To each his / her own
Whether the topic is favorite courses or U.S. presidential candidates or will the PGA Tour and LIV Golf ever come together, everyone has an opinion. And if it's different, then that is OK.
THE STARTER
🏌️ The PGA Tour Player Advisory Council has proposed that field sizes be reduced, as well as the number of exempt players and the number of Tour cards from the Korn Ferry Tour. Should elite players be making decisions to affect the careers of players farther down the ranking?
🏌️ The headline was that Nico Echavarria won the Zozo Championship in Japan for his second PGA Tour victory. The subhead is that Justin Thomas lost by one when he had a chance to win. Which is more newsworthy?
🏌️ PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan reportedly had another meeting in Saudi Arabia at the Aramco Ladies Team Series Event on the Ladies European Tour. Another sign of progress?
🏌️ Cameron Smith wants LIV to schedule a tournament on a links course prior to the British Open. What are the chances of that happening?
🏌️ The 10th edition of “The Match” will feature eight celebrities, including Charles Barkley and Michael Phelps, and will be broadcast on TNT over two nights in November. Will you watch?
🏌️ Tiger Woods’ team is +600 to win TGL, the longest odds set by one bookmaker. Has anyone ever made money betting against Tiger?
🏌️ Scottie Scheffler is auctioning his 2012 GMC Yukon with 200,000 miles for charity. High bidder thus far is Jim Nantz, who bid $50,000 in the live auction. That will be the opening bid when the auction resumes online. Friends, will Nantz go even higher?
🏌️ Jon Rahm was spotted playing golf in Arizona with influencers Bob Does Sports, Joey Coldcuts and Fat Perez. Wonder how many strokes he gave the trio in a one-on-three match?
🏌️ The National Golf Foundation reports that the 18-to-34 age group is driving the increase in golf participation numbers. Encouraging sign for the game?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
America's finest golf courses (with a twist)
Gary Van Sickle unabashedly presents his favorite U.S. layouts in a series of strictly arbitrary categories.
:: Gary Van Sickle | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 Clear eyes, blocked views, bad seats: Meet the fan who exposes stadium view obstructions
Even by looking at a college football stadium seating chart, you just never know what might be in your way. Michael Barker is here to help you.
:: Kalan Hooks | ESPN.com | 10.29.2024
📖 What is the “Cyclopean Cave” — and why are these guys hauling buckets of Colorado mud to find it?
Outside Leadville, spelunkers are following a hunch that a pioneer journalist’s fantastical cavern could be right below their feet.
:: Jason Blevins | Colorado Sun | 10.20.2024
📖 The million-dollar mystery of milk.com
Can you still make a fortune off a domain name?
:: Alex Mayyasi | The Hustle | 10.04.2024
Before the weirdness claimed his legacy, Michael Jackson understood his talent — and what he was willing to do for it — better than we ever have.
:: John Jeremiah Sullivan | GQ | 10.09.2011
THE LIBRARY
In addition to its existing podcast collection, The First Call has started building a videos section that will range from courses to travel. Each week TFC will highlight the latest.
▶️ The Land as It Lies: Chambers Bay
Explore how architect Robert Trent Jones ll transformed an old gravel mine into a public course worthy of the 2015 U.S. Open.
:: Up River Film Company | 10.04.2024
TFC Libraries: 🎧 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 | Read
Industry press release videos | Watch
TFC / PR Newswire feed | Read
PERFECT PUTT
The demographic in golf is shifting
Golf is becoming younger. And it is important for golf's future.
:: Jared Doerfler | Read
Publisher Jared Doerfler analyzes the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt.
LIFESTYLE
THE STYLE LINKS
A cool little trip down memory lane as Holderness & Bourne reflects on 10 years in the golf biz.
:: 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.
Jacque Jones, former Major League Baseball outfielder: “I'm usually just looking for a drink after, so I would go with an Arnold Palmer or Shirley Temple.”
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host of “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
Clear Creek Tahoe | Carson City, Nevada
Listing: 250 Swifts Station Drive — No. 3.
