Pebble Beach eventually, so why not make it 2023? We say get it done in the first half of the year, maybe in March, for example.

There’ll be a bit of fog through early summer (“June gloom” as Californians call it) but prices are down, availability is up and you’ve a better chance of having some space to soak up the experience. And honestly, it is an amazing experience, as this is one of those rare places that lives up to the hype.

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2. Latrobe Country Club

It’s not every day that one can play golf on a course that birthed a legend, and yet it’s possible at Latrobe Country Club in Latrobe, PA, not far from Pittsburgh. Famous as the course on which Arnold Palmer was raised, worked, grew up under the watchful eye of his tough father, Deacon, and—critically—on which Palmer learned and honed his golf game, Latrobe CC still looks much as it did when a young Arnie was mowing greens and working the till in the pro shop. On some level, just being here is a spiritual golf experience, one that’s well worth having.

3. Bethpage Black

You’ve seen it on TV and talked about it over drinks with friends, “Oh Bethpage Black, absolutely, what a course!” and so on. But maybe you’ve never actually played it. Plenty of people haven’t because it’s tough, it’s kind of close to Manhattan but doesn’t seem extraordinarily convenient from the comfort of a downtown hotel, and its popularity—and stories of extended waits to play—are legendary. Still, the majorhosting public course designed

by A.W. Tillinghast is one of America’s best. If you’re nearby, you might almost consider it a patriotic duty.

4. Princes Himalayas

We wouldn’t call it a “bucket list” course exactly, but the Himalayas has escaped some of our staff so far, and it’s high time a few of us played it. One of the storied nines at Princes in Kent, recently upgraded by Mackenzie & Ebert, it offers a walk along the beach from the 5th green to the 6th tee, a green shared by the 4th and 8th holes, a par-3 7th that takes a short iron with a northeastly breeze—or driver if the wind is southwest—and stunning views of Pegwell Bay all over. Add to that the charm of medieval town Sandwich, and this tactical beauty is on our 2023 shortlist.

Photo: PGA of America / Gary Kellner

1. Pebble Beach Golf Links

Photo: Evan Schiller Photography

2.

4.

3.

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F o r

FEATURE Values

The Jackson T. Stephens Cup proves that the future of golf is in good hands

w a r d S

tanding in front of the iconic Seminole Golf Club this October, surrounded by the game’s history and future, Warren Stephens smiled. “It seems like it’s all going right,” he told Kingdom.

And it was. The second staging of the Jackson T. Stephens Cup had just concluded successfully, with University of North Carolina earning the men’s team victory, Stanford the women’s, and two individual champions—Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn and UNC’s David Ford—emerging as well. Expectedly, given the quality of the competing teams, the golf was top-notch, but there was more to the tournament than skilled play, as Stephens explained to us some time ago.

Speaking after the inaugural event at Stephens’ Alotian Club in Arkansas, he said an important part of his aim with the tournament was to showcase the values championed by his father, Jackson T. Stephens, a former chairman of Augusta National Golf Club.

“Dad truly believed that golf instilled life lessons and built character,” Warren said, “especially when started young. Therefore, he would be very humbled and proud that this tournament is named in his honor.”

With the quality of golf and sportsmanship on display at Seminole, the elder Stephens would have

been proud indeed. More than just an opportunity to experience real competition, the Stephens Cup, as it is known, offers elite college players the chance to compete at luminary venues, on television, and in formats that challenge the best in the game. The tournament features seven of the top NCAA Division 1 men’s and women’s teams in the country, as well as standout players from U.S. Military Service Academies and Historically Black Colleges and Universities competing as individuals.

“We talk about trying to provide our student athletes with incredible experiences, and that’s exactly what they got here,” said UNC Coach Andrew DiBitetto. “It was a first-class event, an unbelievable place like Seminole, so it was a special week all the way around.”

The course, a legendary venue in the golf world, was designed by Donald Ross in 1929. Standing with one’s back to the iconic clubhouse, the entire golf course is basically in view, the sand dune ridges, elevated greens and general contours all in sight.

“I would say that South Florida, more open style of golf, isn’t historically my favorite, but that design was fantastic,” said FSU golfer Cole Anderson, who picked up a point for the Seminoles, despite his team finishing runner-up. “All of us really appreciated the classic layout

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and that there was not a whole lot of dirt-moving going on, like you can see nowadays. You could see that they had taken the blank canvas and shaped the course into the natural landscape. It was a really cool experience to compete at a club like that, with all of the history and the members that have gone through there and all of the great events.”

Stephens said the enhanced experience is intentional, that the tournament is meant to provide participants with more than just another competition.

“Any time you get to play a golf course like Seminole that’s so well known in the golf world, and everyone knows it’s one of the great courses in the world, it’s special,” he said. “So they’re experiencing something very few people get to experience.”

Acclaimed University of Texas Coach John Fields understood that as much as anyone.

“This is a lifetime experience for our guys,” Fields said. “To get to come to Seminole with all the history and tradition at this club, the Donald Ross golf course, Ben Hogan associated with it… We all knew we were someplace special; we’re happy we got a chance to do it.

We’re kind of a young team, so it was a good opportunity to get some match play under our belt. Although we didn’t come out victorious, I think we got a lot from it.”

The format—54 holes of stroke play followed by 18 holes of match play—was featured live on Golf Channel (another unique and potentially once-in-a-lifetime experience for some participants), and while it was a good time for all concerned, it was by no means easy, especially given the two rounds required on the second day of competition.

“Any time there’s 36 holes in a day involved you try and make sure that physically you’re conditioned and rested,” said FSU’s Anderson. “But at the same time, I don’t really care who you are, 10 hours of golf consecutively is tiring.”

To survive such a test, Anderson said, his coach told him to stay in the moment.

“The biggest thing coach always gives to me, he reminds me to ‘stay where your feet are,’” Anderson said.

“Kind of a funny saying, but it makes a lot of sense: Keep your head exactly where you are, don’t let your mind wander. ‘If I do this over this next stretch, this could happen.’ Or ‘if the team does this, we could make it through to this.’ Stay where your feet are.’ That’s sort of the thing I lean on the most.”

When Wake Forest University’s Rachel Kuehn won the women’s individual, her teammates doused her in

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Clockwise from top left: Stanford/Wake Forest women came down to the wire; Warren Stephens chats with the Deacs; individual women’s winner Rachel Kuehn; camaraderie following Stanford/U of Texas; Seminole’s iconic clubhouse

“To get to come to Seminole with all the history at this club...

