In commemoration of America 250, I spent the last few weeks picking away at a bit of a daunting list for @GOLFPASS. - 250 'essential' American golf courses - 5 per U.S. state - Publicly accessible - Good geographical spread for each course's list - Emphasis on "community courses" - municipal, college and military courses The exercise was not meant to be a "best of," but an expression of the breadth of golf experiences on offer across this vast country. I have played a good number of courses listed, but not all of them. Some are pretty remote and humble, but I have it on decent authority that they're fit for a list that attempts to express the American golf tapestry. This thing is more than 8,000 words, so it's more meant as a reference guide than someone you need to digest in a single sitting.

COUNTRY CLUB OF WHISPERING PINES (PINES) Whispering Pines, N.C. Ellis Maples, 1959 Kyle Franz, 2026 $150 Course #728 Franz managed to transport Maples’ solid midcentury routing to both the 1920s and 2020s via big sandy scrapes, broad rolling fairways and properly tuned greens.

They couldn’t have hacked it in the 2005 IJGT tournament at Newport National GC. Gusts over 50, low score was 78, yours truly fired a 101. Junior golf carnage. But we played.

This is another aspect of the concept of “patina,” and its loss, which I mentioned the other day. For a long time, golf was somewhat exempt from the typical and boring obsession with cleanness, newness and “optimization” because clubs and facilities weren’t raking in $$$, so they didn’t have money burning holes in their pockets to make them restless and jealous about their neighbors’ latest projects. One downside of the new golf economy is that the ego and self-consciousness of many memberships and owners now has an outlet, and we’re seeing what poor taste a lot of people have. Clubs that *could* do this stuff, but choose not to, deserve more appreciation than ever. xitter.cf/timgavrich/status/2112…

Golf tweet of the day

A beautiful golf document. I love seeing these sorts of routings, especially in the context of how many golfers object to long par 3s today. Architects were confronting golfers with 220-yard holes more than a century ago!

78 points somehow seemed like the least the Huskies could have scored tonight, as many close-range shots and free throws as they missed. And yet they more or less cruised past a very good Michigan State team. And Braylon Mullins didn’t play. Look out below.

You’re a Khameniac, I’m a Khameniac, we’re all Khameniacs

But does it need to be this way? No, some golfers say, it doesn't. golfpass.com/travel-advisor/…

Eternal aura. There'll never be another one like him.

Royal County Down is one of the greatest golf places in the world. Is it possible to “significantly upgrade” it? I am sure there are infrastructure and perhaps agronomic considerations but design-wise, the first 13 holes are practically perfect. The newish number 16 could be improved and 18 is pretty linear (the strategy is “keep it between the bunkers”) but man, it’s not as if there is a lot of potential left to realize. What I think gets overlooked in a lot of these “upgrade” efforts is the extent to which the oldness of a place is essential to its greatness. There is a patina that not even the most skilled architects and shapers can recreate with today’s equipment. When you touch old turf with a machine, the clock resets to zero. Every new golf surface has a sheen, no matter what. That sheen can never hold a candle to the patina time creates.

FINAL: The latest in a long line of lifeless 76s left me tied for 10th in my first National Links Trust Championship - the first of many I hope to play in. Someone fix my lag putting, please! The event and the organization overall are an indispensable counterpoint to golf’s creeping affordability crisis. Their mission is boosting golf’s accessibility and camaraderie without high-cost gatekeeping. Golf needs that sort of leadership right now. The NLT Championship fills an essential spot in the competitive golf calendar: a mid-amateur event that centers the public-course golfer and therefore is not based around high-end private golf and does not cost an arm and a leg to play in. Northwest Golf Course in Montgomery County, Maryland, was a wonderful host venue. Congrats to champion Nabeel Khan, who drove 7 1/2 hours from Ohio with wife and children in tow to play, and who will return home a champion of a great American golf tournament. I’ll have more to say about all this at @GOLFPASS this coming week, but for now, a huge thank you to the National Links Trust and their steadfast partners for this event, which represents the best of this great game.

“What we’ve got” was 15 holes of some of the grittiest golf I can play in chilly, windy conditions, followed by three holes of complete meltdown to ruin it all. Currently T9 with golfers still out there. Really stinks to squander an opportunity like that. On to tomorrow.

Sitting in 6th place, 3 shots back, thru 18 holes at the @links_national Championship. Weather turned out perfect for R1. Damp and 30 degrees cooler today - let’s see what we’ve got.

NORTHWEST GOLF COURSE Silver Spring, Mary. Ault & Clark, 1964 $67 Course #727 In virtually all ways a typical course of its vintage, with smooth curves, tree-lined corridors and greens with some nice swoop and sway. Some spray-paint-led adjustments would improve it further.

An incredible belated birthday gift from a friend: new trashcan for my home office. One of the greatest logos in all of golf.

Wheels up this morning to our nation’s capital and the (@links_national) National Links Trust Championship at Northwest G.C. just north of D.C. Tournament rounds Fri/Sat/Sun. Looks like we’re going to be treated to multiple seasons in a single weekend. Extremely excited.

Big win for golf's #Munaissance!

Hurley’s done it again. These Huskies are exquisitely assembled, redundant at every position and addicted to defense and rebounding with typical offensive talent. Newbies already seem well-assimilated amongst the returners. Going to be another fun season.

Let’s go, Huskies.