By John Huggan
This is a story about proud men, men with something to be proud of. Every April, they attend one of the sports world’s most exclusive gatherings. Every April, they are allowed to don a special and distinctive green garment, one worn by only a few. Every April, as past winners of golf’s most important tournament, they can play in the Masters at Augusta National. That is their privilege, one allowed them for as long as they choose to take advantage of their bygone victory. Any discretion is theirs and theirs alone.

All good things, though, have a natural shelf life. So it is that a less attractive decision-making process represents perhaps the only disappointing aspect of that sumptuous package of Masters goodies: When to stop playing in golf’s so-called “rite of spring?”

When does the fall in performance that is the inevitable consequence of age lead to discreet retirement?

When is it time to give up the opportunity of a lifetime and get out of the way?

When does embarrassment supersede excitement?

What scores are too high, too much of a blow to that well-earned pride?

When, then, is it time to sit back on the clubhouse veranda and watch younger men perform?

The timetables and motivations may vary, but every one of those questions leads to the same destination. And the eventual conclusions, as ever, depend on who you ask. The common factor, however, is not staying too long, as 1970 champion Billy Casper did when he shot 105 in his last Masters round in 2005. Which is easier said than done. The temptation is always there. The mind of a champion can be a wondrous thing.

“I remember Gary Player coming into the locker room a few years ago,” says two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer. “He told me he had made the biggest mistake of his life. I was a bit taken aback as you can imagine. I asked him what was going on. He told me he had announced his retirement from the Masters that year but he had just shot 78 and thought he might still be competitive.”

Still, most players announce their intention to make one last curtain call and so enjoy the adulation of the patrons as they tour the hills and dales of Augusta National for a final time. Some, like Arnold Palmer, change their minds and do it twice (2002 and 2004). Others, 1988 champion Sandy Lyle but one example, simply change their minds and keep playing.

Then there is Ian Woosnam. In 2016, he was apparently done with the tournament he won in 1991. “It’s just getting really tough,” said the Welshman at the time. “That’s my last go. I am not fit enough to play with my bad back. Every time I play this course it just seizes on me, and I can’t swing the club properly. I am in pain all the way round, so it’s time to say ‘bye bye’ really.”

But he continued on. Then, three years and three more missed cuts later (his last made cut came in 2008), Woosnam basically repeated himself.

“I think this is going to be my last time playing here,” he sighed in 2019. “I’m just in too much pain. And it happens every time I get here. It must be the hills because I’ve been playing and hitting a lot of balls recently with no ill-effects. But as soon as I get on this course my back bothers me.”

Next week, Woosnam, at 63, is scheduled to make his 32nd appearance at Augusta, one he feels might be his swansong. Then again maybe not.

“I don’t know if this will be my last Masters,” he says, having skipped playing last November. “I just want to see how I go. Given the condition of my back, I can never say for sure. I know I’ve said before that I’m finished, but I also said that could change if my back improved. And it has. Plus, I don’t want to go out that way. My real objective is to get round pain-free. I would enjoy that. I’ve been in pain for the last 20 years really.”

So it’s tough to say goodbye. But with age comes deterioration. Even Fred Couples, who has recorded 11 top-10 finishes in 35 Masters appearances can see the end of the road, or should we say Magnolia Lane. The 1992 champion his missed the cut three times in his last five starts after making it in 28 of his first 30 appearances.

“This is a course I think I can play,” says Couples, 61. “If that’s not good enough to compete at a semi-certain level, I don’t want to do that. I don’t know when that’s going to be, but I’m not going to come out here and wave and tell everyone it’s my last round.”

“Each year it became harder and harder to break 80,” agrees two-time winner Ben Crenshaw, who retired from Masters competition amidst much pomp and ceremony in 2015 at 63. “I’m part of a bygone era when it comes to distance. I was beating my head against a brick wall. I just felt like I didn’t belong out there anymore. We’re all 2 down to father time. I was out of presses.”

Jamie Squire
Ben Crenshaw announced his retirement ahead of time in 2015 and received standing ovations throughout his final round.

