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On Monday, March 4, the 2024 Seminole-Pro Member kicks off at storied Seminole Golf Club in Florida. It’s one of the most exclusive events in golf, and lots of star PGA Tour pros and celebrities are in the field.

Featured teams at Seminole Pro-Member

The biggest field news for this year’s Seminole Pro-Member is the inclusion of arguably the greatest golfer ever. Tiger Woods will play the glitzy event for the first time on Monday, which will be his first appearance on the course since withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational in February.

News

Woods will play alongside PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh. Their playing partners will be Tiger’s friend and fellow major winner Justin Thomas, as well as Mike Walrath.

Former NFL star quarterback Tom Brady is also on the field list this year. Brady will team up with Tony Finau alongside Ernie Els and Johann Rupert.

Rory McIlroy is scheduled to tee off on Monday at 8:32 a.m. ET alongside his dad and Seminole member Gerry McIlroy. However, if McIlroy is unable to finish his final round at the Cognizant Classic on Sunday, he’ll have to play at PGA National on Monday instead of Seminole.

Other notable pros in the field include Padraig Harrington, Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cameron Young, Corey Conners, Sungjae Im, Matt Kuchar and Mackenzie Hughes. No LIV Golf players are in the field.

In addition to Brady, other notable competitors among the member ranks include Rob Manfred, Ed Herlihy, Jimmy Dunne III, Buddy Marucci, Shane Battier and Brad Richards.

Seminole Pro-Member: Full field list, tee times

You can see the full list of teams scheduled to play the 2024 Seminole Pro-Member below, as shared by @5ClubsGolf on twitter.

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Tiger Woods is back. You just won’t be able to watch him.

Thanks to the 5 Clubs Golf account on Twitter, the field for the prestigious Seminole Pro-Member has been revealed and Woods is the headliner.

The pro-member at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, is one of golf’s most exclusive events. Annually held the day after the PGA Tour’s stop in nearby Palm Beach Gardens, the event draws an elite crop of pros each year. Regulars include Rory McIlroy — whose dad Gerry is a Seminole member and his partner — Rickie Fowler, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, Nelly Korda, Ernie Els, Matt Fitzpatrick and more.

Woods, despite moving to nearby Jupiter Island 13 years ago, will be making his first appearance at the event. He’ll be partnering with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh in a group with — you guessed it — Justin Thomas and partner Mike Walrath.

Aside from the professional field, the list of members competing is also notable, including seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, PGA Tour policy board members Jimmy Dunne III and Ed Herlihy, former NBA player Shane Battier and former USGA head Mike Davis.

But Woods will be the biggest name as he makes his first start in competition — albeit not on the PGA Tour — since withdrawing during the second round of the Genesis Invitational last month due to illness.

Woods had an eventful week at Rivieria as he made his first PGA Tour start of the year and first official start since the Masters last April. He unveiled his new apparel brand, Sun Day Red, to start the week before taking on the duties as tournament host. He shot a one-over 72 in the first round, highlighted by a stunning shank on the 18th hole that broke the internet. He then pulled out mysteriously after just six holes in Friday’s second round due to what his manager later confirmed was the flu.

News

The appearance of fire trucks and an ambulance outside the Rivieria clubhouse further fueled the chaos. Woods was not present at the trophy ceremony two days later as he recovered.

But Woods appears to have recovered to play in Monday’s one-day event. Woods did not enter next week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, an event he’s won eight times, most recently in 2013, though he’s played the event only once since his last victory there, finishing T5 in 2018.

The 15-time major winner said last December at the Hero World Challenge, his charity event in the Bahamas, that he intended to play one tournament a month in 2024 after playing just five events in two seasons following his February 2021 car crash. Unless the Pro-Member counts toward that, the other March event that Woods could potentially play is the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in two weeks.

If Woods doesn’t play at Sawgrass, he likely won’t make another PGA Tour start until the Masters.

And while Woods will be at Seminole Monday, not in the Pro-Member field for the second-straight year are any LIV players. Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Sergio Garcia all played in the event in 2022, before LIV’s launch, but were omitted from last year’s field. According to Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch, that decision came from Dunne, the Seminole president, who joined the PGA Tour board earlier in 2023.

Dunne was one of the masterminds behind the bombshell June 6 framework agreement between the PGA Tour and Saudi Public Investment Fund, LIV’s parent. The final agreement is currently still being negotiated.

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UPDATE: Bryson DeChambeau withdrew from the Seminole Pro-Member and the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Monday morning.

The exclusive Seminole Pro-Member is back and its field is better than ever. One of golf’s premier pro-member events kicks off again on Monday at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., and it’s loaded with Tour pros and the game’s elite powerbrokers.

The Fried Egg shared the field on Twitter on Saturday night and, per usual, there’s more stars in the Seminole Pro-Member than there are in several PGA Tour events.

Pros like Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Cantlay, Kevin Kisner, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen are all in the field, as are former PGA Tour players Justin Leonard and Brad Faxon, current LPGA stalwarts Jessica Korda and Nelly Korda and LPGA legends Karrie Webb and Nancy Lopez.

Courses

One name that might stick out from the aforementioned group: the 2020 U.S. Open champion, DeChambeau, who has made just three starts in 2021. He was T25 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open and withdrew from the Saudi International in early February with a wrist and hip injury.

