1 ADAM LAWRENCE When I began writing this, 2025 was drawing to a close and Christmas songs were everywhere, and even I – an inveterate hater of such music – have listened to Counting Crows’ ‘A Long December’. With that in mind, it’s time to look forward to 2026. In the spirit of the season, then, here are my thoughts for golf, and its design, in the year to come. Which you will read in the cold light of a new year. Life is like that. Let’s start with Major venues. The Open is at Royal Birkdale, a course that ‘fairness’-loving pros tend to rate as one of the best on the rota, but architecture geeks often dismiss as bulldozed through magnificent dunes. As ever, the truth lies somewhere in between. There is no quirk at Birkdale, to be sure, but it remains a glorious place to play golf, and the memory of Padraig Harrington’s career five wood onto Martin Hawtree’s ‘controversial’ seventeenth green to win the Championship in 2008 can’t but stir the soul. The US Open is back at Shinnecock Hills, a course which a number of good judges have told me they view as the best in America. It’s ironic, perhaps even amusing, that when Frank Harrigan took the USGA back to Shinnecock in the eighties, it was regarded as the nearest the USA had to a links. Thirty-odd years of development has made that country much more aware of what links golf truly is, but that hasn’t reduced the glory of Shinnecock Hills. It may not be a links, but it’s still a great, great golf course. For me, 2026’s most interesting venue choice has been made by the USGA in its decision to go to Donald Ross’s Aronimink outside Philadelphia, arguably America’s greatest golf city. I have never seen Aronimink, but it has long been regarded as one of Ross’s finest designs. It has been a PGA Tour venue in the nottoo-distant past, but it hasn’t held a Major since John Fought won the US Amateur there in 1977. I can’t wait! Looking ahead WELCOME
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