When the Lights Went Out in Pinehurst
+ Lights out for The Match?
ON THE TEE
🏌️ The first on-site betting at a PGA Tour event will happen at the 2023 WM Phoenix Open. The PGA Tour and DraftKings are constructing a permanent building at TPC Scottsdale that will hold 390 people. Will a breathalyzer test be required before patrons are allowed to place a bet?
🏌️ Adam Scott says he doesn’t understand the necessity of peace talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. “I think the good of the game will prevail,” he says. Hasn’t it already?
🏌️ The PGA Tour says in a court filing that it believes Greg Norman is commissioner and CEO of LIV Golf in name only and instead, Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, the managing director of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, makes all the decisions and runs the day-to-day operations. Wouldn’t you like to know how the Tour knows that?
🏌️ Former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley says rumors of the bankruptcy of the DP World Tour are nonsense and the deal done with the PGA Tour has assured the European circuit of continued solvency. But will it prevent the PGA Tour from stealing all the future European stars?
🏌️ Will Zalatoris to return to the PGA Tour at January’s Sentry Tournament of Champions after having missed competition since August with a back injury. At 26, isn’t he a little young to be having back trouble?
🏌️ Fred Perpall has been nominated to be the next president of the USGA. The 47-year-old Perpall will be the first Black man to hold that post in the association’s history. Isn’t this long overdue?
🏌️ The QBE Shootout is set to be a mixed team event — men and women — in 2023. Does this idea really make this event any better?
🏌️ Tiger Woods told his son, Charlie, not to copy his old man’s current swing but to mimic Rory McIlroy’s instead. Can’t Charlie watch video of his father from 2000?
🏌️ Raise your hand if you will watch The Match. Thought so.
:: Mike Purkey
THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON
Twelve (12) times through Dec. 23, The First Call is giving away a variety of golf gifts. It’s not too late to join, just click here to find out the prizes and how to enter.
FEATURES
How Pinehurst perseveres amid a power outage
A recent attack on Moore County, North Carolina, electric substations left the iconic resort — and much of the surrounding region — at a loss and having to pivot to old-school ways of business
:: David Droschak | Read
PGA Tour, DraftKings roll dice on new sportsbook
Partnership leads to the building of a brick-and-mortar dining and gambling venue just an 8-iron to the 18th green at TPC Scottsdale, site of the annual WM Phoenix Open
:: Tom Mackin | Read
TaylorMade evolves P-700 series with 3 new irons
Payntr unveils company’s first spiked golf shoe; TaylorMade’s new SelectFit Kit will help custom fitters help golfers
:: Mike Purkey | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 History: Bing Crosby and Christmas are inseparable from the desert
:: Tracy Conrad | The Desert Sun | 12.26.2021
📖 The return of James Cameron, box office king
It’s been 13 years since James Cameron released Avatar, the highest-grossing movie of all time. Now, the director is back with a deeply personal sequel—and the reasonable expectation that it could be the biggest thing he’s done yet
:: Zach Baron | GQ | 11.11.2022
📖 12 things you forgot happened in golf in 2022
:: Shane Ryan | Golf Digest | 12.07.2022
OFF THE PLAYLIST
One golfer’s song of choice for the course. Hey, and if you don’t like it? Share your choice. Seriously. .
🎶 Scotland the Brave | The Pipes & Drums of the Royal Tank Regiment [Spotify | iTunes]
DESIGN NOTES
Gil Hanse gets A-OK to reimagine Royal Sydney
⛳️ The road has been long and winding, but this past week, the lights turned green for the comprehensive renovation of Royal Sydney Golf Club.
Now 129 years old, Sydney’s oldest and most prestigious club has turned to Gil Hanse to perform the work. Hanse first presented his redesign proposal in March 2017 and after several tweaks, it was approved by the members in November 2019.
However, the proposal suggested the removal of nearly 600 trees, which drew the ire of residents’ groups and environmentalists. After years tied up in hearings and other legal proceedings, the New South Wales Land and Environment Court approved the club’s revised plans on Dec. 1. Concurrently, the Woollahra Council agreed on a compromise plan to save a portion of the trees that were slated for removal.
RELATED: Design Notes archive
Royal Sydney has played host to 15 Australian Opens, starting in 1906. Winners have included Bruce Crampton, Gary Player and Mark Calcavecchia, and, most recently, Rory McIlroy in 2013 and Jordan Spieth in 2016. Its layout experienced a bunker renovation by Alister MacKenzie, during his legendary 1926 visit to Australia.
