Triple-s threat: killer scenery, sunshine and snow. © Photo by Chris Duthie

For the moment, we’ve switched off the jets in the rooftop Jacuzzi—the swirling bubbles are soothing our powder-burned muscles, but the motorized hum isn’t compatible with the incomparable view. Before us, burning with alpenglow, stand the Needles Mountains, a picture-perfect backdrop for the recently opened Purgatory Lodge at  Durango Mountain Resort. Here at 8,800 feet, at the snow-laden apex of the new day lodge where our Jacuzzi sits, the overlook is spectacular but often overlooked.

Purgatory is a best-kept secret. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Since 1965, Purgatory has anchored the Colorado ski industry’s southern flanks. Out of the way and out of the headlines, it has kept a low profile, which is exactly how Purgatory loyalists—myself included—have liked it. Quite shamelessly, we’ve embarked on a campaign of disinformation. We’ve trivialized the resort’s no-wait lift lines,  superb weather and incredible snow. We’ve minimized the extraordinary scenery, rebuked the folksy base facilities and—in brazen acts of selfishness—given bad directions to midnight-arrival ski buses, steering them toward Telluride or Taos. Not that our efforts have ever dissuaded anyone, mind you. Somehow, the facts have gotten out: Purgatory’s vertical exceeds 2,000 feet, the annual powder tally averages 260 inches, and the resort is a haven for beginners and intermediates who can cruise fully three-quarters of the mountain’s 1,200 skiable acres.

And now Purgatory is enticing more newcomers with a $100 million revitalization project designed to make the most of the resort’s land—and landscape. The historic but outmoded Purgy’s Restaurant is gone, replaced by a redesigned facility comfortably ensconced within the redeveloped Purgatory Village complex. The aforementioned Purgatory Lodge complements the natural surroundings and the existing Village Center condo/retail complex with a stone-and-timber facade, luxe lodging, fitness center, full-service spa, pool, club lounge, ski valet, shops, tricked-out kids club, and that panorama of snow-capped mountains in the distance. Plans call for an outdoor amphitheater to host concerts and other events.

Bring the entire family to Purgatory. © Photo by Chris Duthie

But the village is the icing on the cake. Purgatory’s appeal lies squarely on its hidden glades, aspen- and pine-punctuated trails, wide-open groomers, quad-burning mogul fields and binding-cranking steeps. The mountain’s front side is noted for its plethora of blues and greens—Upper Hades, West Fork and Limbo are  favorites—and several smile-inducing blacks, such as Styx, Lower Hades, Pandemonium and Catharsis. On the “back side”—actually a left-to-right expansion of the saddleback mountain—the terrain teems with drop-dead-gorgeous views of Spud Mountain and the Needles range, plus a smorgasbord of cruisers: the blue and beautiful Dead Spike is exquisite, but you can test your technique with a romp down double-diamond  Bull Run. Skiing to Chair 8 opens up the advanced-ability Legends area and the vaunted, pulse-quickening bliss of Chet’s, Paul’s Park, Blackburn’s Bash and Elliott’s, all named for longtime employees of the resort.

Powder-induced smiles abound. © Photo by Chris Duthie

The immaculately groomed terrain parks, Paradise Freestyle Arena and Pitchfork Terrain Garden, are located topside to take advantage of late-afternoon rays. The former’s big jumps and long rails suit intermediates and experts, while the latter offers a fun box and a 260-foot half pipe that will electrify any ability level. Then it’s fast tracks to the base and its enlarged après “beach” area of chair-planted sun worshippers and people-watching revelers who liberally partake of both the micro-brews and the tales of derring-do. Afterward, the revamped Purgy’s Restaurant—constructed with material salvaged from the old building, including its famous bar—sates guests with hearty dinner fare.

Once you go, don’t be surprised if, like me, you find yourself shamelessly underselling this growing Southwest Colorado hotspot—and its fantastic blue-sky weather, breathtaking scenery and world-class conditions—in the hopes of keeping it all for yourself.

Just say the devil made you do it. [TAP]

Nationalism is proud and loud at the XXI Winter Olympics. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Friday, Feb. 19, 2010

THE THRILL AND AGONY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES

The Olympics are all about big, heartfelt, wear-them-on-your-sleeve emotions, the kind that can soar like a Zeppelin dirigible — but are as devastatingly explosive when things go wrong.

The XXI Winter Games have been no exception.

Last Friday on opening day, the world’s athletic showcase started off as it never has — with death. Georgia luge team member Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died after a horrifying training-run crash at the Whistler Sliding Centre, sending the entire Olympic movement into spiraling grief and mourning.

In memory. © Photo by Chris Duthie

In Whistler, Kumaritashvili ‘s untimely death shrouded the rain-glistened Village Stroll in gloom and sadness. Flowers, candles and handwritten notes began collecting at the base of the Olympic Rings display near Medals Plaza. Officials wept, competitors and coaches wore black armbands, flags were set at half mast.

The Olympics were off to a bitter, tragic start. Twenty-four hours later, following frenzied track renovations and a shortened starting point, the men’s luge event began with palpable fear, bated breath and private prayers — and went off with nary a hitch. Still, the usually boisterous celebrating and gleeful nationalism were noticeably absent. Few were willing, or able, to release the unbridled joy that marks, underscores and testifies to the Olympic experience.

A Kodak moment. © Photo by Chris Duthie

That is, until Sunday evening, when 22-year-old Canadian mogul skier Alexandre Bilodeau captured the men’s freestyle event at Cypress Mountain. Not only was it the host country’s first gold medal of these Games, it was the first ever won by a Canadian on home soil.

Turns out that Bilodeau was exactly what the Games needed.

Canada and the world celebrate in Whistler. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Every day and night since, fans (especially proud Canadians) have packed Whistler Stroll and pedestrian-only Robson Street in Vancouver. Cowbells are clanging, national flags are billowing, street performers are entertaining, and those zealous Olympic fans are back and reveling well into the night.