We all knew we were someplace special”

water—not uninvited on a hot October afternoon in South Florida. Her win put her team into contention for the team final, way out in front before the last day of play, but Stanford’s brilliant play eventually saw its women’s team take the win. Likewise, UNC and FSU came down to the wire in the men’s. At the end of it all, while the teams and players clearly will have their own emotions, as an observer it was hard to see that anyone lost. The hugs and handshakes that were exchanged after play appeared sincere, the smiles in the parking area genuine, and the attitude all around felt positive.

As elite as the college game is these days, the Jackson T. Stephens Cup still distinguishes itself among the other events. Next year’s will be played at Trinity Forest in Dallas, and the year after that will be at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club. Wherever it’s held, the event resonates as a special moment on the calendar, as UNC’s Coach DiBitetto underlined: “So far already this year we’ve played at Notre Dame’s golf course, which is fantastic and hosted the U.S. Senior Open not too long ago, and then we went to Olympia Fields, which is a major championship golf course, then we went to Colonial, a PGA Tour golf course, and then here. So college golfers these days are a little bit spoiled.”

But as for the Stephens, he said: “This one is very special.”

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FEATURE RainDance

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Photos: Wheeler Golfscapes

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indsor, Colorado, is not in the mountains. Not exactly. Technically speaking, the city sits in the Front Range, a vast high plains area in front of the mountains. What that means for golf course developers is that there’s a lot of land to work with, and in the case of RainDance National Resort & Golf, that is a very good thing.

RainDance opened this July and though the acclaim has been huge, we’re not sure it begins to match the hugeness of the course itself. Originally planned to have a total yardage in the “high 7,000s,” as course architect Harrison Minchew told us, the end product was somewhat larger.

“As we started seeing the elevation changes in the holes, and the fact that we wanted to use fescue grass that we could dry out so the ball would roll quite a bit,” he said, “it became obvious that the course needed to be longer.”

In the end, Minchew said that he and design consultant (and eight-time winner on the PGA Tour) Fred Funk pushed the course to 8,465 yards: “Not the largest in the world,” he points out, “but the largest in North America.”

“We had it around 8,000 and we realized if we ever had a tour event, that was going to play too short,” explained Funk, who also has nine PGA Tour Champions wins. “We have 250 feet of drop and we’re at 5,000 feet so Martin [Lind], the developer, said, ‘Why don’t we have the shortest golfer to ever play on the PGA Tour design the longest golf course?’ I went, ‘Really?!’”

Funk was joking, of course (and at 5’ 8” he’s the same height as Francesco Molinari and nearly three inches taller than Gene Sarazen was). Regardless, anyone could feel small standing amidst the epic landscape at RainDance.

“There’s no denying it was built for the best players in the world,” said Chris Williamson, RainDance’s head golf pro. “It’s challenging, but there’s nothing unfair about it. You look at No.2, it’s a big, slightly downhill turn-to-the-left par-5. It’s really pretty to look at and there’s a huge landing zone with bunkers on each side should you miss. With the scale we have up here and with the hill, it feels narrow, but if you get out there and measure it’s actually a 60-yard-wide fairway.”

THE KINGDOM LIST

NEW COURSE

BIG FUN

RainDance National Resort & Golf looks like a tour-ready monster, but the architects have set it up to deliver huge rewards for golfers of any level— provided you play the right tees

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Big Fun For All

Various experts have their own numbers, but the general consensus regarding the effect of altitude on ball flight has the distance increase (due to the thinner air) at something like an extra 2.5 yards of driver per 1,000 feet of altitude. Add to that some fairly dynamic topography, with arroyos and washes throughout, and there were some puzzles to solve.

“The challenge of designing the course was there, not just from an altitude standpoint but there’s about 225 feet of elevation changes across the site,” Minchew explained. “That’s not a whole bunch, but it’s somewhat significant. As far as routing the holes to prevent us from having anything over-the-top uphill or downhill, I’ll have to say that Ed Seay, that’s what he taught us the most, how to route on this kind of topography.”

In the past, Minchew worked with the Arnold Palmer Design Company on many projects and referenced his time there working with Palmer’s course design partner, Ed Seay, as informative for the RainDance project.

“I did 15 golf courses in Japan so I was used to pretty severe topography,” he said. “And the way you flatten holes out on a steep site is that you make the elevation changes between the holes. I think it plays about 30 feet uphill total, if you average the holes out. That’s something I’m proud of, and again it’s something I learned from my tutelage working for Arnold Palmer.”

Adding another Palmer element to the project, Minchew brought in Randal Pichon of Michigan-based Eagle Golf Construction, a top contractor who worked with the Palmer crew back in the day. Additionally,

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Ed Seay’s son, Mason, a video producer, was brought in to document the project. And if that wasn’t enough, Palmer’s grandson, PGA Tour golfer Sam Saunders, lives nearby and currently holds the course record at RainDance with a 67.

“Sam played twice from the backs and shot 67 one day and 68 the other,” Funk said, “so it can be done. I’m old and broken down and can’t play from the backs—but tried to—but we really emphasize playing the right tees.”

“Some holes have 10 different tee boxes,” Williamson explained. Harrison did a great job of being able to move tees around based on the weather. If the wind is up or if it’s not, if they really want to move stuff around, setting it up for an event or a tournament, they can configure it where you’re not playing to the rating.

“If you’re trying to go bold and you go back too far, it’s a very demanding golf course. But if you play the right set of tees and land the drive where the hole is designed to have the drive land, it plays really fun. A 300-yard drive could see 50 feet of roll. Even a 100-yard drive could see 30 to 40 feet, so we emphasize playing the right tees.”

Funk said the terrain was left alone as much as possible, and so the experience of RainDance is quite natural and rustic. “Those natural arroyos and all are very special,” he said. “They’ve been there for thousands of years; we just tried to go around and over them.”

The result is a lot of golf course with a lot of natural beauty, big distances, big demands and big rewards. If you play the right tees, we’re guessing the smile on your face will be absolutely huge.

NATURE HEALS— WE HELP

Continuing the Palmer family’s legacy of supporting children’s health, character, and nature-focused wellness

PALMERFOUNDATION.ORG

Stephanie Macleod, master blender at John Dewar & Sons

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DRINKS Whisky

Patience in a bottle “12” has become the magic number for premium whisky. A 12-year-old whisky—be it a single malt or a punctilious blend—has been around a cask long enough to give the drinker a real depth and complexity, yet without the steep cost of its more mature cousins. Ian Buxton—author of 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die—considers the latest generation of 12 year olds

T There’s a quiet revolution going on in the world of Scotch whisky. Forget the fusty image of leather armchairs, log fires and older gentlemen sipping their drams neat—a new generation of women is leading Scotch whisky to new heights of quality, taste and complex flavors.