However, after Spieth’s victory, what had become apparent to the club was that the course no longer functioned optimally, with congested playing corridors, trees restricting airflow and drainage and irrigation failing. Hanse’s team, including Australian landscape architect Harley Kruse, formerly a longtime associate with Greg Norman Design, plans on removing the offending trees that cause the most issues with shade and safety and replacing them with more environmentally friendly trees and shrubs. Utilizing more open areas in the native sandy coastal soil will partly transform the character of the course from parkland to heathland. Hanse and Kruse will then redesign many of the holes to better reflect and highlight the natural terrain.
Work on the reimagined Royal Sydney will start in 2024.
⛳️ Old Chatham Golf Club in Durham, North Carolina, is undergoing a comprehensive set of renovation projects by original course architect Rees Jones, ahead of its hosting the 2026 U.S. Girls’ Junior. The 21-year-old layout previously played host to the 2019 U.S. Senior Amateur.
Jones and associate Greg Muirhead began their refinements in 2021, continued them throughout 2022 and will likely conclude their work in 2023. Among the improvements overseen by Jones and Muirhead are converting fairways to Zorro zoysiagrass, and greens to Mach 1 Ultradwarf bermudagrass.
Also, the Jones team is adding bunkers and rebuilding others, rebuilding tees, adding undulations to the new greens and adding a new water feature on the par-4 16th hole.
⛳️ One of America’s Top 100 public courses, the Links course at The Golf Courses of Lawsonia in Green Lake, Wisconsin, continued an ongoing bunker restoration in 2022 that would take the course back as closely as possible to its 1930 origins.
Designed by William Boice Langford and Theodore Moreau, a legendary Midwestern team that employed a similarly engineered, often linear style as Eastern stalwart Seth Raynor, Lawsonia’s Links has been working on one bunker at a time, on one hole at a time.
Craig Haltom, vice president of Oliphant Golf, Lawsonia’s management company, is overseeing the 2022 work.
Haltom plans on continuing the work started by architect Ron Forse in 1998, together with superintendent Mike Berwick, on removing trees and restoring the course features to their original dimensions.
Most of the bunker restoration work will take place over the winter and into 2023. Current superintendent Mike Lyons also assisted in the work that took place in 2022 on Links’ sibling, the Woodlands, which saw the par-5 18th hole transform from a squirrely dogleg right to a less controversial, straighter hole.
RELATED: Design Notes archive
NAMES | NEWS | NUMBERS
BUSINESS
▪️ GolfTrainingAids.com: Acquires The Putting Arc product line. … Adidas Golf: Named the apparel, footwear sponsor of CGX Top100 Camps this month. … PGTAA: Offering its 2022 Holiday Special — a $100 discount on PGTAA Master Teaching Professional certification courses — through Dec. 31. … USGA: Becomes a presenting partner for the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show, Feb. 6-9 in Orlando, Florida. … PGA Tour: Honors Charles "Buddy" Buder and Loaves, Fishes & Computers as its 2022 PGA Tour Volunteer of the Year and Charity of the Year, respectively. Buder is a volunteer celebrating 50 years of service at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut. Loaves, Fishes & Computers is a nonprofit beneficiary of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am that addresses the growing digital divide throughout the greater Monterey Bay region. … DP World Tour, PGA Tour and Japan Golf Tour Organization: Announce a partnership in which the top three players on the JGTO Order of Merit earn membership onto the DP World Tour for the ensuing season, beginning with the 2022-23 campaign. … NBTV Channels: Consumer brand and retail icon Mindy Grossman is announced as an investor. … EyePromise, PGA of America: Partner on the Golf Retirement Plus Program, which aims to help preserve, support and improve eye health for PGA professionals on and off the course. … The Annika Foundation: Establishes the Annika Development Program at Old Barnwell, a private golf club in Aiken, South Carolina. Each year, four women from the Carolinas or Georgia will be selected to participate in the program that provides access to Old Barnwell’s golf amenities and the program for three years, one year of housing, a $10,000 yearly stipend, and networking opportunities with Old Barnwell members and staff, and Sorenstam.
COMPETITION / COURSES
▪️ Pelican Golf Club: Belleair, Florida, club to host Capital One’s 'The Match' today, on Dec. 10. Warner Bros. Discovery Sports to deliver expansive coverage of the matchup on TNT in primetime beginning at 6 p.m. ET. … Fidelity Sports Group: Announces the third PXG College Golf Showcase, which will feature top-ranked college players and celebrities playing to raise $1 million for military foundations. … Farmers Insurance Open: Awards a sponsor’s exemption to the APGA Tour’s Michael Herrera. … The R&A: Announces that The Buckinghamshire and Hankley Common will host qualifying events for the 2023 AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath. An 18-hole pre-qualifier will be played at The Buckinghamshire in Denham, England, on July 17, while a final qualifier — where a minimum of three players will get into the Open field — will be held Aug. 7 at Hankley Common in Surrey, England. … Lohla Sport: Inaugural Tournament of Club Champions is won by Karen Dougherty, of Danville, California.
