Time For Trinity Forest: One Last Preview Of Minimalism's Big Moment

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Minimalism's big moment arrives with the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic's bold move to Trinity Forest.  The Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design features some of their boldest and best design work to date. I'm very jealous of the select few who get to play here on a daily basis, like LPGA star So Yeon Ryu!

I explain in this Golfweek piece my first impressions and why this is a high risk week for the minimalist movement and why you're going to see some fascinating golf played. 

The course's speed dial has been turned down a touch by the PGA Tour wanting to ease into this one, and I explain in this Golfweek piece--with supporting quotes from the firm of Mahan, Scott and Ogilvy that his isn't the worst idea ever.

Here is my Morning Drive chat with Kasey Kauff, the first employee hired by the founders

We discussed what hole has most grown on Jordan Spieth today on Morning Drive:

Adam Scott On Golfers Forced Out Of Their Comfort Zones

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On the eve of the 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson Classic, Adam Scott was asked about the PGA Tour locker room talk surrounding Trinity Forest and the uncomfortable demands the course will make.

Look, just most majorities just don't like different, do they? This is just different than what we normally roll out and play.

You know, people are going to get put out of their comfort zones and not many people like that, you know.

The greatest players have all managed to succeed out of their comfort zones and learn to love links or learn to love a parkland golf to succeed, and I think the greatest champions over time have all done that and whoever is going to be here this week will be someone who really embraces the different challenges of this golf.

You're not going to be able to fight it out there this week. You're going to have to go with it and hit a nice shot from 200 out one time and catch the wrong side of the hill and you'll have some putt that you would never feel like you deserve but that's a different style of golf than target golf that we're used to playing.

You're just going to have to do your best to two-putt it or however many putts you need to make to get down and move on and get the right rub of the green on the next one. That's probably the links side of golf. There's a bit more rub of the green, a little less predictability.

I think if I think about Tiger who has grown up playing golf in America but just had this instant desire to love links golf and win the Opens and he showed so much creativity in his game that was apparently just suited to win on the U.S. Tour, he embraced the challenges of all parts of the game and he did it all.

So, it's kind of how I see it. The guy that does that this week will do well.

Bill Coore Explains Trinity Forest's Short Par-4 5th Hole

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Great stuff here from Andy Johnson combining Bill Coore's explanation with a flyover of Trinity Forest's 5th hole.

I just love how he describes the issue at hand for players in just barely driving over the fairway bunker to get to the green. That kind of attention to detail--and the time put into getting that element just right--is why Coore, Crenshaw and The Boys are the best.

I Guess We Have To: Governing Bodies Launch "Multi-Pronged" Distance Insights Project

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Here goes another year in the distance discussion, all because the two PGA's have decided they want to be in the rules business. I'm pretty sure we know what the input will look like ("Don't blame the ball! "-Wally, Fairhaven, MA). 

Anyway, if they must, but Senator you can have my answer now: do something.

The USGA and The R&A Launch Golf's Global Distance Insights Project

LIBERTY CORNER, N.J. USA AND ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND (May 15, 2018) - The United States Golf Association (USGA) and The R&A have launched a comprehensive project to analyze distance in golf and gather perspectives from the worldwide golf community.  

The Distance Insights project will examine distance through a multi-pronged approach that includes global stakeholder engagement, third-party data review and primary research. Focus groups and discussion forums will play an important role in the project, to secure a broad range of perspectives throughout golf.

Beginning today, anyone interested in the topic can provide feedback by visiting usga.org/distanceinsights or randa.org/distanceinsights or by emailing either association directly.

“The topic of increased distance and its effects on the game have been discussed for well over a century. We believe that now is the time to examine this topic through a very wide and long lens, knowing it is critical to the future of the game,” said Mike Davis, CEO of the USGA. “We look forward to delving deeply into this topic and learning more, led by doing right by golf, first and foremost.”

Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said, “Distance in golf is a complex issue which is widely debated at all levels of the sport. It is important that we collate all of the relevant data and hear the many different perspectives on this issue that exist in the international golf community. We intend to conduct this process openly, comprehensively and promptly and will work with all of the key stakeholders to ensure we have a fully rounded view of distance and its implications.”   

Stakeholder groups invited to participate in the project include amateur and professional golfers, worldwide professional golf tours, golf course owners and operators, golf equipment manufacturers, golf course architects, golf course superintendents and others. 

Among the many topics to be explored, the organizations will seek distance-related data on pace of play, golf course construction and maintenance practices, the evolution of equipment, golf course design and player enjoyment and participation.

