What Will The Top 100 Look Like in 2025

When I saw the title for Tom Doak's piece, "What Will The Top 100 Look Like in 2025," I wasn't sure what to expect. But it's really a great piece on a number of levels and Golf Magazine deserves kudos for running it. (Now, about the picture of Sand Hills still labeled as Torrey Pines on the homepage...).

Doak writes:

Another trend worth noting is the small but significant number of courses designed to be walked. With the advent of the golf cart in the 1960s, many architects became convinced that walkability was no longer part of the equation of building a great course. Holes were pushed ever farther apart, toward the best bits of land, or to make room for houses. Nevertheless, there still isn't a course ranked among the world's greatest that is very difficult to walk. Augusta is perhaps the toughest hike.

And it was great to see Doak finally come out and use his newfound fame to join the technophobic agenda crowd:

The only thing that can stop this trend is something that will change the list even more significantly -- a continued growth of equipment technology that will make today's elite courses obsolete. We architects shake our heads watching modern professionals, who seem to hit the ball considerably farther every year. It forces us to design for a moving target.

So far, the equipment technology change hasn't had an earth-shaking effect on the Top 100 Courses in the World. Classics like Shoreacres and Maidstone, weighing in at less than 6,500 yards, still stand tall. The past masters of design understood that scoring is controlled at the green end, not the tee end. But the classics are on the defensive. All but one of the top ten courses has been stretched by more than 100 yards since 1985. (Cypress Point is the lone exception.) A lot of them have run out of room to extend, and those that haven't (like Augusta National) are starting to look entirely different. Something has to stop changing -- and soon -- or we'll no longer recognize the courses and the game we love.

Park Junior Book

Hugh MacDonald in the Herald (UK) reviews Walter Stephen's new book, Willie Park Junior: The Man Who Took Golf to the World.

Mystic Makeover

Mike Dudurich details the $7 million spent the last two years to make 84 Lumber Classic host course Mystic Rock better (or harder?). Pete Dye has been called in to make changes to his design, working off of suggestions from Vijay and John Daly. I'm bet he was just thrilled.

Thompson Papers

The University of Guelph has received a donation of papers and other items from Stanley Thompson's collection.

Rubenstein Talks To Ogilvie

In the Globe and Mail, Lorne Rubenstein, focused his column on Joe Ogilvie's thoughts about the state of architecture on the Tour. While Ogilvie wasn't too excited about the " blast flop" shots around the Shaughnessy greens, he did have some positive things to say about architecture and politics.

"First, it’s a novel concept to walk off a green and see a tee," Ogilvie said, comparing Shaughnessy’s walkability to sprawling modern courses that require players to use carts. "The greens are extremely small too, probably smaller than Harbour Town’s (the course in Hilton Head Island, S.C., where the PGA Tour plays every spring). I like that. Why do you need a 50-yard by 50 yard green?

"With new courses these days a developer carries a rope and stretches it 35 yards one way and 35 yards another, and then cuts a swath with no regard for the trees," Ogilvie said.

Asked what else charged him up about the course, Ogilvie had a simple and straightforward response. He’s a thinker, able to distil his ideas into cogent remarks. He’s concerned about matters beyond golf, such as the role of government—he believes the Bush administration should be raising taxes, not lowering them, a view that’s probably not popular among his fellow PGA Tour players--and he’s concerned with the vast amounts of energy we consume. Ogilvie, who referred to himself a "fiscal Republican" and a "social Democrat," drives a Toyota Prius, the hybrid car of the moment.

But back to golf, and Shaughnessy.

"What I’m getting charged up about is wondering why we haven’t been here before. I think you’ll have the highest score relative to par on tour this year, with the exception of the U.S. Open," Ogilvie said.

He also spoke about taking up his position next year on the tour’s policy board. It’s a three-year appointment. He’ll serve with Davis Love III, Scott McCarron and Joe Durant.

"I’m no shrinking violet in the boardroom," he said. "I think we can have an influence on who builds our courses. Tom Doak is talking to the tour about building a course in Milwaukee, and I’d like to see guys like David McKay Kidd (he designed the highly-acclaimed first course at Bandon Dunes in Bend, Oregon), and [Bill] Coore and [Ben] Crenshaw design courses we play. The days of [Tom] Fazio and [Pete] Dye are ending.

"You hear from players every day that they love playing courses like this," Ogilvie continued. "But now the tour is starting to listen."

Shaughnessy Lovefest Continues

Ken Fidlin in the Toronto Sun talks to a few players and gets some great quotes.

"I love this," Jesper Parnevik said. "It just shows you that today's architects are pretty sad. They're building golf courses that are approaching 8,000 yards and it takes 15-under to win. Then we get these old traditional courses and no one can break par."

Well, that wasn’t quite the case in round 1.

"I wish we could play a course like this every week," John Cook said. "So much of the game has been lost because kids get up today and just bomb it.

Now, is that the fault of architects? That the kids bomb it? I don’t think so! 

The reaction of virtually all the players in the field should be food for thought for the one-track minds who can't seem to come up with any fresh answers to the problems that technology has created for many golf courses.

Instead of just creating more and more monster courses, architects should take a long, hard look at many of the traditional layouts that demand shotmaking, not just length.

Or, someone could actually govern the game so that the courses don’t continue to be asked to mask a job not well done.

