When you live in the Pacific Northwest, Reynolds Lake Oconee isn’t generally the first place that comes to mind when you’re thinking of golf destinations. I’ve heard wonderful things about the golf courses and the Ritz Carlton Reynolds Lake Oconee, but to be honest? I really didn’t know much about the Reynolds community until recently. This is too bad, because I’ve clearly been missing out. I recently spent 4 days experiencing all that Reynolds has to offer. Rather than bury the lede, I’m just going to come right out and say it: Reynolds Lake Oconee exceeded all of my admittedly…
Author: Sean Ogle
Sean Ogle
As the Founder of Breaking Eighty Sean has spent the last 10+ years reviewing the best golf products and golf courses in the world. He prides himself on only writing about products and courses he's experienced first hand, and helping others find exactly what they need to enhance their enjoyment of the game we all love so much.
Over the last few years, I’ve had the pleasure of wearing a bunch of different pairs of TRUE Linkswear golf shoes. From the sexy leather OG Premium, to the svelte summer Knit iis – I’ve always been genuinely impressed. Recently, I took a little gamble though. This past week I took my first flight in 20 months to head down to Georgia for half a dozen rounds at Reynolds Lake Oconee and around Atlanta. I brought the new TRUE Linkswear Lux Sport straight out of the box (er, bag as it were). No break-in period. No warming them up. Straight…
I feel like Breaking Eighty, the blog as we know it now, really started when I took my first real golf trip. Sure I’d played a round or two here and there. But the first proper “golf trip” I ever took was through Wisconsin and Northern Michigan. The goal was to knock off as many Top 100 and Top 100 public courses as possible – I ticked off 14 total on the trip. Well, there was one round on the trip that was effectively a bonus round: The Lake Course at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Yes, I get it, California…
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…