The Power Of A Club Headcover
+ Finding answers to your game.
ON THE TEE
🏌️ LIV Golf had its best week ever in Adelaide, Australia, with 75,000 fans for the three-day event, including 35,000 on Sunday. As a result, LIV will return to Adelaide for the next four years and officials are talking about a second event in Australia. Can it bring that momentum into the U.S.?
🏌️Phil Mickelson came down hard on the Official World Golf Ranking, suggesting that the major championships are “going to have to find a way to get the best LIV players in their field if they want to have the best field in golf and be what major championships are about.” Is he right?
🏌️The door is open for LIV Golf players to compete in the Ryder Cup, although U.S. captain Zach Johnson said, “Nothing is decided.” Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson said they’d be happy to play in the Italy this fall. Would the Ryder Cup be better with LIV players?
🏌️Liliana Vu won the new-look, new-name, new-venue Chevron Championship in a playoff over Angel Yin — and she jumped into the cleaned-up pond beside the 18th green. Did you watch?
🏌️The PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic was won by Nick Hardy and Davis Riley — heard of them? The tournament’s most famous pairing was John Daly and David Duval, who shot 83 in alternate shot. Did you watch?
🏌️Bill Mallon, former PGA Tour player and surgeon, says of Tiger Woods after his ankle surgery, “Can he play golf again? Yes, but that’s at least six months to a year in the future. His tournaments for 2023 are likely over.” Has anyone ever gotten rich betting against Tiger?
🏌️PGA Tour Canada and the PGA Tour Latinoamerica are merging to form one circuit that will be called PGA Tour Americas. How long before there’s PGA Tour Europe?
🏌️Tom Watson has started a youth golf program called Watson Links, which will offer free rounds of golf for kids 10 to 18 in and around his home in Kansas City, along with a mentoring program. What would happen if more Tour players would do the same?
🏌️Are you going to get golf lessons this year? Or are you going to try to buy a game?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
How Daphne’s Headcovers is creating smiles
Jane Spicer was taught the importance of setting goals by her mother, Daphne, at an early age. Those lessons, plus the value of doing good for others, has helped Spicer’s company thrive
:: Emily Waldon | Read
PERFECT PUTT
The PGA Tour's retirement plan
Over 400 golfers have at least $1 million in the retirement plan
:: 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.
📖 It could be one of the most beautiful golf courses on Earth — will Cabot Saint Lucia live up to the hype?
:: Derek Duncan | Golf Digest | 03.28.2023
📖 Inside the temple of Sadhguru, the internet's favourite mystic
Jagadish Vasudev, the Indian mystic better known as Sadhguru, has built a global following and a horde of celebrity fans (McConaughey! Smith! SZA!) with his fresh, Insta-ready approach to spirituality. We sent a writer on an exclusive retreat with the man himself, hoping to find the fast track to inner peace
:: Stephen Rodrick | British GQ | 04.11.2023
📖 Goodbye, RFK Stadium
After 62 years of big names and big moments, the DC landmark is being torn down. Before it’s gone for good, we celebrate and remember its history and legacy
:: Andrew Beaujon | Washingtonian | 04.26.2023
19TH HOLE
Each episode of the “Course of Life” podcast closes with the guest sharing a favorite 19th hole experience.
Gemma Dryburgh, Scottish pro golfer and LPGA Tour champion, during the Chevron Championship: “It's tacos (over BBQ) for me in Texas. I just had some really good spicy chicken tacos here for dinner. I'm always down to try whatever's popular in each city I play in.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host | “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
The Residences at Shell Bay | Hallandale Beach, Florida
Listing: Penthouse B (PH 21B).
Stats: 4 bedrooms | 3 bathrooms | 7,455 total square feet.
Price: $10,500,000.
About: Shell Bay was envisioned by leading real estate development firms Witkoff and PPG as an unmatched luxury destination in Hallandale Beach, Florida — just 2 miles north of Golden Beach and in partnership with Auberge Resorts Collection. The Shell Bay Club includes a Greg Norman-designed, 7,250-yard championship course, a 12-acre practice facility with a 9-hole Par 3 course, a premier racquet center, a 48-slip private yacht club, and a private member’s clubhouse with a spa and performance fitness center. This Penthouse is the largest residence in the building and boasts a separate valet/service entry. Owners will enjoy a private rooftop terrace with plunge pool, loggia, outdoor kitchen and elevator, as well as expansive northwest, west and eastern views — including the ocean, most of the course’s front nine and the resort.
