The Rise Of The WM Phoenix Open's Colosseum
+ The best little golf hole on the PGA Tour is ... ?
ON THE TEE
🏌️ Billy Walters, jailed professional sports bettor and former bookmaker and stock trading advisor for Phil Mickelson, has finished his book: “Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk.” It has been said that Walters, who was incensed at Mickelson for not helping him stay out of prison, will “settle some scores” with the book, which will be out in August. Wonder who’s the most nervous?
🏌️ Justin Rose won for the first time on the PGA Tour in four years at the field-challenged AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. If a win falls in the Monterey Forest with no one to challenge, does it make a sound?
🏌️ Aaron Rodgers and Ben Silverman (which one was the pro?) won the Pebble Pro-Am portion with Rodgers sporting a 10-handicap. Keith Mitchell along with partner Josh Allen, who finished 2nd, called that number “crap,” when it was revealed the Packers QB is a 3.0 at Green Bay Country Club. Anyone remember Billy Walters being banned from the Pro-Am for sandbagging?
🏌️ Rory McIlroy is the No. 1 player in the world and Jon Rahm thinks he is. Who’s right?
🏌️ Abraham Ancer won the PIF Saudi International, which could not be seen in the U.S., unless you somehow have access to Great Britain broadcaster Sky Sports. Does ignoring something make it not exist?
🏌️ Tiger Woods announced his new golf course design, the members-only Marcella Club in Heber City, Utah. It’s said the course will tip out at 8,000 yards. Is this yet another case of a golf course designer unable to play his course from the back tees?
🏌️ Xander Schauffele, talking about the state of professional golf, said, “… 10 years from now, because of this fracturing, because of what happened, there’s a good chance that the sport could be better off.” Should it really take 10 years?
🏌️ There are two new team names at LIV Golf — RangeGoats GC and Ripper GC. RangeGoats was the creation of captain Bubba Watson and Harold Varner III — GOATs of the range. Ripper, captained by Cameron Smith, is Australian slang for “awesome” or “fantastic” — bloody ripper. Wonder why no one chose LIV TV analyst David Feherty’s idea — Swingleberries?
🏌️ Officials at the WM Phoenix Open set out to ban beer showers at the par-3 16th atTPC Scottsdale by replacing beer cans with plastic cups. The sponsor boasts it’s a zero-waste event. Surely, they don’t think they can make it zero-wasted, do they?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
How Tiger Woods helped get the party started
The WM Phoenix Open has always been a party-like affair, but Woods' hole-in-one theatrics in 1997 showed the potential of how much fun could be had at TPC Scottsdale’s shortish par-3 16th hole known as The Colosseum
:: Gary Van Sickle | Read
Painting a course? By the numbers it makes sense
The sight of dormant brown grass is disconcerting to a segment of golfers, so more golf courses are trending toward painting their course instead of overseeding and the decision is financially prudent
:: David Droschak | Read
More to PGA Tour setups than meets the eye
A backstage tour of the Arnold Palmer Invitational's Bay Hill Club & Lodge offers a rare insight into setting up a course
:: David Droschak | Read
2023 GCSAA Conference Notebooks
Back Nine Greens: Transforming artificial grass into works of art
USGA study helps determine proper tee based off 7-iron distance; Halo Advantage device makes picking up flag pin easy on the back | Read
Bunker Wizard takes smooth sand to new level
The work of female superintendents at 2022 U.S. Women's Open to be told in YouTube series; Border Collies may be your golf course's next best friend | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 Super Bowl 100
Think No. 50 will be huge? Imagine the 100th edition of the big game. First assumption: Football still exists 50 years from now
:: Christian Stone | Sports Illustrated | 02.01.2016
📖 How to be 18 years old again for only $2 million a year
Middle-aged tech centimillionaire Bryan Johnson and his team of 30 doctors say they have a plan to reboot his body
:: Ashlee Vance | Bloomberg | 01.25.2023
📖 Super Bowl ads through the years — including a peek at this year’s
The 30- and 60-second televised pitches have become as popular — if not more — as the actual Super Bowl game itself. This website features ads dating back to 1998
:: SuperBowl-Ads.com
OFF THE PLAYLIST
One golfer’s song of choice for the course. Hey, and if you don’t like it? Share your choice. Seriously.
🎶 “Notorious” | Duran Duran [Spotify | iTunes]
HOME FRONT
Cherokee Valley | Taylors, South Carolina
Listing: 116 Deer Thicket Way.
Stats: 2,200-2,399 square feet | 3 bedrooms | 3 bathrooms.
Price: $559,900.
About: Nestled at the beginning of the Blue Ridge Mountain sits the idyllic and family-friendly golf club, Cherokee Valley Club, which is just minutes from this home. The course is a classic P.B. Dye mountain design with dramatic elevation changes, a variety of terrain and is playable for all levels of golfers. Centered around bringing people together, members have access to a resort-style pool, scenic trails for walking and biking and a fitness facility — along with breathtaking mountain views. Filled with natural light, this custom cobblestone home in The Sanctuary boasts gorgeous mountain views and is private, open and airy. The main level features a spacious primary suite with an en suite bathroom that includes a large vanity with double sinks and a walk-in closet. Two additional bedrooms, a bathroom and a bonus room complete the upstairs. Outside there is a side-entry garage, an extra parking space, a front porch, an oversized covered deck, patio and private yard.
DESIGN NOTES
Gil Hanse digs dirt at Omni La Costa
⛳️ Omni La Costa Resort and Spa has broken ground on the renovation of its famed Champions Course, one of its two 18-hole courses, as it prepares to host three consecutive NCAA Division I Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships beginning in May 2024.