After recently denying rumors about the reason for his absence, DeChambeau said he was focused on getting healthy and competing again soon. After his round at the Seminole Pro-Member (he’s paired with Tom Nelson, same as last year), DeChambeau plans to defend his title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill beginning on Thursday. DeChambeau has not made a public statement confirming he’d be there, but he’s on the official field list and his agent, Brett Falkoff, told Golf Channel’s Ryan Lavner that “his full intention is to play.”

As for recognizable non-pro golfers in the Seminole Pro-Member field: Gerry McIlroy, Rory’s dad, is teaming up with his son; NFL legend Tom Brady is with Oosthuizen; former PGA of America CEO and current NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua is with Ian Poulter; and current PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh is teamed up with pro Lee Hodges.

There are plenty more big-wigs, VIPs and C-suite types teeing it up Monday. Check out the entire field below.

Seminole is GOLF’s 32nd-ranked course in its latest Top 100 Courses in the World ranking.

The Seminole Pro-Member is a two-person best-ball with gross and net divisions that dates back to 1937. The only problem with it? It’s not broadcast on TV.

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The post How to watch the 2021 Walker Cup at famed Seminole Golf Club appeared first on Golf.

The post How to watch the 2021 Walker Cup at famed Seminole Golf Club appeared first on Golf.

It’s hard to believe, but almost one year ago, we were gearing up to watch Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff play the TaylorMade Driving Relief charity match — the first round of televised golf in the early days of the pandemic. That match offered a rare televised glimpse of Top 100 mainstay Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., one of the world’s most exclusive courses.

Now, as Seminole hosts the 48th Walker Cup, the biennial two-day amateur competition between the United States and Great Britain & Ireland, we’ll have another glorious weekend to take in the famed Donald Ross design.

Walker Cup preview

The Walker Cup Match is joint venture of the USGA and R&A, pitting 10 top male amateurs from the U.S. against 10 male players from Great Britain & Ireland in two match-play formats (foursomes and singles) over two days.

Courses

Team USA has been dominant over the course of the match’s history, with a 37-9 record overall, but the 2019 match featured plenty of drama, with the Americans winning eight of the final 10 singles matches on Sunday in a huge rally to defeat the GB&I team 15.5-10.5, at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England. This year, Team GB&I will be seeking its first win since 2015 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club.

Walker Cup basics

What: 2021 Walker Cup
Where: Seminole Golf Club, Juno Beach, Fla.
When: Saturday-Sunday, May 8 – May 9
Last match’s champion: United States

Walker Cup format

Each team is comprised of 10 players. The American team is selected by the USGA and team GB&I is selected by the R&A.

Saturday, May 8: Four morning foursomes matches (alternate-shot) are followed by eight singles matches.
Sunday, May 9: Four morning foursomes matches (alternate-shot) are followed by 10 singles matches.

One full point is awarded for each victory, while a half-point is earned for matches that are all square after 18 holes. The Americans need 13 points to retain the Cup, while Team GB&I need 13.5 points to reclaim it.

United States Walker Cup team

Captain: Nathaniel Crosby

Players: Ricky Castillo, 20, Yorba Linda, Calif.
Pierceson Coody, 21, Plano, Texas
Quade Cummins, 25, Weatherford, Okla.
Austin Eckroat, 22, Edmond, Okla.
Stewart Hagestad, 30, Newport Beach, Calif.
Cole Hammer, 21, Houston, Texas
William Mouw, 20, Chino, Calif.
John Pak, 22, Scotch Plains, N.J.
Tyler Strafaci, 22, Davie, Fla.
Davis Thompson, 21, St. Simons Island, Ga.

Great Britain & Ireland team

Captain: Stuart Wilson

Players: Barclay Brown, 20, England
Jack Dyer, 23, England
Alex Fitzpatrick, 22, England
Angus Flanagan, 22, England
Ben Jones, 22, England
Matty Lamb, 23, England
Joe Long, 23, England
John Murphy, 22, Republic of Ireland
Mark Power, 20, Republic of Ireland
Ben Schmidt, 18, England

How to watch the Walker Cup on TV

With a cable subscription, you can watch the 2021 Walker Cup on Golf Channel and Peacock. Peacock will air the early action from Saturday and Sunday’s foursomes and singles matches, while Golf Channel will cover the finishes.

Saturday, May 8: 10 a.m.-11 a.m. (Peacock, Saturday Foursomes)
11 a.m.-1 p.m. (Golf Channel, Saturday Foursomes)
4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. (Peacock, Saturday Singles)
5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. (Golf Channel, Saturday Singles)

Sunday, May 9: 10 a.m.-11 a.m. (Peacock, Sunday Foursomes)
11 a.m.-1 p.m. (Golf Channel, Sunday Foursomes)
4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. (Peacock, Sunday Singles)
5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. (Golf Channel, Sunday Singles)

How to watch the Walker Cup online, streaming

You can stream the 2021 Walker Cup online in various ways. You can watch the Golf Channel coverage at golfchannel.com/watch and by logging in with your cable credentials. Peacock requires a subscription but can be accessed at peacocktv.com.

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“Hi Claire, any chance you’re interested in attending the Walker Cup media day at Seminole (yes, round of golf included!)?”

