Another Modern Design Needs Modernizing

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Thanks to reader Scott for the head's up on this Ari Cohn story in the East Valley Tribune revealing that the TPC Scottsdale Desert Course will undergo a modernization to keep up with the times.

The City Council voted unanimously on Monday to pay the Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale about $568,000 to design renovations to the 18-hole course and clubhouse, which was built in the 1980s on about 200 acres on the southeast corner of Hayden and Bell roads.

The council also approved a resolution to float up to $10 million in bonds to pay for the construction costs.

Construction is expected to close the course between February and September.

City senior project manager Annette Grove said the renovations will alter the layout of the fairways, greens and obstacles, replace turf, install better irrigation and drainage systems to conserve water, and make the course more accessible to the disabled.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how they configure this to make it a more challenging course,” Grove said.

Firestone Too Long?

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Golfonline's Joe Passov reviews his five favorite Robert Trent Jones designs, and notes this about Firestone:

By the late 1980s, Firestone South had run into a wall of criticism. "It's too long. It's too hard. It's too boring." Indeed, most of Firestone's holes run parallel to one another and the majority of greens are elevated and fronted by bunkers, lending a certain sameness to the proceedings. Yet, in 2006, the course isn't outrageously long by modern standards and a new generation of pros has come to appreciate the layout's straightforward virtues.

Hard to imagine that a course deemed "too long" just two decades ago is now the home of mostly driver-wedge par-4s. 

8,000 Here We Come?

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The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Burt Graeff looks at the likelihood of 8,000 yard courses in the near future.

For years, the PGA Tour has pushed tees back - stretching courses to more than 7,000 yards in hopes of keeping the world's best golfers from shooting 22 under par at every stop.
Technology and players who are in better physical condition, parlayed with fairways so firm that balls roll as much as 100 yards, have turned 7,000-yard courses into ones that pros hit driver, sand wedge at 455-yard par-4s and driver, 3-iron on 550-yard par 5s.
100 yards? Maybe at Kapalua and where else?
Get ready for the 8,000-yard course on the PGA Tour.

"There is no doubt [the 8,000-yard course] is going to happen," said Sergio Garcia, one of the favorites in the $7.5 million Bridgestone Invitational that begins Thursday at Firestone's South Course.

"What do I think about it? It doesn't matter. I don't care."
Ah, that's the kind of player-architect we like. Considerate, thoughtful, pragmatic.
Suggesting in the 1950s that courses on the PGA Tour would some day top 8,000 yards in length was out of the question. 
"Everyone would have thought you were nuts," said Corey Pavin, whom, at 264.3 yards, is last among 199 players ranked for driving distance.

Pavin, a 5-9, 155-pounder, averages 55 fewer yards per drive than the tour's big hitter, Bubba Watson, who averages a whopping 319.3 yards off the tee.

And what does Pavin, a 15-time tour winner, think of the prospect of playing 8,000-yard courses?

"I think that I won't be playing golf anymore when that happens," he said, smiling.

And this just warms the heart...

Allenby, the world's 36th-ranked player who averages 294.8 yards off the tee, said he has no problem playing courses stretched to 8,000 yards. "It almost needs to happen," he said. "I'd love to see it. I hit my 3 woods close.

"The length of these courses doesn't matter to us. They feel shorter and shorter."

Ah, but thankfully there's a Pepperdine educated player out there to deliver perspective...

Jason Gore is a 6-1, 235-pounder who owns the tour's two longest measured drives - 427 yards. Yet he's not wild and crazy about playing 8,000-yard courses.

"Unfortunately," he said, "it would not surprise me to see it happen.

"If you get to that point, I think you are tricking it up and cheapening it. Take Firestone. This is an example of a classic course that doesn't need all that distance.

 "It is a good test the way it is."

And the final word on 8,000 yard courses...

"I can't see it," said South African Rory Sabbatini. "That would be excessive. That would be like putting speed bumps at Talladega."

Huh? Ah, forget it. 

Built In '86, Outdated in '06

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The Louisville Courier-Journal's Jody Demling takes an extensive look at Jack Nicklaus overhauling Valhalla in preparation for the 2008 Ryder Cup.

Nicklaus was in town yesterday to oversee ongoing construction of the most extensive changes in the 20-year history of the course he designed in eastern Jefferson County as Valhalla prepares to play host to the 2008 Ryder Cup.

 About 1,000 trees have been removed, four greens have been dynamited and transplanted (one didn't meet his approval and will move again) and the No. 2 hole may play as a 535-yard par-4 for the professionals.

"I thought we had a pretty good golf course to start with, but times have changed," Nicklaus said. "It's been 20 years since we did the golf course, and golf equipment has changed dramatically. And the ability of the players has changed dramatically with the equipment.