The USGA and The R&A will engage various golf industry stakeholders through 2018, with plans to deliver a report in 2019.

Video: Ogilvy Taking Us Through The Best Of Trinity Forest

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Great set of content videos here from the folks at Trinity Forest, host to this week's AT&T Byron Nelson Classic. 

Ogilvy on the double green at the third and eleventh holes. 

Uploaded by Communication Links on 2018-02-05.

Ogilvy on the short par-4 5th:

Uploaded by Communication Links on 2018-02-05.

On the short par-3 8th and it's green complex:

This video is about Trinity Forest #8

On the well-placed bunker at the 14th:

Uploaded by Communication Links on 2018-02-05.

And finally the zany 17th green:

Uploaded by Communication Links on 2018-02-05.

First Preview: PGA Tour Heads To Coore And Crenshaw's Trinity Forest

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Big week for minimalism!

The AT&T Byron Nelson Classic moves from the many-times remodeled TPC Las Colinas Four Seasons to the year-old Trinity Forest Not A Four Seasons Golf Club. 

The recently opened Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw course is built on a landfill next to the Trinity Forest and is decidedly linksy in appearance.  I'm getting a firsthand look and will be filing a review for Golfweek and Morning Drive coverage for Golf Channel, but in the meantime here is some preview coverage to whet your appetite...

Graylyn Loomis filed this preview for Links and featured this quote from Bill Coore on the design philosophy:

“We couldn’t make the course look like a prototypical Dallas layout with streams, trees, and lakes,” says Coore. “You can’t plant a tree because the roots break the cap. We knew early on there couldn’t be a stream or water, either. The focus had to be the rumpled ground created as the landfill settled over the decades and we tried to highlight those features.”

The intrigue will be in watching player comments to see how the design style is embrace given the lack of major visual eye candy and the general propensity of today's pros to find the ground game offensive. 

Jordan Spieth, who makes Trinity Forest his primary practice facilities, was asked about the course at The Players:

Q. You got your home game next week; what's the scouting report on Trinity?
JORDAN SPIETH: It looks as good as I've seen it since -- and I've been going out there since before the greens were even sprigged. It looks really good. It's grown on me a lot over the past six months, and in the springtime, I think it's at its best. It's in his best condition that it can be now or the next month or two. I think the weather looks like it's going to really cooperate to give it a good first showing.

A lot of big grandstands. It's like an American links. You've kind of got to play it from the air, not really a bounce the ball up kind of links, but it is still a links-looking golf course. So it's weird, it's unique. It's actually -- Birkdale was kind of the closest comparison I've found to a links course that you kind of have to attack from the air. You get maybe four or five, six holes where you can bounce the ball up, but the way to get balls close is to come in with a higher shot. That's not necessarily true links. I don't want to say that about Birkdale because of the history and everything, but it's just the way I've found to play it well is that route.

Here is a sampler from the AT&T Byron Nelson:

Andy Johnson broke down the 6th hole in this flyover. Check out that green!

The turf looks ready!

Hirono! Hires Martin Ebert To Restore Alison's Masterpiece

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On the list of courses most often cited for needing a proper restoration, Hirono has topped many lists. 

Adam Lawrence reports that through an odd coincidence and Martin Ebert's other life as a rules expert, the architect has been commissioned to restore C.H. Alison's 1930 masterpiece. 

“I was introduced to the club through a couple of Japanese guys who referee each year at the Open,” Ebert told GCA. “Later, I went over to Japan to do a Rules seminar for the JGA, and met up with some people from the club, who were aware of the work we had done at Portrush, Turnberry and so on. They had set up a restoration committee and were very keen to restore the course to something closer to Alisonʼs original design. Since then we have been back to Japan three times, culminating in a visit a few weeks ago during which we signed a contract for the project.”

Liberty National Loses Bid To Add Three New Island Holes, First Tee

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Terence McDonald reports that Liberty National Golf Club is giving up on hopes to leasing 20-acres to add what would have been three incredibly-situated holes. The concept was to free up space for a First Tee facility.

 The area in question sits in the small bay to the right of the 2017 Presidents Cup host's 18th hole and is essentially a bird sanctuary. 

The club, which hosts the PGA Tour's Northern Trust in 2019 and 2022, had wanted 20 acres but was rejected by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and is now apparently abandoning the ambitious plan.

