For all the places I have been I am always drawn back here by a sense of balance and love of this place we call New England. In a recent conversation with PGA Tour player Keegan Bradley he commented that when someone asked where he is from he always responds, “ I am a New Englander”, not he is from Vermont. There is a reverence in all of this that I am very proud of, I am from the only region in the United States comprised of 6 states that has its own distinctive name.
New England offers some of the greatest golf anywhere with historic courses dating back to the late 1800’s and some of the greatest new courses anywhere in the world. At inception in 1894 the USGA was formed by 5 member golf clubs Newport Country Club, The Country Club, Chicago Golf Club, St Andrews and Shinnecock from N.Y. Today there membership is near 10,000 golf clubs.
Playing golf here in New England gives us an opportunity to walk the same fairways that Donald Ross walked during construction and players like Francis Ouimet, Bobby Jones, Harry Vardon, Ben Hogan, and Walter Hagan and countless others played. To take it a step further I often wonder did Vardon hit that same tree on 6 at Worcester, or was Hagan able to get up and down out of the deep bunkers at Brae Burn. Of the first 25 U.S. Opens played, 15 were played here in the Northeast.
As Editor / Publisher of a golf magazine I often get this question, what is you favorite golf course, it is of course an impossible question. The uniqueness, style and design of each course are different in so many ways. Donald Ross once said, “I basically use my same designs and layouts universally and apply them to the terrain I am working with and I have yet in 200 designs seen two courses that look the same”. If you asked me to choose my best 36 in one day in the northeast then it would be Newport National with the early morning fog chasing up the bay, and an afternoon round at The Country Club with an ice tea on the turn, followed closely by Farm Neck in the morning and Beth Page Black in the afternoon. What a difficult question, like I said!
Make Your Next Round Your Best
Timothy R. Branco
Tim@NEpubinc.com
About Tim Branco
Editor/Publisher New England Publishing Group Home of NE Golf Monthy, NE SnowSports and NE Homefinder a family of New England Regional Publications. Media consultant for newspaper & magazine industries and sales and marketing trainer and motivational speaker. Golf & Travel writer for over 20 years with published articles in national newspapers and regional magazines throughout the U.S.
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- My Heart Will Rest at Ballybunion Old
- The Best of New England
