Latest / Designing Golf / 2026 Golf Course Openings We're Excited About

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2026 Golf Course Openings We're Excited About · Designing Golf

0:00
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six is here, So in this episode we
0:03
Speaker 1: are looking ahead. First, I'm going to address the question
0:08
Speaker 1: where are all the new ideas in golf architecture. Then
0:12
Speaker 1: I'll bring on my colleague Matt Ruschius to discuss the
0:15
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six course openings we're excited about. I'm Garrett Morrison,
0:20
Speaker 1: and this is designing Golf all right. Since it's a
0:29
Speaker 1: new year, I figure it's a good time to kind
0:32
Speaker 1: of refresh the format of Designing Golf a little bit.
0:36
Speaker 1: We're not going to change much about the podcast. I'm
0:39
Speaker 1: just going to add a couple of segments to the mix. Now.
0:42
Speaker 1: Usually the core of Designing Golf is an interview, and
0:46
Speaker 1: that's not going to change. We're still going to have
0:47
Speaker 1: conversations and interviews at the middle portion of the podcast,
0:52
Speaker 1: but I'd like to start each episode with a segment
0:55
Speaker 1: where I address some big questions about golf architecture. You
1:00
Speaker 1: have a big question about golf course design. I'm talking
1:03
Speaker 1: about one oh one level questions, right, questions that you
1:07
Speaker 1: might have been afraid to ask because you think they're
1:10
Speaker 1: too basic. Send those questions to me, and my topic
1:14
Speaker 1: choices for designing golf will in part be determined by
1:18
Speaker 1: the questions I get from all of you. So that's
1:22
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking for the first segment of each episode,
1:25
Speaker 1: the Big Question, and then for the closing segment, I'm
1:29
Speaker 1: thinking we'll do some takeaways, right, just reflections on the
1:33
Speaker 1: conversation or interview that you've just heard. So that's the
1:37
Speaker 1: basic idea. Three segments, Big Question, interview takeaways. Pretty simple,
1:44
Speaker 1: but I think it'll give the podcast a kind of
1:47
Speaker 1: structure that you can rely on. So today, the big
1:51
Speaker 1: question is where are all the new ideas in golf architecture.
1:57
Speaker 1: I think there's a sense out there right now among
1:59
Speaker 1: a lot of golfers is that modern golf course design
2:02
Speaker 1: is kind of stuck, that new courses look pretty similar
2:06
Speaker 1: to each other, and there's just not much innovation happening
2:11
Speaker 1: or artistic risk taking. And specifically, many people feel that
2:16
Speaker 1: today's golf architects are just rehashing ideas that were established
2:20
Speaker 1: in the early nineteen hundreds during the so called golden
2:24
Speaker 1: age of golf architecture. That's the basic argument that I've seen,
2:29
Speaker 1: and what I want to get into in this segment
2:33
Speaker 1: is whether I think it's correct, right? Is it true
2:36
Speaker 1: that today's golf architects don't have any new ideas. I
2:41
Speaker 1: don't really think so, or at least I don't think
2:44
Speaker 1: that characterization is completely fair. So you know, just look
2:49
Speaker 1: at Tom Doak's recent projects, for example. And Doak is
2:53
Speaker 1: a good example here because he is an industry leader.
2:57
Speaker 1: I think Doak is one of the architects that people
2:59
Speaker 1: are taught about when they expressed frustration about the lack
3:03
Speaker 1: of innovation in golf architecture. So consider what Doak has
3:07
Speaker 1: done in the past fifteen years or so. First, you
3:10
Speaker 1: have Old McDonald. This is a collection of CB McDonald
3:15
Speaker 1: templates done in the style of the old course at
3:18
Speaker 1: Saint Andrews. This is something that you really hadn't seen before. Yes,
3:23
Speaker 1: it's based on old sources, but it's executed in a
3:27
Speaker 1: fresh way. Doak also built the Loop, which is a
3:31
Speaker 1: fully reversible course. He built Saint Patrick's Lynx, an Irish
3:36
Speaker 1: Lynks course. He built the Lido, which is a recreation
3:40
Speaker 1: of a CB McDonald design using lid ar technology and
3:44
Speaker 1: GPS bulldozers, basically a completely novel workflow for golf architecture.
3:51
Speaker 1: He built Sedge Valley, which is a PAR sixty eight
3:54
Speaker 1: kind of sporting golf course, the type of course that
3:57
Speaker 1: you just don't see that often anymore. Very recently he
4:01
Speaker 1: built sand Glass, which is another lightar assistant golf course
4:05
Speaker 1: where the machines, as far as I understand it, were
4:09
Speaker 1: used to kind of create replicas of certain greens and
4:13
Speaker 1: features from other courses, and then Doak's shapers went in
4:17
Speaker 1: and kind of adapted those designs to the ground that
4:21
Speaker 1: they were on, remixed them so that they became something
4:25
Speaker 1: new again. This is not really something that I've seen
4:28
Speaker 1: done before, So I don't think you can look at
4:32
Speaker 1: that roster of designs by Tom Doak and say that
4:36
Speaker 1: he is resting on his laurels or hasn't innovated in
4:40
Speaker 1: recent years. And then you know, when you step outside
4:44
Speaker 1: of the usual architects that everybody talks about Doak, Corn Crenshaw,
4:48
Speaker 1: Gil Hans, David Kidd, there's a whole world of golf
4:51
Speaker 1: architecture that I think is a lot more varied than
4:55
Speaker 1: people give it credit for. So you've got firms like
4:58
Speaker 1: Jackson Kahn and King ko Alan's Dormer to derive influences
5:02
Speaker 1: from just different sources than the usual ones, and they
5:07
Speaker 1: are actually trying to do something new. They are earnestly
5:11
Speaker 1: attempting to move golf architecture forward. So I just don't
5:16
Speaker 1: think it's accurate to say that today's golf architects in
5:20
Speaker 1: general are complacent. However, all of that said, I do
5:26
Speaker 1: see where people are coming from when they say that
5:29
Speaker 1: a lot of high profile new courses look roughly similar
5:34
Speaker 1: to each other. There's a lot of courses set on
5:37
Speaker 1: rolling sandy land, a lot of freight edge bunkers, a
5:42
Speaker 1: lot of intricate, undulating greens, and so on and so forth.
5:47
Speaker 1: I think, you know the type of course that I'm
5:49
Speaker 1: talking about. It's a really cool type of course, but
5:51
Speaker 1: we've seen quite a few of them in recent years,
5:55
Speaker 1: and more broadly, I don't think there's really a sense
6:00
Speaker 1: that the current crop of up and coming golf architects
6:03
Speaker 1: even wants to break decisively from the past. You know,
6:08
Speaker 1: it's hard to find a young architect right now who
6:11
Speaker 1: doesn't genuinely look up to Bill Core and Tom Doak.
6:16
Speaker 1: So I do get where the critics of modern golf
6:20
Speaker 1: course design are coming from. I see what they are seeing.
6:25
Speaker 1: So why is it that innovation seems to be slow
6:30
Speaker 1: in golf architecture right now. And notice that I'm saying
6:33
Speaker 1: innovation is slow and not non existent, because I really
6:36
Speaker 1: don't think that there is no innovation, but the process
6:40
Speaker 1: is deliberate. Let me address this question by just running
6:46
Speaker 1: through a few theories. So theory number one is that
6:51
Speaker 1: maybe innovation has never been particularly fast in golf architecture.
6:57
Speaker 1: The business of golf course development is pretty risk averse overall,
7:02
Speaker 1: and that's because it's very expensive to build and maintain
7:06
Speaker 1: a golf course. So naturally, clients are going to want
7:09
Speaker 1: to stick with what they know will work. They're going
7:13
Speaker 1: to want to stick with what's been proven, and that
7:16
Speaker 1: is I think, you know, the main reason that we've
7:20
Speaker 1: never seen a full fledged avant garde or postmodern movement
7:26
Speaker 1: in golf course design. It's because there aren't many clients
7:29
Speaker 1: who want to support that kind of experimentation. All right.
7:35
Speaker 1: Theory number two, and this is related not that many
7:40
Speaker 1: golf courses get built period, Compared to how many albums
7:44
Speaker 1: get released, or how many novels get written, or how
7:47
Speaker 1: many movies get made, there just isn't that much room
7:50
Speaker 1: for true experimentation. And maybe there's not much appetite for
7:54
Speaker 1: novelty when the supply of golf courses is relatively speaking
7:59
Speaker 1: so small. Okay, theory number three, and this is speaking
8:05
Speaker 1: to the current period specifically, the dominant golf architects of
8:10
Speaker 1: the past thirty to forty years have had a great
8:14
Speaker 1: deal of longevity and they're still getting the best jobs, right.
