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This is a place where dreams are made. A place where you can relive history, while at the same time make a little history of your own. A place that can make the impossible, possible. And the unattainable, reachable. This is a place that serves as a constant reminder that we only go around once. And once will never be enough.
*Offer valid November 23, 2014 – March 31, 2015. To receive package rate, all golf must be secured at time of booking. Valid for new bookings only, and parties of 8 rooms or less. Not valid in conjunction with other offers. Some blackout dates apply. Rates are subject to change. Offer is subject to availability and includes Garden View room at The Inn or The Lodge, occupancy tax, County tourism assessment and service charge. Golf package prices quoted at right are for one round on Pebble Beach Golf Links and one round on The Links at Spanish Bay, for one player. To receive a complimentary round of golf on The Links at Spanish Bay, a minimum three night stay is required. Complimentary round must be used during the package stay and it is not transferrable. Resort credit must be used during package stay and it is valid at The Spa at Pebble Beach, The Shops at Pebble Beach and Pebble Beach Resorts restaurants. Resort credit may not be applied to rooms and golf. Pebble Beach Company reserves the right to modify or discontinue this offer at any time. Photo: Bart Keagy.
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Set against Virginia’s rolling highlands, you’ll find Vineyard Terraces at The Virginian. The new, Europeaninspired community boasts a working vineyard and an edible landscape plan with aromatic gooseberries, luscious blackberries, tangy currants and more. Named “One of the 50 Best Places to Live in America” by GOLF Magazine, The Virginian offers the perfect setting for Vineyard Terraces. To learn more about Vineyard Terraces, visit TheVirginian.com. Homes from $750k.
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Features
The Links
38 I The Top 25 Islands BY GEORGE PEPER
56 I Modern Classics: Elk River Club
Only LINKS Magazine would—for the first time ever— rank the world’s water-wrapped land masses purely on the strength of their golf
BY TOM CUNNEFF
44 I The Great Nice North BY DAVID DeSMITH A coast-to-coast Canada compendium of some of the best—and also most pleasant—golf courses you’ll ever play
50 I Tiger vs. Jack BY BRIAN McCALLEN
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this Golden Bear design takes you on a beautiful journey in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina
58 I Great Courses of Britain & Ireland: Rosemount BY MALCOLM CAMPBELL The original course at Scotland’s Blairgowrie Golf Club is very much an original, having been created by three of the game’s greatest architects
Golf’s two (arguably) greatest players go mano a mano as course designers at the tip of the Baja
p. 38 The 11th hole at the Ocean Course, Kiawah Island Golf Resort ON THE COVER:
ERIN O’BOYLE
The island green of the par-three, 14th hole at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
FALL 2014 LINKSMAGAZINE.COM
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Fall 2014 Volume 27, Number 4
p. 5 6 Fly-fishing on the Elk River
Departments 14 I Inside Links Numbers Game
36 I Frugal Golfer Orlando
16 I Dogged Victim Charm Offensive
60 I Get in Gear Degrees of Separation
18 I Viewpoint Minimalism
62 I Where Are They Now? Bill Rogers
20 I In Development World Round-Up
64 I Real Estate Health Benefits
22 I First Peek Gamble Sands
68 I I Was There 1999 Ryder Cup
24 I Characters Chris Smith
70 I Method Posture
26 I Stay & Play The Broadmoor
72 I Where’s Millie? Three Hints
30 I The Essential James Braid ©COPYRIGHT 2010, LINKS®-The Best of Golf® (incorporating Southern Links® and Western Links®). All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Titles LINKS®, Western Links® and Southern Links® registered U.S. Patent and Trademark office by Purcell Enterprises, Inc., its predecessors or its affiliates. LINKS® The Best of Golf (ISSN 1043-6375) is published Quarterly; Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall by Purcell Enterprises, Inc., 10 Executive Park Road, Suite 202, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928. Periodicals postage paid at Hilton Head Island, SC and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to LINKS, PO Box 15099, North Hollywood, CA 91615. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40612608. Canada Post: Return undeliverables to IMEX Global Solutions, LLC, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 Subscription services: 800-350-9301. Outside U.S. 818-487-2094. Subscription Rates: USA and possessions, one-year (5 issues) - $11.95. Canada $21.95 and all other countries (surface delivery) one year, U.S. $37.95. Advertising rates upon request: 843-842-6200. Editorial and advertising offices, P.O. Box 7628, Hilton Head Island, SC 29938. PRINTED IN USA
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o Gosling’s Named N 1 Aged Rum For This Region. After sampling 50 rums from around the planet, the Caribbean Journal concluded:
There was “...one clear winner...Bermuda’s Gosling’s Old Rum. Bottled in a champagne bottle, the same way sailors used to drink Gosling’s in the Bermuda of yore. Old Rum continues to be the standard for aged rum. It is the most complete rum in the world-flavourful, balanced, complex, sweet but not too sweet.” The supply of this sublime sipping rum is necessarily limited. Fortunately, we also craft Gosling’s Black Seal Rum of the same lineage. A platinum winner itself, it has a bit more versatility and availability. Either way, how on earth could a rum lover ask for more?
Gosling’s. For Seven Stubborn Generations. goslingsrum.com We make it slowly, stubbornly. Please enjoy it slowly, responsibly. 40% ABV. Product of Bermuda. Castle Brands, NY, NY.
Inside Links
Numbers Game T
HERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK lately about golf’s demise. The obits—from HBO’s Real Sports to The Wall Street Journal—are too numerous to mention, but suffice it to say, they all conclude that the sky is falling because equipment sales aren’t as robust as they were a few years ago, courses have closed, and participation is down somewhat. Well, I’m not buying it. Sure, there’s some truth to the numbers, but when you look a bit deeper, it becomes clear the Chicken Little scenario has been blown out of proportion. For instance, Golf Datatech, the golf-retail research firm, reports that hard-good sales (clubs and balls) are higher or equal to 12 of the last 17 years. Rounds in June, the wettest June ever, were actually up 2.7 percent this year over last when the weather cooperated. And one of our best advertising partners, GolfTEC, which has 190 facilities nationwide and gives more lessons than anybody else in the game, has seen its business double in the last five years and is having a record-setting year. Just because Wall Street has soured a bit on golf from an earnings standpoint doesn’t mean we’re in a “nosedive,” as HBO’s Bryant Gumbel noted. Why does a sport have to constantly be growing to be healthy? Golf is not a tech stock. The truth is, golf has shed its exclusionary image from 50 years ago, when there were only five million players, to an inclusive one with 25 million participants today. It’s now one of the biggest sports both played and watched by Americans on weekends. Ratings of major sports may be higher, but how many 50-year-olds are playing football every Saturday and Sunday? For another sign that the industry is doing okay, look at the product in your hand. Not only is the paid circulation of LINKS Magazine up 20 percent, but next year will be the first time in our 26-year history that we will be a monthly publication. Every month you’ll receive either a print or digital edition of LINKS, starting with our digital HotLINKS in January. I do have some slightly negative news: Those of you enjoying a trial subscription will be dropped from our mailing list if you don’t pay a subscription fee, but I hope you’ll feel it’s well worth the small cost. For just $12 for two years—the price of a sleeve of premium golf balls—subscribers will now receive 24 issues (eight print/tablet editions and 16 HotLINKS) of compelling content from the best editors in the business. Where else are you going to find cover stories like the one in this issue on The Top 25 Islands in Golf? Leave it to the man who conceived the first worldwide course ranking at GOLF Magazine to come up with this one. “Nobody had done it, and I thought it was a natural for us,” says Editor George Peper. “As I said in the story, how could we not do this ranking, given that LINKS is the game’s leading authority when it comes to the best places to go, play, and stay.” Although this is your last print issue for the year, we’re busy preparing the next digital editions, beginning with the Ryder Cup HotLINKS that will appear in your inboxes on September 22, just in time for the big match. Jack Purcell Golf isn’t going away—and President and Publisher neither are we. JPurcell@LINKSMagazine.com
The Best Of Golf
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John R. Purcell
EDITORIAL
Nancy S. Purcell George Peper SENIOR EDITOR Tom Cunneff ART DIRECTOR Larry Hasak CONTRIBUTING EDITOR James A. Frank ART & PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Harrison T. Brackett SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR Robert Dagley RESEARCH ASSISTANT Tom Ierubino EDITORIAL DIRECTOR EDITOR
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Edged by 23 miles of rivers and tidal creeks • A private club with golf courses by Tom Fazio and Rees Jones • Parks, gardens, biking and walking trails • On-island shops, schools, restaurants and churches • Convenient to beaches and an international airport • The Family Circle Tennis Center • A diverse selection of homes and homesites • An established community with a coveted Charleston address • A town. An island. A way of life.
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George Peper
DOGGED VICTIM
Charm Offensive
include courses where the views are of water that is not salinated. Two that jump to mind are Whistling Straits and Arcadia Bluffs, where the FOR ME, THE BEST COURSES ARE THOSE WITH VIEWS OF THE SEA water in question is Lake Michigan, which happens to be larger than a few oceans. Both are certified charmers. WHILE PUTTING TOGETHER this month’s cover story on Now, since my system is brand new, I haven’t run the numthe Top 25 Islands in Golf, I was reminded of the quality bers on many courses, but I can attest that few in the world I value most highly when it comes to rating and ranking reach the lofty 100-point height, and most of those that do golf courses: charm. Charm, of course, is a difficult thing are missing from the various top 100 rankings. One exception to define. There are charming mountain courses, charming is New Zealand’s Cape Kidnappers, set on a string of cliffs lakeside courses, and courses that are charming just because 600 feet above the Pacific Ocean. If memory serves, Jack a fine architect made fine use of fine land. But for me, charm Nicklaus’s The Challenge at Manele on the Hawaiian island derives in large part from one thing: views of the sea. I’d of Lanai rates 100, too. rather play a mediocre golf course Both Royal Porthcawl and Penby the sea than a great one inland. nard in Wales have sea views from Until recently, however, I had no every hole, so I’d expect them to way of quantifying that experience, have scores somewhere in the 90s, no metric for comparing or rating as should Old Head in Ireland, seaside courses. Then it dawned The Ocean Course at Kiawah, Half on me: If sea views are what it’s all Moon Bay and Trump National in about, why not just count them. California, Palmilla and the Desert Here then, for the first time, is the Course at Cabo del Sol in Mexico, Peper Charm Rating System. Mossel Bay in South Africa, and Le First: Every course begins with Touessrok in Mauritius, all of which 50 points. Second: On each par claim to have ocean views from all four or five, score an additional 18 holes. Cabot Cliffs, the Coore/ 1 point when the water is visible Crenshaw course underway in Nova from the tee, 1 point when it’s visScotia will be an all-18er as will both ible from the teeshot landing area, Tiger’s and Jack’s new courses in and 1 point when it’s visible from Cape Kidnappers Mexico (see page 50). the green—maximum 3 points. The first U.S. Open site, Newport Third: On each par three, add 1 Country Club, scores 80 points but only one other—Pebble point when water is visible from the tee and 1 point when Beach (around 90)—rates higher. That will change next year it’s visible from the green—maximum 2 points. when Tacoma’s Chambers Bay (with a whopping 97 points) On a standard course—with 14 long holes and 4 par becomes the highest charm-rated course to hold our threes—there’s thus the potential for 14 x 3 (42) plus national championship. 4 x 2 (8) bonus points, for a total PCRS score of 100. What’s a good benchmark charm score? Probably 75, Just to be clear, “visible” means in view from any perbut I haven’t tested my system enough to know for sure—clearly spective. You don’t need to be pointing down the fairway, I need to get out there and do more on-site research. you’re allowed a full Linda Blair 360. Also, in rare cases, I
Where I’ve Played Recently Old Macdonald/Bandon Trails Bandon, Ore. I hadn’t visited Bandon in a decade and, oh my, what I’d been missing. It’s a testament to the place that, if asked to choose my favorite course of the four, I’d be very hard pressed. OM and BT, while very dissimilar, both wowed me, as did the new putting course, The Punchbowl.
Rockaway Hunting Club Lawrence, N.Y. I was a member here a couple of generations ago, hadn’t been back in years. In the meantime, a Gil Hanse renovation has transformed it from a pleasant if sometimes soggy jaunt into a firm, boldly bunkered beauty, with greens that were among the fastest and smoothest I’ve seen all year. Made me sorry I ever left. 16
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GARY LISBON
The Royal Palace Course Agadir, Morocco. Arguably the world’s most exclusive club (there’s only one member, the king—a non-golfer—and it’s open only one day a year except for the week when the European Tour holds the Hassan II Trophy), this stern seaside test from Robert Trent Jones Jr. features five par threes, five par fives, eight par fours, and 18 vexing greens, all encircled by seven miles of 15-foot-high walls.
