Anthony Pioppi

You Should be Following Me at AnthonyPioppi.Com

2011-11-14T11:04:00.002-05:00

Click on the link to see my latest post on that site,

http://anthonypioppi.com/golf/golf/237/my-renovation-of-tekoa-ccs-fifth-hole-part-1

Now Posting at AnthonyPioppi.com

2011-08-15T11:02:00.002-04:00

Check out my posts on Treetops Resort and my new topic, caddying.

anthonypioppi.com

Tony

I'm Packing Up and Moving!

2011-08-10T07:33:00.002-04:00

You may have noticed that I have not posted here in over a month and probably came up with a variety of scenarios as to why. Let me put the rumors to rest, arrest and/or deportation were not the reasons.

Beginning in less than a week I'll be posting at AnthonyPioppi.com and be part of TheAPosition.com website, a consortium of golf travel writers from around the world. I'll be posting on the same variety of topics as I have been. Some items will be posted under the golf and travel banner and others under my blog. While some of the posts will have already run on this blog, most of the contest will be brand spanking new. The good news for me is that TheAPosition.com will bring my writing to a wider audience and, even better, allow me the opportunity to make some money for my writing. With AnthonyPioppi.com, the more hits on the site translates directly to cash. More hits to the sites of the more than 50 writers who are also part of TheAPosition.com, means the site becomes more attractive to advertisers and suddenly - yes, it's a darn good possibility - I could actually be getting paid for my blog posts.

Stay tuned.

The Machrie Has a New Owner

2011-06-30T17:21:00.004-04:00

This is from the official Machrie Facebook page.

Machrie golf links
Its been a long time since I posted from the Machrie page, but I`m back with some good news. Machrie has new owners as of today, and I`m sure you will all join me in wishing Gavyn Davies and his family all the very best in their new business venture. I don`t think it will take them long to realise that the whole of Islay is right behind them in their attempt to maximise the potential of this brilliant facility.

Davies is an interesting fellow according to this Wikipedia entry.

This appears to be good news for one of the world's great links golf courses. More details will follow.

Golf Course Architect Don Herfort Dead at 86

2011-06-30T09:54:00.003-04:00

Here is the press release from the American Society of Golf Course Architects

Don Herfort, ASGCA Fellow of Lakeville, Minn., died June 26. He was 86.

Herfort was a 1951 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, earning a degree in Business Administration. While working for 3M he was asked to design the 3M Tartan Park Golf Course, launching his career as a golf course architect.

During a career which spanned more than 40 years, Herfort designed courses including Northwoods Golf Course, Rhinelander, Wis.; Indian Hills Country Club and Phalen Golf Course in St. Paul, Minn.; Pebble Creek Golf Course, Becker, Minn.; and Oak Glen Country Club in Stillwater, Minn.

Herfort is survived by his wife Shirley and three children. He was preceded in death by his daughter Karen. A memorial service will be held Saturday, July 2 at Washburn-McReavy Werness Brothers Chapel.

Bethpage Black Gets PGA Tour Event

2011-06-29T10:42:00.002-04:00

The Barclays, the first stop of the PGA Tour's four-tournament FedEx Cup, is scheduled to rotate venues starting in 2012 with Bethpage State Park's Black Course, the site of the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Open. The tournament is slated to return there in 2016. Other venues are: Liberty National, 2013; Ridgewood Country Club, 2014; and Plainfield Country Club, 2015.

The following descriptions of the courses are from the PGA Tour press release.

Bethpage Black

In the early 1930s, the Bethpage Park Authority purchased the Lenox Hills Country Club and other adjacent properties to build what we now know as Bethpage State Park. Tillinghast was hired to design and oversee construction of three new golf courses (Black, Red and Blue) as well as modify the Lenox Hills Course, which became the Green Course.

Tiger Woods won the 2002 U.S. Open by being the only player to break par in a tournament that was remembered for excitement on the course and atmosphere outside the ropes. Prior to 2002, the U.S. Open had only been contested at privately owned courses. Lucas Glover won the 2009 U.S. Open in a rain-soaked event.

Liberty National - 2013

In 2013, The Barclays will return to Liberty National in Jersey City, N.J., site of the 2009 event, won by Heath Slocum. The vision of owner Paul Fireman, Liberty National features unparalleled views of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty, which is located less than 1,000 yards from the 14th green. TOUR players will find a new Liberty National that has undergone significant redesign by original course architects Tom Kite and Bob Cupp, including revamped greens and changes to multiple green surrounds and fairways.

“We’re thrilled to have The Barclays and FedExCup return to Liberty National after such a memorable tournament in 2009,” said Fireman, founder of Liberty National Golf Club. “We recently completed changes to the course and gallery areas with collaboration from PGA TOUR Chief Architect Steve Wenzloff and our original design team of Tom Kite and Bob Cupp. We believe the new look Liberty National will be well received by the playing professionals and provide an even better experience for players and fans.”

Ridgewood Country Club - 2014

The Barclays will return to another recent host in 2014, Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J. Ridgewood has hosted The Barclays twice: in 2008 when Vijay Singh won the title – and eventually the FedExCup – by defeating Kevin Sutherland and Sergio Garcia in a sudden-death playoff; and last year, when Matt Kuchar, also in a sudden-death playoff, hit his approach shot from the left rough to less than three feet from the hole to beat Martin Laird with a birdie. Ridgewood was founded in 1890 and is one of the oldest clubs in America. In addition to two installments of The Barclays, the course – another A.W. Tillinghast design – has hosted the 1935 Ryder Cup, 1974 U.S. Amateur, 1990 U.S. Senior Open and 2001 Senior PGA Championship.

Plainfield Country Club - 2015

This year’s site, Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J., is slated to host The Barclays again in 2015. Like Ridgewood, Plainfield Country Club was founded in 1890 and stands as one of the oldest clubs in the United States. The course was built in 1921 by Donald Ross and is widely regarded as one of his masterpieces. The club recently spent more than a decade restoring, renovating and extending the course, using Ross’s original blueprints. Plainfield has hosted the 1978 U.S. Amateur and the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open.

In addition to hosting The Barclays, Plainfield Country Club has made a major commitment to educating children in its local community by starting a First Tee program two years ago. Plainfield is the first private club to partner with The First Tee and commit to being a full-time First Tee facility. Plainfield’s West 9 golf course hosts The First Tee programs as part of The First Tee of Metropolitan NY.

Taylor and Simpson Explain How to Putt "Slow" Greens

2011-06-24T18:26:00.007-04:00

Because of Thursday's heavy rains at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., players in the Travelers Championship putted greens on Friday that were at speeds well below what they are accustomed. Even so, a number of golfers thrived on greens that are considered "slow" by PGA Tour standards. They were probably rolling under 10 feet on the Stimpmeter, close to a foot less than they would have been without the rain.

Meanwhile, on golf courses all around Cromwell, players on Saturday, today and every other day golf can be played, complained or will complain that the problem with their putting is not their stroke, but the "slow" greens.

Following their rounds, Vaughn Taylor and Webb Simpson explained how they dealt with the conditions on the River Highlands greens. Both were at 9-under-par, Taylor shot 65-66, with one bogey in the second round and none in the first. Simpson shot 66-65, including a bogey-free second round.

They each said there is no secret to putting when greens are not at lightning speeds.

"For a little while in the morning you just got to tell yourself on the first few putts that you just got to hit it a little harder than you are used to. And then you know, it's just like anything else. We just kind of adapt to it and you get used to it the rest of the day," Simpson said. "And you might want to watch other guys putt in your group a little more to see how hard they hit and see how far the ball rolls out."

Hmm, hit it harder and watch others in your group. That seems to be good advice for any level of player.

Taylor's technique was less technical.

"It's difficult at times. Definitely on uphill putts you gotta give it—definitely give it some extra steam. But I myself, I do it by sight," Taylor said. "I can just visually tell that the greens are slower, and that's kind of the way I do it. I don't like to try and hit putts harder or firmer."

From there, he had a difficult time conveying exactly how he adjusts.

"So I just kind of use my instincts and kind of adjust that way. Just kind of adjusting without adjusting if that makes any sense," he said and chuckled.

(Vaughn Taylor reads a putt at the 2010 The Barclays at Ridgewood. Photo John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

Geoff Ogilvy at the Travelers Championship

2011-06-24T15:28:00.005-04:00

It's been a crazy two days at TPC River Highlands for the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship thanks to heavy rain on Thursday that only allowed six players to finish. Play started at 7 a.m. today and will continue almost non stop until sundown. Between the last group of the morning round and the first group of the afternoon wave, two teams of maintenance were out changing cups and moving tee markers. Not a bunker was raked or blade of grass mowed.

If the rain holds off today, they'll be another long day tomorrow as players will return at 7 a.m. to the holes they were on when darkness set in. Once the second round is completed, by sometime late morning, we all hope, the third round pairing will be announced and the golf balls will be teed up almost right away.

Thursday, a parade of players made their way through the media building talking about, what else, they rain delay.

Wednesday, though, Geoff Ogilvy was in for an interview and had some interesting comments.

On Rory McIlroy's victory in the U.S. Open:

"It's hard to measure. I mean, it's not as good as Tiger's 12-under at Pebble because the next guy was 3-over... I don't think it should be remembered as relative to par. I think it should be remembered by how many shots he won by and how he was so clearly the best player in the field last week that it was evident by lunchtime on Friday that the tournament was pretty much all over."

Tiger won the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links

On Anthony Kim:

"If he gets organized off the golf course, he could win as many golf tournaments as he wants."

On the drivable 15th hole at River Highlands:

"I'll probably go for the green. At least try to get it to the front edge with a 3-wood if it's downwind or driver into the wind. It's quite a difficult layup.... and if you actually do drive it in the water, you're dropping it and chipping. You're trying to get up-and-down for par. You can still make par a lot of times. It's very similar to 17 at Phoenix. And we all just try to go for the green at 17 because the punishment—the reward is worth risking the punishment. I mean worst case, you're going to have a shortish putt for par, but you could make 2."

(Photo: John Woike/Hartford Courant)

Blogging from Golfdom from the Travelers Championship

2011-06-24T09:59:00.003-04:00

Rain is the story in Cromwell, Conn. for the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship. The blog items I've submitted for Golfdom from the tournament can be found right here.

Talking About TPC River Highlands with Fox 61

2011-06-22T09:25:00.003-04:00

I was interviewed last week by Bob Rumbold of Fox 61 television in Hartford and talked about the design intent that architect Bobby Weed had when laying out TPC River Highlands. The video, which ran on Sunday night, can be viewed here.

Bobby discussed some interesting concepts with me including half par holes. With those, he said, they play either slightly more difficult or slightly easier than the par of the hole. The drivable par-4 15th (shown here) at River Highlands, he considers having a par of 3 1/2, while the difficult par-3 fifth he also sees as having a par of 3 1/2.

Bobby is very much a fan of the classic style of golf course architecture, giving players alternate ways to play holes but rewarding the bold golfer who challenges hazards with an easier next shot. He said that those who hit away from the trouble, "defer the challenge to the next shot," where the next problem must then be dealt with by the player.

Travelers Championship this Week

2011-06-22T07:07:00.002-04:00

The Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands, 7 miles from my home, is this week. A strong field, thanks to the U.S. Open being in Maryland last week, includes defending champion Bubba Watson, Geoff Ogilvy, Padraig Harrington, Ian Poulter. The complete list of entries is found here.

I'll be at the tournament all week providing insightful information.

I'm picking Fredrik Jacobson to win!

Defining "Small" Greens and "Deep" Bunkers: An Informal Poll

2011-06-16T15:45:00.006-04:00

Recently, New York-based golf writer Ann Ligouri wrote a review of the two golf courses at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida for the New York CBS television affiliate. She used adjectives that are common in golf course reviews but in reality have absolutely no meaning, describing the greens of the The Ocean Course as "small" and the bunkers of the Breakers Rees Jones Course as quite "deep." She gave no concrete numbers as to what "small" or "deep" entail.

According to the Breakers web site, the Ocean Course was designed in 1896 by Alex Findlay (incorrectly spelled as Findley on the site) and renovated by Brian Silva in 2000. I'm assuming Rees Jones designed the Rees Jones course but I didn't check.

I wondered that when it comes to the sizes of greens and the depth of bunkers, if words such as small, average, large and deep do have meaning to golf course architects and those who write about golf course architecture, so I unscientifically polled a group of 14.

I asked these question: what is the size of a small green; what is the size of a medium green; what is the size of a large green; what is the depth of a deep bunker; do you consider a deep bunker one that is well below the surface of a green (Seth Raynor, etc.) or one that you must walk down into, such as a pot bunker?

Here are the results

Small green: This ranges from fewer than 3,500-square feet to fewer than 5,500-square feet. The most common answer (6) was fewer than 4,000-square feet.

Medium green: The size varied from 4,000-square feet to 7,000-square feet. Five answered 6,500-square feet and four answered 6,000-square feet.

Large green: The smallest answer to this question was 5,000-square feet, the largest 7,500-square feet. The most common answer was 6,500 square feet according to five people who replied

One architect's reply to the green size query was, in part, "There are a lot of 'conditions', or 'depends' with the answers to these questions. As for greens, what is small depends on the slope in the green (what is pinnable), what club you're hitting to the green, how firm the greens and approaches might play (how small will the green 'play'). They can be too small for maintenance or playability or reasonable strategy. In the interest of good design, it is really not purposeful to assign numerical values to what is big or small. It depends - that should be the answer."

One other architect said the size of a green has much to do with surrounding land. If, for instance, a green is built at the level of the fairway, and both areas are maintained firm, then the size of the actual putting surface is almost irrelevant.

In an interesting side note, he said he is amazed at how often those who have supposed intimate knowledge of a golf course have incorrect perceptions of green sizes. As an example, he recounted how he was brought in to expand a green that the superintendent said was 2,500-square feet. When it was measured, it was nearly double that size.

Depth of a deep bunker: The most common answer was six feet by four repliers. Two answered deep enough so the player cannot see out of them. An interesting perspective since that means a deep bunker to Dirk Nowitzky is a little different than for Justin Timberlake.

One reply was four feet for a fairway bunker and six feet for greenside.

It was nearly unanimous that Raynor's bunkers are considered deep.

As one respondent put it, though, there are many ways to determine a deep bunker. It might be a deep if: 1. You need stairs to get in and out of it, 2. You can't see the flag from the bottom, 3. You can't play at the flag from the bottom even if you could see it.

To put Ligouri's original article into perspective, the greens at the Ocean Course average at least 5,000-square feet, which is medium size in the minds of all but one who responded

While Jones may have designed a few bunkers with a depth of five feet, there are no six-foot deep bunkers at the Rees Jones Course. However, I'm not sure of Ligouri's height, so they might all be deep to her.

(Photo 1: 17th green Fox Chapel Golf Club, Pittsburgh, Penn.)
(Photos 2: 4th hole Fenwick Golf Course, Old Saybrook, Conn., 150 yards, green approximately 2,200 square feet.)

Congressional By the Numbers; This Doesn't Look Like Fun

2011-06-13T09:54:00.005-04:00

I watched the 18 flyover videos describing the holes of Congressional Country Club that is hosting the United States Open this week. The videos can be found by clicking here. The layout comes across as one that appears to severely punish players who look to use the ground game or are higher handicaps, leaving only the aerial route as the way onto greens.

Weather will dictate the hue of the turf and firmness of the golf course, but it will be interesting to see how far balls are rolling this year compared to last year's tournament at Pebble Beach Golf Links since running shots onto the putting surfaces, other than the 18th, isn't a viable option.

To me, Congressional has the fetid appearance of the work of Robert Trent Jones. He redesigned Congressional in 1962 and 1969 . His son, Rees, renovated the layout twice, also, once for this tournament.

Here are some rather discomforting numbers:

• 14 green approaches are pinched near the putting surface making the run-up nearly impossible. Almost every green has bunkers that back into the approach landing area.

(For amateur players unfortunate enough to find the sand, this means bunker shots of 40 yards and more. The accompanying photo of the first hole has both a narrow opening to the green and bunkers set far away from the putting surface.)

• Two holes require forced carries to the green.

• Nine of the greens are sloped back to front, many of those severely.

• When it comes to fairway landing areas, nine are guarded by either sand or water on the right while three are guarded on the left.

• Two holes have pinched landing areas.

The best news about the U.S. Open being at Congressional is it might be the last time Rees Jones, who has the ill-fitting moniker of "The Open Doctor" for his work of preparing venues for the U.S. Open, gets to botch golf course surgery on a U.S. Open venue. According to John Garrity of Golf.com, "...other designers have been hired to prepare seven of the next eight U.S. Open sites. The USGA has assigned its Open venues through 2019, with the exception of 2018, which means it's quite likely that the earliest Jones's services could be called upon again would be in 2020, when he'll be 78."

Connecticut Attorney General Enters Stanley Park Controversy

2011-06-10T21:15:00.002-04:00

The attempt by the city of New Britain, Conn. to sell part of a city park, including a portion of the golf course, has caught the attention of the Connecticut Attorney General. His office will review the deed to see the sale it violated the terms under which the land was donated in the 1920s. The entire Hartford Courant story can be accessed by clicking here.

Costco Plan in New Britain Advances

2011-06-08T09:06:00.002-04:00

Costco took another stop towards securing land to build a store partly on an area that is now a golf course in New Britain, Conn.

Even though, according to this story in the New Britain Herald that can be accessed by clicking here, most residents opposed the zoning change required, the City Council’s Planning, Zoning and Housing Committee Tuesday voted 11-3 to recommend the change.

GolfWeek architecture editor Bradley Klein, spoke in opposition to the proposal, which he said will turn a very walkable course into one that almost demands golfers ride. According to the story Klein, "ridiculed the plans for a revised Stanley Golf course, saying that it will require more forest land than Costco believes and will have a negative impact on wetlands. 'Why not keep the course on one side of Route 71 and make it an 18-hole golf course?'" he asked.

Stanley Golf Course, New Britain, Conn, Threatenened by Costco

2011-06-07T13:45:00.004-04:00

The economically depressed city of New Britain, Conn. took the first step Monday night in allowing part of the history Stanley Park to become a Costco, a giant box retailer. The plan calls for the elimination of at least three of the 27 holes that make up the golf park golf course. The holes would be moved across the street to a rocky area that also has wetlands and would require a tunnel under the road for access to the area. The Hartford Courant story on last night's vote can be found be clicking here.

"Costco wants to buy about 17 acres of a city-owned golf course along Hartford Road for its store. The city would then restore that part of the course on about 17 acres of nearby Stanley Park woodlands and nature trails," according to the story.

