North And South Player Reviews Of New/Old Pinehurst

Interesting to hear what caught the eye of some young (and one old) players.

Castle Stuart Primer: "The best course built in the British Isles since the Second World War."

That's John Huggan's declaration in his column previewing Castle Stuart, host of this week's Scottish Open marking a return to links golf after years at Loch Lomond.

Huggan focuses on the course's impressive width and the potential for a variety of setup opportunities should the European Tour staff see fit to use them. Included in the story are extensive quotes from co-architect Gil Hanse on the potential for low scores if there isn't much wind.

"So many architects get fixated by the notion of making really good players look bad. I don't want that at all. I want to see them making birdies and showing off their skills. And I want our course to lend itself to all of that. If that means low scores, so be it. Besides, if top players playing well can only shoot, say, 69 then there is something wrong with the test presented to them.

"It is odd that so many people don't appreciate how interesting and difficult short grass can be when used as a hazard. My mind always goes back to the play-off for the 1989 Open Championship at Royal Troon. Greg Norman had missed a green but had nothing but short grass and a bank between him and the hole. He stood there and thought about it. Then he switched clubs. Then he thought about it more. Eventually he just chunked the shot. The best player in the world had been perplexed by the subtlety of what was in front of him. His mind was full of doubt."

And Huggan says the three short par-4s will be the holes to watch.

As for which holes are likely to provide most entertainment, subtle or not, Hanse picks out four: "The three short par-4s - the third, ninth and 16th - will be, for me, the most interesting. I can't wait to see how really good players tackle those holes. There are so many choices off each of those tees.

You may recall that Castle Stuart's evolution has been well-chronicled on this site due to my affiliation with Hanse and Jim Wagner, the co-creators of the links with developer Mark Parsinen.

But as a refresher, here are some of the past links.

Grow-in photos.

YouTube videos on the making of the course...

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4 (making of the bunkers)

And after the course opened, images from John Kemp, one of the talented lads who helped build the place.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

These Guys Are Good...On Reestorations

John Paul Newport ran the numbers and the verdict is in: some Americans just love their Rees Jones rees-do work. Thanks reader JB for this.

An American Advantage?
Since 2007, the golfers in this U.S. Open with the lowest averages on courses completely remodeled by golf architect Rees Jones (min. 25 rounds).

GOLFER/COUNTRY   ROUNDS    ROUND AVERAGE
Jim Furyk USA           44                69.12

Camilo Villegas COL   34                69.41

Anthony Kim USA      32                69.66

K.J. Choi KOR            32                69.69

Hunter Mahan USA     44                69.90

Phil Mickelson USA      34               70.00

Steve Stricker USA     40                70.18

The Long, Ugly SilverRock Saga Continues

Larry Bohannan reports the Arnold Palmer-designed course in La Quinta has been dropped from the new Hope rotation, which only has room for three courses.

At a reported cost of at least $58 million, this one has to go down as one of the great tragedies of modern design. The city had a lovely site, an open bidding process with a wide variety of architects offering ideas for something different in desert golf, but all along the job was going to Palmer because of his name. They poured massive sums into building it, then put more money in to fix design flaws pointed out by the tour, only to get just a few Bob Hopes and little in the way of positive buzz.