Golf and whisky simply go hand in hand. It is smart, in any case, as the sport was cultivated in a area the place, for simply as lengthy, whiskies had been crafted with comparable consideration to element, care, and keenness. And nothing celebrates a day on the hyperlinks higher than a dram.
When the sport was first launched stateside within the late nineteenth century, it introduced whisky enjoyment with it. Golf resorts have since flourished, each within the U. S. and all through the British Isles, and so we rejoice golf programs with whisky applications that match the elevated degree of their play. A go to to one of many following seven locations will discover distinctive whiskies being poured as soon as the day’s closing putts are holed.
Adare Manor
COUNTY LIMERICK, IRELAND
For first-time visitors, visiting Adare Manor could be an amazing expertise. Positioned simply over 10 miles exterior the southwest metropolis of Limerick, this five-star luxurious resort is house to a glowing Irish manor home designed within the Gothic Revival model, and the whole lot of the property’s 842 acres is maintained to a pristine degree. Such consideration to element displays the possession of Irish businessman J.P. McManus, who bought the property 10 years in the past. Particularly, the golf course has been fully renovated by Fazio Golf Course Designers in preparation for the Ryder Cup in 2027.
With artfully formed bunkers, no discernible tough (the second reduce is mowed lower than two inches excessive), tightly mown runoff areas across the greens, and loads of babbling brooks, creeks, and small water hazards scattered throughout its 170 acres, the 7,509-yard championship course attracts numerous parallels to Augusta Nationwide, which isn’t a shock on condition that Fazio yearly updates and enhances the course that hosts The Masters.
As soon as a spherical is full, gamers can adjourn to The Tack Room, the place greater than 160 uncommon whiskies from world wide are on the menu. For those who’re seeking to style one thing really distinctive, inquire concerning the resort’s single-cask Very Uncommon collaborations with Midleton Distillery. Moreover, a trio of tasting experiences could be reserved upfront (¤125-¤500/$135-$540), some that includes Irish whiskeys which are not in manufacturing, like Yellow Spot 13 12 months outdated and Teeling Revival 14 12 months outdated.
Portmarnock Resort
PORTMARNOCK, IRELAND
The up to date hyperlinks course at Portmarnock Resort was just lately renamed Jameson Golf Hyperlinks, however these 6,605 yards of agency and quick Irish terrain benefited from greater than only a new title. Positioned solely 20 minutes from the middle of Dublin, the course’s authentic design was created by two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer in 1995; nonetheless, as a part of its rebranding, the course was comprehensively renovated and redesigned final 12 months. Particularly, an excellent portion of the again 9 was rerouted, which not solely modified how the course performs but additionally launched extra frequent views of the adjoining Irish Sea.
These with an curiosity in historical past will admire {that a} rudimentary golf course beforehand existed right here, one constructed by John Jameson III in the course of the center of the nineteenth century. In truth, that well-known Irish distilling household lived right here in a sprawling 10-bedroom property, St. Marnocks Home, which immediately is a part of the resort. Following a spherical of golf, it’s all however necessary to pop into the resort’s Jameson Bar, the place greater than 50 whiskies grace the backbar. The overwhelming majority of these are predictably Irish, and given the resort’s location, pours of a local tipple gained’t set you again too far; the costliest of the lot, Midleton Very Uncommon Barry Crockett Legacy, is priced at €49/$54.
Gleneagles
AUCHTERARDER, UK
Gleneagles resort truly has three golf programs. Lately, the PGA Centenary course—Jack Nicklaus’s solely design in Scotland—has hogged many of the highlight, having served because the host course when each the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup had been contested right here (in 2014 and 2019, respectively). The course is routed over Perthshire’s rolling hills in a basic manner, however this stern take a look at, inbuilt 1993, is laden with loads of compelled carries and lurking water options that replicate Nicklaus’s American design sensibilities. Elsewhere on the resort, the King’s and Queen’s programs, each designed by five-time Open champion James Braid within the early twentieth century, supply basic heathland {golfing} experiences. On the finish of his profession, Braid declared the 6,790-yard King’s Course to be his greatest design, and the 106 12 months outdated course is broadly thought of Gleneagles’s crown jewel.