Stats: 3,870 square feet | 3.67 acres | 4 bedrooms | 4.5 bathrooms | 3+ car garage. Price: $8,750,000.
About: Pinecone Ridge is a modern masterpiece nestled in the serene Clear Creek Tahoe community, offering unparalleled luxury and breathtaking views of Nevada’s Carson Valley. This stunning residence is selling fully furnished and is meticulously designed with both elegance and comfort in mind. It’s located on 3.67 acres within a private gated community and has room to expand on the lot. Home to Nevada’s No. 1 residential golf course, the Bill Coore- and Ben Crenshaw-design Clear Creek Tahoe course is a mountain masterpiece, true to the architects’ philosophy of minimalist design. It is among America’s Top 200 Greatest Courses by Golf Digest and ranked 33rd as one of Golfweek’s Top 200 Residential Courses in the U.S. Coore & Crenshaw did not impose a golf course but rather discovered it within the natural contours of the land.
RELATED: Home Front archive
TFC EVENTS
The Friars Golf Club: Best of Napa '25
July 23-27, 2025 | Napa, California
:: Event and registration information
ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN NOTES
Tom Fazio opens Richland at Reynolds Lake Oconee
Tom Fazio’s new Richland course at Georgia’s Reynolds Lake Oconee opened on October 24. Located in Greensboro, approximately halfway between Atlanta and Augusta, Reynolds Lake Oconee is home to courses by Jack Nicklaus, Rees Jones, Jim Engh and Bob Cupp — and now two that bear Fazio’s signature.
The private Richland layout combines nine new holes with nine existing holes that were pulled from the 27-hole National course at Reynolds Lake Oconee, also a Tom Fazio design. Fazio crafted the original National course in 1997, comprised of the Ridge and Bluff nines. In 2000, he added the Cove nine, allowing for various combinations of play. Richland’s configuration is comprised of the first five holes of the old Bluff nine, followed by nine new holes and concludes with the final four holes of the Bluff nine.
The Richland plot incorporates a creek, large natural boulders and an existing pond. The land slopes gradually down toward a cove of Lake Oconee with more than 100 feet of elevation change. This is the only course at Reynolds Lake Oconee to traverse both sides of the peninsula and touch the lake from both Richland Creek and the Oconee River.
“My goal is always to create distinctive, one-of-a-kind courses,” Fazio said. "There’s a lot of terrain variation — lots of ups and downs, ins and outs, twists and turns — which is great for golf. That’s what makes this such a fine natural setting. Members will enjoy this course because it will have character and never play the same. This new course will provide a challenge and have endless possibilities of capturing your emotions and feelings."
To ensure continuity between the two nines, Fazio, design associate Bryan Bowers and superintendent Tad Hopkins spearheaded a wall-to-wall turf refresh, planting TifEagle Ultradwarf Bermudagrass on the greens and new Bermuda 419 on the tees, fairways and roughs. Bunkers were crafted — and in some cases recrafted — to achieve consistency from hole to hole, old and new. Perhaps the most pronounced change to the old Bluff nine occurred at the most dramatic hole, the 193-yard, par-3 fourth. Positioned on the edge of Lake Oconee, the entire green complex was reshaped, with the left-to-right sloping putting surface moving even closer to water’s edge and further protected by a new bunker front right.
The new holes on the 7,090-yard, par-72 spread generally are more open and are characterized by an abundance of love grasses and native fescue grasses framing fairways and by greens that offer a bit more undulation than their elder siblings.
RELATED: This week’s complete Design Notes
RELATED: Design Notes archive
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"The headline was that Nico Echavarria won the Zozo Championship in Japan for his first PGA Tour victory. The subhead is that Justin Thomas lost by one when he had a chance to win. Which is more newsworthy?"
That Nico headline is FAR more newsworthy, because it's FALSE. Nico won the 2023 Puerto Rico Open. I mean, that was less than two years ago, and EASY to find, if the headline writer were an actual journalist.
Tony Finau and Viktor Hovland ALSO count their Puerto Rico Open victories as their "first PGA Tour victories". Good grief.