GEAR
▪️ Sun Mountain: Introduces its Granite II Reversible jacket and vest, which uses 37.5 insulation that retains body heat while preventing moisture build-up and overheating. The jacket and vest retail for $219.99 and $179.99, respectively, and are currently available online. … Ping: Gold-plated PLD Anser Patent 55 putter drops Dec. 12. The putter marks the fourth and final collector’s model being offered as part of a year-long celebration acknowledging the issuance of the Anser putter patent 55 years ago. … GolfForever: Offering its GolfForever Swing Trainer for a $25 savings with free shipping until Dec. 24. … Fujikura: Hero World Challenge winner plays Fujikura Speeder 661 TR X flex in driver, Ventus Blue 7X in fairway wood shaft; ISPS Handa Australian Open winner plays Speeder Evo 6X in driver; 757 Speeder Evo TX in fairway wood. … Club Champion: Now offers over 65,000 hittable club combinations thanks to the new Baddazz Shafts brand and expansions within several brand lines. … TaylorMade Golf: Introduces the SelectFit Kit, a custom fitting system that has two lie adjustment sleeves and one loft adjustment sleeve to create more adjustability options. … TaylorMade Golf: Introduces the latest evolution of its P-700 Series with the all-new P-770, P-7MC and P-7MB irons. The three irons join the previously released P-790 irons. The irons are currently available for pre-order and at retail beginning Jan. 20. … Payntr Golf: Introduces the Payntr X 004 RS shoe, which becomes the first on market to feature the new Softspikes Tour Flex Pro spike. … Ahead: Introduces its AeroSphere tech fabric that is featured in the company’s new Ultimate Fit caps. … Sportsbox AI: Launches the first version of its consumer app, Sportsbox 3D Practice, in the app store. The platform provides golfers of all abilities data-driven practices — with or without a coach — in an organized set of activities with easy-to-follow content that target the swing change or "watchlist" item a golfer is attempting to achieve. The consumer app is available for $15.99 a month or $110 per year. … Stewart Golf: Offering a special holiday bundle — receive a free pushcart valued at $299 with the purchase of a electric golf caddie. … Golfzon: TwoVision simulator is chosen by Golf Inc. as one of the 10 most innovative and exciting new offerings of 2022, as highlighted in the publication's inaugural Golf Tech Awards. … PGTAA: Association president Barry Lotz releases a two-part 2022 gift guide for the holiday season.
PEOPLE
▪️ USGA: Announces that Leslie Henry, of Houston, Texas; Bryan Lewis, of South Haven, Michigan; Michael McCarthy, of San Francisco, California; and Jeff Sluman, of Hinsdale, Illinois, have each been nominated to serve a three-year term on the USGA Executive Committee. Also, Courtney Myhrum, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been nominated to serve a second three-year term on the USGA Executive Committee. … Silverado Resort and Spa: Napa, California, club's head golf professional, Dave Zorn receives, earns Northern California PGA Merchandiser of the Year honor in the resort category. … Makefield Putters: Announces John Maginnes, a former PGA Tour player and host of the "Katrek and Maginnes On Tap" radio show on SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio, has joined the company as an exclusive endorser. … Outlyr: Promotes Deanna Rainear to vice president of finance and administration; Kyle Draper, Annye DeGrand Fox and Lenny Francoeur to senior vice president. … Empower: Announces sponsorship of Davis Riley, 25, who is beginning his second year on the PGA Tour. Riley’s partnership will include engagement and social opportunities with Empower clients and partners, and the Empower logo will appear on Riley’s shirt throughout the PGA Tour season. … USGA: Nominates Fred Perpall of Dallas, Texas, to serve as the association's 67th president. If elected, Perpall will succeed Stu Francis of Hillsborough, California, who will conclude his three-year term in February 2023.
PGA SHOW
▪️ PGA Show Demo and Fitting Day: The 20th edition will return to Orange County National Golf Center in Winter Garden, Florida, on Jan. 24 and feature more than 70 participating golf companies and widespread educational programming. … Mizuno: Japanese equipment manufacturer announces its return after a two-year absence due to the COVID pandemic. … Uneekor: To exhibit Eye XO, QED launch monitors and newest innovation, the Balance Optix — a biomechanical system that focuses on the lower body movement of the golf swing. … Swing Control: Manufacturer of performance-based golf and lifestyle apparel, plans to exhibit its 2023 spring collection at the PGA Show in Orlando, Florida, Jan. 24-27.
THE STYLE LINKS
Ohhh Santa, I have a couple late adds to my wish list … pleeeease.
:: Janice Ferguson | IG: @janiceferguson_thestylelinks
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