Chidley's letter to Liberty National says the DEP rejected the golf course's bid as "nonresponsive" because it does not include a number of required items. Liberty National failed to demonstrate how its proposed rent — $10,000 annually or a one-time payment of $200,000 — was equal to the market value of the proposed use, the letter says. The bid also failed to specify the tangible public benefit of leasing the portion of the park to Liberty National, according to the letter.

It's not clear whether Liberty National will make a second attempt to lease the land. A request for comment from the golf course's spokesman was not returned.

Can Augusta National Get The MacKenzie And Jones Back In Their 5th Hole?

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John Boyette and the Augusta Chronicle report on landscaping work around what will be a new property line by Old Berckmans Road. A photo gallery and details from the club's permit filings suggest a robust effort. 

As The Forecaddie explains, this is pretty clearly the beginning phase to major work at the fifth hole. Once the new perimeter is established, the club will be closed and on-course work can begin.

While no changes have been announced, this will be a huge test of new Chairman Fred Ridley's devotion to MacKenzie and Jones.  For Golfweek's April issue, I wrote about the Ridley's comments and fascinating omission of Clifford Roberts in favor of a rare MacKenzie reference, as well as what the future portends.

Which brings us to the 5th hole. Other than the 11th hole's awful pine nursery plantings in place of what used to be fairway, no hole was more perversely compromised to prevent a driver and sand wedge approach than the 5th. In 2002, fairway bunkers were pushed forward to pinch the landing area and force a lay-up off the tee.

Jones, however, described the intent of rewarding those who carried the left bunkers to shorten the hole and enjoy a better angle. He noted the danger looking for the left tee shot pulled into the woods but also the distinct difference in angle and distance for the second shot.

Here is the George Cobb rendering from Golf Is My Game and take note of the contours included by Cobb. There was a high spot down that left side where the best angle was obtained, as well as nice mounding in the right center that added visual deception for the safely played tee shot:

1960 rendering by George Cobb for Bobby Jones' Golf Is My Game

1960 rendering by George Cobb for Bobby Jones' Golf Is My Game

In one of his earliest renderings and comments, MacKenzie even equated the dogleg corner and overhanging trees to the Road hole's station masters garden and the green design's principles inspired by the Old Course's 17th. 

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With additional space behind the tee to add length and Ridley's stated devotion to the original strategies, the fairway bunkers should come back a bit and the left side restored. However, with the tee possibly shifting to the right, this will change the view, angle and maybe effect the ability to restore the very classic risk-reward strategy. 

Time will soon tell if the nuances so well documented by the architects and rooted in the Road hole, are reclaimed during this summer's fifth hole work. 

Instagram: Tiger's Comeback Complete, Your U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Champs, Pine Valley's New/Old Skyline Green, Holston Hills From Above

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Tiger during Wednesday's Wells Fargo Championship pro-am showed why he could never win again and still realize how much he was missed.

A gesture from @TigerWoods that goes above and beyond the ropes. #LiveUnderPar

A post shared by PGA TOUR (@pgatour) on

At El Caballero Country Club, Colorado State golfers Katrina Prendergast, 20 and Ellen Secor, 20, were 2-down with five to play before defeating Lei Ye, 16, of the People’s Republic of China, and Yachun Chang, 17, of Chinese Taipei, 1 up.

The 9th at Pine Valley has seen the old "skyline green" effect restored after decades of framing by trees.

Holston Hills gets a thumb’s up from the Sugarloaf Social Club gang.

Two Short Course Openings: Sand Valley's Sandbox, Prince's Himalayas

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Social media watchers have known these two were coming for some time, still it's fun to see a pair of great "accessory" courses opening to play on the same day: Sand Valley's new "Sandbox" course by Coore, Crenshaw and The Boys, and the rejuvenated Himalayas nine at Prince's Golf Club by Mackenzie and Ebert.

A few images, starting with Sand Valley where I'm sure we'll see more as the opening day play proceeds:

Prince's 3200 yard nine makes a 27-hole day there appear to be essential. Here is a Golf World UK story pre-project on the planned work.

Ko's 3-Wood Reminds Us What Shotmaking Can Be Like When The Professional Game Has Symmetry

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If you haven't seen the shot, do check out Lydia Ko's 3-wood from Lake Merced and the 2018 MEDIHEAL Championship.

In her Golfweek account, Beth Ann Nichols called it "one of the most clutch 3-woods in LPGA history, negotiating a tree down the left side of the closing par 5 and nestling it in close for eagle. For a moment, an albatross was in the picture."