Viewpoint
MINIMALISM
Dirt Cheap?
suddenly we decide we love minimalist courses, and those are fairly scarce and in relatively fixed supply, the price will rise until people are just choking at paying that much for a round.” The very IF THEY COST SO LITTLE TO BUILD, WHY AREN’T MINIMALIST wealthy are insensitive to price, Jackson GOLF COURSES MORE AFFORDABLE TO PLAY? BY TONY DEAR adds, so when minimalist courses are extremely scarce they become very desirIT’S BEEN 25 YEARS since Tom Doak opened his first solo design, High Pointe in able and the price—to play or join—can Williamsburg, Mich. Besides launching Doak’s career, High Pointe had the dubious really skyrocket. distinction of helping launch the term “minimalism” as it pertains to golf design. “I learned right away that the cost of While many will argue over minimalism’s ideology and principles, one fact is true a green fee has nothing to do with how of almost all such courses: They’re built with relatively small budgets. much it cost to build the course, but In 2004, using figures he gathered from the Golf Course Builders Association of everything to do with how much people America (GCBAA), the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA), and are willing to pay to play it,” Doak says. his former employer Denis Griffiths, Scott Macpherson—an architect from New Gil Hanse, who started his career Zealand and author of St. Andrews: Evolution of the Old Course—assessed the cost working for Doak, agrees: “In our soof building different types of courses. Before architect fees, a minimalist course ciety, people have always been willing cost $521,000, Macpherson said; an average course cost $2.22 million; while an to pay more for an exceptional product, upscale course cost $5.18 million. In other words, a minimalist course costs about especially one that has been hand-craftone-quarter what it takes to build an “average” course. ed with care and skill.” There are, however, a few affordable minimalist courses out So if Tom Doak’s Pacific Dunes, a $2.5 million job, cost a there. One is Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Wash., quarter of what it takes to build Typical Hills, should it not a Dan Hixson design that has gone generally unheralded, follow that Pacific Dunes’s green fee is one-fourth the price? partly because of its remote location but mostly because the It’s a nice theory, but, sadly, one that seldom holds up. The little-known Hixson designed it. It is superb, yet on summer peak green fee at Pacific Dunes is a staggering $295 ($250 weekends, its green fee just barely creeps above $100. for resort guests). Florida’s Streamsong Blue, another worldAn even better example is Wild Horse Golf Club in ranked Doak minimalist design, peaks at $275 a round. Gothenburg, Neb., designed by longtime Coore/Crenshaw Initiation fees at private clubs with minimalist courses master shapers Dave Axland and Dan Proctor, along with aren’t economical, either. The total cost for land and design volunteers from the community. “Everyone pitched in, and of Sand Hills, the magnificent Coore/Crenshaw course in Dan and I worked as city employees,” says Axland. The result Nebraska, was under $2.2 million, yet the invitation-only is a course that appears in national top 100 lists, cost just $1.3 membership fee is reckoned to be around $50,000. And you’ll million, and can be played for $51.50. need to find roughly six times that to become a member at So yes, such golden courses do exist, but it appears the Friar’s Head, a Coore/Crenshaw course on Long Island. chance you’ll see lots of them opening up anytime in the near “It’s a classic case of supply and demand,” says Matthew future is, well, minimal. Jackson, Professor of Economics at Stanford University. “If
Wine Valley—a rare example of minimalism without maximal fees.
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In Development 3
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World Round-Up BY ADAM LAWRENCE
Golf course construction is on the rebound. Across the globe, recovering economies and undimmed ambition are leading developers and architects back into the new-course market. Some countries have continued to build, while in others, economic revival is the cause. Whatever the impetus, the news for traveling golfers is all good. Great sites, even if far afield, and great courses with something original about them, are the order of the day.
Club 1 Wyoming NEWCASTLE, WYOMING “It’s like an island in the sky,” says architect Steve Forrest when asked about the site of his current project, the new Wyoming Club in the far east of the state. Set at 5,600 feet on top of a mesa just big enough for 18 holes, and with steep cliffs at every side, the views stretch across the state line into nearby South Dakota. Wyoming Club is being developed by the Weinreis family, owners of the largest privately held cattle ranching business in the U.S., on land the family has owned for years. Originally, the course was to be built in a valley below the mesa, with a small number of premium housing lots on top, but, says Forrest, “I told them ‘It’s nice to have 50 people see this view, but if you put the golf course up here you get to sell the view again every day.’ “I have never seen a site like this,” the architect continues. “The mesa is sandstone, so the soil is perfect, and the cliffs are 100 feet or more high. The golf course will match the site—it’s going to be rugged and rough, with sagebrush and the craggy trees hanging off the cliff as visual keys.” Site clearance is underway; the course should open in 2017.
Links 2 Cabot NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA Visionary developer Mike Keiser has done more to kick-start the boom in accessible-destination courses than anyone. His most recent opening, Cabot Links on Canada’s Cape Breton Island, achieved world top 100 status within a few years. But it’s the second course at Cabot, now nearing completion under the watchful eyes of architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, that seems certain to create a real stir. I saw the land set aside for Cabot Cliffs five years ago, shortly after Keiser and partner Ben Cowan-Dewar acquired it. Set atop jagged cliffs and cut through with deep ravines, its potential was obvious. But as Coore/Crenshaw have moved forward with the build, and as photographs have leaked out, so excitement has grown: The par-three 16th immediately calls to mind the matching hole at Cypress Point, while the two closing holes run parallel to the cliffs. Even the normally cautious Keiser has broken cover. “Bill and Ben are building one for the ages,” he told a reporter recently. Golfers must wait till next year to find out just how good Cabot Cliffs is. 20
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Golf Links 3 Lofoten GIMSØYSANA, NORWAY Plenty of tourists head to the Arctic region in the summer to experience the midnight sun, or later in the year when the Northern Lights illuminate the sky. Few, though, go this far north to play golf. Opening next year, the 18-hole Lofoten Golf Links in Norway may change that. More than 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the Lofoten archipelago is a chain of islands off the country’s western coast, protected from the worst of Arctic weather by the Gulf Stream, which often lifts summer temperatures above 70. Course owner Frode Hov’s family has lived here for more than 400 years, but it is only in the last 20 that golf has come to the islands. Hov built a six-hole course by hand in the 1990s after realizing his property was similar to Scottish linksland. Swedish-based British golf architect Jeremy Turner helped extend the course to nine holes a few years ago and now has returned to rebuild and extend. The most memorable hole will be the 2nd, a par three with its green sitting on a rock stack almost entirely surrounded by the Arctic Ocean.
Cove 5 Sweetens SOUTH PITTSBURG, TENNESSEE
Wickham 4 Cape KING ISLAND, AUSTRALIA Golfers from other parts of the world who have looked longingly at photographs of the two magnificent courses at Tasmania’s Barnbougle Dunes may not wish to hear this, but there will soon be even more reasons to head for the islands off the southern coast of Australia. Roughly halfway across the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Barnbougle sits King Island, home to 1,800 people and one of the world’s most anticipated courses. Set to open in 2015, Cape Wickham is being designed by American architect Mike DeVries, creator of the Greywalls and Kingsley Club courses in northern Michigan. Australian golf journalist Darius Oliver is the brains behind the project; the author of the Planet Golf series of books saw the land before persuading developer Duncan Andrews to back it and DeVries to uproot his family from the U.S. for two years to get it built. All 18 holes have views of Bass Strait; eight play directly alongside the water with five others abutting the sea at tee or green. “The day Cape Wickham opens, at least 98 of Australia’s top 100 courses will drop down a spot,” says Aussie architect and touring pro Mike Clayton. Furthermore, architect Graeme Grant is building another 18 on a similarly spectacular site elsewhere on the island, and the existing nine-hole course has been named as one of the world’s best by many respected commentators. So plan a stop-off on the way to Barnbougle.
When architect Rob Collins left Gary Player’s design practice to start his own business a few years ago, he could hardly have expected to end up a course operator, too. Collins and partner Tad King were hired in 2010 to rebuild the nine-hole Sequatchie Valley course in South Pittsburg, Tenn., half an hour from Chattanooga. Not long after construction finished, the family that owned the course changed its plans and sought to unload responsibility for operations, a decision that eventually led to Collins partnering with Ari Techner, owner of custom-clubmaking firm Scratch Golf, and taking on the course himself. Sound unusual? It is, but the renamed Sweetens Cove course is pretty unusual, too. With a practically unlimited supply of sand from the owners’ concrete business, Collins and King turned the flat land into one of America’s most remarkable nine-holers, with huge, humpy-bumpy greens, centerline bunkers, and the feel of an old-school Scottish links. Most dramatic is the 4th hole, a par three with a 25,000-square-foot green that can play from 95 yards (at which distance the shot is blind) to almost 200. Nearly as weird is the closer, an amped up Redan, where the smart play may be a bump-and-run 5-iron. Sweetens Cove opens this fall.
Dunes 6 Forest TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN Tom Doak’s portfolio already rivals that of any architect in history, so it is hardly surprising he is on the lookout for different challenges. One thing Doak has wanted to do for years is build a course that is equally playable in both directions, and he’s talked Lew Thompson, owner of the Forest Dunes resort in Doak’s hometown of Traverse City, Mich., into giving it a go. Already home to a highly rated Tom Weiskopf design, the reversible course will, in effect, give Forest Dunes 54 holes; the plan is to play the course in different directions on alternate days, inducing resort guests to stick around longer. Look for greens that are less extravagantly contoured than some of Doak’s recent work—the architect himself says that savage slopes will not work on greens that have to be playable from two directions. Bizarrely, after the concept has been ignored for centuries, two other reversible courses are under construction. Dutch architect Frank Pont is Kohanaiki building a nine-holer in Holland, while Dan Hixson is at work on one in Oregon.
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First Peek
GAMBLE SANDS
BY DESIGNING A COURSE THAT TRULY APPEALS TO ALL LEVELS OF GOLFERS, DAVID MCLAY KIDD IS STEERING THE GAME BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK FROM BANDON, ORE., to Brewster, Wash., is roughly 600 miles. But for golf course architect David McLay Kidd, the two towns—the former the site of his first big-deal design (the original Bandon Dunes), the latter his most recent (Gamble Sands)—are the closest of neighbors when it comes to showcasing his philosophy of enjoyable golf.