8:17
Speaker 1: I'm talking about obviously Corn Crunchhaw Dough Hanson, Kid, but
8:22
Speaker 1: also Tom Fazio, Jack Nicholas. Internationally, you know, Nick Faldo,
8:27
Speaker 1: Greg Norman. These guys have been around for a long
8:31
Speaker 1: time and they're still here. They're still driving the status
8:34
Speaker 1: quo of the industry. And that brings me to my
8:37
Speaker 1: fourth and final point about the slowness of innovation in
8:41
Speaker 1: modern golf architecture, and that is that I'm not sure
8:46
Speaker 1: that the primary job of the golf architect is to
8:49
Speaker 1: be completely original. And that's because golf architecture is not
8:53
Speaker 1: a pure art, right. It's not like poetry or music.
8:59
Speaker 1: The intention is not just to create something beautiful. It's
9:03
Speaker 1: also to prepare a piece of land for playing golf.
9:07
Speaker 1: And preparing a piece of land for playing golf doesn't
9:11
Speaker 1: have to be an act of extreme stylistic originality, and
9:16
Speaker 1: maybe in most cases golfers prefer it not to be right.
9:20
Speaker 1: You know, preparing a piece of ground for a game
9:24
Speaker 1: may often rely on a lot of conventions that are
9:29
Speaker 1: determined by that game. There's not complete freedom to create
9:34
Speaker 1: whatever in golf architecture, and so really talking about golf
9:39
Speaker 1: architecture as an art form might be missing part of
9:43
Speaker 1: the point, part of the true purpose of what a
9:49
Speaker 1: golf architect is trying to achieve. All right, So all
9:54
Speaker 1: that is just food for thought, some theories as to why,
9:58
Speaker 1: you know, innovative golf er chitecture might seem pretty rare
10:02
Speaker 1: right now, and why that might not be totally disastrous.
10:07
Speaker 1: But I do absolutely think there are ways for golf
10:11
Speaker 1: architects to think outside the box and do things that
10:15
Speaker 1: feel fresh and exciting. So what are some new ideas
10:20
Speaker 1: that we're currently seeing or that I would like to
10:23
Speaker 1: see in golf architecture. This is going to be a
10:26
Speaker 1: very incomplete list, but first off, I'd love to see
10:30
Speaker 1: an architect or two or three actually take the idea
10:35
Speaker 1: of minimalism seriously. Minimalism meaning the notion of altering the
10:40
Speaker 1: land just as much as you need to in order
10:43
Speaker 1: to create compelling golf. So Minimalism has been a buzzword
10:47
Speaker 1: in golf course design for a long time. I do
10:50
Speaker 1: think there are some architects who earnestly practiced it in
10:54
Speaker 1: the nineties and early two thousands, But these days it's
10:58
Speaker 1: just really hard to find anyone who is actually devoted
11:01
Speaker 1: to anything resembling minimalism. You know, wall to wall reshaping
11:07
Speaker 1: of a site has become the standard and the expectation.
11:11
Speaker 1: So I would love to see someone, maybe a young architect,
11:15
Speaker 1: actually explore how little they can do to a site.
11:19
Speaker 1: You know, I love golf holes that just have one
11:22
Speaker 1: bunker or one green contour and that feature does everything
11:27
Speaker 1: that is necessary to create interesting golf and you know,
11:32
Speaker 1: so what, you know, what I think we're seeing today
11:35
Speaker 1: is a lot of overcrowding of bunkers and contours in
11:38
Speaker 1: an effort to grab the player's interest. So there might
11:42
Speaker 1: be some room for an architect to stand out by
11:46
Speaker 1: just doing less. And sometimes that might involve embracing aspects
11:50
Speaker 1: of a property that some would consider not ideal or
11:54
Speaker 1: even ugly, right, I think, you know, genuine originality can
11:59
Speaker 1: come from that sort of non judgmental approach to a
12:02
Speaker 1: piece of land and to you know, a lot of
12:06
Speaker 1: originality can come from embracing parts of a site that
12:09
Speaker 1: other architects might reject. That's probably the best way to
12:13
Speaker 1: put it, Okay, Another idea, can we rethink the notion
12:18
Speaker 1: of a bunker? Does a bunker need to be filled
12:22
Speaker 1: with sand? I don't think so, right, And one thing
12:25
Speaker 1: that I find really interesting about pre Golden Age golf
12:28
Speaker 1: architecture is that hazards were often just whatever the site offered.
12:34
Speaker 1: Maybe they were gravel pits, maybe they were, you know,
12:37
Speaker 1: an old fence or a wall or a carriage path. Right,
12:41
Speaker 1: I'd love to see more site specific hazards and less
12:45
Speaker 1: reliance on you know, conventionally sized and presented sand bunkers.
12:51
Speaker 1: All Right. A third area of innovation that I'm interested in,
12:54
Speaker 1: and this is actually something that we're seeing a fair
12:56
Speaker 1: amount of right now, is experimentation with routing a golf course.
13:02
Speaker 1: So this can mean a non regulation number of holes
13:06
Speaker 1: or non regulation types of holes. You could have a
13:09
Speaker 1: twelve hole golf course, you could have courses with a
13:12
Speaker 1: few par fours and a bunch of par threes. So
13:15
Speaker 1: for projects opening in twenty twenty six, look at Old
13:18
Speaker 1: Dane in Nebraska and the Commons at Sand Valley for
13:22
Speaker 1: examples of this kind of work. Then you can have
13:25
Speaker 1: courses that contain alternate routings, right courses within a course,
13:31
Speaker 1: reversible options. We've seen a pretty good amount of these
13:37
Speaker 1: projects in recent years as well. So we have Sylvie's
13:40
Speaker 1: Valley in Oregon, we have the Loop in Michigan. King
13:44
Speaker 1: Colin's Dormer is very interested in alternate routings, So there
13:48
Speaker 1: are definitely some architects who are pursuing this vein a
13:51
Speaker 1: little bit now. The difficulty with experimental routings is that
13:56
Speaker 1: they're hard to make a business case for. If you're
13:59
Speaker 1: competing against, you know, regulation nine and eighteen hole golf
14:03
Speaker 1: courses in a certain region, a lot of golfers are
14:05
Speaker 1: going to choose the regulation course so that they can
14:09
Speaker 1: maintain a handicap and feel like they're playing a quote
14:12
Speaker 1: unquote real golf course. So there is some work to
14:16
Speaker 1: do in convincing the general public that you know, courses
14:20
Speaker 1: with weird routings are actually a lot of fun. But
14:23
Speaker 1: I think it's worth pursuing because it could have great
14:26
Speaker 1: benefits for the game. So finally, I think a good
14:30
Speaker 1: way to approach innovation in golf architecture is to actually
14:35
Speaker 1: address the common frustrations that golfers have, and two of
14:40
Speaker 1: the biggest frustrations right now are the cost of playing
14:44
Speaker 1: golf and the amount of time it takes. So why
14:48
Speaker 1: haven't we seen more innovation from golf architects in first
14:52
Speaker 1: of all, economy of construction making courses cheaper to build, maintain,
14:57
Speaker 1: and ultimately play. I don't think no effort has been
15:00
Speaker 1: expended on that problem in the modern period of golf
15:05
Speaker 1: course development. And then second, are there architectural characteristics that
15:10
Speaker 1: can actually help pace of play? Are there ways of
15:13
Speaker 1: designing courses that allow groups to get around fast? I
15:18
Speaker 1: don't really know. I haven't investigated this problem very thoroughly myself,
15:22
Speaker 1: but I would like to find out because it would
15:24
Speaker 1: stand to reason that if golfers don't like how long
15:27
Speaker 1: it takes to play nine or eighteen holes, that we
15:30
Speaker 1: would figure out ways to get them around faster. So
15:35
Speaker 1: those are my basic initial thoughts about new ways forward
15:39
Speaker 1: for golf architecture. But I would really like to hear
15:43
Speaker 1: from all of you. Do you think modern golf course
15:46
Speaker 1: design is lacking in originality? If so, why and what
15:51
Speaker 1: kinds of experiments would you like to see golf architects
15:54
Speaker 1: take on all. Right, now, before we get to my
15:57
Speaker 1: conversation with Matt ruschis about up in course openings that
16:01
Speaker 1: we're looking at. A word from our sponsor, Goodwalk Coffee.
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17:19
Speaker 1: I am joined by my Frida Egg golf colleague Matt Ruschius,
17:23
Speaker 1: to talk about some golf course openings that we're excited
17:25
Speaker 1: about in twenty twenty six. Matt, I'll start with you,
17:29
Speaker 1: what's the first golf course opening that you're excited about
17:32
Speaker 1: for this year.