Nodar Kumaritashvili’s flag-draped coffin was flown home to Georgia last Wednesday, and he will be buried tomorrow at a churchyard in his hometown of Bakuriani, a village of about 1,500. Like Canada’s Bilodeau, the young athlete is now regarded a national hero.

Such are the highs and lows of the Olympics.

It is an experience not to be missed.     [TAP]

Spyder Senior Marketing Manager Laura Wisner and the company's new secret weapon, the silver-coated US Olympic ski suit. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Friday, Feb. 12, 2010

THE NEED FOR SPEED

Whistler residents, visitors and Olympic athletes woke to great news — and big noise — this morning: Almost ten inches of new snow have fallen in the last twenty-four hours, and Whistler Blackcomb’s crack avalanche safety crew has been busy bombing at-risk ski routes since daybreak. That, along with partially sunny skies, means the first day of the XI Winter Olympics is off to a rousing, vociferous boom. Ski jumping qualifications will be held today at the Whistler Olympic Park, and tonight are the highly anticipated Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver.

No doubt you’ve already heard about U.S. woman skier Lindsey Vonn’s now-infamous shin bruise, a week-old injury that might keep the two-time overall World Cup titlist from competing full speed in her quest for five Olympic medals. You also might have read the news of Georgia lugist Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died following a horrific training-run crash at the Whistler Sliding Centre, giving credence that the track — regarded the fastest in the world — might in fact be too fast.

Spyder's new ski suit may have a dominating presence at the Games. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Here’s what may be the Olympic’s next big controversy: racing suits.

Remember the angry buzz awhile back over those slippery Speedo LZR Racer suits that helped propel swimmers to several world records? Something similar might be afoot here at the Winter Games. Spyder, the Boulder, Colo.-based skiwear manufacturer, says it has a new racing suit that will be a huge technological leg up for some Olympic athletes.

Even spray-on skin can't match Spyder's new ski suit. Model: Courtney Deverall; artist: Sandra Woosnam. © Photo by Chris Duthie

How slick is the new X-static, silver-coated fabric? According to Spyder Senior Marketing Manager Laura Wisner, it’s freaky fast. In a 100-second course, all other variables being equal, the time savings would be as much as one second. The new Olympic GS (for slalom and giant slalom) has up to eighteen-percent less aerodynamic drag than last year’s model, while the Olympic DH Suit (for downhill and super-g) lowers drag up to three percent. Both suits are seamless — eighty-percent of the stitching was eliminated when padding was removed or relocated — and the textile’s silver coating has significant anti-odor, antistatic and thermodynamic benefits.

All of which could translate into a real, techno-fueled gold rush at time-critical events.

But here’s the controversy kicker: Only U.S. and Canadian skiers will be wearing the wind tunnel-tested bodysuit (plus the sole member of the Jamaican Olympic Team, Errol Kerr, who competes in skiercross). Because of Spyder’s sponsorship commitments, we’ll only see athletes like America’s Vonn and Bode Miller and Canada’s Kelly McBroom and Manuel Osborne-Paradis exhibiting — and likely benefiting from — the flashy fabric.

In 2011 the suit is slated to retail for approximately US$1,200. The need for speed never comes cheap. [TAP]

The mighty inukshuk stands tall in Whistler. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010

VANCOUVER BLAHS, WHISTER RAHS!

It’s three days before the start of the XXI Winter Olympics, and no matter how much the good folks at VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee) try to spin it, the buzz is about the weather. Or more specifically, the lack of it, as in, “Where the #$@! is the snow?” As I am writing this, Vancouver’s completely absurd daytime temperature hovers at 45-degrees Fahrenheit, which is ideal if you like trail running or mountain biking but abysmal if the day calls for skiing or snowboarding.

Vancouver’s unseasonably balmy weather has been a testy topic for weeks now. That wasn’t the case last season, when this coastal city was buried in freakish snowfall and its three nearby ski mountains—Seymour, Grouse and Cyprus—actually reported higher snow depths than Whistler Blackcomb, the much celebrated resort to the north and host site to most of the upcoming Olympic Alpine and Nordic events.

Nightly Olympic concerts in Whistler Village. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Warm weather and sunny skies are also affecting Whistler, located about 75 miles inland. However, its higher elevation, record-setting November snowfalls, subsequent storms and aggressive snowmaking are keeping Olympic venues—downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, jumping, bobsledding, etc.—in good stead.

But at Cypress Mountain, located just 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver and site of the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events, event organizers are hauling in tons of the white stuff via truck and helicopter. It’s a superhuman, last-ditch effort that harkens back to the notorious, low-snow 1964 Innsbruck Games. That’s when the Austrian army saved the event’s high-profile fanny when it carved out 20,000 blocks of mountain ice for the luge and bobsled tracks, then carried 1.4 million cubic feet of snow to the Alpine ski slopes.

Despite Vancouver’s gloom, the telltale energy in Whistler Village is positive, palpable and downright infectious. Three nights ago, an Olympic Torch-carrying athlete ignited an on-site cauldron flame—much to the delight of thousands of toque-bedecked Canadians, who then punctuated the raucous, frosty breath night air with a reverberating chorus of  “Oh, Canada,” the national anthem. It was spine tingling, even for this crotchety, crowd-avoiding Coloradoan. Since, the pedestrian-friendly Village has swelled measurably with strapping young Olympians, fans, media and the occasional flag-draped canine.

The Olympic spirit dog. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Biggest surprises so far:

Skiing on Whistler Blackcomb is impressive, not so much for the excellent conditions and celebellum-numbing panoramas as for the nonexistent lift lines. What’s up? Olympic operations have shuttered all of the formerly free parking lots. Day skiers and boarders who normally drive up from metro Vancouver and Seattle apparently are staying away in droves.

