Unless you've been hiding under a tee marker the past few years, you're probably well aware of the influx of new, high-end golf course builds in and around Aiken, South Carolina. The secret is out and everyone is seemingly itching to leave their mark in the sandy soil that lies beneath the forests of towering pines and fields of native grasses. Some (okay, maybe just us?) have even dubbed it The New Pinehurst*. Yes, that asterisk is there on purpose. No need to ask why, that's kind of the entire point of the story you're about to read. First the similarities. There is nothing 'new' about eith ..read more

Whether you're a teenager about to embark on the best (four?) years of your life, an aspiring collegiate golfer, or you'd like a mulligan on your whole college experience, we've got the tool for you! If you'd be thinking of working on your game while you're in school, it would be a pretty good idea to look for a college that has its own golf course! Good thing for you... There's a lot of choices out there! We've discovered more than 100 colleges have at least one golf course. The options are aplenty, all the way from par-3 and executive courses to elite thirty-six championship facilities, com ..read more

We were yet again shined on by the Golf Gods - adding nearly thirty more courses to the Crusade, while revisiting another baker's dozen, many of which had some exciting updates. The golf industry continues to add speed to its upswing, and we're just fine with that! Of the thirty-six different clubs we visited this year (if you're checking the arithmetic, consider some clubs had more than one course!), a third of them have had major renovations in the past three years. That is the highest percentage we've seen since we formally began The Golf Crusade (2018). Of course, some of those are replay ..read more

More than 170 Iron Mavericks converged at the meticulously restored Mike Strantz Gem in the Uwharrie Mountains of Central North Carolina "When I was younger, I was hard to hold Seem like I's always goin', whichever way the wind was blowin' Now that travelin' feelin', It calls me back again Callin' me Back Where It All Begins" -Dickey Betts The Golf Crusade officially launched in Spring of 2018. In truth, we were already on the road to what Golf Crusade was, we just didn't know it yet. If we had to date it back to a starting point, we can pretty much point towards 2003 and the first time each ..read more

"Please allow Me to reintroduce Myself..." The Carolinas are an embarrassment of riches when it comes to both the sheer quantity of golf destinations and the quality of courses in which to play when you get there. We've played over 175 of them on either side of the state line, many of which you'd think would be on a 'best in state' list. However, due to the sheer quantity of quality, it's impossible to rank all of these "hidden gems" or "best kept secrets". There are so many great courses, you can even cut them up by region (Coastal, Sandhills, Midlands, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Smokies, etc ..read more

Why let the fun stop when the sun goes down? We're sure you've had a busy week at work and wished you could sneak in a round sometime. Perhaps you're just in a busy season of life, but that itch to break out the sticks never gets scratched. Maybe you've even been on a golf trip and wished the good times could continue to roll after sunset? We get it. There just isn't enough time in the day to make it happen, right? What if you could add some time back on the clock? What if you could play at night? Would you venture out and get in that quick nine you've been longing for if you could tee it up ..read more

In 2019, The Iron Maverick was born out of a spirit of celebration. A joyous gathering of like-minded golf-obsessed folks that marked the return of a living work of art. Mike Strantz's ode to Irish Links golf - Royal New Kent Golf Club - had closed a couple years prior. Having never played it, we immediately made plans to do so once it was sold, restored and reopened. We invited some friends from our fairly new (at the time) Instagram accounts @GolfCrusade and the @StrantzFantzClub to join us if they wanted. Not knowing what to expect, about fifty golfers from eight different states showed up ..read more

Welcome Back! If you haven't read our first episode of STRANTZLATES: Template Holes of the Next Golden Age of Golf Course Architecture, then we suggest clicking that link and getting caught up! We'll let that story serve as our primer and pick right up where we left off. To recap, we covered four Strantzlates in our previous story: #1 | THE GLOVE SLAP| The Anti-Ross, an overly intimidating opening hole #2 | ISLAND | par threes playing to an island green, just not always around water #3 | AUTOBAHN | Strantz's take on the classic Road Hole template #4 | AUDACITY | Cape and Reverse Cape Hole's th ..read more

It's that most wonderful time of year again! It's a time for memories to be made - just likely not on golf course unless you're really, really lucky. Thankfully, The Golf Crusade never sleeps (though it isn't afraid to hibernate!). Regardless of the state of consciousness you find yourself in at present, it's time to unwrap the presents and reveal the best fake awards column around - the Golf Crusade's annual Best of 2021 Lists! As compulsive list makers, we are compelled by constantly creating spreadsheets of courses we want to play, ones we've already played, future event ideas, storyboards ..read more

As a question, it's impossible to answer. How could you? If you've never heard of it, how could you determine it to be the best? As a statement, it's a little easier. You could just say "Bright's Creek". That's a bold statement for sure. But now that you've heard of it and (hopefully we've) piqued your interest, let's learn about Bright's Creek, it's history, adversity, uniqueness and potential that lies in a remote - yet closer that you might think - section of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. HISTORY This could really start back in the day if we wanted it to. Rich Albright, the club ..read more