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
From today's New York Post, an advertisement spotted and photographed by reader Tuco saluting architect Rees Jones (or a dead ringer for Phil's favorite designer). I believe today is number 70, so happy birthday Rees!
Alex Miceli reports that Cog Hill head man and all-around nice guy Frank Jemsek would like to talk to Phil Mickelson about why he finds Rees Jones' butchery of nice golf courses so awful.Rex Hoggard tracked down Rees Jones to ask about the latest round of player apathy, this time directed at his Cog Hill renovation.
On Tuesday, GTC gave Jones – whose restoration handiwork includes this year’s PGA Championship venue (Atlanta Athletic Club) and East Lake, site of next week’s Tour Championship – a chance to fire back at the growing criticism of some of his projects but the “Open Doctor” declined to enter the fray.
“I’m not going to address that,” Jones told GTC. “No comment.”
The San Francisco Chronicle's City Insider blog reports that Mayoral candidate and Supervisor John Avalos went ahead with a proposal to close the Alister MacKenzie-designed course, with a conversion of the property to be managed by the National Park Service.
''A partnership with the National Park Service will make Sharp Park more accessible, while allowing the city to reinvest resources into our neighborhood golf courses, parks and recreation centers,'' said Avalos, a mayoral candidate.
His proposal has the backing of such groups as the Sierra Club, Wild Equity Institute and National Parks Conservation Association. They hope to see the property transitioned back its more natural wetlands state.
The Recreation and Park Department wants to keep the golf course open, but has moved to reconfigure the design to keep golfers out of the most environmentally sensitive areas and has taken other measures to protect the vulnerable critters.
''We have worked to accommodate a diverse range of recreational activities at Sharp Park, including golf, hiking and dog walking, while continuing to pursue a plan with park stakeholders to restore precious habitat for the San Francisco garter snake and the California red-legged frog,'' said Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the Recreation and Park Department, which has jurisdiction over the park.
Among those opposed to the proposed transfer of the property to federal jurisdiction are U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, the San Mateo Board of Supervisors, the Pacifica City Council and Public Golf Alliance.
A lawsuit hopes to block any such transfer of the course, but the group faces an uphill battle. In an ideal world, resources would be pouring in from the cash rich organizations charged with running the game to help preserve a course with a fantastic legacy and which serves a diverse audience of golf world.
I profiled the situation at Sharp Park for Golf World in May, 2009.
Thanks to reader John for Rick Bozich's Louisville Courier-Journal coverage of Valhalla's latest greens redo, which is prompting a Thursday visit from Jack Nicklaus his ownself. Members have been advised to bring their questions and Jack will provide answers.
In a story for the paper, Jody Demling does not mention the flood damage that had been cited by some as the reason all greens needed to be rebuilt (that would take some flood to get the 9th and 18th greens!). Instead, extreme heat seems to have been the culprit.
The project is expected to begin in September with renovations expected to be complete by next summer.
“The extremes of severe summertime weather these last two years have necessitated the enhancements to begin next month in time for the fall growing season,” Steranka said in a release from the PGA of America.
The PGA said a more heat-tolerant bent grass will be installed. A new irrigation system will replace the existing 25-year old infrastructure, and fairway drainage will be addressed.
The Jack Nicklaus-designed Valhalla has hosted the 1996 and 2000 PGA Championship and the 2008 Ryder Cup along with the Senior PGA in ’04 and ’11.
The course has already undergone three sets of major alterations, including changes before the 2000 and ’04 events.
Gary D'Amato talks to Mike Davis about Erin Hills and he compares this week's U.S. Amateur site with Pebble Beach, Shinnecock Hills and Oakmont, saying, "This stands up with all of them."
He also loves the scale of the place.
"I guess I'd put it this way: If I compare this to, say, Bethpage or Pinehurst, which would be our biggest U.S. Open sites, this makes those sites look tiny in terms of what you can do," Davis said. "It is a huge site.
"This might be the first U.S. Open where we don't have to put a cap on tickets. . . . Think about a University of Michigan football game. You could put that many people on this golf course and they would move around just fine."
Ed Sherman also declares Erin Hills a hit, and notes the setup early in the week was a far cry from last year and has been important in winning over players.
The United States Golf Assn. went fairly easy with the pin placements during the first two rounds of match play, resulting in some low scores. The USGA also is learning about the place. But tellingly, USGA Executive Director Mike Davis told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "This is a course we could set up so that 15-over par would win a U.S. Open. I'm not kidding you."
I believe him. I was out there Wednesday afternoon when the wind was blowing 20 to 25 mph. I didn't see many birdies as the players were doing their best to hang on.
