Old Town's Maxwell Restoration: A "Grand Slam"

John Dell took a look at the restoration of Perry Maxwell's Old Town Club--ironically once mangled by Liberty National architect Bob Cupp--and comes away calling the Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw restoration a "grand slam."

This PDF of before-after photos tell the visual story. You won't see many more stunning architectural transformations than this.

From golf chairman Dunlop White:

"Coore and Crenshaw have successfully recaptured the ‘big bone’ presence of our 1939 layout, and today all of our features possess a much larger footprint,” White said last week, just before the re-opening.

The course had been closed since December, and the $1 million restoration had plenty of phases to it. The bunker sizes were restored and reshaped to capture an old-style look and feel that resembles courses in the Pinehurst area.

They even put back the rare double green built by Maxwell.

Old Town used to play at about 6,800 yards from the back tees. It now can play at 7,037 yards.
Coore, who hopes to make it back to Old Town this fall, said by telephone that he and his team, which included Dave Axland, were the most nervous about the double green.

"We knew something had to be done with the double green, and we wanted to make sure it was done right, and when it was completed we liked how it turned out,” Coore said.

Other major changes included fairway expansions from 35 acres to 52 acres that give golfers more choices off the tee and plenty of fairway.

The story also featured this video interviewing superintendent O’Neal Crouch.

Looking Good: The Country Club Is Back!

Watching the Round of 32 U.S. Amateur coverage on Golf Channel I'm impressed how much better The Country Club is looking since we last saw at the Ryder Cup. Credit architect Gil Hanse and superintendent Bill Spence for bringing the New England back into the course.

Ran Morrissett has updated his profile for The Country Club with photos taken just a few weeks ago.

Coverage continues Friday on GC with tape delayed coverage from 9-11 pm ET, followed by NBC Saturday and Sunday at 4 pm ET.

And there should be a super-fun awkward tension when USGA President Glen "I like that the Fox Sports guys don't know anything about golf" Nager visits the booth for the annual contractually obligated visit.

Cabot Links Secures Government Financing For Second Course

Thanks to reader DGS for Erin Pottie's great news of Cape Breton's Cabot Links securing an $8.25-million loan that should kickstart construction of a second Coore-Crenshaw course and inn expansion at the burgeoning resort developed by Ben Cowan-Dewar, Mike Keiser and many others.

The first course, a Rod Whitman design, just cracked Golf Magazine's top 100 in the world list.

"The general feel in the town is that traffic is increased and there's more attention being put on Inverness, and more visitors," said Merv Tingley, owner of the Dancing Goat Café and Bakery, which recently opened in Inverness. "It's definitely very exciting news. The town itself is really going to see a lot of rejuvenation. "

A main reason for the buzz has been the golf club's international recognition.

2013 Golf Magazine World Top 100

Of all the rankings Golf's panel seems to select the fewest courses that make you pause and say, "Really?" Yes it's very America-centric and Trump International Scotland landing in the top 50 when it's probably not in the top 50 Scottish links you'd enjoy playing, helps distract from the strange infatuation the list has with South Korea's Seven Bridges.

Nonetheless, Golf presents a timeless architecture-focused list presented with images in gallery form, starting with the world 1-25.

And 26-50.

And 51-75.

And 76-100.

They've also posted the top 25 U.S. courses.

East Lothian Golf: Musselburgh Golf And Racing

To kick off Light Posting/Celebrating East Lothian Golf Week, I’d like to direct you to a story I wrote for the July 2013 Golf Digest on making your golf pilgrimage to Edinburgh and East Lothian. Nothing against St. Andrews, which is terrific, but if you love the history of the game, want to make the essential trip for a golfer and want to take a trip to Scotland without the long drives and travel stress, this is the place to set up shop.

Having spent another week here playing some golf, seen the courses in their perfect dry state, experienced more of the eateries, hung out in Edinburgh and settled into the towns of North Berwick and Gullane as a guest, I’m even more confident in my reporting from a year ago that this is a golfing mecca like no other.

To put it another way, I had that uniquely bittersweet emotion of driving through Gullane today, happily seeing life getting back to normal for the town but so desperately hoping I will get to come back and do it all over again.

As I outline in the story there are so many places to see and while I should start with the most historic locations in Edinburgh, in honor of today’s Tuesday racing card at Musselburgh Race Course, I’d like to direct you to videos I posted previous on the site from one of my favorite days in golf: morning play at the oldest played course in the world (with hickories), and afternoon of racing. Where the turf meets the turf.

And of course, should you decide to make this journey, GolfEastLothian.com is a super one-stop-shop for most questions, planning help and even tee times at some courses.

Enjoy and may all the horses come home safe!

An overview:

And the fourth hole:

Phil On North Berwick: "The architecture, there, is exquisite."

The 14th tee view this week at North Berwick (click to enlarge)For the architecture wonks out there, Phil Mickelson at Muirfield for The Open Championship today, talking about links golf and the neighboring North Berwick:

Q. Where was the first time you played links golf? And can you tell us the best experience you've had in The Open Championship?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, the first time I played links golf was in the Walker Cup in 1991, Portmarnock Ireland, but the first time over here was in '92. I tried to qualify for The Open Championship at Muirfield over at North Berwick, and that was really one of my first experiences. I remember that golf course very vividly. And I feel like that course had such an influence on architecture in the early 20th Century that a lot of the holes -- probably the most emulated hole ever is the Redan hole throughout the world. But some of the features, like the green on 16, some of the blind shots, the architecture, there, is exquisite.

