Author: Sean Ogle

When people ask you what the most fun round of your life was, your response might be the time you hit a hole in one. Maybe it was the time you played Pebble Beach or Pacific Dunes. Or perhaps it was just a beautiful sunny day with your best friends. Chances are your response wouldn’t have been that time you played a par 3 course in a driving rain with 40 mph gale force winds. Well, those were the conditions I experienced when I played Bandon Preserve for the first time last weekend. While I don’t know if I’d for…

I remember the first time I played the Wolf Creek course on the Tiger Woods video game. I wasn’t sure if it was an actual course or one of those fantasy courses, the landscape was that intense and surreal. Located in Mesquite, Nevada, about an hour and a half outside of Las Vegas – Wolf Creek is truly a one of a kind course, er, experience. We made the quick trip over, not knowing what to expect. It’s literally located 3 minutes from the center of Mesquite, which was not what I was expecting. Based on photos and landscape I thought…

The Game Golf System has promised to revolutionize golf stat tracking. Does it? Or is it just another fancy gimmick?

For years I’ve done a lot of travel, but didn’t ever fly with clubs until I started my quest to play top courses last spring. I was flying to Chicago for a speaking engagement, and decided to head out and play Cog Hill #4 – only my 3rd of the Top 100 Public Courses. Being that it was my first time traveling with clubs, I knew I needed a travel bag – but didn’t want to spend a ton of money. I headed to Golfsmith and after half an hour of weighing the pros and cons of each bag I ended up…

I’ve spent pretty much my entire life living in Oregon. Yet for some reason, I didn’t make it down to Bandon until last November – or 14 years after Bandon Dunes first opened it’s doors. Every year my golf buddies and I would say, this is the year we’re going to do it, and every year, time, money, or other commitments got in the way. So when I was out at Portland Golf Club in October, and their membership director told me they needed one more guy for a November trip down to Bandon there really was no way I could turn…

I wasn’t sure if Oakland Hills was going to happen – but man did I want it to. One of the most frequently asked questions on the trip was “How did you get on the private courses?” Medinah was pretty straight forward, Oakland Hills, not so much. The common answer: “It was a friend of a friends, dad’s business partner’s, business partner” – and that pretty much sums it up. I’m learning that a big part of the fun of going for the Top 100 is all of the cool people you meet along the way and the interesting circumstances…

Words can’t really describe what I was thinking before I arrived at Medinah Country Club. Lucky was an obvious one. Nervous another.  But I think my pre-round feelings could mostly be summed up with the word “excited.” Earlier in the year I was speaking at an event in Chicago, and met Brian.  We had quite a bit in common between the type of work we do and our love of golf.  Turns out he was a member and said to let him know next time I was back in the area. So when I started hatching together the plans for…

Well after nearly 6 months of thinking, considering, debating, and more recently planning and booking, the Breaking Eighty 2013 Golf Road Trip is officially a go. As we speak I’m somewhere over Utah en route to Milwaukee by way of Chicago.  This evening I’m going to hit a few hot spots recommended by friends in Sheboygan and then I won’t be wasting anymore time as I’ll be playing 36 holes tomorrow. First up is The Bull at Pinehurst Farms, the only Jack Nicklaus Signature course in Wisconsin, and then in the afternoon I hit Meadow Valleys at Blackwolf Run. Both…

When was the last time you said “someday I’ll do that?” Go skydiving? Someday. Start a business? Someday. Play all of the Top 100 Golf Courses? Man, that’d be cool, maybe someday. Screw someday. Let’s start doing things today. Introducing the 2013 Breaking Eighty Top 100 Road Trip. As you may know by now I’ve set a goal to play all of the Top 100 and Top 100 Public Golf Courses as created by Golf Digest by the time I’m 35 (I’m 28 now). Update December 2022: I’m now 37. Let’s just say, we didn’t hit that goal. And well, the goal…

Well it’s been awhile since I’ve done a proper course recap! I apologize for the lack of content lately, I’ve been busy with my primary business putting on our two year anniversary sale. But now that we’re through with that, time to focus on some golf for a change! Last week the day after the sale ended I invited my mom up to Portland to head out to one of the top public courses in Portland, The Reserve Golf Club and Vineyards. The Reserve is an interesting property. The club is semi private and features two courses, the North and…