Author: Sean Ogle

The Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York has quickly become one of those pilgrimages every golfer has to make at some point in their lives. Why? Because it’s unlike any other course in the country. The Tillinghast design that was built in 1936 has always been a great course, but it’s always had kind of a cult status in the golf community. Everything changed in 2002 when Bethpage hosted its first US Open. For a tournament that’s often held at extremely private venues like Medinah, Olympic Club, or Winged Foot it was a big deal to…

When I started Breaking Eighty way back in 2012, I had an idea that I wanted to play the Top 100 public golf courses in America. That goal has since evolved, but I still recall the very first course I played when I made that goal: Cog Hill #4 – also known as Dubsdread. The Cog Hill golf facility is one of the best public facilities in the Chicago area, and their residents are very lucky to have such variety there. Despite it being nearly a decade later since that first round, Cog Hill #4 has continued to remain in both…

Every once in awhile, out the blue a golf course completely surprises and captivates you. During my very first golf road trip, there were a number of courses I was really excited for: Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run, Medinah, Oakland Hills to name a few… Arcadia Bluffs is one of the best public courses in America, yet for some reason I think my excitement was overshadowed by my previous round at Whistling Straits, which is largely regarded as one of the very best public golf courses in the country. I hadn’t heard much about Arcadia, except that it was difficult, and set…

Second to Merion, Aronimink Golf Club is probably the club I was most familiar with before heading to Philadelphia. It’s always on the back end of some of America’s top 100 courses lists, and it’s widely regarded as one of Donald Ross’ best courses ever. So much so, that upon returning two decades after building it, he said: “I intended to make this my masterpiece, but not until today did I realize I built better than I knew.” Aronimink Golf Club is straight-up one of the toughest golf courses I’ve played. The rough is thick, the holes are long, and…

With the Ryder Cup this past week at Whistling Straits, the golfing public got a great look at one of the very best public courses in the country. But it begs the question, is it the best. For years there’s been a constant debate among golfers and the various golf publications about which course is the best public golf course in the country, and it always comes back to a battle between three stalwarts: Whistling Straits Pebble Beach Pacific Dunes What I love about this, is the fact that these three courses are about as different from one another as can be.…

I was nervous during my 20 minute drive to Whistling Straits. It was easily my most heavily anticipated round of golf, on my very first big golf trip – not to mention the most expensive of my life. “What if it rains? Or if I make a fool of myself in front of my caddie? What if we can’t play due to bad weather? Or worse, what happens if we can play and the round is miserable?” When you’re paying $360 greens fees ($410 now in 2021), plus $65 caddie fee, plus $50 gratuity, it’s hard not to feel like…

If you’re someone who typically rides in a cart when you golf, the Bushnell Phantom 2 is one of the most no-brainer purchases you can make. The Phantom 2 is a magnetized GPS device that sticks to the cart, and gives you immediate distances to various spots on the course and green. With the click of a button you can change from green distances to hazard distances, and you can also update the day’s pin location for even more accurate results. But does it work as well as advertised, and is it worth the $129 price tag? What if you…

For years I’ve been driving up and down Highway 26 outside of Portland, Oregon. I’ll drive it when I go up to Mt. Hood to ski. I’ll head out that way when I go spend a weekend in Sunriver. Same thing when I go to Eagle crest. Each time on that drive? I pass Mt. Hood Resort. And every time, I say, “man, I need to go play golf there sometime soon.” Sowhen I got an email offering to let me come up and experience the Resort for a couple days, I was beyond excited. What is Mt. Hood Resort?…

A few years ago, Golf Magazine even put together a list: the 50 toughest tee times in 50 States. In some cases I’m not sure they hit the mark. For instance, Gulph Mills seems easier to get on in general than Merion. But often it all comes down to who you know. If you have a friend at Augusta National, then even that may seem easy to you. However, one instance where I think the magazine got it right is for Idaho: Gozzer Ranch Golf and Lake Club. Being the Founder of a golf society for travelers, I talk to…

As we were finishing up our lunch with our host at North Berwick, he told us to be careful on the drive up to Dornoch – we’d be traveling on the most dangerous road in Scotland. Great. Just what I wanted to hear. In a country full of dangerous roads, we would having to drive the most dangerous. After golf. At night. Being totally clueless Americans. I swear leading up to this trip, every time I looked for a little reassurance as it relates to driving on the other side of the road, all I was met with were confirmations that, yes, I should…