17:35
Speaker 2: Well, there's certainly a lot of cool courses coming online
17:38
Speaker 2: this upcoming year, but the one that has kind of
17:42
Speaker 2: had my attention for quite some time now is Yale
17:46
Speaker 2: Golf Club's restoration slash renovation. I'm not sure what they're
17:52
Speaker 2: exactly calling it. I would assume restoration.
17:56
Speaker 1: I would assume that Gil Hans would call it a
17:58
Speaker 1: historical renovation. But looking at the plans, it does seem
18:02
Speaker 1: like there is a lot of faithfulness to the original design.
18:06
Speaker 1: I think it can probably be called a restoration, but
18:10
Speaker 1: it's always somewhere in the middle with Gil.
18:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know they're probably planning on it in a
18:15
Speaker 2: lot of back teas and trying to lengthen it for
18:18
Speaker 2: college events and stuff like that, but I think, without
18:21
Speaker 2: a doubt their golf course will be better once it reopens.
18:25
Speaker 2: It's just I kind of have that lingering fear that
18:28
Speaker 2: it's going to kind of lose some of that patina
18:31
Speaker 2: and that kind of special sots that I experienced my
18:34
Speaker 2: first time visiting it. I mean, when I was there,
18:37
Speaker 2: I walked thirty six holes and it was an absolute
18:41
Speaker 2: brute of a walk, but it was so worth it,
18:43
Speaker 2: and it was so enchanting and exciting just to walk
18:47
Speaker 2: those fairways and know that people a hundred years ago
18:51
Speaker 2: were making that walk and playing this golf course with
18:54
Speaker 2: likely Hickory golf clubs, and it just kind of had
18:57
Speaker 2: this certain aura to it, and I just don't want
19:01
Speaker 2: that to fade away because it's such a unique and
19:04
Speaker 2: cool property. So I'm really looking forward to it, but
19:07
Speaker 2: also slightly apprehensive.
19:10
Speaker 1: Apprehensive there is a danger when you do a modern
19:13
Speaker 1: renovation to a course like that that you lose a
19:17
Speaker 1: little bit of that magic. But I'm hopeful that the
19:24
Speaker 1: work will turn out well as long as the as
19:28
Speaker 1: long as the support that is necessary is provided for it.
19:33
Speaker 1: So we'll see. Cautiously optimistic, I guess probably we both
19:37
Speaker 1: are about that about that project at Yale. All Right,
19:40
Speaker 1: So the next project I'd like to talk about here
19:43
Speaker 1: Matt is wild Spring Dunes. So the first golf course
19:47
Speaker 1: at wild Spring Dunes is going to fully open in
19:52
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. Grand opening is expected, I believe in
19:56
Speaker 1: October twenty twenty six. This is a new Dream golf
20:00
Speaker 1: resort in East Texas, near the town of Nagadosius, about
20:05
Speaker 1: two and a half hours from both Dallas and Houston.
20:10
Speaker 1: So this first course is a Tom Doake golf course,
20:14
Speaker 1: and the lead associate for the project I believe is
20:16
Speaker 1: Brian Slanik.
20:17
Speaker 2: Do I have that right, Matt, I can't remember exactly.
20:22
Speaker 2: I know he was there a lot in Eric Iverson.
20:24
Speaker 2: Eric Iverson's heavily influenced.
20:26
Speaker 3: I don't know. I can't remember exactly which one it was.
20:29
Speaker 1: Though I know Iverson did a lot of work at
20:31
Speaker 1: at Childer's Hall Upper Course, which just opened late twenty
20:38
Speaker 1: twenty four. In any case, an eight hole loop at
20:42
Speaker 1: the new course at wild Spring Dunes opened on November twelfth.
20:46
Speaker 1: You have been to that eight whole loop, so we'll
20:48
Speaker 1: talk about that in a second. There's a second course
20:51
Speaker 1: designed by Corn Crenshaw where clearing is currently underway. That's
20:57
Speaker 1: expected to open in twenty twenty seven, pending all the
21:02
Speaker 1: all the usual potential delays that happened in the golf
21:05
Speaker 1: course construction, The construction of the clubhouse and the lodge,
21:09
Speaker 1: and and maybe some of the real estate that's that's
21:12
Speaker 1: involved in this development will begin this year in twenty
21:16
Speaker 1: twenty six. There are plans for a short course, a
21:19
Speaker 1: hunting course, a practice facility, all the all the usual
21:22
Speaker 1: stuff that you get with a resort like this. So
21:24
Speaker 1: that's wild Spring Dunes new Dream Golf resort course coming
21:30
Speaker 1: online very soon. So you've been to this place, you
21:34
Speaker 1: played that they hold loop, what's the land like, what? What?
21:38
Speaker 1: What do you think makes it different from other dream
21:40
Speaker 1: golf resorts? Just any any general impressions from from your visit.
21:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we actually got to see all eighteen holes.
21:48
Speaker 2: Everything's been grassed, they sotted it. So the course came
21:52
Speaker 2: alive pretty fairly quickly since they sotted everything. But I'd say,
21:58
Speaker 2: like initially, right when we got there, it felt very
22:01
Speaker 2: kind of pinehursty I think. I mean, it's hard not
22:04
Speaker 2: to compare him to other dope courses, but it's almost
22:07
Speaker 2: like a mixture of Sedge Valley and Pinehurst Number ten.
22:11
Speaker 2: If you wanted to put together two of his kind
22:14
Speaker 2: of most recent designs, but at the same time, it
22:17
Speaker 2: feels very different because he's done such a good job.
22:21
Speaker 2: Him and his team have done a really good job
22:22
Speaker 2: of just utilizing the natural kind of Texas terrain. It
22:27
Speaker 2: really is like a product of that region, kind of
22:30
Speaker 2: this scrubby like open prairie areas, these tall pine trees,
22:36
Speaker 2: and it really has a nice routing where you're moving
22:39
Speaker 2: through the trees and then you kind of come up
22:41
Speaker 2: out open to these open areas, and then once you
22:44
Speaker 2: get to the back nine, there's these pretty dramatic ravines
22:49
Speaker 2: and kind of spring fed creeks that the routing interacts with,
22:53
Speaker 2: So then you start to kind of get a little
22:55
Speaker 2: bit more adventurous on the back nine where you're going
22:57
Speaker 2: up and over these hills and ravines and you almost
23:00
Speaker 2: kind of get lost in the forest. But overall, it's
23:05
Speaker 2: a spectacular golf course. One thing that I'm really keen
23:09
Speaker 2: to see develop and mature is the grass. They went
23:13
Speaker 2: with a zoiza type grass in the fairways, and I
23:18
Speaker 2: just know that once that grass goes dormant and in
23:20
Speaker 2: kind of the shoulder seasons in winter, that this golf
23:24
Speaker 2: course is going to play extremely firm and fast, and
23:27
Speaker 2: I think that's really going to make the design shine
23:31
Speaker 2: and also make it really stand out from all the
23:34
Speaker 2: other kind of Michael Kaiser dream golf resort properties. It
23:39
Speaker 2: certainly has a different feel, but also kind of the
23:42
Speaker 2: similarities as a lot of the others, where.
23:44
Speaker 3: It just feels really complete. They've done this.
23:47
Speaker 2: I mean, this is like their fourth resort that they've opened,
23:50
Speaker 2: so they've really nailed down kind of the processes and
23:53
Speaker 2: know how to get everything right. So I think that's
23:56
Speaker 2: kind of the similar feeling. But then just the architect's
24:00
Speaker 2: ability to really adapt the golf course to the natural
24:04
Speaker 2: site makes it shine kind of its its own individuality.
24:09
Speaker 2: And when we were there, we got to get a
24:12
Speaker 2: little bit of peak of the corn crunchaw side, which
24:16
Speaker 2: is really cool. The first tee for Bill and Ben's
24:19
Speaker 2: course kind of plays off the same hill that they
24:22
Speaker 2: call Mount Baldy that Tom's course te's off from, and
24:27
Speaker 2: the land over there supposedly a lot more dramatic with
24:30
Speaker 2: more of those ravines that I kind of talked about.
24:33
Speaker 2: So it'll be a really good complimenting course, I think,
24:36
Speaker 2: and it'll be really exciting to see this This whole
24:39
Speaker 2: resort kind of come online and fully realize itself.
