Golf Digest Armchair Architect Winner

Golf Digest launched an innovative new Armchair Architect contest that collected submissions using imaginary properties and computer aided designs.

While a couple of the finalist images might make you cringe (a golf cart, really?), I think they highlight just how difficult it is to design a golf hole on a computer.

That said, a great start to what could become a fun annual experiment as more readers become computer savvy. Especially since we won't be seeing many new real holes for a while.

"Bad dates doomed Turning Stone tourney"

Eventually the details behind the Turning Stone event's abrupt departure would be revealed and Chris Wagner reports on CEO Ray Halbritter's stance.

Halbritter hinted as much Friday when he explained the reasons he was opting out of the tournament contract after four years. Saddled with sketchy fall-weather dates the first three years and an opposite-field, time-share date this year, Turning Stone’s CEO spelled out his requirements to the PGA Tour: Provide a stand-alone date in either June, July or August — two weeks before or after a major — or the contract was over.

That made it essentially a choice between Greenbrier or Turning Stone and the tour went with Greenbrier, seemingly a great idea at the time. However, the more we read about Jim Justice's lawsuit issues, including the latest news of Lester George adding to his complaint, the less glamorous the place looks.

Golfweek Debuts Top 40 Best New Courses List

Who knew there were enough courses for a list? Actually, forty may be the entire list of new courses which looks hefty considering next year's will be a much shorter list.

What struck me more than a couple of startling slights was the sheer comedic value of some of the course names. And I'm not referring to the ones named after their developers. In the interest of kindness, I won't name names.