Where have you gone Bill Murray?
+ The merging of art and sport (and it's beautiful); Mike Purkey's nine questions to ponder; and a beach that may look familiar
ON THE TEE
🏌️ LIV Golf starts its 2024 season with new players Jon Rahm, Tyrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk, among others. Is that enough to get you to watch?
🏌️ PGA Tour Enterprises is getting a $3 billion investment from Strategic Sports Group, the private equity consortium. What exactly are they buying?
🏌️ Greg Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf, says his league is full steam ahead, even while the framework agreement is being negotiated. Should he be worried?
🏌️ Rory McIlroy now says LIV Golf players should not be punished. Do you agree?
🏌️ With 80 pros — and 80 amateurs — and only two courses, the A&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is a shadow of its former self. That said, do you miss Bill Murray?
🏌️ With Mathieu Pavon’s victory at the Farmers Insurance Open and DP World Tour top players getting membership on the PGA Tour, is the European circuit on life support?
🏌️ The ghost of Anthony Kim floated away as quickly as it came, with no agreement to play on either the PGA Tour or LIV Golf. Is that a surprise?
🏌️ The USGA has a sponsor, Ally Financial, for U.S. Women’s Open and the purse will be $12 million, a record for women’s golf. Isn’t it about time?
🏌️ There are 36 days until Daylight Savings Time. But who’s counting?
:: Mike Purkey
FEATURES
Bill Murray: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am GOAT
The First Call's Gary Van Sickle delves into why the actor / comedian was such a hit at the annual clambake
:: Gary Van Sickle | Read
5 shoes golfers' feet will appreciate
The recent PGA Show featured all of the top footwear brands, but here are five brands that appear to have stepped up their game this season
:: Janice Ferguson | Read
PGA Show Notebook: AI heading to a course near you
Course owner and operators bracing for the inevitable; Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez still giving back to the game; Three companies are celebrating after PGA Show awards
:: David Droschak | Read
First Green is planting seeds for future career paths
Schools and golf courses are collaborating to offer GCSAA program that allows students to receive hands-on, on-course STEM curriculum learningThe sport is exploding at clubs and in communities across the country for good reasons — its fun and easy to play
:: Tom Mackin | Read
Sustainability is the talk of GCSAA conference
A sprawling outdoor area featuring tee boxes, turfs and interactive greens highlights the various measures being taken to address the hot topic
:: Tom Mackin | Read
These high-tech tools can improve your course
The annual GCSAA Conference and Trade Show showcased the latest equipment that can make any superintendent's job easier
:: Tom Mackin | Read
BOOKMARKED
Good reads that are mainly about golf, but not always.
📖 The meme-ification of American politics
Why more and more voters will be forming opinions in the 2024 election based on a funny video that their cousin’s husband’s sister shared in the group chat
:: Clare Malone | The New Yorker | 01.25.2024
📖 You saw Jason Kelce. This guy saw ‘The Feast of Bacchus’
With his Art But Make It Sports social media accounts, LJ Rader connects the drama and pathos of classic artwork to viral moments in sports. And no, he’s not using A.I.
:: Scott Cacciola | New York Times | 01.26.2024
📖 Sports immolated
The Pulitzer Prize–winning writer pours one out for Sports Illustrated’s slow demise and recalls how the original idea for his best-selling book Friday Night Lights first appeared in its pages
:: Buzz Bissinger | Air Mail | 01.27.2024
BUSINESS
WEEK IN REVIEW
1️⃣8️⃣ The industry’s names, news and notables that are making the headlines. | Read
PERFECT PUTT
The business of the PGA Show
Publisher Jared Doerfler takes a closer look at the annual PGA Show, which attracted over 30,000 golf industry professionals from 84 countries and all 50 states last month
:: Jared Doerfler | Read
Each Monday, Jared Doerfler breaks down the business of golf. Subscribe to Perfect Putt here.
ICYMI
This week’s editions of The First Call:
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday
TRAVEL
The First Call has partnered with SportGo Travel, an online booking service, to give you up to 50% off or more on hotel accommodations worldwide.
Whether you’re planning your next trip to a tournament, a buddies or girls golf getaway, or a family vacation, book your stay through SportGo Travel and save. Simply create your account and start planning.