24:43
Speaker 1: Cool. Yeah, I mean you kind of see the Kaiser
24:46
Speaker 1: Brothers strategy coming into focus at this resort. Michael and
24:52
Speaker 1: Chris Kaiser, the sons of Mike Kaiser, who was the
24:55
Speaker 1: developer behind Bandon Dune's. Bandon Dune's established a model of
25:01
Speaker 1: a really remote golf resort where the priority was to
25:07
Speaker 1: find the most spectacular land possible. You can't get more
25:11
Speaker 1: spectacular land than what you found at Bandon Dunes, and
25:15
Speaker 1: it almost didn't matter that it was five hours from
25:19
Speaker 1: Portland and just like really not within reach of any
25:23
Speaker 1: large population centers, that that wasn't part of the strategy
25:27
Speaker 1: of the resort. Certainly, Michael and Chris Kaiser have started
25:31
Speaker 1: to move in the direction of finding great pieces of
25:34
Speaker 1: land that are remote and are in rural areas, but
25:39
Speaker 1: are also within striking distance of major metropolitan areas. So
25:46
Speaker 1: wild Spring Dunes is just two and a half hours
25:48
Speaker 1: from both Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. I mean, that's
25:54
Speaker 1: a lot of people who can use this resort as
25:57
Speaker 1: kind of a weekend retreat. And as part of that model,
26:02
Speaker 1: there is definitely more real estate involved, but the houses
26:06
Speaker 1: are not going to be on the golf course. So
26:08
Speaker 1: this is something different from Bandon Dunes, and we've known
26:12
Speaker 1: this since Sand Valley. Sand Valley had some elements of
26:17
Speaker 1: this model as well. But these new dream golf resorts
26:21
Speaker 1: that are going to be opening within the next few years,
26:25
Speaker 1: Wildspring Dunes in East Texas, Old Shores in the Florida Panhandle,
26:29
Speaker 1: Rodeo Dunes outside of Denver, there has been an emphasis
26:35
Speaker 1: placed on finding locations that are close ish to major
26:43
Speaker 1: metropolitan areas, and that's something different and it kind of
26:48
Speaker 1: makes the model replicable. Right, Bandon Dunes is almost like
26:52
Speaker 1: a national asset in a way. Right, People come from
26:56
Speaker 1: all over the world to go to Bandon Dunes, and
26:59
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily drawing from Oregon. Right, That's that's not
27:04
Speaker 1: the uh that that's that's not the concept of the resort.
27:08
Speaker 1: It's drawing people from all over the place. These these
27:11
Speaker 1: new dream golf resorts, Yes, they're going to draw people
27:14
Speaker 1: from all over because the golf courses are going to
27:17
Speaker 1: be spectacular. But a big part of the model is
27:22
Speaker 1: bringing in people in the region who will go to
27:27
Speaker 1: the resort not just once, not just twice, but but
27:31
Speaker 1: maybe regularly repeatedly and that's that's a new iteration of
27:36
Speaker 1: this of this destination golf idea for sure.
27:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's really cool about Wildspring Dunes is, yeah, you
27:43
Speaker 2: have bandoned dunes, which is kind of like this once
27:45
Speaker 2: in a lifetime pilgrimage type place. But I got the
27:49
Speaker 2: sense from a lot of the locals that we talked
27:51
Speaker 2: about there is like, hey, people in Texas, like do
27:54
Speaker 2: not mind driving three four hours in a day or
27:58
Speaker 2: a weekend. The state's so big, They're used to driving
28:02
Speaker 2: a lot, and you can easily make a weekend trip
28:05
Speaker 2: from any of the major cities in Texas, Austin, Dallas, Houston.
28:11
Speaker 2: People are going to make weekend trips to go see
28:13
Speaker 2: this golf course, especially because it's one of the only
28:17
Speaker 2: truly great public golf courses that's easily accessible to a very.
28:23
Speaker 3: Large population center.
28:25
Speaker 2: There's like I don't know if you could count up
28:28
Speaker 2: all of them, but it's probably around fifteen or twenty
28:31
Speaker 2: million people that are within driving distance of this new
28:35
Speaker 2: golf resort. So I think it's going to have a
28:36
Speaker 2: huge impact on the golf in Texas, and it'll be here.
28:40
Speaker 2: It'll be interesting to see if if more courses in
28:43
Speaker 2: this specific region because I know there's a lot of
28:46
Speaker 2: other sandy sort of sites in this area, so it'll
28:51
Speaker 2: be it'll be interesting to see if more public golf
28:54
Speaker 2: comes online in Texas during kind of this this construction.
28:57
Speaker 1: Boom we're in, Yeah for sure. All right, Next course
29:01
Speaker 1: you want to talk about?
29:03
Speaker 2: I think one that I'm really really excited to see
29:09
Speaker 2: as the Commons at Sand Valley. Another dream golf resort project,
29:15
Speaker 2: but I got to walk it earlier this year during
29:18
Speaker 2: one of our events that we had there. We had
29:20
Speaker 2: a four day event with some Friday Golf Club members
29:24
Speaker 2: who got to play all the different golf courses, and
29:27
Speaker 2: me and Will Knights got a little tour around the
29:31
Speaker 2: new twelve hole Commons course, which was really interesting to see.
29:36
Speaker 2: If you're familiar with Sand Valley, this used to be
29:39
Speaker 2: kind of the old driving range area maybe two or
29:43
Speaker 2: three years ago before the resort really started to boom
29:48
Speaker 2: and to grow in size.
29:50
Speaker 1: So it's kind of between if people have been to
29:53
Speaker 1: Sand Valley, there's the main resort hub, which is kind
29:57
Speaker 1: of where the resort was for a long time with
30:00
Speaker 1: Sand Valley and Mammoth Dunes and the Sandbox, and then
30:03
Speaker 1: there's Sedge Valley relatively new course. The Commons course is
30:08
Speaker 1: kind of between those two.
30:09
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, pretty much like when you're driving in the.
30:12
Speaker 2: Main entrance, you'll drive past the majority of it kind
30:15
Speaker 2: of on your right hand side. You'll see the Sandbox
30:18
Speaker 2: through the trees on the left of that main entrance road,
30:21
Speaker 2: and then the Commons there right on the right side,
30:24
Speaker 2: and then the yeah, Sedge Valley is right in that
30:27
Speaker 2: area too, and so it's kind of like sand Valley,
30:31
Speaker 2: Sedge Valley, Commons kind of lined up all with borders
30:35
Speaker 2: touching each other.
30:36
Speaker 3: But that's the thing.
30:38
Speaker 2: The reason why I pointed out kind of this flat
30:40
Speaker 2: driving range land that was used is that it's kind
30:44
Speaker 2: of this big different differentiator for this golf course. Is
30:47
Speaker 2: a lot of it was built. And this is Jim
30:50
Speaker 2: Craig's first solo design. I know he did a lot
30:54
Speaker 2: of work on the Sandbox, has been with Corn crunch
30:57
Speaker 2: Off for a very long time, very experienced shaper and
31:01
Speaker 2: now designer. But it'll be really cool to see his
31:06
Speaker 2: first solo design kind of shown out to the world.
31:09
Speaker 2: I bet he's had tons of ideas and been wanting
31:12
Speaker 2: to do this for a very long time, and there's
31:15
Speaker 2: a lot of radical looking stuff out there. The second
31:18
Speaker 2: hole specifically, is this really cool Part three that is
31:22
Speaker 2: kind of sunk in in like almost like an exploded volcano,
31:25
Speaker 2: where it's like the greens placed down in kind of
31:28
Speaker 2: this elevated hollow, so it's really unique looking. There's a
31:32
Speaker 2: lot of cool built ground features, so the ground game
31:36
Speaker 2: will be really interesting and exciting for beginner golfers, elderly players,
31:42
Speaker 2: any type of players going to really enjoy all of
31:45
Speaker 2: the ground options that Sand Valley's come kind of known for.
31:49
Speaker 2: Is this amazing fescue playing surface, which I have no
31:54
Speaker 2: doubt that it will be just as good at the
31:55
Speaker 2: Commons course. But then you kind of towards the end
31:58
Speaker 2: of the twelve hole loop, you come out to this
32:01
Speaker 2: peninsula that's surrounded by water that this kind of man
32:07
Speaker 2: made lake that that looks very natural, and there's some
32:10
Speaker 2: really cool holes on the finishing stretch. So it's definitely
32:14
Speaker 2: going to be very different from kind of that look
32:17
Speaker 2: and feel for most of the other courses at Sand Valley.
32:20
Speaker 2: There's not as many enormous expansive like sandy waste areas
32:26
Speaker 2: that you see on Mammoth Dunes and Sand Valley, and
32:29
Speaker 2: then just the style of golf that that that Craig
32:32
Speaker 2: kind of built into the ground has a slightly different feel.
32:36
Speaker 2: It's almost kind of like Lido where it's these kind
32:39
Speaker 2: of manufactured mounds and and and different looks than kind
32:45
Speaker 2: of that that traditional like minimalist, naturalist style that that
32:49
Speaker 2: has come pretty prominent at Sand Valley. So I'm really
32:52
Speaker 2: excited to watch that course kind of mature and see
32:56
Speaker 2: how it takes off at the resort.
32:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, you think about where the really good land is
33:02
Speaker 1: at the Sand Valley Resort, it's occupied by Mammoth Dunes,
33:06
Speaker 1: the first Sand Valley course and Sedge Valley. All the
33:10
Speaker 1: other courses, the Sandbox, the New Commons course, and the
33:13
Speaker 1: Lido are built on land that was just sort of
33:16
Speaker 1: conveniently located near the other courses, and so a lot
33:21
Speaker 1: of manufacturing has been done to build these additional courses
33:25
Speaker 1: and it gives Sand Valley a very interesting mixture of architecture. Again,
33:30
Speaker 1: if you compare it to Bandon Dunes. At Bandon Dunes,
33:33
Speaker 1: you just have this almost limitless amount of great land
33:38
Speaker 1: for golf. And the point of the development was to
33:41
Speaker 1: find this land and to use it for golf. At
33:44
Speaker 1: Sand Valley, You've had more experimentation with different kinds of sites,
33:49
Speaker 1: different approaches to sites that maybe aren't ideal. Even if
33:54
Speaker 1: the soil is pretty good across the entire resort, the
34:00
Speaker 1: undulation of the land is not as consistent. You know,
34:03
Speaker 1: somewhere some places of the resort that the terrain is fantastic,
34:09
Speaker 1: other places more work needs to be done to generate
34:11
Speaker 1: something interesting, and that is part of what makes Sand
34:15
Speaker 1: Valley architecturally maybe more interesting than Bandon Dune's, but of
34:21
Speaker 1: course what makes Bandon Dunes great is the quality of
34:25
Speaker 1: the land itself. The Commons is a good example of
34:29
Speaker 1: something that Michael Kaiser has been very interested in, and
34:33
Speaker 1: that's this idea of an afternoon course, the course that
34:36
Speaker 1: can be played in the afternoon after you've tackled a
34:40
Speaker 1: regulation course like Sand Valley or Mammoth Dunes or Sedge
34:43
Speaker 1: or the Lido, right, something that is a little bit
34:46
Speaker 1: of a lower impact afternoon round. And the inspiration here
34:51
Speaker 1: is the kid's course or the lady's course or the
34:54
Speaker 1: Gulf Park as you might find it in Scotland. Michael
34:59
Speaker 1: Kaiser's really to those places, loves the kind of village
35:02
Speaker 1: greens in North Barrack and Edinburgh and wants very much
35:09
Speaker 1: to create something like that for the American golfing population.
35:15
Speaker 1: But I guess the question is, can a course like
35:18
Speaker 1: this exist outside the context of a multi course destination resort.
35:24
Speaker 1: Can a course like the Commons stand on its own
35:28
Speaker 1: as its own golf offering. I think that's a that's
35:31
Speaker 1: a harder nut to crack because of the just realities
35:37
Speaker 1: of what the American golfer wants, because of the handicap
35:41
Speaker 1: system and the you know, the the USGA rating systems
35:45
Speaker 1: that give kind of priority to certain regulation courses. Those
35:50
Speaker 1: are the courses you have to play to to maintain
35:53
Speaker 1: your handicap. A twelve hole course with you know, one
35:57
Speaker 1: par five and some short par fours and a few
36:00
Speaker 1: par threes is just, you know, it's not going to
36:03
Speaker 1: have the same status in the minds of a lot
36:06
Speaker 1: of American golfers as nine hole or eighteen hole regulation courses.
36:11
Speaker 1: And so that's it's a problem that I would really
36:15
Speaker 1: like to see solved because once we solve it, once
36:18
Speaker 1: we figure out how to make a course like the
36:20
Speaker 1: Commons stand on its own, be near a city, be
36:25
Speaker 1: really accessible to a lot of people, Once we figure
36:29
Speaker 1: that out, then we can do a lot of architectural innovation.
36:33
Speaker 1: It unlocks some things for architects. It allows architects to
36:37
Speaker 1: kind of push to the next era of golf course design.
36:41
Speaker 1: But as long as we're so wedded to the nine
36:44
Speaker 1: hole or eighteen hole regulation course, that innovation just isn't
36:48
Speaker 1: going to happen. Architects are going to be limited to
36:51
Speaker 1: working with the forms that are already established. And so
36:54
Speaker 1: that's the thing that I find most interesting about San
36:57
Speaker 1: Valley Commons. It's a great example of this type of
37:00
Speaker 1: alternative golf course that I think a lot of people
37:03
Speaker 1: would really love, you know, like, less capable golfers are
37:06
Speaker 1: really going to like this kind of course. But can
37:10
Speaker 1: you make it work outside of a destination resort model.
37:15
Speaker 1: I don't know yet.
37:18
Speaker 2: I like that you bring that up, and I may
37:20
Speaker 2: have to jump the gun on you here because another
37:23
Speaker 2: course that I'm going excited is this exact thing that
37:28
Speaker 2: you're talking about, The Old Dane in Nebraska, very close
37:35
Speaker 2: to Landman, which has gained a lot of following over
37:39
Speaker 2: the years. At King Collins Design. The Old Dane is
37:42
Speaker 2: getting redesigned by Trevor Dormer and something cool about this
37:47
Speaker 2: golf course is when I worked in Nebraska, I was
37:51
Speaker 2: living roughly a half mile from the Old Dane maybe,
37:56
Speaker 2: and every single day after work, me and my coworkers
37:59
Speaker 2: would would have it over to the Old Dane and
38:01
Speaker 2: we'd play nine or twelve or eighteen holes after work
38:05
Speaker 2: and just zoom around that golf course and it was
38:08
Speaker 2: a lot of fun. It's kind of just I think
38:10
Speaker 2: it's around ninety five acres and it was just nine
38:14
Speaker 2: holes at the time. But the Anderson family bought it,
38:17
Speaker 2: I think in kind of the middle two thousands and
38:21
Speaker 2: just kind of wanted a place to hang out. And
38:23
Speaker 2: then after the success of land Man, they were looking
38:27
Speaker 2: to redesign the Old Dane and kind of create a.
38:30
Speaker 3: Really cool golf experience out of it.
38:32
Speaker 2: And with Trevor Dhmer's plans right now is to have
38:35
Speaker 2: twelve holes there, change it from it was originally an
38:39
Speaker 2: eighteen hole golf course on this very small plot of land,
38:43
Speaker 2: and I think there's a lot of par threes and
38:45
Speaker 2: short par fours, and then they kind of converted it
38:47
Speaker 2: to a regulation nine hole golf course with two part threes,
38:52
Speaker 2: two par vivees. And now he's really utilizing some of
38:57
Speaker 2: kind of the unused land that was there, completely changing
39:01
Speaker 2: the entire golf course. I was just looking at the
39:05
Speaker 2: overhead on Google Earth and it's just ninety acres of
39:09
Speaker 2: exposed soil and they've kind of thrown out everything that
39:13
Speaker 2: had to do with the previous golf course and the build. Yeah,
39:20
Speaker 2: there's like a two acre lake that they dug kind
39:23
Speaker 2: of on.
39:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, just for a material to build their build.
39:26
Speaker 3: The style.
39:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's on the far west side, I believe, towards
39:29
Speaker 2: kind of the cornfields. But I think it's honestly going
39:33
Speaker 2: to be almost very similar to the Commons with like
39:36
Speaker 2: these kind of built features. I know, one of the
39:38
Speaker 2: greens he built like fifteen or twenty feet up in
39:41
Speaker 2: the air, kind of like a volcano styled green site.
39:45
Speaker 2: And I think he's gonna get really creative with building
39:48
Speaker 2: really fun and unique, quirky styled golf. It's not going
39:52
Speaker 2: to be a traditional golf course by any means, I
39:55
Speaker 2: don't think. I think once again, like like Jim Craig,
39:59
Speaker 2: it's his first go at a solo designer, one of
40:02
Speaker 2: his first I know he's had that project up in
40:05
Speaker 2: Canada that he's been working on. But I think He's
40:08
Speaker 2: gonna throw a lot on the table and get really
40:10
Speaker 2: wild with the stuff at Old Dane, and I think
40:14
Speaker 2: it's gonna be really really interesting to see it come online.
40:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, Trevor Dormer is a talented prospect. It's funny to
40:21
Speaker 1: talk about a guy with kids as a prospect, obviously,
40:26
Speaker 1: but he's he is in in golf architect years young.
40:31
Speaker 1: He has worked for Corn Crenshaw and Gil Hans. As
40:36
Speaker 1: you mentioned, he's done a couple of projects, you know,
40:38
Speaker 1: as a as a lead designer in Canada, but these
40:41
Speaker 1: have been small projects and collaborative and so this is
40:44
Speaker 1: really his big first solo statement and it is very exciting.