Many of the most prominent and influential blenders behind the leading whisky brands today are women and they are shaping and safeguarding the world’s most popular whiskies. Johnnie Walker appointed Dr. Emma Walker (no relation to the eponymous founding family) as its first female master blender earlier this year; Rachel Barrie is leading Brown-Forman’s Scotch whisky team; Kirsteen Campbell is master blender at The Famous Grouse.

It’s a distinguished group and pre-eminent amongst it is the master blender for John Dewar & Sons, Stephanie Macleod—the first woman to hold the prestigious title and only the seventh master blender since Dewar’s began

distilling in the late 19th century. How is Macleod getting on? She has been named Master Blender of the Year by the International Whisky Competition an unprecedented four straight times.

Perhaps the most telling, impressive testament to Macleod’s skill and accomplishments has only recently been released: the new Dewar’s 12 Years Old Blended Scotch, the development of which has been carried out by the Dewar’s distilling and blending team in Scotland, under Macleod’s lead.

The previous version of Dewar’s 12 Years Old blend was about to be included in the 5th edition of 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die until I realized the brand already had four whiskies in the book and I decided to leave room for its competitors.

But now Dewar’s and Macleod have taken a slightly new approach—fortunately after the book had gone to print, so saving me a moral conundrum—and this new Dewar’s 12 Year Old has become a new favorite.

Single malt snobs should look away now: the “new” Dewar’s 12 Year Old blend is the very personal creation of Macleod, building on the house style to deliver taste, flavor and complexity and proving that age and great blending are a winning combination. Look no further for a whisky that works on almost any occasion, hitting

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the sweet spot of quality and approachable drinking with a depth and complexity to satisfy the most discerning whisky devotee.

It was a little surprising to hear from Macleod that this new Dewar’s 12 Year Old actually has very few alterations made to the core of the blend, with the same whiskies called upon in much the same proportions.

“Having been experimenting with the influence of cask types on flavor and texture for the last ten years, we knew the time was right to bring some of what we have learnt to our core range of whiskies,” Macleod tells me. “We wanted to take Dewar’s 12 Year Old to the next level and bring the joys of quality Scotch whisky to a new generation of drinkers. Dewar’s whiskies have a characteristic floral and honeyed-style and we knew we could add a richer and more complex dimension through the use of first-fill American Oak Bourbon casks.”

In the glass the result is enhanced spice, fruit, vanilla and toffee notes; a smooth mouthfeel and an extended, rounded finish and great drinkability with a complete absence of harshness. This is a surprisingly complex whisky with much to sip and savor.

Frankly, I liked it so much that I began to question my own opinion, but I am not the only one to be partial towards this Dewar’s 12 Year Old. Reviewing for Whisky Advocate, Jonny McCormick nominated it as an Editor’s Choice, with an impressive 93-point rating and writing: “This is a zinger. Bright aromas of honey, caramel, dried apricot and apple slice, mixed peel, malt, roasted spices, rich vanilla, and an imprint of woodsmoke. Silkysmooth flavors of honey, warm citrus, black pepper, dark chocolate, and a lick of smoke, then vanilla, burnt toffee, black cherry, espresso, soft oak, and a finish of milk chocolate and hazelnut latte. An outstanding blend.”

Indeed, this new Dewar’s 12 is the highest rated 12-year-old blended Scotch whisky ever by Whisky Advocate, and second highest 12 year old ever when including single malts.

Others were equally effusive. Dave Wondrich, New York-based, noted cocktail guru and Editor-in-Chief of the authoritative Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails tells me the new Dewar’s 12 Year Old is “a marked improvement” and, quite lyrically, envisages it as a great cocktail base, recommending it for “the Rob Roy, as anyone should, but also in the Improved Whisky Cocktail, with bitters, a bar spoonful of rich simple syrup, another of orange curaçao, and a dash of absinthe.” Wondrich also likes the new Dewar’s 12 year

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Old in a simple Scotch Sour, describing this as “a drink that used to be quite popular and now is rarer than an honest politician.”

The importance of cask selection has long been understood in whisky, but obtaining great casks and making good use of them is an art. The double aging in first-fill Bourbon barrels seen here is a stellar example.

Macleod has taken the Dewar’s 12 Year Old blend to new heights of intensity and flavor. There’s more spice, fruit and vanilla/toffee notes to find with an ever-smoother mouthfeel and delicious extended finish. It’s a whisky for all seasons and while existing drinkers will love the development of deeper, more intense flavors on a familiar taste, those new to the brand will be excited to discover what class-leading Scotch whisky blending can deliver.

Brian Cox is VP for Dewar’s Scotch Whisky in the United States and he confides: “Much like the 19-year-old Dewar’s, the enhanced flavors in the new 12 Year Old come from our use of first-fill bourbon casks to double age the final blend for a period of three to five months. This ‘double aging’ used to be done in inert casks; ones that had given all their flavor but which allowed us to marry

The new Dewar’s is the highest rated 12-year-old ever by Whisky Advocate the different malts and grain whiskies in the blend and enhance the mouth feel, so they added to the smoothness of the whisky without contributing to its flavor. With the new Dewar’s 12 Year Old, the first-fill bourbon casks are active casks and do contribute to flavor as well as texture.

The recipe of the Dewar’s 12 Year Old has not changed; it is all in the cask regime and its maturation, and with at least 60% of a whisky’s flavor coming from the cask type and length of maturation, it is not surprising that this can have a very positive impact.”

By the way, Dewar’s is part of the same family-owned group as the highly acclaimed Angel’s Envy bourbon in Louisville, Kentucky and while Dewar’s will not divulge the source of its bourbon casks used for “double-aging” it’s new 12 Year Old, such a collaboration between the distilleries would join up the dots on this masterful creation. We can but speculate!

It’s great to see how blended Scotch whisky has come alive in recent years, with much well-considered innovation and an obsession with delivering quality with fair prices at a time when the cost of some whisky has soared to uncomfortable (and frankly, at times, unjustifiable) heights.

