Annika On Design Career: "Tougher than I thought."

The legendary Annika Sorenstam made some interesting comments about her golf course design career's lack of trajectory to CNN Living's Shane O'Donoghue.

Bunkered Golf Magazine links to the interview and paraphrases, but in essence she senses that as a woman clients just assume she'll build "short and easy". Besides the shame of assuming one gender builds short and easy, it's a reminder how many awful developments were built on the premise of championship and tough. If only golf had more "short and easy."

“Being a female, when they throw my name in the ring as a designer candidate a lot of times they say, ‘Oh, well then this course will be short and easy’.

“I don't know where it comes from. I think they just have that predetermined notion of women designing shorter courses, and that's not really what comes to my mind.

“I consider myself, of course a female, but I'm also a golfer and I feel like I can play any golf course out there and I guess maybe my defensive mechanism is, 'Hey, I'd play you anywhere, anytime and then we can go from there’.”

Diaz On The Lure Of Short One-Shotter And Par-3 Courses

With the short, risk-reward par-5 almost impossible design, the short par-4 has become the go-to for those still craving strategic holes. But closing fast on the must list of even the most novice design critics is a short par-3. Even better, the tough sell that was recommending a par-3 course to a developer has become an easy sell.

All of these issues are considered by a par-3 course golfing descendant, Jaime Diaz, who uses Pinehurst's new par-3 to hit a number of short par-3 angles for Golf World.

The Cradle follows a trend of alternative course openings in 2017, with the new Jordan Spieth-backed six-hole course at the University of Texas, Tom Doak’s 12-hole par 3 at Ballyneal, and Dan Hixson nine-hole pitch-and-putt at Silvies Valley Ranch.

You may note a bias toward par 3s in my commentary. Like a lot of guys my age, my first rounds were on scruffy short courses, in my case the Fleming Nine at Harding Park and Golden Gate G.C., both in San Francisco, both enduring jewels from the city’s golfing heyday.

I’ve also seen a big appetite for pitch-and-putts overseas. They can be found in a bunch of little towns in Ireland, usually teeming with an informally dressed crowd whose members tend to nonchalantly pull off very useful bump and runs. And when the Open was held at Muirfield in 2013, the so-called children’s course next to the west course at North Berwick was a big hit with visiting American pros and their families.

To me, a good par-3 course works on many levels besides just the price and the pace. A little funkiness in design and even conditioning is a plus, as the capriciousness invites improvisation. The mood should be informal and promote a hint of relaxed raucousness.

Sure, the American hunger for optimization has started a trend toward par 3s for the golfer who has everything. Such courses can be pricey, too penal to avoid slow play, and over spectacular topography that isn’t ideal for walking. There have been a few such creations.

But done right, a high end par 3 can become destination golf.

Nice Review Of Goat Hill Golf

Laz Versalles gives Oceanside's Goat Hill a nice, in-depth review now that we're well into its resurrection by John Ashworth and friends.

Check it out at GolfClubAtlas.com.

Video: Eye On Design, The Genius Of LACC's Short Par-3 15th

One of my favorite short threes on the planet gets a chance to shine. It could play as short as 85 yards and long as 140 in the 2017 Walker Cup.

As I explain in this Eye On Design, the hole was a 1927-28 creation when LACC was remodeled and may have have briefly featured sand in the middle, but if it was there, the bunker was short-lived and replaced by a large pimple.

Golf Top 100 Panel Confidential: Most Underrated Course, Favorite Golden Age Architect And Course They'd Play Every Day

There is some fun follow-up content from the Golf Magazine Top 100 U.S. and World lists here. They tackle most underrated great course (North Berwick edges LACC North!), greatest Golden Age architect (Good Doc), best modern day architect (Coore), most overrated design element (Conditioning), and course they’d chose to play every day (Cypress Point).

Quick Take On Golf Magazine's 2017 U.S. And World Top 100

In just a glance through the biennial U.S. and World lists, it sure looks like the panel is going full anti-Golf Digest and rewarding shorter, cooler, classier golf architecture in similar fashion to the Golfweek's annual list. Pure restorations as opposed to redos defacing the old architecture, also appear to be stylish.

The real standout for me: Prestwick cracking the world Top 100, a fantastic exclamation point to the aforementioned trends.

And nice to see this week's Walker Cup host at its highest ranking ever, arriving at 13th in the U.S. and 22nd in the world, even edging out that South Korean masterwork, Nine Bridges.

Eye on Design Video: LACC's Par-3/Par-4 7th Hole

Architect George Thomas's effort to propel the Golden Age forward with more intricate course strategy will be on display this week at the Walker Cup. With one day to go before the opening ceremony, both teams are getting a sense of the possible hole location and tee scenarios making LACC North such a fascinating study. (In my view, the second best match play course on the planet.)

On no hole will that be more evident than the par-3 7th, which also can morph into a fascinating risk-reward par-4 using a more strategically demanding hole location. I explain here...