The original 18 holes were designed by Connecticut architect Robert Ross, who also designed Indian Hill Golf Club, Middletown Golf Club, which is now TPC River Highlands, Canton Public Golf Course, and Goodwin Park Golf Course, among others.

The photo is a 1934 aerial of Stanley.

Minikahda Layout Eviscerated By National Media (1916)

2011-05-23T08:54:00.007-04:00

While conducting research for the forthcoming book, "History of The Minikahda Club Golf Course," I spent a great deal of time on the 1916 U.S. Open held at Minikahda.

It was the furthest west the event had ever been and when Chick Evans walked off the final green as the champion, he became the first amateur to hoist the trophy.

The layout was a Tom Bendelow design that incorporated virtually all of the original nine holes designed by Willie Watson and Robert Foulis in 1899. Prior to the tournament, Minikahda was aware that the layout needed to be improved following play and had hired Donald Ross for the job. There is now way, however, the club could have expected the harsh criticism the design received following the tournament. It was considered too easy and lacking in length and strategy by players and writers. (Below is the article by Bunker Hill that appeared in The American Golfer magazine.)

Reading the denunciations, I wondered if there are any big name architects today who would stand for such disparagement of their work. I get the feeling that Pete Dye and the team of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore would read the disapproving words and forget them. For the preponderance of the others, though, I could only imagine how their frail and sensitive egos would handle such legitimate criticism on a national level. (If you're an architect and you think I'm referring to you, then I probably am.)

American Golfer, Aug. 1916

By Bunker Hill

“I will not mention the name of the professional who said:

‘What’s the use of wasting time and money going to play in a national open on a course like Minikahda? Any man might win there. It isn’t any test of real golf, for it demands nothing in variety of shots or in knowledge of execution beyond the drive, mashie and putter. Or wait, -- I might add that the player has to have some ability in hitting a tee shot with the iron, on holes where wood is over long. I’m speaking truthfully,’ he went on, ‘when I say that had I personally gone on the course with no clubs other than a brassie, mashie and putter, and been as well acquainted with the layout as I was at the completion of the championship, I haven’t a doubt that my score would have been lower by many strokes. To state the case further, the course no not only was merely a drive, pitch and putt, taken all through, but it was anything but a test of putting. The Minikahda greens were of such surface texture that all a man had to do was bang the ball straight at the cup from any point and feel that if he hit it both hard and straight at the cup he stood a good chance of holing the ball. There was none of that delicacy of putting stroke which is demanded of the golfer on some of the leading eastern courses, and no disparagement of Mr. Evans’ victory is intended when I say that I will form my judgment of his reputed improvement in putting after he had demonstrated his effectiveness of his new style on some of the keen and undulating greens of the east, such as at the national open championship presumably will encounter at the Merion Cricket Club during the national amateur championship.

‘As for the professionals, I know of many, myself included, who would delight at the chance of playing for the open title next year on a course like the Myopia Hunt Club or the Brae-Burn Country Club. These are the courses where the golfer is put to the test not alone on his execution of the simpler shots, but on his ability to use all the clubs in his bag and know when, as well as how, to use each club. No man can play Myopia or Brae-Burn with a brassie, mashie and putter, yet hop to land a title in a representative championship field. Either there or at Brae-Burn, a man must (and I emphasize the must) get his distance with a wood, plus accuracy; he must be able to pick up a brassie for distance and proper direction; he must be able to play full iron shots, half irons, mashie and niblick; he must know how to play out of bunkers which are as tenacious of their hold on the ball as those to be found abroad; he must have the power of the wrists and the knowledge of applying it, to get anywhere out of the rough such as Myopia boasts and, he must have the delicate touch, coupled with innate putting sense, which will enable him to sink a goodly number of putts of ten feet and under on greens where the ball has to be tapped almost as lightly as walking on eggs without breaking them.”

Rick Phelps Elected ASGCA President

2011-05-18T16:11:00.002-04:00

Here is are excerpts from the official press release.

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – Rick Phelps, ASGCA was elected President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) at the organization’s recent 65th Annual Meeting in Denver.

Phelps is Owner and Golf Course Architect for Phelps-Atkinson Golf Course Design in Evergreen, Colo. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Design from the University of Colorado. His list of representative courses includes The Broadlands, Broomfield, Colo.; Devil’s Thumb, Delta, Colo.; Panther Creek Country Club, Springfield, Ill. (with Hale Irwin); and Antler Creek Golf Club, Falcon, Colo. Remodels include Pinnacle Peak Country Club, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Pinehurst Country Club, Denver; and Liberty Lake Golf Course, Spokane, Wash.

Phelps continues a family legacy in his service to ASGCA; his father, Dick, is a long-time ASGCA member who served as president in 1980. .

As ASGCA President, Rick Phelps plans to focus on golf courses which are affordable, playable and sustainable. “The most famous courses in North America are well known, but they make up less than five percent of the total number of courses,” he said. “The lesser-known projects also have stories to tell. I want to bring attention to the other 95%, including the public courses where over 70% of all rounds are played, and educate people inside and outside the golf industry that the median greens fee for those courses is $28.”

As the golf industry continues to change domestically and internationally, Phelps will also actively promote the value of ASGCA and its members. ASGCA continues to be the largest organization of golf course architects in the world and its’ members the most experienced. More than two-thirds of 2011 Annual Meeting attendees work on projects outside North America.

Defining a "Small" Green and a "Deep" Bunker: An Informal Poll

2011-05-18T03:57:00.007-04:00

Recently, New York-based golf writer Ann Ligouri wrote a review of the two golf courses at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida for the New York CBS television affiliate. She used adjectives that are common in golf course reviews but in reality have absolutely no meaning, describing the greens of the The Ocean Course as "small" and the bunkers of the Breakers Rees Jones Course as quite "deep." She gave no concrete numbers as to what "small" or "deep" entail.

According to the Breakers web site, the Ocean Course was designed in 1896 by Alex Findlay (incorrectly spelled as Findley on the site) and renovated by Brian Silva in 2000. I'm assuming Rees Jones designed the Rees Jones course but I didn't check.

I wondered that when it comes to the sizes of greens and the depth of bunkers, if words such as small, average, large and deep do have meaning to golf course architects and those who write about golf course architecture, so I unscientifically polled a group of 14.

I asked these question: what is the size of a small green; what is the size of a medium green; what is the size of a large green; what is the depth of a deep bunker; do you consider a deep bunker one that is well below the surface of a green (Seth Raynor, etc.) or one that you must walk down into, such as a pot bunker?

Here are the results

Small bunker: This ranges from fewer than 3,500-square feet to fewer than 5,500-square feet. The most common answer (6) was fewer than 4,000-square feet.

Medium bunker: The size varied from 4,000-square feet to 7,000-square feet. Five answered 6,500-square feet and four answered 6,000-square feet.

Large bunker: The smallest answer to this question was 5,000-square feet, the largest 7,500-square feet. The most common answer was 6,500 square feet according to five people who replied

One architect's reply to the green size query was, in part, "There are a lot of 'conditions', or 'depends' with the answers to these questions. As for greens, what is small depends on the slope in the green (what is pinnable), what club your hitting to the green, how firm the greens and approaches might play (how small will the green 'play.') They can be too small for maintenance or playability or reasonable strategy. In the interest of good design It is really not purposeful to assign numerical values to what is big or small. It depends - that should be the answer."

One other architect said the size of a green has as much to do with surrounding land. If, for instance, a green is built at the level of the fairway, and both areas are maintained firm, then the size of the actual putting surface is almost irrelevant.

In an interesting side note, he said he is amazed at how often those who have supposed intimate knowledge of a golf course have incorrect perceptions of green sizes. As an example, he recounted how he was brought in to expand a green that the superintendent said was 2,500-square feet. When it was measured, it was nearly double that size.

Depth of a deep bunker: The most common answer was six feet by four repliers. Two answered deep enough so the player cannot see out of them. An interesting perspective since that means a deep bunker to Dirk Nowitzky is a little different than for Justin Timberlake.

One reply was four feet for a a fairway bunker and six feet for greenside.

It was nearly unanimous that Raynor's bunkers are considered deep.

As one respondent put it, though, there are many ways to determine a deep bunker. It might be a deep if: 1. You need stairs to get in and out of. 2. You can't see the flag from the bottom. 3. You can't play at the flag from the bottom even if you could see it.

To put Ligouri's original article into perspective, the greens at the Ocean Course average at least 5,000-square feet, which is medium size in the minds of all but one who responded

While Jones may have designed a few bunkers with a depth of five feet, there are no six-foot deep bunkers at the Rees Jones Course. However, I'm not sure of Ligouri's height, so they might all be deep to her.

(Photo 1: 17th green Fox Chapel Golf Club, Pittsburgh, Penn.)
(Photos 2: 4th hole Fenwick Golf Course, Old Saybrook, Conn., 150 yards, green approximately 2,200 square feet.)

Bubba Watson's Favorite Golf Courses: No Thinking Required

2011-05-17T16:39:00.009-04:00

Bubba Watson stopped into Cromwell, Conn. today for the Travelers Championship Media Day at TPC River Highlands. As defending champion, he gets to sit on a small stage and be interviewed by ESPN's Chris Berman, who acts as host, and the Connecticut media. Unlike many who have been in the champion's chair, Watson is charming, funny and willing to talk.

One of the hottest players in the world, Watson followed up his first career victory in Cromwell with an appearance on last year's Ryder Cup and two more PGA Tour titles. He comes across as being on top of the world.

During his nearly hour-long interview, Watson spoke about how he uses his imagination on the golf course and envisions moving the ball either right or left as he plays a hole.

"I look at a course and see what it gives me," he told us Tuesday afternoon. "I let my instincts take over."

With that way of approaching a layout, I made the assumption that Watson would be partial to courses that require a player to use thought from tee to green. I was wrong.

I asked him about his favorite stops on the PGA Tour and whether places that are considered shot-makers' courses appeal to him, layouts such as Riviera Country Club (a George Thomas design), TPC at Sawgrass Stadium Course (A Pete Dye design redone by Bobby Weed, who also designed River Highlands) and Harbor Town Golf Links, another Dye creation. It turns out the Watson, like the vast majority of tour pros, prefers layouts where he doesn't have to think or have a chance of being distracted by the architecture.

Since virtually the birth of the golf design profession, architects have known one of the best ways to get a golfer off his game, especially a good one, is to make that golfer think. Watson proved the point.

Watson said his favorite hole at River Highlands is the 10th, the only tree-lined one on the course. It sets up perfectly for his fade off the tee. He's a left-hander.

"It's the one hole where I focus. The others I lose it," he said.

He went on to laud Quail Hollow Club, a Tom Fazio creation, because the grass of the rough and fairways are not the same color and that allows him to select his target.

"It's easy for me to focus," he said.

He cited the same reason—turf hues—for liking Muirfield Village Golf Club, the Jack Nicklaus design that hosts the Memorial Tournament.

"Everything is defined, so it's good," Watson said.

One course that does not appeal to him is, in fact, Sawgrass. The above photo is of the 11th hole. Watson said all the water and bunkers are hindrances.

"There's a lot of things that take my mind off of what I'm supposed to be doing, which is to hit the fairway."

Knowing that they created a design that gets into the brains of golfers, at least according to Watson, means Dye and Weed created a wonderful layout where thinking is a requirement for players of every caliber.

Le Golf National - Links and Target Golf?

2011-05-17T10:02:00.003-04:00

The 2018 Ryder Cup was awarded to France today. Here is the Associated Press story.

According to the website golfalot.com, "The Le Golf National Albatros golf course is located in the flatland region of Guyancourt, surrounding the historic Chateau of Versailles, once home to Louis XIV. The Albatros course was designed by golf architects Hubert Chesneau and Robert Von Hagge design built in the late 1980's "was created in the Scottish 'links style' as well as the 'target golf' style of the U.S. courses, adapting well to the native landscape."

An interesting description that makes no sense since links and target are two distinctly opposite styles of design.

The website goes on: "From the Championship tees the total length of the course is just over 7,000 yards. Its layout consists of well trimmed slick greens, vast undulating fairways dotted by innumerable links bunkers, sand traps, water hazards, fescue roughs, trees, bushes as well as the rigid slopes and artificial sand mounds."

Never heard of a links bunker and nothing says links style like trees,bushes and water hazards.

GCSAA Awards Garske Grants

2011-05-11T14:05:00.000-04:00

The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) has awarded its 2011 Joseph S. Garske Collegiate Grants to Addison Esoda, Michael Barnard, Andrew Fanning, Ryan Hall and Alaina Jordan.

"The Garske Grants are one of the unique scholarship opportunities GCSAA makes available to students each year," said GCSAA President Robert M. Randquist, CGCS. "Thanks to Par Aide and The Environmental Institute for Golf, the Garske Grants are also one of the unique benefits to our members – scholarship money available toward their children's college education."

Esoda, from Marrietta, Ga., earned a $2,500 scholarship with a first-place finish in the overall scoring of the Garske Grant application process which includes community service, leadership, academic performance, and a written essay. She will attend the University of Alabama. Her father, Mark Esoda, is the GCSAA certified golf course superintendent Atlanta Country Club in Marrietta. He is a 24-year GCSAA member.

Barnard, from Burnet, Texas, earned a $2,000 scholarship with a second place finish. He will attend Baylor University. His stepfather, Michael Kelley, is the GCSAA Class A superintendent at Delaware Spring Golf Course in Burnet. He is a 12-year GCSAA member.

Fanning, from Lumberton, N.C., earned the $1,500 third-place scholarship. He will attend the University of North Carolina. His father, Dyrck Fanning, is the GCSAA Class A superintendent at Bayonet at Puppy Creek in Raeford, N.C. He is a 25-year GCSAA member.

Hall, from Lake Geneva, Wis., earned a $1,000 scholarship. He will attend Marquette University. His father, Phillip Hall, CGCS, is a retired 30-year GCSAA member.

Jordan, from Westfield Center, Ohio, receives a $500 scholarship. She will attend Slippery Rock (Pa.) University. Her father, Mark Jordan, is the GCSAA certified golf course superintendent at Westfield (Ohio) Group Country Club and is a 24-year GCSAA member.

The Garske Grant was established in honor of Par Aide company founder Joseph S. Garske. It is funded by Par Aide and administered by The Environmental Institute for Golf, the philanthropic organization of GCSAA. The program assists children of GCSAA members to fund their education at an accredited college or trade school with one-time, one-year grants awarded to five winners without renewals.

St. Andrews Golf Club May Soon Admit Women Members

2011-05-06T08:18:00.004-04:00

The St. Andrews (Scotland) Golf Club, founded in 1843 is on its way to admitting women members, according to a story in the Guardian.

I'm a member of the club.

According to the piece, "The committee at the St Andrews Golf Club, which is run from a handsome Victorian mansion overlooking the greens and fairways of the fabled Old Course, has written to its 2,000 male members recommending that it admit women to the club. The club, founded in 1843, has warned its members that under the new Equality Act, the club could face prosecution for failing to allow women to join. Keeping the ban would be a 'retrograde step' as it would mean women would also have to be barred from its clubhouse as guests."

Not everyone approves of the move, including one prominent women's organization, according to the article.

"Shona Malcolm, chief executive officer of the Ladies Golf Union, which has 3,000 affiliated women-only clubs, said: 'We have absolutely no problem with single-gender clubs at all. We're very supportive of single-gender clubs: what it does is allow golfers the freedom to choose what kind of club they want to join.'"

The courses of St. Andrews are, in fact, all municipal layouts owned and run by the town. There are a number of clubs that have rights to play on the eight layouts, including the Old Course. The most famous of the organizations is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club whose headquarters are located behind the first tee of the Old Course.

The St. Andrews Golf Club clubhouse is almost directly to the right of the 18th green. Invariably, during any tournament played on the Old, whether it be the Open Championship or the Dunhill Links, there is a shot of St. Andrews Golf Club members watching the action from in front of the clubhouse or leaning out open windows on the second and third floors.

Boston Golf Club Reopens

2011-05-02T11:43:00.002-04:00

There is good news in regards to Boston Golf Club. The Gil Hanse-designed layout opened for the season Saturday.

According to people with knowledge of the situation, a group of members stepped up to fund the operating expenses of the club for the year. At the same time, BGC is working on renegotiating a lease with the landowners.

This does not mean the club, ranked as the 21st best modern course according to GolfWeek magazine, has avoided closing. Any new lease deal must be approved by the membership.

The Most Ridiculous PGA Tour Stat Ever

2011-05-02T09:50:00.002-04:00

Greens in regulation, okay. Fairways hit, fine. Strokes Gained-Putting? Just stop it.

Apparently, the PGA Tour will not rest until you need an advanced mathematics degree. At some point the statistics for victories per year and lifetime will be unimportant to the tour.

Here is an edited version of the press release with some of my comments.

The PGA TOUR today begins to present player putting efficiency in a more accurate, meaningful way by introducing Strokes Gained-Putting as a new primary statistical category.

Developed initially by Professor Mark Broadie of Columbia Business School and further analyzed in collaboration with a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology led by Professor Stephen Graves, Strokes Gained-Putting measures a player’s putting performance relative to his fellow competitors in a tournament and will offer a more accurate portrayal of his overall putting performance.

While ShotLink, powered by PGA TOUR technology partner CDW, has provided a wealth of putting data to determine proficiency from various distances, the primary overarching putting statistic continued to be Putts Per Round, which simply measures the average number of putts a player takes over 18 holes and can be skewed by chipping close to the hole after missing a green.

(Soon we'll see the Strokes Gained-Chipping statistic. AP)

Strokes Gained-Putting, however, takes into account putting proficiency from various distances and computes the difference between a player’s performance on every green – the number of strokes needed to hole out – against the performance of the other players for each round. This ultimately shows how many strokes are gained or lost due to putting for a particular round, for a tournament and over the course of a year.

The statistic is computed by calculating the average number of putts a PGA TOUR player is expected to take from every distance, based on ShotLink data from the previous season. The actual number of putts taken by a player is subtracted from this average value to determine strokes gained or lost. For example, the average number of putts used to hole out from 7 feet 10 inches is 1.5. If a player one-putts from this distance, he gains 0.5 strokes. If he two-putts, he loses 0.5 strokes. If he three-putts, he loses 1.5 strokes.

(Of course, this rating system does not take into consideration the difficulty of the putt. A putt from six feet that breaks a foot is given the same value as a putt from the same distance that breaks an inch. AP)

A player’s strokes gained or lost are then compared to the field. For example, if a player gained a total of three strokes over the course of a round and the field gained an average of one stroke, the player’s “Strokes Gained Against the Field” would be two.

While it is being introduced today, Strokes Gained-Putting tracks players’ performance back through the 2004 PGA TOUR season, since it is based on ShotLink data that already has been collected.