LIFESTYLE
THE STYLE LINKS
A tad bummed we won’t see amateurs like this dapper guy [Larry Fitzgerald Jr.] play the weekend because of the new format in place at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
:: 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.
Chris Nowak, PGA of America veteran and military liaison for PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere): “Miller Lite bottle...I will maybe have a cheeseburger that will affect how many beers I have after the round."
:: Alex Lauzon | Co-host of “Course of Life” podcast
HOME FRONT
Tributary | Driggs, Idaho
Listing: 1070 Shasta Daisy Court.
Stats: 5,041 square feet | 5 bedrooms | 5 bathrooms.
Price: $4,950,000.
About: This home was designed by the region's premier architectural firm, Northworks Architects, along with WRJ Design Associates, to celebrate the outdoor destination with sophistication. Built for those who love to entertain, there is an expansive open concept living room, an oversized media room with fireplace and wet bar, and a kitchen with top-of-the-line appliances, including Wolf and SubZero. The home also has an attached three-car garage and detached two-car toy barn — perfect for all the winter sports Tributary residents can enjoy. It’s just 50 minutes to Jackson Hole Ski Resort and 20 minutes to Grand Targhee Ski Resort. For golfers, Tributary’s David McLay Kidd-designed course opened in 2009 and is undergoing a remodel led by McLay Kidd himself.
ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN NOTES
Fry/Straka to design Ireland’s Curracloe Links
Curracloe Links in southeast Ireland’s County Wexford will break ground in this month. Designed by Dana Fry and Jason Straka of Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design, the new links layout sits adjacent to the white sands of Curracloe Beach, which served as the setting for the Allied landing in Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan.”
That particular stretch of sand was named the "best beach in Ireland" by readers of the Irish Independent. The Neville Hotel Group is developing the course in conjunction with its new hotel, Ravenport Resort, a 50-room inn and spa, which will open in spring 2024.
"The ancient linksland of Curracloe Links, with its rolling hills, long sea views and rugged natural bunkers, will offer a quintessential Irish links experience and lure people from all over the world to its fairways," Straka said. "I look at it as an honor, quite honestly. The pressure is frankly getting the job. It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime. Stylistically, we want to do something maybe a little different in links golf, something that hasn’t been seen in Ireland."
Curracloe Links, roughly a two-hour drive south of Dublin Airport is the second golf property in the Neville Group portfolio, the first being Druids Glen Hotel and Golf Resort, venue for the Irish Open in the late 1990s, which Neville acquired in 2019.
“Tourism Ireland welcomes the news of the exciting new developments at Curracloe Links and the Ravenport Resort," said Alison Metcalfe, executive vice president, Tourism Ireland North America. "The U.S. golf market remains a priority for Tourism Ireland, and we continue to promote the island of Ireland as a leading golf destination. We are working hard to drive home the message that a golfing vacation to Ireland is about much more than a round of 18 holes—the combination of world-class links and our unique brand of hospitality, plays a key role in attracting U.S. golfers to visit.”
Curracloe Links is expected to open in 2026.
READ: This week’s complete Design Notes
RELATED: Design Notes archive
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Thanks for the restock.
Regarding today's poll, I voted "no" AND I "serve" as a marshal.
We recently deployed carts with GPS and so can geo-fence the carts off of the greens, tee boxes, wet fairways and native areas...which dramatically decreased the number and amount of negative interactions required of the role.
But trying to keep roughly 120 people on schedule is like herding cats!
If your golfers are homogeneous, similar in playing capability and purpose and knowledge and background, no problems. On a public course you might get any mix of various types of golfers: low handicap experienced golfers; old college friends who play twice a year while drinking; newbies to real golf who've decided they are experts from whacking it as hard as possible at TopGolf; the little old walking ladies from AP {who keep up}; the four big healthy 30 YO Guys in carts that must drive the cart to the next ball and THEN begin their "PGA level routine"; and on we could go on forever.
With the new technology we can begin to identify and notify the offenders, BUT...they must be capable of comprehension and then agree to follow the mores, rules and regulations of the golf course culture's peculiar set of etiquette.
When I'm playing somewhere else, I'll expect the marshal to try to address the really slow play AND I have an understanding of the Sisyphean task we expect them to accomplish.