As far as Monday-morning emails go, that’s about as good it gets. After weighing the pros and cons for a second or two (Pros: playing Seminole. Cons: none), I told my boss, Alan Bastable, that I was in. My golf game was rusty — I played on my high school team but spent less time on the course in recent summers — but with an opportunity to play at GOLF’s 20th-best course in the U.S., it was time to clean the clubs, borrow a travel bag and get to work.

I had very little idea of what to expect upon arriving at Seminole. To me, a lightly-traveled New Englander, it was a new golf course in a new town in a different state, which was daunting. But I was comforted by a sense of familiarity as I approached. It was just a golf course; a tall metal gate flanked by hedges, a crowded parking lot next to a stunning pink clubhouse. The visual cues and the ritual of a great golf morning — park, eat breakfast, warm up — gave a sense of routine I’d gone through before, many times over. This time it just happened to be at one of the world’s most exclusive courses.

Only a dozen or so media members were in attendance, so it somehow felt even more exclusive. We sat outside the clubhouse on a patio overlooking the course. I can’t imagine a better place to snack on fruit, yogurt and granola. As I watched one group tee off on 10, it started to sink in that soon enough, I’d be in the same spot. Then we headed down by the putting green where Stewart Hagestad, Tyler Strafaci and Nathaniel Crosby answered questions about the course and this week’s Walker Cup.

After that, it was game time. I walked to the range, where my clubs were waiting and I met my caddie for the day. My tee time wasn’t for another hour, so I had plenty of time to warm up, get acquainted with my playing partners and double-take at the other figures on the range. To my right, a member was getting a lesson. Down to my left, Justin Thomas and his father Mike were hitting balls with Gerry McIlroy, Rory’s father. It was 75 degrees with a light breeze, the perfect Juno Beach morning after a long New England winter.

Then it was time to take to the first tee for an unforgettable walk. So what was it like, and what makes Seminole different? I’ll talk about the day for years to come, but for our purposes here I’ve boiled it down to six main takeaways.

1. The mystique is real

Travel

From the outside, Seminole feels secret and mysterious, but once you’re inside, you’re really in. It was reminiscent of my first trip to Fenway Park. There was the big reveal: emerging from the walkways and getting a glimpse of that bright green outfield, perfectly raked infield and the looming Green Monster. It hits you all at once and it’s a moment of magic. But then you take your seat and chat with the people around you and things quickly feel normal and comfortable, like you’ve been coming there your whole life. Seminole is the same way.

2. The greens are the fastest I’ve ever seen

Really fast. Think pool-table fast. Hockey-rink fast. Sidewalk-fast. And just because your caddie keeps reminding you just how fast they are doesn’t mean you won’t blow a few past the hole on your first nine. Reaching the green doesn’t mean your ball is going to stay there — my approach shots rolled off the back on a majority of the holes. Be comfortable with the fact that you won’t figure them out, and get used to three-putting. Donald Ross wasn’t messing around here. 

3. Bring your sand wedge

If there’s one thing you want to practice before heading to Seminole, it’s your bunker game. There’s waste area on almost every hole and if you miss a green, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll be in some sort of sandy situation. Even the most purely-struck iron shots have a fair chance of rolling into a bunker at Seminole. The fairway bunkers are relatively shallow, but the greenside traps are a different story. 

4. The course is tough, but not impossible

For an average golfer like me, you’re going to remember the course a lot more than your score. It’s tough, but you won’t be losing many balls, thanks to both the vast fairways and the experienced caddies. I hit some good shots, plenty of bad ones and visited enough bunkers for a lifetime in just a few hours. But the thing about Seminole is, despite the growing pile of sand in my shoes, you enjoy walking up to even your worst shots.

5. The caddies at Seminole are as good as you’d expect

My caddie, Eugene, has been looping at Seminole for 20 years and has even fired a 61 at the course. He said Seminole loopers are allowed to play the course every evening after work. When Seminole closes for the summer, most of the caddies head north to work at similarly top-notch clubs like Merion or one of the Hamptons classics, returning in the fall when the Florida heat subsides.

6. Everyone is focused on your experience

This may sound trite, because of course Seminole will want media members to have a great day, but these folks are masters of attention to detail. Club president Jimmy Dunne, one of golf’s more influential figures, waited at the turn, curious for our thoughts on the course. Head pro Bob Ford pulled up alongside us as we played a par-3 to check in on our round. Michael in the pro shop helped me pick out a shirt for my dad. The woman operating the snack shack offered to drive a sandwich out to a player in my group. You’re in really good hands when you arrive at Seminole.

Travel

When you spend weeks envisioning a destination, like I did with Seminole, it was no surprise when the day itself flew by. I’d shaken off my early-round jitters to play a round I was proud of (but not proud enough to share my score!) and enjoy every minute of the day. Just as I felt the Florida sun wearing me down, we arrived at the 16th green, which overlooked the adjacent beach, waves rolling in off the Atlantic. The wind off the water cooled us off and the view reminded us exactly why Seminole is the place that it is.

The round was fast; our caddies kept us on pace for a three-and-a-half hour 18. I couldn’t help but drag my feet on the way out; I lingered in the pro shop as long as I could before strolling reluctantly back in the direction of my rental car.

There are some places you just don’t want to leave.

