ON THE TEE
🏌️ Tiger Woods’ now-ex-girlfriend Erica Herman is suing Woods for $30 million and is asking a court to find the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that she says Woods forced her to sign is unenforceable. Think she has a story to tell? For a price?
🏌️ An anonymous tournament director for a longtime PGA Tour event told Alan Shipnuck of The Fire Pit Collective, “If the Tour keeps losing big, longstanding sponsors, none of this other stuff (elevated tournaments) matters because the business model is going to collapse.” What if he’s right?
🏌️ Jon Rahm said at the Players Championship, “Without LIV Golf, (Tour changes) wouldn't have happened. We should be thankful this threat has made the PGA Tour want to change things.” Is that what most top-level Tour players are thinking?
🏌️ Ryan Armour, a middle-of-the-road Tour player, told Golf Digest that players who don’t qualify for the elevated events, “(The Tour) wants those players to go be mules for you at the pro-ams, all the charity visits and sponsor events. We’re good enough to do that but we’re not good enough to play in the (elevated events).” Good point or just play better?
🏌️ Phil Mickelson says that before he departed for LIV Golf, he presented the PGA Tour with a $1 billion offer from “a current PGA Tour partner” for elevated events. “No vote, no discussion,” Lefty says. He’s looking for what, exactly?
🏌️ Cameron Smith, the non-defending champion at the Players, considered turning up at TPC Sawgrass as a spectator but thought better of it. “But going out there and walking around in the crowd might be pretty funny,” he said. What’s the over/under on the number of autographs he’d sign?
🏌️ This year’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play will be last and marks the end of the World Golf Championships events. A shame or long overdue?
🏌️ Season 2 of “Full Swing” — the Netflix series on the PGA Tour — will emphasize “making our sport more welcoming through innovation and strategic partnerships,” Tour commissioner Jay Monahan says. Wait, what?
🏌️ Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf, Sandra Palmer, Johnny Farrell and Beverly Hanson are the newest members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Wasn’t every tournament elevated for them?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
The Yards: Home to 'world's largest skins game'
Friday skins games at the 15-hole course just down the road from the TPC Sawgrass' Stadium Course are no less pressure packed than at this week's Players Championship
:: David Droschak | Read
Proud 90 puts the fun in funky fashion collection
Apparel brand founder Rick Versace Jr. took a look at Rickie Fowler — his fashion, not his game — and created a line of polos with a playful vibe for the rest of us
:: Gary Van Sickle | Read
Should the Players be a major?
The First Call readers vary on the topic. Some believe strength of field makes it major worthy, while others cite the championship's lack of tradition and absence of LIV players as dissenting reasons
:: TFC Inbox | Read
PERFECT PUTT
The Legal Battle: PGA Tour and LIV Golf
A timeline of events and analysis from actual lawyers
:: 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.
📖 March Madness in Vegas? You bet! (Often.)
:: Rick Reilly | Sports Illustrated | 03.27.2000
📖 Tales of Terror: The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass
The hole has continued to strike fear in the hearts of PGA Tour pros and every day golfers
:: John Huggan and Dave Shedloski | Golf Digest | 03.2019
📖 America built an actually good airport
LaGuardia is reborn, and it has a message for the nation
:: Ian Bogost | The Atlantic | 02.22.2023
OFF THE PLAYLIST
One golfer’s song of choice for the course. Hey, and if you don’t like it? Share your choice. Seriously.
🎶 “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” | Michael Jackson [Spotify | iTunes]
19TH HOLE
Each episode of the “Course of Life” podcast closes with the guest sharing a favorite 19th hole experience.
Marty Hackel, aka Mr. Style: “My answer is always an Arnold Palmer. Two-thirds iced tea and one-third lemonade, it’s a tried and true beverage that is good for the King and for me.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host | “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
The Landings | Savannah, Georgia
Listing: 6 Modena Island Drive.
Stats: 6 bedrooms | 5 1/2 bathrooms | 6,500 square feet.
Price: $3,500,000.
About: Members at The Landings can enjoy six championship golf courses, including designs by Arnold Palmer and Tom Fazio, tennis and pickleball courts, five swimming pools and a state-of-the-art Wellness Center. This home features fabulous island sunrise and sunset views, and the breathtaking panorama of the Wilmington River. This 3-story layout includes 6 bedrooms, 5 ½ bathrooms, flex rooms that can be configured for any family and an elevator. Southern charm is spread throughout, from the chef’s gourmet kitchen with a large butler’s pantry to the bar that is the dream of any entertainer. Two porches, patios, a marble pool deck with a heated pool and hot tub, a separate firepit area, and a fenced yard provide ample space for outdoor entertainment. More luxury amenities include a wine room, climate-controlled storage, a generator that powers the entire house for two weeks, and an efficient apartment suitable for a mother-in-law suite or teen hangout.
