The Old Architects Loved Small Greens, Vol. 281

Mike Dougherty reports the surprising news the Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are consulting on restoration work Wykagyl Country Club, host to the LPGA's Something Classic. This marks a return to work that they have long passed on after their glorious experience with Riviera Country Club's management team, and comes as welcome news to traditionalists.

Anyway, Dougherty writes:

Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Robert Trent Jones and Arthur Hills all had some input at Wykagyl over the last century. The rolling layout has always placed a premium on accuracy and creativity.

"It's funny," said Helen Alfredsson, who's making her 12th appearance here at Wykagyl. "I'm not conservative with many things, just golf courses. But with the way everybody plays much longer now, it's sad to have a course become obsolete, too. For us, I think this is one of the best golf courses. It's so fun to play."

Okay, she gets points for that comment.

However, after learning that the club will be enlarging greens to restore many lost hole locations...

"But that's what makes this course so special, the greens," Alfredsson said. "They made them small in the old days. I'm not a fan of big greens, but that's what the trend is and sometimes I guess you have to go with the trend."

I think the real confusion on the green size issue is due to the scale of large modern green complexes, versus the scale of large classic complexes. The old guys managed to tie in a 6,000 square foot green much better than today's giants. The USGA green does make it more difficult to get the scale and feel right, but still...

Sawdust at Sawgrass

Doug Ferguson took a tour around the TPC Sawgrass and noticed a few of the changes being made to the course and clubhouse as it prepares for the 2007 Players Championship THE PLAYERS.

Also daunting is a new tee being built on the 219-yard eighth hole, making it play closer to 240 yards. David Pillsbury, chief operating officer of the tour's golf course properties and the man in charge of the TPC project, said the new tee on No. 8 is among five holes that will be lengthened by a combined 75 to 100 yards. But that's not to say the tees will be used.

"The winds will be different in May," he said. "This gives us flexibility for setting up the course."

Now, does this mean that flexibility is the new, clever way of adding length without acknowledging changes in the game. Or do they think that flexibility is being able to move tees around to make the course play the same every day depending on the wind?

Ideal flexibility would the chance to really play holes in diverse ways from day to day in order to best test the players, many of whom don't like to be inconvenienced with a thought.

There were other subtle changes, beyond reconditioning the fairways and greens. More than two dozen oaks, pines and palm trees have been planted on the left side of the par-5 ninth fairway, making for a difficult escape. Pine trees have been added to the right of the sixth, seventh and 10th fairways.

Oh wonderful. Hootie Pine Fungus has traveled to Ponte Vedra.

The Trevails of The Donald

According to Bob Pool in the L.A. Times, Donald Trump wants to rename Ocean Trails Drive leading to his Trump National Los Angeles clubhouse. The city of Palos Verdes wants The Donald to rename the course Trump National Rancho Palos Verdes, or Trump National Palos Verdes, or Trump National Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Got that?

Trump hasn't directly participated in the negotiations. He sent Vincent Stellio, a Trump company vice president, to last month's council meeting. Explaining the name change, Stellio said Trump merely wanted to capitalize on his golf course brand while distancing himself from the stigma of the Ocean Trails course's 1999 collapse and its bankruptcy.

Stellio added that Trump has started marketing the property as being on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. To prove it, he handed council members $30 golf hats with that name affixed to them.

"Originally, when we first came out, 'Los Angeles' seemed like the right thing to do because, basically, we're an East Coast company," Stellio said. "But with me spending some time out here, we realized that a better market standpoint is the peninsula. Pebble Beach is on a peninsula too."

Nothing gets by these guys!

Though The Donald has said that his course is the only California classics actually on the Pacific Ocean, and the only on a peninsula.

"Pebble Beach really isn't on the ocean. It's on Carmel Bay," Trump told Golf Digest in 2002.

How about Trump National on the Pacific Ocean of Palos Verdes Peninsula? Too many prepositional phrases? Wait...

Still, "if we market it externally outside, we'll probably refer to it as 'Palos Verdes Peninsula Los Angeles.' Internally, we'll be marketing it as you see on that hat."

Trump National on the Pacific Ocean of Palos Verdes Peninsula Los Angeles. Now there's a name that works!

Stellio was on the line during Monday's interview with Trump, who seemed irritated by the street-name controversy.