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The Honda Classic ended on Sunday. The WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play begins on Wednesday. But today, Monday, has a big-time event of its own. Monday is the 2021 Seminole Pro-Member, an annual and exclusive tournament held at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., that’s often dubbed the most competitive pro-member in golf.

This tournament is intriguing for many reasons. For starters, it’s at Seminole, a private club built by Donald Ross in 1929 that runs along the Atlantic Ocean. It’d be a bucket-list tee time for any golfer lucky enough to score an invite, and it recently became even more of a drool-worthy destination when golf fans got to see the course on their TV screens during last year’s Seminole skins match that featured Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff.

The other reason there’s so much hype around this event is simply due to the field. Just look at it! There are PGA Tour stars like Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples and dozens more. LPGA stars like Jessica Korda and Morgan Pressel are there, too. There’s also golf power-players like Jimmy Dunne III, the club’s president, PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, NBC Sports Group Chairman Pete Bevacqua (also the former PGA of American CEO) and Fox Sports Executive Producer Mark Loomis. The list goes on and includes major champs, prominent CEOs, influential businessmen and more. Check it out below, courtesy Dylan Dethier via Twitter.

The Seminole Pro-Member is a two-person best-ball with gross and net divisions. It reportedly started in 1937 as a Calcutta but was dealt a blow when the USGA tweaked its rule book in 1961. With the help of some members, the event gained more steam in the 2000s and has morphed into what it is today: something golf fans would gladly pay to watch.

Johnson Wagner and John T. McCoy won the gross title last year (64), and Carlos Ortiz and Christie Flanagan (62) were the net winners.

Seminole, GOLF’s 34th-ranked course in the world, is also the host of the 48th Walker Cup being held on May 8-9. Click here for more background on the Seminole Pro-Member, and click here for photos of Seminole.

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For every great course that made GOLF’s 2020-21 ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S., dozens of more must-plays were left on the outside looking in — including at least a handful in your home state. Some of these designs just missed out on a Top 100 nomination, others finished deeper down the ranking, but all are worthy of your time. To shed light on the best courses in every state, we broke out the full results of our Top 100 Courses polling into state-by-state lists. Here’s a closer look at Florida.

Florida golf by the numbers:

Number of courses and U.S. rank: 1,281 (1)*
Number of golfers per capita rank: 21*
Average public-course greens fees: $$ out of $$$*
Average daily temp and rank: 70.7 (1)
Annual precipitation and rank: 54.5 in. (5)

*Source: National Golf Foundation

Best Florida golf courses (2020/2021)

1. Seminole (Juno Beach) [1, 2]

What a good thing the club did by hosting a televised event to raise money to fight Covid in May 2020. Few golfers get to experience this posh coastal retreat and they were rewarded with first-time views of what is arguably the finest site on which Donald Ross ever worked. The course plays along and between two main dune lines, and Ross made the most of the opportunity with holes continually tacking in different directions. The club prides itself on its firm playing surfaces and when the coastal breezes kick in, watch out. Some grouse that the course’s reputation is built on the club’s exclusivity, which is unfair given that standout holes abound, including the 4th, 6th, 13th and one of the great trio of finishing holes in the sport. So impressed was Ben Hogan with Seminole’s virtues that he would play and practice here for 30 straight days each year leading up to the Masters.

2. TPC Sawgrass – Stadium (Ponte Vedra Beach) [1, 2, P]

Some sniff at the artificiality of a course being hewn from a swamp, yet that’s also what makes the Stadium Course stand out from the crowd. Home of the Players Championship since 1982, the design has evolved into a handsome battleground (however you feel about the towering clubhouse), highlighting Pete Dye’s talent for envisioning something from nothing. The short par-4 4th, reachable par-5 11th and the long par-4 14th rank among Dye’s all-time best. For shotmaking options and memorable individual holes that require a blend of power and finesse, the Stadium Course has few peers.

Book a tee time at TPC Swagrass’ Stadium Course.

3. Streamsong – Red (Bowling Green) [1, 3, P]

When the modern minimalism of Coore and Crenshaw meets the heaving, sandy landscape of a former phosphate mine, the result has more in common with a Scottish links than it does with a typical Florida design. Forget soft landings on flat, water-laden fairways. Like its Streamsong siblings, the Blue and Black courses, the Red is built for bouncy, rollicking play. There’s some leeway off the tee. But attacking from the proper angle is essential. So is a knack for creative shot-making. The ground game is more welcome here than almost anywhere in the Sunshine State.

Book a tee time at Streamsong Resort.

4. Streamsong – Blue (Bowling Green) [1, 3, P]

Tom Doak and Bill Coore literally shared holes and land as they built the Blue and Red courses in a collaborative spirit. To a certain extent, that means the two courses also share the spotlight, which may not be fair to either, as both are standouts. A talented greenkeeper pushes the dormant Bermuda fairways to tawny perfection during the winter months (no overseeding here!) and the firm playing surfaces can make a hole like the 6th, with its green that races away, exasperating. The in-your-face 4th climbs a ridge and some contend this is the best hole of the 54 at this luxe resort. The par-5 17th, with its appealing cross hazard, and the long two-shot 18th, where the ground game is the star are as good a 1-2 finishing punch as Doak has ever built.

Book a tee time at Streamsong Resort.