Whistler’s stepped-up transportation system is incredible. A massive new fleet of hydrogen-powered busses are on five-minute-wait schedules, making private vehicle usage practically unnecessary. Frequent riders have purchased the CAN$38 souvenir monthly pass; others hop aboard and plunk in a CAN$2 “toonie” coin. It’s fast, efficient and a nice way to minimize my personal carbon footprint on this glorious mountain environment.

Atop Whistler Mountain. © Photo by Chris Duthie

The heart-stopping Sea-to-Sky Highway is, if you can believe it, better than ever. What formerly was a white-knuckle, three-hour drive from Vancouver now takes little more than ninety minutes (when the road is dry and clear). That is, if you don’t stop every five minutes at the Nikon-prompting overlooks that showcase British Columbia’s famous fjords and glacier-encrusted mountains. [TAP]

All photography and writing contained herein is copyrighted by Chris Duthie (© Chris Duthie 2010). All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the permission of the author and owner, Chris Duthie.

Turnberry's Ailsa Course is a World Top 100 mainstay. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Of all the world’s travel destinations, one stands out among the rest: Scotland, widely renowned as the country of choice for impassioned golfers. The country is rife with bustling cities, eclectic festivals, ancient abbeys and medieval castles, made all the better by scores of golf courses—there’s more than 500 in all—superbly set among emerald-green escarpments, valleys, lochs, rivers and coastlines.

To ardent followers of this Royal and Ancient pastime, Scotland is a spirit-stirring portrait of heaven on earth. And to a great many, golf’s Sistine Chapel is the Westin Turnberry Resort, sited in historic South Ayrshire an hour southwest of Glasgow on the craggy, windswept shores of the Firth of Clyde.

The 100-year-old Westin Turnberry gained its hallowed-ground status on the strength of impeccable service, sumptuous cuisine, luxury appointments and peerless guest amenities. Yet it’s the 45 holes of history-steeped golf that underscores Turnberry’s well-deserved claim to fame.

Robert the Bruce's glorious oceanside locale at Turnberry. © Photo by Chris Duthie

It was here that Tom Watson earned victory over Jack Nicklaus during their epic “Dual in the Sun” at the 1977 British Open, followed by thrilling Open contests in ’86 (won by Greg Norman) and ’94 (Nick Price). And who will forget Watson’s storybook rebirth when he almost snatched the Open title again at Turnberry in 2009?

Those unforgettable battles were contested on the legendary Ailsa Course, a 6,984-yard test that was rescued not once but twice from oblivion. It and an adjacent layout were partially leveled during both World Wars and used as Allied air fields, remnants of which still remain. In 1951, Phillip McKenzie Ross rebuilt the hapless Ailsa, crafting almost from scratch a links design of such consequence that is now one of only eight venues on the British Open rotation.

“It’s comfortably my favorite course in Britain,” says nine-time Open Champion Gary Player of the Ailsa, voted in 2004 the finest links course on the planet by Europe’s top golf magazine, Golf World. “Everything about it just emits class. Everyone talks about how beautiful the surroundings are, and the fabulous hotel, but the golf course itself is the star.”

Turnberry's iconic lighthouse. © Photo by Chris Duthie

With its close proximity to the sea and its offshore granite namesake, the ethereal Ailsa Craig, Ailsa’s par-70 non-returning challenge is unadulterated sensory candy. The sights, scents and sounds range from medieval parapets to aromatic gorse to crashing surf, all coalescing into one of the more dramatic and unforgettable tee-to-green experiences in the game.

“Very few courses can match up against the Ailsa,” says Tim Greenwell, senior vice-president of sales and marketing for Troon Golf, who recognizes Turnberry as a jewel in the companies growing portfolio. “Playing here is a definitive experience, like seeing the Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty for the first time

“As hard as it is,” he explains, “every hole is fair.” It’s a links course that plays along the ground, ideal for higher handicappers. But it’s Ailsa’s natural challenges—the two- and three-club winds, the steep dunes, the high grasses, the impenetrable gorse—are what tease and discourage better players.”

Toughened considerably in the last two years with nearly 300 additional yards and 16 new strategy-enhancing fairway bunkers, Ailsa’s 4th through 11th holes transform the coastline into an incomparable canvas of breathtaking scenery and spike-tightening shotmaking. Near the turn, the par-four 9th turns up the heat with a daring, into-the-wind drive over sea and rock, then around Turnberry’s famous lighthouse and Robert the Bruce’s ruined castle.

Going long at nearby Dalrymple Bowling Club. © Photo by Chris Duthie

A biting wind blowing off the Firth of Clyde practically mandates a quick stop at the halfway hut for a cup of hot split pea soup—and perhaps a wee brandy—that’s as invigorating as it is delicious. Players regularly request both infusions before mustering yet another demanding tee ball at the surf-skirting 10th, a 452-yard downhill par-four made infamous for its balata-gobbling gorse, knee-high fescue and a cavernous, stacked-sod “island” bunker.

Golf Magazine ranks the course as the 17th best in the world, and there’s hardly a barrister on the continent that would dispute Ailsa’s timeless, supernatural allure. As Jay Haas said just before competing in the 2007 Senior British Open Championship at Turnberry, “There are holes out there that just look like they have been golf holes for a thousand years.”

Usually accompanied by Turnberry’s cadre of professional caddies, hotel guests vie for every slot on Ailsa’s tee sheet. However, don’t overlook its sister links, the challenging and decidedly more friendly Kintyre Course, which debuted in 2001 after the 90-year-old Arran layout was bulldozed and redesigned. Kintyre measures 6,981 yards from the back tees, a fetching par-72 that utilizes elevated tees, pot bunkers, undulating greens, surprisingly acute elevation changes and broad strips of thorny gorse.

