Phil's Least Favorite Architect List: Dye With A Bullet!

Good news Rees, Phil's over you now that he's seen Pete's 13th green in a new light. Dave Shedloski explains what happened Thursday at The Players and shares this quote from Mickelson after a double bogey derailed a good round.

"I don't know what to say. I don't know if it's the set-up or the design, but I just don't agree with that," Mickelson said after a one-under 71 left him seven behind leader Nick Watney after the first round. "I thought the question was would it stay up on top and be by the hole or was it going to roll down in the low area? I didn't know it could possibly go in the water. I think when I design golf courses, I try not to screw the player like that. I try to keep it a little bit fair. I don't know what I could have done differently."

Shark Likely To Have Another Course Bulldozed

The Paulson banktruptcy filing on Doral includes the revelation that the group is not including the Great White course as part of the package, according to this Bloomberg story. This raised a few eyebrows until Douglas Hanks and David Neal explained that they want to develop Norman's Miami masterpiece.

The owners of the Doral resort want to spin-off one of its five golf courses for residential or commercial development, according to court filings.

The move to separate the Doral’s “Great White’’ course — named after designer Greg Norman — probably would not impact the resort’s annual PGA golf tournament, which is played on the famous “Blue Monster.’

Members Buy Colorado Golf Club

Howard Pankratz reports on good news for the Coore-Crenshaw designed home of the 2013 Solheim Cup and a course thought to have been a PGA Championship contender despite having a non-Rees Jones design and August temperatures potentially under 94 degrees.

Colorado Golf Club said "the acquisition marks a new beginning for the club".

Ferrell said the transaction was completed after months of negotiations and cooperation between the membership and other parties - including the original developers, lenders, creditors and New York real estate investor Arendale Holdings.

"I've never seen a more multi-faceted deal," said Ferrell, who has been in the golf business more than two decades. "It is remarkable all the players could make this happen."

"We wanted to restore the uncertainty."

More high profile coverage of Pinehurst #2's revival, this time from John Paul Newport Jeff Neuman in the WSJ. Funny, but with the Players Championship looming I wish we could plug the TPC Sawgrass into the parts discussing the removal of turf in favor of sand, wiregrass and pine needles.

"The reputation of Pinehurst was established in its natural state," said Coore. "Once you got off the fairways, it was wiregrass and hardpack sand. You might roll up against the wiregrass, or you might reach the pine needles, or you might have a clear, firm lie. We wanted to restore the uncertainty."

Coore and Crenshaw studied old photographs and aerials of the course taken in the 1940s. They removed untold acres of Bermuda sod and replaced it with…nothing.

"When you remove the grass, areas expose themselves as sandy wasteland, firmer, and evolution takes over," Crenshaw told me.

Some soft white sand and pine straw were scattered over the waste areas, awaiting the winds that will put them where they will. Eighty thousand wiregrass plants, whose wispy tufts are more an impediment than an obstruction, were planted by hand in a largely random pattern, though concentrated more heavily alongside the landing areas for the professionals' drives.

Third Masters Question: Will This Year's Setup Get The Credit It Deserves?

After all, we live in a world where a champion heroically birdieing the last four holes and a host of other players performing brilliantly under pressure might just give some the impression something was faulty with the design or setup.

Well, we know tournament chairman Fred Ridley phoned in this year's setup...just kidding.

As I noted in Golf World Monday (link readable for non-subscribers too), Augusta National put on a show like few others this year thanks to what looked like a combination of a very solid setup by the committee, the addition of so much more grass on the course and slightly softer ground.

No, balls didn't roll down banks into creeks and lakes as much as they used to. And in general, we saw very few situations where you felt like the course was creeping over the edge. Schwartzel shot -14 and sure, there were plenty of red numbers but the weather was essentially ideal for four days. On a course with no rough, four par-5s and smooth greens, that's a number today's players should shoot.

That said, the architecture still is tainted by the recent changes, namely at 11, 15 and 17 where the tree planting does not get any less offensive. Huggan and Elling noted this and other course related topics in their pond scrum:

Huggan: The sight of Jason Day chipping out -- chipping out at Augusta! -- from behind a particularly mindless example of a Hootie tree right of No. 15 made me shudder.

Elling: Absolutely agreed. The whole idea is to be able to go for the green -- at your own peril. Chop-outs are for the U.S. Open.

Huggan: I don't have a problem with ANGC being longer, I might add. Something has to be done if the ball is not to be fixed by the USGA and the R&A. In fact, we have come full circle in that respect: 14 years ago the so-called "Tiger-proofing" began when Woods was hitting short irons to par-5s. Well, that's what we had again this week from the likes of Woodland and Quiros.

So I'm curious what you are seeing and hearing from those who watched the Masters.

Do golfers attribute this year's epic Masters to the great setup and conditioning giving today's players a chance to showcase their talents, or do they see low scores and think something is wrong?

I really do hope we've grown past such a childish assessment of a course's worth based on the scores, but I know better.

Lost Farm Vs. Barnbougle Dunes...The Lawsuit

Thanks to reader Dan for Selma Milovanovic's story on the lawsuit entangling two courses that most of us thought were part of one facility: Barnbougle Dunes by Tom Doak and Mike Clayton, and Lost Farm, the new Bill Coore course in Tasmania where Mike Keiser is an investor.

Richard Sattler, the owner of land on which both courses stand, is defending allegations he built the upmarket Lost Farm to compete with Barnbougle Dunes using expertise he gained while involved with the Dunes.

In 2001, farmer and hotel chain owner Sattler knew next to nothing about golf when 23-year-old entrepreneur and golf enthusiast Greg Ramsay persuaded him that his windswept coastal property near Bridport, north-east Tasmania, would be perfect for a links golf course.

And...

Joseph Santamaria, QC, for Links Golf Tasmania, said Mr Sattler owed the company fiduciary obligations as a director for seven years to 2009. Despite this, he said, Mr Sattler set up a competitive business at Lost Farm, relying on the information, contacts and intellectual property he gained as a fiduciary of Links Golf Tasmania.
Mr Santamaria said independent investors in Barnbougle Dunes had said Mr Sattler encouraged them to believe they ''would be involved in the second stage'', meaning the Lost Farm development.

But Mr Santamaria told Justice Christopher Jessup he would not be able to show ''a document where in writing Mr Sattler commits himself to equity partners or Links Golf Tasmania having rights with respect to the second course''.

He said Mr Sattler's point of view was ''he had no obligation whatsoever''. ''It [Links Golf Tasmania] took money from investors not on the basis that he [Mr Sattler] would compete, rather on the basis that it could participate,'' he said.

"Mr. Woods at least has the practice course in his backyard. That is more than his partners can say."

Paul Sullivan files an NY Times Business section front page story on the state of Tiger's design business and it doesn't come to many conclusions that we don't already know: the economy stinks, the projects were excessive in their scope and his scandal didn't help matters.

There was one interesting bit though about how Tiger's design contracts are structured. It seems he was  paid to present lots of plans, attend press conferences but incentives for actual field-time during construction--when real architects get serious about producing something that will last--did not appear to be part of the deals.

Regardless, Mr. Woods’s work with these projects is largely done. He has been paid the bulk of his contract fees. “Traditionally, a course designer’s job begins and ends with designing a great course,” said Mr. Bell, the head of the company.

In the meantime, there have not been any new projects announced by Tiger Woods Design. “We are evaluating opportunities from all over the world,” Mr. Bell said. “We’re staying focused on our original mission of finding great sites, great partners, and creating spectacular designs. I’m very confident about our future.”