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“I went back to Bandon numerous times and asked, ‘Why do people love it?’,” Kidd says, explaining the process of designing Gamble Sands, which is three hours east of Seattle in the middle of the state, surrounded by apple and cherry orchards. “What did I do right at 26 that I didn’t do at 36 that I want to do at 46?” What he’s done is find a way to make golf fun. Many architects give lip service to designing for all kinds of players, but Kidd has realized this lofty goal far better than most others have even attempted. In a few years, he could be seen as a pioneer in making the game more inclusive, inviting, and engaging. “With Gamble, I’m bucking the trend,” he says, not afraid to flirt with hubris. “Architects talk about shot value, protecting par, and challenge. In over 20 years in this business I’ve learned to design false fronts, spill-offs, and hazards. But now it’s time to reconsider: Is this valid? Does the average golfer appreciate a bunker short-right that gathers his weak slice? “Trent Jones said the golfer is on the attack so the architect has to be on defense. Well you know what, as an architect I want to partner with the golfer, be his caddie, and if he has some degree
L.C. LAMBRECHT
of talent, help him around this golf course to score, to have fun, and to want to play it again and again.” He does all that and more, thanks largely to size. Spilling across the top of a massive mound of sand, Gamble is as big a course as you’ll ever see. Or at least it looks that way. It helps that the dune is about 1,000 feet high, so the views—stunning vistas over the Columbia River and Cascade Mountains—extend nearly forever in all directions. About those mountains. Besides adding to the visual appeal, they block the clouds and rain most people associate with the “Evergreen State.” That weather stays over Seattle. This part of Washington gets only about 10 inches of rain a year and much less wind than along the coast (including farther south at Bandon). Some of Gamble’s fairways are 100 yards wide, making them almost unmissable. But they’re nearly all cut at angles (some sharp, most subtle), while dipping and turning. Some demand carries over large sandy fall-offs, and nearly all end at large, generally flat greens. The principal hazard is sand, and lots of it, but it’s all in view and easy to avoid. There’s no
water to deal with and the breezes are gentle at worst. To score, the good player must be aggressive, find the preferred lines, and land in the right locations. It’s just that those locations are a little bigger and more generous than we’re used to. “This is not a course for Tour players but for everyone,” Kidd says proudly. “In the past when designing a course we’d ask how we can put fear in golfers. Now we’re asking how can we get the golfer to swing freely and, whatever happens, not get crucified. If he hits a weak slice, we want the land his ball finds to be flat. It may sound as if there’s no challenge, but there is. More important, there’s a huge amount of fun to be had.” To truly be fun, Gamble Sands had to be public-accessible. Billing itself a “private resort,” it sells both tee times and memberships. Lodge accommodations for up to 40 will open by 2016. After Kidd finished Bandon Dunes he came up with the tagline that became the course’s (and resort’s) identifier: “Golf as it was meant to be.” For Gamble Sands his slogan is: “We want you to play your best golf here.” He’s done everything humanly possible to make that happen. —James A. Frank
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Characters ‘about this’ or ‘about that’ is good enough, and your mindPERHAPS YOU’VE SEEN the four-minute video on YouTube. body system works better when you do it that way.” A golfer in a pink shirt and white shorts goes zipping around Smith plays his speed rounds with six clubs in a small stand Bandon Dunes, playing shots and running with his bag. He bag he designed. “You don’t have to sit and ponder, ‘Do I want putts everything out, pauses to rake a bunker, and records four a 6-iron or a 7?’ It’s the same club either way: just picture the birdies and 14 pars for a round of 68 in under 54 minutes. shot, take the club, hit it, and go.” That’s a little pokey for Christopher Smith, the Oregon pro A run around a golf course is four or five miles, but because in the video and the world-record holder in speed golf. At the golfer is doing it in intervals of a hundred yards or the 2005 Chicago Speed Golf Classic, he shot a 65 at Jackson two at a time, it’s harder on the cardiovascular system. The Park Golf Course in 44:06 minutes, for an overall speed golf sport that speed golf most score of 109.06—strokes plus resembles is the biathlon in minutes equal score. Hitting the Winter Olympics, that good shots, playing good golf, combination of cross-country is paramount in speed golf. skiing and target shooting And in some ways, says Smith, SPEED-GOLF CHAMP CHRISTOPHER SMITH that requires stamina, focus, that’s easier than in the game SAYS PLAYING 18 HOLES IN UNDER AN HOUR and quick recovery. he now calls “slow golf.” IS GOOD FOR THE GAME—AND YOURS Smith makes sure to swing “It becomes much more of in a controlled fashion—as a reaction sport. See the shot every golfer should—because a you want to hit, the distance, lost ball is the ultimate speedthe shape, see it and then do round killer: first you lose it. In normal golf, you tend time trying to find it, then, if to see it, visualize it, and then you can’t, you have to run back you think about how to do it, and play the shot again. “You which could involve a swing learn the hard way in speed thought and a practice swing golf that when you lose a ball, or two, and then you try to it’s very penal.” do it. There’s this deliberation He took up speed golf piece that gets in between. We in the mid-1990s, after a perform best when we just see decade or so of teaching. it and do it. Having grown up in Eugene, “You can pay a sports Ore.—the running capital psychologist $500 or $1,000 of America—he found the an hour, and he’s going to fitness element of the game tell you to stay in the present, fun, and was having trouble stay in the now, don’t let your fitting rounds of golf into mind wander off into the his busy work life. “The two past or the future. In speed things that are killing the golf, as soon as you hit your game of golf are that it’s not shot you start running after fun for people and it takes it, and your next shot is only too long. Speed golf answered seconds away. So you can both of those for me.” only stay in the present.” Smith, now 51, has taught He h as l ear n e d t h a t at Pumpkin Ridge for 15 there is an advantage to years; he’s played the Ghost not knowing your exact Creek course hundreds of yardage to the hole. “When times, and his best score there you look at neuroscience is a five-under 66 he shot in 48:23 minutes with six clubs. and talk with people in the know, they’ll tell you that React, don’t deliberate. Stay in the present. Try to hit “good the brain actually works best when you give it ‘in the enough” shots rather than perfect ones. Keep the ball in play. ballpark’ numbers or ranges rather than a specific number, Pick up the pace. Have fun. Score lower. which can be intimidating. I’m getting my yardages from Sounds like the tortoise game has a lot to learn from its sprinkler heads or markers as I’m running to the ball, so rabbit cousin. —Jeff Neuman they’re not exact. I know, hey, I don’t have to be perfect;
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CRAIG MITCHELLDYER
Running Man
Stay & Play
THE BROADMOOR
Mountain Mixture THE COLORADO STALWART COMBINES COURSES BLENDING VERY DIFFERENT STYLES WITH ACCOMMODATIONS AND AMENITIES THAT ARE SINGULARLY OUTSTANDING IT SURELY WOULDN’T FLY TODAY. Golf architecture enthusiasts and history buffs would be up in arms. Breaking up a Donald Ross original, and adding nine Robert Trent Jones holes to make a new 18? Why, the very idea. That’s precisely what happened at the The Broadmoor when, in 1958, the Colorado Springs resort that had opened in 1918 with 18 Ross-designed holes decided it needed nine more to meet rising demand. But instead of preserving Ross’s course and adding a new course, it was decided that these new holes, to be designed by Trent Jones, would join nine of Ross’s to form what became the East Course. Ross’s other nine would become known as the Social Nine. Seven years later, Trent Jones was back, designing nine more holes, which, when added to the Social Nine, formed the new West Course (the Arnold Palmer-designed Mountain Course was added in 1976 and revamped by the Nicklaus Company in 2006). Ron Forse, a Ross expert who was contracted to restore the East Course prior to the 2008 U.S. Senior Open, agrees that such course surgery probably wouldn’t happen nowadays. “It was a bit bizarre to be honest,” he says. “But I kind of understand it. Ross wouldn’t have been revered in the ’50s as much as he is now, and Trent Jones was the architect of the moment. I also think the owner didn’t want guests to have to cross the road to start their rounds. He wanted the beginning of both courses to be on the resort side.” Forse’s instructions were to make the two contrasting styles of the East Course seem less incongruous, a task he found extremely challenging. “Ross and Trent Jones didn’t have much in common,” he says. “Not only were their holes’
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features unalike, the routing was very different, too. Unlike Ross, Jones built a lot of holes that ran parallel to each other.” Forse didn’t alter the routing but, working with a set of old aerial photographs, did reshape all the bunkers and took out much of the artificial mounding that surrounded the greens. You don’t have to be an architecture nerd to recognize where the Ross holes finish and Jones holes start, but Forse did a good job adding harmony to an uncohesive layout. Fortunately, he didn’t feel the need to touch the greens. “Between 1910 and 1920, Ross’s greens were more arbitrary than those he built later in his career,” he says. “Jones tended to build fairly flat, rather mundane greens, but here they had quite a bit of movement in them. So the two sets of greens weren’t too dissimilar.” When Jones redesigned another architect’s course, Forse adds, he’d typically stamp his own signature on it: Oakland Hills in Michigan, where Jones totally transformed Ross’s original ahead of the 1951 U.S. Open, is a good example. “But it’s possible,” says Forse of the East, “he was giving Ross a tip of the cap by building what, for him, were more adventurous greens.” No doubt there is much discussion in
STAY & PLAY
Resort Essentials
East Course, 3rd hole
Eight miles to the west, the Ranch at Emerald Valley was added to bolster The Broadmoor’s Wilderness Experience. Ten luxury cabins accommodate guests looking for tranquility mixed with a little outdoor action. Rates start at $500 per person per night. With so many accommodation options you’ll find yourself a suitable room, and with 19 places to dine you’ll likewise have little trouble finding a great meal, from fine-dining in the Penrose Room, to superb Italian in Ristorante Del Lago, to contemporary American cuisine in Summit, to the Golden Bee piano pub. The list of activities is extensive, too, going well beyond the usual hiking and swimming. Fly-fishing, horseback riding, ATV tours, rock-climbing, hot-air ballooning, rafting, visits to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Pike’s Peak, and Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun. Here, you can do it all. —Tony Dear
Mountain Course, 4th hole
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LEFT: THE HENEBRYS; ABOVE: EVAN SCHILLER
the fabulous clubhouse, opened in 1994, about whose holes are better. Ross’s have a little more character and are more fun to play perhaps, while Jones’s are definitely more challenging. What there can be no discussion about, however, is the magnificence of the resort. Current owner Philip Anschutz, head of the Anschutz Corporation which does business in numerous sectors including entertainment, sports, and energy, has invested well over $100 million in the The Broadmoor since purchasing it in 2011, money which financed enhancements, improvements, and new construction that earned The Broadmoor an incredible 54th straight fivestar rating from the Forbes Travel Guide this year. A good chunk of the money went into Broadmoor The Broadmoor features: West (across Cheyenne • 622 guest rooms, 111 suites, 2 brownstones, 44 cottage bedrooms, Lake from the main hoand cabins at the Ranch at tel building), adding three Emerald Valley new floors and 31 elegant • 54 holes of golf new rooms. The resort also • 4 tennis courts built a new mountain re• 3 swimming pools treat—Cloud Camp—on • 19 restaurants Cheyenne Mountain at • 25 specialty shops and boutiques an altitude of 9,200 feet. • spa and fitness center • movie theater Guests can arrive at one • 185,000 square feet of meeting space of the 11 luxury cabins by hiking up the mountain, For reservations: riding a mule, or taking the broadmoor.com • (855) 634-7711 resort shuttle.
Join for the golf, stay for the lifestyle Experience Superstition Mountain
Golf Memberships Available Marian McGill, Membership Director • (480) 983-3200
8000 E Club Village Drive, Superstition Mountain, AZ 85118 mmcgill@superstitionmtngc.com • www.superstitionmountain.com
The Essential
James Braid
HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AS A PLAYER—INCLUDING FIVE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES—ARE EXCEEDED ONLY BY HIS LEGACY AS A GOLF COURSE DESIGNER BY THOMAS DUNNE
WITH THE RYDER CUP SPOTLIGHT focused on Gleneagles, we have the perfect opening to talk about the man who truly put that resort on the map as a golf destination. James Braid (1870–1950) simply had a monumental career in golf. The Scotsman first achieved renown as a player: The winner of five Open Championships between 1901 and 1910, only his “Great Triumvirate” rival, Harry Vardon, has as credible a claim to the mantle of the best golfer of his generation. Overlapping with the prime of his playing career was Braid’s “day job” as head professional at Walton Heath Golf Club near London, a position he held for nearly half a century, making clubs, giving lessons, and playing foursomes with the likes of David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Braid was a poor traveler––afraid of boats and even automobiles, he got around almost entirely by train—but despite this limitation he carved out a successful side career as a golf architect. He worked throughout the British Isles, but was especially fond of his native Scotland. Today, it would be fairly difficult to plan a decent Scottish golf holiday without encountering a course touched in some fashion by Braid, whether it be an original design or a noteworthy renovation. Design Signature: Many of Braid’s design tenets—that opening holes should provide what Donald Ross would call a “gentle handshake”; that holes should offer multiple avenues of play; that the two nines should be balanced in terms of length and character—seem orthodox today, but in the early 1900s they made him part of the first wave of architects to break
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from the penal concepts espoused by many of his contemporaries. He commonly used diagonal crossbunkering to break up drive zones and could be especially aggressive in multiplying hazards close to the green. Braid seldom designed anything self-consciously “quirky,” but he did not shy away from using unusual natural features.
Best Course: There are a few good contenders here. Lovers of championship tests can point to Braid’s major influence in the development of Carnoustie, though its famous (and famously punishing) finishing holes are not his work. Connoisseurs might plump for St. Enodoc, the rollicking, spectacularly scenic links on the Cornish coast. Yet another faction could make a strong case for either the King’s or the Queen’s at Gleneagles, a pair of strategically engaging and surpassingly beautiful designs in the hills of Perthshire.
GETTY IMAGES
Gleneagles Queen’s Course, 18th hole
THE ESSENTIAL
Most Representative Course: There’s really no such thing as a “typical” Braid design. His prolific output— some 350–400 courses feature some kind of Braid contribution—was made possible, according to author Phil Pilley, “by instinctive decision-making, immediate planning and the laying-off of construction work to others.” For every high-profile layout like Gleneagles or Carnoustie, there are many more “country courses” like Brora Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands. Braid wrote that linksland like Brora’s provided “the best and most interesting golf,” adding that in such a setting, “the holes should be laid out and arranged in such lengths as are suggested by the lie of the land, [with] every natural obstacle being taken advantage of.” Brora concludes with a par three, a situation that the architect explicitly preferred to avoid, but with its economical bunkering and clever use of the Clynelish Burn, this charming and infinitely playable links shows Braid at his sporting best. Sleeper: Braid’s Johnny Appleseedlike role in the development of golf in the UK means that his legacy is long on hidden gems. Some are hidden in
Carnoustie, 2nd hole
plain sight, like the North Berwick East Links, which Braid designed with the esteemed local pro Ben Sayers. Bass Rock often seems within arm’s reach at this underrated links, especially on the one-shot 13th, which plays blindly out to sea. Other Braid gems are farther afield, like Porthmadog in north Wales. Don’t be put off by a forgettable first side here––after the turn, golfers are treated to one of the wildest nines in links golf. Most Famous Hole: Braid wasn’t a “signature hole” kind of guy, but a couple of his true standouts can be found at the King’s Course at Gleneagles. The par-three 5th, nicknamed “Het Girdle” (or “hot griddle”) presents the opportunity to play a mid-iron to an upwelling green fronted by a gang
of deep bunkers. The 9th, “Heich o’ Fash” (“height of trouble”), features a thrilling downhill drive, then a vaulting approach to another plateau green. Further Reading: Phil Pilley’s Heather and Heaven, an award-winning centenary history of Walton Heath, contains a wealth of excellent material on Braid. It can be found on Amazon, as can John Moreton and Iain Cumming’s James Braid and His 400 Golf Courses. A couple of years after the great man’s death Bernard Darwin published a biography entitled simply James Braid. As a teaching pro, Braid himself wrote several popular instructionals, notably Advanced Golf, which includes several chapters related to his design philosophy; that volume has been digitized and is freely available on Google Books.
