The Most Epic Days In Golf
What’s the difference between playing a round of golf, a great round of golf and an epic day of golf? The first happens anytime you tee it up, the second usually involves traveling to someplace special. Epic occurs when you tackle a special group of world-class courses in an unusually dramatic and unforgettable way.
These epic days are one of the best-kept secrets in golf travel, and there is a good chance you have never heard of any of the following trips, although if you love golf you certainly know the names of the legendary courses on which they take place. We are talking about a series of special events held at some of the best courses and resorts on earth, events that allow you to play multiple dream courses in a single day. Because these are the courses golf lovers want to play the most, they are among the hardest in the world to book, but these annual events bring them together in a far more accessible way. And, believe it or not, it is often cheaper and easier to play them in this fashion than to go the traditional route and try to play just one.
Some of these days are extremely long and not for the faint of heart, while others are no more taxing than a regular day of golf. All of them reward the intrepid traveler with an experience few have ever had, ones that will make you the envy of everyone in the locker room at your local club. These are the trips where golf memories are made, days you will never forget.
The Old Course Reversed
St Andrews, Scotland
When it comes to memory-making golf events, The Old Course at St Andrews is the gold standard. Everyone who golfs wants to tee it up here at the birthplace of the game, and this course has hosted The Open Championship 30 times, more than any other venue. No. 31 will take place next year. Just getting a tee time at St Andrews is a sizable challenge, but it’s easier to book a package to play it twice. And in this very special case, playing twice means playing the course in both directions.
Balls have been flying across the hallowed ground of St Andrews for somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 years, and during that time the course ebbed and flowed and changed. It wasn’t always 18 holes. Prior to 1764, the Old Course had 22 holes. It was cut back to 18 that year, around the time that many other courses started to be built. Using “The Home of Golf” as the original blueprint, that random number of 18 became the sport’s global standard.
Another big difference is that the holes once ran in the opposite direction, and were played clockwise, rather than the counter- (or as the Scots say, anti-) clockwise routing we see today. That came about after the 1863 Old Tom Morris redesign. Two days a year the Old Course is reversed, played the original way, starting on the first tee and hitting down the 18th fairway to the 17th green.
Remember when Tiger Woods broke the Open record in 2000 and famously never went in a single bunker? It’s easier than it sounds for longer hitters today, because fairway bunkers were designed to be in driver-landing zones. When the direction of the course was changed, the bunkers ended up closer to the tees. But when St Andrews is played in reverse your world becomes an onslaught of sand, and the usually benign layout, which relies on wind and fast greens for defense, bares its teeth. It’s special, it’s memorable, it’s history and you can only do it once a year, as part of the annual Old Course Reversed package.
For years this was a two-day affair with two groups of two-day slots over four days, allowing greenskeepers to run the reverse setup on back-to-back days in the middle. But the event was cancelled a few years ago, only to come roaring back in 2024 after a hiatus as an even grander three-day package that adds a round on the David McLay Kidd designed Castle Course. The event is £800 (around $1,060) and considering that regular Old Course greens fees run about $430 a pop, it’s a bargain. They even throw in a generous food and drink voucher.
If you can get a booking, it is far easier logistically than trying to get regular tee times. The catch is that the mid-April event is sold through an online lottery you can only enter over a 48-hour period in early December, with dates and details announced late each year on the Links Trust website and social media. Your chances of winning a spot are better than landing a tee time in the regular lottery, and if you don’t, there’s always next year. If you do, it is a slow time of year when lodging and air—and additional great golf in the region—are easy to book. So, mark your calendar.
“It was so much fun, I’ll never forget it,” says Patrick Gallagher, a pharmaceutical chief executive officer who played in the event about 15 years ago. “They pulled out all the stops, had special scorecards and tee markers with the new distances, but the caddies had no idea what we should do. I feel like I caught every bunker going backwards. There were golfers hitting from every spot you can imagine. It was chaos, but the best kind of chaos.”
The Hagen 54
Sandwich, England
In the British Isles, many top coastal links courses literally abut one another. You can sometimes walk across the parking lot from one course and go directly into the next. In southeastern England there are three top-ranked coastal Open Championship venues that sit side-by-side, Royal St. George’s (aka Sandwich), Royal Cinqe Ports (aka Deal) and Prince’s Golf Club.
The courses are so close that it is easy to get tempted—even for one of the all-time greats. Walter Hagen, who won 11 majors, third most of all time, recounted his confused path from course to course during a meandering practice for the 1920 British Open in his memoir: “After playing 11 holes on the Deal course, we hopped a fence over to Sandwich and played 10 holes there, crossed to Prince’s links and completed all the holes there, coming back to the original starting place,” wrote Hagen. “We finished the remainder of the holes on the Sandwich and Deal layouts, ending up on the 18th at Deal. Scores? I’ve forgotten. We weren’t trying to break any records. We were just lucky to go that far. We did it for fun.”
More than a century later, you can recreate the historic “Hagen routing” as a one-day links walkathon, the Hagen 54, playing all three Open courses in the same offbeat order Hagen did. The difference here is you also get many amenities: a gala opening party and closing dinner, food and drink stations on the courses, even an impressive gift bag. On top of the world-class historic links, there is a great sense of fun and camaraderie. Prince’s has a very nice onsite hotel, there is additional (close) lodging in Sandwich and the courses are less than a two-hour drive from London.
There is virtually no other way to play three Open courses in a single day anywhere else. In addition, this event is held in late July, peak golf season, and among events of this caliber it is one of the easiest to book—so long as you plan ahead. The 2026 edition is sold out, and registration for 2027 opened in early 2026. It’s another deal, at £1,125 (about $1,500), around the same as you would pay just in regular greens fees, if there were another way to get all three. This event is new, introduced in 2025, and was so instantly popular that it’s returning going forward.