Considering value in conjunction with quality, Mark Gillespie—host of the influential WhiskyCast podcast— concludes his 94-point rating with the observation: “With this release, Dewar’s raises the bar on blended Scotch whisky, and it is a testament to the artistry of blending. This whisky drinks more expensively than it is, and it should spark some excitement within the often dismissed category of blended Scotch whisky.”

Think of the new Dewar’s 12 Year Old as a booster rocket from Macleod, taking a well-loved favorite into ever-higher orbit. If there’s ever a sixth edition of my book, it’s in!

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12 Year Olds to try

Johnnie Walker Black Label There are more expensive Johnnie Walker expressions out there— lots of them—but this is the undoubted flagship of the Walker range, the world’s best-selling blended Scotch whisky.

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Glenfiddich

Chivas Regal

No review of 12-Year-Old Scotch whisky is complete without the world’s number one single malt, but don’t be misled by its ubiquity: there’s a reason for its global success.

It’s good to know that the company behind it remains independent and family owned.

Another classic premium Scotch whisky, this rich, warming blend continues to appeal to lovers of the Speyside style. The brand maintains the original style created in the 19th century by the pioneers of blended Scotch whisky, founders John and James Chivas.

Dewar’s 12 Year Old TA S T I N G N O T E S A new whisky that builds upon the renowned Dewar’s house

style of floral, honeyed Highland whisky, with a hint of smoke.

Aromas of apple, ripe

peaches and hints of lemon zest are followed by floral, spice and rich fruit notes; with a robust

finish of vanilla, butterscotch and a wisp of a smoke.

Complementing the flavor

notes is the richer, smoother

and more balanced mouthfeel.

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LIFE Style

Warm Vibes In the studio or on stage, cold temps mean it’s time to heat up with cuttingedge accessories and vintage sound.

Turn it up and hang on

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Zegna Scarf

Lightweight and knit from pure cashmere, this luxe

scarf brings comfort and style to any brisk day.

Guitar

Fender American Deluxe Telecaster, 2001

Fujifilm X100V

The elegant and celebrated X100V has top

and bottom plates milled from single pieces of aluminum, a fixed 23mm f2.0 lens (35mm

equivalent), built-in ND filter, innovative optical/ electronic viewfinder and numerous built-in film simulations from one of photography’s most storied companies.

Glamak Floral Graphic Tee

Vintage botanical art inspired this floral cluster on inky cotton tee from Ted Baker London.

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Bogner Golf

Fluid movement is possible via

Bogner’s Powerstretch tech while moisture-wicking warmth comes

with the Thermore insulation in this

Bogner Golf mid-layer hoodie, perfect for cool days on course.

Burberry Wallet

Featuring Burberry’s house check

pattern and accents, the Geometric Check International Bifold Wallet is

sized for world currencies and made with renewable bio-based materials.

Guitar

Ventures Model Mosrite Bass, 1965

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Beoplay H95

These fully adjustable cordless noise-

canceling headphones from Bang & Olufsen

use custom titanium drivers tuned to ensure

earth-shattering lows, punched-up mids and highs as crisp as a winter morning.

Guitar

Custom Gibson R7, 2008

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DUTCH MASTERS MASTERS DUTCH

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DRINKS Dutch spirits

Outside the vast, shipping center of Rotterdam, near the North Sea shoreline of the Netherlands, Schiedam is a modest town that would be bypassed routinely were it not for the series of historic windmills that define its skyline. These distinct landmarks represent the legacy of an impressive heritage in distilling spirits—a heritage still thriving thanks to perhaps the world’s finest vodka, Ketel One Words: Robin Barwick Pictures: Matthew Halnan

T

he Windmill De Nolet casts a long, shimmering shadow over the calm flow of the Buitenhaven canal in Schiedam, outside Rotterdam and close to one of the world’s busiest ports. Rising 130 feet from the ground to its cap, the Windmill De Nolet is the tallest of its kind in the world, standing as testament to the centuries-old heritage of spirit distilling that has underpinned the economy of this unassuming Dutch quarter. In particular, this imposing windmill represents the longstanding success of the Nolet Family Distillery, which is the biggest distiller in the Netherlands and one of the most important in the world. It is at Nolet where the incomparable Ketel One vodka is produced.

Prior to the industrial revolution, windmills powered Dutch industry. Famously a country of low altitude, winds enjoy a free ride across the Netherlands

and the Dutch became masters of harnessing its power.

In Schiedam, windmills powered the grinding of wheat into grain, which was traditionally used to produce genever. Gin as we know it today is a derivative of genever, although as a kind of distilled malt wine, the taste of jenever is often closer to whisky than it is to gin. Today, the Nolet Family Distillery produces Ketel 1 Jenever and Nolet’s Finest Gins among a broad offering.

“Schiedam had the water for distilling from underground, the harbor for shipping, and the wheat from local farmers,” explains Bob Nolet as we enjoy the view over Schiedam from near the top of the Windmill De Nolet. Bob and his brother Carl Jnr.—who is President and CEO of Nolet U.S.A.—represent the 11th generation of the Nolet family to run this business.

Schiedam was once the proud home to 19 windmills, all producing grain for nearly 400 distilleries in the 19th century. The industrial revolution and two world wars took a heavy toll on Schiedam’s productivity and today, only six of the old windmills remain standing.

Windmill De Nolet was built by the Nolet family between 2004-06. While its 45-foot sails contribute to the energy usage of the Nolet Distillery, the state-ofthe-art structure does not operate as a windmill in the traditional sense. Its 10 attics (stories) house a movie theatre, boardroom, tasting and reception rooms for the Nolet Family Distillery, and it serves as a vivid reminder that while Schiedam’s role in the evolution of distilling fine spirits is mainly consigned to history, the Nolet family business continues to thrive.

The windmill was the brainchild of Carolus Nolet Sr., the former chief executive of the Nolet Family Distillery, who represents the 10th generation of the family to run this spirits business, which was founded by Joannes Nolet in Schiedam in the late 17th century.

It was Carolus—who is now semi-retired in Schiedam—who recognized the need in 1980s America for a premium, ultra-smooth vodka to sooth the Martini’s customary mule’s kick-in-the-mouth. Nolet crafted Ketel One, which is named after the distillery’s

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original copper still from the mid-19th century— “Distilleerketel No. 1”—which is still used in production.

Nolet uses a column distillation system to produce the finest ‘ultra wheat spirit’, which is then partly re-distilled in a series of copper pots, before being filtered and blended to ensure Ketel One’s renowned, silky finish.

