July 21, 2026, 12:01 p.m. ET
SOUTHPORT, England – “Do you have tee times arranged for Open week?”
That was the question posed to me by my fellow golf club member Laura Dobbs, a Golfweek rater along with her husband, Derek, and I never could have guessed the series of events that a simple question would lead to in the ensuing week.
Teeing it up at the great links courses within driving distance of the host venue of the Open Championship has become – with an apologies to Jim Nantz and Augusta National – a tradition unlike any other. You get to the course early, work hard to tell the best stories you can find and then rush off to make a 6 o’clock tee time and play into the gloaming, sometimes past 10, grab a pint or two and some fish and chips if you’re lucky, rinse and repeat. I’ve had the pleasure of teeing it up at Prestwick, Western Gailes and others in recent years and while I had every intention of adding to the list during the 154th Open, the answer to the original question was I hadn’t made any effort whatsoever to set up a tee time yet.
That night I ran into Laura and Derek at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, our home club, my wife and I had just competed in the Wednesday night 2-Club Shootout – no Skins for us! – and had retired to The Pub to watch the start of the U.S. World Cup game. That’s where I had said hello to Laura and Derek, who suggested I email our club president, Bill Edge, because he thought we might have a reciprocal relationship with Hillside Golf Club, a neighboring links course to Royal Birkdale that had been the site of Open qualifying when Arnold Palmer claimed the Claret Jug in 1961 and more recently the site of Christo Lamprecht winning the 2023 British Amateur.
Turns out former touring pro Tjaart van der Walt splits his time between Ponte Vedra and Southport and he brought Edge and a bunch of members to Hillside last summer. They held an inter-club match (my club took it on the chin), hit it off and while enjoying some post-round drinks, Edge realized the two clubs shared a lot in common – the most obvious being location next to a world-famous championship course. [Sawgrass CC, the home of the Players Championship from 1976-1981, is across two-lane A1A from Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass and the iconic island green a 17.] He floated the concept of creating a reciprocal deal between the two clubs to Hillside’s captain and secretary and it was met with approval. When Edge returned to Sawgrass he pitched the idea to director of golf Nate Marozzi, who worked out the details with Hillside in what is the first club that Hillside has formed a relationship with. In October, a dozen Hillside members will head across the pond for a rematch at Sawgrass (as well as a round at TPC Sawgrass. They also have a NorCal leg of the trip that will include Pebble Beach Golf Links).
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One club from the entire U.S. that Hillside happens to have a reciprocal with and it happened to be mine, what are the chances? And this is how I scored a 5:30 p.m. local time tee time at Hillside a week ago as if I were a member and was able to bring a guest for 40 pounds rather than having to pay the visitor guest fee of 300, which at current exchange rates is $400. Chris, the secretary of the club, the equivalent of general manager, joined us for the front nine, and John, the club captain, joined us on the eighth green and played on in. It was a gorgeous night for golf through their stunning dunes and one of the highlights of my trips. [I also was treated incredibly well as a Golfweek Rater at Walton Heath (old) and West Lancashire Golf Club during my trip across the pond.]
After the round, John invited us into Hillside’s clubhouse for a drink and continuation of our conversation. It’s just the latest confirmation that golf is the greatest game for bringing people together across the world. I look forward to returning the favor in October when the Hillside boys make their trip over and we seek some revenge in a rematch on home soil. Long live the golf reciprocal. Hey, Nate, can we work something out before the 155th Open with a club in St. Andrews?
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.