David McLay Kidd: A Continuing Education in Course Design
After early acclaim led to stinging criticism, course architect David McLay Kidd has gone back to his roots David McLay Kidd had lost something. But he thought he might know where to find it. He took his design team to Bandon Dunes, the much-heralded links course he’d created a decade earlier at age 30 on […]
A Candid Conversation about Links Golf with Greg Norman
During the summer of 1993, Greg Norman teed it up at Royal St. George’s for the Open Championship and promptly shot four rounds under par. He saved the best for last, however, shooting a six-under 64 during the final round to win by two strokes. “That final round was one you just dream about,” the […]
Characters: Bunker Shaper Jeff Bradley
Bunker shaper Jeff Bradley plays the excavator with a musician’s touch You’d better be good at your craft if your job is to make Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw look like geniuses in the field. Jeff Bradley shapes the bunkers that have made courses like Cuscowilla, Talking Stick, Old Sandwich, Friar’s Head, Bandon Trails, Chechessee […]
Golf’s Ultimate Tests of Patience
In the first in a series about the attributes that are central to the design, challenge, and joy of the game’s most cherished courses, we identify the “Ultimate Test of Patience”: Pinehurst No. 2 Anyone who warms to the mention of golf’s greatest courses cannot help but engage in the time-honored grill room discourse on […]
LINKS Golf Podcast Ep. 74: Golf Course Architect Bobby Weed
Golf course architect Bobby Weed details his work at The Grove XXIII, Michael Jordan’s course in Hobe Sound, Fla., on this episode of the LINKS Golf Podcast. A protégée of the late Pete Dye, Weed talks to Digital Editor Al Lunsford about Dye’s legacy, what it’s like to be the PGA Tour’s in-house architect, his […]
Forrest Richardson: The Innovative ASGCA President
He’d never say it, never hint at, or even joke about it. He’d reject the idea absolutely, in fact, and ask that you never repeat it. But technically, in a manner of speaking, it could be argued—quite convincingly actually—that Forrest Richardson is currently the highest-ranking golf course architect in America. No, he’s not the best-known […]
5 Myths About Golf Course Design
Golf course architects are the artists—the ones who are able to take a vision, move a ton of dirt, and create a masterpiece for golfers to enjoy. Their work can be quite grueling and tedious—Rome wasn’t built in a day, just as any renowned layout wasn’t imagined and constructed overnight. To dig a little deeper […]
“Getting to 18”: Tom Doak’s Invaluable Addition to the Golf Library
A relatively small, though certainly important, part of a golf course architect’s job is deciding on a hole’s cosmetics, or how it’s going to look. A more important layer for most is its strategy, or how it’s going to play. By far the most crucial consideration, however, as it pertains to the functional, operational, and […]
The Untold Story of Golf Course Shapers
Though they prefer to remain out of the spotlight, you often read about them. Highly skilled and invariably obsessive about the quality of their work, their role on the typical golf course construction site has evolved greatly in recent years to the point where they are now considered more than just simple earth-movers, but rather […]
Personal Bests
The big-name architects designed courses that anyone-including you-can play. Here are the best from each of them. One of the great things about golf is how many courses are open to the public. Another terrific feature is that so many different individuals brought their aesthetics and expertise to the task of designing courses. Put those […]
