ON THE TEE
🏌️ LIV Golf players like Brooks Koepka, Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed insist there will be no conflict or tension with PGA Tour players at the Masters. “It’s only awkward in the media,” Watson said. Do you believe them?
🏌️ Cameron Smith, winner of the most recent major — the 2022 British Open — said of the LIV players, “I think it is important for us to go (to the Masters), really show a high standard of golf.” Agree?
🏌️ The iconic par-5 13th hole at Augusta National has been lengthened 35 yards to 545. Layups will be much more common this year — Dustin Johnson laid up twice during practice rounds. Better or worse?
🏌️ Acccording to a survey conducted by Golf Datatech, “serious” golfers oppose the USGA’s proposed rollback of the ball for elite competitions, by 2 to 1. Should the USGA listen?
🏌️ Rory McIlroy says if the USGA adopts the rollback and the PGA Tour doesn’t, “I think it widens that gap between PGA Tour golf and major championship golf.” Should that be a factor?
🏌️ The good news was that WGC Dell Technologies Match Play got its dream matchup — McIlroy vs. Scottie Scheffler. The bad news was that it was in the consolation match. Did you watch anyway?
🏌️ It was the final WGC and the final match play event on Tour. The WGCs won’t be missed, but does the Tour really need match play?
🏌️ Nick Faldo is coming out of retirement to be a commentator for Sky Sports, a British broadcaster. Do you wish you could subscribe to Sky?
🏌️ Pimento cheese or egg salad?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Raes evolves into a Masters food goers favorite
Walter Clay opened Raes Coastal Cafe in 1992 and it has grown to become a major-week staple for many, including those also seeking to win a green jacket
:: Ward Clayton | Read
Mike Trout, Tiger Woods partnering on new course
Three-time American League MVP inks 15-time major champion's TGR Design to build a course near Trout's New Jersey roots and that is scheduled to open in 2025
:: The First Call Staff | Read
A trip down Masters memory lane
The First Call readers share their favorite stories, moments that have occurred at the tradition-laden major through the years
:: The First Call Inbox | Read
PERFECT PUTT
LinksDAO bought a golf course
LinksDAO, a cryto-based golf community, has purchased Spey Bay Golf Club on the Moray coast in Scotland
:: Jared Doerfler | Read
Each Monday, Jared Doerfler breaks down the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt here.
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 Bobby Jones vs. the world: The untold story of how the Masters became the Masters
:: Michael Corcoran | Golf.com | 03.30.2023
📖 The drop heard ’round the golf world: 10 years ago Tiger Woods received one of the most bizarre penalties in Masters history
At the 2013 Masters, Woods looked set for a big weekend before his wedge shot on the 15th hole ricocheted off the flagstick and into the pond. Then all hell broke loose
:: Bob Harig | Sports Illustrated | 03.29.2023
📖 For you, Harvey
Ben Crenshaw’s second Masters win was a memorial to his mentor
:: Rick Reilly | Sports Illustrated | 04.17.1995
OFF THE PLAYLIST
One golfer’s song of choice for the course. Hey, and if you don’t like it? Share your choice. Seriously.
🎶 “Georgia On My Mind” | Ray Charles [Spotify | iTunes]
19TH HOLE
Each episode of the “Course of Life” podcast closes with the guest sharing a favorite 19th hole experience.
Bill Robertson, vice president of the Golf Heritage Society: “I'll usually go with a burger, but I love it when the cooks get it right cause I actually prefer it on the medium rare side — it's got to have some juice to it. Paired with a Yuengling for me.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host | “Course of Life” podcast
DESIGN NOTES
Tiger Woods to build short course at Cobbs Creek
⛳️ In partnership with the Cobbs Creek Foundation and TGR Foundation, TGR Design by Tiger Woods is creating a new short course at the historic Cobbs Creek golf facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The as-yet-unnamed layout will be welcoming and accessible to golfers of all ages and abilities, introducing new players to the game and challenging the game’s best, according to the TGR Design website.