Video: Eye On Design, LACC's Little 17th

It won't be used in the Walker Cup matches but you'll see if sitting next to the big 17th hole.

We restored this little beauty of a greensite that caused George Thomas headaches after a course setup gone awry in the 1925 California State Open.

In this Eye On Design, I explain what the history of this hole is all about...

Week After Anti-Bombing Gripes, TPC's Anti-Bombing Change Causes Gripes

Last week some players were mad that Glen Oaks' 18th favored Dustin Johnson's ability to hit a super-human length drive under pressure and be rewarded. This week at TPC Boston, the newly updated 12th is causing consternation because it's forcing players to consider possible routes interrupted by bunkering, some a play down the 13th hole possible according to AP's Doug Ferguson who predicts many players will go all Lon Hinkle on us.

Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com has some of the player reaction, including Paul Casey calling the hole awful. That's an eye-opener given his general astuteness, appreciation of centerline hazards and understanding that you can't judge a hole by one practice round.

However, architect Gil Hanse, who oversaw the changes along with Jim Wagner, is preaching patience and is not shy in suggesting that hazards were placed to prevent the bombs away approach found to be so upsetting last week.

Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com allows Hanse to explain the thinking behind the hole and need to consider it after more than just one impression.

“The expectation was it would take several rounds for these guys to learn how to play it and how they wanted to tackle it,” he said. “Unfortunately, some of the early reaction came after one practice round.

“The conversation we’ve had with three or four players is, 'Listen, just give it three or four rounds. Try to figure it out.' If we build a golf hole that the players can figure out after one round, then we probably haven’t done our job challenging them.”

And on preventing the new 12th from giving long hitters a distinct advantage:

“This golf course, rightfully or wrongly, has always been characterized as a bomber’s golf course,” said Hanse, who lengthened the 12th by 50 yards. “So when you’re making alterations, you have that in the back of your mind, and you don’t want to be seen increasing that advantage. We felt like the positioning of these hazards gives the average guy room to hit the ball. But as you want to push around 330, it gets more narrow.”

Hanse On Architecture's Future & TPC Boston's 12th And 13th

Golf.com's Dylan Dethier looks at Gil Hanse's rise (thanks for the link PG), which started in large part at the TPC Boston. Host of this week's Dell Technologies playoff event again, the course has been a long-term redesign effort with the PGA Tour and superintendent Tom Brodeur's team.

The transformation of the course into a New England-vibe course, rock walls and quirk included, has helped give this event much character. Hanse offered this on the future of design, inspired in part by the example he hopes to have set at TPC Boston.

"The future of golf is fun," he said, noting the accessibility of the short course he just completed at Pinehurst as an example. "Golf is such a difficult game that whatever we can do to make someone's first interaction with the game fun and positive is going to be a win. Of any sport, golf has the best field and the best landscapes, and those selling points will always resonate with people. The allure of being outside and spending time with people is huge and you can't match it anywhere else."

Dethier talks to Hanse about the latest changes to the 12th and 13th holes.

Golfweek's Bradley Klein offered his assessment of the remodeled holes in his 18 hole-by-hole description, including this on No. 12:

What used to be the only unbunkered hole on the course has been stretched by 49 yards and given centerline fairway bunkering in the form of  Principal’s Nose 305 yards off the tee. There’s also a new green position farther back. Hanse and Wagner also created more of a tie-in to the next hole by opening up the tree line and extending an existing ridge line into the 12th fairway, creating more of a drop-shot feel to the second shot. The shared space is a classical New England element that gets away from the older, isolated hole corridors that prevailed here. The putting surface also has been been moved away from its rocky ledge over a wetlands hazard. It now sits closer to the next tee, making for a better connect-the-dots feel. The hole requires a commitment off the tee between two alternative paths, the low road (to the right) shorter but a bit riskier; the high road to the left safer but longer.

Update on 2017-09-01 03:48 by Geoff

**AP's Doug Ferguson is predicting many players will play down the 13th this week, and Brian Wacker reports for Golf World that some do not like the changes. Architect Hanse is preaching that players actually try it out under tournament conditions before issuing a verdict.

Not that any of it bothers Hanse. He knows tour players can be a fickle bunch, and he’ll evaluate the feedback after the tournament.

“The main thing is we want to let it play out over four rounds,” Hanse said. “If we design a hole that they have figured out after one practice round, it’s probably not a very interesting or good hole.

“We purposely tried to make the guys a little uncomfortable with the choices [off the tee]. Once they figure it out, they’ll see there’s sound thought behind the design.”

NY Times On Sweetens Cove: "The Little Golf Course That Could"

Thanks to reader Jim who sent this wonderful Dylan Dethier New York Times piece a few days ago and I finally got around to reading.

Sweetens Cove is profiled, the low-cost, great fun, model-the-future risk taken by golf architect Rob Collins. It recently cracked Golfweek's Top 100 Modern Courses list and is just the kind of thing we need more of.