DESIGN NOTES
Apes Hill Barbados reopens after Ron Kirby reno
⛳️ Veteran architect Ron Kirby gave his stamp of approval to his finished renovation of Apes Hill Barbados following the reopening in November 2022.
Originally opened in 2009 in the depths of the Recession, the property languished for several years before Kirby was summoned to bring out its long acknowledged potential.
"When I saw Apes Hill for the first time, I saw there were hills and vistas that were just superb," said Kirby during his recent visit. "You can see both the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean in many places. You have the elevation, so I thought all we had to do here was to make sure that visitors can enjoy the time and take in those vistas."
RELATED: Design Notes archive
The par-72 layout has likely acquired must-play status for its stunning views over the Caribbean Sea to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Set within 475 acres of natural, unspoiled terrain and perched on one of the highest points of Barbados, 1,000 feet above sea level, Apes Hill is the most elevated golf experience on the island.
And if there’s anyone who knows about getting the most from a spectacular site, it’s Kirby. He has collaborated with Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Jack Nicklaus in a distinguished career and is perhaps most noted for his work at Old Head Golf Links in Ireland.
"The fun at Old Head and the fun at Apes Hill are the vistas, and you just feel like you want to get out here and enjoy it on a course that has such world-class views as the backdrop," Kirby said. "We put four tee boxes in so that we could cover levels for every golfer. We have made this mix so that Apes Hill can be fun for everybody."
Kirby’s work, aided by shapers Justin Carlton and Gary Shapiro, began in 2019. The new layout stretches 7,002 yards, with forward tees set at 5,034 yards. Perhaps the ultimate highlight arrives at the par-3 16th. Named, "Cave," the hole features a coral rock behind the green and water along the right side.
⛳️ In early March, Dormie Network, a national network of private destination clubs, named Michael Sheely as director of agronomy at GrayBull, a David McLay Kidd design set to open in the Nebraska Sandhills in 2024.
GrayBull will be Dormie Network’s seventh course and first facility built from the ground up. Course work will resume this month, with a goal to have the entire course seeded by fall of this year. Sheely will be onsite fulltime at GrayBull and will be joined by an all-new, recently hired team of superintendent Kit Lofgreen, assistant superintendent Katie Kramer and equipment manager Tyson Kramer. Before joining Dormie Network, Sheely served as the director of agronomy at ArborLinks since 2016.
"Dormie Network is well known throughout the industry for incredible course conditions, challenging, interesting and entertainingly playable course designs that meld with impeccable amenities which all come together to create an experience for members and guests that goes well beyond just birdies and bogies," Sheely said. "With David McLay Kidd at the helm, GrayBull will instantly become a bucket-list venue and I am thrilled to play a role in helping the Dormie Network’s vision for this facility come to life and prosper."
GrayBull will be a links-style course: wide open dunes with no extraneous trees, built on a firm, sandy soil structure that will allow shots to carry and roll. The terrain of western Nebraska promises less natural precipitation, lower humidity, and more wind than Sheely’s past positions.
"As agronomists, we love the challenge of balancing firmness and playability," Sheely said. "With state-of-the-art irrigation systems, we’ll install Bentgrass putting surfaces and fine fescue low-mow bluegrass mixture on the approach areas, fairways and tees that will all be close-shaven, helping the course melt into the landscape. I’m sure we’ll see some windy moments that will cause sand erosion, particularly for the bunkers. But those sands are part of what makes this area of the world such a great location for golf."
In addition to the playing experience through McLay Kidd’s design, amenities at GrayBull will include a full-service clubhouse, a practice facility, lit putting green, brand-agnostic custom club fittings and 60 beds onsite across 15 cottages for members to make the most of the evening entertainment available at network tournaments and private events.
⛳️ On the heels of a well-received "resto-vation" in 2021, architect Drew Rogers will continue work at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, Michigan, a northwestern suburb of Detroit.
Designed in 1921 by C.H. Alison of the legendary British firm of Colt & Alison, Plum Hollow played host to the 1947 PGA Championship. Sometime in the years after it opened, architect and club professional Wilfrid Reid effected design changes. Without original plans to learn from, Rogers, a former Arthur Hills associate, applied what he knew about Alison and the design style Alison employed in that era to renovate the layout in a style that could approximate a restoration.
During 2023, Rogers intends to evaluate greens and practice facilities for possible enhancements and will continue honing the aesthetics through landscaping which he believes “will present the course with heightened colors, textures and long, dramatic views,” he said.
THE STYLE LINKS
And, scripting season begins.
:: 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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