Away from the hyperlinks, whisky fanatics, particularly these with deep pockets, can be delighted by the whisky choices at The Century Bar. Some drams, comparable to Talisker 25 12 months outdated, value £115/$149, whereas a pour of Springbank Chieftains 40 12 months outdated will set you again £1,200/$1,550. In complete, greater than 400 single malt, blended scotch, and Japanese whiskies can be found, some by the glass, others by the flight, and practically 150 by the bottle. Organized by taste and physique (versus area), the menu makes it straightforward to search out what suits your temper, with classes that embrace blends or gentle malts; peated, mineral, and wealthy whiskies; creamy, opulent, and full-bodied whiskies; and event whiskies, which can in any other case be described as “uncommon and peculiar.” Of explicit curiosity are the resort’s 78 classic bottlings, 10 of which had been bottled greater than 45 years in the past. Standouts embrace a 1953 Glenfarclas Coronation (£2,000/$2,583 per pour), a 1969 Dalmore Constellation (£3,200/$4,133 per pour), and a 1979 Port Ellen (£650/$840 per pour).
Dundonald Hyperlinks
IRVINE, UK
In the case of distinctive whisky and golf, Dundonald Hyperlinks epitomizes the highest three guidelines of actual property: location, location, location. Based mostly in northern Troon, solely 40 minutes south of Glasgow, the boutique resort is a brief drive from Royal Troon and Prestwick Golf Golf equipment, two venues with Open Championship heritage, the latter of which is the place the Open was born. Two extra historic and extremely regarded programs are solely minutes away, too. With its gorse and heather- lined fairways, Gailes Hyperlinks Golf Course, house to the Glasgow Golf Membership (the world’s ninth-oldest membership), is enchanting. Western Gailes, against this, gives a memorable spherical with a sequence of north-facing holes which are tightly routed alongside railroad tracks, and south-facing holes that play alongside the Firth of Clyde. That mentioned, Dundonald’s hyperlinks course, a up to date design conceived by Kyle Phillips, gives thrills all its personal with rumpled fairways, steep-faced pot bunkers, and dune-like mounding blanketed by thick maritime grasses.
In the case of whisky, Dundonald is unsurpassed within the area. The resort’s Whisky Room, created through a collaboration with whisky dealer and marketing consultant Blair Bowman, is understood for 2 issues: a novel barrel of Canasta cream sherry-finished Bunnahabhain, circa 1980, and dozens of four-dram flights. The 4 Corners flight (£50/$65), for instance, consists of 12 to fifteen 12 months outdated whiskies sourced from Speyside, the Highlands, Islay, and the Lowlands. The “prime shelf” flight (£1,400/$1,808) options the aforementioned cask of Bunnahabhain, in addition to 40 12 months outdated Highland Park and Macallan M. However the Arran flight (£60/$78) could be the most unusual, because it gives tastes of 10, 18, 21, and Quarter Cask bottlings from this distillery positioned on the Isle of Arran, lower than 30 miles to the west.
Pinehurst Resort
PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA
For good purpose, Pinehurst Resort has lengthy garnered the nickname “The Cradle of American Golf.” With roots that may be traced again to 1895, the resort is among the United States’ 4 nationwide landmarks in golf—and the one one accessible to the general public—which implies golf vacationers will all the time plan pilgrimages there to take in its historical past. Presently house to 10 full-length programs of various fame, Pinehurst will all the time be recognized first for the No. 2 course—a championship format designed by Donald Ross in 1935, restored by Invoice Coore and Ben Crenshaw in 2014, and now serving as an anchor web site for the U.S. Open. The brand new No. 10 course, the primary full-length format to be constructed on the resort in three a long time, opened for play final 12 months and has since mesmerized golfers with boldly contoured topography that’s as difficult to play as it’s enjoyable and ingenious.