The renovation and ensuing NCAA Championships mark the beginning of a new chapter at one of the country’s most iconic golf resorts, located in Carlsbad, California. The golf course work will be led by Hanse Golf Course Design, founded by acclaimed architect Gil Hanse, who recently designed Fields Ranch East at the soon-to-open Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Frisco, Texas.
“We are excited to officially kick off this work with Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and the rest of their team,” says Kurt Alexander, president of Omni Hotels & Resorts. “We believe that the Champions Course will be one of the marquee courses available to the public in Southern California after this renovation, and is another example of Omni’s commitment to elevating the experience across our golf portfolio nationwide.”
Hanse and his team will implement significant design changes with the NCAA’s match-play format in mind — chief among them will be challenging players with more risk-reward decisions throughout their rounds. Further inspiration for the work will be drawn from classic Southern California courses, as aesthetics are tweaked to give the Champions Course a more proper sense of scale and place.
Specific changes planned include the creation of a drivable par-4 on No. 11, a repositioned green on the par-3 16th hole that is reminiscent of Augusta National’s 12th hole, and a reachable par-5 on No. 18 with its putting surface brought closer to the existing creek. The course will play as a par-72 and have the flexibility to play from 4,300 yards to 7,500 yards, in order to accommodate players of all skill levels.
The golf course work at Omni La Costa is planned to be joined in the coming months by another project focused on reimagining the resort’s golf practice facility. This project will be led by Beau Welling, and his firm, Beau Welling Design. The focus will be on elevating the practice experience with a newly lengthened driving range and expanded short-game area.
"Omni La Costa was the site of victories by a ‘who’s who’ of all-time golf champions, such as Gary Player, Tom Watson, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, and we look forward to welcoming the next generation of greats to play on the Champions Course," said Randy Zupanski, managing director at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa. "We are thrilled to have Gil and Beau help us take our golf experience to another level and have our resort guests and club members enjoy the highly anticipated re-design."
⛳️ In 2022, Andrew Green completed a renovation of the Donald Ross-designed Wannamoisett Country Club, a private club in Rumford, Rhode Island. The work on the course, which opened in 1914 and hosted the 1931 PGA Championship won by Tom Creavy, has been well received. Golf Digest ranked it as the No. 2 Best Renovation in North America and No. 1 in the United States.
The club recently dropped a 12-minute video that highlights the new look.
⛳️ Athens, Georgia-based architect Mike Young is continuing renovation work in next-door Tennessee, at Johnson City Country Club, home to a rare A.W. Tillinghast design in the South. Best known for his northeast masterpieces such as Winged Foot, Baltusrol and Bethpage Black, Tilly dipped into northeast Tennessee around 1918 and crafted two courses, including an 18-hole layout for the Johnson City Country Club. Nine of those 18 (today’s back nine) were built and opened in 1919.
It was a modest effort where Tillinghast was concerned, reflecting the small-town nature of the club and the members who would be playing it. Bunkering was neither severe nor dramatic, but it was a solid layout nonetheless. Three more holes were added in the 1940s and local designer Lon Mills tacked on the final six holes in the 1950s, using much of the original Tillinghast routing. At that time, the course was rerouted. John LaFoy carried out an extensive renovation in 1987 and the course was content to stand pat until 2017, when the club began three years of minor bunker renovations.
The club hired Young, a veteran architect whose work includes Cateechee and Longshadow in Georgia, to renovate the 18th hole in 2021. In so doing, Young brought some recognizable Tillinghast features into play, including bunkers and grass mounds. Young continued the project that emphasized bunker renovations and tree removal.
In September 2022, Young began the next phase, concentrating on bunker work at holes 11, 12 and 14, together with other tweaks at holes 2, 4, 5 and 6. Young contends that he’s not wedded to any one aspect of the Tillinghast style, simply because he feels Tillinghast did different things depending on the client and the site he was given. However, his aim is to produce golf course features that reflect the period in which it was built, the dawn of the Golden Age of architecture.
⛳️ Two of Canada’s premier modern architects, Doug Carrick and Tom McBroom, have teamed up to create a new (fourth) nine for Nova Scotia’s Fox Harb’r Resort, which will ultimately result in two distinctive 18-hole layouts.
Carrick told GolfCourseArchitecture.net that “Working together, we decided that rather than just building a new course, we would instead reimagine nine of the existing holes and combine them with nine new holes, all in a links style, to create a true ocean course. Construction began in September 2022 and we hope to have it completed by fall 2023. Our next phase will be a separate ‘Vineyard’ course — again, rethinking the existing back nine and combining it with nine new holes. The style is going to be different from what is at Fox Harb’r now. It’s a big vision and very exciting."
McBroom noted that the current Fox Harb’r course is essentially a parkland style next to the ocean — in terms of bunkering, aesthetics and playability — and that the goal would be to convert the existing layout into one that more closely resembles a seaside links. Carrick added that increased width and bumped up risk/reward options will grace the reimagined holes as well.
PERFECT PUTT
The WM Phoenix Open: A money machine
Arizona's annual PGA Tour stop at TPC Scottsdale is a $450 million tournament
:: Jared Doerfler | Read
Every Monday, Jared Doerfler writes on the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt here.
THE STYLE LINKS
When in Rome — or the Arizona desert in this case — Puma Golf’s “Wild West” apparel collection for the even wilder WM Phoenix Open.
:: 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
SUBSCRIBE | FOLLOW
The First Call [Monday-Friday edition]: Subscribe
Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | Twitter