Entering this week, Nick Watney leads the category, gaining an average of 1.215 strokes on the field per round with Brandt Snedeker second at 1.132.

Asking Price for Machrie Slashed; Boston Golf Club Remains Closed

2011-04-26T14:09:00.003-04:00

Simon Freeman, head greenkeeper of the the Machrie Hotel and Golf Links, emailed to say that the amount needed to purchase the legendary course and hotel has been dropped.

"The asking price for Machrie has been massively slashed from £1.75million ($2,884,900) to just 'offers over' £895,000, ($1,475,260)," he wrote.

Freeman also reports that it has been a great spring for growing grass and that the course is in great shape.

Meanwhile, the Boston Golf Club remains closed although maintenance workers have been spotted on the property. Members have reportedly been told that the club is hoping for an opening as early as the first week of May.

My Quinnetucket Blog Removed from CTGolfer.com

2011-04-15T08:57:00.005-04:00

My blog on CTgolfer.com detailing the Quinnetucket Golf Course project has been removed by the site's owner, Bob Samek, under pressure from Tom DeVaux, superintendent at Hunter Golf Course. According to Samek, DeVaux threatened to pull Hunter's advertisement off the CTGolfer.com site because of a piece I wrote on my own blog about the bunker work at Hunter. I posted the item in January, weeks before I began writing for CTGolfer.com. Click here to view the offending blog post.

Boston Golf Club in Financial Trouble, Not Open for Play

2011-04-13T14:38:00.006-04:00

The Boston Golf Club, located in Hingham, Mass. 18 miles south of Boston, is closed and may not open for the 2011 season amidst reports of serious financial problems. Other courses in the area have had play since mid March.

Opened in 2005, the heralded Gil Hanse design received instant acclaim and is ranked 21st on the 2011 GolfWeek's list of Best Modern Courses.

I've talked to a number of people familiar with the situation and the information all seems to indicate the same causes. First, a club member who had been funding a large annual deficit in recent years informed other members that he would not be doing so in 2011. Second, the lease payments for the land on which the entire course sits triples in May.

BGC was founded by Rob Ketterson and John Mineck. In 2007, Mineck was killed in a construction accident on the golf course.

(Photo: Brett Zimmerman, copyright 2010)

Favorite Comments from the Masters Broadcast

2011-04-11T13:17:00.004-04:00

For seven of the last 10 years, I've hosted a Masters Sunday party at my home. This year, eight of us wolfed down sushi, pizza, Goldfish Crackers (not considered sushi no matter what George says) and pretzels. We also quaffed copious amounts of beer, lots of my Springbank 10 single malt and some white wine.

For the first time in the history of this even someone was put on probation, and then double secret probation, for what can best be described as poor attitude. The Executive Committee will meet before the next Masters Party to determine whether Rachel will be allowed to return.

Now, along with rooting for Anybody But Tiger, we have a wonderful tradition of chastising the announcers for their idiotic comments.

We detest Jim Nantz for his fake sentimentality. One of the surest bets is that Nantz will bring up a heartwarming tale about a player's father. This year, Nantz was so wracked with emotion when talking about Jason Day's father that he blurted out that the elder Day died when he was 12. We think Nantz meant he died when Jason was 12, but we're holding off judgement until we have more information.

Ian Baker-Finch had a beauty, informing us that Angel Cabrera was so poor and hungry as a child in Argentina that he stole chickens, which inspired Randy to scream, "They just called him a thief on national TV!"

It was also Baker-Finch who said of Cabrera, "He tries to hit a great shot every time."

Thanks for that insight, buddy, but we'd find it more entertaining if you told us which players occasionally strives to produce a mediocre result.

David Feherty proved that he has not even the most basic knowledge of world geography when he stated of the leaderboard, "every continent is represented except the Arctic and Antarctica."

Not too long before that, he told us, "every continent will be watching" the broadcast.

So all eight continents will be watching, David?

Feherty's gaffe led to Jonathan wondering aloud why they are called "polar bears" and not "north polar bears" since none are found on the South Pole. The conversation, more scintillating than what was on TV, lasted a good three minutes.

The basic problem with announcers is they just can't shut up. It's as if they have an unseen force driving them they to comment on everything. It's television for god's sake; let the picture tell the story now and then.

Nantz is the worst. He just couldn't clam up as Geoff Ogilvy's approach to 18 landed on the front of the green and spun back and off.

"He better be careful," Nantz said with a tone of concern that should be reserved for someone diffusing a bomb.

To which one of the party-goers barked out, "How can he be careful, he's a 145 (expletive) yards away?"

Following his epic implosion, third-round leader Rory McIlroy was kind enough to grant an interview to Peter Kostis off the back of the 18th green. McIlroy was gracious and honest after shooting an 80. Kostis, of course, couldn't just keep the encounter as pure question-and-answer, he had to fawn over McIlroy and told his interview subject, "You have a head that's wiser than what's on your shoulders."

So, Rory has another head? Where do you think he keeps it? How does he get it through airport security?

The ridiculous comments about Eldrick Woods were just too many to list here. For me, the blabbering went over the edge following Tiger's missed putt at 13 when Nick Faldo informed us, "I was watching his jaw line."

We're not sure if Nick's assignment was to watch Woods's jaw or if he just made the bold decision to do it on his own. By the way, enough with calling Faldo, "Sir Nick." This is the United States; we don't grant royal titles.

We, the television viewers, were also treated to much useless knowledge.

Did you know that 2011 Masters champion Charl Shwartzel weighs 140 pounds? You would if you had watched the CBS broadcast. We're guessing that that number had some importance since we weren't told the weight of any other competitor. Come to think of it, nobody's height was mentioned. I wonder why?

The Original Intent at Augusta of MacKenzie and Jones

2011-04-09T09:47:00.014-04:00

As the Masters golf tournament plays across television screens the world over the next two days for the tournament's final rounds, it's good to remember that the once great golf course is a mere thin shadow of its original self. No matter how many times the CBS golf announcers tout the greatness of Augusta National Country Club - led of course by the ultimate sycophant, Jim Nantz - maintaining that it adheres to the original intent of architects Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones, they are telling lies. If Augusta was once the Mona Lisa, then a series of overzealous club chairmen and ill advised architects from Jack Nicklaus to Tom Fazio have sullied the once stunning lady.

Here is a March 1932 article from the American Golfer magazine in which MacKenzie details the intent of the design and gives descriptions of all 18 holes. The nines have been flipped since the course opened so no. 1 is now no. 10 and no. 18 was the original 9th.

Throughout the magazine piece MacKenzie informs readers as to what were the inspirations for the holes at AGNC.

For instance the 4th (originally the 13th) was patterned after the Eden Hole (no.11) of the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland.

The original 4th (current 13th) took its design characteristics from the 17th at Cypress Point, a MacKenzie design, which, as MacKenzie points out in the piece, was considered an ideal hole by Charles Blair Macdonald in his book, Scotland's Gift - Golf.

The 16th (original 7th) was changed markedly by Robert Trent Jones. The hole Bobby Jones and MacKenzie built "is somewhat similar to the best hole (seventh) at Stoke Poges, England."

Never having walked the layout, I feel I've missed an opportunity to view one of the greatest courses every built. Now, the original design, an attempt to create the ideal "inland course," is gone and gone forever.

Golf Course Plans Before Quinnetucket

2011-03-29T16:02:00.002-04:00

Made my latest post about Quinnetucket Golf Course at CtGolfer.com. This is an expanded version that doesn't tread as lightly when it comes to the routing of architect Al Zikorus.

Sometime in the 1970s, the city of Middletown had the idea to build a golf course on part of what is the proposed Quinnetucket Golf Course site. The 18-hole Zikorus design ran from the south side of Bow Lane - where the Quinnetucket clubhouse and practice area would be located - south to property that is now part of Middlesex Community College, including up to one of the Connecticut Valley Hospital reservoirs. The clubhouse site was at the corner of Cedar Lane and Reservoir Road. The design was a par-72 and 6,607 yards from the back tees.

There are also two other rudimentary routings that are on file in the city's planning and zoning office. Both of those 18-hole courses were jammed into essentially the same four parcels that make up the nine-hole Quinnetucket layout, and had an overabundance of short par-4s. I can find no information the architect's identity or when the routings were created.

As for the Zikorus plan, it isn't apparent if it was a final drawing or merely a proposal. Since it only shows one set of tees, I'm guessing it is a preliminary attempt. What it does show, even in that form, is that Zikorus chose to take golf holes up and down a steep ravine that is located on a narrow parcel resulting in greens and tees being wedged together. He made almost no effort to work with the land and gradually traverse the slope. Admittedly, at some points the topography is so extreme that tact would have been impossible.

Zikorus was giving the city what they wanted by drawing up a routing but if the layout had been built to his plans, the course would have had a number of uncomfortable holes that either ran straight up or down severe grades. The worst example is the par-3 9th that would have played 190 yards from the back tee and risen 70 feet. The hole would have been a driver for virtually every class of player, all of whom would be hitting to a blind green. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the 533-yard par-5 first hole that dropped 120 feet from tee to putting surface.

The severity of that part of the property that Zikorus chose to incorporate was unusable to Silva and me. We preferred to create a nine-hole layout that works comfortably with the land, rather than an 18-hole design that fights it.

I can't say I'm surprised by what the drawings show. From the Zikorus courses I've seen, he had a modicum of talent. His renovation of the Hunter Golf Course in Meriden, Conn., my home course, resulted in a series of boring and disagreeable holes that punish the the high handicap player and shorter hitter. There is rarely a time where playing to a specific side of a fairway reveals the best route for an approach to the green. Timberline Golf Club in Berlin, Conn., is one of the most boring layouts I've ever had the misfortune play. He also displayed little talent when it came to adapting new holes to existing layouts. His one green complex at the Donald Ross-designed Cohasset (Mass.) Country Club fits in like a white horse in herd of black cows.

Greenbrier's Old White Course Becomes a TPC

2011-03-28T15:49:00.004-04:00

Here is excerpt of the press release on the surprising alignment between The Greenbrier resort and the PGA Tour.

"The PGA TOUR announced today that The Old White Course at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, is now part of the TPC Network of clubs as part of a licensing agreement for the property. One of four championship layouts at the historic Greenbrier, the newly named The Old White TPC serves as host site of the TOUR’s Greenbrier Classic, which will be played July 25 – 31, 2011.

"Included in the TPC relationship is management consultation from PGA TOUR. As part of that, 30-year golf industry veteran Burton Baine has been hired to be on property to advise the owner regarding day to day golf course operations."

Interesting that the press release does not mention that Lester George renovated Old White, a 1924 Charles Blair Macdonald design, prior to last year's tournament. A link to my interview with George about the course and his work can be found here.

The press release gives a slight tip of the cap to the original architect but fails to mention Seth Raynor, protege of Macdonald, also did a major upgrade that was completed after his death by his partner, Charles Banks.

"Macdonald, a dominant figure in the early history of American golf, took advantage of the topography’s undulating terrain to create a challenging and visually stunning layout that pays tribute to some of the most famous European holes in golf. The Old White TPC’s No. 8 hole was styled after the Redan at North Berwick, No. 13 after the Alps at Prestwick, and No. 15 after the Eden at St. Andrews."

Other courses at The Greenbrier are the Dick Wilson/Bob Cupp-designed Meadows Course and the Greenbrier Course, which was originally designed by Seth Raynor and re-designed by Jack Nicklaus in 1977, as well as The Snead, a private membership layout designed by Tom Fazio.

(Photo by Stephen Szurlej)

The Machrie Doubles Size of Green Staff with Addition of Noted Mower

2011-03-18T13:57:00.008-04:00

Simon Freeman, head greenkeeper at the Machrie Hotel and Golf Links, emailed to say he was allowed to double the size of his staff so that there are now two employees, including himself.

"I got my first assistant, Ewan Logan, back to help me. Ewan has worked out here for 25 years, so to have someone with his knowledge and experience back is an absolute bonus for me. Quite apart from his level of expertise, he's the fastest hand mower operator on the West Coast!"

Freeman went on to write that an early spring has the layout ahead of schedule.

"The golf course is looking good for the time of year, we have had some excellent weather these last few weeks and have good grass cover pretty much everywhere and the greens are coming into the season in good health. The turfing jobs that I managed to do over the winter are knitting in well."

(The accompanying Freeman photo was taken this past winter.)

Freeman also passed along that the hotel is closed but that there are limited services for golfers.

"The shop is open to sell green fees from Monday- Friday from 8am to 4pm, and Kate is available between those hours to help with inquiries that potential visitors might have. Because the front door and the corridor are open, there are toilet facilities for all guests, and a changing room area which visitors can utilise as long as they pick up their belongings before 3:30pm."

There is no official word on the asking price for the Machrie but after talking with people involved with golf on that side of the ocean, the number appears to be 1.75 million pounds ($2.8 million.)

The Machrie is Open for Business, Green Fees Reduced

2011-03-14T16:50:00.007-04:00

Head greenkeeper Simon Freeman is the last man remaining on the green staff at The Machrie Hotel and Golf Links, but the fantastic layout is open for business while it is up for sale. Since there are no irrigation heads anywhere on the property and the nights are still cool, Freeman's mowing schedule is not as intense as if the layout was artificially watered or it was the dead of summer.

Freeman has also taken to posting regularly on Facebook to keep golfers apprised of the situation.

"Despite going into administration, the Machrie is absolutely open for business as usual, and the more people we can persuade to come and make use of the facility this year, the more money will be made available to us to spend on the course for the benefit of everyone," he wrote.

Freeman also posted that because the restaurant is closed and there are no changing facilities, green fees for April will be reduced to 40 pounds.

KPMG continues to manage the property and look for a buyer.

I played The Machrie last year with Keith Martin, the head greenkeeper at Machrihanish Dunes, along with his assistant Kevin Smith. It's an absolute joy and easily worth the ferry ride to the Isle of Islay.

Freeman has also had the time to post some fantastic photos of the course on Facebook, two of which I've included here.

A Day at the New England Regional Turfgrass Conference and Show

2011-03-11T17:44:00.004-05:00

Spent Wednesday at the 14th annual New England Regional Turfgrass Conference and Show held at the Rhode Island Convention Center. It ran from March 7-10.

I've attended every year since 2000 and I thought attendance was down from last year. Superintendents and exhibitors I talked to agreed with me. Wednesday was the first day the exhibition hall was open the entire day.

There appears to be three reasons for the lower attendance.

First, superintendents continue to feel the pinch of the sluggish economy on their budgets and are not making purchases beyond necessary items.

Second, the Golf Industry Show was held Feb. 7-11 in Orlando, Fla. An East Coast venue for that event always means New England superintendents are more likely to attend than when the GIS is held in California. In 2012, the national is scheduled for Las Vegas and falls after the NERTCS.

The third likely reason was the fact that rains and warm temperatures in the days leading up to the NERTCS wiped away large amounts of snow on many layouts. Superintendents that weren't sure when they would be calling seasonal help back to work just last week now had had a contingent of workers out on the course that needed directing.

The NERTCS is not just for the golf industry. Education classes and products are also offered for sports and grounds, landscape and equipment technicians.

I don't think shrinking attendance is indicative of the value superintendents see in regional shows. In fact, I would not be surprised to see attendance at the GIS decline over the next few years as regional shows entice superintendents with an increased number of exhibitors while provide more and better education seminars, all for a much lower cost. There also appears to be much more business done of the show floor of the regional events than at the national.

This year in Providence lecturers carme from universities in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Ohio, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Two superintendents also spoke: Jeff Carlson of the Vineyard Golf Club in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and John Garcia of the Patterson Club in Fairfield, Conn.

The USGA Green Section was represented by Director David Oatis and Northeast Regional Agronomist Jim Skorulski.

This year's keynote address was delivered Tuesday by Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team.

The highlight of my day in Providence is always the chance to talk with people from around the Northeast that I only see at this show or when I play their golf courses. This year was no exception.

My second favorite part of the day this year was lunch at Eddie and Son on Dorrance Street in the Financial District. Rather than eat at one of the many establishments around the convention center, Keith Angilly and I decided to wander downtown. Keith is a Rhode Island native and superintendent at Mill River Country Club in Stratford, Conn.

We hit the jackpot with Eddie and Son, which as you can see from this link gets rave reviews.

I opted for meatballs and American cheese on a torpedo role with a side of fries while Keith went for sausage, peppers and provolone on a torpedo role, also with fries.

Eddie's has been around for over 65 years. It seats perhaps 30 at both counter and tables. The food was fantastic; some of the best marinara that I've had in a long time. The service was quick and pleasant. We had our meals less than two minutes after ordering. Eddie and Son is really worth a visit if you are in downtown Providence looking for breakfast or lunch. If I'm at the NERTFCS next year, I'll be back at Eddie and Son.

A Brief History of Quinnetucket on CTGolfer.com

2011-03-08T22:53:00.002-05:00

My latest installment at CtGolfer.com will be of interest for anyone who is not entirely familiar with the history of the Quinnetucket Golf Course project.

Sorry to Say, Frank Nobilo Already in Midseason Form

2011-03-04T16:04:00.004-05:00

Listening to Frank Nobilo talk about architecture and maintenance while announcing golf on television is enough to make me turn down the volume permanently out of fear that I might accidentally stumble onto one of his infuriating statements.

When it comes to agronomy, Nobilo - like nearly every one of his announcer brethren - have no idea the harm and problems they can cause with what they take to be an a mere aside. Those in the business of growing grass, though, are all too aware of the power the mouths have.

Case in point. Here's a Facebook post from a well-regarded superintendent watching today's coverage of the Honda Classic.

"To my golf business friends - Nobilo just said that the greens were rolling at 11, which is not 'overly fast.' So, apparently 11 is just kind of average. sigh..."

Can't wait to hear what Nobilo will be saying come August.

Chronicling the Quinnetucket project on CtGolfer.Com

2011-03-03T10:24:00.005-05:00

After an invitation from Bob Samek, the guy who runs, Ctgolfer.com, I'm blogging regularly on the site about my Quinnetucket Golf Course project. The first post was last week. Most of what I'll be writing about for Ctgolfer.com has been covered in my posts here, but will give those who are unfamiliar with the project a chance to catch up.

CTgolfer.com is a wonderful site that is easily the most comprehensive when it comes to what's going on and where to play in regards to golf in Connecticut. Besides Bob and me, there two other bloggers I know well. Paul Sabino, superintendent at the Farms Country Club in Wallingford, Conn., who I worked for in the fall of 1998, writes about the world of course maintenance. There is also Bruce Berlet, former longtime golf writer for the Hartford Courant covers the happenings of players and courses across Connecticut.