Within the evenings, whisky connoisseurs can enterprise to The Manor; extra particularly, to the North & South Bar, which takes its title from one of many nation’s oldest newbie championships performed yearly on the resort. Right here, basic cocktails like smoked Outdated Fashioneds, Brooklyn Manhattans, and Sazeracs are blended with precision, whereas greater than 170 bottles of whisky are usually out there too. Bourbon is the belle of the ball on the North & South, and classics like Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel and Wild Turkey Uncommon Breed are all the time on the prepared. These seeking to strive one thing extra distinctive ought to ask concerning the limited-edition bottlings of Woodford Reserve ($21.25/2 oz.) and Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel ($33), which had been made solely for the resort.
Kohler
KOHLER, WISCONSIN
Twenty years in the past, Whistling Straits was maybe the best-kept secret in American golf. On the very least, the 2 programs there—The Irish and The Straits—had been diamonds within the tough. At the moment, having hosted three PGA Championships, a Senior U.S. Open, and most just lately the Ryder Cup, Whistling Straits is a bucket-list vacation spot that lives as much as the hype. So too is the pair of programs at Blackwolf Run—The River and Meadow Valleys—which had been constructed a decade earlier and hosted main championships of their very own (the U.S. Girls’s Open in 1998 and 2012).
Evidently, a whisky raised in celebration is important after any spherical on the resort, and the perfect place to do it, oddly sufficient, is at The Immigrant Restaurant’s bar, The Vineyard, inside Kohler’s luxuriously appointed resort, the American Membership. At present the bar’s whisky menu is almost 170 bottles robust, providing an excellent mixture of bourbon and single malt scotch. With plans to quickly make investments extra sources into its bourbon lineup, the bar’s present choices in that class are headlined by 2023 Wild Turkey Grasp’s Maintain Voyage ($45) and Elijah Craig 18 12 months outdated ($36), however there’s additionally no scarcity of noteworthy drams on the scotch whisky aspect. For instance, the bar boasts 10 picks from unbiased bottler That Boutique-y Whisky Firm, in addition to 47, 48, and 50 12 months outdated expressions from The Final Drop.
The Retreat at Silvie’s Valley Ranch
SENECA, OREGON
There isn’t any straightforward strategy to get to Silvie’s Retreat, however taking the highway much less traveled pays dividends, each in the best way of distinctive {golfing} experiences and intensive whisky picks. This boutique resort is ready on a working cattle ranch overlaying greater than 140,000 acres in japanese Oregon, and it’s house to 2 brief programs, a completely addictive reversible placing course, a reversible 18-hole golf course that traverses greater than 7,000 yards in every course, and— oh sure—a herd of goat caddies (you learn that proper). The reversible full-length course is notoriously enjoyable because it options expansive fairways that enable mid to high-handicappers to swing away off the tee, nevertheless it additionally brings you thru valleys and into hillsides dotted with ponderosa pines—all of which ship a serene sense of place.
The wall of whiskies towering over the bar contained in the lodge feels simply as large because the reversible golf course, whereas a fast look on the menu means that the homeowners acknowledge measurement does matter. Positive, you possibly can order a regular two-ounce “Metropolis Shot,” however you possibly can additionally go huge with a “Cowboy Shot” or a “Silvie’s Shot,” that are three and 4 ounces, respectively. Deciding what you need to drink will seemingly be tougher than how a lot of it you need, because the resort’s whisky record exceeds 200 bottles. Single malt scotch standouts embrace Springbank 15 12 months outdated, Balblair 2003 12 12 months outdated, and Oban Distillers Version. Pours of different sought-after whiskies, like Yamazaki 12 12 months outdated and Weller 12 12 months outdated, are surprisingly inexpensive, priced at $18 and $24.50 respectively for two-ounce pours.