Crossraguel Abbey is a short drive from Turnberry Resort. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Esteemed architect Donald Steele orchestrated the transformation, fully incorporating a craggy, seaside plateau called Bains Hills that endows sweeping views of the Isle of Arran, Mull of Kintyre, Turnberry Lighthouse and Ailsa Craig. Most everyone’s favorite hole is the 431-yard eighth, a wicked little par-four that forces a blind downhill approach to a bunker-guarded green perched mere yards from the deafening surf and rock-strewn beach.

That’s the kind of unbridled, mind-engraving encounters golfers often wait their whole lives to experience. At the Westin Turnberry Resort, it’s yet another uncommon amenity for guests of this five-star property.

The Westin Turnberry Resort is owned and operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. For additional information go online at www.turnberryresort.co.uk or www.troongolf.com.          [TAP]

Wintergreen Resort in Virginia offers 45 holes of championship-caliber golf, including the 27-hole Stoney Creek layout, crafted by Rees Jones. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Which pretty much describes my unwavering affection for Wintergreen Resort, the four-season destination situated among central Virginia’s rambling Blue Ridge Mountains. When unforgettable memories are crucial to a golf vacation, this 11,000-acre playground located about 25 minutes southwest of Charlottesville has the goods.

In truth, I had known very little about Wintergreen Resort prior to a summer visit in 2007. I knew—from being a die-hard ski bum—that it offers one of the very few Alpine mountains in the South. Skiing is indeed a mainstay at Wintergreen: Its high elevation affords a November-to-March winter season with an impressive terrain of 25 slopes and trails systematically groomed for experts as well as beginners.

But what caught me by surprise were the après-winter services and amenities, led by a singular 45-hole golf facility bearing the design credentials of Rees Jones and Ellis Maples. Jones, who is perhaps best known as America’s “Open Doctor” due to his brilliant reworks of numerous major championship layouts, fashioned the 27-hole Stoney Creek Golf Course. And Maples, who was mentored by renowned architect Donald Ross and eventually orchestrated more than 70 routings, crafted the 18-hole Devils Knob layout.

With that as a teasing enticement, consider the following three-day itinerary:

DAY ONE

Fly into Charlottesville, pick up a GPS-enabled rental car and make your way south toward the historic, unspoiled splendor of Nelson County. Buoyed by heart-thumping views of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west and the James River to the east, the 35-mile route to Wintergreen offers a striking array of national landmarks, scenic overlooks, vineyards and cultural hotspots.

Award-winning vintages are status quo in central Virginia. © Photo by Chris Duthie

You’re near your final destination when on Route 151 you spy the Wintergreen’s tell-tale entrance marker, Stoney Creek Golf Course. Before ascending the resort’s precipitous mountain roadway, however, take a quick tour of the Wintergreen Winery in nearby Nellysford, one of eight vintners in the area. This particular winery corks an exquisite assortment of Cabernets, Rieslings and dessert wines, plus an acutely satisfying Chardonnay—the 2005 Black Rock Reserve—that earned a gold medal at last year’s Atlantic Seaboard Vinifera Wine Competition.

After checking into one of the resort’s premier-level rental homes—each appointed with most every luxury notion including spacious living rooms, kitchens and exterior decks—make an immediate beeline to the $4.5 million Wintergarden Spa and Wintergarden Aquatic/Fitness Center. Opened in December 2006, the stand-alone facility comprises 15 treatment rooms, salon, a complete line of premium Kertin Florian products, strength and conditioning training, yoga, indoor swimming and picture-window panoramas of the Shenandoah Valley.

The spa and fitness center are limited to guests 16 years and older, but parents needn’t stress: Wintergreen has an impressive menu of kids programs and specialty camps, anchored by the Out of Bounds recreational arena and the Dome, a $200,000 tented facility that’s decked out with killer Wii video stations, plasma TVs, table games and more.

Relaxed, rejuvenated and undoubtedly famished, it’s time to dine at the surf and turf-styled Devils Grill, one of four restaurants on property. Start with the curried butternut squash soup and follow with the grilled sea scallops, both spa cuisine favorites that are as delicious as they are healthy.

Stoney Creek's Shamokin nine is classic traditionalism. © Photo by Chris Duthie

After a calorie burning warm-up at the resort’s award-winning clay and indoor tennis facility, grab a quick brunch breakfast at the casual Copper Mine restaurant before heading 2,500 feet downhill to the Stoney Creek Golf Club. Check out the immaculate Wintergreen Golf Academy and its new short game learning area, then get ready for a unforgettable afternoon on Wintergreen’s triple nine-hole routings.

Jones steeped the Monocan (3,500 yards from back tees), Shamokin (3,526 yards) and Tuckahoe (3,800 yards) nines in a tradition-bent, strategic design concept that works in concert with the Rockfish Valley’s unbridled topography. Oak, hickory, elm and towering pines line fairways and create splendid greensite amphitheaters, while pebbly creeks and swooping elevation changes ratchet-up the natural drama.

Among the more notable changes at the resort is the revamped Tuckahoe nine. The 12-month, $1 million renovation includes greens rebuilt to the architect’s original specifications, a tee-to-pin reseeding with new heat- and cold-tolerant grasses, and pushing the championship tees back nearly 300 yards.

“The additional yardage makes the course more challenging for better players,” explains Director of Golf Operations Sean Taylor, “but on the flip side we shortened the forward tees by 100 yards and built nine new junior tees. Now, youngsters can compete on a more equal footing with adults on all three nines.”

Microbrewed sunsets at Wintergreen. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Another exciting golf test awaits up-mountain at Devils Knob. Nested among craggy rock outcroppings and thick deciduous forests that become riots of reds and yellows come autumn, the 6,700-yard routing is the highest-elevation golf course in Virginia: 3,828 feet above sea level. Translation: stunning panoramas and longer tee shots, plus summertime temperatures as much as 20 degrees cooler than in the lower valley.