You can hear Collins on the latest Shipshow with Harry Arnett and Jeff Neubarth.

Dethier writes:

Collins worked with a skeleton crew for long hours and low pay on an accelerated timeline. Other architects and prospective owners circled like vultures, ready to buy up the property. In sheer desperation, Collins mortgaged everything and took over the lease himself.

The course cost about $1 million to build, while a top design firm would have charged $8 million to $10 million for such a project, Collins said.

“The whole thing just got bootstrapped together; it was a labor of love,” he said. “I had a thousand opportunities to walk away, but, damn it, I believed so much in the project, and I honestly had nowhere to walk away to.”

Rio, It Never Ends Files: Degraded Golf Just Isn't Catching On...

While it pales compared to the suffering going on in Houston, the sight of Rio venues a year later is no doubt newsworthy and an important reminder about forcing the Olympics where they just don't fit. Knowing the joyful expressions of athleticism that took place there a year ago and seeing those places now is an eye-opener.

But as chronicled here many times, the continued inclusion of the Olympic Golf Course in slideshows certainly is a continued reminder that rustic, "degraded" golf (essentially dry links-style conditions) just doesn't quite make sense to non-golf media outlets.

Two recent examples of golf's inclusion in the discussion of venues here and here, though there are many more. Meanwhile, the course's Instagram postings tells a much different story than various press outlets wish to tell.

Gil Hanse, architect of the course, had this to say to Golf.com's Joe Passov:

"I'm hearing good things from locals," Hanse said. "Back in March, one of the international news agencies put out something about the state of the Rio facilities—the terrible state the pools are in, the Olympic Park with a chain link fence around it. And they ran an aerial photo of the 'degraded' Olympic golf course. I looked at it and I'm like, 'You can see the mower stripes on the greens. You can see all the bunkers are raked. You can see the fairways are mowed. How is that degraded?' It was definitely a fake news story. Very frustrating."

This was three days ago:

Bom dia! O Torneio Legado Olímpico realizado ontem no Campo Olímpico de Golfe foi um verdadeiro sucesso com 54 duplas (108 jogadores), 16 jogadores na categoria iniciantes. 124 no total de jogadores, sendo 35 carts alugados, 26 mulheres (2 iniciantes) e 6 juvenis. Parabéns a todos os participantes! Juntos tornamos o nosso #campodegolfe um verdadeiro Legado Olímpico !!! 🏌️👏 #golfcourse #golf #golfe #jornaloglobo #revistavejario #gilhanse #legadoolímpico

A post shared by Campo Olímpico de Golfe (@campoolimpicodegolfe) on Aug 26, 2017 at 5:19am PDT

Sand Valley Update And Photos From GolfAdvisor

Jason Scott Deegan provides a short update and links to past GolfAdvisor.com coverage, but it's the updated images and word of ice cream sandwiches that will excite those considering an eventual trip to the burgeoning Bandon of the Midwest.

He writes:

Sand Valley, spearheaded by Mike Keiser Jr., skipped infancy and is already in its teenage years, maturing quickly with changes ongoing. When I visited in July, construction crews were finishing up the rooms in the Clubhouse Lodge below mine (there are 17 total here). More expensive and spacious accommodations are available in the Lake Leopold Lodge and Fairway Lodge. A 12-bedroom lodge on the short course will open next year.

Golfers have three great dining options - on the Warbler Terrance adjacent to a fire pit and large putting green, indoors at the Mammoth Bar & Lounge and at Craig's Porch, a snack/lunch shack near the first tee and 18th green of the Coore/Crenshaw course a short shuttle ride away from the main hub of the resort. The nine different flavors of ice cream sandwiches are already legendary.

Video: Hanse Previews 3rd Hole of Pinehurst Short Course

The Short Course at Pinehurst is coming and this preview by Gil Hanse of the third hole should whet your appetite if you're headed there this fall!

The Design Side Of Greenbrier's Recovery

Tim Rosaforte's Golf Channel piece dealt with the human and maintenance side, and in this Golf.com story, Michael Bamberger addresses the role Keith Foster played in pushing the Old White course more toward its CB Macdonald heritage. The layout hosts the Greenbrier Classic starting Thursday.

He writes of Foster:

His first instinct was to say it could not be done. The golf course could not be reclaimed and restored in one year and open for play for the 2017 tournament. The hotel didn't even have hot water and locals suddenly rendered homeless were being put up in its plush rooms. The idea of a golf tournament seemed just...remote. But Jim Justice opened his checkbook and prodded Foster. "We just made one decision after another after another on the fly," Foster said in a recent telephone interview. If you know his name, it might be for the restoration work he has done at Colonial, Southern Hills and Philadelphia Cricket. "We did it the old way, hole by hole. We didn't get everything done the way we would ultimately like it, but it's most of the way there." On the resort guest-Tour player continuum, Foster said he was far, far far on the side of the everyday paying guest, while noting "we have our Bubba tees."