How To Own Your Own Golf Club
+ Can there be such a thing as too much golf?
ON THE TEE
🏌️ Brooks Koepka won LIV Golf Jeddah for his second league win of the year to go along with his PGA Championship victory and a T2 at the Masters. Under other circumstances, would he get some love for Player of the Year?
🏌️ Then, there’s Talor Gooch, who lost to Koepka in a playoff in Jeddah but won the season-long individual title with three victories, good for an $18 million bonus. That’s in addition to more than $17 million in on-course earnings. But he won’t play in any of the 2024 majors. Is there something wrong with that?
🏌️ LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman emerged from a five-month silence to say his job isn’t in doubt as a result of the framework agreement between LIV and the PGA Tour. Do you believe him?
🏌️ Bubba Watson, captain of LIV’s RangeGoats, says he has been approached by multiple entities who want to buy the team. At the moment, what would that be worth?
🏌️ Steph Curry bought a team in TGL, the league headlined by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in which matches are played on a golf simulator. What’s the revenue stream for this?
🏌️ The field for the Hero World Challenge was announced with Tiger’s name missing. However, one vacant spot is held open for a last-minute invitation. What are the chances Tiger fills that spot himself?
🏌️ Lexi Thompson nearly made the cut at the PGA Tour Shriners Children’s Classic in Las Vegas. Is that enough to call her experiment a success?
🏌️ A man named Patrick Koenig quit his job to do nothing but play golf and, as a result, the 43-year-old has achieved a Guinness World Record by playing 450 18-hole golf courses in just 287 days. Admirable or crazy?
🏌️ Would someone mind doing a welfare check when Daylight Savings Time ends?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Won't You Be My Sim Neighbor?
Fledgling Neighborhood National can help turn most any space capable of accommodating a golf simulator into a revenue-making proposition (think Airbnb).
:: Gary Van Sickle | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 What Goodfellas got right about garlic
How a famous Martin Scorsese scene taught a generation to slice just a certain way
:: Jason Diamond | Taste | 09.26.2023
📖 Malibu Barbra: Inside Barbra Streisand’s world
On the eve of her memoir, the legend invites VF to her home to talk music, dogs, pickup lines, and the movies she still wants to make
:: Radhika Jones | Vanity Fair | 10.07.2023
📖 Rose Zhang won at Augusta, then in her LPGA tour pro debut. What’s next for this 20-year-old budding star?
:: Elizabeth Nelson | Golf Digest | 10.17.2023
WORTH A LISTEN
Adare Manor on deck for 2027 Ryder Cup
Irish Minister Catherine Martin joins 'Golf Innerview' host Ann Liguori to discuss golf in Ireland and preparation for the next European Ryder Cup
:: Golf Innerview with Ann Liguori | Listen
BUSINESS
SCORECARD
1️⃣8️⃣ The golf industry’s week in review — the names, news and notables that are making the headlines. :: Read
PERFECT PUTT
Robert MacIntyre's path to Ryder Cup star
Robert MacIntyre’s story begins in a town of 8,100 people. It includes moving to Louisiana to play at a now-defunct college and his first professional events in the Middle East — MacIntyre’s path to becoming a Ryder Cup star
Each Monday, Jared Doerfler breaks down the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt here.
THE FIRST CALL THIS WEEK
This week’s editions of The First Call:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
LIFESTYLE
THE STYLE LINKS
It’s that spooky time of year, and Dormie Workshop gets in the spirit with its mummified golf club covers.
:: 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.
Brittany Altomare, LPGA player: “If I don't have to be healthy for the meal, I would definitely get a burger and a nice refreshing Arnold Palmer after 18 holes.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host of “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
Fairmont Residences | Mayakoba, Mexico
Listing: Penthouse 12B.
Stats: 3,220 square feet | 3 bedroom | 4 bathroom, 1 powder bath.
Price: $2,200,000.
About: Inspired by the serene, natural beauty of Mayakoba, Fairmont Residences in Mexico’s Riviera Maya presents a new look by internationally acclaimed design firm Room1804. This listing is a three-bedroom penthouse with an open-plan great room, expansive terrace and private swimming pool that encompasses 3,220 square feet of luxury living. PH12B is ideal for accommodating family and friends, with ensuite bedrooms, a chef-worthy kitchen, and an additional room that may serve as staff quarters. Curated with a relaxed yet sophisticated aesthetic, the residence showcases an enhanced interior presence that includes travertine floors, Smeg appliances, hand-crafted woodwork and remarkably distinct furnishings, lighting and decor for seamless, turnkey living that connects nature, wellness and refinement for a lifestyle unlike any other in Riviera Maya.
ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN NOTES
David McLay Kidd's Loraloma breaks ground
⛳️ David McLay Kidd’s first design in the southern United States — Loraloma near Austin, Texas — is slated to break ground in late October. The new course will anchor a private Hill Country community within Arete Collective’s Thomas Ranch development.
Kidd will employ a light touch, blending in his creation seamlessly with the natural contours of the terrain, and taking maximum advantage of the clifftop site that edges the Pedernales River.
"The Loraloma landscape is vastly more visually inspiring than most of what exists in the Austin area today," McLay Kidd said. "Our goal is to open up this compelling landscape to golfers for a world-class experience, and I will tread very lightly to preserve and protect this land so that it can be enjoyed and embraced for generations to come."
The 120-acre golf site will house a 7,060-yard, par-72 layout, one that will close with a 570-yard par 5. Creeping bentgrass will carpet the greens and Zoysia grass will be used in the fairways. Bracketing the fairways will be natural areas dotted with Texas bluebonnets, wildflowers and other native flora. Nearly half the holes will unfold along cliffsides next to the Pedernales River. Others will be draped atop peaks that will provide dramatic elevation changes and handsome views of the Hill Country and Balcones Escarpment.
"The rules of golf require the player to play the ball as it lies, and the beauty of the Loraloma course is the fact that [McLay Kidd] has designed a sustainable course around the existing lay of the land," said Tom Hogan, co-founder and CFO of Arete Collective and former CFO of Augusta National.
The course is expected to be completed in late 2024, with a full opening scheduled for spring 2025.
READ: This week’s complete Design Notes
RELATED: Design Notes archive
SUBSCRIBE | FOLLOW
The First Call [Monday-Friday edition]: Subscribe
Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | Twitter
James: Thanks for the note. It's meant to be more of a tease to the Neighborhood National story written by Gary Van Sickle: https://thefirstcall.substack.com/p/wont-you-by-my-sim-neighbor
OK where is article on How to Own you own golf club? I'm subscribed and help promote The First Call what is up with this one - how do you read it or is there nothing?