DESIGN NOTES
Rees Jones fixes Broken Sound’s Old Course
⛳️ Broken Sound Club, located in Boca Raton, Florida, reopened its Old Course in early March, following a redesign by Rees Jones.
The Old Course at Broken Sound Club is a frequent stop for tournaments, including the PGA Tour Champions' TimberTech Championship and the Jim McLean Junior Championship.
Driven by Broken Sound Club’s ongoing efforts to strategically improve and enhance its facilities, the redesign project aimed to address sustainability, improve the overall playing conditions and replace infrastructure. At the forefront of sustainability initiatives, the course is the first golf facility in Florida, second in the U.S. and 14th in the world to be GEO Certified.
The par-72 Old Course is a pure core golf course without housing. Among the complete changes and additions to the course, many of the holes have been reimagined to give players more options on how to play each hole. The classic-style bunkers are now easier to access and designed to be fair and playable.
TifEagle Bermudagrass now carpets the greens, with Celebration Bermudagrass on the fairways and roughs, and Sunday Bermudagrass on tees. By challenging the low-handicap golfer with strategic options and by providing openings into most of the greens for the higher-handicap player, the redesigned Old Course creates a thought-provoking game for players at every level.
Jones has designed more than 260 golf courses in his career and earned the moniker “The Open Doctor” for having applied his craft to seven U.S. Open venues, nine PGA Championship courses, six Ryder Cup and three Presidents Cup venues, along with two Walker Cup sites.
For the Broken Sound Old Course project, Jones was joined by his second-in-command, Bryce Swanson, who was recognized by a panel of Golf Magazine editors as one of three golf course architects named to Golf’s 40 under 40: The 40 Most Influential in Golf Under 40 Years Old.
⛳️ Nicklaus Design has commenced work on an 18-hole championship golf course at Jack’s Bay on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
The new $20 million layout set on the Atlantic coastline represents the world’s first Nicklaus Heritage course — a new brand that, according to the company, will showcase “the senior designers from Nicklaus Design who have been personally trained by Jack Nicklaus over several decades. Nicklaus Heritage designs incorporate the design philosophies and values imparted to Nicklaus designers over their careers working with Jack on world-famous golf courses under Nicklaus Design’s Jack Nicklaus Signature brand.”
Chad Goetz, senior design associate at Nicklaus Design will oversee the design.
"It’s going to be spectacular," Goetz said. "A number of holes stretch directly along the ocean and even the land off the ocean has remarkable topography, featuring a rolling terrain of elevation changes, lakes, deep water ‘blue holes’ to the ocean and caves. What mother nature has provided us is rare and we plan to preserve the natural integrity and enhance the beauty of the island."
Tiger Woods and his TGR Design firm designed a 10-hole short course at Jack’s Bay in March 2020. Known as The Playground, it features holes ranging from 71 to 163 yards.
The new Nicklaus course is expected to open in 2025 and will complement Woods' Par 3 layout perfectly. All that will be missing from the new championship course at Jack’s Bay is Jack Nicklaus himself, who is not involved in the design.
⛳️ A new members-only development known as Austin Beach Club is in the early stages of planning on the outer reaches of southeast Austin, Texas.
Located in a region called Dog’s Head, a 3,000-acre tract where the Colorado River resembles the shape of a dog’s head, the multi-use development is expected to include a 12-hole short course of par 3s designed by Roy Bechtol of Austin-based Planned Environments/Bechtol Golf Designs.
Bechtol has created such courses as University of Texas Golf Club, Escondido in Horseshoe Bay and the Spieth Lower Forty, a six-hole par-3 course in Austin where Jordan Spieth consulted.
“Golf is a demanding game, to say the least,” Bechtol told the Austin American-Statesman in making the case for short courses. “I think you’re seeing a move afoot with younger millennials to play in a way that takes less time and is more fun. This just opens it up to so much more of the populace to fall in love with the game. It’s a much quicker way to spend the day. What we’re trying to create at the Austin Beach Club is to play real golf, get outdoors, get away from computers.”
Bechtol is collaborating with course designer Jim Fazio Jr. on the project.
Austin Beach Club developer Lauren Carlson believes that the location of the course and the purpose for it will drive membership sales.
“The property is so magical,” she said. “We have downtown views and there’s just a feeling you get when you go out there. Whether you want to golf or just decompress, this is about getting into nature and connecting with other people.”
The golf course has a target date of July 2024 for opening.
RELATED: Design Notes archive
THE STYLE LINKS
Some great looks for junior golfers by Swannies.
:: 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
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