However, Woods stated that the course will also support the programming of the TGR Learning Lab at Cobbs Creek. This 30,000-square-foot education facility will be operated by TGR Foundation and sit adjacent to the short course, providing year-round school day and after-school programming for local students. Programming will be available at the short course to build the skills of young golfers while developing the core values of the game.
RELATED: Mike Trout, Tiger Woods partnering on new course
“I’m excited to work with the Cobbs Creek Foundation and the Philadelphia community on this special project that combines my passions, golf and supporting youth through education,” Woods said. “Through the campus, we will provide meaningful education opportunities for local youth while expanding access to the game I love.”
Cobbs Creek’s championship course, a city-owned layout in West Philadelphia, was the longtime home to Charlie Sifford, the pioneering Black golfer who was an inspiration to Tiger Woods in Woods’ formative years. The regulation course was designed in 1916 by Hugh Wilson, the same man who created the famous Merion East course nearby. Closed since 2020, that course is being restored and reworked by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner. The short course from TGR Design is expected to open late in 2025.
⛳️ Architect Raymond Hearn is in the process of transforming the golf offerings at Michigan’s Saint John’s Resort.
Located in the western Detroit suburb of Plymouth, Saint John’s traces its roots to the 1940s as a Catholic seminary, with golf debuting in the 1970s. By the 1990s, the resort offered 27 holes, most of them unmemorable. The property was sold to the Pulte Family Foundation in 2021.
"The 27 holes were, at best, mediocre,” Hearn told GolfCourseArchitecture.net. "Our project has kept nothing of what was originally there, maybe half a dozen corridors, but that’s it. There was a lot of tree planting here in the 1980s and '90s. We have taken a number of trees out for breadth. This has been crucial in providing more angles and options throughout the course."
Hearn’s new layout will stretch 7,002 yards, with construction led by Rich LaBar, one of the industry’s top golf contractors. Included among the offerings will be a seven-hole short course with three sets of tees and hole designs that pay homage to classic architecture from the Golden Age greats. The longest hole will play 112 yards.
"This is one of the biggest golf projects in the last 25 years in southeast Michigan and probably in the Midwest," Hearn said. "The land in this area of the state is typically flat. The land for this golf course, however, is not. It is so rare to have a diversity of landscapes like we have here. On this site the ecosystem is so varied. There are flatlands, valley drop-offs, stands of hardwood trees, wetlands, prairie and so much more.
"The new course is architecturally strong and beautiful. Golf course architecture in its simplest form is about meaningful angles and options. And that’s what we have aimed to do at Saint John’s: provoke thought-out shots with players considering alternatives depending on the conditions and match. Visually, every hole is so different."
The redesigned course will be known as The Cardinal. It will embrace a water theme, with a twisting creek a significant feature on the opening nine holes and lakes affecting play on five holes. The Cardinal at Saint John’s Resort will see completed construction in the summer of 2023, then sit for a year-long grow-in. Expected opening is spring 2024.
⛳️ In a country better known for its tennis and gymnastics, Romania is now making inroads in golf. Kilkenny, Ireland-based architect Jeff Howes, formerly with Jack Nicklaus, has completed an 18-hole project for the Bucharest Golf Club.
Located 20 miles north of the Bucharest city center, the 6,590-yard course has been fully seeded and has nine holes open for play. Five holes will cross the two valleys that run through the property, and Howes told GolfCourseArchitecture.net that the natural landscape has "created a roller-coaster routing with clusters of short and long holes."
Expected opening of the full 18 holes is in May.Bandon Dunes is at it again.
RELATED: Design Notes archive
THE STYLE LINKS
It’s official … we have equality in caddie suits, and it’s super cute. #themasters
:: Janice Ferguson | IG: @janiceferguson_thestylelinks
SCORECARD
1️⃣8️⃣ The golf industry’s week in review — the names, news and notables that are making the headlines. :: Read
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