"If they've pushed you around, Vinnie, I'm not interested in doing business with them," Trump said.

Meanwhile over in Scotland, The Donald has found a much more willing politician, and it may just jeopardize his project. From Scotland on Sunday:

Jack McConnell has been accused of breaking the ministerial code of conduct by backing a luxury golf resort planned for Scotland by billionaire Donald Trump.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal the First Minister's close association with Trump may have broken strict rules which require ministers to remain neutral about planning applications before they are decided.

And...

The tycoon wants to invest £300m in a links course, luxury hotel and housing on the estate. But opponents of the plan say it will ruin one of Scotland's most pristine stretches of coastline. Despite the mounting concern, McConnell has already met Trump twice in the US, and had numerous phone calls with him.

But on planning issues, the ministerial code of conduct clearly stipulates that ministers "must do nothing which might be seen as prejudicial to that process, particularly in advance of the decision being taken".

It adds: "Action that might be viewed as being prejudicial includes meeting the developer or objectors to discuss the proposal, but not meeting all parties with an interest in the decision."

"The Nelson Puddle"

Gary Van Sickle on the new lake decorating the 18th at TPC Las Colinas: "it resembles a swoopy Las Vegas hotel pool with a fountain in the middle. Plus, not many water hazards naturally occur halfway up a hillside."

Hopkins Reviews Wentworth West Renovation

John Hopkins in the Times reviews the redesigned West Course at Wentworth, which has been getting universally wretched reviews from devotees who have seen it.

It has regained some of its testing qualities and although there are a couple of places where Els’s enthusiasm might have overruled his sense of what Colt was trying to do, he has, overall, updated the 80-year-old masterpiece with reverence. Take the 6th and 8th holes, for example.

He proceeds to describe many strange sounding features, which I just didn't have the heart to copy and paste. Young children might be reading.

One had not realised quite how much Els knows or cares about the ground beneath his feet and the trees and shrubs that line the fairways. Spend time with him on a golf course and you understand not only that he has an appreciation of colour and beauty but that he has a devilish eye for where to position bunkers. This is not to mention details he has at his fingertips, such as the width of a fairway, the roll of a bunker, the borrow of a green.

One appears to be starstruck too. 

Do Tune In Sunday...

...if nothing else, to see the hideous lake they've added on 18 at TPC Las Colinas. The fountain, the weird color, the concrete edges, the overall contrived nature of it along with the Nelson tree out there by itself...just a site to behold!

Turnberry Turns 100

Tom English pens a nice overview of Turnberry's 100th birthday for Scotland on Sunday.

In the Second World War the government commandeered the golf course just as they had in the First. They made a military air station of it, put 1,200 men on site and told those who wanted to know that golf had probably had its day at Turnberry. The links had survived one conflict. It was unlikely to survive a second.

The bulldozers moved in. Greens were ploughed up and several thousand tonnes of concrete and tarmac were poured on to fairways to make runways.

How times have not changed...they're revving up the dozers again.

It's a challenge that is going to get stiffer by the time 2009 comes around. It would have been appropriate for Turnberry to host the Open in this their 100th year but change was needed there. Foul weather defended the course against the bombers of today but you'd fear for it if the modern pros cut loose in dry conditions. The fear is they'd tear it to pieces. The game has changed a lot since Nick Price won there in 1994. Apart from the infrastructure around the course, they needed to toughen-up the Ailsa.

The changes are pretty radical, even if the R&A has asked for some of them to be undone. They were concerned the new and extensive bunkering on some holes was too penal and would force players to go defensive off the tee. Some have been filled in completely, others have been made less deep. Still, there will be approaching 30 new traps when the Open returns there and about 200 extra yards to negotiate.

The most dramatic alteration is the shifting of the 10th tee 50 yards to the left. Dinna Fouter now requires a 220-yard carry over the sea to find the fairway. Anything remotely hooky will end up wet. It's a hole to challenge the signature ninth, with all the stunning views of the lighthouse and the Ailsa Craig. It is a vision that brings to mind Henry Longhurst's plaintive words in troubled times.

"In those long periods inseparable from wartime service when there is nothing to do but sit and think," he wrote, "I often used to find myself sitting and thinking of the time when once again we might be playing golf at Turnberry."

