Top 10 Reviewer has posted between 10 and 19 reviews
Top 20 Reviewer has posted between 20 and 49 reviews
Top 50 Reviewer has posted between 50 and 99 reviews
Top 100 Reviewer has posted 100 or more reviews
M. James Ward
The 30+ year golf journalist is a member of the Golf Writer's Association of America (GWAA) and a past member of the Metropolitan Golf Writer's Association (MGWA). Has played over 2,000 courses globally and has covered the various major golf championships since 1980 for several different outlets. For 17 years served as national course rating panelist for Golf Digest and served for roughly three years in a similar capacity with Golfweek. Lives in the greater New York City metro area. Plays to a 3 handicap and has played in USGA Championships. Favorite motto: "You can print money but you can't print time. Once time is gone it's gone." Make the most of every opportunity to play whenever possible.
The spotlight for exemplary golf is often riveted on the plethora of private layouts that dot the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) region and rightly so. Ditto the...
The amazing thing about the Keystone State is how wide a gap exists between the best private clubs and the best public ones in Pennsylvania. Only New York, in my mind, ha...
The most enduring element when discussing Las Vegas Country Club (LVCC) is the storied history and its ongoing place among golf options when coming to the gaming mecca of...
It is amazing at much golf is located in the area in and around Lake Oconee. And so much of the existing attention is paid to the several courses at Reynolds and clearly...
There's little need for me to repeat what others have already said. The Stadium layout is not to be played for the feint hearted or for those who can't marry sufficient l...
One of the sad elements that troubles me, and likely others, is when classic era courses opt to update and when doing so see fit to add mega-yards to the scorecard. Such...
The hardest aspect in designing a course is when one must overcome nearly dead flat land. Architects usually go in either one of two directions -- inserting a plethora of...
One of the interesting things about host sites for major golf events is that there's no guarantee the overall course architecture will be compelling. That's the case with...
Generally, the courses I've played bearing the fingerprints of Arthur Hills have been rather disappointing. They are done well but the overall impact from the architectur...
The name Pete Dye is in the pantheon of the greatest to have ever created golf courses. I believe it can be said that no person more truly impacted the course of design i...
My first time playing the course came a number of years after the playing of the 1974 PGA Championship. I really liked the course -- it epitomized the RTJ, Sr. motif -- w...
The South opened as the first 18-hole layout at Forest Creek. The layout is more subdued than the adjoining North and provides a clear member-friendly test.By no means do...
The considerable shadow that hangs over the greater Pinehurst area is one that cannot be minimized. Unmistakably, the primary center point for attention goes quite rightl...
One of the least memorable high-profile courses in all of the USA. Candidly, the layout has always been a unmemorable slog with little, if any architectural elements of n...
Upon arriving at the 1st tee you don't see much of the golf course -- in many ways that's a good thing as the sum total of the layout ahead will be exposed gradually.The...
During his heyday Dick Wilson was the main rival for Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and his layouts generally followed a predictable pattern. Big time greens, broad fairways, o...
When Riverdale Dunes opened the array of other quality public course options were just beginning to escalate not only in metro Denver but throughout much of Colorado.The...
The location of Cherry Hills certainly helped garner its early reputation -- as the first course to host the U.S. Open – west of the Mississippi in 1938. And matters were...
So much of the attention -- rightly so in a number of instances -- goes to several classical designed layouts in the greater Pittsburgh metro area. For whatever reason --...
Of the three courses at the resort -- Sun Mountain, in my mind, is the one coming in third place for overall quality. The holes encountered are a good mixture but the arc...