5. Calusa Pines (Naples) [1]

Unusual for Florida, this is a pure, secluded golf club with no homes. Quiet rounds are guaranteed. A beautiful Hurdzan-Fry artistic creation, the course encapsulates the best that Florida has to offer: scrubby, sandy soil; pine trees; the occasional lagoon; and some shockingly fine land movement. Generally speaking, either an expansive sandy area or lagoon is on one side of the fairway and plenty of short grass is to the other. The more you flirt with the hazards, though, the better the angle for your approach. The stretch from 4 to 6 highlights that design thesis. Adding to the challenge are the perched greens, which require demanding approaches and deft recovery shots. The cadence of the holes and the ever-changing asks of the player add to the experience.

6. McArthur (Hobe Sound)

7. Mountain Lake (Lake Wales)

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8. Streamsong – Black (Bowling Green) [3, P]

Book a tee time at Streamsong Resort.

9. The Grove XXIII (Hobe Sound)

10. Jupiter Hills – Hills (Tequesta)

11. Indian Creek (Indian Creek)

12. World Woods – Pine Barrens (Brooksville) [P]

Book a tee time at World Woods.

13. Pine Tree (Boynton Beach)

14. Concession (Bradenton)

15. Bear’s Club (Jupiter)

16. Black Diamond Ranch – Quarry (Lecanto)

17. John’s Island – West (Vero Beach)

18. Old Memorial (Tampa)

19. Pablo Creek (Jacksonville)

20. CC of Florida (Boynton Beach)

21. Redstick (Vero Beach)

22. Lake Nona (Orlando)

23. Trump National Doral – Blue (Miami) [3, P]

Book a tee time at Trump National Doral.

24. Bay Hill (Orlando) [P]

Book a tee time at Bay Hill.

25. Isleworth (Windermere)

SYMBOL GUIDE

1 = GOLF Top 100 Course in the U.S.
2 = GOLF Top 100 Course in the World
3 = GOLF Top 100 Resort
P = Resort/public golf course

Ed. note: Some courses were omitted from our rankings because they did not receive enough votes.

Course spotlight: The Grove XXIII (Hobe Sound, Fla.), ranked 9th in Florida. Michael Jordan’s home course is surprising in the amount of attention paid to bunker placement along with subtle land movement within the fairways and green complexes. The key to playing well here is being able to position your tee shot near fairway bunkers opening the proper angle of attack into the greens. — GOLF Top 100 Course Rater

How we rank America’s best golf courses

For the newly released 2020-21 U.S. list, each panelist was provided a list of 489 courses. Beside that list of courses were 11 “buckets,” or groupings. If our panelists considered a course to be among the top three in the country, they ticked that box. If they believed the course to be among Nos. 4-10 in the U.S., they checked that box, followed by 11-25, 26-50, and so on.

Panelists were also free to write in courses that they felt should have been included on the ballot (we had fewer than a handful of such additions in the U.S. vote).

Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its aggregate score by the number of votes. From those point tallies, the courses are then ranked accordingly. It is an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it invariably produces results that are widely lauded. Like the game itself, there’s no need to unnecessarily overcomplicate things.

For much more on how we rate courses, click or tap here.

Meet our course raters

We empower and hold accountable a group of 97 well-traveled — and well-connected — golfers/aficionados, each capable of expressing their own sense of design excellence at the highest level. The group is seasoned and experienced — we look for raters who know what’s out there, what’s changing and what’s coming down the pike. And from judging posts across four continents, our panelists are positioned to place courses from different regions around the globe into proper context, one of the main reasons GOLF’s Top 100 Courses rankings are the most esteemed in the game.

Other ranking outlets employ thousands of raters. Our less-is-more approach creates a more meaningful and thoughtful list. Think about it: When you plan a golf trip, do you call every golfer you know for their take? No. You contact a handful of people whose opinions you value most.

Meet our full crew of panelists here.

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In this installment of the #AskAlan mailbag, GOLF senior writer Alan Shipnuck answers your questions about pros wearing shorts, how players will deal with the PGA Tour’s safety measures, the elimination of U.S. Open qualifying, and more.

Trousers versus short pants … go! – @JoelSouthall

OK, let’s just dive into the big issue of the day, shall we? I like to play golf in shorts. I’m happy for others to do so, too … except on the PGA Tour. The leg hair, the asymmetrical calves, the dainty little socks … I’m not a fan. The Tour is an entertainment product, and aesthetics matter. This is not a hill I want to die on, but it is my preference.

There are many changes left on the table for Covid play through the autumn that we got a glimpse of on Sunday (no fans, golfers maybe wearing masks, no caddies). Which golfers do you see losing their edge or buckling under new constraints? Are there any you think will play better? – @zuzanryan

The new reality on Tour is going to be a fascinating sociological experiment. The pros vary in temperament from persnickety to obsessive-compulsive. They are creatures of habit and routine, all of which is going to be torn asunder. Who succeeds and who doesn’t will be about a lot more than golf. Families are much less likely to travel in the short- and medium-term, so that will have a profound interpersonal impact on the competitors. The stars who usually roll with large entourages will have that support system taken away, too. An added layer to this is that coronavirus has become politicized, and we know that as a group professional golfers skew conservative. A few weeks ago, I was interviewing by phone a major championship winner, and he went on a lengthy riff about the nation’s response to the ‘rona and what he feels is an overreaction. He didn’t use the word hoax, but it seemed like it was on the tip of his tongue the whole time. Someone with that worldview is going to have to deal with intense frustrations as they are forced to navigate the many new protocols the Tour has put in place and all the attendant hassles. Every player is going to be affected; the most easy-going of them will probably fare the best.