In addition, Sue Sawyer chronicles topics pertaining to woman while Pete Asadourian is the guy for golf and fitness tips.

Bubba Watson Blames Loss on "They," Meaning "the Superintendent"

2011-02-28T10:15:00.006-05:00

I've never been a fan of Bubba Watson, and now I feel even less kindly disposed towards him after his comments following his defeat in the semifinal round of the Accenture Match Play Championship.

He may profess to be a God guy, which always leads to glowing accolades from the usual fawning announcers (Jim Nantz, Kelly Tilghman), but I'm not buying it. It makes for good P.R., though.

Viewers caught a piece of his it-wasn't-my-fault attitude on Saturday.

Immediately after losing 1-up to Martin Kaymer, Bubba laid the reason for his defeat partly on the shoulders of unnamed others.

"They slowed the greens down a bit," Watson said, "and I couldn't get the speed right."

Man up, Bubba. Who is "they?" The superintendent? The PGA Tour? God and his choir of angels? Tell us.

Let's suppose the greens were slowed down, here's a question: why didn't you adapt to the "slower" speeds? Martin Kaymer certainly did. Luke Donald, the eventual winner, had no problem.

By the way, whatever happened to all the "it's in God's hands" lines we heard from you when you won? Was the defeat not in God's hands?

Also on Sunday, there was a brief replay of the caustic and surly attitude I witnessed at last year's Travelers Championship.

An older gentleman carrying a red sweater apparently encroached on Bubba's space while he was preparing to hit a shot from deep in the desert, even though there were PGA officials with each group keeping the fans back.

Either Bubba or his caddy barked at the man to move back and to "just go away," telling him he had been too close all day.

"Excuse me, sir, could you move please?" would have been just as effective.

Sometimes the Golf Gods Smile on You

2011-02-25T10:05:00.006-05:00

My pal Lloyd Cole is Down Under touring with his band the Small Ensemble, this after playing to packed houses and garnering wonderful reviews during a couple of European Tours.

Lloyd, with a handicap in the single digits, loves the game of golf and course architecture and is known for doing what he can to make sure he tees it up while on the road. In the world rankings of musician golfers that Golf Digest magazine compiles, he is consistently in the top 15.

So it was no surprise to learn that Lloyd found his way to Barnbougle Dunes while in Australia. The course, in 2009 ranked the 43rd best in the world by Golf Magazine, is co-designed by Tom Doak and Australian architect Mike Clayton, a friend of Lloyd. Lloyd is also a big fan of Doak's work.

What is surprising is that Lloyd aced the par-3 16th. On Facebook, he posted this photo of him retrieving his golf ball from the cup. No details, however, on what he hit for a club.

Congratulations to him and I hope he has more aces up his sleeve. He will be giving me more strokes the next time we play.

If I Could Only Escape this Connecticut Winter

2011-02-24T12:45:00.006-05:00

With the weather people predicting rain tomorrow followed by freezing temperatures on Saturday - oh good, more ice - I'm dreaming of getting away to play some golf in a far off, warm place.

I think golf in Naples, Italy would be nice this time of year. For instance, here's the San Domenic Golf at Borgo Ignazia resort. The 18-hole layout was created by European Golf Design. I think that would do the trick for me, as long as I had a nice authentic Italian meal after the round.

Then again, I don't wan to appear greedy. I would be more than happy to search out the best golf offers I could find. I can't think of anyplace I would not go, as long as the golf was good and the weather was warm.

Another Incorrect Prognostication that Tiger Woods is Back

2011-02-23T18:57:00.008-05:00

Call me a cynic, but whenever I hear most American golf announcers or tour golfers touting Tiger Woods, I assume they're overstating or misstating the truth, especially if they share a membership to Isleworth Country Club with Woods. It is apparent that Woods' game is nowhere near it what was when he was at his best, no matter what anybody says or so badly wants to believe.

That latest to prove my theory was John Cook, who plays on the Champions Tour, has done time with a microphone in his hand and has a membership at Isleworth.

Here's, in part, what he said, as quoted in the Orlando Sentinel

“Monday, it clicked,” Cook relayed after a practice round at this week’s Naples stop. “It was fun just to stop and watch and see the excitement he had on his face and the flight of the golf ball as he was explaining to me what was going on.

“He said it’s way better and way different. This only happened on Monday, and Tuesday he was feeling it even more. We had a great chat about it.”

The swing was doing everything but clicking Wednesday in the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship as Woods fell to Thomas Bjorn, pictured above, on the 19th hole. After making a great birdie on 18 to extend the match, Woods missed the ample fairway on the 19th hole with a 3-wood and carded a six.

"It's easy to put the ball in the fairway and I couldn't even do that," Woods said, so visibly upset that he was stumbling over his words, according to the Associated Press story.

Confusion Over the Proposed Site for the Quinnetucket Golf Course

2011-02-18T10:21:00.003-05:00

I appeared before Middletown's Urban Forestry Commission meeting last night to give input concerning the resigning of a lease by Millane's Nursery, which farms 40 acres within the 95 acres that I'm looking to take control of for the proposed Quinnetucket Golf Course. Millane's would pay about $120 an acre. The proposed golf course lease calls for $20,000 a year beginning in year six.

Go here to see the Middletown Press coverage of the story.

Millane's lease expired at the end of January and the company is looking to sign another 5-year deal, which could seriously delay the Quinnetucket project. The first step towards a new lease was for Millane's to appear before the Urban Forestry Commission, which serves in an advisory capacity to the Economic Development Commission.

After learning that the Millane's lease negotiations had started at the January UFC meeting without input from me, I attended last night's meeting. I was surprised to find that commission did not know my project was still viable. The commission was surprised to discover that the golf course project is very much alive.

A tentative compromise appears to be that Millane's would sign a two-year lease with a one-year exit clause. The EDC still must vote on the lease.

Stay tuned.

Duran Goes Overboard With Its Course Architect Description

2011-02-15T10:34:00.014-05:00

Since the earliest days of golf course design, architects have been touting every piece of land as having been deemed by God as a perfect location for golf, and every club has touted its architect as a genius. Duran Golf Club in Viera, Fla. has gone well beyond the usual excesses in describing course architect Chip Powell.

According to their site, Powell did much more than just move earth in creating Duran.

"His keen eye for manipulating an area's natural weather patterns and wind tendencies make him a highly-sought, Florida course architect," reads the description.

One would think that if Powell is capable of altering the weather, his talent could be better used outside the world of architecture.

It seems pretty obvious from reading the rest of the site that it was not Powell, himself who wrote up his biography or the hole-by-hole descriptions of the course.

"No. 17 (pictured here), a long par-3 (235 yards from the Onyx and 163 from the Ruby) is nicknamed 'Biarritz.' A biarritz is a French name for a green that has a deep dip in the middle, usually running from side to side. This long narrow green does indeed have a gully that will funnel balls to the center, which can be a good thing if the pin is in the right position."

In fact, there is no meaning for the word "Biarritz" in French. As the story goes, the Biarritz hole design, first used by Charles Blair Macdonald, was based on a hole found on a course that was located in Biarritz, France.

A friend of mine recently played Duran and found the course enjoyable. He was impressed with Powell's version of that Biarritz; it has a closely-mowed chipping area to the right of the green in place of the customary bunkering.

The website also has an overall description of the golf course that is a head-scratcher:

"More than a million cubic yards of earth were moved and shaped to create a course with links characteristics, including rolling terrain and mounded greens. Some 15 ponds and lakes were created that add beauty and drama to almost every hole on the course."

Because nothing says links golf like 15 ponds and lakes and mounded greens?

On another note, I wonder if a second course is built if they'll call it Duran Duran?

Bill Murray and D.A. Points on Winning

2011-02-14T13:51:00.002-05:00

A wonderful piece in the New York Times about how much D.A. Points delighted in playing with Bill Murray during the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the joy Murray felt when the final putt dropped. Points won the tournament and the pair captured the pro-am crown.

"When the putt went in at the 18th, he (Murray) began laughing hysterically, unable to stop.

"'It's like when I see real art, I laugh,' Murray said. 'When I saw like a Rembrandt, I laugh, because it's so, it's just this combination of this beautiful thing. It's alive, yet it's not.'"

Mutt and Jeff and Golf Course Architecture

2011-02-12T12:23:00.014-05:00

In this comic strip, from 1927 and comic book from 1947, cartoonist Bud Fisher has Mutt and Jeff taking on the world of golf course architecture. While I could find no information on whether Fisher was a golfer, it is apparent that he was well aware of the attitude towards golf course design from the average amateur player.

Fisher was an owner of thoroughbred race horses, according to Wikipedia. "In 1924, his horse Nellie Morse became the fourth filly (out of only five total as of 2009) to win the Preakness S takes. That same year, his colt Mr. Mutt finished second in the Belmont Stakes.

Muff and Jeff, created by Fisher in 1907, is considered the first succesful daily comic strip. It remained in syndication until 1982, 28 years after Fisher died.

Goodwin Park (Hartford, Conn.) Is a Robert Ross Design

2011-02-08T20:28:00.016-05:00

According to the "Architects of Golf," it was Everett Pyle that renovated the Goodwin Park Golf Course in the south end of Hartford, Conn. into its current incarnation.

It makes sense that a superintendent of parks, who built Triggs Memorial Golf Course in Providence, R.I. for Donald Ross, would be given such a job, but he was not.

While researching Connecticut architect Robert J. Ross (no relation to Donald Ross), I discovered that it was R.J. Ross who created the Goodwin that exists to day and which opened for play, on June 5, 1937.

W.J. Lee in the June 6, 1937 Hartford Courant wrote:

"With more than 80 players from all over the district participating in official foursomes, the new 18 hole municipal course at Goodwin Park was formally opened yesterday.

"Designed by R.J. Ross, assistant city engineer who has made golf course architecture an avocation and built by WPA labor under the supervision of the Parks Department, the new course had its baptism under a fire of shots that produced scores all the way from 68 to the 'high hundreds.'

"With Everett Pyle in personal charge of the course construction, the new layout has been fashioned from the old second nine and park property heretofore never used for golf. While on the short side, the course is interesting and varied with many holes that make up in tightness what they lack in yardage."

Lee added, that Alderman Saul Seldman, representing Mayor Spellacy, "drove off the first ball, a straight-flying shot that split the fairway."

Eddie Burke, a pro from Naugatuck, shot a 32-36-68 to beat his nearest foe by three. R.J.'s brother, Frank Ross, came home in 75. Frank, who played out of Wampanoag Country Club in West Hartford, captured the Connecticut and New England amateurs during his brilliant career.

Charlotte Rhodes, described as "outstanding woman player at Goodwin Park," was low female with a "creditable 91."

R.J. Ross, an MIT graduate originally from Massachusetts, designed six golf courses in and around Hartford including Middletown Golf Club in Cromwell,that later became Edgewood Golf Club and is now the site of TPC River Highlands, host of the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship. He also created a second nine holes at Keney Park in the north end of Hartford as an addition to the existing Devereux Emmet nine. I know of one original Ross drawing and that is of the former 9-hole Canton Public Golf Course.

My research into Ross continues and I'll hope to have more on him in the coming weeks.

(Photo copyright The Hartford Courant)

Architect Gil Hanse on Castle Stuart Hosting the Scottish Open

2011-01-31T11:18:00.011-05:00

Architect Gil Hanse's Castle Stuart Golf Links in Inverness, Scotland, which he co-designed with owner Mark Parsinen, was recently named the host site for the 2011-13 Barclays Scottish Open, quite the coup for a layout that opened in 2010. I had a chance to talk with Hanse about it.

This is the first time a design of his will host a major golf tour. TPC Boston in Norton, Mass., an Arnold Palmer layout that Hanse completely redid, is home to the PGA Tour's Deutsche Bank Championship, part of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

This year, Hanse will pull off a double-double. The week prior to the Deutsche, the playoffs get underway with The Barclays at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, N.J., a Donald Ross course Hanse reworked. Barclays also hosts the Scottish Open.

Hanse said he first was made aware that Castle Stuart was in the running as new site for the Scottish Open in December. It had been announced that Loch Lomand, the host for the past 14 years, was out and that the search was on for a links course since the event is held the week before The Open Championship.

"Mark Parsinen would love to have an Open Championship. This was an opportunity too good to pass up," Hanse said. "We'll present a tournament that sort of replicates what they're going to face."

This year, Royal St. George's is The Open venue.

Few courses host such an important tournament this early in its life, but Hanse said the turf at Castle Stuart is already in wonderful condition. That is owed to the fact that head greenkeeper Chris Haspell and general manager, Stuart McColm, who grew in the highly regarded Kingsbarns Golf Links originally owned by Parsinen, were part of the project from the earliest stages of construction. Hanse and his design partner, Jim Wagner, also brought to the table experience in establishing a new course.

"Everything we did, they were so heavily involved," Hanse said. "I'm perfectly comfortable that through the green will be fine."

The condition of the deep fescue areas will depend on the Highlands weather. A rainy spring and summer will produce thicker grasses than if there is a drought period, just as on any established links course.

As to how the golf course will hold up to the pros, that will depend on the weather. If conditions are benign, Hanse said, then, as on most links golf courses, the players will go very low. In harsh conditions, scores will skyrocket.

For the tournament, Hanse said he'd like to see a couple of relatively calm days and a couple of days of average summer conditions.

"I hope that the wind is not the story," he said.

Castle Stuart plays just over 7,000 yards from the back, but could easily be extended. According to Hanse, fill pads for additional tees were built but not turfed and now sit in the tall fescue. If they were to be used, the course would lengthened to over 7,400 yards. Hanse said he and Parsinen have no plans to utilize them this year.

"The thought now is to let them play and we'll observe and make modifications if necessary."

As far as holes Hanse said he is looking forward to seeing the pros tackle, he lists the third and the final three.

The third and 16th are drivable par-4s running in opposite directions so one should always be down wind. The 17th is a par-3 of 220 yards that should play into the prevailing summer breeze meaning players could have as much as a 3-wood in their hands. The 18th is a par-5 that will probably yield some eagles.

"A par there will be like making a bogey," Hanse said.

The tournament is not only great news for Castle Stuart and Hanse, but also for the Highlands region of Scotland that is never part of any major golf event.The hope is that Inverness, with a population of approximately 60,000, and Aberdeen, with a population of about 210,000 and 120 miles away, will heartily support the event.

"My expectation is that the community will be solidly behind this," Hanse said.

Design Mistakes Abound at My Home Course

2011-01-21T17:18:00.029-05:00

The layout where I am a men's club member, Hunter Golf Club, owned and operated by the city of Meriden, Conn., is in the midst of a series of awful modifications that do nothing to improve strategy. In fact, some of the revisions serve only to make the layout that much more difficult for higher handicap players.

Seeing the work, it comes as no surprise that a golf course architect was not consulted for the changes. I really have no idea who is calling the shots but the ultimate approval of the work falls on the shoulders of the the Golf Course Commission, that according to the city website, "is a seven-member advisory panel which provides direction and oversight for the Hunter Golf Course."

They're doing a hell of a job.

The original Hunter was a Robert Pryde design that opened in the 1920s and existed very much in its original state until the late 1980s. Then, the city of Meriden swapped land with a neighbor allowing the course to be lengthened while also eliminating consecutive uncomfortable severe down-and-up-holes that slowed play.

It was architect Al Zikorus, a second rate Geoffrey Cornish, who was chosen to create a new layout. What he produced was, at best, boring and mundane and, at worst, frustrating and maddening. Nearly all 18 holes run in a north-south direction. The course is virtually void of strategy. Long and straight is almost always good off the tee. Of the 14 non-par-3 holes, none reward a tee shot with left-to-right flight while four holes favor a right-to-left flight. The middle of the fairway invariably presents the best angle for an approach shot.

On the dreadful the first hole, the best angle from which to approach the green is from the left rough.

The par-threes are forgettable. The second hole, at about 175 yards from the whites, is uphill and blind but could easily have presented the golfer with a Redan-like challenge. Unfortunately, Zikorus placed the runway tee in a position so that the angle was eliminated.

Architect Brian Silva walked Hunter with me a few years back and pointed out that the three most interesting green complexes on the golf course are not in play but are leftovers from the Pryde design. They include a stellar Punchbowl that is now on the back left of the driving range and a wonderful two-tier creation in the left rough of the fourth hole.

The revamping of Hunter began about three years ago when it was determined there was little that could be done to prevent flooding of the 10th fairway during particularly rainy periods or the spring thaw. Water settles in what is the first landing zone for most golfers on the par-5 hole, sometimes creating a swamp for weeks on end. It was decided to build a forward tee parallel to the problem location from which the hole plays as a par-4. In theory, a wonderful idea.

In reality it was a disaster. As shown in this photo taken this fall from the 18th forward tee, the new 10th teeing ground acts as a damn preventing the water from the draining into a pond. (The hole plays left to right.) It is a simple mistake that a talented course architect would not have made.

This is not the only mishap on this hole. Prior to the 2010 season, bunker work was done.

Zikorus originally built a large sand hazard in left front of the green that had morphed into a lifeless blob by the time it was renovated. The original placement was awful. The location posed no threat to longer and average players, some who reached the green in two especially with the usual summer tailwind, or laid up and played in with a very short iron.

Unfortunately, shorter hitters were forced to carry their longer approach shots over the bunker to a green that runs away and to the left, giving them a minuscule chance of keeping the ball on the front half of the green.

For those bailing to the right, a dreadful clump of trees was left siting just off the putting surface.

The reworking of the bunker gave the club a perfect opportunity to improve the hazard. Instead, the new version is just as awful as the original. What would have made more sense would have been positioning the bunker some 30 to 40 yards back down the fairway. That would have put it precisely in the middle of the landing area for longer hitters when the hole plays as a par-4, forcing them to contemplate laying up or trying to carry it. That same location would have caused consternation for the medium length players when it is played as a par-5. It would force them to rethink the second-shot strategy since the opportunity of reaching the green with a crack 3-wood would now be in the realm of possibility. Also, higher handicappers and shorter hitters would then have been able to access the front portion of the green with a well-played bump-and run; not an easy shot. Instead, the bunker, now a bland saucer shape, was reduced in size and moved slightly to the left of its predecessor.

To the right of the bunker a mound was added, which obscures the green from the fairway. For reasons that I cannot fathom, the mound and area to the right of it is maintained at rough height, which only serves to thwart any but the luckiest run-up attempts.

Then, for reasons the mystify me, a second bunker, also disc shaped, was positioned in the left front corner of the green. The bunker sits uncomfortably in and on the land in an area where few players ever hit a shot. Previously, if a ball did land there, the healthy, thick rough was enough of a hazard. As with the front bunker, this one also forces the golfer – think poor player – who does find himself there, with a sand shot of close to 30 yards if the flagstick is in the back portion of the green.

