How do 2024 majors, Olympics rank?
+ How much are pros earning?; golf loses a classic in Chi Chi Rodriguez; RTJ II completes a family trifecta.
THE STARTER
🏌️ Just when it looked like Scottie Scheffler was running out of gas for the year, he shot a stunning final-round 62 to come from behind and win the gold medal at the Olympics. Where does this rank among the best rounds of the year?
🏌️ Jon Rahm went from a four-shot lead on the 11th tee to tie for fifth and no medal at Le Golf National. Where did it go so wrong?
🏌️ Brandel Chamblee put Rahm’s “collapse/choke” on a par (or bogey) with Rory McIlroy’s cave-in at the U.S. Open. Do you agree?
🏌️ Was the men’s Olympic golf competition equal in excitement and watchability to this year’s major championships?
🏌️ DP World Tour revised its Ryder Cup qualifications to include points for the PGA Tour’s signature events. Does this complete the European circuit’s total sellout to the PGA Tour?
🏌️ U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley says he will consider LIV Golf players for his 2025 team at Bethpage Black. Is he being smart?
🏌️ Gary Player says he turned down a big contract for a lot of money for an undisclosed position from LIV Golf in the league’s developmental stages. Do you believe him?
🏌️ The FedEx Cup playoffs start this week at the FedEx St. Jude in Memphis. How much do you care and will you watch?
🏌️ Joanne Carner, at age 85, shot 80 at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. Where does this rank among players shooting their age or better?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Olympics shine light on state of pro game
Rory McIlroy may not have medaled at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but he was right on the money — or lack of — about why the Games' golf competition is special.
:: Gary Van Sickle | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 He’s 77, an Olympic legend and just made a hip-hop jazz album
In Mexico City in 1968, Bob Beamon soared to one of the Games’ most enduring records. Now he has started a new life as a percussionist.
:: Les Carpenter | Washington Post | 07.12.2024
📖 Economist’s notebook: How much is a Paris Olympic gold medal worth?
:: Diego Cacciapuoti | Oxford Economics | 07.29.2024
📖 The murky path to becoming a New York Times best seller
Publishing insiders tell Esquire why they find "the list" so frustrating—turns out, it's a data project full of contradictions.
:: Sophie Vershbow | Esquire | 12.09.2022
📖 World Golf Hall of Famer Chi Chi Rodriguez dies at 88
:: John Strege | Golf Digest | 08.08.2024
BUSINESS
PERFECT PUTT
An analysis of pro golf earnings
Publisher Jared Doerfler examines the increase in professional golfers’ earnings over recent years. From 2019 through 2023, median earnings on the PGA Tour increased 49.8%.
:: Jared Doerfler | Read
Each Monday, Jared Doerfler breaks down the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt here.
WEEK IN REVIEW
1️⃣8️⃣ The industry’s names, news and notables that are making the headlines. | Read
ICYMI
This week’s editions of The First Call:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
LIFESTYLE
THE STYLE LINKS
That — the 2024 Paris Olympics’ men’s track and field 1,500 meters — was a race for the ages as American and On ambassador Yared Nuguse (shown) took bronze and fellow American Cole Hocker won gold.
:: Janice Ferguson | IG: @janiceferguson_thestylelinks
19TH HOLE
Each episode of the “Course of Life” podcast closes with the guest sharing a favorite 19th hole experience.
Zach Brockman, president of minor league baseball’s Beloit Sky Carp (Single-A, Midwest League): “I’ll go with a brandy Old Fashioned, which are big here in Wisconsin, and recently at the ballpark we introduced birria tacos and nachos, which are a big hit.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host of “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
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Listing: Bellavista Residences 10.
Stats: 6,500 square feet | 4 bedrooms | 6.5 bathrooms.
Price: $6,050,000.
About: Perched atop the hills of Punta Mita, the Bellavista Residences include 11, two-story homes with beautifully open floorplans boasting over 6,500 square feet of indoor and outdoor living space. Each home includes four bedrooms with two primary suites, a flex room, floor-to-ceiling windows and thoughtfully designed interiors that channel the surrounding natural landscape. Each residence also features prime amenities, including a private pool, media room and large terraces with stunning views of Punta Mita’s vistas. Residences within Bellavista begin at $5.9 million. Aptly named in Spanish for “beautiful view,” the 11 residences offer an exceptional living experience overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Punta Mita’s two Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Courses — Bahia and Pacifico. Ownership of a Bellavista residence comes with access to the exclusive amenities and privileges of Punta Mita, including five distinguished beach clubs with unique personalities, world-class culinary offerings, golf and a racquet club with pickleball, padel and tennis courts as well as various programming and events.
ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN NOTES
Robert Trent Jones Jr. to receive ASGCA honor
Robert Trent Jones Jr., past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and founder of Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects based in Palo Alto, California, has been chosen as the 2024 recipient of the ASGCA Donald Ross Award.
The award, given annually since 1976, is presented to a person who has made a significant contribution to the game of golf and the profession of golf course architecture. It will be presented to Jones at the American Society of Golf Course Architects Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Nov. 11.
Jones’ earliest design experience was working alongside his father, ASGCA founding member Robert Trent Jones Sr., on Spyglass Hill Golf Club in Pebble Beach, California, and other projects in the 1960s. After an apprenticeship with his father and running West Coast operations for him, Jones expanded into Asia with solo international efforts.
In 1972, Jones Jr. formed his own firm. Known as an early advocate of environmentally sensitive golf course design, Jones continues to respect and embrace nature. His mantra is to "listen to the land." Now 85, Jones has designed more than 300 golf courses in more than 50 countries on six continents, including Washington’s Chambers Bay, host to the 2015 U.S. Open, The Links at Spanish Bay in California and Princeville Makai in Hawaii.
In 2024, Jones’ long-time efforts to secure copyright protection for the creative work of golf course architects advanced with the introduction of a bill in the U.S. Congress, the Bolstering Intellectual Rights against Digital Infringement Act (BIRDIE Act). The bill would update the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990, which provided copyright protection for buildings, to now extend the protections to include golf courses. The bipartisan bill, H.R. 7228, continues to be discussed by the Judiciary committee.
"Robert Trent Jones Jr., is a living history of ASGCA and the profession of golf course architecture," ASGCA president Mike Benkusky said. "The courses he continues to design around the world will be played for generations to come, and his commitment to the environment and securing for golf course architects the copyright protection for their work will have a lasting positive impact on the golf industry. He has come a long way from his first ASGCA Annual Meeting, when his father brought him along to serve as bartender."
Jones became the third member of his family to be named Ross Award recipient. His father was honored with the inaugural award in 1976 and his brother, ASGCA past president Rees Jones, received the 2013 award.
Past Donald Ross Award Recipients
2023: Frank Jemsek, Jemsek Golf
2022: John Lawrence, The Toro Company
2021: Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, ASGCA, golf course architects
2020: Renee Powell, golf pioneer / player / course owner
2019: Joe Passov, golf writer
2018: President George Herbert Walker Bush, U.S. President
2017: Alice Dye, ASGCA Fellow, golf course architect
2016: Michael Bamberger, golf writer
2015: Bradley S. Klein, golf writer
2014: Maj. Dan Rooney, founder, Folds of Honor Foundation
2013: Rees Jones, ASGCA, golf course architect
2012: Bill Kubly, golf course builder
2011: James Dodson, golf writer/editor
2010: Tim Finchem, PGA Tour Commissioner
2009: Ron Dodson, sustainable golf advocate
2008: George Peper, golf writer
2007 Dr. Michael Hurdzan, ASGCA, golf course architect
2006: Jim Awtrey, chief executive officer, PGA of America
2005: John Singleton, irrigation pioneer
2004: Thomas Cousins, philanthropist, urban golf developer
2003: Bill Campbell, president, USGA, captain, Royal & Ancient Golf Club
2002: Byron Nelson, professional golfer
2001: Jack Nicklaus, ASGCA, professional golfer, golf course architect
2000: Jaime Ortiz-Patino, owner and president, Valderrama Golf Club
1999: Arnold Palmer, professional golfer
1998: Judy Bell, president, USGA
1997: Gene Sarazen, professional golfer
1996: Ron Whitten, golf writer
1995: Pete Dye, ASGCA, golf course architect
1994: James R. Watson, agronomist
1993: Brent Wadsworth, golf course builder
1992: Paul Fullmer, ASGCA executive secretary
1991: Michael Bonallack, secretary, Royal & Ancient Golf Club
1990: John Zoller, executive director, Northern California Golf Association
1989: Dick Taylor, editor, Golf World magazine
1988: Frank Hannigan, executive director, USGA
1987: Charles Price, writer, Golf World magazine
1986: Deane Beman, commissioner, PGA Tour
1985: Peter Dobereiner, London Observer columnist, author
1984: Dinah Shore, sponsor of women’s golf tournaments
1983: Al Radko, director, USGA Green Section
1982: Geoffrey Cornish, ASGCA, golf course architect, historian
1981: James Rhodes, governor of Ohio
1980: Gerald Micklem, captain, Royal & Ancient
1979: Joe Dey, executive director, USGA
1978: Herb and Joe Graffis, founders, National Golf Foundation
1977: Herbert Warren Wind, The New Yorker columnist, author
1976: Robert Trent Jones, ASGCA, ASGCA founding member
THIS WEEK: Read complete Design Notes
RELATED: Design Notes archive
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