Carry Connects With Cash
+ 'Always, always, the foot comes first' at Ecco.
ON THE TEE
⛳️ PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said no to the players who asked for releases to play the first LIV Golf event outside London next month. Some players plan to play, anyway. Does this come down to who has the strongest courthouse game?
⛳️ The book that started all the Saudi golf money fires – “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” by Alan Shipnuck, is finally out. Will you buy it and read it?
⛳️ Potential TV partners for LIV Golf are waiting to see who’s in the field before they sign an agreement. Does that put History Channel in the running?
⛳️ Still silence whether Phil Mickelson will show up at next week’s PGA Championship. Is it closer to being “no”?
⛳️ At the beginning of the year, would you have bet Ted Scott (Scottie Scheffler) over Jim “Bones” Mackay (Justin Thomas) as the most successful caddie of 2022?
⛳️ Rory McIlroy came from making the cut on the number at the Wells Fargo Championship to a fifth-place finish in difficult conditions. Will it have any effect on how he plays at the PGA Championship?
⛳️ Oh, yes. Tiger Woods is expected at Southern Hills next week. Interested?
⛳️ Odyssey debuted putter covers emblazoned with “Texas Wedge” at the practice putting green at the AT&T Byron Nelson. How can we get one?
⛳️ Does the GCSAA have a seminar on setting nasty hole locations?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Carry links investors, aspiring pros
Getting to big paydays on the major tours can take more than talent, which is why Donnie Dotson, company founder and CEO, decided to update an age-old model of financially backing players
:: Mike Purkey | Read
For Ecco, inspiration sparks innovation
The Danish company's Brooklyn, New York, design studio is a space where creatives can connect and collaborate with industry-wide footwear, manufacturing and design professionals
:: Ken Klavon | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always …
📖 The untold story of the White House’s weirdly hip record collection
:: Rob Brunner | Washingtonian | 05.03.2022
📖 Q&A: Clyde Chrisman [Southern Hills Country Club historian]
:: Geoff Shackelford | The Quadrilateral | 05.10.2022
📖 People underestimate how much they would enjoy conversation with a stranger, study finds
:: Eric W. Dolan | PsyPost.org | 05.04.2022
📖 Did old Tom throw that club?
:: Dan Jenkins | Sports Illustrated | 06.20.1977
DESIGN NOTES
The latest news and notes in golf course architecture.
➡️ PGA West [Palm Springs, California] announces that Tim Liddy will oversee the upcoming restoration of its iconic Pete Dye-designed Stadium Course. A trusted former assistant of Dye’s who over three decades collaborated on courses such as Ford Plantation, Colleton River, Mystic Rock and Kingsmill, Liddy will employ a light touch in the renovation.
"We do not plan on changing the design," Liddy said. “But the golf course is 36 years old. It’s common to continually upgrade the infrastructure of the golf course. Drainage, bunker sand and irrigation typically have a limited life span and need to be replaced and upgraded."
That time is now for the legendary layout, which has played host to multiple PGA Tour events, as well as venue for the unforgettable Skins Game in 1987, when Lee Trevino aced the island-green 17th, a par-3 known as "Alcatraz." Year one of the two-year renovation project, focusing on landscape improvements, commences this summer. Irrigation, bunkers and green upgrades are planned for year two, beginning in spring. Expected completion date is October 2023.
Liddy understands Pete Dye’s design intent better than most.
"I worked with Mr. Dye for 28 years in different roles, from preparing construction drawings to project manager to project architect," Liddy said. "I traveled the world with him and enjoyed every minute. Working with a hall of fame architect was a life-changing experience."
The renovation will enlarge greens to their original size and shape. Bunkers will have new refinement and new sand edges. "It will have a sharpness harkening back to its original design," said Liddy, who looks at this opportunity as a labor of love. "Having worked with Mr. Dye for so many years, he became a father figure to me," said Liddy. "When I am on the Stadium Course, I am walking with him. It’s very personal and rewarding to me."
➡️ Few can match Beau Welling for expertise in designing entertaining, family-friendly short courses. Proof can be seen in the layouts he’s crafted as part of the Tiger Woods design team, such as Bluejack National’s Playgrounds, Diamante’s Oasis, Jack’s Bay in The Bahamas and The Hay at Pebble Beach. His new creation that just opened at northeast Florida’s Omni Amelia Island Resort, Little Sandy, will further burnish that reputation.
Open to resort guests and members of the Amelia Island Club, Little Sandy is a 10-hole course that features holes ranging from 70 to 125 yards, each with bold, contoured greens. Conveniently situated in the resort’s amenity core and nestled around Red Maple Lake, Little Sandy offers an idyllic setting, with most holes edging the water, amid sandy native grass areas, dunes and diverse wildlife habitat.