If the USGA can run the U.S. Open why the hell can they not have qualifying? – @BurkeStefco

It’s a matter of scale. Traditionally there are over 100 qualifying sites around the country, across the local and sectional stages, and even in the best of times, it’s a monumental undertaking to pull it off. At this moment in time, it would be overwhelming to try to solve all the logistical and medical issues to do the qualifying the old way, especially given the different rules from state to state. Still, I would have liked to have seen a modified version a few weeks ahead of the Open. Maybe four sites sprinkled across each time zone, where a few hundred players chosen at random from among the 10,000 entrants would play 36 or 54 holes, and the low 10 at each site punch their ticket to Winged Foot. Given the USGA’s resources, that would be manageable while still preserving the openness of our national championship. And it would still provide the USGA way more automatic exemptions than usual to make sure the top 100 or so in the world ranking are all on hand for the Open. Seems like a workable compromise in these unprecedented times. 

#AskAlan Will there be invisible asterisks next to the winners of this year’s PGA, U.S. Open and Masters? Will people look at the winner and think “Yeah, but he won it in 2020.” – @War_Eagle1991

Not even close! Whoever wins these events will have overcome all kinds of challenges to get their game to peak at the right time. You can make the argument that winning this year will be much more impressive than in the simpler times, pre-Covid.

How much blowback will Rory receive from the American fans after his Trump comments? #AskAlan – @Pkeen52

So far, very little. Rory has earned so much goodwill with golf fans that even ardent Trump supporters seem willing to cut him some slack. The comments are also on-brand in that McIlroy has defined himself as one of golf’s truth-tellers so fans have come to expect his honest and sometimes blunt assessments. You don’t have to agree with him, but I think most people in golf appreciate the candor, whatever the topic may be.

There has been a great deal made about modern equipment making some of the grand old tracks obsolete for the best in the world. Your thoughts on an event where they play with old school clubs (persimmon) and balata balls? – @SteveThomsonMN

It would be great fun to watch, but what’s in it for the players? They spend all their time training to play the game a certain way, and it ain’t this. None of them want to go out and struggle and have the golf cognoscenti wag their collective finger and taunt them by saying they can only succeed due to modern equipment. So, it’s a fun thought experiment, but I don’t see it ever happening beyond the occasional lark.

What’s the prospect for more made-for-TV matches at unique golf courses? Seems like something that could be a great product, with the right players and some production improvements. – @JayRevell

There’s definitely a market there, especially in the next year when many international tournaments are likely to go on hiatus, leaving players available, bored and eager to please their corporate masters. I’ve also detected a larger shift in the golf culture, where very exclusive clubs seem more amenable to showing off their courses. So many have undergone restorations in recent years, and the architecture nerds in the club leadership positions want to show off the handiwork. Also, the members are now collectively more comfortable with social media and when they see other great courses being drooled over – and Tour players broadcasting friendly matches – it activates their FOMO. So hopefully we can keep peeking over the hedges.

After watching the Seminole gig, I’m wondering if we will see a person stationed at every green to manage the flagstick being taken in and out? And why didn’t the PGA Tour use a cup with something below the rim to keep the players from dipping into it on every hole? Same net effect. … – @spyhillbill

Yes, if you have the resources or volunteers to provide a dedicated flag attendant that is definitely the way to go for tournaments. As for the putting, the Tour wanted the competition to look like “real golf” as much as possible within the various parameters. If you’re careful, it is certainly possible to retrieve a ball from the cup without touching anything else; I think this works for four players, but I’m not sure about 156.

Why did TV have to ruin a perfect opportunity to embrace minimalism? – @ScottMichaux

What, you didn’t enjoy the Bill Murray and Donald Trump cameos? The problem with having only four players on the course, and especially if they’re walking, is that there is a lot of dead time between shots. So the TV folks panicked and felt compelled to fill up all the empty space, instead of just letting us listen in on the mic’d players, which is always morbidly fascinating.

If we someday get to see Pine Valley, will it seem overrated also? #notagolfsnob – @mileredskin

Definitely not. Seminole is so subtle, and that doesn’t translate to TV, especially when it’s a stripped-down telecast without the analysts, graphics and different camera angles that could have brought to life the course’s charms. Pine Valley is the opposite – big, bold, intensely visual, with one dramatic, risk-reward hole after another. It is the ultimate golf porn and would look glorious in any kind of telecast.

I would like to #AskAlan what would be the one thing that you would like to change in coverage this past weekend and why it will/or will not ever happen, stipulating that your golf wardrobe stances are your homages to keep you firmly ensconced in the halls of old man golf media. – @_Qonquistador

I’m still not sure if that last bit is a put-down or not. Anyway, as for the coverage, I love in-round interviews because they are either informative or painfully awkward, and either way the fans win. Same with mic’d players. I don’t think either will become common on the PGA Tour, but I wish they would.

