Rory McIlroy's major conundrum
+ The better of Verne Lundquist's Masters calls; gearing up for the year's first major; worthy Monterey Peninsula renovation.
1986 Masters: Jack Nicklaus at Hole No. 17 | Watch
2005 Masters: Tiger Woods at Hole No. 16 | Watch
THE STARTER
🏌️ According to reports, the PGA Tour has rejected a $1.5 billion investment into PGA Tour Enterprises by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, because the Tour doesn’t want LIV Golf to continue in its current form. Which side is being more stubborn?
🏌️ The sticking point between the PGA Tour and the PIF seems to be LIV’s team concept, which is one of the league’s foundations. Isn’t there a way for LIV’s team golf to live in its own ecosystem?
🏌️ Does the PGA Tour believe it has its own team apparatus in TGL and that it doesn’t need LIV?
🏌️ LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil said in Miami, “I love our prospects. I love the growth in three months. I know what’s coming in the next three months. And I love where we are." What does he know that we don’t?
🏌️ Brooks Koepka said at LIV Golf Miami that he thought the breakaway league would be “farther along” by now. But he also said things are “going in the right direction.” Is it important for LIV to keep its top players happy?
🏌️ Masters odds: Jon Rahm (+1600) or Ludvig Aberg (+1600)? Or Bryson DeChambeau (+1800)?
🏌️ Since Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee bashed DeChambeau’s and Joaquin Niemann’s chances at the Masters, how many LIV players will finish in the top 10?
🏌️ After a protracted slump, Max Homa fired longtime caddie Joe Greiner a week before the Masters. The player can’t fire himself, can he?
🏌️ At what point did your NCAA Tournament bracket go bust?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Curating the curious career of Rory McIlroy
The First Call contributor Bradley Klein reviews an upcoming biography, 'Rory Land: The Up-and-Down World of Golf's Global Icon,' that picks at perceptions of the four-time major champion.
:: Bradley S. Klein | Read
Jim Nantz: A voice unlike any other
The 2025 Masters will be the CBS Sports announcer’s 40th. He's been a conduit to several generations’ memories of the major, and that’s worth celebrating — even if he would prefer we not.
:: Gary Van Sickle | Read
Next question, please
Readers of The First Call share their opinions on whether players should be required to speak with the media during tournament weeks or if relaying their thoughts via social media posts would suffice.
:: TFC Inbox | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads — and listens — that are sometimes about golf, but not always.
📖 Ben Crenshaw, golf’s gentleman, feels the game’s history like no other champion
The two-time Masters winner reveres golf's past and personalities, including the legendary writer who penned his 1974 Sports Illustrated cover story.
:: Bob Harig | Sports Illustrated | 04.03.25 | Read
📖 Could 1975 Jack Nicklaus break par on today's Masters course? A mathematical answer to an impossible question
And how would 2024 Scottie Scheffler fare on a sub-7,000-yard Augusta National?
:: Mike Stachura | Golf Digest | 04.25 | Read
📖 Course preview: Augusta National
Notes and anecdotes on the annual host of Masters as the 2025 edition approaches.
:: Geoff Shackelford | The Quadrilateral | 04.02.25 | Read
THE LIBRARY
Recent drops to The First Call’s video and podcast section.
🎧 Golftec celebrates 30 years, 20 million golf lessons
Co-founder and CEO Joe Assell joins host Jon Last to discuss where the company started from and where — now with over 250 locations — it is going.
:: Driver$: Inside the Golf Industry | 04.02.25 | Listen
ARCHIVES: 🎧 Podcasts | ▶️ Videos
BUSINESS
THE FIRST CALL
Week in Review: The industry’s names, news and notables making headlines. | Read
This week’s editions: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
Industry press releases | Industry press release videos | TFC / PR Newswire feed
Golf Industry Job / Internship Board
LIFESTYLE
THE STYLE LINKS
One of the many, many Masters-inspired products with floral nods to Augusta.
:: Janice Ferguson | IG: @janiceferguson_thestylelinks
19TH HOLE
“Course of Life” podcast co-host Alex Lauzon closes each episode with the guest sharing a favorite 19th hole food and beverage experience.
Jane Spicer, CEO of Daphne's Headcovers: “If it's nice and sunny, I love a good tequila soda with double limes … and probably some street tacos while I'm recounting the round with friends.”