40:49
Speaker 1: It will, I think, kind of function as an afternoon
40:52
Speaker 1: course to Landman, owned by the same family. Yeah, close
40:56
Speaker 1: to close to the yeah, and so I think part
40:58
Speaker 1: of the concept here is that people who come and
41:01
Speaker 1: play land Man can then go play Old Dane in
41:03
Speaker 1: the afternoon. But it also seems like it will function
41:07
Speaker 1: as a community course as well. There will be loops
41:10
Speaker 1: of holes that people can play. I believe the initial
41:13
Speaker 1: plan I think they're still sticking to this is that
41:16
Speaker 1: there can be loops of six, nine and twelve holes
41:19
Speaker 1: it's a twelve hole course, but the routing will allow
41:22
Speaker 1: players to return to the clubhouse at six' nine as
41:27
Speaker 1: well as, twelve WHICH i obviously a very very cool.
41:31
Speaker 1: Idea again experimenting with alternative kinds of golf, courses different
41:37
Speaker 1: numbers of, holes different. Routings you, know in one golf
41:41
Speaker 1: course you can have a number of different. Experiences and,
41:45
Speaker 1: yes this is where this is where golf architecture needs
41:49
Speaker 1: to go in the. Future we just need to find
41:51
Speaker 1: the business models to support. It and massive credit to
41:54
Speaker 1: The anderson family for not only making this swing With
42:00
Speaker 1: Trevor dormer giving a chance to a talented guy who
42:04
Speaker 1: worked on the crew at The landman course and they
42:06
Speaker 1: recognized that he's very smart and if given an, opportunity
42:11
Speaker 1: would do a great. Job but also credit to them
42:15
Speaker 1: for committing to keeping this place public and, affordable just
42:19
Speaker 1: as they've done With landman Right. Landman of all the
42:22
Speaker 1: kind of destination courses that have been built in the
42:25
Speaker 1: past twenty, Years landman is probably the most affordable to.
42:31
Speaker 1: Play is that an? Exaggeration, YEAH i don't think.
42:34
Speaker 2: So, yeah it's such one of the most prominent and
42:37
Speaker 2: affordable built in the LAST i guess recent years of golf.
42:43
Speaker 2: Development so, YEAH i think they're going to compliment each
42:47
Speaker 2: other really. Well and as someone who kind of had
42:50
Speaker 2: a personal connection to The Old dane and would spend
42:53
Speaker 2: many of my afternoons, There i'm really excited to see
42:56
Speaker 2: What trevor is able to transform that place.
42:58
Speaker 1: Into flexing your your golf course knowledge, Here, matt so
43:03
Speaker 1: far we've talked about four courses that you've had experiences,
43:07
Speaker 1: at and pretty extensive experiences at for the most. Part
43:10
Speaker 1: so you've seen all these, Places Wild, Spring, dames The,
43:13
Speaker 1: commons The Yale Golf course and And Old. DANE i
43:18
Speaker 1: want to talk about one that neither of us have been,
43:23
Speaker 1: too BUT i think will be very very. Interesting this
43:27
Speaker 1: is one that a lot of people in our audience
43:31
Speaker 1: will will not have heard, of partly because of its.
43:35
Speaker 1: Location you, know we have we have a you, know
43:39
Speaker 1: not only A us, audience but maybe predominantly A us.
43:42
Speaker 1: Audience this project is happening In australia in The melbourne.
43:47
Speaker 1: Area depending on how you define the sand, belt it's
43:51
Speaker 1: either in the sand belt or just outside of the sand.
43:53
Speaker 1: Belt this is what used to be known As Long
43:56
Speaker 1: Island Golf. Club it was recently purchased by The National Golf,
44:01
Speaker 1: club which owns a complex on The Mornington peninsula that
44:06
Speaker 1: includes A Tom doak course called The Gunna. Matta apologies
44:11
Speaker 1: IF i mispronounced THAT i may have the Gun O.
44:14
Speaker 1: Matta The Mouna course By Greg norman is also there
44:16
Speaker 1: and what they call The Old course By Robert Trent Jones.
44:20
Speaker 1: Junior that's a well, known well, regarded high membership golf
44:26
Speaker 1: club on The Mornington. Peninsula that club Purchased Long Island Golf,
44:30
Speaker 1: club which is right next door To Peninsula, kingswood a
44:34
Speaker 1: well known and extremely well regarded thirty six hole facility
44:40
Speaker 1: that was in the past within the past several years
44:43
Speaker 1: completely redesigned BY ocm ogil, V coking And, mead a
44:48
Speaker 1: very exciting golf course design. FIRM ocm is now working
44:54
Speaker 1: On Long, island The National Golf Club Long island as
44:58
Speaker 1: it's now, known and what they're doing is a course
45:01
Speaker 1: within a course, concept so kind of inspired By George.
45:04
Speaker 1: Thomas George thomas theorized this in his writings in the nineteen,
45:08
Speaker 1: twenties the idea that you could build one golf course
45:12
Speaker 1: that could be played in a number of different, ways
45:15
Speaker 1: you could change tea, locations you could change pin, positions
45:18
Speaker 1: and if you design things in a certain, way you
45:20
Speaker 1: could even look for alternative routings within the golf. Course
45:24
Speaker 1: but if you are clever about how you design the golf,
45:27
Speaker 1: course then you could create multiple, different very distinct experiences
45:33
Speaker 1: within one golf. Course that is WHAT ocm is trying
45:36
Speaker 1: to do At Long island right. Now they're building twenty
45:39
Speaker 1: greens that will accommodate three different eighteen whole. Routings so
45:45
Speaker 1: you'll have greens that will accept shots from multiple. Directions
45:49
Speaker 1: you'll have different pin positions that will be suited to different.
45:53
Speaker 1: Routings so lots of interesting stuff happening. HERE ocm broke
45:58
Speaker 1: ground on the project in twenty three AND i think
46:02
Speaker 1: it's taken a bit longer than, expected but it should
46:06
Speaker 1: reopen to members this. Year they've members have walked portions
46:12
Speaker 1: of the golf, COURSE i, know and SO i think
46:15
Speaker 1: this will be a very very interesting golf, course a
46:18
Speaker 1: great addition to what's already a tremendous golf region right
46:24
Speaker 1: next To Peninsula. Kingswood so if you're At Peninsula, Kingswood
46:27
Speaker 1: Peninsula kingswood has been developing accommodations for international. Visitors SO
46:34
Speaker 1: i think going forward a lot of people will actually
46:37
Speaker 1: be staying At. Peninsula. Kingswood Long island is right, there
46:41
Speaker 1: SO i think it'll become part of the rota of
46:43
Speaker 1: courses that people commonly play when they go to The
46:46
Speaker 1: melbourne Sand belt to play. Golf So i'll be very
46:50
Speaker 1: curious to see how this works. OUT ocm is an
46:53
Speaker 1: extremely capable. Firm i'm sure they've worked out, everything but
46:59
Speaker 1: as always with concepts like, this there's the question as
47:02
Speaker 1: to whether it's going to be, sustainable whether whether golfers
47:06
Speaker 1: are going to want to keep with the three different
47:11
Speaker 1: courses or settle on one that they think is the
47:17
Speaker 1: best and just want to play. That that's always the
47:20
Speaker 1: danger that if one eighteen whole routing comes to be
47:25
Speaker 1: thought of as the, best golfers want to play. That
47:30
Speaker 1: and so the task FOR ocm is to make all
47:33
Speaker 1: three so compelling that they'll be maintained on an ongoing.
47:39
Speaker 1: Basis and so that's the big question for me of this.
47:43
Speaker 1: Project have you heard of this?
47:44
Speaker 2: BEFORE i ACTUALLY i haven't really heard of, this BUT
47:48
Speaker 2: i think it's really exciting because The melbourne Sand belt
47:51
Speaker 2: is sort of known for this one style of, golf and,
47:55
Speaker 2: WELL i know a lot of these courses are probably
47:57
Speaker 2: very different from each. Other there's nothing quite like this
48:01
Speaker 2: concept where it's this big.
48:03
Speaker 3: Outlier from the.
48:04
Speaker 2: Rest and the thing we know about building reversible golf
48:08
Speaker 2: is you can't really do it on severe, land and
48:11
Speaker 2: from WHAT i know not having been, there is that
48:14
Speaker 2: The melbourne area is kind of this perfect middle ground.
48:18
Speaker 3: Between being too severe and not interesting.
48:20
Speaker 2: Enough SO i think it's going to lend itself really
48:23
Speaker 2: well to this kind of reversible concept where you can
48:27
Speaker 2: play in multiple. Directions it's obviously going to have exceptional turf,
48:31
Speaker 2: conditions play very, firm very, fast and hopefully give the
48:37
Speaker 2: members and visitors this great variety from what's already in the.
48:42
Speaker 2: Region and it's also really exciting THAT ocm just continues
48:46
Speaker 2: to get jobs like this and they're able to kind
48:49
Speaker 2: of stretch their legs, out take a little bit of
48:51
Speaker 2: a chance here with a new, concept a new, idea
48:55
Speaker 2: and really run with, it which will be exciting to
48:57
Speaker 2: see what them and their firm can come up. With
49:01
Speaker 2: since they're kind of growing in popularity so much as
49:03
Speaker 2: of recent.