And if the golf fails to satiate, there’s always horseback riding; bicycling; 30 miles of marked hiking paths, some joining the famous Appalachian Trail; canoeing and fishing on Lake Monocan; 40,000 square feet of meeting space; and an appealing variety of ownership opportunities for visitors who want to make their stay more enduring.

DAY THREE

Wintergreen Winery is a sample of the region’s outstanding vintners, but this chip-and-sip tour merits grape expectations on the road back to Charlottesville. The illustrious Monticello Wine Trail is home to nearly two dozen boutique viticulturists, including Jefferson Vineyards (located on acreage once tilled by Thomas Jefferson), Kluge Estate (famed for its rosé and sparkling wines), Barboursville Vineyards (which produces an exquisite Nebbiolo vintage), Veritas Vineyard (for its gold-medal-winning Petit Verdot) and Blenheim Vineyards (a righteously organic labor of love for celebrated musician Dave Matthews).

The ideal vacation? Could be Wintergreen Resort has all the right stuff—it sure did for me. For additional information go online to www.wintergreenresort.com or call 800-266-2444. [TAP]

The new Faldo Legacy Course in the Dominican Republic, designed by Nick Faldo, suggests today's golf architecture is in very good hands. © Photo by Chris Duthie

Rating golf courses is, at best, an inexact science. Just about everyone associated with the game has some personalized standard that builds points and platitudes for sizing up golf’s better courses. Criteria might include conditioning, defense against par, player friendliness, scenic locale and artistic shaping. Perhaps the most telling litmus test, the one that helps resolve whether a track is even worth a greens fee, is: “Who designed the layout?”

A bit petty, perhaps. Nonetheless, whoever orchestrates the course layout is a telling indication of just how serious the developer is about building a credible test. In years past you might have turned to modern designers like Pete Dye, Tom Fazio, Arthur Hills, Jay Morrish, Robert Trent Jones Jr. or Rees Jones. You could also count on the singular craftsmanship of PGA Tour legends Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw (with partner Bill Coore), Tom Weiskopf and Arnold Palmer (with Ed Seay).

The aforementioned are still cranking out absolutely stunning tracks—like Coore and Crenshaw’s Bandon Trails in Bandon, Oregon, and Nicklaus’ Old Corkscrew in Estero, Fla., both newer public designs. These days, however, the buzz is about the new guys on the block, golf architecture’s young guns, the new generation of master builders who are carving their own monikers into the auld sod. Here are five of the best:

David McLay Kidd

Ten years ago David McLay Kidd hit pay dirt on a windswept coastal landscape in northwest Oregon.

David McLay Kidd, courtesy of architect.

The priceless quarry, Bandon Dunes, became Kidd’s architectural cornerstone, leading to a succession of astonishing, high-profile projects that include new eye-poppers like the Castle Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, and Tetherow in Bend, Oregon.

What makes 41-year-old Kidd the Brad Pitt of golf course design? His earthy, minimalist design elements—gleaned while growing up in Scotland—are striking a cord among golfers who are drawn to his links-inspired fundamentals—like strategically placed bunkering, ragged mounding, large greens and well-defined shotlines.

“My style is rooted in the classic traditions of the game,” says Kidd. “The courses I was brought up on were simple and natural—no artificial streams or waterfalls, no bulk-headed island greens. The golf designs had more to do with the natural landscape than the artificial creativity of the golf course designer.”

Tom Doak

With a 20-year, 25-course portfolio that includes public-access heavyweights Pacific Dunes (Oregon), Cape Kidnappers (New Zealand) and Barnbougle Dunes (Tasmania), it’s egregious to characterize Tom Doak, 48, as an up-and-comer. Still, the ballyhooed minimalist, whose style was influenced early by Dr. Alister Mackenzie and Pete Dye, is just now hitting his stride as one of the game’s more sought-out designers.

Tom Doak, courtesy of architect.

“More than most architects working in the modern era, I’ve tried to leave the ground alone as much as I can,” says the Connecticut-born traditionalist whose course-shaping philosophy underscores nature over bulldozer. “At all the old courses that I admire, a lot of the little quirky stuff that was there and they couldn’t afford to move back in the day are things that make the courses interesting.”

Doak’s throwback creations also favor wide and receptive fairways, shot-challenging greensites and a keen eye for cerebral-friendly aesthetics that take full advantage of native surroundings and panoramas.

Jim Engh

Jim Engh launched his golf design persona when The Sanctuary in Salida, Colo., was named Best New Private Course in 1997 by Golf Digest. Then, the Colorado-based architect won a string of the publication’s top-course awards, including 2001 Best New Affordable (Redlands Mesa; Grand Junction, Colo.), 2002 Best Upscale Public (Tullymore; Stanwood, Mich.), and 2003 Best New Private (Black Rock; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho).

Jim Engh, courtesy of architect.

What makes the 50-year-old’s work so compelling? “Put in a nutshell, my courses offer interest, uniqueness, variety and intrigue,” says Engh, who has soloed on about two dozen courses since leaving IMG Developments in 1991. “Those are qualities in a golf course that I like…but sometimes you have to confound the people who are viewing and experiencing your art form. It’s part of the emotional rollercoaster that I try to establish.”

His admitted off-center design style stems from a predilection for unpredictability. Possibly his more defining elements: textured fairway mounding and gnarly, deep-faced greenside bunkers—visual accents, he calls them—that are equal parts beast and beauty.

Nick Faldo

On location with Nick Faldo. © Photo by Chris Duthie

With much the same determination that led to six major golf championships, Tour legend Nick Faldo has been involved in the design of 23 courses in 11 countries, including The Rock in Ontario (Golf Digest’s Best New Course in Canada in 2004) and the soon-to-open Faldo Legacy Course at Roco Ki in the Dominican Republic. And like much of golf’s youth movement, strategy and minimalism are Faldo touchstones.