Golf Pitches Found Takers

From E. Scott Reckard in Sunday's L.A. Times Business section:

For $25,000 or more, investors were told they could own part of a company developing luxury resorts and residences, authorities say. One supposed project was next to an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course. At another resort, Greg Norman's company had been hired to design the course.

The salespeople pitching the deal also dropped the names of other golf greats, authorities say, and urged investors to get in quick before the company went public.

Carolina Development, the Irvine company peddling the real estate partnerships, recruited many of its 50 salespeople from an addiction recovery program operated by Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, authorities say. To help endear themselves to Christian investors, they said, some sales agents distributed copies of "The Purpose-Driven Life," a best-selling inspirational tome by Saddleback Pastor Rick Warren.

But Carolina and its founder, Saddleback member Lambert Vander Tuig, had other motives, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC has accused the Rancho Santa Margarita man of fleecing about 700 investors across the country and in Canada of $50 million by exaggerating Carolina's holdings — in some cases fabricating its ownership of property and in other cases disguising the fact that it held only options on land or had taken on heavy debt to buy it.

This year, the SEC filed a civil complaint against Carolina Development, its 47-year-old founder and its vice president and sales chief, Jonathan Carman, 43, of Aliso Viejo.

And...

Authorities say that Warren and golf greats Palmer and Norman had no role in misleading investors. Warren said he was unaware of the alleged scam and did not know that his book was distributed by sales agents for Carolina, until he was contacted recently by a Times reporter.

And...

Alastair Johnston, chief operating officer of Arnold Palmer Enterprises, said his company became aware of Vander Tuig's operation last year, when a stock brokerage approached Palmer with questions about Carolina's investment pitch.

"It was quite clearly, in our opinion, a violation of North Carolina securities laws in making misleading statements," Johnston said.

An attorney for Palmer wrote cease-and-desist letters to Vander Tuig in July, August and October, warning that he was infringing Palmer's commercial rights and breaking trademark and securities laws by "falsely implying an endorsement," Johnston said.

Johnston said the company complained to the SEC and North Carolina regulators late last year when the misrepresentations continued.

Norman's golf course design company, by contrast, went into business with Carolina Development, accepting a $200,000 down payment for course architecture, according to Thomas Seaman, the court-appointed receiver.

Bart Collins, the president of Great White Shark Enterprises, declined to discuss how his company linked up with Vander Tuig. But Collins said it was not uncommon for Norman's firm to "enter contracts with people who own a piece of land and are developing private communities."

"We try to do what we can to protect ourselves from this type of thing," Collins said. "We try as best we can to complete our due diligence."

Design By Flynn?

Thanks for Steven T for the heads up on this Joe Logan story about Philmont's design pedigree. It seems William Flynn biographers Morrison and Paul have broken the bad news that Philmont isn't anywhere on record as being designed by the mastermind of places like Shinnecock Hills and Merion (with Hugh Wilson).

SilverRock Not Up To Standards (But The Classic Club Is!?)

Larry Bohannan reports that the city of La Quinta's $58 million and counting SilverRock project, expected to host the Bob Hope starting this year, has been passed over for 2007 too.

La Quinta city officials expected their SilverRock Resort golf course to be approved for the 2007 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, but a PGA Tour official said Friday the course simply isn't ready for a tour event.

"There has been some progress (at SilverRock), but it hasn't been enough," said Tim Crosby, director of tournament business affairs for the tour. "We told the Hope committee we would not approve the course as a Hope venue for 2007."

The PGA Tour informed the Hope board April 27 that the Arnold Palmer Course at SilverRock Resort was not approved for 2007. The tournament board told the city this week in a three-sentence letter that the course won't be included among the four to be played in January's Classic, and that the sides should sit down to discuss the coming years.

City and course officials say they still haven't been told the exact problems the tour has with the course and have not seen the letter from the PGA Tour detailing the specific concerns. Tom Genovese, the city manager for La Quinta, said he talked with Classic executive board member John Foster on Thursday, and the two sides are trying to arrange a meeting.