"To challenge the ability of the players today we needed to add some length and spice to the golf course, and in some places we have softened it a bit."

Hey, but it had 20 good years.

Nicklaus spent several hours touring the course with several PGA of America officials, original course owner Dwight Gahm and course superintendent Mark Wilson, among others.

"We have to take the golf courses and make it fit today's game, and that's what we're trying to do," Nicklaus said.

And...

Every hole will be affected in some way. The grass on all 18 greens is being replaced. Greens on the sixth, eighth, 11th and 16th holes are being rebuilt, and bunkers are being added to seven holes.

"(The PGA) is turning Jack loose and making it modern," said Gahm, who sold the course to the PGA after the 2000 event. "He's doing everything he wants to do, and it's going to be even better.

"I'm just glad he's not using my money."

Nice line!

Valhalla played 7,167 yards for the 2000 PGA, won by Tiger Woods in a playoff with Bob May, but will play about 7,500 yards from the back tees when finished.

"We sat down (with Nicklaus) and came up with a vision of how we can take Valhalla and modernize it and challenge today's players and do it well," PGA of America chief executive officer Joe Steranka said.

This is fun...

Members are allowed to play the course, but all the holes are using temporary greens in the middle of the fairways and course officials said play has been slow. But PGA officials said this will strengthen the stature of the course, which is listed among the top 100 nationally by several publications.

Listed among the top 100, yet it's undergoing a complete facelift. I'm not sure if it's an indictment of the rankings, or the equipment situation.

The biggest change is at the par-4 sixth hole that played 421 yards in the 2000 PGA. The hole is a dogleg right where the second shot must be hit over Floyd's Fork.

But Nicklaus said the green is being moved back 80 yards and into an area that is surrounded by trees, making it a longer hole where a second shot would likely be 200-220 yards after PGA players hit a 3-wood or long iron off the tee.

"It was already an exciting hole," Nicklaus said. "It's actually a par-4 that, I think, they're not going to be able to play a wedge to, if there is such a thing in this world today. It's going to be a beautiful golf hole."

The green on the par-3 eighth hole has been rebuilt, and the tee has been moved back a bit. The green was dropped four feet, allowing for better viewing.

Nicklaus spent a great deal of time at No. 11, a par-3 that played 168 yards in 2000. The original green has been destroyed, but after looking at the new layout Nicklaus said the green will be moved back and a little farther left from the original green. The hole will likely play 200-205 yards.

"The green you are looking at down there do not expect it to be there," Nicklaus told the media gathered around No. 11. "How it got there, I'm not sure. Probably my mistake. But we're moving it back, and it will work out nicely."

Nicklaus said No. 16 already had a new tee built since 2000, and now the green is being pulled together with the No. 17 tee box. He also said he took "some of the humps" out of most greens because "they got too severe."

Uh...they got severe, or were severe?

But It'll Be A Core Links Course...

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Frank Urquhart reports in The Scotsman that The Donald now wants to build homes at his Scottish golf development.

Ambitious plans by billionaire tycoon Donald Trump to build the "world's greatest golf course" in Scotland could be bunkered by proposals to include the development of hundreds of homes in the luxury resort.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the Trump Organisation is proposing to build 250 properties - 100 houses and 150 flats - on the site as part of the £300 million golf development on a stretch of environmentally sensitive links land on the Menie Estate, near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire.

Although no official plans have been lodged, Mr Trump has previously outlined a vision featuring a Victorian-style hotel and luxury clubhouse.

Now, the minutes of a meeting held on 16 January between officials from Aberdeenshire Council and the Scottish Executive and representatives of Jenkins and Marr, the Trump Organisation's Aberdeen architects, disclose that the tycoon also has plans for a housing development - which planning chiefs say could breach regulations.

 

Sebonack Opens

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shovels_200p.jpgCybergolf has the press release on the historic Jack Nicklaus-Tom Doak course opening.

Bearing fruition to one of the most highly anticipated design collaborations in recent years, Sebonack Golf Club, co-crafted by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak, marked its grand opening on August 23. The opening of the Southampton, N.Y., layout was marked by a press conference and first-tee ceremony before hundreds of invited guests, members and media. Heralded by some as "the most highly anticipated new private course in the country," some feel Sebonack is poised to capture acclaim as a "modern classic."  

Situated on 300 waterfront acres next to the historic National Golf Links of America and Shinnecock Hills Golf Course, most of Sebonack's holes offer panoramic views of Long Island's Great Peconic Bay and Cold Spring Pond. The course, which is meant to look weathered despite its infancy, features contoured fairways, expansive bunkers and waste dunes, and undulating greens with swales and ridges.   