Making matters worse is the proximity of the two bunkers to each other and to the cart path. The above photo was taken from the location where carts are parked and players access the green. The most direct route to the putting surface is the narrow strip between the two bunkers, a “cow path,” in Silva’s words. Early in the first summer after the bunkers were built, a plastic chain was strung across the route because it was already damaged from wear. The fringe and green were suffering as well. Another gaff that most, if not all, architects would have avoided.

But wait, there’s more. This fall the city decided that it needed to supplement the existing row of willow trees that separate the parallel 10th and 18th holes by planting saplings. Yes, at Hunter there is a place for trees on a golf course. As I hope you can see from the photo on the left, they were planted in a precise row designed to supplement the mature trees when they die. Apparently, nobody told the powers that be at Hunter that nature abhors a straight line.

There was no reason for trees in the first place since there is pond and stream on the left of the 10th fairway. The large willows on the right allow golfer only one route, down the middle. Supposedly, the trees are there to prevent players on the 10th tee from bailing out into the 18th fairway, but some well-placed bunkers on the right side of the hole, would have take care of that problem, something a course architect with talent might have suggested. A good architect might have even placed a series bunkers that would have acted as hazards on the 10th and 18th holes.

All the debacles were not confined to the 10th. I’d be remiss if I did not show the bunker work on the short 9th hole, a downhill—uphill par-4 of about 360 yards with out of bounds right and left. The hole is a long iron or hybrid off the tee for many players. Because of the narrowness of the fairway (there are trees on the left before the out of bounds) most find it a difficult tee shot.

The green sits comfortably at the top of a rise and originally had a large lifeless bunker to the right. Here, again, the golf commission had a chance to improve on what was there. I would argue that the bunker served no purpose and that replacing it with rough and subtle mounds was the way to go. I would also have extended the front of the putting surface closer to the edge of the hill so that those failing to precisely play an approach to a front pin placement would see their ball tumble down the slope. It is common green design found on courses by the likes of Seth Raynor, Wayne Stiles and Donald Ross.

There are those who would promulgate the idea that a bunker is needed to stop wild shots from running across the cart path and possibly out of bounds or into the bushes that surround the pro shop. In that case, a smaller bunker with just a little artistic flair to the design, since it is visible from the tee, as is the UFO-like clubhouse, would have done the trick. Instead, the bunker was moved towards the front of the green. It is ugly in appearance and too large for the site, detracting from the white farmhouse and trap rock ridge that is the backdrop of the view from the tee, along with the UFO. For the poorer player that finds the front bunker, the bunker shot, just like on the 10th, can be at least 20 yards in length, an extremely difficult task for anyone. Here, too, an architect with a modicum of talent would have produced a much more strategic and pleasing result.

The mistakes at Hunter continue. Other bunkers have been reworked with no discernible rhyme or reason and, I'm sure, more abominations are on the way. It's too bad. Hunter had a chance to make modifications that would have improved its standing among the golf courses in the area. Instead, it chose a path that will only perpetuate its reputation as a layout of no repute.

Former Blackstone National Employee Arrested for Stealing

2011-01-21T16:18:00.002-05:00

This one hits close to home. A reporter for a number of Central Massachusetts news organizations was arrested for stealing close to $100,000 from the Sutton, Mass., layout, a Rees Jones design.

According to the "Worcester Telegram" story found here, "Kenneth P. Powers, 49, of 36 Abbott St., No. 4B, Worcester, is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 28 in Uxbridge District Court on one count of larceny over $250. A criminal complaint was issued Jan. 11."

"At the time of the alleged theft, Mr. Powers was golf pro shop manager at Blackstone National Golf Club on Putnam Hill Road, Sutton"

The story also says that Powers was fired from the "Telegram and Gazette" for plagiarism of a Sports Illustrated piece in 2005.

At the time, Powers was the New England Patriots beat writer and was ordered to return to Worcester from Jacksonville where he was covering the Patriots-Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl.

"Substantial portions of a column originally written by Peter King and published Jan. 24 on the Sports Illustrated Web site were printed Jan. 30 in the Sunday Telegram under the byline of Ken Powers," wrote T&G editors at the time.

Trump Fires First Salvo Against Members of Engineers Club

2011-01-14T09:02:00.006-05:00

Donald Trump is moving forward with his attempt to purchase Engineers Country Club in Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., out on Long Island. In today's New York Post story, Trump takes a shot at the segment of the membership that is resisting his bid, calling them, "losers."

Engineers is a fantastic Herbert Strong design that opened in 1918 with Devereux Emmet making changes two years later. It hosted the 1919 PGA Championship, won by Jim Barnes, and 1920 U.S.G.A. Amateur, captured by Chick Evans, and has fantastic greens. The one on the first hole is one of my very favorites in all the world.

Architect Tripp Davis has done some masterful restoration work in recent years. (Pictured here is the 16th green as it appeared shortly after the club opened.)

You can access my profile of Engineers that ran in Links magazine by clicking here.

What is most confounding about Engineers entertaining Trump's bid to purchase the course is that Engineers is on sound financial footing.

"We are cash flow positive," one member told me.

The crux of the dispute comes down to one point. When Trump approached the club about purchasing it, there were 122 equity members along with two classes of "trial members." Trial members were either on a three-year or five-year plan. The difference between the equity and trial memberships comes down to two points: money and voting rights. Equity members pay more annually than trial members and are, therefore, afforded the chance to vote on major issues such as improvement of the golf course or sale of the club. Trial members are allowed the exact same access and benefits, such as tee-times and use of the amenities but have no voting rights.

Within the club, a group of equity members formed, A Better Engineers. They contend that those who were trial members prior to the negotiations commencing with Trump should not be allowed to become voting equity members. The reason being is that under Trump's plan, if he were to buy the club, equity members would pay less in annual dues than trial members do now. Many trial members became full equity members so they could vote to have Trump purchase the club, which would result in lower annual fees. They did so without a thought as to what Trump would do to the layout once it was his.

From initial indications, Trump - as would be expected judging from the other courses he owns - has no understanding or regard for Strong's creation.

Engineer's most famous hole is the 90-yard par-3 known as the Two or 20 Hole, since a golfer could make either score quite easily. The hole was abandoned for a number of years but revived and now embraced by the members. According to one person I talked with, Trump hates it and said he doesn't understand the hole.

He also has no use for the undulations that define Strong's putting surfaces.

"I want my green to run at 12," he told members.

To want Engineers to run at 12 feet on the Stimpmeter would mean some greens would be unfair and most will see excellent pin placements lost. Trump wants 12 on the Stimp, then he'll be leveling greens.

A member I spoke with said the it is not just Trump, but also members of the Engineers board who are the occasional social golfers, who do not grasp Strong's work and, as a result, see no reason in defending the architecture.

"They are not golf course advocates," the member said. "They don't appreciate it. They don't know how good it is."

Faxon Out at NBC, More Jacobsen Instead

2011-01-10T16:43:00.003-05:00

According to a press release from the Champions Tour: "Brad Faxon, who will become eligible for the Champions Tour when he turns 50 on August 1, will no longer be a part of the NBC commentary team in 2011. Peter Jacobsen, the winner of two Champions Tour majors (2004 U.S. Senior Open, 2005 Ford Senior Players Championship), will have an increased role and work eight tournaments for NBC."

Faxon had a one-year deal with NBC for 2010.

So, one of the few voices who actually understood golf course architecture is off the air. I had high hopes that Faxon would become more comfortable in his analyst role and take the opportunity to educate the golfing public about finer points of golf architecture such as strategy and options, or why a hole where "everything is right in front of you," isn't the ideal design.

I've long been a fan of Faxon. He wrote the forward to my first book, To the Nines, and even suggested courses that I should include, such as Marion (Mass.) Golf Course. I was also on site with him and co-architect Brad Booth during the construction of Bay Club Mattapoisett (Mass.). I was impressed with his willingness to ask questions during the building of the course and his willingness to admit - unlike other tour pros - that he had a lot to learn in respect to course architecture or construction.

On the air, I viewed Faxon as the anti-Frank Nobilo who during the PGA Tour's stop in Memphis last year said, of one hole, "Trees on the right, trees on the left. They act like goal posts." The worst part is that Nobilo meant it as a compliment of the design.

With Peter Jacobsen getting more air time that translates to more yucks in the David Feherty, Gary McCord school. Just what golf doesn't need.

You Can Be Ian Poulter's Style Consultant for a Day

2011-01-05T16:01:00.003-05:00

This press release just in from the PGA Tour.

"Ian Poulter finished the final round of the 2010 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship victorious, hoisting the Walter Hagen Cup wearing pink slacks and a pink sweater complemented by white shoes, belt and visor for his first victory in the United States. In 2011, he will open his title defense by allowing fans to choose his apparel for the opening match. The first World Golf Championships event of the 2011 season tees off at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, in Marana, Ariz., for the third-consecutive year, February 21-27. Tournament officials, in conjunction with IJP Design, announced today that the “Dress Ian” Facebook campaign will give fans the ability to select one of three possible outfits for Poulter to wear on Wednesday, February 23, for his first-round match. Area students, graduates and fans of the University of Arizona and Arizona State University will have familiar color schemes to choose from as two of the options incorporate school colors into the outfits. Fans can go to www.facebook.com/accenturematchplay or here to view and vote on the outfits and can even follow links to purchase outfits at a discounted rate."

Unfortunately, to vote, you have to be a Facebook member and then "friend" the Accenture Match Play. Championship. The big letdown is that all three choices of outfits are boring, perhaps even lame. There's nothing as good as the photo of Poulter shown here.

(Photo copyright the Daily Mirror)

Augusta National Teams Up with EA Sports, Eldrick Woods

2011-01-04T12:26:00.002-05:00

From Golf.com comes this piece that says Augusta National Golf Club will allow its layout to be used in a video game.

"Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National, and EA Sports announced today that Augusta National and the Masters would be featured in 'Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters,' the next edition of the popular video game franchise," wrote Golf.com's David Dusek.

I'm wondering if this alliance will continue annually. Is so, will each new version have a statement read by the Augusta National chairman during a virtual press conference explaining how the most recent alterations to the golf course make it that much better while claiming the layout still adheres to the intent of original designers Bobby Jones and Alister Mackenzie?

Hugo Chavez Sets Sights on Caracas Country Club

2010-12-28T09:32:00.003-05:00

A New York Times story, that can be found here, says that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is looking to take over the Caracas Country Club, one of the last bastions of elitist wealth, to create housing for people displaced by recent heavy rains.

"A state newspaper published a study this month saying that if the government expropriated the land of the Caracas Country Club and that of another club in the city, housing for 4,000 poor families could be built on the parcels," reads the Times article.

The course is one of the last designs of Charles Banks. According to George Bahto's biography of Charles Blair Macdonald, The Evangelist of Golf , the layout was constructed from 1928 to 1930. Banks died in 1931.

According to the Times story, the grounds of Caracass CC designed by the Olmsted Brothers, who are best known for creating parks, public and private, as well as college campuses.

The demise of Caracas CC appears inevitable.

"We are waiting,” Manuel Fuentes, 69, the country club’s vice president, said to the Times in the English he learned as a teenager while studying at the New York Military Academy. “It would be a tragedy for the city to lose such an icon, but it’s a scenario we’ve been forced to acknowledge."

Caracas CC hosted the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup Latin American qualifier in 2009. The Venezuelan team of Jhonattan Vegas and Alfredo Adrian qualified and went on to place 12th out of 28 teams in the World Cup played in China that year.

Donald Ross at Cohasset (Mass.) Golf Club

2010-12-22T15:59:00.003-05:00

This past summer, I was retained by Cohasset Golf Club to write a brief history of the golf course for its website, as sort of a way to help members appreciate what they have in their Donald Ross-designed layout, and to educate prospective members about the current course that opened in 1920 and was renovated by Ron Prichard in 2000. In 2009-2010 the club undertook indepth water remediation project with Agri-Scape Golf Course Construction doing the work that affected three holes.

The Donald Ross Society has posted the piece on their website and you can read it here in its entirety.

Cohasset has quite a history, some of which remains to be rediscovered. Considered a summer club for wealthy Bostonians, the first holes were laid out by Willie Campbell in 1898. Four years earlier he had done the same at The Country Club in Brookline.

(A copy of the Cohasset ledger that records the fee paid Campbell is shown here.)

Sometime after that, Donald Ross became associated with Cohasset but the year can not be pinned down. Ross emigrated to the United States and Oakley Country Club in 1899. Oakley, located in Watertown, Mass., is about 25 miles from Cohasset.

In 1920, Cohasset was expanding from nine to 18 holes and a letter to the members informing them of the project, reminded them that Ross, who was overseeing the expansion, had a long association with the club.

The letter reads, in part, that Cohasset, “has engaged the services of Donald Ross, golf architect, who laid out the original course of the Club and who has been consulted on all improvements which we have made. Mr. Ross has gone over the ground several times very carefully, and has considered a golf course from the point of view of 18 holes.”

The letter never mentions what year Ross first was hired to route the "original course," nor do any of the other remaining documents that have been preserved. A number were destroyed in a clubhouse fire.

The layout is very much the same as Ross left except for a few changes including the relocation of the first tee (for unknown reasons), the rebuilding of the 12th green by Al Zikorus, ostensibly to soften the severe back-t0-front tilt, and the relocation of the 17th green by a long-ago green chairman supposedly to thwart a rival from driving the putting surface.

(Ledger item copyright Cohasset Golf Club.)

Blind Shots are Archaic, My Calendar Says So

2010-12-21T15:34:00.005-05:00

This item was passed onto me by my good friend Brett.

It's the page for Dec. 21 of his daily golf calendar and depicts the 8th hole at the European Club, which is designed by Patty Ruddy, and owned by him and his family.

It's a nice picture, and all, but the caption is really worth reading. As Brett points out, it start off pretty well, "Then there's the last sentence... ."

I'm wondering who wrote this and what Ruddy would have to say about it? A description of the course on the club website makes no mention of what the calendar writer considers an attribute of this particular links.

Update on The Machrie: Links to Remain Open Through the Winter

2010-12-17T12:05:00.006-05:00

I spoke with Greg Muir, Assistant Manger for KPMG, about the situation surrounding the Machrie Hotel and Golf Links going into administration. KPMG has been retained to manage the property and find a buyer. ( A worldwide company, KPMG is "a leading provider of professional services including audit, tax and advisory," according to their website. Phil Mickelson is endorsed by KPMG.)

Muir, who works out of the Glasgow office, said the golf course will remain open throughout the winter while the hotel will be closed. He said two KPMG representatives, Blair Carnegie Nimmo and Gerard Anthony Friar, were appointed joint administrators.

According to Muir, there have already been inquiries from prospective buyers and because of the uniqueness of the the site, he expects there to be more. Muir said hopes for a sale before the 2011 season gets underway.

KPMG has retained three Machrie employees, including head greenkeeper Simon Freeman.

"We will certainly keep him on until it is sold and we hope that he will continue on after that with the new owners," Muir said of Freeman. "He's an asset."

(Photo Anthony Pioppi, copyright 2009)

Legendary Turf Figure Gordon Witteveen Dies at the Age of 76

2010-12-16T20:32:00.002-05:00

Here's the obituary on TurfNet.com for superintendent and author, Gordon Witteveen who passed away Dec. 16 of leukemia.

Witteveen, who was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to Canada 20 year later, was a founding member of the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association. He also started the organization's publication, The Greenmaster magazine, which he was editor for five years.

Witteveen coauthored a number of books including, with Bob Labbance, "Keepers of the Green: A History of Golf Course Management

The Machrie in Serious Financial Trouble

2010-12-13T12:34:00.005-05:00

The Machrie Hotel and Golf Links has gone into administration it was announced to members of the Islay Golf Club last week. What that means, for my non-UK friends, according to the website, thisismoney.co.uk, is "When a company is in financial difficulty, it can be put into 'administration' which means control is passed over to a separate company – the administrators. They will assess whether the financial problems are serious, if they can help the firm get back on its feet, or they can decide to sell off the business (in whole or in parts) for assets, or completely close it down (this is called liquidation)."

For years, the Willie Campbell layout has been struggling for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that other than flying to Islay, which is off the Southwest coast of Scotland, the only way to get there is by a three-hour ferry ride. The golf course has always been in wonderful condition, the restaurant is fine, but the hotel is not up to a level that it needs to be to entice golfers. Since there are no other courses on Islay, it took dedicated players to make the trip, most of who combined it with an excursion to the Kintyre Peninsula to tee it up at Machrihanish Golf Club and, more recently, Machrihanish Dunes.

I played the Machrie last year with Machrihanish Dunes head greenkeeper Keith Martin and his first assistant Kevin, that's him hacking out of the rough. It is a remarkable true links layout that dates back to 1891 and one of my favorite courses in the world. Simon Freeman is the head greenkeeper there and he maintains some of the finest turf on which I have played, all without the aid of an irrigation system. Not a single head can be found on the 18 holes.

The course is somewhat changed from the original layout. In 1979, the farmer who leased the property on which a portion of the golf course sat – an arrangement dating back to its inception – decided he wanted the land to once again become the domain of bovine and ovine. With that pronouncement, five of the original holes were lost, including Mount Zion, a dastardly creation that ended at a green site possessing many qualities but forgiveness was not among them.

Architect Donald Steel routed current holes 10 through 14 to replace the lost five.

The ocean can be seen from nearly every hole. Looking away from the sea, golfers can gaze upon the hills of Islay. As would be expected, the wind is relentless for the entire round

Rediscovering Tekoa Country Club's Original 9th Green

2010-12-09T10:22:00.014-05:00

Wednesday, I took an hour drive north from Middletown up to Westfield, Mass. for some golf course archeology at Tekoa Country Club.

Sean Donnelly, an assistant superintendent at Clinton (Conn.) Country Club, joined me for the excursion along with E.J Altobello, who has the duel role of head golf professional and superintendent at Tekoa. E.J. Altobello has done some superb work uncovering the history of the golf course that dates back to the late 1890s on a different site from it's current location.

A nine-hole Donald Ross design was opened in 1923 and five of the original holes, 4-8, still exist on the current 18-hole layout. (The Ross plans are on the right.) Holes 1-3 and 9 on the original course were lost when the State of Massachusetts took the land for the creation of Westfield State College.

E.J. determined that holes 1 and 2 were eradicated during the construction of a school building. He did locate the third, a 140-yard drop-shot par-3, that is entirely intact, but covered in about 50 years of overgrowth and trees.