RUSSELL KIRK (2)
Brora, 3rd hole
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TOM FAZIO MADE THE GOLF COURSE OUR MEMBERS MAKE THE COMMUNITY
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Kierland Golf Club
I
t’s one thing to bill yourself as the “World’s Finest Golf Destination;” it’s quite another when you can back it up. When you factor in the quantity and quality of courses in Scottsdale, the beauty of the desert, the consistently perfect weather, and all the fun there is to be had off the course, who could disagree? With more than 200 golf courses in the city and the surrounding area, you could spend every vacation here and never play the same course twice. Thing is, Scottsdale just keeps getting better as a golf destination. For the first time since it opened in 1986, TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course underwent a makeover. The seven-month, $12 million renovation of the golf course, led by architect Tom Weiskopf, includes the relocation of four greens, resurfacing of all greens, reshaping and regrassing of all tee complexes, and relocation and reshaping of all bunker complexes. The result Tegavah when it reopens in November will be a golf course that’s more aesthetically pleasing to resort guests and strategically more challenging to PGA TOUR players. Under new management, Tegavah (previously known as Vista Verde) is well on its way to becoming a highly desirable residential community in this jaw-dropping corner of the Sonoran Desert. The par-72, 7,229-yard golf course lies at the foundation of the community. Golf course designer Ken Kavanaugh crafted Tegavah to feel like a traditional desert-golf experience with modern
elements converging to provide a serious test that doesn’t forget to have a little fun along the way. When it comes to fun, you can’t beat Topgolf Scottsdale at Riverwalk. The three-story venue offers 102 climate-controlled hitting bays where you hit microchipped golf balls into dartboard-like targets at varying distances. When not using the hitting bays, you can explore Topgolf’s full bar (the margaritas are terrific) and outstanding menu. In fact, when the sun goes down, Topgolf—with live bands, DJs, free pool tables, video games, corn hole and bear (yes, bear) pong—is much more akin to a hip nightclub or sports bar than a driving range. The fun continues over at Kierland Golf Club, where you could already navigate your round with golf bikes and Segways. Now you can ride a golfboard, a remote controlled, surfing-inspired board that carries all your clubs. Of course, you can always count on favorite courses like the Champions at TPC Scottsdale, Talon and Raptor at The Grayhawk Golf Club, Pinnacle and Monument at Troon North Golf Club, and We-Ko-Pa Golf Club’s Cholla and Saguaro courses. Add to those your personal favorites, dozens of world-class resorts and spas, magnificent natural beauty, nearly limitless off-course attractions, a burgeoning culinary scene and Scottsdale’s legendary nightlife and you’ve got a destination for golf and fun that is hard to beat.
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA • (800) 782-1117 • ILOVESCOTTSDALEGOLF.COM
RULE #5
BRANDEL’S WATER IS NOT A HAZARD RULES FOR
SCOTTSDALE GOLF
There's plenty of world-class golf in Scottsdale. But, we all know there's more to a great golf trip than chasing a little white ball. Whenever I'm in town, I make sure to enjoy Scottsdale's "other" attractions. And I promise there is no penalty for being in the water.
I Love Scottsdale Golf and I promise you will, too. Learn more about how we play the game and start your next Scottsdale golf adventure at
iLoveScottsdaleGolf.com
— Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel analyst and swimsuit model
The Frugal Golfer percent—but upped the ante on those left behind, giving them a look similar to ANGC’s white sand hazards. Eagle Creek: Touted for its fast and firm Scottish flair, Eagle Creek is a 2004 collaboration between Ron Garl, a Floridian, and Howard Swan, an Englishman. It features five par fives. Deltona Club: Far afield from the International Drive/ Convention Center area where most visitors stay, it’s worth the 40-mile trek. A 2008 renovation by Bobby Weed moved the 50-year-old club considerably up in class. IF YOU CAN’T FIND INEXPENSIVE GOLF IN ORLANDO, And...Providence Golf Club YOU’RE NOT TRYING BY BY DAVE DAVE SEANOR SEANOR typically garners high marks Metro West for grooming. Harmony Golf Club, the handiwork of Johnny Miller, occupies land on a nature played Rio Pinar, which opened to the THERE ARE ROUGHLY 80 daily-fee or resort courses of note within a 40-mile public last spring after 56 years as a private preserve. Shingle Creek, affiliated with a radius of Orlando International Airport, club. Rio hosted the Florida Citrus Open Rosen Hotel, was the last course designed and competition for your dollar is fierce. from 1966 until 1978; these days, it’s a by Dave Harman. Combine that with a vast array of equally popular hangout for mini-tour players. It competitive hotels and condos, attractive recently underwent an extensive facelift car rental rates, and 800 flights a day (new greens, tees, bunkers) to the oldand you have all the ingredients for a school layout designed by self-taught wallet-friendly golf trip. Which by our architect Mark Mahannah. Only a few definition, during the high season— steps separate each green from the next 19th Hole The trendy 19th-hole hot spot is Dewey’s November through March—means five tee; water comes into play on only a Indoor Golf Sports Grill on Turkey Lake Road with 10 rounds of golf and four nights lodging handful of holes; and movement left or high-end golf simulators ($39–$59 per hour), a 30-by15-foot artificial putting green, 75 TVs, and a menu with for less than $600. Add airfare, meals, right is equally distributed among par sandwiches and entrees from $7 to $24. If your game shared car rental, and extracurricular fours and fives. has you down, Dewey’s also can book lessons or send activities, and the whole package should Orange County National: This 45-hole you next door to Club Champion, a brand-agnostic club fitting service. cost no more than $1,300. (Gluttons, complex (including a par-three course) Frequent Flyer Check flights into Sanford International is a four-time venue for the PGA Tour tack on $200.) Airport—roughly 40 miles from Orlando attractions— Value varies with the season. Green Q-School finals. The Panther Lake and operated by Allegiant Airlines, which services nearly 50 fees hit rock bottom June through Crooked Cat courses were designed by small-market airports north of the Sunbelt. Those with flexible schedules often can save hundreds on airfare. September, when central Florida weather Dave Harman, who died in 2005 not can be hot, humid, and stormy. Fees long after completing world-renowned Group Package Floridays Resort, on International Drive near Sea World, provides ideal accommodations can double, even triple, November Kauri Cliffs in New Zealand. for groups of four or more (less than $200 per night for through March when “snowbirds” and Metro West Golf Club: A wide-open a three-bedroom suite during peak season). vacationers are in town. Even then, Robert Trent Jones Sr. design and Turkish Delight For a break from the burger, steak, finding a nice layout to play for less than frequent qualifying site for USGA pasta routine, try Cedar’s Restaurant (Lebanese) or Bosphorus (Turkish). $90 is easily done by trolling the internet. competitions, Metro West underwent So fire up the laptop and consider an extensive renovation by architect Marina Life Looking for some non-golf fun that’s not Disney World? Rent a pontoon boat at Holly Bluff Marina these venues, each with high-season Billy Fuller late last year. Fuller, a former near Deland and cruise a remote, scenic section of the superintendent at Augusta National, green fees between $50 and $90. St. Johns River. BYOB, steaks, and charcoal and stop at Rio Pinar Country Club: Even if you removed 42 bunkers—reducing total Blue Spring State Park, a winter habitat for manatees and a popular picnic spot. frequent Orlando, you probably haven’t sand square footage at Metro by 75
Magic Kingdom
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CHIP HENDERSON
Local Knowledge
W AT E R L E F T . B U N K E R S R I G H T . W I N D I N Y O U R F A C E . B UT TH E WO RS T HA Z AR D IS N OT B EI N G H ER E .
ADMIRAL'S CUP PRO-AM St. Kitts–Nevis, West Indies • February 17–21, 2015
Now in its fifth year, the Admiral’s Cup Pro-Am pairs the tropical beauty of St. Kitts & Nevis with the luxury, hospitality and worldclass golf of not one but two fine island resorts. Two islands, one
Four night tournament packages
spectacular golf destination – plus pampering spa treatments,
beginning at
$2,575
island tours, and gaming at one of the largest casinos in the Caribbean for participants and guests alike. Organize your team and register today. With two more championship courses soon to
Don't Delay! Entry deadline is November 1st
open, come experience what golf in St. Kitts & Nevis is all about.
Entering is Easy. Visit www.GolfStKitts.com for event and destination information, or call The Golf Connection LLC at 484-762-1185.
Royal St. Kitts Golf Club, Hole #17
YYZ CLT
St. Kitts
JFK
Basseterre
ATL MIA SKB
Nevis
The Top
Islands
Only LINKS Magazine would—for the first time ever—rank the world’s water-wrapped land masses purely on the strength of their golf b y GGEORGE EORGE PEPER
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OKAY, WE’LL ADMIT IT. This is an audacious list. Indeed, it would be fair of you to ask, how can we possibly rate and rank the islands of the world according to their golf appeal? How can we possibly compare Amelia to Australia, Hainan to Hilton Head, Pawleys to Puerto Rico? Well, if you’re LINKS Magazine, you find a way. If you’re LINKS, the publication that, for more than a quarter century, has been the game’s number-one arbiter on where to go, play, and stay, the real question is how can we not produce such a list. After all, when it comes to desirable vacation destinations—whether for golf or anything else—islands are the first places that jump to mind. Moreover, in any ranking of the world’s top 100 courses, more than half are situated in towns, counties, provinces, nations, and continents surrounded by water. For LINKS, this list was a natural. Of course, that didn’t make its creation any easier. Fortunately, we had a couple of things going for us. Number one, inasmuch as no one had ever attempted to rank the best golf islands of the world, we could take some comfort in knowing that our list—no matter how it came out—would instantly be the best. Number two, since this was uncharted territory, we were not bound by any hard and fast criteria, no established method or metrics to force our thinking.
No. 14
Jamaica White Witch AIDAN BRADLEY
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The Top
Islands
No. 6
Hispaniola Teeth of the Dog L.C. LAMBRECHT
That said, there were plenty of statistics to consult, beginning with the sheer number of golf courses on each island. Mass matters, of course. On the other hand, mass without class is of little value; that’s why Japan, despite its whopping 1,600 courses, ranks only 21st on our list. By the same token, class alone is not enough. An island may be home to a world-famous course, but if that’s the only game in town, well, it explains why Fishers Island didn’t make the cut. Just as important, however, are the intangibles. Among the criteria applied by our ad hoc panel of island-golf aficionados, ease of access ranked very high. How accessible is the island, and once on it, how easy is the navigation among the best courses? As to the courses themselves, how open and welcoming are they to traveling golfers? Finally, there is the question of affordability. If you’re paying a small fortune to get yourself to a remote atoll, you don’t want to pay a second fortune in green fees. As we began to apply our criteria, certain islands quickly sorted themselves to the top (or bottom). In the end, however, the numerical rankings came down to a series of matches. For example, we asked ourselves, if confined to golf on just one island, which would it be, Long Island or Hawaii? If the answer was Long Island, we asked whether that would still be the answer if the alternative were Ireland or Australia, or any of the two dozen others. Eventually, one island won all its “matches” and thus became our number one, a second island won every match except the one against island number one, so that became number two, and so on until we had our list of 25. Here then, for your inspection, the world’s first list of the Top 25 Islands in Golf. Is it definitive? Certainly not—no such list can be. Is it defensible? You bet.
No. 4
Long Island Shinnecock Hiils RUSSELL KIRK RUSSELL KIRK
No. 12
Puerto Rico Dorado Beach East ALLEN KENNEDY
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No. 2
No. 9
Ireland
Sea Island
Ballybunion
Seaside
L. C. LAMBRECHT
EVAN SCHILLER
BEST WEATHER:
Canaries
Consider an average year-round temperature that ranges from 63 at night to 74 during the day, little wind, and only five inches of rain per year—that’s perfect golf weather. BIGGEST SELECTION OF ACCESSIBLE COURSES:
Hilton Head
No. 25
Nevis/St. Kitts
Royal St. Kitts KEVIN MURRAY
More than two dozen to choose from, at every price level, and most of them with plenty of available tee times. POSHEST STAY & PLAY:
Kiawah
It doesn’t get much better than staying at The Sanctuary and playing the Ocean Course. WHERE YOU’RE MOST LIKELY TO BUMP INTO A TOUR PLAYER:
Sea Island
Home to Davis Love, Matt Kuchar, Jonathan Byrd, Zach Johnson, Harris English, and Lucas Glover among others, its Golf Performance Center is a magnet for both pros and amateurs in search of a better game. WHERE YOU’RE MOST LIKELY TO BUMP INTO A CELEBRITY:
No. 11
Bermuda Mid Ocean KEVIN MURRAY
Puerto Rico
Specifically, the Ritz-Carlton Reserve at Dorado Beach, an ultra-exclusive beachside enclave where the nightly rate is well into four figures. BOOMINGEST:
Hainan
The one part of China where the government is in support of golf development—two dozen courses have sprung up in the last few years with at least another two dozen on the way. The Mission Hills resort alone has 15 tracks to choose from. BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK:
Pawleys
No. 3
Australia
How can you not go with an island alongside Myrtle Beach, especially when two of the 10 courses are Caledonia and True Blue.
Royal Melbourne RUSSELL KIRK
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And the winner is...