"Both Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak have given Sebonack a lot of their attention and time," said owner Michael Pascucci. "My goal in securing this extraordinary alliance of experience and talent was to get the best 18 holes out of this piece of land as possible. What I had hoped for was to have Tom's minimalist style successfully mesh with Jack's strategic mind as history's greatest golfer and one of its finest designers, in order to result in a course of beauty and a pure test of golf skills. I believe we have achieved something very special with Sebonack."   

Both designers agree that together they have crafted a course "that is better than either of us could have done alone." Nicklaus, who was captivated by the property the first time he saw it, said, "One of the reasons I agreed to do this project is that I enjoy working with other people. I am always interested in other people's ideas and what I might glean from them. I think Tom has some great ideas on how to go about golf course design. I have my own ideas, and I would think the ideas I used have impacted him. The Sebonack project has influenced us both in positive ways, and it was a very pleasant experience. We are very proud of the end product."   

Doak, who once said of Sebonack that "it's hard to imagine a project bigger than this one," thinks he definitely benefited from the experience of working with Nicklaus. "The experience of the collaboration with Jack has encouraged me to be bolder in the future," Doak remarked. "I'd like to design a course for a professional event someday, and I think because of the Sebonack experience I understand the mindset much better after working with Jack and his team."   

Garrity Chats With Rees Jones

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SI.com's John Garrity blogs about his chat with Rees Jones.

I must have been mistaken about seeing golf architect Rees Jones driving a bulldozer out on the course, because I just ran into him on the press center patio. "Does it bother you to see so many red numbers on the board?" I asked him.

"It doesn't bother me on the first day," he replied. "You see that at most every major, because they're trying to get the whole field through. But there are some real pitfalls out there once they hide the pins."

The flag on the par-3 17th, for instance, will keep moving diagonally right until Sunday, when it is practically in the water. Similarly, the hole on the par-3 second will probably work its way left toward what used to be a bunker, but which is now water, thanks to Jones' handiwork. "The closer the players think they're getting to that trophy," Jones said with gusto, "the harder it is to get there."

Having thrown down the gauntlet, Jones leaned over and picked it up again. "We don't have a backbreaker par-4," he said with a tinge of regret, "nothing over 480 yards. And we didn't convert any par-5s to par-4s, which we often do at majors. And we didn't know the ball was going to hold so well. The players can go for the flag, knowing the ball is not going to scoot."
And...
"But it's not just the softness of the greens," he said. The clouds seemed to close in again on Jones. "It's the equipment, too. The manufacturers seem to be a step ahead of us all the time. They're making balls that come straight down" -- his eyes got big -- "and just stop!"
Rees, you're not supposed to say that. Remember, the ball is off limits in USGA groupthink circles.

 

Norman On Tour's Drug Policy: "a bunch of @#$%&!!"

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An unbylined Sydney Morning Herald story asks Greg Norman what he thinks of Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour's position on performance enhancing drugs.

"Just put rules in place," pleaded Norman.

"I think our organisation, as big as it is, should have something in our by-laws stipulating substance-abuse.

"You hear about it all the time on tour and if there are no rules and regulations in place, you don't blame the players for doing it.

"It's been rumoured for over 20 years, players using outside substances to help their performances. If you're playing for $5 million a week, you've got to take advantage of it the best you can.

"It isn't just steroids. HGH, beta blockers, there's probably a multitude of drugs out there [in the market place] we don't even know about."

Commissioner Tim Finchem has long maintained that the tour doesn't need to test for performance-enhancing substances because there isn't a problem, a view Norman ridicules.

"That's a bunch of bullshit, as far as I'm concerned," Norman said. "Don't stick your head in the sand. Step up to the plate. If there's nothing there, great, but if you find a couple who've done it, at least your organisation has been ballsy enough to eliminate it, because you don't know where it's going to be in 25 years."

He doesn't necessarily think use of performance-enhancing substances is rife, but believes that's not the point.

"It doesn't matter if it's one or 100," Norman said. "If they're using outside agencies to improve their performance and beat you, that's not good."


 

Faxon and Hanse At TPC Boston

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Jim McCabe reports on Brad Faxon and Gil Hanse making changes to the TPC Boston after the 2006 Deutsche Bank event.
Brad Faxon confirmed he will join forces with Gil Hanse -- arguably the most unheralded big-time golf course architect in the country -- to give TPC Boston a new look for 2007.

``Most of the work will be re-bunkering, trying to give the course a more traditional New England look," said Faxon. He said there are plans to change a few holes, most notably the short, dogleg right, par-4 fourth, which has confounded golfers since the place opened in 2002. It requires a drive over wetlands and even with the tournament tee pushed back, it leaves good players with an uncomfortable tee shot.

