The U.S. Ryder Cup Team's Identity Crisis
+ The latest news and notes in golf course architecture.
ON THE TEE
🏌️ The Official World Golf Ranking denied LIV Golf’s application to receive ranking points for its players. Is this more of a problem for LIV or the OWGR?
🏌️ LIV Golf’s players insist the OWGR is obsolete without ranking them against the rest of the world’s players. Phil Mickelson maintains that LIV was never going to get ranking points. Are they right?
🏌️ The PGA Tour says it has serious interest from U.S. investors while it is in the midst of negotiating the framework agreement with the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Whose money does the Tour want?
🏌️ On the course, Cameron Smith, Talor Gooch and Bryson DeChambeau battle for the $18 million bonus that comes with winning the LIV individual season title. Isn’t good golf by top players what we’re after?
🏌️ Peter Malnati said Lexi Thompson’s invitation to the Shriners Children’s Classic was a “gimmick.” Thompson said she wanted to “inspire.” Which is it?
🏌️ Tiger Woods was spotted at The Hay, the par-3 course that he redesigned at Pebble Beach, hitting a wedge. So?
🏌️ Luke List make a 45-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole to win the Sanderson Farms Championship. Do the recent goings-on in professional golf minimize players and tournaments like this?
🏌️ A Korn Ferry Tour player named Shad Tuten lost a chance to get his PGA Tour card with a two-shot penalty over an improper lift, clean and place. How do you mess that up?
🏌️ Now that it’s football season, is this the best time of year to play golf?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Why the U.S. needs to embrace Ryder Cup underdog role
The narrative for Ryder Cup matches since 1985 is that the Americans are perpetual favorites. Yet, the Europeans are 12-6-1 in that time. Why? They have leveraged the role of underdog
:: Hal Phillips | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 The con, the con artist, and me
Maverick Miles picked me to tell the story of his larger-than-life counterfeiting ring, but it turned out he was trying to make me an accomplice to his greatest scam of all
:: Sean Williams | Rolling Stone | 10.02.2023
📖 Michael Lewis’s big contrarian bet
Almost everyone in the world believes that Sam Bankman-Fried is guilty. In “Going Infinite,” the writer takes the kind of risk that his characters often do, and asks us to question that assumption
:: Gideon Lewis-Kraus | The New Yorker | 10.02.2023
📖 The Michael Rubin guide to winning friends and influencing people
Your favorite rapper’s favorite billionaire loves nothing more than to have a few hundred of his famous friends over to his Hamptons estate. How did a sports-licensing CEO from Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, become this generation’s Gatsby?
:: Dan Adler | Vanity Fair | 09.06.2023
WORTH A LISTEN
A new era for the PGA of America
Sandy Cross, the PGA of America's Chief People Officer, joins co-hosts Jon Last and David Klein to discuss the organization's past, present and future
:: Driver$ | Listen
BUSINESS
SCORECARD
1️⃣8️⃣ The golf industry’s week in review — the names, news and notables that are making the headlines. :: Read
PERFECT PUTT
Tragedy strikes the golf ball industry
Launch Technology produces 20% of the global golf ball supply. They experienced a tragic fire at their facility two weeks ago. Today’s newsletter details the events and the impact on the golf ball industry
:: Jared Doerfler | Read
Each Monday, Jared Doerfler breaks down the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt here.
THE FIRST CALL THIS WEEK
This week’s editions of The First Call:
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LIFESTYLE
THE STYLE LINKS
Have you seen G/Fore’s new activewear collection? It’s called PRJKT CC Operative for tennis, yoga, lifting, pickle ball, jogging, basketball, workouts … pretty much covers the day-to-day gamut.
:: 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.
Angela Stanford, LPGA Tour major champion and assistant Solheim Cup captain: “After a good round, I really like chips and queso, and a crown and Diet Coke. Put me in front of some queso, guacamole, salsa and chips...and I'm good!"
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host of “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
Clear Creek Tahoe | Carson City, Nevada
Listing: 269 Redding Way “Pine Haven.”
Stats: 5,441 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 4.5 bathrooms | 4-car garage.
Price: $11,250,000.
View: Gallery
About: Nestled within the enclave of Clear Creek Tahoe, this striking modern mountain home — designed by Donald Joseph and Lee Luxury Homes — boasts an enviable location overlooking the third fairway of the renowned Coore and Crenshaw-designed golf course, Clear Creek Tahoe. With its perfect fusion of modern elegance and mountain charm, this 5,441-square-foot residence offers an idyllic retreat in the heart of nature’s beauty among tall pine trees. This masterpiece is just a short stroll to the pool and sports courts, private hiking trails and the golf course’s practice facility. Located on the eastern slope of the Carson Range, Clear Creek Tahoe is a new private residential community set on 2,136 acres bordered by 6 million acres of the largest national forest in the lower 48 states. Clear Creek Tahoe is focused on exceptional design and execution within an economically and environmentally sustainable framework. Other amenities include Summit Camp, with pools, sport courts and game room; the Pro Shop & Provisions outlet; the Grille and Pub; the Julia Morgan-designed Twin Pines Lake & Ski House; and the new, 20,000-square-foot Clear Creek Clubhouse, a defining community feature that has indoor and outdoor space for dining and social gatherings and approximately 5,000 square feet dedicated to fitness and wellness.
ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN NOTES
McLemore changes name of its upcoming design
⛳️ Midway through 2022, McLemore, the resort and residential community in Rising Fawn, Georgia, announced plans to create a second golf course, named The Outpost. The course was to be designed by Bill Bergin and Rees Jones. While the project remains on track, the new golf course will now be known as The Keep.
As with McLemore's first course, the Highlands Course — also designed by Bergin and Jones — The Keep features stunning vistas and dramatic holes along the eastern side of Lookout Mountain in northwest Georgia. Grassing will begin soon and The Keep is expected to open in summer 2024.
Inspired by Europe’s imposing castles, the mountaintop course and cliffside views invoke the identity of those fortresses. The result is a name that honors that idea and establishes The Keep as a powerful, but reserved, entry into the golf landscape.
The Keep logo also draws inspiration from ancient history. The back-to-back lower-case 'k' is reminiscent of the Chi-Rho, one of the earliest symbols of Christendom formed by the first two letters of the Greek word, 'Christos.'
Already renowned for the striking cliffside finishing hole at the Highlands Course, McLemore’s newest layout is situated 1,000 feet above the valley floor of McLemore Cove. One of the unique aspects of The Keep, apart from the cliff edge and the relative flatness of the grounds, is the wind. It shifts from a gentle breeze to westerly winds reminiscent of a coastal shoreline. The result is a mountain course with the feel of a headlands course. Bergin suggests as much when he refers to The Keep as "my ocean course."
"We've been looking forward to announcing our plans for The Keep for a while now, and we are excited to invite members to take part in what will be an unparalleled golf experience," says Duane Horton, president of Scenic Land Company, the developer of McLemore.
READ: This week’s complete Design Notes
RELATED: Design Notes archive
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