49:05
Speaker 1: They've done a lot of different interesting stuff in their
49:09
Speaker 1: career so, far you, know they've done kind of A. C.
49:12
Speaker 1: B McDonald Seth rayner inspired course In Lonsdale, Links they've
49:16
Speaker 1: done a complete redesign of a Major american championship course
49:21
Speaker 1: And madina. Three so this is not a firm that
49:24
Speaker 1: is that is, shy right they. Are they are willing
49:28
Speaker 1: to take big, risks AND i think that's kind of
49:31
Speaker 1: what we what we want to see out of this
49:33
Speaker 1: next generation of architecture. Firms and certainly because of their
49:38
Speaker 1: association With Jeff, ogilvie whom a lot of people know
49:41
Speaker 1: already and like a, lot they're going to keep getting attractive, jobs,
49:46
Speaker 1: Right they're going to be a formidable force on the
49:51
Speaker 1: golf architecture job market just because of Who Jeff ogilvie.
49:55
Speaker 1: Is and then obviously we know you AND i Know
49:58
Speaker 1: Mike coking And Ashley mead know that they're also very
50:02
Speaker 1: impressive individuals as. Well so we're going to see a
50:05
Speaker 1: lot FROM. OCM i THINK i think this project is
50:07
Speaker 1: one that people should keep more of an eye on
50:10
Speaker 1: THAN i than they have they have so, far just
50:13
Speaker 1: because of what the concept. Is you, know this is
50:16
Speaker 1: a concept that a lot of people have tried and
50:19
Speaker 1: not really been able to find a client for and
50:23
Speaker 1: so it's great that The National Golf club has has
50:26
Speaker 1: been willing to pursue this WITH. Ocm all, right what's
50:29
Speaker 1: the uh we're gonna we're gonna finish with one last course?
50:33
Speaker 1: Here is that there is there one more that that
50:35
Speaker 1: you want to bring?
50:36
Speaker 2: Up, yeah this course technically opened this, year kind of
50:40
Speaker 2: right at the end of the. Year But Miami lakes
50:44
Speaker 2: outside Of, Miami, florida is A Bruce heppner redesign of
50:48
Speaker 2: an existing golf. Course it was kind of this really
50:52
Speaker 2: cool hangout spot back in the in the fifties and.
50:55
Speaker 2: Sixties The Miami dolphins, specifically we're known to come hang
51:00
Speaker 2: out here in their free time and play golf and
51:04
Speaker 2: it's kind of a part of this community that was
51:07
Speaker 2: built by the ownership's. Family Danny martinez's grandfather helped to
51:15
Speaker 2: kind of construct the golf course and come up with
51:17
Speaker 2: the concept for this living community and the course just
51:20
Speaker 2: kind of fell.
51:21
Speaker 3: By the wayside over the.
51:22
Speaker 2: Years it's In, florida very low lying, land lots of
51:28
Speaker 2: lakes and a lot of.
51:29
Speaker 1: Water, yeah a lot of water for a public course
51:33
Speaker 1: where you, know a lot of the golfers were not super.
51:36
Speaker 2: Experienced, yeah but the land and the golf course would
51:41
Speaker 2: basically become completely inundated with a small rainstorm and they
51:44
Speaker 2: wouldn't be able to. Golf so they wanted to redesign
51:48
Speaker 2: it and kind of fix these issues related to the
51:51
Speaker 2: drainage and maintenance of the golf, course and then kind
51:56
Speaker 2: of out of, serendipity the project fell Into Bruce heppner's,
51:59
Speaker 2: lap who's a very experienced golf course architect work For
52:03
Speaker 2: Tom doak for many years and just sort OF i
52:07
Speaker 2: think is the perfect guy for this. Project he's been
52:09
Speaker 2: doing a lot of public redesign work recently In nashville
52:15
Speaker 2: and now here In, miami and we got to tour
52:18
Speaker 2: around it when it was under, construction and it was
52:21
Speaker 2: just really compelling to see how simple he was kind
52:25
Speaker 2: of dumbing down the, processes where, hey we don't need
52:28
Speaker 2: to blow an enormous. Budget we just need to build
52:32
Speaker 2: cool greens and thoughtful bunkers make it accessible for, everyone
52:37
Speaker 2: and that's a huge part of kind of the mission
52:39
Speaker 2: of this. Course it's the home for the First tea
52:42
Speaker 2: Of South florida and they hold Special olympics gatherings and
52:47
Speaker 2: it's really a golf course that's focused around the youth
52:51
Speaker 2: and kind of the.
52:52
Speaker 3: Future of the.
52:52
Speaker 2: Game there's going to be a really cool learning center
52:55
Speaker 2: and driving, range AND i Know danny's kind of mission
52:59
Speaker 2: for this is just to make it a fun place
53:02
Speaker 2: for people to go hang. Out maybe you don't play,
53:04
Speaker 2: golf maybe you just go there to hang out and
53:07
Speaker 2: be with your friends and run around and play on the,
53:09
Speaker 2: practice putting green or whatever it may. Be but the
53:13
Speaker 2: whole goal is to be this kind of welcoming golf
53:16
Speaker 2: environment and community. Atmosphere AND i think that's almost the
53:20
Speaker 2: most compelling part of the, project is just that he's
53:24
Speaker 2: just trying to build something where people can go hang
53:27
Speaker 2: out and have. Fun and they're not spending millions and
53:30
Speaker 2: millions and millions of dollars to overhaul the golf. Course
53:34
Speaker 2: they're spending what they have to, spend and they're doing
53:37
Speaker 2: a really thoughtful and creative job with. It So i'm
53:40
Speaker 2: really excited to watch this course kind of grow and
53:42
Speaker 2: mature and see if it catches on with other kind
53:46
Speaker 2: of local golf courses that are in need of maybe
53:51
Speaker 2: a new irrigation system or some sort of infrastructural need
53:55
Speaker 2: where they can bring in an intelligent architect Like Bruce
53:59
Speaker 2: heppner and just do a simple redesign that instantly makes
54:04
Speaker 2: the golf course a lot better while also creating a
54:07
Speaker 2: cool atmosphere for kids to learn the.
54:09
Speaker 1: Game, yeah this is a project with its heart in
54:12
Speaker 1: the right. Place we've talked To Danny, martinez who is
54:16
Speaker 1: spearheading this project on behalf of his, family quite a few.
54:19
Speaker 1: Times we know that he listens to the. Podcast he
54:24
Speaker 1: got introduced To Bruce hepner by listening to our interview
54:28
Speaker 1: With bruce a couple of years ago on The Friday golf.
54:31
Speaker 1: Podcast he is a golf nut and he wants to
54:36
Speaker 1: create an accessible hub for his, community not just a
54:43
Speaker 1: cool golf, course but a place where people feel welcome
54:48
Speaker 1: and that improves the life of his town and the
54:53
Speaker 1: area around. It and, yeah that's the right, idea and
54:59
Speaker 1: THEY i hired a very good partner In Bruce. Hepner
55:03
Speaker 1: hepner is very interested in saving as much money as
55:07
Speaker 1: possible in building a golf. Course he wants to get
55:11
Speaker 1: the most results with the least input. Financially and you,
55:17
Speaker 1: Know Danny martinez couldn't have chosen a better. Person for
55:21
Speaker 1: that type of project Than Bruce. Hepner so lots of
55:25
Speaker 1: smart good things happening there At Miami.
55:27
Speaker 3: Lakes now.
