Course guides & playbooks
Choosing a Country Club: Initiation Fees, Dues, Reciprocity and Questions to Ask
Before you sign, understand initiation fees, dues, food minimums, assessments and reciprocal networks, and ask the questions that reveal whether a club fits your life.
Golf on Vacation: How to Pick the Right Course on Any Given Morning
A free morning and an unfamiliar course nearby? Check the wind, pick the right tees, decide whether to rent clubs and time your round for the best experience.
Municipal Golf Like a Pro: Finding Tee-Time Deals and Playing Busy City Courses
Resident cards, twilight rates, dynamic pricing and booking windows: how to get the best value and the best tee times at your local muni, and keep the round moving.
How to Play Pasatiempo: Mastering MacKenzie's Greens and Barrancas
Pasatiempo is Alister MacKenzie's own favorite course and one of the great public-access tests in America. Here's how to handle its fierce greens, deep bunkers and tricky barrancas.
Water Everywhere: How to Play Island Greens and Forced Carries
Turn every forced carry into a math problem instead of a nerve test, with carry yardages, safety margins, smart targets and a clear understanding of your penalty-area options.
How to Play Erin Hills: A Practical Guide to Wisconsin's U.S. Open Venue
Erin Hills is a walking-only, fescue-lined championship course in rolling Wisconsin countryside. Here's how to choose tees, handle blind shots and avoid the tall fescue.
How to Play Streamsong Red: Dunes, Big Greens and a Giant Biarritz
Coore and Crenshaw's Streamsong Red brings dune golf to central Florida. Here's how to handle its huge greens, short par 4s and the unforgettable Biarritz par 3.
Surviving a Heavily Bunkered Course
Bunkers everywhere? Use carry-and-reach yardages to avoid them, and a reliable technique to escape them in one swing.
How to Play TPC Scottsdale's Stadium Course: Desert Strategy and the Famous 16th
Home of the PGA Tour's rowdiest week, the Stadium Course is a public desert layout with a closing stretch everyone wants to play. Here's how to score on it.
How to Play Chambers Bay: Ground Game, Big Slopes and the Lone Fir
Chambers Bay is a walking-only, links-style municipal course carved from an old quarry above Puget Sound. Here's how to handle its huge slopes, firm fescue and dramatic elevation changes.
Tree-Lined Parkland Courses: Strategy When Trouble Lines Every Fairway
Trees don't cost you strokes on the first shot; bad recovery decisions do. Learn to plan around your miss and escape the woods without the big number.
How to Play Torrey Pines South: Strategy for the Cliffside Major Venue
Torrey Pines South is a municipal course that hosts the PGA Tour and has staged two U.S. Opens. Here's how to land a tee time, choose sensible tees and handle its long par 4s and canyon-edge holes.
How to Play the Kiawah Island Ocean Course: A Mid-Handicapper's Survival Guide
Pete Dye's seaside monster has hosted a Ryder Cup and two PGA Championships, and the wind decides how hard it plays. Here's how to pick your tees, manage the breeze and walk off with a score you're proud of.
Mountain Golf: Elevation, Thin Air and Sidehill Lies
The ball flies farther up high and the lies are never flat. Here's the simple math for altitude and elevation change, plus how to set up for every sidehill lie.
How to Play Whistling Straits (Straits Course): Bunkers, Bluffs and Lake Michigan
More than a thousand bunkers, a big lake breeze and Pete Dye's visual tricks. Here's how everyday golfers can enjoy the Straits Course without getting overwhelmed.
How to Play Pacific Dunes: Tom Doak's Cliffside Masterpiece
With four par 3s on the back nine and holes perched above the Pacific, Pacific Dunes is a strategic delight. Here's how to play the angles and handle the wind.
Desert Golf Strategy: Target Golf, Waste Areas and Heat
On a desert course, grass is gold. Learn how to pick clubs by fairway width, handle forced carries and waste areas, and adjust for the heat.
How to Play Bandon Dunes: Wind, Gorse and Ocean Bluffs
The course that launched America's favorite golf destination rewards low shots, ground-game creativity and respect for the gorse. Here's your strategy for Bandon Dunes.
How to Play Bethpage Black: Surviving the Warning Sign
The sign says it's for highly skilled golfers only, but a smart plan makes Bethpage Black a thrilling public-course challenge. Here's how to tackle the long walk and the brutal par 4s.
How to Play Links Golf: Wind, Bump-and-Runs and Pot Bunkers
Firm turf, relentless wind and bunkers like dining tables: here's the club-selection math, ground-game tactics and pot-bunker strategy that make links golf fun instead of frightening.
How to Play Pinehurst No. 2: Taming Donald Ross's Crowned Greens
Pinehurst No. 2 is won and lost around its turtleback greens. Here's how mid-handicappers can hit smart targets and turn the putter into a secret weapon.
How to Play TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course: Beating the Island Green and More
There's far more to Pete Dye's Stadium Course than the 17th. Learn where to aim, when to lay up and how to stay dry from the first tee to the 18th green.
Playing a Course for the First Time: How to Read a Yardage Book, Hole Maps and Flyovers
A little homework before a new course saves strokes on the day. Here's a step-by-step method for scouting an unfamiliar layout online, building a game plan and adjusting once you're on the first tee.
How to Play the Old Course at St Andrews: Strategy for Everyday Golfers
Hidden pot bunkers, double greens and the Road Hole. Our playing-partner guide to getting around the Home of Golf with your ground game and your dignity intact.
How to Play Pebble Beach Golf Links: A Mid-Handicapper's Guide
Small greens, ocean cliffs and the most famous short hole in golf. Here's how to plot your way around Pebble Beach without letting the Pacific swallow your scorecard.