ON THE TEE
🏌️ Scottie Scheffler dominated the Players Championship while Jon Rahm had a stomach bug and Rory McIlroy couldn’t stomach his game while being the attack dog for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. Who’s looking forward to the Masters the most?
🏌️ The USGA and R&A want to roll back the ball in an attempt to rein in distance for the longest hitters. Do the ruling bodies have enough in their war chests to withstand the onslaught of lawsuits?
🏌️ As far as the players are concerned, who’s actually in favor of this besides Jack Nicklaus?
🏌️ What if the PGA Tour says no? Would the USGA go through with it, anyway?
🏌️ Talk has simmered for years that Augusta National might use its own ball for the Masters. Does Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley hold a lot of cards?
🏌️ Phil Mickelson says that LIV Golf has the flexibility to go to 72-hole tournaments if it will help get world ranking points. Will it make a difference?
🏌️ Are tournament chairmen of non-designated PGA Tour events really coming around to Monahan’s thinking? Or are promises being made to a certain few?
🏌️ Does being Tiger Woods’ girlfriend come with an attorney on retainer?
🏌️ If Chat GPT told you how to make two more birdies a round, would you listen?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
It’s March Madness, baby, so who you got dancin’?
In observance of March Madness, The First Call readers seed golf's top eight players, and also sound off on rolling back golf ball distance and slow play
:: TFC Inbox | Read
Golfzon goes social with simulators
Debut facility in New York uses company’s high-tech TwoVision simulators to help create an experience that goes well beyond game improvement
:: Dan Wooters | Read
PERFECT PUTT
Is The European Tour A Feeder Tour?
The top ten players on the DP World Tour will earn PGA Tour cards
:: 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.
📖 ‘The Big Lebowski’ Turns 25: “People Didn’t Get It,” Jeff Bridges Recalls
The Dude looks back — and shares his behind-the-scenes photos — from the Coen brothers’ beloved take on L.A. noir. The film has inspired legions of fans, an annual festival and even a religion, but it wasn’t an instant hit in 1998
:: James HIbberd | The Hollywood Reporter | 03.02.2023
📖 How a ticket from Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls debut became priceless
:: Justin Heckert | ESPN | 03.07.2023
📖 In unusual step, U2 reinterprets 40 of its best-known songs
:: David Bauder | Associated Press | 03.14.2023
OFF THE PLAYLIST
One golfer’s song of choice for the course. Hey, and if you don’t like it? Share your choice. Seriously.
🎶 “In da Club” | 50 Cent [Spotify | iTunes]
19TH HOLE
Each episode of the “Course of Life” podcast closes with the guest sharing a favorite 19th hole experience.
Ali Gilbert, golf fitness trainer and men’s health expert: “A burger … and not that impossible burger patty either, the real deal with sweet potato fries. Not because I think sweet potato fries are healthier, it's just because I don’t like regular fries.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host | “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
Punta Mita Golf Club | Punta Mita, Mexico
Listing: Iyaria Villas B7.
Stats: 5 bedrooms | 5.5 bathrooms | 6501 square feet.
Price: $4,750,000.
About: Punta Mita Golf Club offers two championship Jack Nicklaus-designed courses across 380 acres of peninsula bordered by the Pacific Ocean and beautiful Banderas Bay. Punta Mita is an ultra-luxurious, 1,500-acre resort and residential community that lies on a private peninsula surrounded by 9.5 miles of beaches and lush tropical flora, with a variety of residential offerings, residential beach clubs and estate lots. The private golf club is open exclusively to Club Punta Mita members and their guests as well as guests staying at the Four Seasons and St. Regis resorts. Members enjoy access to the comfortably appointed clubhouse, which offers dining, bag storage and other amenities. Both the Pacifico and Bahia courses offer a wide range of tee boxes for players of all skill levels with several holes set along the ocean. The Iyari Villa is set on the heart of Punta Mita’s north coast, and this villa boasts spectacular views and is a turnkey opportunity to live the Punta Mita dream. Owners will enjoy dramatic, full ocean views from the main living space and expansive terraces. The primary suite is located on the main floor and the lower level offers three guest rooms, all with private ensuites and expansive terraces.
DESIGN NOTES
Jack Nicklaus’ Pawleys Plantation undergoes reno
⛳️ Founders Group International, the parent company of the Jack Nicklaus-designed Pawleys Plantation Golf and Country Club, announced in late February that the Lowcountry layout at the southern edge of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, will receive a makeover this summer.
As reported by MyrtleBeachGolfTrips.com, the course will close in late May to launch a four-month greens, bunkers and clubhouse renovation project that will reinvigorate the course.
