Where I've Played, Where I'm Bound: The Linksbound Trip Ledger
Matt’s golf trip count since 2008
Every claim Linksbound makes runs through one sentence: planned by someone who's played them. This page is that sentence, itemized: twenty-five destination trips since the first Bandon pilgrimage, every trip already booked, what each one taught, and where the record goes next. It gets updated after every trip, permanently.
Played
July 2026, Scotland. Sixteen days, eight rounds: Royal Troon, Turnberry, Carnoustie, North Berwick, Dunbar, Kingsbarns, and the New Course at St Andrews twice. Entered the Old Course ballot every eligible day; drew standby number 43 on the last morning and never got on. Still the best golf trip of our lives, because it was built to win either way. The complete annotated itinerary.
April 2026, Streamsong. Red, Blue, and Black in a solo run, played and ranked, and sometimes the consensus is the consensus for a reason. Florida's most surprising resort, and the winter answer for links-starved golfers. The full ranking.
November 2025, Bandon Dunes. Trip five: seven rounds in four days, all five courses. The only course-order rule that has earned its keep: play Sheep Ranch in the mornings. The five-visit breakdown.
May 2025, Pebble Beach. The third Monterey run: Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill. The verdict after three trips: a special place, two great courses, and views that are exactly what you expect them to be. The one honest knock is the price, which is also why people call it a bucket list trip: I'm glad I've gone a few times, and I won't be back for a long while.
December 2024, Bandon Dunes. Trip four, and by now a pattern had emerged that tells you everything about the property: my favorite course changed after every visit. Bandon Dunes held the crown first, then Trails took it the trip I shot 75 there (a career round for me), then Pacific Dunes claimed it. The full reckoning came on trip five.
June 2024, Bandon Dunes. Trip three, and the crown was mid-migration (see the pattern one entry up).
August 2023, Lake Tahoe. The second mountain-golf run. The two Tahoe trips blur together happily, which tells you how they went: Gray's Crossing, Coyote Moon, Old Greenwood, and Lahontan (private, unlocked by a golfing buddy who lives there) across the pair, and all of them spectacular. Altitude golf earns its place in the rotation.
December 2022, Bandon Dunes. Trip two, fourteen years after the first, and the return that made it a habit: proof the first morning was no fluke, and the start of the every-trip-a-new-favorite pattern above.
July 2022, Pebble Beach. The second Pebble trip, nine years after the first.
September 2021, the Central California Coast. La Purisima, Sandpiper, and Monarch Dunes. La Purisima was the trip's special treat, a genuinely great golf course hiding in Lompoc. Sandpiper, gorgeous setting, a touch overrated, and I'll take that argument from anyone.
June 2021, Lake Tahoe. The first mountain experiment, and the reason there was a second. The courses live in the entry above, where both trips' memories pooled.
June 2020, the Central California Coast. The first Coast run, and the scouting trip for the fuller 2021 version.
The earlier years
The record runs deeper than the modern era, and the ledger keeps all of it:
Park City, three trips (July 2009, September 2010, August 2019). Utah mountain golf, three summers' worth.
Mesquite and St. George, two trips (November 2017, November 2018). Red-rock desert golf across two state lines.
La Quinta, five trips (2010, 2014, 2017, and twice in 2021). The desert standby, and the rotation I came back to more than any destination but one.
January 2015, Streamsong. The first visit, back when the resort was Red and Blue only, which makes the modern four-course version its own kind of return story.
July 2013, Pebble Beach. The first Pebble trip, played with my Dad.
2008, or thereabouts, Bandon Dunes. Trip one, a foursome of golfing buddies, and my first taste of links golf. What I remember most is standing on the first tee and feeling something otherworldly: heavenly, still, like this was where I was meant to be. I walked off Bandon-obsessed, and the rest of this ledger is the receipt.
On the books
October 2026, Pinehurst. No. 2 on the card. Booked eleven weeks out, which secured the last room on the property; consider that lesson pre-learned so you don't have to repeat it. Trip report lands here in the fall.
September 2027, Wisconsin. Kohler first, then three nights at Sand Valley with The Lido on the card, booked thirteen months out, when general availability was wide open and The Lido was down to its last tee time in a week-long span. We moved the entire trip to capture it. The lead-time doctrine, practiced.
Not yet
The Old Course, properly: the ballot owes us one, and the September application window is circled. Ireland is the open question for 2028, with the Ryder Cup at Adare Manor this fall doing the advance scouting. And Bone Valley opens at Streamsong in January, which may yet force a return trip onto this list. And the rest of the list is long, which is the point of keeping a ledger.
If you want your own trip on a page like this, that's what the consultation is for: ninety minutes, your group, and a written plan you keep either way.