Designed to be played in little more than an hour, Little Sandy provides stand-alone fun, or as accompaniment to the resort’s 18-hole, Pete Dye-designed Oak Marsh course. A Welling-designed 18-hole putting course sits adjacent to Little Sandy.
"We have created a course where players could use just their putters on nearly every hole or use several clubs in their bag, if desired," Welling said. "The relaxed atmosphere and golf course strategy that includes multiple routes from tee to green will make Little Sandy a haven for fun and creativity."
➡️ Veteran Canadian architect Les Furber spent 14 years in the employ of Robert Trent Jones, before hanging his own shingle in 1980. In all of those years, it’s unlikely that he’s ever toiled as long and hard to get a course to completion as RotaryLinks. Under the banner of GDS Golf Design Services, of which Furber is founder and principal, RotaryLinks is nearing completion after a 16-year, going on 17, odyssey.
Located in remote Fort McMurray, five hours north of Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta, RotaryLinks began life in 2006, as a master-planned 27-hole complex. A real estate play on the site’s higher ground soon reduced the plan to 18 holes, though construction never started until 2011, following the recession of 2008-2010.
Due to the expense of hauling away peat bog in order to establish the subgrade for the low-lying golf holes, Furber kept the remnants on site and eventually stacked them between holes and in out-of-play areas, as a design and aesthetic element, given their resemblance to dunes. Funding challenges slowed the project further, and then in May 2016, catastrophic fires in Fort McMurray forced the removal of the peat mounds, as they were in danger of igniting. All of the forest surrounding the course burned completely. New golf course shaping and repair work on infrastructure took time, and a further delay involved the relocation of the clubhouse, which then necessitated a re-routing of the first nine. The soft opening for the first nine took place in 2018, with an official opening in 2019.
After receiving a recreational grant from the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo, construction of the second nine began in the summer of 2020 and was largely completed in the summer of 2021.
"The newly constructed holes consist of three par-3s, two par-5s and four par-4s, which result in an 18-hole layout of par 71, 7,200 yards," said Tim Birnie, design associate at GDS. "There is a possibility that the existing hole numbers and routing will change if the clubhouse is ever relocated to its original intended location."
Because, why should anything go according to plan at RotaryLinks?
"RotaryLinks has been an epic journey," said Furber. "There have been so many complications that it is somewhat difficult to describe all of the machinations that have gotten us to this point. Still, the club and their dedicated group of volunteers have persevered, and along with the support of the regional municipality and a little luck, the golf course construction will be fully complete in early 2022."
A soft opening is scheduled for mid- to late-summer 2022 and an official opening in early 2023.
RELATED: Design Notes archive
➡️ Whitman, Axland & Cutten (WAC) has broken ground on The Tribute Club at Thornburgh in the central Oregon town of Redmond. The recently formed firm of Rod Whitman, Dave Axland and Keith Cutten started clearing the site in 2021 and began shaping this year. Six to eight holes are expected to be grassed by late summer.
Axland first visited the site in 2006, with then employers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, but the financial crisis of 2008 stopped any further progress. In 2021, prospects were revived and Coore recommended WAC, which is working with Landscapes Unlimited in sculpting the golf holes. The high desert property, dotted with juniper and sagebrush, sits at the base of the Cline Buttes Mountains, with panoramic vistas of the Cascade Range and the Three Sisters peaks.
“It’s a site that seemed like it had all the things you’d hope for to build spectacular golf that would stand the test of time,” said Whitman. “It spoke to us immediately.”
Axland is equally enthusiastic.
“The mental exercise of considering the limitless types of shots required to access a green, either along the ground or through the air, is both exciting and rewarding,” he said. “This is compounded when one then considers the putts and recovery shots played over the putting surface contours. Constructing these surfaces from the seat of a bulldozer, while envisioning the ways in which the ball will bounce, roll and change direction, is just as thrilling to me as playing those actual shots.”
Expect preview play on the par 72, 7,552-yard layout to be available in 2023.
HOME FRONT
Clear Creek Tahoe | Carson City, Nevada
Listing: 216 Walton Toll Road
Stats: 4,330 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms.
Design Architect: JK Architecture Engineering.
Interior Design: Jaureguy’s Design and Construction.
Price: $6,895,000.
About: This spectacular modern mountain boasts stunning features throughout. Located within the Clear Creek Tahoe community, this home is being built on a spacious 1.83-acre golf course lot overlooking the 4th green. Dubbed as an entertainer’s dream designed for easy living, the home features expansive windows and covered decks, allowing owners to enjoy outdoor living year-round. Additional features include hydronic heat, smart home technology and high-end finishes. The location provides an abundance of privacy and beautiful views of the Carson Mountain Range and the Coore & Crenshaw-designed Clear Creek Tahoe Golf Club. It’s conveniently located just 20 minutes from South Lake Tahoe and Incline Village and 35 minutes from Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Amenities of Clear Creek Tahoe include the Twin Pines Lake and Ski House and the new 20,000-square-foot Clear Creek clubhouse, featuring indoor and outdoor space for dining and social gatherings and approximately 5,000 square feet dedicated to fitness and wellness.
