"A Simpler Game"

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Now posted is my winter Links Magazine look at how golf got to the mess it's in and ways in which costs can be cut. Included are quotes from architects like Bruce Hepner, developer Jim Taylor of Clear Creek and superintendent Rusty Mercer of Cuscowilla. As always, thoughts welcomed

Meanwhile Ryan Ballengee plays Coore and Crenshaw's Sugarloaf Mountain, part of a failing central Florida real estate development, and comes away wondering if people would ever buy a home on a minimalist design. 

Y.E. Yang And TPC Scottsdale's 17th

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In this week's Golf World I penned a story (not posted online) about the strategic joys of the 17th hole at TPC Scottsdale. While I spent much of the week out on the tee or green, the beauty of the architecture and pressure of a final round tour event all came into focus when Y.E. Yang arrived at the tee with a two shot lead. The following sequence, as seen from behind the tee, pretty much tells the rest of the story...

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Anatomy Of The Tenth Hole, Vol. 1

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Round 1, 2010 Northern Trust Open, morning play. All three players laid up (a rarity in the era of improved workout programs).

Based on the lay-up position, see if you can guess which player made a 9 footer for birdie, which missed his 14 footer for birdie and which player had to get up and down from the left bunker for par? (And no ShotTracker cheating, please.)

Luke Donald's approach shot:

Rocco Mediate's approach angle:

Jason Dufner's approach angle:

For more on No. 10, enjoy some of Doug Ferguson's morning Tweets from the scene.

The Revamped 8th At Riviera, 2010 Edition

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Riviera's infamous double-fairway 8th has been revamped (again!) and this year's edition is a real doozy. Trees down the center have been removed and a hazard/channel/sandy Swilken Bridge cut down the center, along with some new bunkering that George Thomas surely meant to install but just never got around to it.
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"We're as committed as ever to High Carolina and the Tiger Woods golf course"

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There appears to be a difference of opinion in how to represent the state of Tiger's project for The Cliffs in North Carolina, as Dawn Wotapka files a lengthy WSJ story quoting developer Jim Anthony that the project is still very much on, contradicting a Golfweek report posted online yesterday.
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"It's all about the golf."

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Great to see John Paul Newport filing this excellent look at the return of the golf-only, smaller-scale clubhouse, including some great stuff on the economics of big buildings. There's also a slideshow with the column.

You could see the trend beginning in the early 2000s, just as the golf course building boom was ending, with the opening of such clubs as Dallas National in Texas, The Dye Preserve in Jupiter, Fla., Friar's Head on New York's eastern Long Island, and the Chechessee Creek Club in Okatie, S.C. All of these have relatively small, understated clubhouses, superb golf courses (those at the last two designed by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore), and no swimming pools or tennis courts. It's all about the golf.

Whisper Rock in Scottsdale, Ariz., which opened in 2004, is another good example. It's expensive, with initiation fees running now at $130,000, and, as an all-male club, politically incorrect. (Women and children are allowed to play golf there several days a week.) But its casual atmosphere (club motto: "It's all about the hang") and two highly ranked courses have attracted an enviable membership that includes something like 40 current or former PGA Tour players, all of whom pay the full initiation fee and regular dues. During a recent lunch visit there, I spotted Paul Casey, Gary McCord and Peter Kostis.

So out of curiousity, what would you all nominate as an ideal clubhouse in golf?