Great Britain. than any island on the planet—in fact, almost 1,000 more including over 30 of the world’s top 100—the sceptered isle is clearly in a class by itself. It may also be the most fun place to visit, whether on a buddy trip or with your significant other, the charm of its cities and citizens almost equal to the challenge of its courses. The only major contender in that regard would be world island No. 2, Ireland (which in this case includes both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). Navigating the narrow winding roads can at times be a challenge, but the journey usually ends at a course with jaw-dropping views. In third place is the world’s largest land mass—Australia—with its glittering collection of courses in the Melbourne Sandbelt and Mornington Peninsula, not to mention the two Tasmanian stunners, Barnbougle Dunes and Lost Farm. In all, nine courses from Down Under appear on various top 100 lists. Then it’s back to the western hemisphere for the first island that is neither a nation nor a continent—our very own Long Island. Granted, it’s not the first place you think of as a relaxing vacation destination (the notorious New York area traffic can be less than soothing to the soul) but no island on earth boasts a higher concentration of first-rank courses—Shinnecock, National, Maidstone, Garden City, Friar’s Head, Sebonack, Piping Rock—the list could go on for another dozen including sites of both the U.S. Open and PGA Championship, among them Bethpage (Black), one of several good courses that WITH MORE GOLF COURSES
LINKS Magazine Top 25 Golf Islands RANK
ISLAND
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Great Britain Ireland Australia Long Island Hawaii Hispaniola Hilton Head Kiawah Sea Island Pawleys Bermuda Puerto Rico Amelia Jamaica New Zealand Cape Breton Hainan Bahamas Barbados Prince Edward Japan Vancouver Canaries Mauritius Nevis/St. Kitts
No. 5
No. 20
Kapalua Plantation
The Links at Crowbush
Hawaii
Prince Edward
AIDAN BRADLEY
No. 22
No. 8
Bear Mountain
Ocean Course
EVAN SCHILLER
L.C. LAMBRECHT
Vancouver
Kiawah
18-HOLE COURSES
2,500 413 1,500 96 75 21 26 9 13 10 7 20 15 10 394 8 25 10 6 17 1,600 11 20 10 2
BEST COURSE
Old Course Ballybunion Royal Melbourne Shinnecock Hills Kapalua Plantation Teeth of the Dog Harbour Town Ocean Course Seaside Caledonia Golf & Fish Mid Ocean Dorado Beach East Ocean Course White Witch Cape Kidnappers Cabot Links Shanqin Bay Ocean Club Sandy Lane The Links at Crowbush Hirono Bear Mountain Abama Nouakchott Royal St. Kitts
No. 1
Great Britain Old Course KEVIN MURRAY
No. 19
Barbados Sandy Lane AIDAN BRADLEY
No. 7
Hilton Head
are open to all and as affordable as metropolitan area golf gets. If, however, you crave something a bit more laid back, the quintessential island golf destination awaits in the fifth spot—Hawaii. Indeed, of the five main islands that comprise the Aloha State, three of them—the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai—likely could have made our list on their own, so strong and deep is the array of courses, most of them open to the public. Hispaniola may not ring a bell as a golf mecca, unless you know it’s the island that includes the Dominican Republic, home to the resorts at Casa de Campo and Punta Cana, whose courses make this hands down the number one golf destination in the Caribbean. Okay, enough exotica. The four islands that complete our top 10 all lie along the southeastern coast of the U.S. Hilton Head, with its plethora of courses led by venerable Harbour Town, is followed closely by Kiawah, the only island that has held both a PGA Championship and a Ryder Cup. Sea Island comes next, thanks in large part to the three strong courses at the Sea Island Resort, while Pawleys, a tiny (one square mile) island at the southern tip of Myrtle Beach, wins our nod for both ease of navigation and value. The remaining 15 islands bring us back to the U.S. only once, at Florida’s Amelia (No. 13), along with a visit just offshore to Bermuda (11) and five more ports of call in the Caribbean—Puerto Rico (12), Jamaica (14), Bahamas (18), Barbados (19), and Nevis/St. Kitts (25). Perhaps surprisingly, Canada checks in with three winners in up and coming Cape Breton (16), Prince Edward (20), and Vancouver (22). The others are literally oceans away: led by diverse New Zealand (15), China’s burgeoning Hainan (17), 1,600-course Japan (21), Spain’s Canaries (23), and Africa’s Mauritius (24).
Harbour Town KEVIN MURRAY
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A coast-to-coast Canada compendium of some of the best— and also most pleasant—golf courses you’ll ever play b y DAVID DeSMITH
H
ow do you define a nice neighbor? One who breaks out the 12-year-old single malt when you drop by instead of the cheap blended stuff? Or doesn’t complain when your split-level ranch becomes home to the world’s loudest garage band? No. A nice neighbor is someone who offers you your choice of tee times on more than 2,000 golf courses. Like Canada. The Canadian people pride themselves on being nice. Take the way they end every other statement with the interrogative suffix “eh?” It’s all about being agreeable. But, sad to say, far too few Americans tee it up in Canada and experience that hospitality— mostly because they confuse Celsius with Fahrenheit and think they’ll freeze their Titleists off even in mid-July. But you should go, because in addition to 35 million nice people, America’s neighbor to the north offers a uniquely rugged world of super-natural golf that cries out to be explored. From Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, there’s a huge variety of golf to be found in Canada. Links golf,
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parkland golf, heathland golf, extreme mountain golf, tundra golf, snow and ice golf—Canada’s got it all, on achingly beautiful layouts that you’ll play once and remember ’til the day they hole you out. Canada boasts a long golf history, too. (Royal Montreal Golf Club has the honor of being North America’s first golf club.) It also can lay claim to a long list of superb golf course architects, including Thomas McBroom, Doug Carrick, Rob Whitman, and Stanley Thompson, whose golden-age designs are regarded with the same reverence as those of MacKenzie and Ross. You’ll get excellent value for your Yankee dollar in Canada, as well. In fact, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a public course anywhere, even at the top resorts, that will set you back more than two bills, with most courses costing half that much. To help plan your golf adventure in the Great Nice North, I’ve broken down this golf-crazy country into five zones, from east to west, each with its own character, each teeming with great golf.
Cabot Links
THE LOBSTER ZONE
Canada’s Maritime Provinces OF CANADA’S THREE MARITIME PROVINCES, two get the nod for great golf: Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Here, where the annual per capita consumption of steamed lobster can creep into triple digits, the rocky coastline and endless stands of tall pines provide the perfect backdrop. A great way to get to this region is on an overnight cruise on the Nova Star ferry from Portland, Maine. A little dinner, a little offshore gambling, a few winks, and the next thing you know you’re in Nova Scotia, where your first stop should be Highland Links, a 1941 Stanley Thompson design set on a hilly peninsula overlooking North Bay in Ingonish. Recently restored, this track is Thompson’s “Mountain and Ocean” course, showing off his design brilliance and distracting you with stunning views from almost every vantage point. Next, follow the Cabot Trail to Cabot Links, created in part by
Mike Keiser, who years earlier had the audacity to build Bandon Dunes on a stretch of Oregon coastline almost as remote as this one. Here, in the appropriately named town of Inverness (this is New Scotland, after all), is a true links course that catapulted to the top echelon of every “Best in Canada” list the day it opened. In summer 2015, a second oceanfront course will open here: Cabot Cliffs, a Coore/Crenshaw design that is already being heralded as a potential world-beater. Canada’s smallest province, Prince Edward Island, makes a big impression on visiting golfers. This is Anne of Green Gables country, offering terrain that moves from grassland to dense forest to rockstrewn hills in the blink of an eye. Three courses are real standouts. The Links at Crowbush Cove makes the most of its location on the island’s north coast with nine holes along the water. There are two more must-plays at the Rodd Brudenell River Resort. Dundarave Golf Club is the tougher of them, taking you on a trek that includes FALL 2014 LINKSMAGAZINE.COM 45
THE BEAVERTAIL ZONE
Ontario
ONTARIO IS CANADA’S MOST POPULOUS PROVINCE and its second largest,
Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu heathland, coastal, and inland stretches. Next door, Brudenell River Golf Club serves up six par threes, six par fours, and six par fives—a unique configuration that presents lots of birdie chances. Other notable Nova Scotia courses: Fox Harb’r, Digby Pines, Bell Bay, Glen Arbour, Le Portage. Nova Scotia privates to play if you can: Ashburn Golf Club, Granite Springs Golf Club. Other notable PEI courses: Glasgow Hills Golf Club, Mill River Golf Club, Green Gables Golf Club, Fox Meadow Golf Club. THE POUTINE ZONE
Quebec
Muskoka Bay Club
V
CANADA’S FRENCH-SPEAKING PROVINCE is renowned for its culture, its cuisine, and its fervent hockey fans. The best golf in the area is private, but opportunities for visitors to jouer au golf exist all over. The most dramatic choices are the three offered at Mont Tremblant, a ski resort northwest of Montreal in the Laurentians: Le Géant, Le Diable, and Le Maître. Of these, Le Géant is the one to play if you can play only one. The name of the game is elevation change: Fairways plunge from tees as holes carve down the mountainside and schuss around bunkers and lakes to large, fast greens. Quebec’s Eastern Townships area is another golf haven, with more than a dozen good options. At the head of the class is Owl’s Head Golf Club, where Canadian designer Graham Cooke sculpted a dazzling course on the western slope of Owl’s Head Mountain. After your round, be sure to retreat to the local pub and sample poutine—french fries sprinkled with cheese curds then slathered with brown gravy. Healthy? Non. But délicieux! Other notable Quebec courses: Chateau Montebello, Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu, Gray Rocks. Privates to play if you can: Royal Montreal Golf Club, The Memphrémagog Club, Mount Bruno Golf Club.
with borders stretching from upstate New York to Minnesota. So it’s no surprise that there are dozens of superb courses to choose from, both public and private. Many dot the area around busy Toronto, but an equal number of attractive options may be found away from the city, especially to the north in Muskoka, a favorite spot for city dwellers making weekend escapes. Near metro Toronto, don’t miss Eagle’s Nest Golf, a Doug Carrick design that transformed a huge sand and gravel site into a rugged pseudo-links featuring nearly 100 pot bunkers, dramatic elevation changes, and enough fescue to make you think you’re in the Scottish Highlands. An hour northwest of the city in the Credit River Valley, the Heathlands Course at Osprey Valley Golf The Cathedral Church of Club is another Carrick design St. James in Toronto. that occupies the site of a former gravel quarry. The look here is heathland, with minimal bunkering, narrow fairways, and multi-tiered greens. Two hours to the north of Toronto, Muskoka is Canadian Shield country. The Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, is an area of exposed igneous and metamorphic rock covering almost half of Canada. The boulders and ledges that thrust upward out of the soil make it a perfect place to site golf courses, keeping the developers and course architects busy. Of Muskoka’s dozen-plus tracks, two worth fueling up your SUV
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(or private jet) to see are the Muskoka Bay Club and Bigwin Island Golf Club. At Muskoka Bay, Carrick wove his 7,367-yard design in and around mammoth rock ridges, hills, wetlands, and beaver ponds, creating a real roller coaster of a course. To get to Bigwin Island, you have to travel by water taxi from the town of Norway Point. At one time, there was a Stanley Thompson course at this quaint island resort, but today’s course is another effort from Carrick, who paid homage to his forebear by incorporating many classic features from golf’s past into his design. Before leaving Ontario, be sure to sink your teeth into a beavertail, a sweet pastry served with a wide array of tantalizing toppings. Other notable Ontario courses: Rocky Crest Golf Club, Deerhurst Resort (Highlands & Lakeside courses), Lake Joseph Club, Cobble Beach Golf Club, Glen Abbey Golf Club, Copper Creek Golf Club, Legends on the Niagara (Usher’s Creek & Battlefield courses) Royal Niagara Golf Club, Whirlpool Golf Club, The Marshes Golf Club, Eagle Creek Golf Club. Privates to play if you can: Redtail Golf Club, Toronto Golf Club, Oviinbyrd Golf Club, St. George’s Golf Club, Hamilton Golf & Country Club, National Golf Club, Devil’s Paintbrush, Beacon Hall Golf Club, St. Thomas Golf & Country Club.
TOP LEFT AND BOTTOM RIGHT: EVAN SCHILLER
Silvertip
THE BLOODY CAESAR ZONE
Alberta
IF YOU’VE DONE SCOTLAND and done Ireland, if you’ve made the treks to Monterey and Bandon, if you’ve played in the desert and Florida and the Caribbean, you’re still missing one of the game’s great experiences—Alberta. In the Canadian Rockies, golf is an exercise in gaping: At the incredible Rocky Mountain scenery; at the genius of the course designs; at the wildlife all around you. Trust me, the giddiness you’ll feel here will have nothing to do with the altitude. If you fly into Calgary, home of the celebrated Stampede and the closest city to Alberta’s bevy of mountain beauties, a good place for a warmup round is Heritage Pointe. The Ron Garldesigned holes are an enchanting trio of nines, each replete with elevated tee shots, flash-faced bunkers, and target-style golf set in the high desert chaparral. Alberta’s cream of the crop lies farther west, in the Rockies themselves, where after a gorgeous two-hour drive you’ll come to the first of Stanley Thompson’s twin mountain masterpieces: Banff Springs. Routed along the Bow A totem pole marks River and surrounded the first tee at the by the towering figures Jasper Park Lodge.