“We knew we could make the Martini a better cocktail and we have never seen another vodka that comes close to our quality,” adds Bob Nolet. “For the Nolet family, the liquid is the most important thing. The marketing and everything else comes after, but our core business is distilling vodka.”

Adds Carl Nolet Jnr.: “We made people realise that vodkas vary and that the smoothness of Ketel One makes it perfect in a Martini. We love to see people take a taste test. You can put Ketel One up against any other vodka and immediately you can tell the difference.”

Made for America

While the origins of vodka are European, the biggest market for this Schiedam-made spirit is the United States. Carl Jnr. was sent over in the early nineties to drum up sales of Ketel One—which at the time was the new bottle on the shelf—and for 15 years, from 1992 to 2007, Ketel One enjoyed month-on-month sales increases without fail, as it became the dominant vodka in the US and the choice of virtually every notable bartender. Since 2008, global sales and marketing are covered through a joint venture with Diageo.

“Bartenders love our product because they use it to

make phenomenal drinks,” adds Carl Jnr. “Ketel One is the canvas and the bartender is the artist.”

Today, Ketel One is sold in more than 90 countries around the world, yet an estimated 85% of sales remain in the United States.

It was in the late nineties that the Nolet family learned that Arnold Palmer’s drink of choice was Ketel One neat, on the rocks, with a twist of lemon. In fact, on arrival at any hotel, Palmer’s first request on check-in would be for fresh lemons to be sent to his room.

“Arnold called it his ‘tulip’,” says Carl Jnr., who started an enduring friendship with Palmer after the golfer’s wife, Winnie, asked Ketel One if the company could help Palmer celebrate his 70th birthday in 1999.

“At the time we were creating Ketel One ice bars at special, select locations,” recalls Carl Jnr. “So we built an ice bar to celebrate Arnold’s birthday and we borrowed some of Arnold’s old clubs and a glove and other items and had them frozen into the ice in this special way, so as not to damage them. Arnold came up to the bar to get his ‘tulip’, looked into the frozen bar and said, ‘Hey, that’s my 9-iron! And that’s my glove! How’d they get in there?’

“That was how our lasting relationship started. It was genuine. Arnold was a fantastic ambassador for Ketel One and above all, a great friend.”

For lunchtime drinking around the Holidays, try one of the new Ketel One Botanical varietals in a refreshing, lightly fruity spritz. For the Bloody Mary at brunch or for evening cocktails, follow Palmer’s example and have a bottle of original Ketel One on hand.

Palmer Treasures

At a fund-raising dinner to benefit the Arnold Palmer

Foundation in 2012, Carl Nolet Jnr. started bidding on a

set of Arnold Palmer’s clubs that date back to the 1940s.

“The simple truth with auctions is that if you keep

bidding long enough…”, starts Carl Jnr. He didn’t need

to finish the sentence. We know what happens. He adds:

“Thankfully, eventually the other person stopped bidding.”

This is not any old set of clubs, which is now prized

by the Nolet family in Schiedam. The set dates back to 1946, when the amateur Palmer was 16 years old and

blazing a trail around the top amateur championships in

Pennsylvania and surrounding states. The clubs still have their original grips and remain unaltered since Palmer stopped playing with them in 1948.

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[Clockwide from top left] Schiedam; the Nolet Family Distillery; Bob Nolet; Ketel 1 vodka; Distilleerketel 1

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DRINKS Celebrate

Winter in the Med Charleston, SC’s Bar 167 opened in August with a glowing Italian Agate bar and high standards to meet. The hugely popular 167 Raw (downstairs) and 167 Sushi have been lauded local favorites since College of Charleston grad Jesse Sandole opened the former nearly a decade ago, serving up cocktails and an elegant but unpretentious menu on which Truffled Diver Sea Scallops sit next to Crispy Oysters. While the new venue’s kitchen is equally compelling, the Mediterranean-inspired space shines as a stage for the bar’s brilliant libations.

Here, Juliana Fisher, who helped to create the cocktail menu, brings sunshine to the fall/ winter season. Not all secrets were divulged and some of the ingredients are obscure, but if you take inspiration and create your own variations, you should have a wonderful holiday season. Better yet, visit Bar 167 and leave the mixing to the experts. Tell Nick we said hi.

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Yellow Gin & Tonic

Bar 167 offers both “Yellow” and “Red” G&Ts. While the fruit-ish latter is lovely, we like the Yellow, which brings earth notes but maintains refreshment. Bar 167 uses a tonic made in-house from 12 or so ingredients, including pink peppercorn and turmeric, and so you’ll never get it exactly like theirs. But we were inspired to combine various spices (roughly a ½ tsp each of turmeric and ginger) in a shaker and strain, and the results were good. The point here is to get beyond clear—and then don’t spill it on your white sofa.

1 ½ oz ½ oz

1 ½ oz

Gin

Lemon juice

House-made

Yellow Tonic

Shake all, fill your glass of choice with pebble ice, strain, add soda,

garnish with crushed

dried jasmine and enjoy.

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167 Negroni Johnny Cash has Walk the Line, Mötley Crüe has The Dirt, and the Negroni has Looking for Negroni. And if they’ve made a biopic about you, you’re some kind of success or disaster. This century-old Italian cocktail is the former, of course, changed up here via gin steeped in Shiraz grapes for a cinemaworthy classic.

1 oz

Bloody Shiraz Gin

3/4 oz Primitivo Quiles 1 oz

Vermouth Rojo Campari

Orange Peel

Add the spirits to an ice-filled

mixing glass and stir until chilled, then strain into a rocks glass

over a large ice cube. Garnish

with the orange peel and bere alla salute di qualcuno.

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Fire in the Garden

This luxuriously floral and festive drink is at once refreshing and warming thanks to the chile-infused vodka and the Firewater Bitters, made from habanero and other ingredients (relatively easy to find). It also employs Ms Better’s Bitters Miraculous Foamer, which replaces egg whites, adding froth without coloring flavor (or requiring the deft touch often demanded by fizzes).

1 ½ oz

St. George Green Chile Vodka

½ oz

Rose/Hibiscus syrup

1 oz

¼ oz

Lemon juice

Simple Syrup

2 dashes Firewater Bitters

1 dropper Miraculous Foamer Dried rose petals

First dry shake the ingredients, then shake

again over ice, strain into a coupe glass and garnish with dried rose petals.

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1 ½ oz Tequila 1 oz

Pineapple juice

½ oz

Ginger

¾ oz

½ oz ¼ oz

Campari

Lime juice

Velvet Falernum

2 dashes Bittermans Elemakule Add all ingredients to a shaker.