He had also found what appears to be the ninth tee but had yet to find the 9th green before we arrived, which was at the end of a 310-yard hole, some 25 feet about the fairway, according to the Ross plan.

The lost holes were located on the west side of Rt. 20. After the state took the land for the college, it purchased acreage on the east side of Route 20, that bordered holes 4-8 of the Ross course, to create the existing layout.

The new course is essentially a Geoffrey Cornish design but according to Cornish, he was never paid for his work even though the original owners built the course very much to his specifications. The new holes do not match the Ross work.

Using the Ross map, we were able to track down the ninth green, but only because it is winter and leaves are off the trees and vines. The area is all but impassible at any other time of the year.

The first photo, above, is taken from on the ridge to the right front of the green and shows what would have been the putting surface. The second photo is taken from below the front of the green near the stream, which is not as well-defined as on the drawing. Sean is standing on the front edge of the green and you can see the severity of the slope. It would have been one tough final approach shot.

According to E.J., one of his members was employed by the Tekoa in the late 1950s when it was a still a Ross course. As a teenager, his job was to sit in a station wagon on the road above the ninth green. When a group finished, they loaded their clubs into the car and he drove approximately 75 yards up the steep hill, dropping them off near the clubhouse where he received nickle tips. When the bags were unloaded, he backed down the hill and waited for the next group.

During our search for the green, and after its discovery, we came across a number of drain pipes running down the steep hill, including this strange combination pictured here with E.J. removing debris. Located halfway between the tee and green of the third hole, we found a pipe, probably six inches in diameter, that ran into a much larger pipe, perhaps two feet in length, that was set perpendicular into the ground. At the bottom of the large section, is another six-inch pipe that moved the water down the hill into the stream. Our best guest is that the large pipe -- coincidentally, made by the Ross company of Ulrichsville, Ohio -- may have held water for drinking.

After our discoveries, we took a tour of Tekoa. It is very obvious that the best holes are Ross creations, now holes 2-4, 14-15. They are very much the way they appear on the drawing, except for a ridiculous amount of trees -- mostly white pine -- that were planted over the years. E.J. has been doing a great job removing them and his work on the 14th will restore the original intent of the 331-yard hole that ends with a delightful three-level putting surface, which is guarded by bunkers to the left and drainage gully in front.

Most of the remaining original greens have wonderful contouring, except for what is now the second hole, originally the fourth. The Ross plans show two ridges running parallel to the line of play but they are not there now and appear to have been removed on the advice of famed architect A.W. Tillinghast, who visited the course in 1936 while in his role as a traveling consultant for the PGA of America.

Well beyond the prime of his career when he worked for the PGA, Tillinghast advised nearly every club to fill in bunkers and remove bold green features that he thought only made the game too difficult for the high handicap players. As a result of his recommendation, literally thousands of bunkers were removed and strategy lost on hundreds of course. His advice to Tekoa, as reported in his letter to the PGA, reads: "My principal recommendation was for the blending of of nearly all the greens, which they anticipated rearranging." There was no explanation as to what blending meant. He went on to say he advised, "the raising of the left-rear and recontouring of the Fourth Green (now the second) ... the entire remaking of the Seventh Green (moving it to a new site on the left) and the remaking of the Eighth Green (existing 15th), removing objectionable undulations."

E.J. is unsure if the recontouring of the fourth and relocating of the seventh took place but it appears very likely that the club did smooth out the existing second green. It is the most placid of the remaining Ross work. Fortunately, the club appeared to have ignored Tillinghast's other suggestions.

Update 12-12: Here is a current Google Earth view of the site. The building at left is where the first and second holes would have been. The first hole went from below the building, slightly doglegging right to near the start of the driveway. The second dog-legged left beyond the parking lot. The third tee was behind the that area with the green near the road next to the existing course.

The existing hole running parallel to the road is the current second and the original fourth. Next to that tee is the green for the original eighth hole, now the 15th. The par-3, at the bottom of the screen, running parallel to the road, is the original fifth.

A Walk on the Proposed Quinnetucket Site, Another Dumping Ground

2010-12-06T12:09:00.010-05:00

Because of the vast amount of dense underbrush along the parcel of land that would be holes 4-6 of my Quinnetucket Golf Course project, walking there in the summer months is all but a ridiculous endeavor. In the cold early days of December, traipsing through that area is a struggle, even with a machete and some aggravation that I needed to work out.

Sunday (Dec. 5), I located a fence line that I first discovered over a year ago, and decided to follow it. My guess, is that this fence was part of the old chicken farm that was run by Connecticut Valley Hospital to aid in feeding workers and patients.

It was while inching my way that I came across an old dumping ground that consisted mostly of, what appears to be, cans (photo 1). There were also broken small milk bottles, pieces of wood, a metal cable, a clay pipe, a metal vent tube, wood, old fenceing and one large glass bottle with a rusted cap still in place and clear liquid inside.

At no point, did I find any labels to indicate what the cans held or what might be swishing around inside the large bottle.

The dump pile was at the top of a ridge so I decided to explore below and found more items (photos 2 and 3), including broken ceramic dishes, a light bulb, shards of what looked to be window glass and a piece that appears to have come from an electric motor. There was also a section of a large corrugated metal pipe.

I did find one small bottle intact and will try to get it dated to get a rough estimate on how long the trash has been there.

For me, this is just more proof that the land went virtually unused for decades and while it appears that it would have been a great hiking spot, few took advantage of the site.

I'm wonder if the trash also indicates that the state and/or CVH did not make sure the site was cleaned up after the farm was closed, or if the land was a haven for illegal dumping once it was no longer used to raise chickens.

Masters Tournament Ticket Raffle Continues

2010-11-30T12:43:00.003-05:00

Just received word from Bob Spencer at the Middlesex YMCA that there are a few tickets remaining for the Masters Tournament raffle.

Five hundred chances at $100 each are being sold with the winner getting four tickets to the 2011 Masters Thursday-Sunday, five days, four nights of accommodations at a private home adjacent to Augusta National, a round of golf for four at an area course and a $5,000 American Express gift card that can be used for airfare.

The Middlesex YMCA, located in Middletown, Conn., is a wonderful organization that serves many communities in Middlesex County. The money from the raffle will be used to send underprivileged children to summer camp that the YMCA runs in nearby Portland, Conn.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, contact Bob at bspencer@midymca.org.

Thailand Part 3: the Spirit House

2010-11-26T12:14:00.009-05:00

The Thai are very religious people and Buddhism is practiced by nearly 95 percent of the population. The sect of Buddhism that is most common is Theravada, the oldest surviving Buddhist school in the world with its roots in India.

In Thailand, however, Buddhism is also mixed with folk beliefs, as well as aspects of Hinduism that made its way to Thailand from what is now Cambodia.

Buddhist temples are everywhere as are the monks clad in their burnt orange garments. Each morning, the monks walk out into their community with a large wooden bowl looking for food donations from nearby residents. All the food the monks eat comes via this ritual.

Also, as part of Thai Buddhism, on nearly every piece of property, from shopping malls to banks to golf courses, are found what are known as, "spirit houses," or, san phra phum in Thai. I took a photo of the one pictured here at Chiang Mai Highlands Golf and Spa Resort.

I asked Santi Chudintra, Director - The Americas Market Division for the Tourism Authority of Thailand, who accompanied us for much of the trip, to tell me about the significance of the spirit house.

"Most Thai people believe that when a Thai family builds a new house, there is always the possibility that it has disturbed the spirits who live on the property. In order to protect their new home from retaliatory harm or mischief, some Thai families put up a little model house on a pole for the spirits to live in . Offerings of incense, fruit, flowers, and rice will be placed here, because the spirits must be kept happy at all costs. Inside the San Phra Phum, you will normally notice an image of Phra Chai Mongkol, an angel figurine, often gilded, and holding a sword in one hand, a money bag in the other hand. Phra Chai Mongkol’s origin lies in Hinduism. Suffice it to say, she is there to protect the land and its inhabitants.

"In addition, some spirit houses on the road were built to pacify the tormented spirits of people who have died violent deaths in crashes at that site."

A more in depth explanation of spirit houses can be found here and here.

My Latest Visit to the Proposed Quinnetucket Site

2010-11-21T15:20:00.005-05:00

Over the summer month I rarely visited the site for my proposed Quinnetucket Golf Course. It's not that I didn't want to be there, but once the leaves are on the trees, bushes and vines, walking is very difficult and hot, even with my trustee machete.

Now that the cooler weather is here and the majority of leaves are on the ground, I headed back out to the site. Not much has changed, including the fact that people continue to use the site as a dumping ground. I found this recent deposit near what would be the approach the the seventh green.

The project continues to progress, albeit at a slower pace than I would like, but it is moving forward.

Thailand Part 2: Suwan Golf and Country Club

2010-11-21T14:06:00.010-05:00

Once our group of approximately 25 tour operators and golf writers had finished playing the eight golf courses that GolfAsian arranged for us to sample throughout Thailand, we invariably came up with a best-of list and in nearly everyone's top 3, was Suwan Golf and Country Club. What's most surprising about that fact is that green fees at the outstanding facility were $25, American, easily the least expensive course where we teed it up. As with all golf courses in Thailand, we had access to the locker room, showers and restaurant, just as if we were members. The caddies were fantastic.

The attributes we found so appealing about the layout was the fact the golf course had strategy on nearly every hole. This isn't a course where merely hitting it down the middle on the tee shot is always the correct way to play. There are doglegs that tempt golfers to cut the corners and for those who do there are big rewards but severe penalties for the failed attempt. The bunkering was more than just of the penal variety. At times, like many of the streams or ponds found on the course, the sand punishes the overzealous player, at other times, is serves to deceive the golfer.

As an example, this is a photo of the par-3 sixth hole. The front bunker is some 20 yards short of the green but from the tee looks as if it is flush again the putting surface and.

The greens were interesting and challenging without being overdone. There's plenty of movement requiring more than just a cursory read of the line to be successful at putting.

Suwan also has the most interesting design history of the layouts we played. The architect is Major General Weerayudth Phetbuasak, still active in the Thai army and director of the Weeyos Design Group. He also laid out Sir James Country Club, Narai Hill Golf Resort, and Bangkok Golf Club as well as Phokeethra Golf Club in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

I took a good look on the web for information on Major General Phetbuasak and all I could find was that he is a member of the International Golf and Life Foundation Council of Experts.

Making the round at Suwan even better was the fact I went out in a fivesome that included (left to right) Paul Guarino, an American via the Dominican Republic, me, Chayuda (Toom) Singhsuwan, Mikael Jensen from Denmark and Canadian Sandy Bain.

Toom, 20, is a newly minted professional golfer who counts Golfasian as one of her sponsors along with Chang beer. It was a delight to watch her navigate her way around the course, playing bold when she could and cautious when she had to. Toom's short game is fantastic, she has a putting stroke that I would sell my soul for and her play with the long irons-hybrids game is astonishing. One of her birdies came after she knocked a 3-wood to 12 feet.

After shooting even par on the front side with us from the men's tees, Toom came home in four over for the last nine but after carrying our team for so long, it was no wonder her game floundered. I'm just hoping we didn't do any permanent damage to her golf game or her psyche. Toom plays on various tours throughout Asia and already has wracked up a victory. Keep an eye on her.

My Seth Raynor Piece in Golf Course Architecture magazine

2010-11-18T09:37:00.003-05:00

Golf Course Architecture magazine has put a link to the Seth Raynor story I wrote for the latest issue. You can find it here. I also profiled The Prairie Club in Nebraska in this issue.

I know I'm biased, but Golf Course Architecture is a wonderful publication that talks with architects and profiles golf courses the world over, not just in the UK and the U.S. If nothing else, a regular visit to the website is a must. You really should purchase the magazine and can get yourself a subscription by following this link.

The photo is of the ninth at Fishers Island Club taken from the left rough. It is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, Double Plateau greens Raynor ever created. I snapped this pic while caddying this summer.

Greg Norman Design, Two Investors Conned in Scotland

2010-11-16T07:53:00.007-05:00

A 79-year-old veteran conman was sentenced to four years in prison after convincing two businessmen to invest $640,000 in a bogus golf course development project in Fife, Scotland. The story can be found here on the Golf Course Architecture magazine website.

According to the Daily Express story, John Cameron, "claimed to be an ex-military man and took to wearing tweeds and driving a Daimler to further convince his victims in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

He even drove to the property in Fife with one of the businessmen and his son, along with Australian golfer Greg Norman’s course planner."

According to a person familiar with the area, if nothing else Cameron had a great eye. The land would make a wonderful site for a golf course. It is located not far from a castle where the Toro company put up many of its guests during the recent Open Championship at the Old Course.

Golf Punk Finally Succumbs

2010-11-15T10:00:00.005-05:00

After years of financial difficulties including going into a form of reorganization, Golf Punk magazine is no longer as confirmed in this story on the Sport Journalists Association website.

I was interviewed by Golf Punk in 2005 while a volunteer greenkeeper at the Old Course for the 2005 Open Championship. Later, I wrote a few pieces for them and there was talk of me becoming a permanent American voice, but then financial troubles set in and the plan never materialized.

JF Media, which owns Golf Punk, was in Company Voluntary Arrangements – known in short as a CVA. For me that means money owed will probably never arrive.

I was a little disturbed to read this in the story about their business practices:

"In its brief history, the company is believed to have built up a collection of County Court Judgments, brought by disgruntled and unpaid contributors, as well as an Advertising Standard Authority ruling in 2009 from customers angry that they never received the free gifts offered when they paid their £35 for a year’s subscription."

I wish editor Shaun McGuckian the best of luck. He always treated me fairly.

Back from 11 Days of Golf in Wonderful Thailand

2010-11-09T07:13:00.009-05:00

I have just returned from 11 days golfing in Thailand as part of a tour put on by GolfAsian for a bevy of tour travel operators and two golf writers. It was quite a whirlwind trip encompassing 8 courses and 8 hotels in 11 days plus an elephant park, Buddhist temples and the nightlife of Hua Hin, Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

The Thai are golf crazy. Unlike other countries, there the average person tees it up, not just the wealthy and golf tourists. There are 700,00 Thais that golf plus 200,000 more golfers that are foreigners living in the country. Golf courses number 260 while there are 1,000 driving ranges.

There's a lot to write about golf in Thailand, but I'm going to start with the caddies.

Every golf course has caddies, which are mandatory, and all caddies are women. Most Thais try to avoid the sun so caddies wear long sleeves, long pants hats and, in many cases, gloves, all in the distinctive colors of their course.

Many caddies play, as well, but most do not. What is remarkable is that adeptness at which they ply their craft. Of the 8 caddies I had, I would rate perhaps 3 of them A+, 4 A and 1 a B+ plus. My fellow travelers said they had much the same experience as me. In a couple of instances, I had caddies who were pulling my clubs 4 holes into the round. All of them were excellent at reading putts.

To make communication with them easier, the caddies often shorten their names. Here is my caddie Bai, also known as "James Bond" for her uniform number "007." The caddies, like the cast majority of the Thai people, have a wonderful sense of humor. Bai and her fellow caddies laughed at the nickname my group -- Julien, Mikael, Oliver and I -- gave her. About three holes into the round, she said to me. "You good golfer. Play bad golf. I kill you. I James Bond."

I'm not sure I'd ever been threatened with death by a caddie up until that time.

All caddies have shortened their names or use nicknames that are sewn onto their uniforms to make communication easier. Many use words that obviously have no direct correlation to their real names. One caddie was called "Poa," much to the delight of those who know about golf course agronomy. Another went by the name, "Norm." Maybe she was a fan of the television show, Cheers?

Here, though, hands down, is our favorite nickname. No one, to my knowledge, ever asked her how she came up with this moniker. (Thanks to Mikael Jensen of Krone Golf Tours for the photos)

My New Favorite Head Cover Courtesy of Machrihanish Dunes

2010-10-23T10:55:00.005-04:00

Since it's opening in 2009, Machrihanish Dunes Golf Club on the Kintyre Peninsula of Scotland, has used a black sheep as is logo. Now, they have come up with a black sheep driver head cover. One of the cute and/or demonic looking examples showed up in my mail this morning. I'm wondering what the reaction will be from my future fellow playing partners the first time they get a look at this?

Looking up "Scotland" and "black sheep" on line, I came across this bit of humor.

An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician were riding in a train in Scotland, when out the window they saw a black sheep.

Said the engineer, "The sheep in Scotland are black."

Said the physicist, "Some of the sheep in Scotland are black."

Said the mathematician, "At least one sheep in Scotland is black on at least one side."

Yikes.

According to Wikipedia, black sheep are associated with the Roman underworld god Dis Pater.

"Dis Pater, or Dispater (cf. Skt. Dyaus Pitar), was a Roman god of the underworld, later subsumed by Pluto or Hades. Originally a chthonic god of riches, fertile agricultural land, and underground mineral wealth, he was later commonly equated with the Roman deities Pluto and Orcus, becoming an underworld deity.

"Dis Pater was commonly shortened to simply Dis (much like how Dyaus Pitar was also simply called Dyaus). This name has since become an alternate name for the underworld or a part of the underworld, such as the Dis of The Divine Comedy.

"When Dis Pater was in the underworld, only oaths and curses could reach him, and people invoked him by striking the earth with their hands. Black sheep were sacrificed to him, and those who performed the sacrifice averted their faces. Dis Pater, like his Greek equivalent, Hades, had little or no real cult following, and so there are few statues of him."

Scottish Open Looks to Leave Loch Lomond for the Links

2010-10-20T09:56:00.004-04:00

According to widespread reports in the U.K. press, Barclays, the sponsor of the Scottish Open, has requested the tournament be moved from Loch Lomond Golf Club to a true links golf course. No word right now on what that venue might be.

European PGA Tour Director Keith Waters told BBC Scotland: "Loch Lomond has been an excellent venue, but times change. Barclays would like us to play the event on a links course in the hope of attracting all the world's top players."

Loch Lomond is a highly-regarded Tom Weiskopf-Jay Morrish design located 20 miles northwest of Glasgow.

In the Scottish newspaper, "Evening Times," EPGA player Alistair Forsyth wondered if the move would, in fact, bring in more American players.

“There are upsides and downsides and I’m sure a few players from across the pond would turn up rather than stay at home," he said. "But I remember when the Scottish Open was held at Carnoustie and the weather was horrendous. Nick Price said his swing and timing had been blown to bits, ruining his Open chances. To be honest, I don’t know how you could attract a better field. It is one of the best tournaments on the calendar.”

Since the Scottish Open is played the week before the Open Championship, the event would have to be held at a site that is not part of the Open rota, meaning the Old Course, Carnoustie, Muirfield and Turnberry can't be contenders. Kingsbarnes Golf Links is part of the three-course venue of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship but would seem to be an ideal venue.