Banff Springs of Mounts Rundle, Sulphur, and Tunnel, Banff Springs has the kind of setting that makes poets weep. Here, in the midst of Banff National Park, in the shadow of those granite-faced mountains and amidst pristine pine forests and glacial river water so pure it’s bright blue, lies one of man’s greatest playing fields. Thompson tests you at every turn; the idea that you can carry a certain bunker will turn out to be an optical illusion. There are long, punishing par fours and a worldclass par three, “Devil’s Cauldron.” Several holes offer views of the century-old Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, where you should stay if only for a night. It’s a magnificent mountain chateau, with service and amenities to match. Before leaving Banff, mosey over to Canmore and get in rounds at Stewart Creek Golf Club and Silvertip Golf Club. At Stewart Creek, where swings are overlooked by the towering Three Sisters mountains, elevation is the chief challenge—beginning at the opening hole, where your tee shot plays steeply downhill to a fairway featuring an old mining shaft. Silvertip, named for the species of grizzly that calls the area home, is a course with serious claws. This is mountain golf at its most extreme, offering as much drama and 48 LINKSMAGAZINE.COM FALL 2014
grandeur as you’re likely to be able to handle. given fair warning. Three hours west of Banff, past ancient ice fields and mountaintops so vast you could park entire cities on them, is the venerable Jasper Park Lodge, with a course that shows Thompson in full artistic flower. Not only did he design a great test of golf, he routed holes so that each affords spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and lakes. The 9th hole, a downhill 230-yard par three called “Cleopatra,” is unforgettably good, as is the entire resort, another Fairmont property. Want to ride a horse? Enjoy barbecued buffalo steaks by the lake at dusk when the moose are out acting frisky? You can enjoy those things and many more, including cozy lodge accommodations that bring tears upon checkout. Be sure to sample a Bloody Caesar, Alberta’s tangy take on the Bloody Mary: clam juice and celery salt on the rim form a variation on the theme that is surprisingly good. Other notable Alberta courses: Wolf Creek Golf Resort (Old Course), Kananaskis Golf Club. Privates to play if you can: Calgary Golf & Country Club, Blackhawk Golf Club, Red Deer Golf & Country Club. Banff visitors are
Jasper Park Lodge
THE JERKY & SASHIMI ZONE
British Columbia SOME PEOPLE, Canada’s westernmost province begins and ends with Vancouver— unquestionably one of North America’s most peaceful and beautiful cities, with a Far East influence that beautifully complements its native-Canadian “First People’s” roots. But there’s high-quality golf to be found in all directions from “Lotusland.” In eastern B.C., you’ll find more cowboys than yuppies, and mountain courses in the Kootenay and Okanagan Valley areas that pick up where Alberta’s entries leave off. Greywolf Golf Club in Panorama is worth driving from Key West to play. The par-three 6th hole, “Cliffhanger,” is one of the world’s great one-shotters. Eagle Ranch Golf Club and Copper Point Golf Club (with two courses) also exploit their Columbia River/western Rockies locations beautifully. Tobiano Golf Club in Kamloops is another sure bet, as is Sagebrush, where Cabot Links’s architect Rod Whitman fashioned a western links with some striking classic features. Finally, at Predator Ridge in Vernon, the Ridge Course combines sweeping Lake Okanagan and mountain views with rugged topography to create an 18-hole thrill ride. To the west of Vancouver, on Vancouver Island, the Jack Nicklaus-designed Mountain and Valley courses at Bear Mountain Resort are a mecca unto themselves; just a short drive from Victoria, they never disappoint. Olympic View is another island favorite, as is Highland Pacific Golf Club. All four courses are pine-tree lined, with lots of elevation changes. Head north from Vancouver along the Sea to Sky Highway (making sure to keep an eye out for orcas frolicking on your left), and in two hours you’ll arrive in Whistler. A world-class ski resort, the golf is equally sterling, particularly at Chateau Whistler Golf Club, where you’ll battle severely undulating greens and share FOR
the mountain terrain with vivid purple lupine and black bears. Next, travel 25 minutes farther north to Pemberton and feast your eyes on Big Sky Golf Club, where the snow-covered peak of Mt. Currie stands sentry over a brilliant Bob Cupp design. Other notable British Columbia courses: Nicklaus North Golf Club, Royal Colwood Golf Club. Privates to play if you can: Capilano Golf Club, Victoria Golf Club. Thirsting for more high adventure? Trek up to Yellowknife Golf Club in the Northern Territories for the annual Midnight Classic, where you can tee off under the midnight sun on Canada’s most northerly course. Or head to Midland, New Brunswick, this winter and receive a warm welcome at the Canadian Snow Golf Championship, which benefits Canada’s Children’s Wish Foundation. They’re proof that golf in the land of the maple leaf knows no bounds. And that’s just the way any true-blue golfer would want it. Eh? David DeSmith is a Maine-based writer and marketing professional.
Chateau Whistler
El Cardonal, 3rd hole
Tiger VS. 50
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Jack
A Mexican Standoff
TIGER: GETTY IMAGES; JACK: JIM MANDEVILLE
Quivira, 17th hole
Golf’s two (arguably) greatest players go mano a mano as course designers at the tip of the Baja
by BRIAN McCALLEN
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s golfers, two of the sport’s most legendary figures have a lot in
Judging from his handiwork at Quivira, Nicklaus is not afraid at age 74 to let his creative juices flow. This may be the most daring, common. In their prime, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods drove the eclectic course he has ever built. Certainly it has the fewest bunkers ball long and straight. They controlled the distance and trajectory and the smallest green (at No. 13) of any course on his resume. The of their irons, scrambled to save par when they missed, and sank all heart-stopping front nine is par 34, the equally dramatic back nine is the putts that mattered. Both were cool-headed strategists who were par 38—another departure from the usual. better under the gun than the competition. Remember those fantasy golf calendars with implausible holes While it’s too early to tell how their respective design careers will airbrushed onto sheer cliffs? Quivira has a few of those. The routing stack up, a scenario is unfolding south of the border that will provide is a bit torturous in places, but the payoff is worth it. All 18 holes a fascinating basis of comparison. feature panoramic views of the Pacific. At the tip of the Baja Peninsula in Los Cabos, Mexico, Nicklaus The first three holes on the 7,328-yard layout head away from the will cut the ribbon on October 28 at Quivira Golf Club, his epic, sea before reversing direction at the 4th, an S-shaped par five bounded long-awaited layout 10 minutes from downtown Cabo San Lucas. On by a dry creek bed and a vast sandy wasteland. The 10-minute drive December 15, Woods will unveil his first completed 18, El Cardonal to the 5th hole—which crosses arroyo-spanning bridges and traces a at Diamante—less than three miles as the crow flies from Quivira. switchback route up the side of a mountain—requires a sure hand at Nicklaus has become a most prolific architect. A case can be the wheel. At more than 275 feet above sea level, the tee at the short made that the Golden Bear’s accomplishments as a designer may par-four 5th is a vertigoone day rival or surpass his inducing perch; at well achievements as a player: To Judging from his handiwork at quivira, Jack is not under 300 yards from the date, he has been involved afraid at age 74 to let his creative juices flow. regular tees, this downhill in the design of 290 courses hole can be driven, but open for play worldwide it’s “adios” if you miss the (his firm has built another rock-walled, cliff-hanging green. 90). Quivira, Jack’s sixth course in Los Cabos, is Nicklaus Design’s Carved into the base of a huge dune and framed by stippled hills, 23rd in Mexico. Quivira’s par-three 6th, faced into the prevailing wind, is a dazzling As for Woods putting up comparable figures, Jack’s design output one-shotter. The long narrow green, propped on bluffs high above is a bigger mountain than his 18 professional majors. Given the snailthe roiling sea and a deserted beach, drops to oblivion on the left. like pace of golf development of late, Tiger won’t get past base camp. The tee boxes at the par-four 7th are set near the historic Woods, who founded his design practice in 2006, got off to a rough lighthouse at Land’s End, the oldest standing structure in Cabo San start. Al Ruwaya in Dubai, the course he laid out for a reported fee of $20 Lucas. Behind the bunkerless green of the colossal, double-dogleg million, has been abandoned. The Cliffs at High Carolina is on hold. Punta par-five 12th, is a sharpened pole fence, a remnant from the movie Brava in Ensenada, Mexico, was a victim of the financial meltdown in set of Troy, a swords-and-sandals epic. 2007–08. If nothing else, Tiger can take The petite par-three 13th has its own stage set to die for. Atop a solace in the fact that it’s taken Nicklaus massive pinnacle of fissured granite rising 150 feet from sand and eight years to complete Quivira. surf sits a tiny, wafer-like green. There’s a bail-out area to the left, And just as their personalities but the hole, 144 yards from the tips, asks for a do-or-die shot over are entirely different, the two Cabo a yawning abyss. newcomers by Jack and Tiger bear Quivira’s last three holes, all par fours, are magnificent. Sixteen and 17 no resemblance to each other.
Quivira, 6th hole
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tiger vs. jack
El Cardonal, 5th hole fabricated dunes. One of the best holes is the short par-four 3rd, plunge down a mountain while 18 which skirts a lake and brings a menacing central bunker into play returns to the sea, its sizable green, off the tee. A choice must be made: Lay up short of the bunker on bisected by a deep trough, set on the tee shot; carry the bunker to set up a short approach from a good the beach. angle; or boldly try to carry a second bunker and drive the green. Asked how Quivira will impact his legacy, Nicklaus says, “I think The shorter, par-35 back nine is on higher ground with more some people will say it’s the most spectacular golf course and the best interesting contours than the front. Cactus-studded arroyos weave golf course they have ever seen and others will say, ‘You have got to through these holes and Tiger and his team have brilliantly be kidding.’ I don’t think there will be a lot of middle ground.” incorporated them into the layout. The finish at El Cardonal is El Cardonal takes its name from the tall, slender, multi-armed excellent. The par-four 17th, commanding the high point of the cactus that thrives in this region. Tiger, who maintains a home at course, drops to a broad, saddled fairway that turns gently left. On Diamante, was given an interior parcel of land set well back from the the horizon is the community’s 10-acre saltwater lagoon. Beyond Davis Love III-designed Dunes Course routed in mammoth dunes is the cobalt-blue Pacific. The closer is a massive 491-yard par four above the Pacific that’s No. 63 on the LINKS100 World Rankings. that slides down to the sea. Cautious players can tack around sandy Scenery-wise, Tiger’s track does not compete with the Dunes, hazards and reach the green in three, while bolder golfers will flirt though it offers an ocean view from every hole. What the 7,508-yard, with a bunker to set up a good angle to the long, slim, bunkerpar-71 course presents is a superb strategic test without a weak hole in fronted green. the mix. With maturity, the According to Diamante’s subtly contoured greens at In his debut effort, tiger has shown he’s willing owner Ken Jowdy, Tiger’s El Cardonal, many skewed to to create optical illusions and visual hijinks to goal was to create different the line of play and defended fool with the golfer’s depth perception. ways to negotiate each hole. by spill-offs and deep-faced “He [Woods] focused more bunkers, may come to be on the people he plays with on Wednesdays [amateurs] than on recognized as among the best surfaces in Cabo. the weekend.” Nearly every fairway and green at El Cardonal is defined by huge It may lack the heart-stopping thrills and jaw-dropping views of sand pits, most of them directional, others penal to a stray drive or Quivira, but El Cardonal is an honest, solid course full of oldslack approach. Tiger takes a page out of Donald Ross’s playbook fashioned virtues, a course where precision is as important as power. by pulling a few bunkers well back from the putting surface. They Architect George C. Thomas once wrote, “Length means nothing appear greenside, but they’re not. In his debut effort, Tiger has without character, but a true test must have sufficient length and shown he’s willing to create optical illusions and visual hijinks to fool character.” Tiger’s debut has plenty of both. with the golfer’s depth perception. The par-36 front nine, routed on the lower, flatter portion of the property, plays to and from the sea along fairways framed by rolling, Brian McCallen is the author of Great Golf Resorts of the World. 54
LINKSMAGAZINE.COM FALL 2014
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Modern Classics
Elk River Club CELEBRATING ITS 30TH ANNIVERSARY, THIS GOLDEN BEAR DESIGN TAKES YOU ON A BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS OF NORTH CAROLINA BY TOM CUNNEFF
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NE OF ELK RIVER CLUB’S MEMBERS has waded into the club’s namesake that runs along the 509-yard 16th, a reachable par five that is awash in risk-reward. He’s not in there looking for his ball, although many second shots do end up in the water, given how closely it hugs the hole on the left and the temptation to go for the green in two. No, the river has its own allure: world-class fly-fishing for brown and rainbow trout. Architect Jack Nicklaus used the river—a half-mile of which runs through the middle of the course—to great effect. The Elk, which underwent a bank restoration in 2007 and deepening in 2012, first comes into play along the left side of the dogleg-right, par-five 6th before running down the right side of the 418-yard 9th and cutting across the fairway about 80 yards from the green. After meandering
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past the clubhouse, the practice green, and in front of the 18th green, the river then runs hard by the green of the short, par-four 10th and then the 16th before exiting on the southeast end of the property by the runway (the club has its own 4,600-foot airstrip). “We were able to use the river on several occasions in the strategy,” says Nicklaus. “On top of the aesthetics, the course has some really good golf shots on it. While technically a mountain golf course, Elk River is a relatively flat course. We were really pleased with how it turned out.” Located on the outskirts of Banner Elk, N.C., Elk River is really a tale of two nines. Some elevation change is nice, but at many mountain courses it’s often a case of too much of a good thing. Not so here. The front nine has an open, meadow-type feel with tall
TODD BUSH PHOTOGRAPHY
7th hole
native grasses lining the holes, while the back is a more traditional tree-lined mountain design, with greens cut into hillsides, downhill tee shots, and small streams wandering into play. Also, other than the 390-yard, par-four 4th and 424-yard, par-four 5th, which both border the runway (where it’s pretty neat to see private planes landing or taking off), the holes continually switch direction. Like most Nicklaus courses, Elk River is a second-shot course. With relatively wide fairways, the real character lies in the approaches to the fast, undulating greens, which typically run at nearly 12 on the Stimpmeter. The short 13th plays to an elevated, almost blind two-tiered green that gets your attention even with a wedge in your hands. Add a quartet of challenging and beautiful par threes and Elk River is easily one of the best mountain courses in the Southeast.