Shake hard and strain into a Collins

glass, garnish with two pineapple fronds and a luxardo cherry.

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Fulton St. Rickey

Jungle Cat

Thank you to whomever stopped by Mexico en route to Polynesia as tequila and tiki sail well together. Bar 167’s cat sits high on the genre’s totem, balancing tequila and sweet pineapple with lime/ clove/nutmeg/cinnamon/cardamom and more from the Velvet Falernum and Campari. A slight lift from the ginger and it’s bon voyage to the jungle.

From the start the Rickey was a sugaraverse highball, instead relying on a balance of spirit (originally bourbon, now more typically gin), soda water and lime for success. Bar 167 likes a traditional gin for this, which Juliana points out could be called a sugarless gin mojito. We’re considering it for an easy holiday livener, perhaps with a red-and-white straw...

1 ½ oz Gin ½ oz

Fino Sherry

½ oz

Simple Syrup

¾ oz ¼ oz

Fresh-Squeezed Lime Juice Ginger

Club soda / Mint / Cucumber To a shaker, add cut cucumber, a pinch of mint leaves and everything else—except

the soda. Shake hard then pour it all into a

Collins glass, top with soda and ice, garnish with a mint sprig and a cucumber spear, and be refreshed.

Aegean

This aptly named jewel brings the wood/pine note of Mastiha (a liqueur derived from the Greek mastic evergreen) to the molasses/ sugarcane of Mexican rum. The RumHaven and Coconut Water Syrup sweeten the edge, and the whole thing shimmers with the orange-bittersweet Blue Curaçao.

In the hand this cocktail calls dreams of island getaways to mind; in quantity it might call them to reality if one browses airline tickets while drinking. We say go with the flow, and parakaló.

1 oz

Uruapan Charanda Blanco

½ oz RumHaven

½ oz Skinos Mastiha ¼ oz Blue Curaçao

½ oz Coconut Water Syrup ¾ oz Lemon juice

Shake all ingredients and strain into a

rocks glass over a single large ice cube, then add a little soda water and spritz with absinthe. Garnish the glass with toasted coconut and sail away.

HANDMADE Ettinger

THE KING’S CHOICE The refined leather goods hand-crafted in England by Ettinger are preferred by King Charles III, and they were also selected as prizes for the recent Kingdom Cup at Hilton Head. Our own Robin Barwick visited the Ettinger factory in England’s West Midlands to see the hand-made process in action PICTURES: Greg Mandy, Spoke

N

ine miles north of Birmingham, in the heart of the UK’s West Midlands, Walsall is a market town of limited proportions, yet its heritage in the leather trade dates back centuries, all the way to the Middle Ages. Until the mass production of the internal combustion engine in the early 20th century there were more than three million horses in the UK, and many of the UK’s finest leather saddles and harnesses were made in Walsall.

“There used to be 20,000 people in Walsall employed by the leather industry, either by tanneries, saddle manufacturers or other associated trades, but now there are only a few hundred,” starts Robert Ettinger, chairman and CEO of Ettinger, the luxury leather goods company founded by his father, Gerry, in 1934. There are only a handful of leather goods makers left in Walsall today, but Ettinger’s factory—which opened under different ownership in 1890—is still going strong.

“A lot of the leather business went to the Far East where it is cheaper to produce and where the quality is passable,” explains Ettinger, who oversees premises in Walsall and London, where the company was established.

“Because Ettinger has always been at the top end of the leather goods market in London we could afford to continue production in the UK—and we still are here today.”

Gary Billingham is factory manager at Ettinger.

“Walsall is a leather town,” he states. “When I came into the trade there were probably 80 factories making leather goods, plus all the saddlery. The industry has declined over the years but the cream comes to the top!”

Adds Ettinger: “As a company we are growing, and people appreciate working in a factory like this. There is a great atmosphere; it is like a big family and many of our staff have been here all their working lives.”

Billingham was born around the corner from the Ettinger factory, and started there in 1979 as a 16-yearold apprentice.

“Over the years I have learned every aspect of the process,” says Billingham, whose mother worked in the same factory. “They taught me how to do pattern cutting, leather cutting, skiving, splitting, preparing and machining, and then over time the main thing was to learn product costing.”

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“The Royal Warrant is a seal of approval, trust and quality.

People know that if King Charles is buying Ettinger then it must be good”

Some leather goods can be made by machine, but at the top end of the market—where Ettinger sits—the attention to detail required in producing some of the world’s finest wallets, purses, luggage, card holders and watch rolls—among a broad product range—cannot be replicated by a machine.

“I have seen machines making wallets,” adds Ettinger, “where a machine folds the leather and it goes into a computer-controlled sewing machine, but the end product is not the same. It just doesn’t do it in the same way.

“It can take up to five years to train someone to make wallets to our quality. Between five and eight pairs of hands are involved in making every Ettinger wallet. We

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Robert Ettinger [left] and Gary Billingham inspect a leather delivery at the Ettinger factory in Walsall

conduct quality control throughout the manufacturing process; it is a particular mindset. When we bought the factory we brought everything up to the Ettinger level, or what we call ‘the Japanese standard,’ which is perfection.”

The quality of Ettinger goods was noticed by King Charles III, who is a long-standing customer, and who issued Ettinger with its first Royal Warrant in 1996.

“You can be a chimney sweep or supply the king’s cornflakes,” explains Ettinger. “Anyone who supplies a product to the Royal Household for at least seven years can apply. It is not granted automatically; it can take a few years or it might not be granted at all. We received the Royal Warrant on January 1, 1996 and we have to re-apply every five years.

“The Royal Warrant is a seal of approval, trust and quality. The world over has a great respect for British royalty. People know that if King Charles is buying Ettinger then it must be good. Customers know their order will be delivered and that it is going to be of the quality they want.”

In an age of computerized mass-production sometimes the old ways remain the best, and Ettinger brings living proof that long-standing heritage in handcrafted manufacturing is adaptable for the modern world.

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New Year Luxuries ’Tis the season to spoil friends, loved ones, and ourselves; the following can help...

Rolex Oyster Perpetual

No.88

Penfold

rolex.com

czechandspeake.com

penfoldgolfusa.com

There is perhaps no purer expression of the Oyster concept than the classic Oyster Perpetual, the direct descendant of the original Oyster launched in 1926. A global icon, understated and elegant, its style is universal—and its appeal timeless.