Others wait until the eve of their last round to tell the world, “enough.” Craig Stadler (at 60), Fuzzy Zoeller (57) and Ray Floyd (66) all chose that route to retirement.

“People ask me why I don’t play in the Masters any more,” says Zoeller, who called it quits in 2009, three decades on from his 1979 victory and after missing the cut in 10 of his last 11 Masters starts. “I’m just not competitive. If I’m not competitive, I can’t do it. I don’t have an ego. And I knew it was time. Golf is a game to me, a hard game, but still a game. And there are 18 hard games on that course. On some you’ll be fine but others are going to kick your butt. And too many were doing that to me. I didn’t feel that I had a chance. That’s a terrible feeling. And the time when you know it is time to step aside and let the young guys have at it.”

The biggest factor in the demise of many past champions is the length of the examination they are asked to take these days. When Jose Maria Olazabal won the first of his two green jackets in 1994, Augusta National measured 6,925 yards. This year the course will be 550 yards longer. Combined with the fact that the Spaniard is 28 years older, chances are he’s going to struggle to keep up. Which he has. Since finishing T-3 in 2006, the now 55-year-old has missed seven cuts in 10 starts.

“Time is a handicap, no question,” he says. “Every year the course seems to get longer. Last year I hit a lot of 5-woods and 3-irons to the par-4 greens. So I have to be very sharp, especially with the short game. But it is just a matter of how you feel, whether you continue to play or not. We all have the right to do so, and I will do so as long as I don’t feel like I am embarrassing myself in front of people. The bottom line is the score. As long as I can get round in a decent number I will play.”

That is a common theme. As is motivation. As is the depressing thought that the limit of an aging past champion’s ambition is to make the halfway cut. One who rebelled at that notion, even while feeling like he is capable of making it to the weekend, is O’Meara. The 1998 champion made his Masters bow in 2018.

“My last good Masters [2015] was when I was 58 years old,” he says. “I made the cut when the course was dry. I tied for 22nd. After that, I missed every cut. I’d shoot in the mid-to high-70s. So when I turned 62 I felt like that was going to be it for me. I wasn’t enjoying it as much. I didn’t want to go out there and have to play my tail off just to make the cut. I didn’t want that to feel like something special. It just felt like my time had come and gone. I didn’t make a big statement about it. I was tired of finishing on Friday and having the media ask me if I was done. I didn’t say anything at the Champions Dinner on Tuesday evening. I just walked away.”

Jamie Squire
Jose Maria Olazabal says that as past champions age, they have to get more creative in the way they approach playing the course.

OK, let’s talk specifics. Are there holes that have become just too long, just too tough, for men who are routinely 60-70 yards behind their younger brethren off the tee? A few come immediately to these experienced minds.

“The seventh hole is a classic example,” Olazabal says. “I used to hit a 3-wood or a 1-iron off that tee. Then have an 8- or 9-iron to the green. Now I am hitting a solid drive and still having a 4- or 5-iron left. To a green that is elevated and very shallow for those clubs. It is virtually impossible for the ball to stop on the green. That is a great example of how the course has changed for us over the years.”

Other holes stick out, too.

“The 11th, 14th and 17th are also very difficult for us now,” says 1987 champion Larry Mize, who shot an eye-opening 70 in last year’s first round at age 62. “The tees have been moved back so far. I’m hitting a long iron or a hybrid into both now. Last year, I hit a 5-wood into 17 on Day 1. We are hitting right into the hill off the tee. The kids fly over that and get some roll. But our drives hit and stop.”

The fifth is yet another brute. In 1993, when Langer won for his second time, the par 4 measured 435 yards. Last year, when the then 63-year-old German became the oldest man to make the halfway cut, it was a whopping 495 yards. Every day, he needed a 3-wood to reach the green with his second shot.

“I am hitting a lot of 2- and 3-hybrids on holes where the younger guys are hitting 8- and 9-irons into the greens,” Langer says with a smile. “So it’s a big challenge for me.”

