Long-form essays on the culture, history and characters of golf. Sunday-morning reading on a sport that rewards thinking about it.
The last major is played, the Claret Jug is handed over, and golf enters its strangest stretch: the long, quiet, manufactured drama of the playoffs. In praise of the season’s melancholy back nine.
The Back Nine of the Season: On the Long Quiet After the Majors Read More »
Every summer, the world’s best golfers arrive in Britain and, for one week, have to unlearn most of what makes them successful the other 51 weeks of the year. Links golf is not just a different setting for the same game. It is, in some deep sense, a different game entirely — one that rewards a specific kind of mental adaptability that American parkland courses do not require. Here’s what actually changes.
Tiger Woods made it iconic. Henrik Stenson built a career around it. The stinger — the punched, low-flying long iron that bores through wind and lands soft — was once the defining shot of a complete professional. In 2026 you rarely see it on tour. Here’s what we’ve lost.
The Lost Art of the Stinger — Why Golf’s Most Beautiful Shot Is Disappearing Read More »
On the weather, the roars, and what the Sunday pin tells us about 2026.
Two Jackets. One Legend. Read More »
Scheffler went 64-67 at Augusta and lost by one. He lost the RBC Heritage playoff with a 67. He is the world number one by the widest margin in a decade. A meditation on what dominance actually looks like.
What It Looks Like When Someone Is Simply Better. Read More »
5-hour rounds aren’t a tradition. They’re a recent invention. We trace how the modern Tour broke pace of play for the rest of us — and why it’s fixable.
Slow Play Is Killing Recreational Golf — And It’s the Tour’s Fault Read More »
The cart path is the greatest lie ever told to golfers. You don’t play better. You don’t play faster. You just play differently — and the difference is costing you more than you think. A case for walking 18 holes and what happens when you start.
The Walking Game: Why Riding a Cart Is Quietly Ruining Your Golf Read More »
When the world’s best player publicly abandons blade irons for cavity backs, it’s not vanity. It’s data. Rory McIlroy’s equipment switch is the most significant signal in golf equipment in years — and the industry is still working out what it means.
Rory McIlroy Switched to Cavity Backs. The Rest of Golf Should Pay Attention. Read More »
Tiger Woods, 2001-2002. Rory McIlroy, 2025-2026. The list of players to defend a green jacket since 1990 is two men long. We pull apart what made it possible — and why it’s the rarest achievement in modern Major golf.
Rory’s Back-to-Back — Why Defending the Masters Was Always the Hardest Part Read More »
Eight years ago he was the lab-coat outsider that traditional golf could not stand. Today he has 17 million YouTube subscribers and arguably the most cultural reach of any golfer alive. An essay on what we got wrong about Bryson.