“The most interesting golf courses are those that make you think rather than muscle your way around,” says Faldo, who opened his design firm in 1991. “A good golf course should inspire you to play a variety of shots; it should be exciting, enticing, always fun to play.”

Faldo’s design style can be traced to a robust affection for traditional links golf, with St. Andrews’ Old Course, Muirfield, Royal Birkdale and Ballybunion listed among his favorites. Translation: firm and fast fairways, greensites that suggest a variety of shot executions, and tactical bunkering that penalizes careless miscues.

Bruce Charlton

In 2009, Bruce Charlton’s professional career took to Cloud 9, having been elected president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and getting his vaunted co-creation, public-accessible Chambers Bay in Washington State, named host venue to the 2010 U.S. Amateur and the 2015 U.S. Open.

Call it just desserts for a guy who works in relative obscurity as president and chief design officer for Robert Trent Jones Jr.

Bruce Charlton, courtesy of Hunter PR.

“One of the reasons why Bobby and I work so well together is that we both think a golf course should be a rhythmic experience. A round of golf should have ups and downs and highs and lows; there should be a stretch of very difficult holes; and that there be a very real sense of variety and rhythm,” says Charlton, 51, who has worked with Jones all of his 27-year career.

Along with Chambers Bay, his top-ranked co-designs of the Bro Hof Slott course in Stockholm, Sweden, and Raven Golf Club in Sandestin, Fla., offer insights into Charlton’s design stratagems: enhancing habitats (Chambers Bay is a reclaimed industrial mining site) while creating golf courses rich in strategic variety.         [TAP]

Mad scientist and master clubmaker Tom Wishon. © Photography by Chris Duthie

It’s uncanny, really, the similarities to Dr. Emmett Brown, the wild-eyed, time-traveling inventor played by Christopher Lloyd in the hit movie trilogy, Back To the Future (Part 1-3). That hat-challenging mane, those cantankerous eyebrows, the mischievous smile and acute stare—everything’s there, sans the ghost white hair or the plutonium-powered flux capacitor.

Doc Brown’s eccentric-scientist persona is a fitting alter ego for Tom Wishon, the celebrated and habitually rebellious golf club designer who, for the past 37 years, has been zealously knocking the club designing industry on its self-righteous fanny and, in the process, gaining status as one of its most knowledgeable and sought-out experts. That you might not recognize the 59-year-old’s name is of little consequence; if you play golf, he knows you. But you can bet a year’s subscription to The Golf Channel that the game’s bigwig brands—Titleist, Callaway, PING, TaylorMade, Cleveland, Nike, Adams, Mizuno—know Wishon.

And no wonder. His unrivaled résumé includes:

• designing and custom fitting clubs for many of the game’s biggest names, including Harvey Penick, Payne Stewart, Ben Crenshaw, Scott Verplank and Bruce Lietzke;
• 54 design “firsts,” including the first titanium driver introduced in the United States;
• teaching nearly 200 clubmaking schools and more than 2,500 different clubmakers, underscoring his being inducted into the prestigious Professional Clubmakers’ Society Hall of Fame in 2006;
• serving 13 years on Golf Digest magazine’s technical panel;
• and authoring eight books and more than 200 magazine articles on clubmaking, shaft technology and custom club fitting.

“Tom’s a straightforward guy with a great reputation,” says author, golf historian and former Golf Illustrated editor Al Barkow. “And it’s a reputation that’s well deserved.” Those sentiments are echoed by Golf World equipment editor E. Michael Johnson: “Wishon is refreshingly candid, someone who is passionate about his business,” he says. “Tom is one of the game’s more forward thinkers who thinks as far outside the box as possible.”

So unusual is Wishon’s “outside the box” paradigm that 10 years ago, the Greeley, Colo., native was tendered a mid six-figure salary, a crew of 30 engineers and a cushy vice president of R&D title to head up golf club design at Titleist. That he turned down the end-of-the-rainbow offer and subsequently opened his own clubhead, shaft and grip engineering operation in Durango, Colo., elicits even more comparisons to the capricious Doc Brown: Wishon speaks his own mind and blazes his own trail, often at the expense and chagrin of the industry’s biggest companies.

“[Wife] Mary-Ellen and I came to Durango in the fall of 2001 and simply fell in love with the area,” recalls Wishon, explaining that the nature of his business allows him to live anywhere provided there are regular FedEx deliveries. “Now we sell my original club component designs—the heads, shafts and grips—to clubmakers all over the world.” Tom Wishon Golf Technology includes a 7,000-square-foot research-and-development workshop and component warehouse in the town’s burgeoning Grandview district, as well as a just-completed R & D and custom clubfitting operation at Dalton Ranch Golf Club just north of town.

Proving name-brand bulk is no substitute for small-business brains, Wishon continues to outpace the Titleists and TaylorMades from his modest but well-equipped workshop. He’s armed to the teeth with every conceivable gizmo: a TrackMan™ launch monitor, SAM PuttLab, clubhead MOI (moment of inertia) machine, “Green Machine” specifications device, ball flight modeling software, two laptop computers, as well as a $35,000 swing robot. Still, this self-described “old dinosaur” still pencils every single club innovation on paper, eschewing computerized CAD/CAM software utilized by his well-funded counterparts.

Wishon’s considerable drafting skills come in handy when new-design orders are placed with trusted toolmakers—renowned craftsmen that have worked with Wishon since the early 1990s—who convert his drawings and molded epoxy epiphanies into working forms. Then, a top-rated foundry (where many name-brand clubheads are produced) casts or forges a working product. “It can take up to 24 months to create a new clubhead,” he explains. “Sometimes we have to make three or four generations, going back and forth to the production foundry, before deciding it’s right for the marketplace.”