`There's a chance we'll be able to make it almost a drivable par-4," said Faxon. ``It's just such a crazy dogleg."

Changes will also be made to the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes, but Faxon thinks only one or two greens will be affected. If Hanse is involved, it bodes well for this young course. Praised by industry leaders, Hanse was the creative mind behind the Boston Golf Club in Hingham, a brilliant layout that has earned a spot on those lists of the best new courses in the country.

Rees On "Pipe 2"

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Rees Jones sat in on the Pipe 2 webcast of Mickelson-Ogilvy-Woods and said that "the reason I do so many redos is that I can put myself in the head of the original architects."

It must be nice. 

He also cited his dad as the source of the famous line about balls finishing in bunkers like being in a car crash, versus finishing in a water hazard being like a plane crash.

Wasn't that Bobby Jones?  

Oh, and they did a nice feature on Rees and briefly showed a photo that was identified as Robert Trent Jones Sr.  It was Robert Trent Jones Jr.!***

***When TNT aired the feature, they got a photo of Trent Jones Sr. in!! Nice recovery. 

Fairway Bunkers Where You Want To Be

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In his press conference today, Geoff Ogilvy was asked to compare Hoylake and Medinah, and made this point:

Hoylake was, keep it out of the bunkers; anything you could do to keep it out of the bunkers. The rough was actually not a bad spot to be. It was almost better than the fairways in a lot of situations because you had an angle, but you just had to keep it out of fairways bunkers. So that was the whole goal there. Here it's probably keep it out of the rough. Fairway bunkers are probably a good spot to be in a lot of situations.

It is interesting how many times at Medinah that fairway bunkers are placed where the player might have the best angle of attack or view of the green.

standrewspot.gifBut readers of Robert Hunter's The Links will recall his remark that at St. Andrews, many of the best holes have bunkers exactly where you would like to drive to and approach from.

So, why is that praised at St. Andrews and not at Medinah?

The elimination of width, the high rough and overhanging trees play a significant role.

Also, the bunkers at Medinah are large, while the St. Andrews bunkers are mostly pot bunkers.

Therefore, the player can flirt with the pots, striking a shot in the general vicinity, with fairway all around. At Medinah, the bunkers are too large and surrounded by rough, eliminating the temptation to flirt with the sand to open up the ideal angle.illustration3.gif

St. Andrews's pits encourage options and aggressive play, Medinah's fairway bunkers emphasize obedience and caution.  

Some people prefer the latter, especially in response to equipment advances. I happen to like the more democratic St. Andrews approach. 

"We weren't out to make it just dog-long"

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Stan Awtrey looks at the latest renovation at Atlanta Athletic Club's Highlands Course, which is hoping to give Medinah a run for most pre-major redos. The Highlands hosts the PGA in 2011, and I know you just can't wait to see it again.

"We wanted to make the course more spectacular," director of golf Rick Anderson said. "We wanted to make the holes more challenging, with some strategy to them. We weren't out to make it just dog-long."

With Highlands in need of major irrigation work, the Athletic Club opted for a major facelift. There's different grass, more bunkers and more water. And, of course, it's longer.

"We wanted to see how many things we could fix at one time," said Anderson, who was only half-kidding.

Superintendent Ken Mangum, the director of golf courses and grounds, was in charge of the project, which began in March. He had an operating budget of more than $4 million.

Can we add that $4 million to the class action suit that the world's golf courses should file against the USGA and R&A to recover expenses?

New championship tees were built on 11 holes. Among the most dramatic is at No. 15, a par 3 which played 227 yards when Toms made a hole-in-one there five years ago. The hole can now be pulled back to play 260 yards.

That's a big yes.

Many fairway bunkers were moved, and others were constructed, to catch up with the pros' ability to fly the ball 300 yards. At No. 6, for example, fairway bunkers have been extended all the way down the right side to the green.

Bet that looks pretty.

Water is more evident, too. A pond was added to the left of the green at No. 6; it draws short shots to it like a magnet. A new back tee at No. 8 requires a 290-yard drive to fly the pond, for those brave enough to take the risk option.

You can now see the water from the 18th tee, which wasn't possible until the alterations pulled the pond 10 yards farther to the right and 10-to-12 yards closer to the tee box.

"I know when I can see the water, it bothers me more," Mangum said.

The 18th, already one of the most famous finishing holes in golf, can now play 528 yards. It will probably play as a par 4 in 2011.

Only 528?

Anderson and Mangum stressed that the changes were needed and would have been made regardless of whether the PGA was returning in 2011. They said the Riverside course, which was redone with zoysia fairways in 2003, had grown to be a favorite with members, and it was drawing more play than Highlands.

Can't imagine why.