"Phil is only going to design about 10 golf courses"

In the release covering Phil Mickelson's surprising move into course design (surprising because just a year or so ago he was downplaying his interest in this area for the time being), there is the usual stuff about projects and who he'll be working with (different people on different projects).

But reader Jordan caught this quote from his agent, which I thought was odd.

"Phil is only going to design about 10 golf courses, and RiverRock will be his mountain course," said Tim Ummel, Mickelson's agent.

Only 10? This year or ever?

Comments

[Glyn]

Tiger who? Oh sorry, that was Vijay('s caddy).

[Ardmore Ari]

Keeping up with the Jones's should be replaced with "Trying to keep up with the Woods's"!

[John G]

His "mountain" course?? Sounds like Phil's checking off from some kind of list -- "Let's see, I want a mountain course, and an oceanside course, and a desert course, and a short course (no wait, Rick Smith won't like me handling that one, and Dave Pelz will want in on it, too), and a tropical course..."

Reminds me of Spaulding at the turn. "You'll get nothing and like it!"

Will a "municipal course" make Phil's list of ten?

[GeorgeM]

And it looks like River Rock is really up the mountain.

Looking at Google Earth, I saw close to a dozen courses much closer to Cashiers than River Rock. Since some of the developer's "villages" are between River Rock and Cashiers, I suspect many may decide to play elsewhere.

The satellite imagery for the area only shows some roads cleared in the forest - no indication of course construction visible.

[Jonathan Cummings]

One of the more perplexing news items in golf.

More than the number of courses, what's going to be his goals? Will he play the tour less? What is his vision and architectural "mission". If Phil is postering himself for a post-tour career he needs to clearly state what he is setting out to do.

JC