FGI has contracted with Nicklaus Design and architect Troy Vincent, who spent 15 years with Nicklaus Design, to handle the first significant renovation of Pawleys Plantation since its opening in 1989.
“Jack Nicklaus is not just an iconic golfer but also an iconic architect, so if we are going to touch one of his best courses, we want to make sure we are working with him and one of his architects," said Steve Mays, FGI president. "Troy is going to do a fantastic job not only in restoring Pawleys but taking the course to a new level."
Vincent was onsite Feb. 20, meeting with FGI leadership as he prepares final plans, but his topline goals are clear:
— Every green on the course will be resurfaced and restored
— All greenside bunkers will be overhauled
— All of the course’s sprawling fairway bunkers will be evaluated with many being reduced in size or eliminated entirely
— There will be significant tree removal throughout the property
Collectively, the renovations will produce a layout that is more playable for mid- to high-handicappers while maintaining its ability to test more skilled players. The renovation will also extend to the Pawleys clubhouse where a completely reimagined pub and dining experience will take place.
"There is more interest in golf and Myrtle Beach than there has been in a long time,” Mays said. “We want to make sure we continue to reinvest in our courses and make the experience the best it can be."
⛳️ The late Tom Weiskopf was honored this past week by being elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame. One of his most acclaimed golf course designs is honoring him as well.
The Club at Castiglion del Bosco in Tuscany, Italy, is currently being renovated by architect Phil Smith, who collaborated with Weiskopf on the original design in 2012. Joining Smith in the effort are Atlantic Golf Construction, Turfgrass Consulting, Bunker Solution and advisor Patrick Fogarty of Golf IQ.
RELATED: Tom Weiskopf: A true original, R.I.P.
The work will include new back tees that will stretch the layout to 7,500 yards, restoring bunkers to their original shape with new bunker liners, adding 135,000 meters of drainage, introducing drought-tolerant grasses, increasing the native grass areas, updating the irrigation and upgrading the practice range.
"Our objective has always been to make Castiglion del Bosco the finest golf experience in Italy," Smith said. "As with all great courses, it is important to continue to invest and evolve and that is what we are doing, by extending the course to professional tournament length and ensuring world-class playing conditions all year round and a resilience in a changing climate."
Smith noted that Castiglion del Bosco, currently ranked 8th in Italy by Golf Digest, was among the most sustainable courses he ever helped produce in his 20 years of working with Weiskopf.
In addition to the golf club and winery, the 800-year-old, 5,000-acre estate is home to Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco, a five-star luxury hilltop resort, crowned the No. 1 Hotel in the World by Travel + Leisure in 2022. Access to The Club at Castiglion del Bosco is reserved for members and resident guests of Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco.
⛳️ Aloha Golf Club in Marbella, Spain, the final course designed by renowned architect Javier Arana, has hired Lobb + Partners for a major greens rebuilding project.
Construction work will start in April and is scheduled to finish in July, with a staged reopening of the course expected during August and September. All 18 greens will be rebuilt in a single phase of work with TeeOne bentgrass laid — the turf has already been grown in an offsite nursery.
Arana produced only 10 courses during his 30-year career as a golf architect. He was hired to build the Aloha course in 1972, at the age of 67, and construction started later that year. He last visited the course in May 1974, at which point seeding of the greens had not yet started, because of a shortage of water to grow them in. Arana died in January 1975 and never saw the course completed. It opened that October.
The Aloha is very proud of its heritage and its status as the last project of Spain’s greatest designer. But the course’s greens have been a challenge for some years. Half of them slope at more than 5%, an untenable level of pitch at modern heights of cut. Agronomist Luis Cornejo, who will serve as project manager and agronomist for the rebuild, says that when the course opened, the greens were typically cut at 5.5mm and Stimped at six and a half feet.
According to Alfonso Erhardt, author of "The Golf Courses of Javier Arana," the architect drew detailed plans of the greens. There is, however, some debate as to how precisely the final surfaces reflected his intent as he died before opening and several of them have been reworked in the interviewing years.
"When we were first invited to review plans for this ambitious 18-hole green rebuild last spring we were very impressed with the club’s planning and vision for the project," said Tim Lobb, principal of Lobb + Partners. "The course is set in a rolling and striking Andalusian landscape and the Arana strategic diversity on the greens was evident from the onset with a variety of steps, tilts and internal contours providing challenge and interest to the golf experience. But at modern day green speeds, the slopes are just too steep, so our aim is to soften them while retaining their strategic intent. I particularly like the way the greens are segmented into different zones with noses, tiers and low/high spots creating dividers, which we will emphasize in the revised surfaces and pinnable locations."
RELATED: Design Notes archive
THE STYLE LINKS
The bottom soles of shoes have become cooler than the uppers.
:: 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
THE LAST CALL
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