Robert Von Hagge Dies

2010-10-19T19:10:00.003-04:00

Architect Robert Von Hagge passed away Sunday, Oct. 16., according to a release sent out by his design firm partners Rick Baril and Mike Smelek. Von Hagge, the release said, died peacefully as the result of complications from a head injury with his wife Greta by his side.

Born Robert Bernhardt Hagge, he spent time on the PGA Tour before becoming a club pro. He then traveled to Hollywood to dabble in acting, during which time he was married in succession to golfing sisters Alice and Marlene Bauer.

In 1957, he joined the golf architecture firm of Dick Wilson. He established his own firm in 1963 and became known as a showman, at which time he changed his surname to von Hagge, making site visits while wearing a gold cape.

Von Hagge journeyed to Australia in the mid 1960s to work on The Lakes Golf Course, thanks to a recommendation of professional golfer Bruce Devlin. They soon formed a design partnership that lasted 20 years. It was based in the United States.

In 1987, Devlin left the firm to join the Senior PGA Tour and and von Hagge formed his own design firm with associates including Kelly Blake Moran, Baril and Smelek.

Von Hagge, either with Wilson, Devlin or his own firm, has hundreds of courses across the U.S. and the world including such locations as the Bahamas, France, Japan, Spain, Mexico and Tahiti.

More information on his career can be found here.

"Cigar Guy" Identified!

2010-10-12T12:50:00.003-04:00

The photo of Tiger Woods shanking a pitch shot into the camera of The Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain during the Ryder Cup has fast become one of the greatest golf photographs of all time, in part, because of the comical Groucho Marx-looking man to Woods's left. The Daily Mail has tracked down the guy and reveals his identity in this story, and he's not a publicity hound, just an enthusiastic golf fan. Also included in the piece is a number of famous images doctored so that Cigar Guy appears in them. Funny stuff.

Thanks to my friend Nancy Powers for the tip on this one.

Pete and P.B. Dye's New Course in Curacao

2010-10-06T14:45:00.002-04:00

In the middle of September, I journeyed to Curacao for a four-day trip to the Santa Barbara Plantation and the Old Quarry Golf Course designed by the father-and-son duo of Pete and P.B. Dye.

Check out what I wrote for the website of Golf Course Architecture magazine.

Curacao is part of the Netherlands Antilles and is located about 30 miles to the east of Aruba and 30 miles north of the coast of Venezuela. It has been described as a less touristy version of Aruba, a place I've never been, but Curacao does not have the hustle and bustle of major tourist destination. The Hyatt Hotel that is the anchor of Santa Barbara, is a low-key affair with three restaurants, three pools, a wonderful little beach, snorkeling, diving, hiking and biking trails.

It's worth a visit.

Boston Globe Story on Furyk's Used Putter That Won Him $11.35 Million

2010-09-28T09:21:00.004-04:00

Turns out the putter Jim Furyk used to win the Tour Championship, and ultimately the Fed Ex Cup, at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta this past Sunday, was discovered by Furyk in a used club bin at a store in South Easton, Mass. as detailed in this Boston Globe story. Furyk picked up the putter while playing in the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton a few weeks back.

The original owner of the putter was Paul Szep who twice won the Pulitzer Prize as editorial cartoonist for the Globe and still contributes to Golf Digest.

“I can’t believe it. It’s quite amusing,’’ said Szep, who watched the final holes on Sunday at a friend’s house in Siesta Key. “I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come see this. There’s my putter right there.

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox/ Getty Images)

Happy National Punctuation Day

2010-09-24T16:13:00.004-04:00

In honor of National Punctuation Day, here's a quote on the importance of commas, periods, semicolons, etc., from Ernest Hemingway that incorporates golf.

"My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements."

The left photo is of Hemingway, who I do not believe was a golfer, shaking the hand of Fidel Castro. The right picture is of the Cuban leader golfing. Unfortunately, Castro banned golf in Cuba and all the courses there have been destroyed or gone fallow, including two Donald Ross designs, the Havana Biltmore (1927) and Havana Country Club (1911).

Masters Tickets Raffle

2010-09-07T13:13:00.003-04:00

The YMCA here in Middletown, Conn. is hosting a Masters Raffle. There are 500 tickets being sold at $100 a piece. Winner receives four tickets for the Thursday through Sunday rounds, a four-bedroom house for four nights and five days, a round of golf for four at a local club and $5,000 to help cover expenses and airfare. Anyone interested in participating, contact Frank Sumpter of the Middlesex YMCA: Fsumpter@MidYMCA.org.

Ghost Hunters Features Otesaga Hotel in Wednesday's Show

2010-08-23T14:31:00.002-04:00

Ghost Hunters, which appears on the Syfy Channel, is kicking off the season Wednesday (8/25) at 9 p.m. Eastern time with an episode on the Otesaga Resort Hotel, which is also a chapter in my book, "Haunted Golf." Rachel Donnelly, my friend who first told me about the Otesaga after having worked there and is quoted in "Haunted Golf," was extensively interviewed by Ghost Hunters but we'll have to wait and see if she made the cut. One person who is in the book but refused to talk with Ghost Hunters is Bill June. Bill shies away from publicity, for the most part, but was kind enough to sit down with me for close to an hour when I visited the Otesaga and relate some of the encounters he's had while working at the hotel. His stories really make the chapter.

I doubt that it will make even the briefest appearance, but the Leatherstocking Golf Course that is connected to the hotel is a wonderful design. Devereux Emmet is the architect of the original 9 and was involved with expanding the course to 18. A magazine piece Emmet wrote about the addition tantalizes readers with the intimation that other architects were on site advising him, but Emmet never lists names. With his connection to C.B. Macdonald, it may have been him and/or Seth Raynor. For now, it's a mystery.

(My photo is of the par-3 12th)

More Plans to Ruin the Seth Raynor 9-Hole Jewel at Hotchkiss

2010-08-18T10:18:00.012-04:00

Imagine that from 1924 to 1926 one of the most prominent building architects in the country -- let's say Frank Lloyd Wright -- came to Yale University to create a structure that became the envy of not only every other Ivy League institution, but also of every college and university in the country. During his time at Yale, at the behest of prominent alums, Wright traveled some 60 miles north of New Haven, a trip of over two hours, to one of the most prestigious preparatory schools in the nation to create a half-size version of his work at Yale. While there, he befriended an educator who so fell in love with the world of architecture that he left teaching to join with the architect and later forge his own lauded design career that would include returning to the prep school a few years later to update the building. Now, some 84 years later, this heralded institution has allowed the Frank Lloyd Wright building to fall into serious disrepair. Windows are boarded up, the facade is cracking, stones have loosened, some have even fallen out. In one instance, a portion of the building was removed so that a new building could take up that space. The original structure, once, perhaps, the finest of its kind at any preparatory school in the country, is a shell of its former self. The desecration is continuing. The school has plans for a new building to encroach on the the existing one, rendering another portion of it all but useless and seeming to herald the end of this once lauded structure.

At first glance, this appears to be a far-fetched idea, but in reality that is precisely what is happening, and has been happening for decades, at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn. Instead of a building, it is a golf course and instead of Frank Lloyd Wright as designer, it is Seth J. Raynor, one of the preeminent golf architects in the history of the field.

Raynor was, in fact, working on the Yale golf course when he traveled to Lakeville, starting in about 1925, to create the 9-hole layout that includes versions of many of his famous hole styles. There are renditions of Short (first photo), Eden and Alps (second photo). The sixth green is one of the finest Raynor ever produced, a sentiment held by Raynor historian George Bahto. It is a wonderful design augmented by a delightful routing that takes golfers through and along the Hotchkiss campus with views of Wononskopomuc Lake and the surrounding hills.

During construction, Hotchkiss assigned popular teacher Charles Banks to act as a liaison between Raynor and the school. Banks became enamored with the craft to such an extent that he left teaching to join with Raynor and when his mentor died less than two years later, it was Banks that finished over a dozen of Raynor's projects, including Yale and the Fishers Island Club before going onto his own successful career as an architect.

The Hotchkiss course is in an embarrassing state, there is no other way to describe it. The large green pads with the trademark ridges, humps and swales, artfully crafted under Raynor's guidance, are reduced to small ovals as both photographs clearly illustrate. Many bunkers are abandoned or filled in. The condition of the turf is, in places, abysmal. The blame, in this situation, does not fall on the superintendent, because there isn't one. The small grounds crew that takes care of all the grass at Hotchkiss is also in charge of upkeep of the course, a recipe for failure.

Over the years, the architecture has also suffered. The seventh hole was shortened by approximately 40 yards and the original green destroyed to allow for a new driveway. Worse, the shortening of the second hole to make way for a new building was ill conceived and would never had happened if Raynor's work been held in proper regard. The gradual evisceration continues. There are plans for a structure to be built so close to the sixth green that it will impede play, a clear sign that the school will most assuredly one day decide a golf course no longer has a place in the long-term goals of Hotchkiss.

The administration needs to embrace not reject the Raynor-designed golf course and they need not look any further than Yale for reasons in doing so and guidance in how to accomplish the task. There, following years and years of neglect, the school, after repeated shoving from prominent graduates, realized the jewel it had in its midst and is taking virtually every measure it can to renovate and restore the layout to its original glory, much to the delight of numbers of its alumni, not to mention the administration which has seen revenue from green fees skyrocket. No longer merely an afterthought, the Yale golf course is trumpeted by the university. Hotchkiss has in its midst, its own showpiece and recapturing its luster will only add to the prestige of the school. If the administration, though, is unwilling or unable to see the value in the golf course then, following the lead of Yale, prominent alumni need to step forward and educate the educators, before it's too late.

(Photos courtesy of Brett Zimmerman)

WSJ Story on the Awful Summer; Nantz Just Doesn't Get Architecture

2010-08-10T17:46:00.005-04:00

John Paul Dupont wrote an informative piece in the Aug. 7 issue of the Wall Street Journal, titled, "The Ugly Summer of 2010" that details the trials and tribulations superintendents are dealing with from the Mid Atlantic states up to New England as a result of the long, hot and humid summer. It's worth the read. He cites major problems at Huntington Valley Country Club, Golf Club at Cuscowilla and Winged Foot Golf Club among others.

Dupont deserves kudos for laying some of the responsibility for dead greens firmly in the golf bag of players.

"Golfers themselves deserve part of the blame for insisting that putting surfaces be mown short and fast even in weather conditions in which such practices are almost certain to ruin them," he wrote.

In an email to me July 20, USGA agronomist Jim Skorulski, who works in the Northeast Region, said the year was becoming one of the worst in 20. With the ongoing high temperatures since then, it surely is the worst. The one question that remains, is how many superintendents will lose their jobs over a set of circumstances that were almost entirely out of their control.

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I happened to catch golf announcer Jim Nantz on New York City radio station WFAN chatting with host Mike Francesa, who knows little or nothing about golf but leads the league in kissing the behind of Nantz every time he appears on the Big Apple's top-rated sports talk show.

The conversation turned to this week's PGA Championship at the Pete Dye-designed Straits Course at the Whitling Straits resort in Sheboygan, Wisc. when Francesa, in a highly unusual moment of clarity, asked Nantz what were the characteristics of the Straits Course. It was a beautiful softball for Nantz giving him the opportunity to knock it out of the park with a concise and informative answer about Dye's style of strategic design that is based on angles and options. Instead, Nantz fouled out to the catcher. His reply: "it looks like the courses in Ireland."

Nantz should probably stick to telling us how every golfer that appears on the screen - and this week Whistling Straits founder Herb Kohler, as well - is a great guy and a wonderful family man.

My prediction is that on a number of occasions during the broadcast of the tournament, Nantz will fawn over the Straits Course telling us how beautiful it is, how it was built on what was formerly flat farmland, the fact there are over 1,000 bunkers but never discuss its strategic qualities.

George's Prediction Comes True; Faxon and Others Love Old White

2010-08-01T18:00:00.004-04:00

During my interview with Lester George last week, he predicted a 59 would be shot at the Greenbrier's Old White course during the Greenbrier Classic and he was right. The par-70 C.B. Macdonald-Seth Raynor design was no match for the length of the PGA Tour pros and the soft conditions, even from over 7,000 yards.

Australian Stuart Appleby did it in the final round Sunday on his way to winning by a stroke. He became the fifth player in Tour history to shoot 59.

Brad Faxon emailed me from the tournament.

"Course is unreal. Players love it but don't get it either!" he wrote.

Why should they get it? How many of the Tour pros have been exposed to great golf courses or been shown why bunker right, bunker left, in the fairway and bunker left, bunker right on a green that tilts back to front isn't great design?

Here are the others players who shot 59 at a Tour event.

Al Geiberger: 1977 Memphis Classic (29-30), Colonial Country Club (par 72)
Chip Beck: 1991 Las Vegas Invitational (30-29), Sunrise Golf Club (par 72)
David Duval: 1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (31-28), PGA West (Palmer Course) (par 72)
Paul Goydos: 2010 John Deere Classic (31-28), TPC Deere Run (par 71)

This was the first time it's been done on a par-70 golf course.

"Look, I'll debate it with you. I agree," Appleby said. "I can see both sides of the fence. It is a number. I shot that number. But who says par is supposed to be 72? There's a lot of great courses that aren't 72."

For the big gallery around the 18th green, the par of the golf course did not matter as they exploded into cheers when Appleby's put for birdie dropped.

A Chat With Lester George About the Old White Renovation

2010-07-28T10:19:00.006-04:00

When architect Lester George began work at the Old White Course that hosts this week's PGA Tour Greenbrier Classic, virtually everything original designers C. B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor left behind was gone, with the exception of the 8th hole, the Redan. There is much speculation as to when the alterations occurred and it might have happened as far back as the mid 1930s. Nevertheless, it was George's charge to reclaim as much as he could.

The course opened in 1914 and Raynor, with Charles Banks completing the work after Raynor's death, updated the course around 1925-1926.

Using aerial photos of the course taken prior to the modifications, George set about returning Old White to its original design as best be could, including using "Dragon Teeth" bunkering, sharp, cone-shaped mounds, that are clearly visible in the aerials and existed on the Redan.

Since no mounds remained on the fifth hole, (pictured here) named "Mounds," George put Dragons Teeth there as well in the locations they seem to be on the aerial.

He installed approximately 450,000 feet of drainage to help with water problems that, George surmises, date back to the inception of the course. He said it is readily apparent that Raynor created fairway contouring to channel water through the property.

Because of real estate encroachment on part of the course, George was not able to restore all of the holes, such as on nos. 14 and 16. The 14th was a Cape Hole and the 16th Narrows. Raynor moved a tee when he returned in the 1920s, making the 16th more of a Cape Hole. During the restoration, George gave Narrows qualities to the 14th.

He also reworked 17 so that it now has Road Hole feel to it. Surprisingly, Road was not part of the original hole designs at Old White, one of the few Macdonald-Raynor designs without one.

George said the greens and bunkers were all rounded off, when he arrived, and he's tried to reestablish the original sizes and shapes.

George marvels at the some of the movement in the holes.

"The seventh, Plateau, has a washboard fairway," he said. "No. 2 has a hog's back running down the length of the fairway."

Tees were added to holes 2,11,13,15-17 making the par-70 course 7,031 yards from the tips.

According to George, expect the leaders to eviscerate Old White.

"I think we might see someone shoot a 59," he said. "If it gets soft, they're going to go low, low."

The forecast is for thunder showers Thursday, warm and partly cloudy Friday and Saturday, with a chance of rain on Sunday.

With the front side a par-34, a score of 29 is very much a possibility. Both par-5s are on the home nine and are reachable for the longest players.

Even with the added tees, much of the Macdonald-Raynor strategy will be lost to the length of the Tour Pros but they still will have decisions to make on some holes. Flagstick placement will also play a role in defending the course. The par-3 18th at 162 yards, (shown here) with it's Horseshoe feature should be fun to watch come crunch time on Sunday.

No matter what the score, though, it will be a joy to know the work of Macdonald, Raynor and George will be seen on television screens across the country.

(Photos courtesy of Shannon E. Fisher)

PGA Tour Tees It Up At a Macdonald-Raynor Design This Week

2010-07-26T08:59:00.012-04:00

This week the PGA Tour is at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulpher Springs, W.V. for the Greenbrier Classis and, frankly, I have mixed emotions.

First of all, I'm ecstatic that the work of Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor (restored by Lester George reopening 2006) will be getting national recognition but I'm also afraid that golf announcers who know little to nothing of architecture will not only fail to understand the nuisances of the golf course, but also describe what is there inaccurately to viewers at home. I have deep pains in my gut when I imagine Garry McCord or David Feherty waxing poetic on the work of Macdonald and Raynor. Frank Nobilo's head might explode when he realizes many of the holes are not framed by trees. These three think long and straight is a legitimate and favored design strategy.

I'm hoping Peter Oosterhuis is announcing this week. After his days on the PGA and European PGA tours, Oosterhuis was head golf professional at Forsgate Country Club in New Jersey, which has an exceptional Charles Banks as one of its two layouts. He's also a big fan of Yale University golf cours e.

This could be a great opportunity for those golfers who think penal bunkering in landing zones and in front, behind and on both sides of greens is good design, to see the error in their thinking. Unlike the work of Robert Trent Jones and his hack copycats, Macdonald, Raynor and others produced golfing grounds where thought is required on virtually every shot. The best part about that for golfers is the fact that that school of architecture is, in fact, fun.

The pros who tee it up Thursday through Sunday will overpower the layout, at times, but that shouldn't stop the announcers from illuminating viewers to the architecture that allows the average players, of varying length and skill, to challenge Old White, and others like it, and find delight in doing so.

(Picture of the original 18th green, courtesy Lester George)

My Friend Iain and His Pals Cash In on Oosthuizen's Victory

2010-07-20T09:45:00.006-04:00

My pal Iain David Dye, who I met while volunteering at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland for the 2005 Open, was at the tournament this year, also held at the Old Course, when he had a chance encounter with eventual winner Luis Oosthuizen that turned out to be quite valuable.

Here's Iain recounting of the events. (In the photo taken on the first tee of the Old Course, Ian's the good looking one on the far left.)

"We were standing at the 12th tee of the Old Course on Thursday. Louis and his caddie walked up onto the 12th tee from the 11th Green, Louis looked at his ball and asked his caddie for a new one. The caddie chucked the ball at Tom who is my mate Shaun's son.

"We were all laughing and joking about how much the ball would be worth if he won the Open. We were late back on the Thursday night to my parents' house, and we had been talking all night about how we should put money on Louis as it could have been fate.

"Both myself and Shaun put £20 each on Louis on Friday morning and by 6:30 pm on Sunday we had won £520. If we had put the bet on on the Thursday night we would have won over a £1000."