Bandon Dunes Summer Solstice
Bandon, Oregon
Playing 54 holes on foot in one day is a lot, so just imagine how challenging four full rounds, or 72 holes, would be. For the past 15 years, golf nuts have been doing just that at Bandon Dunes in late June, near the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
This outing is truly golf’s marathon—you’ll walk in the neighborhood of 26 miles. Golfers hit the first course at 5:20 am and historically maintain an impressive 3:15 per round pace all day long. While it is a mental and physical challenge, the real appeal is the chance to play four of the best courses in the United States in one epic day, all of them among the top public courses ranked by Golf Magazine: Pacific Dunes (No. 3), Bandon Trails (No. 7), Bandon Dunes (No. 9) and Old Macdonald (No. 13).
Bandon Dunes is another place where tee times have become very hard to book, especially in summer when the resort is often sold out and all courses are in high demand. The Solstice Package (from $2,250 per person) simplifies the process and includes two nights of lodging, a welcome reception, food on the day of the event and even a gift bag. It is open to twosomes as well as foursomes, with registration for each year’s event through an online ballot window in late August for the following year (you sign up in August 2026 for June 2027). As you can imagine, all that walking calls for preparation. “Bring extra socks” and “bring an extra pair of shoes” are two key tips.
“Peter Millar has been a proud partner with Bandon Dunes for many years,” says Todd Martin, president of the upscale golf apparel company, which has participated in the event since its inauguration in 2011. “Walking 72 holes with three great friends and four amazing Bandon Dunes caddies is about as good as it gets. Some come for speed, some come just to say they finished, but everyone walks away with the same undeniable feeling of gratitude for being part of this incredible event.” He referred to the event as “a tier beyond a bucket list.” Sand Valley Summer Solstice Nekoosa, Wisconsin While Bandon Dunes is renowned for its coastal links golf, some travelers prefer the incredibly varied landlocked courses at its Midwestern sibling Sand Valley, which has grown rapidly. All three of its resort 18s are highly ranked by Golf Magazine, including David McLay Kidd’s bigger-than-life Mammoth Dunes (No. 26), arguably the nation’s most distinctive course.
The Sand Valley Summer Solstice is a 72-hole walk held on the same mid-June dates as the version at Bandon Dunes, with a three-day package including lodging and similar extras. The big difference is that with three (rather than four) courses, each group plays one of them twice. Prices start at $4,015 for a two-person team, and because it is newer it is easier to book than the Bandon version.
The Dual At Forest Dunes
Roscommon, Michigan
Inspired in part by the Old Course Reversed, A-List architect Tom Doak designed the routing of Forest Dunes to be played in both directions. It switches every day, so resort guests can try both options. But on the last day of May, July and August, the resort hosts the pun-inspired “Dual at The Loop,” where two-man teams play the course twice, once in each direction, in a walking only, best-ball tournament.
It’s fun and casual, the most accessible and among the least physically demanding of all the events here, with “just” 36 holes, albeit 36 exceptional holes. Registration is $1,200 per team ($600 per person), and includes lunch, a celebratory dinner, gift bag and prizes. Online entries are accepted over a three-day window in February and lottery winners are notified within a week.
“Just to play The Loop on back-to-back days in both directions is great, but playing in the Dual takes that experience to another level,” says Kevin Frisch, a golf industry professional from Michigan who has participated a few times. “Playing both directions on the same day with a buddy in a laid back but competitive format is amazing, and ranks among the coolest experiences in golf.”
If you make the trip, consider extending a day or two and try the higher-rated, original Forest Dunes by Tom Weiskopf.
Rosapenna Summer Solstice
Downings, Ireland
Tom Doak seems to be the architect of choice for golf marathons, the designer of many of these courses. You can tackle a World Top 50-rated Doak design on the Old Sod at Rosapenna in County Donegal. It’s the largest golf resort in all of Ireland, the nation’s only 54-hole facility.
The newest is Doak’s St. Patrick’s Links, which debuted in 2021, and the Solstice event began the following year. It is flanked by Sandy Hills, a masterpiece by acclaimed Irish architect Pat Ruddy, and the classic Old Tom Morris Links, laid out in 1891 by the man famously behind the current Old Course at St Andrews and subsequently tweaked by legends Harry Vardon, James Braid and Harry Colt. The result is three stunning coastal links from different periods under one roof. On June 21, you can play them all (on foot, of course) in teams of four. Entries are 600 euros (about $700) per person for non-Irish residents. That fee includes your golf, gift bags, breakfast, lunch, closing dinner and prizes.
Registration here is simpler than for most of these events and Rosapenna has its own full-service hotel that is surrounded by even more fabulous links courses including the legendary 36-hole Ballyliffin and Rosses Point. It’s also quite close to the border of Northern Ireland, and British Open venue Royal Portrush.
Cabot Cape Breton Summer Solstice Challenge
Nova Scotia, Canada
The least ambitious of the Summer Solstice offerings requires players to tackle a relatively tame 47 holes at Canada’s top golf resort. It is also the least formal, not a package but rather an opportunity, where on June 21, all resort guests have the chance to play the two acclaimed 18s, Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs, as well as the Nest, an 11-hole, par-3 course. Upon completion of the challenge, successful guests receive a commemorative gift and entry into Solstice contests.
You do not even have to wake up especially early for this one, as director of golf Ted Stonehouse explains. “The longest day of the year at Cabot Cape Breton allows our guests to comfortably play all three courses in daylight.” Even when the final putt drops after 10 pm, you can still see every shot.