"Everything right in front of you"

Add Billy Andrade to the list of those noting Quail Hollow's "everything right in front of you" genius. He's forgiven because he earns himself a fine for ripping TPC's and he's a friend of Brad Faxon, so he must be a nice guy. But Billy, on this everything in front of you stuff, as a guy who likes books, would you want to know how they end before you crack 'em open? Or get the character of a song after one listen, the nuances of a film the first time through, the...okay, I'll stop now...

Q. Do you think you guys play enough courses like this?

BILLY ANDRADE: No, we don't. We play more cooky cutter TPCs are more cooky cutter type golf courses. We don't play old style. The problem is that it's hard to give up golf courses. Their memberships don't want to give up classics. It's hard to come into places look at Westchester. That course there is the best. If we ever left that, that would really hurt that tournament. But I would love to see us play more classic golf courses that you see in the majors, but on a regular Tour event, it's tough to play these type of places.

But it's just such a this reminds me a lot of home, a lot of old style New England, old golf courses that are just everything is right in front of you. It's easy to see, it's easy to figure it out, and a lot of the courses we do play are built for spectators, and a lot of dirt is moved and more manufactured. It's different.

I don't think you get too many players out here that are going to complain about this place. I think all it is is praise when the golf course is this good.

Pardon Huggan As He Pauses To Wipe A Patriotic Tear

John Huggan weighs in on the Donald's Scottish roots, oh, and the golf project he's hoping to develop.

Okay, at this stage in the proceedings, a few points need to be made. First and most obvious is the fact that Trump has yet to gain official planning permission for the project. Second, the billionaire American clearly hasn't spent much time north of Aberdeen, 'the Granite City,' in winter. It is hard to imagine anyone of significant means wishing to do so, given the harshness of the climate. And third, as my friend Derek Lawrenson, golf correspondent of the Daily Mail, sarcastically wrote the other day: "That's just what Scotland needs, another high-end golfing playground for the wealthy. As if there aren't enough of them already. Any chance of an innovative entrepreneur coming along and building golf facilities that target ­ shock, horror ­ working families?"

And...

"As an international businessman I've enjoyed success over the years and I like to think that part of my achievement can be attributed to my Scottish roots," claimed Trump, who needs to learn nothing about massaging his audience. "For a long time I've been aware that Scottish people are fiercely proud of Scotland and that they like to help their fellow countrymen."

Pardon me, as I pause to wipe a patriotic tear from my patriotic eye.

Roman Ruins Golf by Seve

(click to enlarge)The same reader from Spain who sent in the image of the religiously-correct bunker has emailed another photo, this time of Alicante Golf Club in Alicante Spain.

Apparently that mess of stuff to be crossed for the third shot to a par-5 green is supposed to resemble a faux Roman ruin, only with the columns shortened for playability reasons. 

The reader insists that the faux ruins are played as Ground Under Repair, not a hazard! He  also reports that this hole is from that design genius extraordinaire Seve Ballesteros, who supposedly builds at least one bunker per course in the form of an "s", but at Alicante he constructed a lake in the shape an "s". 

Excuse me, "S." As in Seve. Get it. I probably didn't need to explain that last part.

Holy Toledo!

(click on image to enlarge)A reader in Toledo, Spain saw this bunker and photographed it for our amusement.  He writes:

A city where the Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures lived in harmony for centuries, the arquitect decided to put the symbols of all three cultures in his signature hole.

It's good to know that America hasn't completely cornered the market on horrific design elements! 

The Familiarization Trip

Received this today. Make sure you catch the last sentence. It's a keeper! 

Good morning:

We are hosting media May 30-June 3 at Circling Raven Golf Club/Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel and Coeur d’Alene Resort for a familiarization trip.

www.circlingraven.com
www.cdaresort.com
www.cdacasino.com

The goal of the trip is introduce media to these two properties, both members of the Idaho Golf Trail’s Northern Loop and less than 30 minutes apart. They are rapidly becoming rated among the best one-two public access courses near to one another nationwide, comparing favorably to the Bandons and Pebbles of the golfing resort world.

We would like you to come on the trip and see what the buzz is all about. We think you’ll find the golf and resorts of such caliber and value that you’ll want to review or rate them and let your readers to know about them since they are so close by and so excellent.

Please let us know at your earliest convenience either way.

While this is an expenses-paid trip – all you have to do is show up and play golf – if you’re more comfortable paying a deeply discounted media rate that can be arranged as well.