The course—which opened in 1984—was treated to a complete restoration of the irrigation system, topsoil, tees, bunkers, and greens 10 years ago, but the design has stood the test of time. A small renovation in 2007 re-contoured the native grasses to make them more visually appealing and player-friendly, while the removal of some trees opened up sight lines and helped to maintain the immaculate turf conditions. There’s nothing quite like hitting approach shots off perfectly maintained bentgrass fairways. Then to watch the ball fly toward the target against a verdant mountain backdrop, well, there aren’t many prettier sights in golf. FIND PROFILES OF MORE THAN 350 COURSES AT LINKSMAGAZINE.COM/GOLFCOURSES
FALL 2014 LINKSMAGAZINE.COM
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Rosemount THE ORIGINAL COURSE AT SCOTLAND’S BLAIRGOWRIE GOLF CLUB IS VERY MUCH AN ORIGINAL, HAVING BEEN CREATED BY THREE OF THE GAME’S GREATEST ARCHITECTS BY MALCOLM CAMPBELL
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EW COURSES CAN CLAIM to have the imprints of Old Tom Morris, Dr. Alister MacKenzie, and James Braid. The Rosemount course at Blairgowrie Golf Club is one of them. Widely acclaimed as one of the finest outposts of inland golf in the British Isles, Rosemount’s reputation comes not only from its idyllic setting in the fruit-growing region of Scotland not far from Gleneagles but equally from the quality of its challenge and the blue-chip purity of its pedigree. It can’t boast the dramatic grandeur of Gleneagles with its wide and glorious vistas, but Rosemount is a spectacularly beautiful place in its own and totally different way. It also enjoys that wonderful quality of having each hole as an individual entity unaffected and untouched by any other. Each is played along a private thoroughfare fringed by heather, pine, and silver birch, where a variety of wildlife, long since impervious to the intrusion of man, roams the fairways and rough. In some ways, it was rather sad that part of the original layout had to be given up to accommodate the new Lansdowne course, opened in 1979 to relieve congestion, but it was an unavoidable price for the addition of a badly needed second layout. Peter Alliss and Dave Thomas were given the task of creating the second course and they did so with the obvious intention of offering a contrast to the original. The result was a much tighter and more modern layout, more American in character, perhaps, but ultimately successful as a counterpoint to its more famous neighbor. Contrast would have been inevitable given Rosemount’s pedigree. Old Tom laid out the original nine-hole course for its 1889 opening. It served the members well until 1923 when MacKenzie was asked to extend it to 18 holes. The club was soon thinking even further ahead and working on an expansion plan to acquire more acres for development from the Lansdowne family. In a very shrewd piece of judgment by the club’s hierarchy a decade later, five-time Open Champion James Braid was invited to visit the club while he was in Scotland completing work on a new course at Glenbervie, 60 miles away. Braid was by then the foremost golf course architect in the UK and he brought with him a delicate touch and an understanding mind to look at remodeling MacKenzie’s layout. Braid required very little time to walk the course, pegging out new greens and tees before accepting his $15 fee and setting off to catch
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the overnight train back to his headquarters at Walton Heath outside London. He left behind the outline of a masterpiece to be completed in 1934. It was surely the best $15 the Blairgowrie Golf Club ever spent. The best of the Rosemount holes come at the beginning and end of the round. The opener is a tough 447-yarder that falls away to the left through the trees from the tee and is followed by a short two-shotter where birdie is possible but perdition is only a cluster of menacing bunkers away. On the run home, the long par-four 16th calls for a good drive across the corner of Black Loch followed by a long and accurate second to a green with out of bounds uncomfortably close all
GETTYIMAGES: DAVID CANNON
18th hole
the way down the left side. The short 17th is rated among the World’s 500 Greatest with its huge multi-tiered green, while the 402-yard finishing hole is a gem with trees on the inside of the dogleg forcing the tee shot wide, and the two-tier green stoutly defended by bunkers right and left. In more recent times, the picturesque clubhouse, with its large bay windows and sheltered porch, has undergone major refurbishment. The original stables have long since gone to make way for today’s horseless carriage and its far greater demands on space. But the atmosphere of what the members used to call “a pretty rustic clubhouse” remains and still offers some of the finest food in Scottish golf.
Rosemount was the scene of Greg Norman’s first European Tour victory when the Martini Tournament was played there in 1977. Inevitably, there have been changes over the years, but much work has been done in recent times to return it as near as possible to the original Braid design with original Braid bunkers re-opened and greens reshaped to his plans. This year, Rosemount hosts the Junior Ryder Cup showcasing the next generation of young players from Europe and the United States. Scotsman Malcolm Campbell is the former editor of Golf Monthly (UK) and The St Andrews Citizen and author of The Scottish Golf Book. FALL 2014 LINKSMAGAZINE.COM
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Get In Gear
Degrees of Separation AN OFTEN-OVERLOOKED COMPONENT OF CLUBFITTING IS SET MAKE-UP, THE PROGRESSION OF LOFT FROM ONE CLUB TO THE NEXT. IT’S IMPORTANT TO EVERY KIND OF GOLFER. IF YOU ARE THINKING about buying new clubs, choosing the make and model should not be the end of the process. With the countless choices in shafts, grips, lie angles, lengths, and the other clubfitting options common to every major manufacturer, it’s easier than ever to purchase a set tailored to your swing and game. But there’s still one aspect of fine-tuning many golfers overlook: set make-up. Because along with the factors
mentioned above, creating the perfect set of clubs calls for combining clubs with the proper lofts. From driver to wedges (and the number of wedges you carry), how much loft each club has—and the loft gaps between them—is critical to playing well. “It has nothing to do with handicap,” says Terry Koehler, president of ScorGolf, a company that specializes in short irons and wedges, and president/CEO of the recently relaunched Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Company. “It starts with your strength profile. Figure out how far you hit the ball and then build your clubs to your yardages. “Determine the longest club that gives you a reasonable
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approach to stop the ball on the green,” Koehler advises. “Say you hit your 5-wood 170 yards. Above that you might need a 3-wood and a driver, but maybe not. Below, you need a 150yard club, then ones that hit it 135, 125, 105, maybe a 95, 85, and 75. That’s probably all you need. “But if you’re a big hitter and that hybrid flies 235, your other clubs should go, say, 215, 188, 172, 158, 144…you get the idea. You need to have consistent gaps between clubs. If you’re a long hitter so those gaps are bigger, you may need 14 clubs. The longer you are, the more clubs you need.” “Set make-up is everything,” says Matt Wilkes, head instructor and clubfitter at the Mike Bender Golf Academy in Florida. “Figure out how far your driver goes, then your longest playable irons, and then figure the gaps between the clubs correctly. It’s usually about 4 degrees between clubs, although the exact number varies depending on the player. Start with a 5-degree gap between woods and 4 degrees in irons. You don’t ever want more than 6 degrees between your wedges.” Wilkes says set make-up is especially important for golfers who swing more slowly: “If you hit the driver only 220 yards, you might need only 11 or 12 clubs.” Which reinforces his point that “the driver is the most important club in the bag. If you get a driver that is properly fit at, say, 12 degrees, you wouldn’t need a 3-wood but maybe a 17-degree club, which could be a 4- or 5-wood.” “At slow swing speeds, the clubs are overlapping,” says Allen Gobeski of Cool Clubs, an independent clubfitter that works with the components from all major manufacturers. “From 7- to 8-iron, you’re only seeing three to five yards difference on a full shot.” Slower swingers, fewer clubs; power hitters, more clubs? “Absolutely,” says Gobeski. “A set makeup with four wedges—pitch, gap, sand, and lob—is for the long hitter, who needs more options to cover more yardages. The average golfer doesn’t need a wedge with 60 or 64 degrees of loft. It just makes problems.” “Better players need the maximum number of clubs available to them,” says Wilkes. “And the only way you’re going to determine how many clubs you should have in your bag is to get properly fit. I often see sets where the drivers and irons fit great but the fairway woods are terrible. Or two clubs are so close in yardage it’s a waste. That’s often because they weren’t fit.” “And why is a new lady golfer using 14 clubs?” asks Koehler. “She’s got seven clubs that she can hit 100 yards and two she can hit 60. She doesn’t need 14.” Koehler likes the analogy of a craftsman with the right tools. “Take two auto mechanics and the guy with the better tool kit is going to get my business. Hogan had seven clubs in his bag he could use inside 150 yards; the modern tour pro has three, maybe four. Hogan had a better tool kit and he is going to beat you.” —James A. Frank
BILL ROGERS
wife, Beth. “There was a lot of self-doubt. But all of a sudden PERHAPS THE GREATEST U.S. Ryder Cup team ever was he started playing well and won the Heritage. For me it was a the 1981 squad that included Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Hale given he was going to play well. Everything came very easily Irwin, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Raymond Floyd, and Jack after that.” Nicklaus. Certainly the score would back up the claim, with Tall, blond, and good looking with a sweet swing and Texas the U.S. handing Europe its largest margin of defeat to this twang, “Buck,” as his tour buddies called him (as in Buck day—18 1/2 to 9 1/2 —since players from continental Europe Rogers), looked like a pro became part of the team two golfer out of Central Casting. years earlier. Like his outer-space alter ego, Also on the U.S. side was Rogers was flying high in the that year’s British Open early ’80s both figuratively champion, Bill Rogers, who’s THE FORMER PLAYER OF THE YEAR FOUND and literally. But just a few seated at the end of the row IT REMARKABLY EASY TO WALK AWAY years later, he was out of fuel with Nicklaus on his right in FROM LIFE ON TOUR and left the tour for good at the team photo, which hangs the end of the 1988 season, on the wall of Rogers’s San a victim of burnout from non-stop play chasing appearance Antonio home. “I look at that picture from time to time and money anywhere in the world someone was willing to pay for can hardly believe that I was placed in that cast of characters,” a British Open Champion. says Rogers, now 63. “I don’t think you could draw up a better “I probably should have quit a couple of years earlier,” says Ryder Cup team than ’81. I don’t think anybody would argue Rogers, who, as the youngest of three sons of an Air Force with that.” pilot, had been on the move his whole life. “I didn’t have much No one on the team had as many tournament victories that going on there the last year and it was kind of going through year as Rogers, who won three other events plus the PGA Player the motions. But I can tell you to this day I didn’t miss it of the Year Award. He also finished second to David Graham at much or at all. It had run its course the U.S. Open at Merion. Ironically, he started and from a competitive aspect it was the year with five missed cuts in a row. really a pretty easy leave. So I don’t “If you’re not making cuts, you’re not have much regret about having left the making money and that’s scary,” says his competitive game.” Traveling the tour with two young children didn’t help either, so Rogers was more than happy to take a club job at San Antonio Country Club to be home full time. “Most guys who had been on tour, that’s a step backward, but Bill did not look at it that way,” says Beth. “He embraced it. When you’re on tour, you are catered to from morning till night. We were spoiled rotten. He was ready to serve others instead of being served himself simply because he had changed.” After spending 13 years at SACC, Rogers helped develop Briggs Ranch Golf Club, a Tom Fazio design on the outskirts of town, before spending six years as the Director of Golf Program Development at the University of Texas–San Antonio (he retired in May). Although he lives on the 18th hole of the Quarry Golf Club—“If somebody had told me that I would build a home on the slice side of a golf hole I’d have said you were crazy,” he chuckles—and has played the occasional Champions Tour event, most of Rogers’s golf these days is limited to corporate outings, golf ministry, and rounds with his 28-year-old son, Ben. Says Beth, “When he can just play with no pressure, especially with his son, he loves that.” —Tom Cunneff
No Pressure
LEFT: GARY PERKINS; INSET: GETTY IMAGES
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Real Estate
/LHS[O )LULÄ[Z FOR GOLF COMMUNITIES AND THEIR MEMBERS, FITNESS AND WELLNESS PROGRAMS ARE PROVING CRITICAL TO A LONG LIFE BY JAMES A. FRANK
A yoga class at The Cliffs
THE GOLF REAL ESTATE MARKET is getting healthier, and one of the main reasons is health. Aging baby boomers sweating to keep fit, along with 30- and 40-somethings who’ve made wellness a fundamental part of their lives, are finding their desires and dedication being met by the country’s golf communities. Put another way, golf clubs hoping to attract and keep members had better have a full-service fitness center—and a whole lot more. That’s one of the key findings from the new LINKS Magazine Real Estate Panel, a group of expert and experienced golf-club and community managers, salespeople, and consultants we assembled to help keep you in the know about what’s happening in the vacation-home and golf-community markets. In our initial polling of the panel, we asked what golf communities are doing to stay relevant and grow. The overwhelming response? Get fit. “In all the communities where we sell, fitness has become a huge amenity,” says Johnny Ussery, Managing Partner of Gateway Realty, which sells property throughout the Hilton Head/Bluffton area. “For years, our presentation has been, ‘Many of the baby boomers sacrificed their health to create their wealth. Now they are investing some of their wealth to recreate their health.’” “Wellness is at the forefront of our minds, especially for the 50- to 70-yearold,” says Terry Weaver, President of the Marketing and Sales Institute, which