Has Colonial been “obsoleted” by 21st century golf equipment? – @WSoxChamps05

Well, every course on the planet has, so the answer is yes … but less so. Colonial is actually sort of immune to distance gains because so many fairways turn hard in the 240-260 yard range and thus the course can’t really be overpowered unless players take on huge risks by trying to fly the towering oak trees and other horrors on every hole.

Did the Seminole match highlight the importance of caddies in distance control and reading putts? – @jking_NY

Nah, the lack of precision was due mainly to competitive rust mixed with a good breeze and fiddly greens. 

If you could create a golf-themed 30/30 for ESPN what subject would you choose? – @SonOfAFitch

Has to be Anthony Kim, right? The War by the Shore would be tasty, too.

What are your thoughts on letting the players bet on themselves? Extremely hard to regulate, but also why not? #askalan – @RyanPM_

It’s a very slippery slope. Would it affect players’ allegiance to the rules? It’s easy to see where the temptation could arise. If they bet on themselves, they’re likely to lose more often than not, and the last thing any tour wants is a bunch of players owing money to bookies, loan sharks and other characters out of a Scorcese film. There are already fabulous rewards available to professional golfers – openly letting them bet on themselves seems to have minimal upside and the potential for serious problems.

Ship, why didn’t the Seminole match feature the top female players in partnership with the top men? Sure, TaylorMade players made up the list, but I am sure they could’ve put some powerhouse male-female teams together? Would’ve been very interesting to watch. … – @cavedoc

Of course it would’ve been great. Just as there should be a mixed-team event sanctioned by the PGA Tour and LPGA. There is no reason why women are excluded from these things except for entrenched biases. Hopefully that will change sooner rather than later. 

So, all this raving about Seminole. Is it because it’s so exclusive or because it’s that good of a track? Didn’t look that impressive on TV. – @JoeECervi

This is an important point that often gets confused when discussing places. Seminole is a really good course but an amazing experience. We’re all human and prone to the giddy, holy-cow-I’m-finally-playing-Seminole emotions, which seem to explain its elevated spot in various Top 100s.

#AskAlan Vijay signs up for KFT event and gets destroyed on social media. Streelman, Dahmen, etc play in Scottsdale Open, and it’s fine. Seems like a bit of a double standard? – @Scottiecons

They’re different kinds of tournaments. Scottsdale was a classic mini-tour event in that it’s open to anyone, first come, first served, and the purse is derived from the entry fees. Also, it’s a one-off that doesn’t feed into any other tours. The KFT is much more of a closed-shop, and those criticizing Vijay are mostly complaining that he’s potentially taking away from money and the chance at advancement from lesser players. If Streelman, with his $20 million in career earnings, rolled up to a KFT tournament, there would be some squawking, too. 

What happened to Hunter Mahan and Sean O’Hair? – @TheBlackWhip

Golf is hard.

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The post What is Tom Brady’s handicap? A look at the NFL star’s golf game ahead of Tiger-Phil Match II appeared first on Golf.

The post What is Tom Brady’s handicap? A look at the NFL star’s golf game ahead of Tiger-Phil Match II appeared first on Golf.

Six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady has a new season with a new team on the horizon, but first he will compete on the golf course in front of live TV cameras when he teams up with Phil Mickelson against Tiger Woods and former NFL great Peyton Manning in The Match: Champions for Charity.

The match takes place on Sunday, and with Brady’s game about to be exposed for millions to see, we thought it was a good time to take a look at how his game stacks up.

Tom Brady’s golf handicap

The simplest way to get a glimpse at Brady’s talent on the golf course is through his handicap, and the most recent scores he has posted. Brady’s official handicap index currently sits at 8.1. That’s far from the plus-handicaps of PGA Tour pros, but very good for just about anyone else.

His course handicap at Medalist Golf Club, venue for the Tiger-Phil Match II, is 11 due to the venue’s difficult course and slope ratings (73.1/141). That means that on the par-72 course his target score would be 83, though given the match play format of the Champions for Charity event, target scores matter little.

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For comparison’s sake, Manning sports a 6.4 index and will carry a 9 handicap at Medalist. Mickelson and Woods, on the other hand, are well into the plus-range.

The last official score Brady posted was an 86 in April, the only score he entered in 2020. He recorded more than 10 scores during the 2019 NFL offseason, with most falling between the mid-80s and mid-90s.

One alarming recent score occurred in March of last year, when Brady shot an ugly 106 away from his home course in Massachusetts. Even worse news for Brady and Mickelson’s prospects is the fact that he carded that 106 at, of all places, Medalist Golf Club.

His most recent comments about the state of his game don’t inspire much confidence either. In a preview video for the match against Woods and Manning, Brady referred to his game as “somewhere between s— poor and pitiful.”

“Unfortunately I’m focusing on football right now and I’m still working and golf will come at a later date,” he continued, “but I can get a little bit streaky.”

His non-PGA Tour opponent Manning has no such distractions, having retired from the NFL in 2016 after winning his second Super Bowl title with the Denver Broncos.

What golf clubs does Tom Brady belong to?

Given his love for golf and his status as one of the most famous and successful NFL players in history, there’s a good chance that Brady belongs to several golf clubs around the country. But there are two big ones where we are certain Brady is a member.

The former New England Patriots quarterback’s current home club is The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., a historic course ranked No. 38 in GOLF’s Top 100 Courses in the World ranking. Brady joined the exclusive club in 2017 after years of trying. However, with his move to Florida to play for the Bucs, there’s a good chance he will need to find a new home club.

Fortunately, he’s got that covered.

Brady recently joined another storied club closer to his new home, Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., which could become his new official home course. Seminole was the site of the TaylorMade Driving Relief event on May 17 that pitted PGA Tour pros Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff.

Despite the fact that Brady holds the weakest handicap of the participants in the match, anything can happen in one round, especially when the player in question has a proven track record of success in high-level competition. The Match: Champions for Charity begins at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday on TNT.

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Michael Bamberger is back on the road, keeping two club lengths from his sources. This is the first installment in a five-part Bamberger Briefly series from South Florida, about professional golf’s return to action.

JUNO BEACH, Fla. — The occasion was a mid-May golf match on a storied course behind chain-link fences and giant rubbery hedges. The event brought ripples of giddy pleasure throughout golfdom. It also brought giddy catcalls from a small boat bobbing in the Atlantic, and modest clapping from a rooftop above the players and, briefly, within their earshot.

Had this year been normal, Sunday’s gaze would have been westward, toward San Francisco, to Harding Park and the finale of the PGA Championship. Instead the view was southward — for a lucky few of us, anyway — watching from a rooftop, in this account.

If you’ve been to Wrigley Field, you know this scene’s distant cousin. There, at another antique that has stood up proudly to Father Time, Cubs fans sit atop the row homes on Waveland and Sheffield Avenues, taking in the baseball and the beer. Maybe this will hit closer to home for you: the kids in trees watching Francis Ouimet raise the U.S. Open jug at The Country Club in 1913.

I will keep to myself the name of my host, my hostess, the building’s name, my path to this lucky spot, years in the making. This is about fandom in its various forms. The kids on the Fourth, biking into town, claiming their parade spots early, for an unobstructed view of the grand marshal. (Here he comes, Soupy Sales!) This is probably a good time to note that the TaylorMade Driving Relief event is the great grandchild of a simpler thing now known as The Match, played in 1956. George Coleman stood tall for that event, bringing ends together. Years later, George Coleman was Seminole’s benign czar.

There were four balls on the 12th green, all close to the yellow flagstick, doing a shimmy dance in the wind. Which ball belonged to whom? The fellas, obstructed by trees, were making their way in and soon the answers would be known. Every decade or so a storm blows in and knocks down these trees. Seminole, an oasis first and foremost, plants new ones. Rickie Fowler was closest and the only of the four to hole his putt. He came off the green and acknowledged his applause from above the trees.

We couldn’t see his tee shot on the par-3 13th. We could see that it finished in a greenside trap. Over that green is a dune, the beach, the Atlantic. The beach was closed, because of the pandemic.

The players moved from the 13th green to the 14th tee, practically in a dune. Three boats were a few hundred yards offshore. Matthew Wolff uncorked a drive that went forever. The boatsmen whistled their approval, their calls carrying downwind just like Wolff’s tee shot. There might have been a dozen spectators, watching live, from on high and at sea. True, there wasn’t much to see, but anybody who has ever been to the Masters says the same thing, without complaint. It was great to be there, that’s the one-sentence report from this reporter. The afternoon was sunny, humid and windy. Rain was moving in.

The 20 or so people on the course were all working, in the name of charity, spaced out in appropriate deference to the pandemic. There were camera operators and a photographer and Mark Russell of the PGA Tour, handling the rules and the flagsticks. Only a few people were wearing masks. Next May, when the Walker Cup is played at Seminole, fans will again move with the players and their caddies, provided our future looks something like our past.

From the rooftop, the course was the star. You could readily see the long sand ridge that runs along the dunes, the course’s eastern border, and then again, strangely, along A1A, the course’s western border. Seminole, on this Sunday, had ever-changing winds. Not an ocean blow, but a real wind. It played like a 150-acre Amen Corner. Also, from the roof, you can see that every palm on the course means something. You could imagine playing the course for a week and not losing a ball, if you could keep it out of the course’s many dark ponds. A man can dream.

There was the pink clubhouse to the south, from my perch. By the end, the sun was setting in the west. The ocean was getting darker, to the east. The hostess was going to make Sunday supper, for some elderly friends.

Seventeen is a par-3 in the dunes and out of a dream. The players played their tee shots. The pin was in the back, on the left. They were playing draw shots into a slice wind. The Seminole caddies don’t track greens hit, but greens visited. You’re on them, and then you’re not. It’s the pitch and the wind. What a course.

Rickie Fowler kept his tee shot on the green. Dustin Johnson did, too. We had no idea how the match stood and it did not matter. The causes were good ones. Money for charity, new vistas for us, on TV and in person.

Nobody made a birdie on 17, that I could tell. The fellas made one of the best walks in golf, from Seminole’s 17th green to its 18th tee. One man stayed behind on the 17th tee. He picked up the two tee markers and moved them 60 yards ahead, in preparation, should it be needed, for a single-swing-closest-to-the-pin playoff (indeed, the bonus shot was required). He inspected his work. It’s like hanging a picture, has to be done just right.

On Wednesday, the members will get their course again. Nobody will watch from a rooftop or from a boat deck or on TV. But golf will be played, and not just at Seminole. It’s a little different, right now, but golf is coming back. Tell a friend.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael_Bamberger@GOLF.com

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