RELATED: Home Front archive
NAMES | NEWS | NUMBERS
BUSINESS
▪️ Women’s Golf Day announces that 2022 Palooza, a free two-hour virtual event, will be held May 31. … The LPGA Tour announces AmazingCre, a Korean-based sports apparel and equipment brand, as the title sponsor for the 2022 Portland Classic, Sept. 12-18. The AmazingCre Portland Classic is in its 51st year, making it the LPGA Tour’s longest running non-major tournament, and will increase the prize purse by $100,000 to $1.5 million. … TravisMathew announces a partnership with St. Andrews Links that will result in the opening of its new store at the Old Course. It will become the first brand with an on-site storefront. The store will open in August next to the 18th hole at the Old Course. … Golf Canada announces a multiyear partnership with Stalk & Barrel that makes the company the official Canadian whisky partner for Golf Canada, the RBC Canadian Open and the CP Women’s Open through 2025. … Rolex returns as the official timekeeper of the PGA Championship next week at Southern Hills CC [Tulsa, Oklahoma]. … Stix Golf closes a $10 million Series A financing round with notable contributions from existing and new investors, including Verance Capital, 2.0 Ventures and Spacestation Investments. … SknVue launches a Skin Cancer Awareness Month campaign that encourages golfers to take charge and manage their skin wellness. … Club Champion opens its 100th fitting studio. … ShopRite LPGA Classic names Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City as its pro-am hotel partner. … KemperSports establishes golf programs at two Chicago public high schools — Gwendolyn Brooks and Hyde Park — that will have free course and range access at Harborside International.
COMPETITION
▪️ ShopRite LPGA Classic receives early commitments world No. 1 Jin Young Ko and major champions Lydia Ko and Inbee Park.
COURSES / DESTINATIONS
▪️ Sea Pines Resort’s Harbour Town Lighthouse [Hilton Head, South Carolina] adds a new historical chapter with installation of Fresnel lens. … Bayside Resort GC [Selbyville, Delaware] wins a 2022 Golden Fork Award from Golf Inc. magazine. … Twin Orchard CC [Long Grove, Illinois] begins upgrades to include new pickleball courts and golf course enhancements. … Walt Disney World Golf [Lake Buena Vista, Florida] to host three FootGolf events — the U.S. FootGolf Open, Jansen Cup and Pacific Trophy — on Disney's Palm Golf Course.
MEDIA / PUBLISHING
▪️ GolfPass debuts the third season of 'The Conor Moore Show.' NBC Sports Next is offering the entire eight-episode season for free. … BookBaby publishes 'Too Much Loft,' a debut novel by Michael J. Stott. … The John Shippen partners with The Players’ Tribune and Minute Media to promote the story of John Shippen Jr. and Black golfers.
PEOPLE
▪️ PGA Tour Canada names native Canadian Corey Conners as honorary chair of the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship, Sept. 12-18. The Corey and Malory Conners Family Fund will be the tournament's official charity. … Saadiyat Beach Golf Club [Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates] names Gary Hurley, a current member of the Alps Tour, as its new club ambassador. Hurley will display the Saadiyat Beach GC logo on his golf bag. … Nicklaus Companies appoints Phil Cotton as chief executive officer. Cotton succeeds John Reese, who is transitioning to vice chairman at Nicklaus Companies after more than 10 years as CEO. … Golf Canada promotes Salimah Mussani to women’s head coach for Team Canada. Mussani will oversee the development of Canada’s top female golfers and seeks to increase the number of Canadian players on the LPGA Tour. … TaylorMade Golf signs Thorbjorn Olesen to an endorsement agreement. Olesen, the recent winner of the British Masters and six DP World Tour titles, will continue to play the Stealth Plus Carbonwood driver, P·700 series irons and Milled Grind 3 wedges. … GolfForever signs Scottie Scheffler, the newly minted Masters champion, as a brand ambassador. … Youth on Course adds TaylorMade CFO Rick Paschal to its board of directors for a three-year term.
GEAR
▪️ Big Max receives Editor’s Choice recognition from British publications Golf Monthly and Today’s Golfer for its products.
THE STYLE LINKS
G/Fore’s catchy creative around its Ghost Project shoes is brilliant. And it must work because these the two styles sold out in five days. That is the meaning of ghost, right? Now you see ‘em, now you don’t?
FYI, there’s another G/Fore Ghost Project slated to release in the height of summer. Lots of regular stocked footwear is always available online.
:: Janice Ferguson | IG: @janiceferguson_thestylelinks
THE GOOD LIFE
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