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consults to the luxury-community industry. “Many of us are fighting the aging process with a vengeance, which means forward-thinking communities should be addressing everything from hormone replacements to nutritional supplements and planned programs for health-building exercises including therapeutic massages and yoga. This isn’t just ‘feel good’ spas, but functional medicine, real preventive care.” The Cliffs Communities—seven clubs spread across North and South Carolina—was a pioneer in offering
health and wellness programs to members. Today, they employ some 30 trainers, therapists, physiologists, and instructors in activities from yoga to kayaking, many with advanced degrees and certifications. “You’re buying into a lifestyle that’s so much more than golf,” explains Dr. Matt Ort, Director of Health and Fitness at The Cliffs. “We have specialists in outdoor pursuits, exploring the natural areas, zip-lining, cycling, miles of hiking trails, paddleboarding…it’s almost endless. But that’s what health and fitness is. It’s not just inside the four walls of the fitness center.” “We try to focus on making fitness fun,” says The Cliffs’ Executive Vice President David Sawyer. “People move here, they haven’t worked out in years, they might be overweight, and they’re seeing their whole lives ahead of them. We get them to overcome the intimidation of starting a workout and getting into shape. “Eight years ago, 60 percent of our target buyers listed golf as the reason
for choosing where to buy a second home,” Sawyer says. “We recently did that survey again and 52 percent now list health and wellness as the top priority!” Most members of our panel say golf remains the preferred amenity at most communities, but acknowledge it’s no longer the only game in town. Other activities—with the emphasis on “active”—are required to keep members occupied and happy day after day. “Wellness is the number-two amenity a golf club can offer its members,” says Scott Brandon, head of The Brandon Agency, which represents many of the top clubs and courses in Myrtle Beach. “It can stem from the overall environment of the club to specific ways of helping members stay fit and healthy. The new retiree has a strong desire to stay fit and active.” At Snake River Sporting Club, outside Jackson Hole, Wyo., golf still draws people in. But as General Manager Jeff Heilbrun reports, “The game changer for us was the purchase of an adjacent ranch and corresponding addition of a number of ‘Western’ amenities.” These include private fishing on the Snake River, an equestrian center with trails that run along the river and into the surrounding national forest, a lake with kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards, mountain biking, and a full menu of winter pursuits in a region famous for snow. To meet the demands of present and prospective members, clubs that might have considered renovating the golf course are instead re-imagining their wellness options. Many are adding, building, and renovating on-site fitness facilities, from gyms and weight rooms to yoga and dance studios. Ibis Golf & Country Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., just opened its new Sports Village and Aquatic Center, a four-building complex with a twostory fitness center. “We’re doubling the size of our current center and building separate rooms for Pilates, yoga, spinning, and aerobics including Zumba,” says John Jorritsma, director of sales and marketing, who notes that
two non-traditional exercise offerings— suspension training and Kangoo (jump boots)—“have really gained in popularity in the last few years, especially with younger members.” Other clubs are embracing wellness as part of the local lifestyle. Kohanaiki, the year-old private community on the Kona Coast of Hawaii’s Big Island, has a full-time “A-Team” (“A” for “adventure”) to organize fitness classes as well as challenge programs, spa treatments, nutritional counseling, and water activities that promote good health. Not only did Boca Raton’s St. Andrews Country Club—recognized by Prevo Health Solutions as one of the “Top Ten Healthiest Clubs of America”—recently open a 500-square-foot spin room (increasing the size of its fitness center to nearly 9,000 square feet), but it takes great care to offer a variety of healthy food options, including vegetarian and gluten-free, at every meal. Colleton River Plantation Club in Bluffton, S.C., has introduced talks
and lectures as well as new classes and friendly competition. “The programs are designed to see to the needs of an aging membership while meeting the demands of a younger generation that wants something more than traditional sports and exercise,” says General Manager Tim Bakels. “We also have moved beyond the four walls of the fitness center to capitalize on the natural beauty of Colleton River by adding outdoor activities that incorporate walks, yoga, tennis, and golf.” Hanging upside down, downing quinoa, walking, running, spinning, and Zumba-ing will only continue to grow in attractiveness for members of all ages and their families. “Golfers want to continue golfing as long as they can,” says Ibis’s Jorritsma. “A variety of classes, fitness, aquatic, physical therapy, and more, help the member stay active and engaged.” “People want to be more active and live longer,” says Dr. Ort of The Cliffs. “They quickly realize that’s not going to happen just by playing golf but by getting and staying healthy.”
The outdoor gym at Kohanaiki
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1999 RYDER CUP
Uneasy Ryder NO DOUBT ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING DAYS IN CUP HISTORY, IT WAS ALSO MARKED BY ONE OF THE MATCHES’ LOW POINTS BY JOHN HOPKINS
THE DATE SEPTEMBER 26, 1999, does not stick in my mind, but what happened on that Sunday, the last day of the Ryder Cup at Brookline, certainly does. It is unforgettable, one of the most significant days ever in the biennial competition. I spent some of the morning roaming the course at The Country Club and quickly realized that although the U.S. had begun the day four points behind Europe, I was going to be writing about a monumental home comeback. The U.S. was on its way to winning the first six singles matches. I have covered a few Ryder Cups in my time and generally have found that American fans are better behaved than their British counterparts. Certainly, the British fans were no saints at The Belfry in 1989, causing Astrid Jacklin, wife of Tony, the European captain, to wheel round on them and say, “Shush. It’s bad enough that they have driven into the water without your applauding their mistakes.” On the other hand, the Americans weren’t much better at Kiawah in 1991. But the atmosphere at The Country Club that Sunday 15 years ago was hostile. I felt a bit like a spectator in Rome when the Christians were thrown to the lions. Lynne Truss, my colleague who would go on to write Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the book about English grammar, felt it even more: “My main memory of that Sunday was of being in the tent watching it on TV and then going outside and finding it was oppressively close and hot, and that the crowd were really unpleasant.” James Montgomerie, Colin’s father, had to leave the course because the level of abuse directed at his son was so upsetting. The gentlemanly Payne Stewart, Montgomerie’s opponent, intervened several times on Montgomerie’s behalf during the course of their match and later conceded the 18th, and their match, to him. Back in the media tent, meanwhile, pounding at my laptop while watching the action with one eye, I sensed something was about to happen. It took a call from my office colleagues in London, watching on Sky TV, to tell me precisely what it was. It came on the 17th green in the match between Jose Maria Olazabal and Justin Leonard. Many of the American team, as well as Ben Crenshaw, their captain, and their supporters, had gathered by the green sensing victory.
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John Hopkins was golf correspondent of The Times [of London] from 1993 to 2010.
ABOVE: HUGH ROUTLEDGE; LEFT; GETTY IMAGES
I Was There
When Leonard’s long putt found the cup, celebrations broke out. The Times’s photographer Hugh Routledge had a ringside seat and captured the definitive photo (left). It shows Leonard’s caddie racing across the green with the flag as American players, including Tom Lehman, who had led the comeback by beating Lee Westwood in the first match, invade the putting surface. Phil Mickelson is exulting with his wife Amy while Tiger Woods has leapt high into the air. Olazabal, meanwhile, still has a putt for a halve. “That was no way to behave,” Olazabal said later, after he and Leonard had halved their match. “I call for respect from fellow professionals to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” There had been right and wrong on both sides. The Europeans were furious at the invasion of the green; the Americans were angry at how slowly Padraig Harrington had played against Mark O’Meara. Later that night, I wrote a second piece. Risking accusations of sanctimoniousness, I started off: “I fear that the last Ryder Cup of the millennium may also mark the last Ryder Cup that contains the essential charm, skill and grace under pressure that have marked so many contests in the past.” Three years later at The Belfry, however, things were much more gentlemanly, influenced by the sad events of 9/11/2001, as well as Sunday, September 26, 1999. I am glad to have been proved wrong, not for the first time in my career and not for the last, either.
A R E A L G O L F C L U B I S A B O U T M O R E T H A N G O L F. J U S T A S K A N YO N E W H O ’ S E V E R B E E N T O J O N AT H A N ’ S L A N D I N G . *G ZPVȇSF MPPLJOH GPS B SFBM HPMG FYQFSJFODF PO DIBNQJPOTIJQ HPMG DPVSTFT ZPV XPOȇU CF EJTBQQPJOUFE *G ZPVȇSF MPPLJOH GPS NPSF UIBO B GFX IVOESFE QSJTUJOF BDSFT OFTUMFE BMPOH UIF TUVOOJOH *OUSBDPBTUBM 8BUFSXBZ UIJT JT B OBUVSBM DIPJDF *G ZPVȇSF BMTP MPPLJOH GPS B TRVBSF GPPU NPEFSO ʭ UOFTT GBDJMJUZ BOE TQB UIFO XF DBOȇU XBJU UP NFFU ZPV *G ZPVȇSF MPPLJOH GPS SFBM HPMG SFBM QFPQMF BOE SFBM WBSJFUZ UIFO +POBUIBOȇT -BOEJOH JT B OBUVSBM DIPJDF
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Real golf and real people. Jonathan’s Landing. + P O B U I B OȇT - B O E J O H ( P M G $ M V C Ț $ B Q U B J O , J S M F % S + V Q J U F S ' - Ț
Method
PETER ALLISS 1995 Standing up to the ball means standing as tall as you can. Don’t hunch over; stand up, tilted forward from the hips, not the waist, with your knees slightly bent. If you bend them too much your backswing will be restricted and you are likely to develop a push or pulled slice. The Lazy Golfer’s Companion BRIAN CROWELL 2011 Assume your setup position. Without losing your posture, let your arms hang. They won’t hang straight—there will likely be a gentle bend—but be sure to let all the tension out of your arms so they feel like strands of wet spaghetti. If your setup was correct, your arms should have a comfortable space between your hands and thighs. If you were in a slicer’s position, the space between your left hand and thigh would be much smaller than the space created on the right side. Slice-Free Golf JOHN DALY 1992 One posture fundamental I recommend is to keep your chin raised just slightly above normal, so that you look down at the ball from the bottom of your eyes, so to speak. This chin-up position will allow your left shoulder to work smoothly underneath the chin as you develop your maximum shoulder turn. If your chin is tucked down so that you look like a turtle at address, your chin will stop your shoulder turn prematurely. Not only that, but because your chin stops the momentum your shoulder turn has begun to build, you can throw yourself off balance. So keep your chin up. Grip It and Rip It! JOHN JACOBS 1979 Set up to the ball with your knees well flexed and your back more upright, not bent so far forward, so that a line extending straight down from your eyes would touch the ground closer to your toes and farther from the ball. An excellent way to develop this correct posture is by hitting practice shots from a sidehill slope where the ball is slightly higher than your feet. Quick Cures for Weekend Golfers
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THEODORE MOONE 1934 At address, the chin is firmly trained on a spot well behind the ball and must remain constant in this attitude during the whole swing, for the head is the governor of the swing. It was my friend, J.H. Taylor, that virile son of Devon, who first took me, literally by the cuff of the neck and in his inimitable way taught me the real meaning of a governing head—physically and otherwise. I have blessed him ever since and now pass on the teaching to you. Golf From a New Angle BYRON NELSON 1985 Without proper posture, you have little chance of making a good swing. You should be in good balance, with the weight evenly distributed and the knees flexed just enough to allow free footwork and leg action. Your lower back should be straight and your arms should hang freely rather than reaching for the ball or crowding in too close to it. Shape Your Swing the Modern Way DAVE PELZ 2000 The most comfortable and solid putting posture sets your center of mass (the center of your weight) over a spot between the balls of your feet. Leaning too far forward, so your weight gets out over your toes, can cause severe inconsistencies in the impact point of your putts. Leaning too far back, away from the ball, places too much weight on your heels, which leads to instability particularly in windy conditions, again hindering solid and repeatable impact. Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible CINDY REID 2003 I like to draw comparisons between the posture you assume for golf and the setup for other sporting activities like shooting a free throw in basketball or preparing to return a serve in tennis or getting ready to play defense in soccer. Your back is fairly straight; your shoulders aren’t hunched or slumped; you’re slightly bent at the waist; and your hands and arms are in front of your body. Good posture sends a signal to those around you that you are serious about your game. It’s worth spending the extra time in front of a mirror to get this part of the setup mastered. Cindy Reid’s Ultimate Guide to Golf for Women
KEITH WITMER/GOLFILLUSTRATION.COM
Posture
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Where’s Millie?
3 Hints... •
Four major championships have been played here and Tiger Woods finished second in two of them.
•
The list of tournament winners here includes Billy Casper, Hollis Stacy, Payne Stewart, and Luke Donald.
•
The course is named after the lake that borders this hole.
RUSSELL KIRK
For the answer, go to LINKSMagazine.com/wheresmillie
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KEY INTELLIGENCE
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