To convert that into American dollars, for a bet of $30.40, they each took home $790.27!

Don't forget, Shaun still has a golf ball from the 2010 Champion Golfer of the Year.

How to play the Road Hole, Then and Now

2010-07-19T20:59:00.001-04:00

During the 150th playing of the Open Championship, Lee Westwood was rightfully lauded for his magnificent play at the 17th hole. During one round, his approach shot landed just short of the Road Hole bunker leaving, what looked to be, an impossible up-and-down. Playing over the hazard onto the narrow green and at the flagstick was too risky. The only sensible alternative seemed to be to pitch away from the hole, leaving a putt of at least 25 feet. Westwood, though, pulled out his putter and ran the ball around the Road Hole bunker and onto the green. Leaving himself a makeable putt for par, which he sank. The scenario is nearly identical to the one that Alister MacKenzie detailed in his book, The Spirit of St. Andrews, published in 1934.

"I remember shortly after the war, watching the contestants in the Open Championship or some other important competition playing the seventeenth at St. Andrews. One of the the competitors had pulled his second shot wide of the the road bunker: I said to a friend who was with me, 'Here comes an American. Watch him pitch over the Road bunker and land in the road beyond.' Instead of doing so, the played at a little hillock, only three feet across, to the right of the road bunker, and his ball curved in a complete semicircle and lay dead at the pin.

"I said to my friend, 'That is the best player I have ever seen. Let's follow him to the clubhouse and find out what his names is.' We did follow him and we found his name was Walter Hagen."

Quinnetucket Golf Course Update

2010-07-15T15:12:00.002-04:00

The latest news is that there is no news. I talked with the Mayor's office a few weeks back and the Mayor and the city attorney are going over the lease. The signing could come at any time.

Here's a recent photo of the third green site from the 7th fairway.

Rediscovered Seth Raynor Photos and Bio

2010-07-13T18:46:00.008-04:00

I was contacted recently by a member of the the Country Club of Charleston who was looking for photos of Seth Raynor. It turns out that the club has commissioned a portrait of Raynor, the designer of their course, based upon photos that were uncovered at Princeton University where Raynor graduated in 1898, with most likely, a civil engineering degree. Princeton published bios and photos of the members of Raynor's class in conjunction with their 25th reunion in 1923.

In both pictures, Raynor comes across as a serious-minded fellow. One image is from the year he graduated, at the age of 24, and another from 1923 when he was 49, looking old for his age. Less than three years later, some surmise because of his incredibly hectic work schedule, Raynor was dead.

What I find most intriguing about the article--besides the fact Raynor's middle name was Jagger--is that it appears to indicate that Raynor might have traveled overseas to study the great golf courses. Perhaps, though, the sentence was meant to mean that Raynor, as an understudy of Charles Blair Macdonald, used the layouts that C.B. had visited in Great Britain as his guide. If Raynor did journey there, it would be quite a discovery. If not, this small item, nevertheless, gives an interesting glimpse into the life of man of who so little is known other than his work.

Facebook Post of the Week - Turf Related

2010-07-08T09:43:00.002-04:00

Northland Country Club Turfgrass Management In you are keeping track: Fungicides applied to the golf course in 2010...ZERO!

A great idea letting golfers, non-golfers and environmentalists just how few chemicals are applied by diligent golf course superintendents.

Yale's Biarritz Green Revisted

2010-06-30T09:06:00.014-04:00

For years, it was assumed that the Biarritz green at Yale Golf Course was designed so that the shelf before and after the swale was meant to be green height, making it the only one that Seth Raynor, Charles Blair Macdonald or Charles Banks designed that way. In all the other cases, the green itself is only the shelf after the trough. Most of the Raynor Biarritz greens I've seen could not have the front portion converted to green height, anyway, owing to their steepness and severity. Some courses like Shoreacres and West Hampton have flat approach areas. Along the way, both of those layouts began mowing the front tier as green.

A few years ago, I called into question the assertion that the entire green complex at Yale's ninth had always been intended to be green after uncovering an article about the Seth Raynor layout.

In the Aug. 18, 1925 issue of the Hartford Courant, an in-depth piece on the new Yale Golf Course included a short detailing of nearly every hole. The ninth is described, in part, this way: "The green proper is behind a deep groove in the approach which is of about the same area as the green. The approach is bunkered heavily on the right and left and the fairway is the lake."

Approach and green are not synonymous, meaning only the back tier was meant to be green. Recently, the Yale courses biggest fan, Geoffrey Childs, uncovered this photo that appears to show the front portion of the complex as approach and the back only, as green.

So, now the question becomes: should Yale return it's Biarritz to the way Raynor designed it? I say, yes. Restoring a golf course -- in this case a great one -- as closely as possible to the intent of the original designer should always been at the forefront of any architectural decision.

I think, it will also add fun to the hole. Players whose shots fail to reach the back tier would have the option of chipping, putting or running their golf balls onto the back, where now putting is the only method.

I have been at the Fishers Island Biarrtiz for hundreds of shots, either as a caddy or a player, and watched successful approaches played with putters, sand wedges, 7-irons and hybrids. I've also seen golfers fail using every single one of those clubs. It's great to watch golfers engage their brains on a shot and not just mindlessly go about the task at hand. Converting the Yale Biarrtz will bring back the element of thought to the already-fantastic ninth hole.

Gerry "Bubba" Watson Takes the Travelers in a Playoff

2010-06-28T08:16:00.003-04:00

At first glance, the fact that Bubba Watson captured the 59th Travelers Championship appears to be good news for the tournament. Watson, 32, is one of the great underachievers on the PGA Tour having never won an event until Sunday despite his prodigious length and deft touch around the greens. The victory was a hard-fought one and Watson, from Bagdad, Fla., who plays up the down-home Southern hick image for all its worth, endeared himself to more fans when he immediately dissolved into a blubbering mess on the 16th green after defeating Scott Verplank on the second playoff hole with a par. It was there on national television that Watson told the golf world that his father, who taught him the game, is suffering from cancer.

The good feeling around Watson's victory may be short-lived in Connecticut. If Watson goes on to capture only a few more events, or even worse, never again wrack up a title, he will join a dubious list of Hartford winners who faded into obscurity over the last 25 year that include the likes of Brent Geiberger, Olin Browne, Billy Ray Brown, Mac O'Grady and Phil Blackmar.

For the Travelers, big-name players lifting the trophy helps the image of the event and also aids in drawing top players who realize the TPC River Highland course rewards not just length, but the ability to craft shots. When Phil Mickelson won back-to-back titles (2001-2002) it added cache to the event. The heyday of the tournament was in 1992 to 1995 when Lanny Wadkins, Nick Price, David Frost and Greg Norman won in consecutive years.

Now, everyone connected with the Travelers is an unabashed Bubba Watson fan and their hope is that he can follow in at least some of the footsteps of another golfer who won his first PGA Tournament in Connecticut, Arnold Palmer.

(Photo copyright PGA Tour)

Travelers Championship: Grounds Crew Gets Their Due

2010-06-24T16:58:00.003-04:00

Tom Yantz wrote a wonderful story in the Hartford Courant detailing the trial and tribulations that the grounds crew, led by superintendent Tom DeGrandi, goes through getting TPC River Highlands ready and then keeping it at peak shape for the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship. Yantz details how many of the crew members don't go home during the week, sleepng in a camper trailer in the maintenance building parking lot, or on the floor of the building.

"Those guys are really dedicated and really care about the golf course," Yantz told me.

I worked for Tom during a couple of summers a few years back and was on the crew for two tournaments. He has River Highlands in fantastic condition every year.

Pictured is the 17th hole from behind the green.

Biggest Cheer of the Day

I was at the front of the clubhouse Wednesday afternoon talking with Cromwell Police Chief Anthony Salvatore when a large roar came up from near the 9th green. We assumed that someone had holed out at nine during the pro-am but what it turned out to be was the reaction of a hospitality tent crown to Landon Donovan's game-winning goal in the 91st minute against Algeria that sent the U.S. soccer team onto the round of 16 where they will face Ghana on June 26.

Travelers Championship: First Up, Rickie Fowler

2010-06-23T08:44:00.004-04:00

The Travlers Championship has arrived at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. First in the press tent was Rickie Fowler, 20, who had the last two weeks off after failing to qualify for the U.S. Open. In 16 events this year, the highly-touted phenom has made 10 cuts amassing $1,983,941 good for 12th in Fed Ex Cup points.

This is his second trip to River Highlands. In 2009 he carded 72-73 and missed the cut in one of three PGA Tour events he played that year.

"It's a pretty fun course. You need to hit fairways," Fowler said of the par-70 6,841-yard Bobby Weed redesign. "I'm not going to be bombing it anywhere."

Which, he said, does not bother him.

"I'm good with that I'm not a long hitter. I'm above average. It's a big thing keeping it in the fairway."

That doesn't mean he'll be playing it safe on the drivable par-4, 15th that is 296 yards from the back tees.

You won't see my lay up," Fowler said. "I think it's a hole you go for and try to make a number."

Asked to name his favorite courses, the California native listed Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines South, no surprise, and then went overseas for this third choice, Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland.

"It's not like any other course," he said recounting the layout he played in the 2007 Walker Cup. "It's one of those courses where you step up on each hole and it's not like anywhere else."

TPC River Highlands Converting to Sand Greens!

2010-06-21T10:06:00.004-04:00

Alright, everyone who writes for a living has made a multitude of mistakes that brought a smile to the face of readers who saw the blunder and a collective groan from the editors that did not find the error. So, it is with the knowledge that I have produced my fair share of gaffes that I post this photo that ran on the Hartford Courant website this morning. It appears correctly in the story. I'm sure superintendent Tom DeGrandi, who is preparing the course for the PGA Tour's Travelers Championship, would get a kick out of it if he had the time to be perusing the web.

One of the Greatest Shots Ever at Pebble Beach - Not Tom Watson's

2010-06-17T18:24:00.007-04:00

One of my biggest gripes with the Golf Channel, ESPN and just about every other network--besides the BBC--that covers golf is their failure to know the history of tournament golf before the rise of Arnold Palmer in the early 1960s. The Golf Channel often has a difficult time remembering that golf existed before Tiger Woods.

Case in point: during broadcast of the U.S. Open from Pebble Beach viewers will get to see and hear countless references to the famous Tom Watson chip-in at the 17th that sealed his victory over Jack Nicklaus in the 1982 U.S. Open. It is one of the greatest hole-outs in golf and is indelibly printed in the collective memory of golf fans, as it should be.

Fifty-three years before Watson's heroics there was Harrison R. "Jimmy" Johnston of Minneapolis, Minn. in the U.S. Amateur, the first time it had ever been played on the West Coast. Unfortunately, only a small few are aware of the remarkable events.

Johnston's heroics did not come on the course proper, but on the beach next to the 18th hole, the waves, literally, washing up around his ankles and over the ball.

American Golfer ran this photo of Johnston on the beach in its October 1929 edition.

Playing out of the White Bear Yacht Club at the time, Johnston came to the 18th of the morning round down two shots to Dr. Oscar F. Willing. Johnston's second shot, from the fairway, was hooked onto the beach. He was preparing to drop and re-hit when his caddy pushed his way through the gallery to tell Johnston that he had spotted the ball among the stones and that if Johnston hurried, he might be able to play it. Johnston did just that and produced a remarkable recovery shot, knocking it onto the approach on the way to par. Willing, who had placed his second shot in the fairway, made bogey but still held a 1-up lead at the turn. The sentiment among those who witnessed the event, however, was that Johnston's stunning recovery so deflated Willing that he was not able to bounce back. After lunch, Johnston tied the match on the 19th hole and went on to capture the title, 4 & 3.

Francis Ouimet, who Johnston defeated in the semifinals, 6 & 4, was so impressed with Johnston's feat that detailed the shot in his book, A Game of Golf.

Year's later, Johnston recounted the events in a letter to a newspaper writer.

"Upon arriving at the ocean shore I found my ball resting securely among the small pebbles below the seawall. When I took my stance to play the shot, a wave swished up behind me and buried my feet under six inches of water. But when the wave receded, the ball was still there! I had time and the good fortune to play my shot (with a spade mashie) off the beach to the edge of the green and then chipped up 'stoney' to get par and halve the hole."

Whether it is the greatest shot ever played at Pebble Beach in a major tournament can be argued, but it is surely one of the all-time best. Too bad television golf broadcasts don't even know it occurred.

Fantastic Golf - and Views - All Across Arizona

2010-06-11T14:58:00.006-04:00

When you talk golf courses and views, the first image that comes to many is of beautiful vistas of a nearby ocean. With Arizona Golf, you get hundreds of layouts, most with spectacular scenery that has nothing to do with the sea. Here, the desert and surrounding mountains provide golfers with stunning panoramas.

Scottsdale golf is king with so many great architect contributing to the over 200 designs. Jack Nicklaus has six courses at Desert Mountain, alone. At Troon Golf Club Tom Weiskopf designed the Monument and Pinnacle courses that opened in 2007.

We-Ko-Pa Golf Club has taken home bevy of honors. The Ben Crenshaw-Bill Coore Saguaro layouts is no. 75 on GolfWeek's list of Best Modern Courses and the that magazine's top ranked public access layout in Arizona. The Cholla course, a Scott Miller design, is ranked as the third best public design in the state. If that's not enough to get you there, in 2010 GolfWorld readers ranked We-Ko-Pa as the 25th best golf resort in the country.

Make no mistake, however, Scottsdale is not the only golf destination in Arizona. Tuscon golf and Phoenix golf also offer plenty of fantastic layouts.

More Macdonald

2010-06-07T15:27:00.006-04:00

More words of wisdom from, Scotland's Gift-Golf

•A golf hole, humanely speaking, is like life, inasmuch as one cannot judge just any person's character the first time one meets him. Sometimes it takes years to discover and appreciate hidden qualities which only time discloses, and he usually discloses them on the links. No real lover of golf with artistic understanding would undertake to measure the quality of fascination of a golf hole by a yard-stick, any more than a critic of poetry would attempt to measure the supreme sentiment expressed in a poem my the same method. One can understand the meter, but one cannot measure the soul expressed. It is absolutely inconceivable.

•A golf architect should never endeavor to construct what is known as a "trick green"; otherwise he will be suspected of being a card sharp. Don't seek an original idea in building a golf course. John La Farge somewhere has said if "an idea were an original one it is safe to say it would not be a good one.

•I should like also to suggest that the construction of bunkers on various courses should have an individuality entirely of their own which should arouse the love of hatred of intelligent golfers. Rest assured such hole are far too complex for one's absolute condemnation or absolute approval. Bunkers of this character are much to be desired on any golf course."

(The Short Hole at National Golf Links of America)

The Words of Charles Blair Macdonald

2010-06-03T11:00:00.006-04:00

I was flipping through Scotland's Gift - Golf by Charles Blair Macdonald. Published in 1928, the year after he died, it contains so much wonderful advice and observations of golf course architecture that remain pertinent today as when he wrote them. Here are a few of my favorites.

• Motoring to Southampton, I pass a goodly number of new courses. As I view the putting-greens it appears to me they are all built similarly, more or less bowl or saucer type, then built up toward the back of the green, and then scalloped with an irregular line of low, waving mounds or hillocks, the putting-green for all the world resembling a pie-faced woman with a marcel wave. I do not believe any one ever saw in nature anything approaching these home-made putting greens.

•Variety is not only "the spice of life" but it is the very foundation of golfing architecture. Diversity in nature is universal. Let your golfing architect mirror it. An ideal or classical golf course demands variety, personality and, above all, the charm of romance.

•Errors in play should be severely punished in finding hazards, but now the golfer wants his bunkers raked and all the unevenness of the fairway rolled out. A player does not get the variety of stances or lies that in olden times one was sure to have. A hanging lie or a ball lying in any position other than level is a blemish to the modern golfer. The science and beauty of the game is brought out by men having to play the ball from any stance. To play the game over over a flat surface without undulations leaves nothing to the ingenuity of the player, and nothing is presented but and obvious and stereotyped series of hits. To-day there seems to be a constant endeavor to make golf commonplace, to emasculate it, as it were, of its finer qualities.

(Pictured is the 18th hole at the National Golf Links of America, Charles Blair Macdonald's masterpiece.)

Golfdom (including me) Wins TOCA Award

2010-05-23T11:25:00.005-04:00

Golfdom magazine, for which I'm a regular contributor, took home, as usual, a number of awards at the annual Turf & Ornamental Communicator Association's 21st annual meeting held in Tucson, Ariz., recently.

In the past 10 years, Golfdom has won more editorial and design awards combined than any other magazine covering the green industry, including golf course maintenance.

Kudos, once again, to Larry Aylward, Golfdom's editor in chief.

I was part of the award for Best Series, which went to "Water Wise." Besides Aylward and me, Christopher S. Gray Sr. and John Walsh were also honored.

My contribution to the series was, "Architects Have the Answers," where I interviewed Pete Dye (my first time talking with him), John Fought, Mike Hurdzan and Brian Silva about the role of architects in helping golf courses conserve water.

(Pictured is the par-3 15th hole at the Silva-designed Renaissance Golf Club in Haverhill, Mass.)

9-Hole Courses and the Success of Golf

2010-05-20T11:06:00.004-04:00

In a May 15 Wall Street Journal article writer Matthew Futterman authored a piece entitled, Golf's Big Problem: No Kids. In it, he discusses how golf has difficulty bringing and keeping young kids to the game and goes on to explain the tact tennis has taken to make the game easier and less intimidating for beginners with much success.

According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of golfers age 6-17 dropped 24 percent to 2.9 million from 3.8 million between 2005 and 2008, the most recent statistics available.

In the article, the NGF makes a connection between attracting young players and 9-hole golf courses.

"Greg Nathan, a spokesman for the NGF, said participation growth has always been accompanied by growth in accessible, affordable facilities, including nine-hole and par-3 courses. Resort and premium courses built by entrepreneurs more interested in real estate than golf drove the latest boom. Although there are 492 more golf courses in the U.S. today than in 2000 (15,979 compared with 15,487) the number of nine-hole courses has dropped to 4,441 from 4,768 while par-3s have dropped from 854 to 895."

Later in the article, Dan Van Horn, president of U.S. Kids Golf, manufacturer of youth golf clubs, advocates teaching the game from the green back so that children learn to be successful with a shorter swing then gradually move back to longer and longer swings.

The article makes some wonderful points that I have made in regard to the nine-hole Quinnetucket Golf Course. One of our major goals is to bring young players to the game in an environment where they can learn to golf in a way that makes it enjoyable for them, no matter the age, size or skill level.