Apocalypse Now: Ames and Johnny Form Design Dream Team!

Lorne Rubenstein's latest Globe and Mail column reveals the dream design pairing between Stephen Ames and Johnny Miller. 

The background here is intriguing. Calgary-based Windmill Golf Group hired Miller's design firm to do a course as part of a new community at Harmony, on the northwest corner of Springbank Airport, in the city's western suburbs. Windmill has done a few well-received courses in the province.

"We pride ourselves on doing master-plan communities," Miller's son, Scott, who works in his father's firm, said during a telephone interview this week. "We feel it's fairly unique, our ability to take a project from raw land to the end."

Unique is certainly way of putting it. 

The Millers have visited the site twice.

The devotion these player architects have to their craft...

They weren't considering a course that could stage the Canadian Open until Ames suggested the idea. He was aware of Windmill's other projects in Alberta, including the Elbow Springs course near his home. He got wind of the project, contacted Miller and offered to get involved.

"We heard about it through the grapevine," Ames said the other day while having breakfast at a restaurant in Calgary. "My guy [Kim Koss] looked into it and approached Johnny. He just wanted to build a course, but I asked about a course that could hold the Canadian Open."

Miller liked the idea, and Ames came aboard. Ames said, "It's been a treat working with Johnny and Scott. Johnny's been very obliging. For me, I want to learn to build courses. When I mentioned the idea of a Canadian Open, their eyes opened up."

So you'd put them to sleep prior to that?

Ames said plans are to build a course that can stretch to 8,100 yards. Calgary's altitude, along with how far players are hitting the ball today, means that's not a ludicrous length. It doesn't mean the course will play that long should the Canadian Open come there. But it doesn't hurt to have the yards available.

No, at 8,100 it's already a lost cause, so what's another few hundred unnecessary yards?

Drivable Par-4s

My Golf World feature on the rise of driveable par 4s in PGA Tour golf is now posted at GolfDigest.com.

Make sure to check out the "scatter charts" Golf World created using the Tour's ShotLink data to see what players scored from the location of their tee shot. (Mini version here on the left, the full version is embedded in the article.)

"We're really good for selling real estate"

Thanks to reader Hugh for this Martin Blake story on Karrie Webb cutting back on her schedule, with this nugget:

The good news for Golf Australia, which is bringing the national women's Open to Kingston Heath for the first time, is that Webb has had an eight-week break at home in Queensland and feels fresh. Retirement is not on the doorstep quite yet, and she will start a short-priced favourite in this week's tournament.

Venturing out to the course for her first practice session yesterday, it occurred to Webb that many people in golf have no clue how good Melbourne's sandbelt is. The LPGA plays three-quarters of its tournaments on dreadful, new courses.

"We're really good for selling real estate," Webb said. "We go to a lot of courses that are new developments. Obviously, it costs money for tournaments to go to golf courses. Newer golf courses will waive the fee or even pay us to go there because they're trying to sell houses. They can say, 'The LPGA plays here'."

"They gave me hours on my Marquis Jet Card, they even threw a party in New York.”

Sallie Brady pens a New York Times "Escapes" piece on the burgeoning market for homes in various Latin countries. Included are a couple of fun anecdotes and even more reminders at how poor most of us are:

On Anguilla, Mr. Kanavos has developed the island’s first golf course, designed by Greg Norman, in the Baccarat Hotels and Residences at Temenos, a 115-villa project with a spa and a David Bouley restaurant. Eager to appeal to high-end buyers, Mr. Kanavos successfully lobbied the government to extend the airport runway to accommodate private jets.

“I’ve been to almost every Caribbean island and this was Shangri-La” said Kenny Bergstol, 48, a New City, N.Y.,-based developer of golf courses and real estate, who bought a three-bedroom villa at Temenos, where furnished villas are priced from $1.4 million to $13.2 million. “While my home is being built, they’re letting me and my family stay at the resort for a week a year, they gave me hours on my Marquis Jet Card, they even threw a party in New York.”

And this ought to bring great joy to the branding team in Ponte Vedra: 

“I had thought about buying a piece of property and putting a hacienda up on it, but there are issues in Mexico,” said Larry Harvey, 43, a wealth consultant in The Woodlands, Tex., who recently bought a two-bedroom town house at the Viceroy Mayakobá, part of a new 1,600-acre golf community along the Riviera Maya, 42 miles south of Cancún, that Viceroy is developing around a Greg Norman championship course with the Rosewood, Fairmont and Banyan Tree resort developers.

Mr. Harvey was referring to a Mexican law that puts limits on foreigners who seek to buy near the coast. Mexico employs a system that allows a Mexican bank to act as a trustee on behalf of a purchaser of this restricted land.

“I had stayed at the Viceroy Santa Monica and liked it,” said Mr. Harvey, noting the California hotel’s designer, Kelly Wearstler, is also designing the Mexico property. "I have four boys who are learning how to play golf, and my wife, Mari, and I like the fact that the FedEx Cup is here in February. We’ll be able to rent” Mr. Harvey said.

The FedEx Cup is coming! The FedEx Cup is coming! 

Previewing Waialae

My Yahoo column on Sony Open host Waialae's history and current course conditions, is now posted. Also included is some speculation on the recent U.S. Open venue news.

And because great minds whose parents opted for the G-E-O-F-F spelling think alike, Golf World's Geoff Russell wonders the same thing I did about a certain Bedminster course becoming a viable candidate.