Not an insurmountable one though. In the final round last November, Langer was paired with the longest hitter on the PGA Tour, Bryson DeChambeau—and out-scored him by two, 71-73.

Rob Carr
Despite Bernhard Langer being 36 years Bryson DeChambeau’s senior, he was able to outduel the U.S. Open champion, 71-73, in the final round at Augusta last November.

“There is a definite advantage from playing that course 100 times or more,” Langer says. “I know how all the putts break. I’ve seen all the pin positions. I understand what each means. I know that when the pin is in position X, I can’t miss in position Y. Sometimes it is better to be 20 yards short than three feet above. I know too, how certain winds affect shots. I’ve seen. I’ve watched. And I’ve experienced so much. Add it all up and it is a definite benefit.

“It often comes down to a matter of inches. When I was paired with Bryson he got very frustrated. He made mistakes you just can’t make. He missed in the wrong places. More than once he almost hit a good shot, but it wasn’t. Then he would make bogey and sometimes double bogey.”

So experience counts for a lot around Augusta National, maybe more than anywhere else in the world other than the Old Course at St. Andrews. In turn, the more senior members of the Masters field have begun using a common refrain when describing their course strategy, noting the need for “intelligent missing.”

“I have to think about where I am going to miss, about where I will have the best chance to get down in two more shots,” says Olazabal, the owner of one of golf’s most potent short games. “It doesn’t matter how aggressive I was when I was at my peak, these days I am standing over shots knowing I have virtually no chance to finish close to the hole. So I think of the best area, the one where I will have a relatively easy chip-and-putt. Or two putts. I think more about making pars than birdies.”

All of which sounds a lot like hard work. But still these old champions keep coming back. There is, after all, much to enjoy about a week at Augusta National when you don’t have to worry about such things as making the cut, breaking 80 or reaching an increasingly distant par 4 in fewer than three shots.

“Mentally, I approach the Masters differently now. I go there knowing that making the weekend is already a success,” Olazabal says. “But I go there for many reasons. Every time I set foot on the property I have so many positive memories. Just being part of the tournament is fantastic, with things like the champions dinner. Being able to watch the new generation and how they play the course is a fascination for me. So many positives, although it is hard to think of those things when you are struggling. But it is part of life. And the game prepares you for that in the sense that, even at your peak, you are successful only a very small percentage of the time.”

Jamie Squire
Larry Mize knows that at age 62, he’s down to his last handful of Masters starts.

The last word, however, belongs to Langer, whose T-29 last year represented a phenomenal feat for a man in his 60s. While he has no immediate plans to quit playing, the 41-time PGA Tour Champions winner knows that day will inevitably arrive. He is just happy that he—along with his fellow champions—is allowed to leave on his own terms.

“Last year I asked the chairman how long I am allowed to compete,” Langer says. “I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know if there was an age limit. [The club briefly instilled one in 2002 at 65, but scrapped the plan before it went into place in 2004 after blowback from fans and past winners.] But he told me I am welcome to play as long as I like and that I will know when to stop. That was reassuring. My plan is therefore to play a few more years. When I can’t reach par 4s, or when I’m shooting high numbers, that will be the time to stop playing.”

Until, then, of course, we get to enjoy these proud men, who can still give us a taste of a time when professional golf was more “smooth” than “smash.”

The post When should a past champion call it a career at Augusta National? appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

To understand why this is such a highly anticipated opening, one must appreciate the evolution of this land.

Sheep Ranch sits on about 140 acres north of the resort’s Old Macdonald course, and for the past 16 or so years, there were 13 unirrigated greens played by a very small group of golfers. Fire trucks watered the turf, where Tom Doak and Jim Urbina did initial construction after they built Pacific Dunes. Mike Keiser, owner of Bandon Dunes among his other highly popular golf resorts, bought this land in 2000 with his business partner Phil Friedmann for $4 million in cash. Doak had designed these 13 greens with crisscrossing fairways accompanying them, allowing golfers to play into them from various directions. But at the time, Keiser and Friedmann, intending at first for their land to be the site of a new private 18-hole course, stopped funding the construction after locals started talking about this secret project, worried that the success of the resort could be in jeopardy.