I want to highlight the shot for a host of reasons beyond the simple pleasure of watching someone with supernatural talents deliver so decisively under pressure. 

Some are wondering why the LPGA held more appeal in recent weeks and shots like Ko's bear greater study in the context of the distance and skill debate.

Consider...

--The 18th hole for this particular event will never be confused with Augusta National's 13th, yet there was enough strategic interest to create intrigue: drive down the right side and get a better view of the green, drive left and perhaps shorten the approach, but also lose the better angle.

--In the playoff, Minjee Lee outdrove Ko by 30 yards, but as Golf Channel's Karen Stupples noted almost immediately, Ko would have the better angle due to an overhanging cypress tree and the shape of the alleyway approach. Check out this screen grab of Ko's angle, with Lee's ball down the left, just above Ko's waistline:

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--Since LPGA driving distances are of sane proportions for a majority of the golf courses on earth, even very simple architectural elements provided options, risks and nuanced reward in positioning. The execution by Ko was ultimately masterful, but she was given a canvas thanks to the firm ground conditions, immaculate turf and LMCC design to execute something special.

--Watching the way Ko's ball hit the ground and release toward the hole only added to the drama and beauty of the shot. If this were a 6-iron, as we see all too often hit into a par-5 by today's male players, the shot loses appeal. It's not something we talk about nor is it a shot that leaves us in awe of the players. Or, in modern parlance, we don't feel like we're living under par.

--The game is far more interesting to watch and play when angles have meaning and the ground can be used. Even a novice golf watcher can get a thrill from a shot like Ko's and appreciate that they saw something few humans could accomplish. 

--When the game is compelling because of the aforementioned elements, more people will tune in on those merits over, say, watching forty-year-olds playing air guitar to music that hasn't been relevant in decades, if ever.

ASGCA Recap: Collegiality, Practicality And A Ross Tartan Yarmulke

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I couldn't help but chuckle at some of the observations from the annual American Society of Golf Course Architects annual gathering as seen through the eyes of a compassionate Bradley Klein, filing for GolfAdvisor.com.

Incoming ASGCA President Jeff Blume spoke powerfully about the collegiality that lies at the core of the group. 

So nice all of the men in plaid are getting along these days.

There was this, which sounds like the practicality highlight of the session:

Among the most ambitious of these efforts that served as a case study at the meeting is The Preserve at Oak Meadows in the Chicago suburb of Addison, Ill. Golf architect Greg Martin described the scope of a 285-acre project costing $18 million that involved 19 regulatory government agencies, conversion and a small army of consultants. Martin called it “a forest preserve with a golf course,” with the priority placed on reclaiming the native Illinois prairie and wetlands landscape while providing a revenue producing recreational amenity that was both "resistant and resilient" in the face of perennial flooding. It’s the kind of project where the golf course has to fit within a larger strategy of land management. Not the sort of thing that you can just improvise in the field.

And there was this lovely gesture to Klein from the society, who had already given him the Donald Ross Award:

The honorary membership status that came with the award qualified me for a share of the red tartan cloth, which they thoughtfully presented in the form of a Ross-plaid yarmulke.

"Short and Sweet: 9-Hole, Par 3, and Short Courses Are The Future"

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There is much to feel good about in Adam Schupak's Links Magazine cover story on Par-3 courses gaining popularity, respect and a passionate audience wanting more of them. 

For starters, there is the totality of the short course message being validated by big names like Woods, Spieth, Bandon and Pinehurst.

There is the sheer variety of projects, the styles of design, numbers of holes and different philosophies for building or adding a Par-3 Course. 

The lack of dissent, except from Links editor George Peper and Golf Digest Architecture Editor Ron Whitten, speaks to the way these little courses resonate with most.

And selfishly, there is this very nice mention of the Prairie Club Horse Course's impact on Mike Keiser.

Bandon Preserve was conceived as a breather for the golfer walking 36 holes day after day at the resort’s four standout 18-hole layouts, while giving another option to the golfer who didn’t want to sit in his room all afternoon, either. Keiser says his inspiration for the Preserve was The Horse Course, a course with no tees, just expanded fairways and 10 greens, at the Prairie Club in Nebraska. Designed by Gil Hanse with Jim Wagner and Geoff Shackelford, the trio took the concept of basketball’s game of “horse,” which allows the winner of each hole to choose the stance, lie, shot, and green for the next hole.

Here's a fun drone shot of the Horse Course by Patrick Koenig: