One Man's Yearlong Golf Odyssey Is Epic
+ Who will lift the Solheim Cup?
ON THE TEE
🏌️ Rory McIlroy hit four balls in the water while in contention in the final round of the Horizon Irish Open. Is McIlroy the worst “great” player in the game?
🏌️ Justin Thomas is entered in this week’s Fortinet Championship, in search of his lost game in the run-up to the Ryder Cup. What will he have to shoot for the week to be considered a success?
🏌️ The headlines say Dustin Johnson believes his LIV Golf membership cost him a Ryder Cup spot. But if you read further, isn’t it really because he didn’t play well enough — either in the majors or in LIV events?
🏌️ Sergio Garcia, who has been part of Europe’s Ryder Cup team since 1999, wasn’t chosen as a vice captain by captain Luke Donald. Jon Rahm said the omission was “stupid.” Is he right?
🏌️ The U.S. Ryder Cup team voted to keep cameras for Netflix’s “Full Swing” out of the team room. Understandable, but wouldn’t it have been great if they had said, “Yes”?
🏌️ Stewart Hagestad, who at 32 was a member of the victorious Walker Cup team, won the U.S. Mid-Amateur for the third time. Is amateur golf at the top level elite in more ways than just skill?
🏌️ The Fortinet is the first of seven PGA Tour events on its fall schedule as the Tour goes back to a calendar year schedule in 2024. Is anyone paying attention?
🏌️ Twenty-year-old Ruoning Yin is the new No. 1 in the Rolex World Rankings, the fifth different player to reach the top spot in 2023. What does that say about the state of women’s golf?
🏌️ Tiger Woods was seen at Liberty National last week and was asked to give amateurs one tip. “Don’t watch f-ing YouTube,” he said. “Go hit balls.” You mean we have to practice?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Playing 500 courses in a year? No problem ... so far
Photographer Patrick Koenig swings around the world in pursuit of a world record for relentless golfing
:: Tom Bedell | Read
Q&A: Jody Vogelaar | CMO, NBC Sports Next
The chief marketing officer discusses how GolfNow's summer-long advertising campaign, which features a spokes-gopher as the central figure, came to be and how it has performed
:: Stuart Hall | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 Empire of dust: what the tiniest specks reveal about the world
Nobody normally gives a second thought to dust, but it is inescapable. And if we pay close attention, we can see the biggest things – time, death and life itself – within these tiny floating particles
:: Jay Owens | The Guardian | 08.31.2023
📖 Can we talk to whales?
Researchers believe that artificial intelligence may allow us to speak to other species
:: Elizabeth Kolbert | The New Yorker | 09.04.2023
📖 An unprecedented statistical deep dive into Ryder Cup performance
How much do captain's picks really matters? Which has historically been each team's best format? Our interactive analyzes the modern Ryder Cup like never before
:: Shane Ryan | Golf Digest | 09.11.2023
SCORECARD
1️⃣8️⃣ The golf industry’s week in review — the names, news and notables that are making the headlines. :: Read
PERFECT PUTT
Carry Golf has distributed $285k to golfers
The company has raised over $330,000 from 325 people.
:: Jared Doerfler | Read
Each Monday, Jared Doerfler breaks down the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt here.
LIFESTYLE
THE STYLE LINKS
Nice wind up. Solheim Cup is up next.
:: 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.
Sebastian Pell, junior golfer and content creator: “I like a spicy chicken or buffalo chicken quesadilla after the round ... ranch all day.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host of “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
Apes Hill Barbados | Barbados, Caribbean
Listing: Moonstruck Villa at 7 Moonshine Ridge
Stats: 6,496 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 5.5 bathrooms.
Price: $7,016,000.
About: The Moonstruck Villa, located at Moonshine Ridge at Apes Hill, is a contemporary villa with a spacious interior dining and living room area, gourmet kitchen, outdoor dining area with a private pool, and beautiful views overlooking the golf course and Caribbean sea. Apes Hill Barbados provides luxury accommodation as residential properties and as villa rentals. Homeowners and guests have access to a range of luxury resort and lifestyle amenities across the expansive 475-acre property, including an 18-hole championship golf course, nine-hole short course, state-of-the-art Performance Centre and other athletic and dining amenities.
DESIGN NOTES
Rees Jones resurrects New York’s Monster
⛳️ The Monster of the Catskills is back — somewhat. The Monster Golf Club at Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, New York, reopened on August 28 after a complete makeover from Rees Jones and his associate Bryce Swanson. Once host to an LPGA major and long considered one of the toughest tracks in the country, the Monster is back, but in a materially altered form.
"Our vision for Resorts World Catskills always included the reinvigoration and restoration of this golf course, and we are proud to have delivered on this important commitment," said Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East, which operates the resort.
The aptly named Monster opened in October 1964 as the fiendish creation of architect Joe Finger. The course was the championship layout at The Concord, a prominent mountain resort located in the Catskills town of Kiamesha Lake. The course could be stretched to 7,780 yards, an almost absurd length in the day, and was strewn with hazards and design features that made it the toughest test in the region, if not the country. In 1968, the LPGA contested an event there, playing the layout at 6,900 yards, par 77. Only the winner broke par. One year later, Betsy Rawls won the LPGA Championship at the Monster, playing a revised par-73 course that measured 6,300 yards. Her 1-over-par 293 won her the trophy.
Over the years, the resort and its golf courses fell on hard times, but at long last, a rescue operation has salvaged the Monster. To be fair, most of the original Monster is gone, including the bulk of the front nine. Jones and Swanson utilized land mostly from the old Monster back nine to create holes one through three and 10 through 18. Their design of holes four through nine unfolded atop land that was once the resort’s International course, which closed in 2009.
Nevertheless, some similarities to the old Monster are evident. Jones and Swanson employed several previously existing corridors and green sites for the new holes. They also have emulated the old Monster in the size and configuration of the greens and bunkers and via the use of multiple ponds and Kiamesha Creek. At 7,325 yards, par 72, it’s a slightly more mellow monster than it was in the 1960s, but it’s sufficiently testing to live up to its name.
READ: This week’s complete Design Notes
RELATED: Design Notes archive
ICYMI
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