It’s a lengthy and decidedly expensive process, so Wishon has to ensure a final design has multiple-year shelf life to cover the costly R&D investment. “The worst thing that can happen to a small business like mine is to have a model fail after its first year,” he says. “We had that happen. Once. It was a driver with a internal rotating weight arm engineered to control ball flight. I just had to make it because it was so cool, but it proved too expensive for our clubmakers to sell.”

Then there’s the expense of producing, storing and shipping the final product. Tens of thousands of clubheads, shafts and grips are warehoused on site, all managed by just 14 employees, including Wishon and wife/business partner Mary-Ellen, who market the components exclusively to skilled independent American and international clubmakers.

Clubfitting is another passion for Wishon. He has written several books on the subject and offers minutiae-detailed analyses of clientele golf swings and putting strokes at his Dalton Ranch shop. That information can then be used to build individually customized clubs for the player. What’s eyebrow raising is the affordable price: A 14-club complement of Wishon signatures (including driver, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges and putter) is no more than a name-brand set sold in pro shops—about $1,500-$2000, including the two-hour fitting, which is conducted over two days.

The Path Less Traveled

Wishon’s double dogleg path to Durango has been a remarkable one. After an impressive junior golf stint at Greeley Central High School, he made the varsity squad at the University of Nebraska but subsequently was booted off for refusing to cut his hair. “It was 1968, and I was barely 17,” he remembers. “So at that point, I quit golf until a loudmouth challenged me to a round of golf during my senior year. The next day we had a heated grudge match for $20. I shot 77 after not playing for almost three years, kicked the guy’s ass and got the golf bug again.”

Did he ever. Following graduation, he quickly earned his PGA of America membership card and taught himself to repair and refinish clubs at the historic nine-hole Mill Valley Golf Course near San Francisco. That’s when the young Wishon—an fervent rock-and-roll concert aficionado who later would need hearing aids in both ears—had a jaw-dropping flirt with destiny after being invited to a studio jam session with the legendary Steve Miller Band.

Recalls Wishon, “Steve had a house and recording studio just off the first green at the course. When he wasn’t touring, he and his ‘roadies’—all really good golfers—would come down, play their Les Paul guitars and just hang out. Steve had just signed a contract with Capital Records to do his first album and his contract drummer was unavailable. He soon found out that I could play, and asked me come by and lay down some drum tracks so he could get a feel for how the drum parts should be played for all his new songs.”

Wishon’s percussions were strong enough to make the final cut of “Mercury Blues” on Miller’s generation-defining “Joker” album. However, his hopes of playing music professionally came to an end when Miller suggested, in no uncertain terms, that Wishon keep his day job. “He told me, ‘Tom, you’re a good drummer, but you’re not that good of a drummer. Stay in golf where your passion and skills are.’ I was crestfallen, but I did have my 15 minutes of fame.”

Actually, Wishon heeded Miller’s timely counsel and significantly exceeded that old Andy Warhol idiom. In 1980 his budding club repair business led to a friendship with renowned clubmaker Ralph Maltby (no relation to former PGA Tour player and present NBC golf analyst Roger Maltbie), who hired Wishon as the vice president of sales at Maltby’s new component company, GolfWorks. Six years later he became president of Dynacraft Golf Products where he grew them from $1 million to $25 million in sales, then in 1993 he moved to Austin, Texas, to serve a nine-year stint as vice president and chief technical officer for Golfsmith International.

The Verplank Conundrum

It was at Golfsmith that Wishon was asked to design and build clubs for Scott Verplank, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour. “Scott had the finest sensation of perceiving feel for the golf club than anyone I had ever worked with,” recalls Wishon. “Unfortunately, he had injured both of his elbows and insisted on playing graphite shafts in order to dampen the club’s vibration.

“Well, whenever I made him a set of clubs, there were always three or four that he didn’t like because of little variations in their ‘bending feel’ at impact, and I’d usually have to remake those clubs several times before he would give us his OK. Deciding there had to be a better way, I started looking at stiffness over the whole length of the golf shaft, at a time when the industry was rating shaft stiffness with only one measurement.”

That’s when Wishon discovered mass-produced shafts had detectable variances (by better players) from one to the other. Thus, he invented a rudimentary system of analyzing and measuring stiffness at two critical points—the grip end as well as something new, at the clubhead end of the shaft. After painstaking analysis of more than a hundred graphite shafts supplied by one manufacturer, he was able to identify only 10 that were precisely matched.

“Just before the 1999 Master Card Colonial Invitational, I brought the new irons to Scott on the range, and after he hit balls with each club, from the wedge through the 2-iron, he told me, ‘They’re all perfect. They all feel the same.’ That was when I knew we had to start measuring the whole shaft’s stiffness profile, not just the grip end’s.”

Years later, most of the major brands still measure shaft stiffness from one point. Wishon now measures, designs and custom fits shafts using a seven-point system.

Taking Care of Business

Working with Verplank became a touchstone experience for Wishon. His frustration with imperfect “matched sets” was further compounded by giant “OEMs,” or original equipment manufacturers of golf clubs, which he says short shrift golfers by selling limited, standard, ‘one-size-fits-all’  sets with little if any consideration to an individuals’ height size, swing speed, flexibility, golf athletic ability level, swing characteristics and other highly critical factors.

“One of my big bugaboos,” he says, “is the standard off-the-rack driver, every one of which measures between 45 and 46 inches in length. But the average driver length on the PGA Tour for the last three years has been 44.5 inches. This is the best collection of golf swings on the planet, players that could get more clubhead speed and distance from a longer shaft. But they don’t because they can’t hit it on center as often, and they can’t keep it in play as much. If these guys know they need a shorter driver length to play their best, how the heck can regular golfers hope to achieve their full potential with the longer length drivers that are sold off the rack.’’

Wishon laments that even baseball bats and tennis racquets give their enthusiasts far more tailoring options than those found in off-the-rack golf clubs. “Sporting goods companies offer a wide variety of bat lengths, handle sizes, weights for their bats, and you can help dial in your tennis game with specific racquet grip sizes, weights, varieties of string types and string tension.”.