They Love Shaughnessy

From the Brad Ziemer of the Vancouver Sun:

Jerry Kelly was not in the mood for chit-chat, so the PGA Tour veteran was succinct and to the point when asked for his opinion on Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

"It's a great golf course and I don't think we play any better on Tour, period," Kelly said after his pro-am round on Wednesday.

And this:

"This is one of the top-five golf courses on the PGA Tour already after just one practice round," said Andrew Magee. "You hear all the rumblings in the locker room and on the driving range and the players are saying this is the kind of golf course we all think we should be playing every week on Tour. This is just fabulous.

"It's just got long holes, short holes, views, trees, dogleg rights, dogleg lefts, it's got a real versatile mix of holes. It's just a beautiful place."

"It seems like you are going to have to have all of your wits about you here," said former PGA champion Jeff Sluman. "It's a shotmaker's golf course, for sure. It's not one of those courses where you can smash it and grab it. If we could play something like this every week, it would be unbelievable."

The premium this week will be on keeping the ball in fairways that have been pinched to an average of 26 to 28 yards wide. Once finding the short grass, players must then hit approach shots to greens that are tiny by PGA Tour standards.

"You have to really drive your ball straight here," said Magee. "Nobody who hits it off the fairway is going to play well this week. You have to hit it straight, you have to hit it below the hole. The greens are fast and it's just a classic golf course. It's a very fair course, but it's just tough."

"You hit it in the rough and I would say from any more than 150 yards out you are not going to be able to get to the greens," added DiMarco. "Fairway is premium this week. The greens are sneaky quick. You get on the wrong side and they can be really fast. It's playing tough."

Now, I don’t want to pick on these guys because they’ve really only seen the horribly shallow modern form of narrow fairway and high rough golf. You know, tightrope walking golf. The kind that's supposed to put a premium on ball striking and ends up turning things into a putting contest.

Anyway, wouldn’t it be neat to hear of just one course where the players say something like this:

"Placement off the tee is at a premium this week. The greens really ask you to place your tee shot depending on the hole location. There isn't much rough, but because the bunkers are such nasty hazards, you don't know what kind of lie you might get. So you really have to be careful flirting with the hazards."

Ballyneal Article

Thanks to reader Joe for this David Holland article on Rupert O'Neal's Ballyneal, a Tom Doak design 3 hours outside of Denver on the way to the Sand Hills of Nebraska. I think I'm touring the course in October and hope it is as promising as it looks. The long predicted "Prairie Trail" of courses in the Sand Hills region is finally happening.

It's The Only Way You Lear

Thanks to reader Josh for this from the Telegraph. Writing about Colin Montgomerie:

Design is something the Scot has become more interested in. He said: "This is the first course in the UK which has my signature and for it to be in Ayrshire, just 10 miles up the road from where I first played golf, is really special.

"This is something I very much enjoy. To see this project from the start to completion in two years will be remarkable.

"I've been involved in dozens of courses all over the world now and we are ever expanding. I've played enough bad courses and enough bad holes in my time to know what is good and what I want.

"I've spoken to players past and present about golf course design. It's the only way you learn."

In Living Color

My latest Golfobserver.com column on "color" in architecture is now posted.

You'll notice that the latest Michael Miller masterwork is included with the column. It's titled "Approaching Weather at Bandon Trails, #17."

For you Bandon Trails fans, Mike can produce beautiful Giclee prints of the painting, with the cost ranging from $100 to $350 in price depending on size. Or he can do prints of his other works, which can be seen here. You can email him at MichaelMiller861@msn.com.

How Did It Get This Way?

That's what Travelgolf's Tim McDonald asks about the cost of a round.

If He Just Called It Bedminster...

Here's a story on Donald Trump wanting to add another course to his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. It seems he's doing everything right to lure the USGA event he so badly wants (after all, the second course is ultimately for parking cars and corporate tents).

But does the place ever have a chance as long as it's called Trump National? Hard to imagine that being sandwiched in between an Oakmont and a Pebble Beach?

Merion 14 Redux**

Courtesy of reader Richard:

The 14th hole in 1930 (left) and an aerial of today's hole, with an overlay in green showing the 1930 fairway width over today's setup (minus the wood chip nursery left, or whatever that gray area visible on TV is). Note how the risk/reward element of flirting with the road left is eliminated in an attempt to put a longer approach iron in the player's hands.

**On closer inspection, and with the help of TiVo, the block of stuff between the road and left rough appears to be a dead fescue farm. Or maybe it's Featherbed Bent? Either way, it used to be fairway in the old days before the guys started working out so much, forcing people to create strange fairway contouring.

Mr. Sand Man

Now posted is my Golfdom feature story on Jeff Bradley, Coore and Crenshaw's bunker guru.

Just Another Golf Course!?

Walker Cup Great Britain/Ireland's Gary Wolstenholme:

Q. Can you tell us your impressions of Chicago Golf and the way you play?

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: I would say that the way things are going nowadays, we've got players that are competing in the states and colleges on a regular basis, plus the rest of us all competed abroad on a regular basis as well. So, this is just another golf course. As far as the way that it plays, the fairways are very soft. Obviously, I'm not sure that's probably the way it was initially intended. I think they would have liked to have a bit of run on fairways to create more of a test in that respect. We're used to playing virtually every type of golf course there is to play. This is just the way it's playing at the moment. It's pretty much drop and stop.