Author: Sean Ogle

I still remember the first St. Regis hotel I ever visited. It was at the tail end of a 2 month round the world trip, at the St. Regis Shanghai. I was blown away. Sure at the time it was a brand new property, but everything about it was a step above. From the in-room coffee service, to the luxury rooms, to the spectacular views – it was the perfect way to end an exhausting trip. 18 months later, we found ourselves in Singapore visiting 8 of the top 100 bars in the world. We booked a room at the…

My time at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge might be the single most unexpected trip of my life. For reasons you’ll see shortly, I got to be much more familiar with the hotel on this trip than I expected. It was early September, and I was on a 7-day golf trip exploring the best Banff and Canmore had to offer. My buddy Scott and I played the wonderful Stewart Creek and Banff Springs golf courses during the first two days of our trip, and then after a morning round at Banff, we made the 4-hour trek from Banff to Jasper on Highway…

Before arriving in Scotland, Carnoustie was one of those courses I’d heard extremely mixed reactions about. On the one hand, it’s held the Open Championship multiple times, including most recently in 2018. John who has played all of the Top 100 Courses in the World ranked it was one of his very favorite courses – noting that it has one of the best finishing stretches in golf, as well as the best greens (alongside Augusta National). That’s saying something. Others have referred to it as the most “homely” of all the open courses. I’d heard that it wasn’t scenic, and…

I still remember the first time I saw a PuttView green. It was at a Top Golf studio in Atlantic City. PuttView technology essentially allows you to project anything you want onto an indoor green. For instance, the most common use is it will display your ideal line, with breaks and everything directly on your putting surface. This particular one was especially impressive, as it was a movable green. It could replicate famous breaks and putts from different greens across the world. And then if you wanted it to, it would show you the line. Imagine the putting aid from a…

An excellent “poor man’s Trackman”, or a poor attempt to be useful?

Over the last few years, there’s been a whole new product niche coming to market: the golf Bluetooth speaker. It’s becoming much more common to have some music on the golf course, and these are speakers that cater specifically to that. Some include magnets that attach to a golf cart, hooks to attach to a golf bag, and others have apps that pair with the speaker to give you distances to greens and hazards. The latest foray into this market comes in the form of the Blue Tees Player speaker. Blue Tees is most well known for their rangefinders, specifically…

There are few places I’ve played golf that carry the weight of Winged Foot Golf Club. Upon driving down the driveway for the first (or second) time my palms were a little sweaty. Sure, I was nervous about embarrassing myself (or my host), but more than anything I was just unbelievably grateful to have a chance to play two courses that to me represented the perfect marriage between championship golf, history, and architecture. In this post I’m going to share my experience in playing both the East and the West Courses at Winged Foot. I first played each of them…

When someone mentions the Ritz-Carlton, you likely get a certain image in your mind. For me? It’s the oceanfront Half Moon Bay Resort, or the towering Hong Kong Ritz Carlton. But you know what doesn’t come to mind (or at least didn’t until recently)? A sprawling summer camp-like resort on a manmade lake about halfway between Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia. But that’s exactly where you’ll find the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds Lake Oconee Resort. And while being from the west coast, this wasn’t the Ritz at the top of my radar of places to visit, I sure am glad I did. In this review,…

I’ll be the first to admit that before landing in Alberta for a week long golf trip, I wasn’t overly familiar with the golfing landscape in the region. In my mind there was Banff Springs, and well, everything else. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how spectacular, and unique, each of the courses near Banff, Canmore, and Jasper would be. Canmore Golf and Curling Club felt like an old school throw back that was similar to a course I might play back home in Portland – oh, except for the killer mountain views. At Jasper Park Lodge you feel…

Update: Unfortunately Nirwana Golf Club is now permanently closed. It’s too bad, as the beautiful setting and fun routing made it the best course in Bali while it was open. This was original written in October 2011. Before I even set foot in Bali, I knew I wanted to play at least one round of golf. Bali isn’t necessarily known as a world class golfing destination, but after I first heard about Nirwana Golf Club, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would need to play it. You see normally I’m a bogey golfer who is perfectly…