Wishon maintains that it’s no picnic to get the most from your game with off-the-rack golf clubs, but women will discover the process “10 times as hard.” Why? It’s a simple matter of profit-driven business decisions. “There is no golf club company in the business that gets more than 10 percent of its revenue from senior’s and women’s clubs,” he says. “So if you’re the CEO of a $500 million golf company, and you say that only 10 percent of your business comes from women, how many more golf club options are you going to allow your people to develop in those areas?”

Wishon says the answer—the golfer’s path to maximizing potential—lies in custom clubfitting, which customizes the clubs to each individual player’s unique combination of size, strength, golf athletic ability and swing characteristics. By tailoring equipment to specific needs, golfers of all abilities, ages and limitations have access to a variety of shafts (steel, graphite) in varying flexes and weights, a huge array of grips, and a cornucopia of clubheads (irons, metalwoods, hybrids), tweaked lie, loft and face angles, and custom fit wedges and putters.

Those options frequently translate into significantly enhanced opportunities for golfers to play better and score lower—anywhere from three to 10 shots. “My clubs, and the clubs of a few other companies similar to mine, are not made a hundred thousand at a time to the same specifications,” writes Wishon in Perfect Driver. “They are made one at a time, to your specifications, by a good custom clubmaker.

“They are not ‘one size fits all.’ They are ‘one club, one customer, one clubmaker.’”

That quirky, Emmett Brown persona notwithstanding, the kid from Greeley has done us all a great service, even for those “big box” club manufactures who depend on the game’s continued growth. Back to the future? Hitch your wagon to Tom Wishon’s virtual De Lorean—it’s going to be one helluva ride.         [TAP]

The Fairmont Banff Springs Resort in Banff, Alberta, is a can't-miss family destination.

Growing up, my family rarely went on vacation. There being five kids, it was little wonder the Duthie Clan seldom ventured far from our own backyard. There was one time, though, that Mom and Dad gambled their collective sanity and station-wagoned us all from Durango, Colo., to Phoenix for a slam-bang summer vacation at the legendary Camelback Inn.

It being the middle of July, we were all in the pool before Dad could check us into our connecting rooms. Was it ever hot! But a big, wet swimming pool with a banana-bounce springboard made it absolute heaven to a pack of laughing, screaming, cannon-balling hellions.

The next day, Mom took my two sisters shopping and Dad drove my brothers and me to the golf course for what he thought would be a sure-fire, boys-day-out experience. Mid-round, Dad asked if we were having a good time, and I blurted out, in my usual 12-year-old way, “We golf all summer long back home. Let’s go do something we can’t do at home, something FUN.”

Hikers discover breathtaking glaciers and rugged boulder fields at Mt. Edith Cavell, located near Banff in Jasper, Alberta.

Wow, I still remember his pained expression. “I thought that’s what we were doing!” he replied, obviously irritated.

Strangely enough, I made a similar blunder 35 years later when I took my six-year-old son to Washington D.C. for a Thanksgiving holiday. Big mistake. As excited and thrilled as I was to see the Smithsonian museums, Washington Monument and U.S. Capital Building, Ian was equally bored and unhappy. Thank goodness for the new aquarium and the four-hour stop at Club Disney in nearby Baltimore.

So belies one unwritten law of family vacation planning: If you hope to keep children happy, don’t ask them to participate in adult-themed or status-quo activities. A simple swimming pool can offer hours of Nikon-prompting, smile-inducing enthusiasm, but if you take kids golfing or museum touring on their summer vacation, the gods will smite you with bolts of bitter disappointment.

Hard lessons are often best. The proof was on a follow-up vacation with my son the following June at the world-renowned Fairmont Banff Springs in Alberta, Canada. Talk about flipping the proverbial coin: We hit the jackpot at the Banff Springs thanks to a well-oiled family amenities program that entertains, motivates, educates and excites kids way beyond their parents’ Rocky Mountain high expectations.

Legendary architect Stanley Thompson crafted his "Devil's Cauldron" on the fourth hole at Banff Springs Golf Club.

You’re probably familiar with the resort’s legendary 27 holes of golf, sumptuous spa, five-star accommodations and cuisine, incomparable scenery and the MasterCard-melting boutique shopping in nearby Banff. Oh sure, ear candy for the adults, but Yawn City to kids. What they really want to hear about is the white water rafting, kayaking and canoeing, mountain biking, horseback riding, hiking, fishing, wildlife sightings (elk, bear, eagles, mountain sheep), glacier touring, bowling, tennis, game rooms, and the size and temperature of the hotel’s pool.

Matching my wants with Ian’s was a no-brainer. Realizing he had absolutely no interest in testing the just-renovated, Stanley Thompson-designed golf course, I arranged through the hotel’s guest services a certified au pair (Ian won’t let me say babysitter anymore) who took him biking, swimming, exploring, to a movie and then to lunch. We caught up later at the resort’s outdoor heated swimming pool, then had a blast experimenting with cheese fondue after a spirited, make-up-the-rules game of billiards.

The next day was even more quality time together. After feasting on an anything-you-want buffet breakfast at the Bow Valley Grill — one of 12 eateries at the resort — we peddled off and burned some serious calories tandem biking around the village. Then it was off to the Banff Gondola and a ride to the 7,500-foot summit of Sulphur Mountain, where breathtaking panoramas of snowcapped mountains and wild mountain goat sightings made for an incredibly memorable afternoon.

What’s the litmus test of a great family vacation? Ask your kids about what they remember about past summers. Six years later, Ian still talks about Canada. That’s how I know I finally got it right.         [TAP]

Banff National Park is ranked among North America's most picturesque landscapes.

Don’t forget orlando tee times for you and your kids