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Minimalist and elegant, this No.88 Shaving Set & Stand comes from Czech & Speake of London. Made in the UK, the matte black stand is built from anodized aluminum and holds the razor and soft badger-hair brush above the embossed soap dish.

In its customary clean design, Penfold offers the new heritage range, inspired by the storied brand’s Sunday Golf Bags. Made from dry wax canvas with a distinctive leather base that matches the Sunday Bag, the Heritage Sunday Backpack carries in style.

GIFT GUIDE

Devium

Small-batch sewn by artisans in Southern California, with all American-made fabrics and trims, this ultrasoft Herringbone flannel eschews the grunge look for a sophisticatedcasual, comfortable option perfect for fall days around town or around the house. deviumusa.com

Hestra

These are hard-wearing, unlined leather gloves of Swedish design that are appropriate for wilderness or urban adventures. Made from sturdy nubuck cowhide leather and sewn with fire-retardant thread, the Oden Nubuck gloves are perfect for scouting and bushcraft, when the wearer needs protection from the elements, a good grip on tools and the ability to maintain dexterity. hestragloves.us

Fracap

Handmade in Italy since 1908, the artisans at Fracap hand-craft exquisite, bespoke leather boots. The Magnifico M120 Roc Boots are made from soft yet durable Arabian calf leather, with natural calf leather lining. All Fracap boots are hand-made by Antonio and Michele Cappello in Italy, whereby irregularities are part of the handmade process and ensure that every pair of Fracap boots is unique.

HiFiMAN Sundara

Named for the Sanskrit word meaning “beautiful,” these Planar Magnetic headphones are comprehensively attractive in looks, in comfort, in quality materials and in the rich, detailed audio that they deliver. hifiman.com

fracap.it

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Kenny Flowers

Vibrantly dedicated to slipping out of the office for a quick lunchtime round, this Palm Beach-inspired polo features buttery-soft 4-way stretch eco-friendly fabric, and all the life-loving attitude you could want in a shirt. kennyflowers.com

Vessel Player III Stand

The superlative bag company has redesigned the Player III, a culmination of Vessel’s tourproven performance. Elevated details, increased functionality and the firm’s traditional unmatched craftsmanship all are on offer in this luxury item, fit to hold the pinnacle of the game. vesselgolf.com

Whispering Angel XXIO 12 Driver

XXIO’s new premium driver features a remarkably lightweight feel and significant ball speed improvement, ensuring your power stays consistent from the first tee to the last. Absolute class. xxiousa.com

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The world’s favorite rosé, this elegant mix of Grenache, Cinsault and Vermentino grapes is as lush as it is refreshing. Perfect with everything, anywhere, any time. esclans.com

GIFT GUIDE

PRG Vanto Vintage

Soft fur on the interior, genuine leather on the exterior, and the iconic Palmer umbrella as well; the new Vanto Vintage line from PRG offers protection for your full range of clubs, plus a premium Zip and Deluxe tote. prg-golf.com

Honma BERES

The new and dynamic BERES range from Honma is a top-shelf on-course solution for unprecedented distance and control, thanks to engaging new technology, high launch trajectory and ample forgiveness.

Holderness & Bourne

Traditional yet modern, quilted yet athletic, the Sullivan Pullover from Holderness and Bourne has been designed for the earlymorning dew-sweeping tee times around the holidays, when the sun is rising but a chill remains. This insulated pullover, finished with snap buttons, comes in six color options. holdernessandbourne.com

us.honmagolf.com

Lohla Sport

The Tanya Glossy Vest in Lapis is the perfect complement to cool seasons, and a highquality performer as well. Annika Sorenstam partners with this elegant brand, and that’s good enough for us. lohlasport.com

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Revo x Volition

With Volition America, Revo is offering a limited edition of its high-performance sunglasses, and a portion of proceeds goes to Folds of Honor Foundation, helping to provide educations to children and spouses of veterans and first responders. revo.com

Proviz REFLECT 360

Earning awards and plaudits as the first ever cycling jacket to be designed using a 100% reflective outer-shell, this is a serious performer in weather, with highly technical fabric and construction and full performance for top training or weekend rides alike. provizsports.com

Hubs Peanuts

Holiday hospitality is not complete without Hubs peanuts, home-cooked in Virginia.

The festive Gift Duo is a double play that never misses, bringing together Hubs’ classic Salted peanuts with the seasonal and irresistible Choco Covered peanuts in a pair of 20 oz. tins in a fetching gift box. hubspeanuts.com

Weatherman

The award-winning Fairway Camo Arnold Palmer Golf Umbrella from Weatherman is made with industrialstrength fiberglass to guard against breaking or inverting, while vented canopies withstand winds up to 55mph. The canopy also features UPF 50+ protection from sunshine while a large mesh pocket offers handy storage. weathermanumbrella.com

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GIFT GUIDE

GOLFSHOTS Calendar

Evan Schiller is among the world’s pre-eminent golf photographers, and for 2023 he has compiled a calendar of some of his finest golf landscape photographs of recent times. Including some championship classics—the Olympic Club, Oak Hill, Baltusrol—and a selection of less lauded gems that are no less photogenic. For golfers looking to refresh their bucket lists for the new year, here is a solid supply of ideas. evanschillerphotography.com

101 Whiskies Book

Now in its fifth edition, the updated definitive guide to whiskies from Buxton, a longtime expert on the spirit, is the perfect book for your bar shelf or library. You might even consider it the best “to do” list you’ve ever owned.

Available on Amazon.com

Arnie & Jack

One-time LPGA Commissioner and full-time businessman Charles Mechem had the enviable honor of befriending not one, but two legends of the game.

Here, Mechem shares some great times and great memories from his years of friendship with Palmer and Nicklaus—a wonderful collection of anecdotes for anyone who loves golf.

Available on Amazon.com

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LIFE Wellness

Big Wellness Those in need of some time away should look to the Montage Big Sky, where daily cares disappear

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I

f you want to clear your mind, you could do a lot worse than to visit Montana. Natural light seems crystalline here, likely due to the purity of the air, which has a brightness all its own. Green things (trees, fairways) are deeply green, blue things (the sky, lakes) are deeply blue, and everywhere you look there’s lots of mind-clearing space, hence the state’s “Big Sky Country” moniker.

The town that holds that moniker for a name does it justice, cradled by the Spanish Peaks mountain range in a halcyon valley 7,000 feet above the sea.