Rose-Poulter Phone-In Redesign Of Phoned-In Duval Design!

What a world: David Duval gets some money to be part of one of the Mission Hills courses in China built by Brian Curley, and now that the course has been rebuilt and Duval is not a top player, hipper, younger player-architects are called in to...phone it in.

From Doug Ferguson's AP notes column:

Mission Hills China announced two weeks ago that U.S. Open champion Justin Rose and Ian Poulter of Ryder Cup fame will stage an exhibition match Oct. 28 to celebrate the opening of the redesigned "Rose-Poulter" course.

Brian Curley is the architect of the redesign. The course had been "designed" by Duval and was known as the "Duval" course.

Rose said in the press release, "We've had a number of discussions with Brian Curley and I look forward to coming to Mission Hills in October and seeing the end result."

Glad to see we're exporting the best of golf to China!

Videos: Above Castle Stuart

John Huggan in Golf World Monday defended Castle Stuart links, host of this week of the Scottish Open and criticized recently by Graeme McDowell (but defended ably by Paul Lawrie.)

Anyway, I stumbled on these overhead videos posted on YouTube that brought back some fine memories of one of the coolest tournament venues and settings on the planet and made me downright jealous I won't be there this week.

The first, set to Coldplay:



And a different but equally compelling view:

Pro Plays All Existing U.S. Open Courses And Wants More!

Thanks to reader Mike for Frank Fitzpatrick's superb story on Cape Fear CC professional Joey Hines playing all of the 49 existing U.S. Open courses.

He's now on a quest to now play the existing Open Championship courses and hosts of PGA's too.

But after three or four of those trips, a friend said, 'You know you've played an awful lot of U.S. Open courses.' That interested me. "I started researching. I found out there were 49 of them - actually 50, but Englewood in New Jersey had closed. So I started nibbling away." Once he gave up his dream of playing on the PGA Tour - he failed to earn a card at qualifying school on several occasions - the pace of his quest quickened. He played Open venues in bunches with friends, then began to pick them off one-by-one on his own. As difficult as the golf was at many of those exclusive venues, securing tee times was even tougher.

"They all had their rules, and you had to respect them," he said. "It wasn't easy getting on at Baltusrol or Riviera. Chicago Golf Club was brutal. Sometimes they paired you with a member. Sometimes you had to beg, borrow, and cry."

Riviera was hard to get on? They take anyone's money!

"And Merion. I've come across that road [Ardmore Avenue] five times and I've been at even, 1 under, 1 over. But I think the lowest I ever shot there was a 77. Fifteen, 16, 17, 18 have just eaten my lunch every single time." Some of the courses, particularly those that haven't hosted an Open since the event's early days, were pleasant surprises. He liked Philadelphia Country Club (1939) much better than the Philadelphia Cricket Club (1907, 1910). Among the other out-of-the-rotation "sleepers" Hines enjoyed were Myopia Hunt near Boston, the site of four Opens from 1898 to 1908; and three Chicago-area courses, Chicago Golf Club, Onwentsia, and Glen View. "Chicago Golf Club is like Merion," Hines said. "If somebody gave you a million dollars and told you to improve it, you'd go crazy because it's already perfect."

Trainwreck? Architects Selecting Their World Top 100

Golf Course Architecture magazine has surveyed 240 golf architects from 28 countries to select their World Top 100 courses and the first signs of a trouble came with the release of courses 92-100.

The amazing Fishers Island, which the Golf Digest panel puts in the top 10 American courses, is lumped in with design-light places like Shadow Creek, Torrey Pines (South) and Peachtree.

The final 10 will be released by July 12th.

GMac: Castle Stuart Too Easy, Too One-Dimensional

Shocking statements from the normally learned Graeme McDowell in justifying why he's skipping the prestigious Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart for the second year in a row.

Jim Black reports:

McDowell, speaking on the eve of the Irish Open at Carton House near Dublin, said: “The Scottish Open has lost its identity and its prestige. Castle Stuart probably has not been a strong enough golf course.

“Let’s see them get the Scottish Open on a phenomenal links golf course with a great purse and get a world-class field back.

“We need to be capitalising a little harder on the week before and after the Open.

“I feel bad singling out the Scottish Open, because I used to love it at Loch Lomond. It was a phenomenal tournament. Taking it to Castle Stuart was designed to get it on a links course the week before The Open and it’s a beautiful venue — but it is probably a little too wide open off the tee and a little one-dimensional.

“But Royal Aberdeen next year is a venue which attracts me. I’ve heard great things about it and it could re-light the event.”

McDowell finished T42 in his lone appearance at the too easy Castle Stuart, the year freak rains softened the course and reduced the tournament to 54-holes.

Phil Mickelson is returning for a third year to the Scottish Open and NBC is providing network coverage in the United States, a first for a European Tour event.

And needless to say, I didn't find the course one-dimensional last year when watching some of the best shotmaking and most interesting play I'd seen in a long time. Some photos from Saturday and Sunday.

Unfortunately, Royal Aberdeen is excessively narrow to offset modern distance and will be a bit too one-dimensional if not widened out. Oh wait, wide is bad GMac! I forgot.