The Bucket List of Golf Courses You Can Play

Where do you want to be when your club meets your golf ball? Where water meets earth? How about where Lake Michigan, the Puget Sound, or the Pacific Ocean meets Wisconsin, Washington, or California? Let us take you to the ten must-play golf courses in the United States.

As the leaves were beginning to turn brown on an afternoon in September, Tiger Woods walked out onto the teebox at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia for the Tour Championship of the FedExCup Playoffs. As he eyed the course, it was the shine of the early-autumn sun, and later the shimmer of the prize trophy, which was reflected in the eye of the tiger. Today, almost seven years after its inauguration, the playoffs and the FedExCup Trophy are highly sought after by many players and lovers of golf.

Sometimes even the best putt doesn’t go quite where you would like or expect. Eighty-four years ago, a well-struck putt by Philip “Skipper” Young veered off course and away from the hole. Scratching his head, Young took the ball to his friend, a fellow golfer and dentist, for an x-ray. In the black-and-white image, they could see that the core of the ball had become askew. By 1910, Young, an MIT graduate, had already founded Acushnet Process Company which concentrated on deresinating latex and producing rubber. After his experience with the missed shot that should have been “for sure,” Young developed a machine that could uniformly wind rubber string around a rubber core—creating the wound golf ball. With his “Dead Center” concept behind the new “Titleist” ball, he proclaimed it to be the winner of the quest to create the best for the game. By 1949, just a few years later, Titleist had become the most-played golf ball in the U.S. Open.

There are almost 20,000 golf courses in the United States today, but a century ago, there were just 41. With two unofficial, amateur national championships, and one professional championship in 1894, the stage was set for the creation of the PGA—and the popularization of golf. In January of 1916, Rodman Wanamaker, a wealthy department store owner, hosted a luncheon at the Wykagyl Country Club to formalize the conception of the PGA with other golf professionals in the North East. The Professional Golfers’ Association of America officially initiated in February. The first PGA Championship took place at Siwanoy Country Club in Eastchester, NY. For his victory, Jim Barnes received $500 and a diamond-studded gold medal, courtesy of Mr. Wanamaker. Last year at Oak Hill Country Club, Jason Dufner won $1,445,000.

Many golfers take a long time to pick the perfect driver, while others spend hours trying out different irons or worrying about which putter offers the best feel or response. Yet there is one key piece of equipment that golfers often overlook. Something that affects their whole game and strategy: the golf ball. Think about it. No golfer would ever consider showing up at the course with clubs that are the wrong size or shoes that don’t fit quite right. So why would anyone consider playing a round of golf with a golf ball that wasn’t designed for their swing? The right golf ball can make a big difference in a golfer’s overall game. From the first tee shot to the final putt, the right ball will influence your distance, control, spin, and confidence. A well-matched ball can make all the difference in the world: it can make straighter drives, better approach shots, and an improved overall game. Fortunately, the right golf ball selection doesn’t have to be difficult. After you understand a little about golf ball construction and how it can affect your swing speed and play, you will be able to choose the right option much more easily.

Tailor-made: (adjective) made special for the individual—as in the TaylorMade golf company, maker of clubs specially tailored to your hand and your golf ball. The first face of TaylorMade was not a Taylor but Gary Adams: entrepreneur, amateur golfer, and founder. In 1979 he borrowed a $24,000 loan. With it he bought a 6,000 square foot building in McHenry, IL with the ambitious goal of creating a new kind of club, one that would catch up to the cutting edge golf balls that had already transformed the game. He began by experimenting with different materials in the hope of improving upon the screws that muttled the face of a persimmon wood.

There you are, finishing up your 72nd hole, amidst cheers and applause-the Claret Jug at last in your hand. Sorry to disrupt the daydream, let us open your eyes to the 143rd Open Championship, beginning on Thursday, July 17th at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, Wirral, United Kingdom. 2014 will mark the 12th time The Open will be contested at Royal Liverpool, and again administered by the R&A (the organization governing golf outside the U.S.A. and Mexico), The Open Championship has not always been the tournament as we know it today. From 1966 to 1979 it was a Wednesday to Saturday format. From 1927 to 1966, the final two rounds were played on Friday, but, before 1926, all four rounds were played in just two days. In the event of a tie, and unlike the U.S. Open, it features a four-hole playoff and then sudden death.

A golf club and a golf ball are two birds of a feather, but what was a “golf ball” when the club was just a wooden stick? The origin of the game of golf always has been and always will be a subject of controversy. Like stickball is to baseball, stick and ball games reminiscent of golf have been around for several centuries, with some accounts going all the way back to the Dutch in 1261. We will stick to our specialty, and concentrate on the history of the golf ball itself.

When we head out onto over thousands golf courses in US, masks on and baskets in hand, in search of used golf balls like Easter eggs. How do we distinguish a great egg from a bad egg or even just a good egg? Truthfully we see everything under the sun when it comes to golf balls. Thanks to our innovative sorting process, only a small percentage of what comes through our facility actually has the aesthetics to make it in your golf bag. To help serve you best, we have created a grading scale based on condition to discern the excellent (AAAAA) from the great (AAAA) from the good (AAA).