55:30
Speaker 1: This is my bad, here my mistake for not Mentioning Cabot,
55:33
Speaker 1: highlands The Old Petty course At Cabot, highlands that should
55:37
Speaker 1: have been one of the ones we, discussed probably should
55:39
Speaker 1: have bumped The National Golf Club Long, island But i'm
55:42
Speaker 1: just so interested in talking about The Long island concept
55:45
Speaker 1: THAT i went with. That but a major opening In
55:49
Speaker 1: Scotland Tom Doakes Old petty At Cabot. Highlands this project
55:55
Speaker 1: was partly led By Clyde johnson as. Well this is
56:00
Speaker 1: in addition to the resort formerly known As Castle stewart,
56:04
Speaker 1: right which started with A gilhant's course a number of
56:07
Speaker 1: years back Near. Inverness so in The Scottish highlands it's
56:12
Speaker 1: the new courses is set along a kind of tidal
56:15
Speaker 1: estuary near a church Called Old, petty so that's where
56:19
Speaker 1: it gets its name. From this is not natural links
56:22
Speaker 1: land and so WHAT i find interesting about the project
56:26
Speaker 1: is that it's Very the course is very. Manufactured but
56:32
Speaker 1: from What i've seen of the Work doak And Clyde
56:37
Speaker 1: johnson have made sure to keep things very low profile
56:42
Speaker 1: And scottish. Feeling so although they've manufactured a lot of contour,
56:46
Speaker 1: here they haven't gone big and bold with it Like
56:51
Speaker 1: kingsbarns or some of the other you, know manufactured some
56:56
Speaker 1: of the other artificial links courses In scotland that might
56:59
Speaker 1: come to. MIND i, mean Certainly King Colin's dormer is
57:02
Speaker 1: going to do something big with that The strewy course
57:05
Speaker 1: At Royal dornick in the next several, years very. Likely
57:09
Speaker 1: and so, yeah what's compelling to me about the work
57:13
Speaker 1: that they're doing At Old petty is that it's going
57:16
Speaker 1: to be very, subtle even though they fabricated pretty much
57:21
Speaker 1: all of. IT i think that's an interesting. Approach it's
57:24
Speaker 1: something slightly new AND i bet it's going to come
57:28
Speaker 1: out really. Well so that's the obligatory mention Of Old
57:33
Speaker 1: petty At Cabot. Highlands that's going to be one of
57:36
Speaker 1: the most notable course openings in twenty twenty six for.
57:39
Speaker 1: SURE a bunch of other stuff going, on you, know
57:41
Speaker 1: golf construction is very active right. Now you, know it's
57:45
Speaker 1: a discussion for a different day to talk about the
57:48
Speaker 1: type of construction that's. Happening, obviously a lot of the
57:52
Speaker 1: stuff we've talked About matt in this episode has been destination,
57:57
Speaker 1: golf whether that's destination resort model or destination club. Model,
58:02
Speaker 1: yes a lot of the most interesting architecture is happening.
58:04
Speaker 1: There but there's also some cool stuff happening in the
58:07
Speaker 1: public golf. Scene there's not enough of it. Happening but
58:11
Speaker 1: the hope is that people can look at projects like
58:15
Speaker 1: the ones At Miami lakes And Buffalo dunes And Old
58:19
Speaker 1: dane and say to, themselves this can be. Done we
58:24
Speaker 1: can do this if we have the right, motives if
58:27
Speaker 1: we're not looking to become billionaires just based on this one,
58:31
Speaker 1: project if we just want to contribute something great to
58:33
Speaker 1: the golf, world then, yes this can be. Done and,
58:37
Speaker 1: so you, know that's what happened With Miami. LAKES i
58:39
Speaker 1: Think Danny, martinez you, know it was not only listening
58:42
Speaker 1: to podcasts that inspired. Him it was looking At Winter
58:44
Speaker 1: park In florida and seeing that something like this was.
58:48
Speaker 1: Possible and so my big hope for the new year
58:52
Speaker 1: is that that people are going to realize that great
58:55
Speaker 1: work can be done in affordable public. Golf you just
59:00
Speaker 1: have to have your heart in the right place with it,
59:02
Speaker 1: right and so we'll see if that. Happens but thank
59:06
Speaker 1: You matt for joining. Me appreciate, it and we'll have
59:10
Speaker 1: you on the podcast again.
59:11
Speaker 3: Soon, Awesome Thanks.
59:13
Speaker 1: Garrett all, right let's do some. Takeaways first of, ALL
59:23
Speaker 1: i want to expand on a POINT i made towards
59:26
Speaker 1: the end of my conversation With matt and just underline
59:29
Speaker 1: the fact that all seven of the Courses matt AND
59:32
Speaker 1: i just talked about are going to be accessible in
59:35
Speaker 1: some form to the.
59:36
Speaker 3: Public.
59:37
Speaker 1: Now part of this is selection. Bias matt AND i
59:41
Speaker 1: want to talk about courses that everyone can. Play, obviously
59:44
Speaker 1: there are plenty of firmly private clubs with interesting architecture
59:48
Speaker 1: opening in twenty twenty six as. Well BUT i do
59:51
Speaker 1: find it notable that enough is happening in public golf
59:55
Speaker 1: this year for us to devote almost an entire episode to.
59:59
Speaker 1: It AND i think that's worth remembering and holding on
1:00:04
Speaker 1: to a little, bit BECAUSE i sense concern among many
1:00:08
Speaker 1: golfers that public golf is. Suffering and, listen there's no
1:00:14
Speaker 1: doubt right that on the, whole structurally public golf is.
1:00:18
Speaker 1: Suffering there are profound challenges that face anyone who wants
1:00:22
Speaker 1: to build a new public golf, course especially a new
1:00:26
Speaker 1: affordable public golf, course especially a new affordable public golf,
1:00:30
Speaker 1: course anywhere near a population. Center but it is possible
1:00:35
Speaker 1: to do, It it can be, done it is being,
1:00:38
Speaker 1: done and not all hope is. Lost and in addition
1:00:42
Speaker 1: To Old dane And Miami, LAKES i would suggest looking
1:00:46
Speaker 1: At Warmouth, sands a new build municipal course In georgia
1:00:50
Speaker 1: designed By Mike, young expected to open this year after
1:00:54
Speaker 1: some delays during. Construction and also look At Buffalo, dunes
1:00:59
Speaker 1: another city o, course this one In kansas has just
1:01:03
Speaker 1: gone through a really cool looking. Redesign So i'm hoping
1:01:08
Speaker 1: to bring you more stories about these courses and courses
1:01:12
Speaker 1: like them this. Year so a few other twenty twenty
1:01:16
Speaker 1: six course openings that we could have mentioned but we.
1:01:19
Speaker 1: Didn't the first would be Stream Song. White this is
1:01:23
Speaker 1: the New david McLay kid design at Stream Song resort In.
1:01:27
Speaker 1: Florida so Stream song is now going to feature courses
1:01:31
Speaker 1: by all four of the leading golf architects of this
1:01:34
Speaker 1: era In Corn, Crenshaw Tom, Doak Gil, hants and Now David.
1:01:38
Speaker 1: Kidd so a unique offering there then we have some
1:01:44
Speaker 1: some of these kind of new destination private. Clubs we
1:01:49
Speaker 1: Have tepatonka designed BY ocm In, Minnesota High grove designed
1:01:54
Speaker 1: By Gil. Hants that one's In. Florida we have The
1:01:58
Speaker 1: Lower course At Childress. Hall this is another Gil hans's
1:02:01
Speaker 1: effort for a private. Club this one In. Texas we
1:02:06
Speaker 1: Have Bounty, Club King Collin's Dormer course outside Of, Nashville.
1:02:10
Speaker 1: Tennessee we Have Looling, sport the second course At Louling.
1:02:15
Speaker 1: Sport this is AN ocm design outside Of, Austin. Texas
1:02:20
Speaker 1: and then Finally Anson, point which is a New Corner
1:02:23
Speaker 1: crenshaw design at the Development Palmetto bluff In South. Carolina
1:02:29
Speaker 1: so plenty of action going on in that kind of
1:02:31
Speaker 1: higher end sector. There on the affordable public. Side i'm
1:02:36
Speaker 1: definitely curious to See Todd clark And Ron witten's renovation
1:02:41
Speaker 1: Of Swape. Park swape is a municipal course designed by
1:02:46
Speaker 1: Aw tillinghast In Kansas. City and Then Gil hans's redesign
1:02:51
Speaker 1: Of Maggie, hathaway which is a short course In Los. Angeles,
1:02:56
Speaker 1: finally this is going to be the year That Punta brava.
1:03:00
Speaker 1: Opens this is A Tom doak design on pretty spectacular
1:03:04
Speaker 1: looking cliffs In Baja, California SO i think that's going
1:03:09
Speaker 1: to be an eye catching golf. Course So i'm probably
1:03:14
Speaker 1: leaving out some projects, there but that gives you a
1:03:16
Speaker 1: general idea of WHAT i have my eye on right.
1:03:19
Speaker 1: NOW a lot to look forward to in twenty twenty,
1:03:22
Speaker 1: Six so Happy New year to. Everybody thank you for
1:03:26
Speaker 1: checking back in With Designing. Golf this episode Of Designing
1:03:36
Speaker 1: golf was produced By Will. Balsam thank You. Will if
1:03:40
Speaker 1: you Enjoyed Designing golf in twenty twenty, five if you
1:03:44
Speaker 1: expect to enjoy it in twenty twenty, six then make
1:03:47
Speaker 1: sure to check Out Frida Egg Golf. Club that Is
1:03:50
Speaker 1: Frida Egg golf's. Membership we're having a lot of fun with,
1:03:53
Speaker 1: it so go to The Frida egg dot com slash
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Speaker 1: membership to see everything that you get As Friday golf.
1:04:01
Speaker 1: Member thank you for, listening and we'll be back again
1:04:04
Speaker 1: soon with another. Episode