When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
"Right there it wouldn't pass Architecture 101"
/Len Ziehm talks to a few players about Cog Hill and while the criticisms are noteworthy, I think it's more interesting to see these guys getting more nuanced in their analysis of what makes something poor.
Read MoreLos Angeles Country Club To Host 2017 Walker Cup
/Announced today at soggy Merion, where the weather will not be replicated in L.A. in September 2017.
Read More"Similar to most"
/Steve Elling asks Geoff Ogilvy whether his opening 68 was inspired by playing the pro-am with Rees Jones, fresh off another Reestorization at Cog Hill. Ogilvy asked Twitterers for questions to pass on to Rees but sadly, did not use my contribution (How does he get all of his bunkers to look the same?).
Read More"An 'ambitious' course in Russia costs at least $100 million"
/Thanks to reader Jim for Ilya Khrennikov's story on upscale golf course construction continuing in Russia despite dire economic news. This caught my eye in the context of golf in the Olympics, since Jack Nicklaus is one of the proponents for using the Olympics to grow the game worldwide, and yet is behind some of these outlandishly expensive designs:
Read More"It's just way too much."
/From John Hawkins' Barclays game story in Golf World:
Read MoreHeath Slocum Win Means He Can Take Next Two Weeks Off And Still Reach The World Series
/There's some nice reporting to check out on Heath Slocum's upset win at The Barclays. The scribblers surely had plenty of time to whip up some fun lines, since twosomes of the world's best took four and a half hours to get around Liberty National. I doubt it was because they were busy sketching out the architectural details. More likely all of the lift, clean and cheat drops to get away from the catch basin divot clusters.
Read More"This is a phenomenal golf course. I think this is good enough for a major."
/Liberty National has fans!
Granted, one of the guys wears pink pants with pride and the other looks to Howard Hughes for life inspiration, but at least two guys won't get fined at Liberty National.
"With this fescue, shades of an Open Championship layout."
/Kelly Tilghman on today's telecast, talking about Liberty National.
Read More"It's like a tornado just went through."
/Reader Don grabbed this round one screen shot of Liberty National and offered the fitting description quoted above.
“Maybe Tom did this course before his eye operation.”
/Just when the doctor cleared me to watch a CBS telecast the rest of the year (only two more!), he advised against listening to the fawning over Liberty National and suggested I not view anything featuring divot swarm-decorated catch basins, faux creeks or fairways lined by containment mounds.
Read Morein·ter·est·ing (in-t(ə-)rəs-tiŋ) : holding the attention : arousing interest
/It's hard to interpret the early reviews of Liberty National, but it seems like most of the players are trying their best not to blast the design. Shoot, Norman Vincent Ogilvy is tweeting about how great it is that players are actually discussing design. Granted, it took a Cupp-Kite nightmare, but he's finding the positive in that. Impressive restraint!
Read MoreNew Rule...
/
Click to enlarge at your own risk...with apologies to Bill Maher--no course can host a major event or be eligible for a ranking if they have fake swans in their lakes.
Some of you may have noticed during Solheim Cup play that the lake swans at Rich Harvest Farms never moved.
Yes I know, they're more discreet than fountains, and I do appreciate a sense of humor sometimes, but if you have to put phony wildlife on your golf course to spruce things up, you are not a real golf course.
