In Their Prime: Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have already produced an incredible resume of courses. But could it be that we haven’t even seen their best yet? Bill Coore always said he and design partner Ben Crenshaw feel most comfortable working on one to three projects a year. Any more than that, he added, might prevent […]
5 Things to Know: Tiger Woods’s New Utah Course Design
Tiger Woods and his design firm recently announced plans for a new private golf course that’s tied into the Marcella Club in Park City, Utah. Given the location, it’s not a surprise that modern luxury living is the vision of the club, which is leaning on Tiger’s name in selling expensive real estate lots, including […]
Geoff Shackelford: Golf Architecture is Getting its Due
Golf architecture is having a moment. Finally! From the public-course world up to the elitest of the elite, golfers are bonding over a shared affinity for course design. To the small legion of geeks out there—guilty as charged—we’ve long wondered why the masses failed to share our passion even as architecture has long been golf’s […]
Golf’s Most Prolific Architects
Specifying exactly how many courses certain architects designed is pretty tricky. A number of layouts credited to them might have been redesigns or renovations of existing courses. Or, they might simply have “worked on” the course, whatever that means. For the purposes of this article, an original course earned the designer a full point, but […]
Jay Blasi Puts Me Right on Chambers Bay
Oh, Chambers Bay, how I love thee, let me count the ways… For starters, after several decades of use as a rock quarry, lumber yard, railroad depot, bus barn, paper mill, wastewater treatment plant, and sand/gravel mine, the site was eventually developed for what would become a top 100 golf course (golfers can get behind […]
6 Design Traits of Residential Community Golf Courses
What architects do—and don’t do—when creating residential community golf courses It’s hardly a revelation to say that golf course architects are charged with delivering attractive, compelling designs with every new course they construct. In the case of courses for residential communities, however, there are some different considerations at play. Because each development is unique, requiring […]
The 10 Best “Hills” Courses in American Golf
In Alister MacKenzie’s Golf Architecture, published in 1920, he espoused 13 General Principles of Architecture. Number four stated: “The greens and fairways should be sufficiently undulating, but there should be no hill climbing.” Yet, he also preached about the necessity of variety and placed great emphasis on utilizing natural features. In diametric opposition to what […]
What Makes A Quirky Golf Hole?
It can mean different things and it’s hard to put a finger on its exact definition because so often it depends on our personal experience, its context, and the surroundings. But whatever words we use to describe “quirk,” one thing is for sure—we know it when we see it. The wonderful coastal courses in Cornwall, […]
New Golf Course “RainDance National” to Be North America’s Longest at Almost 8,500 Yards
In recent years, shorter has become trendier when it comes to new golf course openings, from Par-3 designs at destination resorts to layouts like the latest offering at Streamsong that will feature 18 holes ranging from 70 to 300 yards. Conventional thinking is that these shorter courses provide a fun, engaging, and less time-consuming option […]
First Peek: Landmand Golf Club
A big, bold piece of farmland is the perfect canvas for this dynamic duo’s first 18-hole design Ever since the acclaimed opening of Sweetens Cove in Tennessee—the 9-hole debut from architects Tad King and Rob Collins—the golf world has felt a sense of anticipation waiting for the team’s first 18-hole layout. After getting the nod […]