The USGA released the course info for next week's U.S. Amateur and announced that Erin Hills is the new back tee yardage champion!
RECORD YARDAGE: For the second consecutive year, the U.S. Amateur will be the longest course in USGA history. At 7,760 yards, Erin Hills surpasses the 7,742 yards played at Chambers Bay at the 2010 U.S. Amateur. Chambers Bay had overtaken the South Course at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, Calif., which measured 7,643 yards for the 2008 U.S. Open, and 2006 U.S. Amateur host Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., which measured 7,473 yards.
And this is fun:
PAR AND YARDAGE: Erin Hills will be set up at 7,760 yards and will play to a par of 36-36–72. The companion course, Blue Mound Golf & Country Club, will be set up at 6,622 yards and will play to a par of 35-35–70.
Gene Sarazen won the 1933 PGA at the Raynor-designed Blue Mound which is a whopping 1000 yards shorter than Erin Hills, yet par is 70 to Erin Hills' 72.
Check out the yardages:
The front nines at the two courses have a 600-yard differential, but only one-shot to par difference?
Blue Mound has a 492-yard par-5, while Erin Hills has four par-4s over 490.
The back nine at Erin Hills weighs in a 3,939, with a 675-yard finishing hole.
Now, recently the USGA's Mike Davis has been known to not ever come close to setting up a course to its maximum yardage and he's to be commended for that.
However, in the Tee It Forward era, we see a second consecutive year of a record-length golf. Granted, 7700 yards falls withing the Tee It Forward guidelines for a PGA Tour player. However, this confirmation of today's driving distance acumen is worth noting since both the USGA ("stabilized") and R&A ("surrounded") insist average distances haven't spiked since 2003.
Bob Carney of Golf Digest supports Phil Mickelson's PGA rant about modern design and makes me wonder if it's time for long-needed change to Golf Digest's influential course ranking criteria. (Full disclosure, I've only been lobbying for this change for, oh, ever.)
Owners or club boards wanted to put their course on the map. Suddenly course and slope rating became the measure of greatness. We've heard people say, "It's got a slope rating of 155!" as if that were a good thing. Ask Pete Dye about it and he'll tell you that if you want to excite golfers about your course, you make it tough, and he's been told by developers to do just that.
But that's from the back tees, and Dye and most architects offer plenty of shorter options. Which is why, we think, the Tee it Forward initiative supported by the USGA and the PGA is so important. Based on Barney Adams contention that if the average golfer were playing "tour-equivalent" tees (based on their distance off the tee) most would be moving up a set.
The popularity of places such as Bandon Dunes, and of more "playable" architecture by the designers like Tom Doak and Ben Crenshaw (with partner Bill Coore), prove that not all of us are masochists. And those designs have done very well on rankings like Golf Digest's, that emphasize shot values over resistance to scoring.
Ah but maybe this would be the right time to drop "Resistance to Scoring" altogether? Or change the wording, call it Resistance To Fun, and deduct the points from the course's overall score?
Meanwhile in this week's Pond Scrum wrap up of the PGA, Huggan and Elling discuss Phil's "point" and conclude as I did that he needs to think through his attacks on certain styles of modern design.
Elling: I have very mixed feelings when hearing Mickelson belittle Jones. It's become rather catty to me. Phil is hugely pro-technology and went on a reasoned rant last year against another favorite target, Dick Rugge of the USGA, about rule changes designed to keep players from inhaling golf courses whole in a single breath. Mickelson fails to acknowledge that with players flying drives 300 yards in the air, changes to courses are a necessity. So while Jones and his ilk might not get it right every time, they have to add teeth to keep scores from becoming laughable. Keegan Bradley birdied two of the last three holes in regulation. Somebody managed to avoid the carnage.
Huggan: You are right. That is where Phil's argument breaks down. Of course, he is being well compensated for his support of turbo-charged balls and clubs. I suspect, deep down, he is just as hacked off as I am. After all, it would be to his advantage if shaping shots returned to the pro game. He is one of the best when it comes to that.
So much for a gentleman's game! Rees Jones, better known now as "the guy who did this one," has fired back at Phil Mickelson's criticism of Atlanta Athletic Club as an example of lousy modern design.
"Phil's just trying to round up some course-design work for himself," Jones, above, said in an interview. Mickelson had complained about Jones's course revisions at Mickelson's hometown Torrey Pines, and the Atlanta Athletic Club, site of this week's PGA Championship. He griped that the penal style at Atlanta "doesn't let the average guy play."
And Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman Tweeted this yesterday:
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