Just being in Big Sky makes one feel a bit better, but in addition to the lush forests and invigorating river vistas that populate the rest of the state, the town also has the Montage Big Sky resort, an island of modern luxury wellness among the vast wilderness of southwest Montana. If you’re lucky enough to snag one of the property’s 100 guestrooms, roughly an hour south of Bozeman, prepare to indulge in everything the area has to offer during your stay. The resort boasts access to Spanish Peaks Mountain Club’s private 18-hole championship course, designed by Tom Weiskopf, which offers brilliant views along with elevation changes and an inspired routing.

Off course, you’ll find nearly 30 designated hiking trails covering hundreds of miles of the area’s most beautiful land, including challenging ascents to cerulean mountain lakes or more tranquil walks to meadows swathed in vibrant wildflowers. There is something for anyone who wants to get out and explore Big Sky’s magnificence on foot. And if you’d rather search for your inner peace with a fly-fishing rod in your hand, the Montage can sort that as well, connecting you with abundant local options along the Madison and Gallatin Rivers. In fact, Montage Big Sky offers access to four miles of private riverways teeming with rainbows, cutthroats and Montana brown trout. And if you’re visiting in the winter, you’ll have ski-in/ski-out access to Big Sky Resort’s 5,850 skiable acres, easily reached with equipment from the on-site Compass Sports.

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Spa & Fitness

Beyond all of the available natural engagements, however, the Montage Big Sky has dedicated wellness opportunities that are worth exploring, and those begin in the incredible 10,000 square-foot spa.

Here, you will find an exquisitely designed alpine sanctuary with 12 treatment rooms, 3,000 square feet of tranquil pool space, his and hers relaxation areas, heated plunge pools and steam rooms.

The space is rustic yet refined, with some surfaces appearing to be abstract slices of boulders, others with angled millwork that calls to mind snowy mountaintops, and calming cove lighting throughout.

There is also a spacious state-of-the-art fitness center on site featuring top brands such as Technogym, Peloton, TRX and Woodway; a studio for group classes; and a Yoga Lawn, all of it surrounded by stunning mountain views.

In terms of treatments, there’s an extensive variety of unique signature options to soothe any concern. One of the first that should be considered—when you first arrive at the property, almost before you do anything else—is the High Altitude Acclimation. The treatment includes a 60-, 90-, or 120-minute massage specially engineered to help your body adapt to the higher elevation so that you can be in top shape to enjoy whatever comes next. The experience focuses on easing respiration, reliving headaches and ensuring hydration. It also helps to open the diaphragm and lung points, and it grounds the body. Afterwards, you’ll receive an oxygenated beverage to further assist in delivering oxygen to your cells.

Another essential treatment is called “Pure Bliss.” Designed specifically for Spa Montage, this 90- or 120-minute total body treatment features Lola’s Apothecary products, which incorporate powerful yet gentle natural ingredients to luxuriously welcome you into a state of deep

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relaxation and healing. Beginning with a full body exfoliation with aromatic salts, the treatment continues with the pouring of hydrating body milk and concludes with a deeply nurturing massage tailored to your specific needs.

Next, focus on your face with The Masterpiece Ritual. Offered at either 90 or 120 minutes, this is the ultimate antiaging and cellular renewal treatment. It’s an exclusive service designed just for Spa Montage that combines a deep cleanse on your face, neck and eyes, with a relaxing massage treatment, and it will leave you looking and feeling your best.

Proprietary treatments join with a naturally healing environment to create a truly effective sanctuary

Sounds Good

Spa Montage also offers something that might resonate with the sonically inclined: sound healing. A specially trained therapist uses “singing bowls” that, when combined with an oil massage, can induce a deep state of relaxation. Jet lag, anxiety and insomnia all are said to be addressed by this treatment, which many find curiously transformational.

Another experience that rides the line between spiritual and fun is horseback riding, and the Montage offers a number of options that will see you discovering the not so wild West from the back of a horse, the way so many first came to see the country. All together, whether you simply want to get out into nature and feel the mountain breezes or whether you’re aiming for something more structured and guided, the Montage Big Sky delivers big time. That, along with the pinnacle of the area’s luxurious dining and accommodations, makes for a resort that is sure to leave you feeling better, more rejuvenated and ready for whatever awaits where the sky is smaller and the traffic heavier. But that doesn’t matter here, where green is deeply green, blue is deeply blue, and your state of mind has never been better.

Inside or out, in the hotel’s spa environments, lobby or grounds, tranquility is readily at hand

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FRIEND TO THE GAME

Herb Kohler

H

e was a large man in so many ways, filling the room with a presence that conveyed importance, but also affability. And behind the beard and broad shoulders and formidable gaze, there was something else, likely the same spark that had a young Herbert Vollrath Kohler, Jr. thinking that perhaps he wanted to be an actor, as he told Kingdom in 2009, and not a businessman, despite his Yale degree in the latter. But it was in business that he made his mark, taking the kitchen and bathroom fixture firm founded by his grandfather in 1873 from $133 million per year in earnings to more than $6 billion.

Here too, the spark, not just business acumen, but that combined with a genuine appreciation for quality and for beauty. “Life without labor is guilt; labor without art is brutality,” he told us, quoting English thinker John Ruskin. “That is the essence of what Kohler is all about.”

Kohler’s attributes—the sharp business mind, the love of life and beauty—wonderfully came together in golf, where he made his mark as well, perhaps most notably by converting an old Kohler workers’ dormitory into a five-star hotel and golf destination despite a skeptical board of directors.

“They took the attitude, ‘let the kid do it, we can’t lose that much money,’” he told us. “But they thought it would be a disaster.”

Today, the American Club is one of the game’s great sanctuaries, having hosted six majors and a Ryder Cup between its Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run golf courses, two of four tracks Kohler built in Wisconsin.

Further afield he famously owned the Old Course Hotel, plus Hamilton Hall and the Peter Thomsondesigned Duke’s Course in St Andrews, a town he loved greatly and which comprised the subject of our last conversation with Herb. Speaking with Kingdom this summer, just before the 150th Open Championship, he recounted how as a young boy of 9 he first visited St Andrews and flew a kite over the West Sands, beginning a lifelong love of the town and its people.

“Before sunrise you can take a walk from the hotel, across the 17th and 2nd fairways of the Old Course, and you end up at the West Sands,” he told us. “To watch the sunrise from the West Sands is really quite magnificent.”

Herbert Kohler, Jr., died September 3, 2022, at the age of 83.

He will be missed by golf and by all of us at Kingdom.

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BRITISH LEATHER GOODS WWW.ETTINGER.CO.UK