"They have escalated the cost of maintenance, they have slowed down play, and they have completely lost control of the equipment. Outside of that, they have done a pretty good job."

My Links Magazine interview with Pete Dye is now posted.  I didn't even have to ask about the USGA. He brought it up!

Someone Appreciates The Plantation Course!

Larry Dorman of the New York Times, writing about Daniel Chopra and his play through two rounds at Kapalua:

The winds on Maui’s northwest shore alternately howl and halt, testing a golfer’s ability to work the ball and control its trajectory. The imagination required to solve the nuances of the course created by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore is something Chopra possesses.

“I don’t think I hit a single shot all day long that was, except for maybe with a driver, that was a normal up-in-the-air shot,” Chopra said Thursday. “Every iron shot I hit I knocked down, took loft off of it, cut or drew it in there. I manufactured pretty much every single shot I had to hit today, other than my normal, standard stock which you just hit on the driving range.”

That comes as sweet music in an era of bomb and gouge, where many golfers simply blast the ball with their driver as far as possible without regard to rough or bunkers, then gouge it from the rough on to the green with square-grooved wedges. Young Daniel Chopra, who is working with the old-school instructor Butch Harmon, is attuned to the importance of creating shots.
 

"The story of the year was the retro-restyling of the TPC Boston"

Bradley Klein serves up his annual architecture year-in-review, noting the TPC Boston's redo, Chambers Bay and the slow state of the new course business.

“Before we even selected him, I bet Mike put in more than 40 hours, walking around, beating a path out there and trying to get a feel for the land"

Links Magazine's Adam Brady explains how Mike Strantz's outstanding redo of Monterey Peninsula CC's Shore Course came to fruition.

The photo is by Larry Lambrecht.

Issue Three Of Tillinghast Journal

Now posted on Tillinghast.net is the latest issue, including an interview with architect Keith Foster.

“There would be no Bandon Dunes if it weren’t for Howard McKee"

John Gunther reports on the passing of Howard McKee, probably best known to readers of Steve Goodwin's book on Bandon Dunes.

“There would be no Bandon Dunes if it weren’t for Howard McKee,” Keiser told me in a phone interview this week.

The two met nearly two decades ago, when Howard was the land planner for the proposed 1992 World’s Fair in Chicago, home of Keiser’s Recycle Paper Greetings business.

They became fast friends, and when Howard learned Keiser was looking for property on the East Coast to build an Irish-style links golf course, he suggested Keiser also look at the West Coast.

“I had never considered Oregon,” Keiser said.

They looked at various properties, and after choosing the site near Bandon, Howard took on the entire burden of the challenging land permit process that led to approval of the site for the resort.

A GolfClubAtlas.com thread includes remarks from Tom Doak. 

"The Sharp Park Golf Course and Club House are historically significant facilities."

The Pacifica City Council has petitioned San Francisco to not even think of touching MacKenzie's Sharp Park. Included is their resolution, printed in the Pacifica paper.

"The extent of most golfers knowledge in this country is limited to those pretty pictures from the US Tour"

Thanks to reader Mark for noting that New Zealand's Greg Turner kindly chimed in on the debate over John Darby's The Hills and as always his thoughts make for enjoyable reading.

I think much is to do with the fact that your average kiwi has done so little golf related travel that they haven't seen what great golf can look like. The extent of most golfers knowledge in this country is limited to those pretty pictures from the US Tour and the advertorial reactions to them lamely proffered by your compliant professional golfer.

I, for one, spent much time arguing with the establishment on the European Tour that by their legislated requirement for nothing other than positive remarks about any given venue they cut off important debate at its most visible point. Pro golf - like it or not - is the shop window of the sport. If proper and reasoned debate was allowed at this level, then it would result in much more reasoned debate in general (it might also result in your average pro developing a better knowledge of design when he/she had to fight their corner).

Instead we have the unhealthy cycle of renowned designer (or in NZ's case property developer) being awarded big budget job, event being used to promote, pros being suitably deferential, designer emerging with reputation enhanced and continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again. And in a small and until recently isolated place like NZ no real forum exists to break that cycle!
Fortunately the worm is slowly starting to turn, and there is therefore some hope.

"Huggan called The Hills picturesque but ultimately desperate. Precisely what he means, I don't know."

Peter Williams protects the home turf and gets a free column courtesy of John Huggan, who penned a column last week that essentially wrote off the New Zealand Open host site and questioned the wisdom of real estate communities built on sensitive land.

Huggan called The Hills picturesque but ultimately desperate. Precisely what he means, I don't know. I'm not saying The Hills is a classic but the players I spoke with seemed genuinely complimentary and looked forward to some fine tuning as the course matures.

I think Williams essentially answers part of the issue that Huggan had in that last sentence (the players loved it and they can't wait to see what happens after the bulldozers fix it!). Darby's comments were also less than inspiring.  

“A branded golf course will boost the value and income of a resort.”

The San Diego Union Tribune's Diane Lindquist covered a gathering of real estate minds to talk about the future of projects in Baja California. Jack Nicklaus was a guest speaker.

The most popular and lucrative projects now are those that are branded, such as golf courses designed by champion golfer Jack Nicklaus, who spoke yesterday about his role as the top golf course architect in Mexico.

“As soon as golf became part of the equation, prices went up,” he said. “A branded golf course will boost the value and income of a resort.”