A PICTURE TELLS …
"I have come to regard Brora as not only a space but an attitude — perhaps a state of being, and one that I wish to inhabit for evermore. There was life before Brora, and it was very good. But life after Brora already feels great, elevated."
:: Words: Richard Pennell / Pitchmarks | Photography: Simon Pope
Image: Gate, Brora Golf Club, Brora, Scotland.
HOME FRONT
Spanish Peaks Mountain Club | Big Sky, Montana
Listing: 301 Inspiration Point Road, Residence 10A.
Stats: 4,275 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 6 bathrooms.
Price: $8,150,000.
About: True to its name, the Spanish Peaks Mountain Club’s Inspiration Point neighborhood offers some of the most spectacular views in Big Sky, Montana. The home is elegantly furnished and in a prime spot for outdoor enthusiasts. Play the new Tom’s 10 par 3 golf course — the last design by Tom Weiskopf — or the 7,200-yard, 18-hole championship course, explore hiking paths leading to the serene Fish Camp, and ride flow trails made for thrilling mountain biking. Winter brings world-class skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating and more. After an action-packed day, enjoy the clubhouse such amenities as the dining room and bar, fitness center, golf/ski pro shop, outdoor pool and hot tubs. Residence 10A also provides access to the amenities of Montage Big Sky, which includes mountainside dining at Backcast, apres at Alpenglow, traditional northern Italian cuisine at Cortina, bowling, games and wood-fired pizzas at Beartooth Pub & Rec, and alpine-inspired wellness at Spa Montage. Spanish Peaks Mountain Club Signature Golf Membership or Social Membership is required with this property.
Home Front Archive | Read
ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN NOTES
Monterey Peninsula CC’s Shore Course Zinkand renovation
Zinkand Golf Design (ZGD), led by golf course architect David Zinkand, is approaching the completion of a renovation project at Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course in Pebble Beach, California.
Currently ranked among the top 100 courses in the United States by Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and Golfweek, the Shore Course opened in 1962 but received critical acclaim after a significant reimagining in 2003 by the late golf course architect Mike Strantz.
ZGD’s multiyear plan respectfully pays homage to what Strantz and his co-designer, former PGA Tour pro Forrest Fezler, created two decades ago, while evolving the design to enhance aesthetics and adapt to modern expectations. The current project, the third phase of the master plan, touches all of the course’s bunkers and waste areas as each is receiving new drainage and capillary flow liners. New sand is being laid in formal bunkers, while existing bunker sand is screened and placed within the waste areas. Some hazards have also been repositioned, frequently toward the line of play, to encourage decision-making on the tee and make the course more challenging.
“The Shore Course is rightfully regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful locales for golf,” Zinkand said. “Our team has remained true to what Mike created, while ensuring the course’s eminent playability and seaside character continue to shine through.”
The current work, which is expected to be completed by June, follows a pair of earlier renovation phases. The first was a turf reduction and waste area expansion project that further elevated course aesthetics by increasing the number of native areas featuring unmown fescue grasses. This approach had the important benefit of reducing the course’s water consumption. Overgrown coyote bushes were also thinned and replaced to improve vistas and highlight the property’s native cypress trees and seaside aesthetic.
More recently, a tee renovation project included leveling, refurbishing and regrassing all teeing areas. Select tees were also repositioned. This step was taken to respond to advancements in equipment, as well as provide additional strategic options created by the turf reduction, waste area expansion work and the current bunker renovations.
“Throughout the entirety of the project, we’ve viewed our work not only through a strategic lens, but also an aesthetic one,” Zinkand said. “For example, we’ve made a concerted effort to pull elements of the seaside holes into the inland stretch of the Shore Course as a means of creating a heightened sense of place. This respect for a golf course’s aura and ecology, leaning into the natural ‘genius loci,’ is a core tenet of our firm.”
Prior to founding ZGD, Zinkand was a long-time design associate with Coore & Crenshaw, and before that worked on projects with Pete Dye, Gil Hanse and Mike Devries. These experiences gave him an in-depth understanding of how the classic courses utilize strategy and the natural terrain to instill atmosphere, fun and intricacy into a round of golf. ZGD is currently engaged with a wide variety of projects across the U.S., ranging from restorations of golden age courses to new builds with routings that push the creative envelope.
Design Notes Archive | Read