Gulph Mills is a course that most of you have probably never heard of – before my first Philadelphia golf trip, I hadn’t either. However when asking for feedback from people in the area on what courses we should try and play – Gulph Mills was one that routinely came up. When you’re not familiar with a city, you don’t necessarily know much about the courses or club’s reputations. Well, it turns out Gulph Mills is widely recognized as one of the most private courses, and toughest tee times to get in Philly – we were made further aware of…
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.
For a long time now I’ve been hearing that Philadelphia is the second best golf city in the country (behind New York). I know what you’re thinking right now: Philly? Golf? Huh? It’s totally a sleeper city with dozens of good golf courses. The reason the general public has little knowledge of the city as a golf destination is for two reasons in my mind. 1) Most of the good stuff is private. Philadelphia is one of those super old school cities with lots of private clubs, so access is difficult there. 2) Aside from the US Open at Merion…
I’ll forgive you if you’ve never heard of Silvies Valley Ranch. I mean, why would you have? It’s a 140,000 acre cattle ranch about 3 hours east of Bend, Oregon. For those of you not familiar with your Pacific Northwest geography, that places Silvies in precisely: the middle of nowhere. But over the last 5 years, they’ve been (not so) quietly at work creating a world class golf resort, that happens to be one of the single most unique places I’ve ever visited. Think, one of the hardest (and most fun) par 3 courses in the world. Goat Caddies. Yes,…
Over the years most of the apparel that I’ve reviewed here at Breaking Eighty has been from more boutique companies that have been looking to shake up the golf world or do something a bit different. Holderness and Bourne is balancing performance and a tailored fit, while paying homage to the traditions of the game. Redvanly also does performance, but on the other end of the spectrum, choosing to go more modern. In looking at those brands, I often don’t give credit or look at some of the more established brands of the game – and so today I’m going…
Recently I reviewed my first ever pair of Footjoy shoes, the Footjoy Flex, and was pleasantly surprised with how they performed. They are extremely comfortable, look good, and have more traction than I expected after looking at the soles – all for under $100. So I was excited to check out another one of their new shoes, the Footjoy Fury. This shoe sits somewhere in between the Flex and the full blown Tour S. It’s pitched as a traditional spike, tour level shoe, with the comfort of a hybrid. So does it live up? Let’s take a look. Footjoy Fury…
The Bushnell Phantom 2 has recently been released. You can see our full review of it here. Ok, let’s face it, you’re probably not good enough to actually a need a down to the yard reading of exactly where the pin is. You’re stoked if you just hit the green. So you could spend a few hundred bucks on a bulky rangefinder that will tell you that yes, you really are too far away to go for it, or you could consider something like the Bushnell Phantom Golf GPS, save yourself a bunch of money, and have most of the…
It all started with a Google search “golf in the Maldives.” Naturally, I wasn’t expecting anything to show up. I mean, Male is the second most densely populated island in the world, and many of the other islands are tiny resorts barely big enough to service guests, let alone all the resort staff as well. So you can imagine my surprise, when the first thing that pops up is the Shangri-La Maldives touting themselves as having the only golf course in the entire country. I was intrigued. My wife and I had about half a million points we were willing…
It’s Monday morning and I just returned from a week at the Lexus Champions for Charity Golf tournament at Pebble Beach. And all I can say, is what a week it was. I’ve never attended any event, let alone a golf tournament that was as well executed across the board as this one was. From the hospitality, amenities, facilities, and attention to detail, and value it was truly something special. In this post, I’m going to share a bit about what Champions for Charity is really all about, and then go into detail about the event itself, and what you can expect if you choose…
Over the last two years I’ve been fortunate enough to play a lot of really good golf courses all over the world. I’ve taken thousands of photos, played thousands of holes, and started to have a much better understanding of what makes a good golf course. I’ve also been able to form opinions about which courses I enjoy the most. There’s a very distinct (and at times, quite large) difference between what I enjoy and what constitutes a good course by traditional standards. If you look at many of the “top 100” lists from major publications you’ll in many cases see a big slant…
Recently I received a set of new Wilson C300 irons to review. I was really excited to get my hands on them, mostly because it’s the first time in about a year and a half I had the chance to go back to playing game improvement irons. I’ve been gaming the JPX-900 irons for awhile, and generally I love them. But I’ll be honest, I’m not a consistent golfer. When I’m playing well, those things feel like a Ferrari. I can point the car exactly where I want, and it goes. But when I’m not playing well, it can feel like driving a…