When I looked up, I was in southwest Florida. When I looked down, I might as well have been in the Hamptons. Above eye level, luxury condominium towers. Below, golf holes that would have fit right in next door to Maidstone, Shinnecock Hills and the National Golf Links of America.
In addition to challenging your various golf skills – mediocre though they may be – great golf courses can play with your sense of place and time as well. That latter bit of alchemy usually requires some years of bedding-in and maturation, but Kinsale Golf Club, a new private club near Naples laid out by Gil Hanse & Jim Wagner – with Wagner sitting first-chair for the project – arrived practically fully-formed in December 2024.
On a completely flat piece of ground that by all modern standards would be considered tiny, less than half a mile from gulf beaches, the duo that is arguably the most sought-after in golf design today managed to create a delightful members’ course that is both challenging and fun, both unique and evocative…