It’s back!
Twenty years later Tatra Press has kindly allowed me to bring back Grounds For Golf now that golf architecture is of more interest to the masses. A new Introduction looks at what’s driven the interest growth and two new chapters I had a blast adding (plus a few edits to keep things up-to-date).
The Amazon purchase page for the book arriving June 15, 2026.
Has anyone ever declared they were building the world's greatest before starting construction?
"My team will (now) finally get to work and build the world's greatest golf course for Scotland and for the great game of golf," Trump said in a news release.
"We are building on the finest piece of land I have ever seen and we will turn it into a national jewel," added Trump who possesses several championship courses around the world.
Not to beat a dead golf hole, but I just loved this effort by the art department (a.k.a. Tom Naccarato) to show us how much the fronting bunker at Pebble Beach's controversial 17th has eaten into the green. You may recall I detailed the issues here in this story and video.
First, the historic image (click on images if you wish to enlarge them):
And now, mid-Photoshop layering, the old bunker and the evolved together:
The view today:
And a restored look:
A week after the U.S. Open, there is still quite a bit of conjecture about the greens at Pebble Beach.
The USGA's Pat Gross writes this defense at USGA.org.
The U.S. Open is not about cosmetics; it’s about providing a challenging and rigorous test to identify the best player. Producing a cosmetically attractive golf course would have been the easy task: a little more water, a touch of fertilizer, and we would have had green, pretty putting greens and soft conditions, but that was not the goal.
The question I keep hearing relates to firmness and why they couldn't have softened the greens just a bit. And while I certainly can see that response, there is another large audience that would howl with horror at the notion of artificially softening the greens. But when the greens have shrunken so much and are in a sense dysfunctional architecturally when combined with major championshp conditions, maybe that is the answer. But either way, the USGA can't win.
The WSJ's Emily Veach interviews Ken Chu of the Mission Hills Group about golf in China. And you thought play was slow in America...
WSJ: As many as 200,000 people attended the 2009 Omega Mission Hills World Cup. Analysts have said the number of golfers in China is about 300,000, other reports are as high as 3 million. What are your estimates and how can you turn those spectators into golfers?
Mr. Chu: There are close to 3 million golfers in China already, and that is increasing. Golf is perceived as a luxurious sport only because the demand is much greater than the supply, and it is still very young in the country. Every tournament we have hosted is free for the public to come and understand the game. Centuries ago, golf in Europe and also in the United States was considered a very prestigious, very expensive sport as well. Look what it has turned into today. It's very common overseas. In China, it's not today because there's only 24 years of history. The supply of golf is under the demand that's required. It will grow, definitely.
A normal round of golf takes about four hours. For the visitors who play golf in Hainan, it takes them seven hours to play a round of golf. That is a real shortage of supply. In the coming years, maybe around 50 courses will be built (in Hainan). We are building for the demand.
Lorne Rubenstein celebrates the beauty of how little golf sense golf makes sometimes, particularly after a Bubba Watson playoff against super short knockers Corey Pavin and Scott Verplank.
Bubba's post round interview is a must read. Besides the outpouring of emotion and explanation of the above quote, he clarifies what happened with the the playoff drive on 18 that might have been missed by the select few who opted not to watch the event. Well, it was more than a select few.
Q. Talk about the drive there. I think that went 396.
BUBBA WATSON: Boy, that cart path helped out a lot. You know, I hit it really well. It was more downwind in the playoff. Matt Jones, he hit it past the cart path. We saw it going past the cart path from the tee. Then I hit a good one. We thought it was going to be a short iron, 100 yards or so just give or take, and then Matt saw it hit the cart path. I didn't even look. I picked my tee up and started walking, just put my head down trying to grind out another birdie, and Matt said it hit the cart path and bounced straight up in the air. So we knew it had to be pretty far down there. So I was just inside 50 yards, and I was like, my best chance for birdie on this hole is right now. Somehow I walked away with a birdie.
Q. Bubba, talk about how nervous you were when you thought you had a chance to win.
BUBBA WATSON: I was nervous.
What an astonishing 12-shot win by Cristie Kerr in Sunday's LPGA Championship.
“That’s almost too good,” Miyazato said, figuring 8 under would be good enough to win the tournament. “She’s just amazing. I played really good, too, but she is just better than me.”
Kerr’s rise comes with women’s golf going through a changing of the guard. In April, Lorena Ochoa followed Annika Sorenstam into retirement, leaving a vacuum at the top.
Kerr will become the third player at No. 1 in the past three weeks. Miyazato supplanted Shin last week by winning the ShopRite LPGA Classic, her fourth victory of the year.
Americans have won only four of the past 14 majors, with Kerr winning two of them. Americans also have won only six of the past 34 LPGA events, with Kerr winning three times.
Randall Mell wonders if we're seeing an transformative moment for the new world No. 1.
Kerr was a chubby, prickly teen who didn’t make friends easily when she first hit the tour, but she’s evolved. There’s evidence of that in the foundation she established to help fight breast cancer after her mother was diagnosed with the disease. There’s her well documented physical transformation that’s landed her on the cover of women’s magazines, and there’s the social transformation. She counts Natalie Gulbis and Morgan Pressel as close friends. She credits her husband, Erik Stevens, for helping her evolve since they married in ‘06.
“I’ve won one tournament without my husband,” Kerr said. “I’ve won all the others with him. He’s been one of the biggest influences on me becoming a better person, changing and evolving and giving back.”
Unfortunately, for Kerr’s fellow competitors, the evolution hasn’t softened the little warrior within who wants to kick their butts.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