So Sheep Ranch sat as an unlikely, untouched golf meadow of sorts for years: Only a select number of resort guests who asked the right person were given access to this informal golf experience on the ocean’s edge. Finally, now, Sheep Ranch has been developed and is a complete golf course.

Coore and Crenshaw, after designing Bandon Trails in 2005 as the third course at the resort, in addition to the 13-hole par-3 course, The Preserve, which opened in 2012, took over the project. Nine green complexes are built against the bluffs, as Sheep Ranch boasts a mile of ocean acreage (compared to a combined two miles of ocean acreage on Bandon’s other courses).

“Getting the chance to go back to Bandon and work right on the ocean is almost beyond imagination,” Coore told Golf Digest in an interview last month. “There’s no way we could express our appreciation, certainly to Mike [Keiser], and perhaps even more so to Phil Friedmann.”

Friedmann is someone golfers will begin to hear more about. Keiser’s business partner at Recycled Paper Greetings had passed on Keiser’s original offer to partner with him on the Bandon Dunes project. And after he and Keiser purchased the Sheep Ranch land in 2000, they decided the time was now to bring Sheep Ranch to the masses.

Coore admitted to being surprised when Keiser called him to gauge his interest in studying the land for a potential routing. He figured Doak and Urbina, having done the original work, would be the likely team. Gil Hanse had also submitted a routing, and word got around that he might be working on the site.

“We just expected one of them would get the job,” Coore said. “But as I got to wander around that property over a fairly lengthy period of time, I just came to realize it had such beautiful contours for golf.”

The par 3 7th atSheep Ranch Bandon Dunes

One of the things that makes Sheep Ranch unique to the other courses at Bandon is not just its lack of sand bunkers, but its varied shoreline. Instead of sitting linearly on the coast, Sheep Ranch moves in and out with peninsulas offering the opportunity to play over cliffs on tee shots.

“You can play diagonally across the ocean away from the promontories that jut out toward the ocean, which you can’t do from any of the other [Bandon Dunes} courses,” Coore said.

“The ability to watch your tee shot go, literally, over water and over a cliff, instead of just along the water [is exciting]. The key was how best to use the shoreline.”

What connected the entire routing was clustering a handful of teeing areas (namely Nos. 2 and 18; Nos. 5 and 15 and Nos. 8 and 10). This allowed Coore and Crenshaw to build holes in different angles away from each tee, instead of the traditional adjacent fairways and landing areas.

Doing this on a walking course made this possible, without having to worry about golf-cart traffic.

“We have not, that I can recall, used three sets of tees clustering them together so deliberately to increase the latitude of area where there could be landing areas,” Coore said. “That was new for us. It was simply a matter of studying the ground and figuring out how to fit in as much golf as we could.”

What is inherently unique about this land is how windy Sheep Ranch is. And that’s due to its history as being used by a wind farm for a utility company back in 1970s. Except, the site proved too windy, and the windmills fell apart.

That was the task Coore and Crenshaw had: Find as much area for golf along the coast on a small piece of property, while also making golf playable in the extreme wind conditions. Coore admits it “wasn’t a cinch,” but his team’s routing solved the challenge.

And for Coore, it was going back to Bandon, which already meant a lot to he and his design team. Coore recalls joking with Keiser as they were working on Bandon Trails, routed through the forest and not on the water, and pointed out to the land that would become Old Macdonald, just south of where his newest course will open up: “Mike, what are we doing up in the trees?”

Coming back to build another 18-hole course was a matter of Keiser giving Coore and Crenshaw, one of the most storied teams in modern design, one more opportunity: “Mike told us, ‘You guys worked away from the ocean, you probably deserve to work on the ocean here eventually.’ And we are so grateful for that.”

The 16th at Sheep Ranch Bandon Dunes

The post Bandon Dunes’ highly anticipated fifth course is as good as it looks appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Derek Duncan
The prospect of a new course in Scotland, Coul Links, one gently layered by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw into perfect crumpled linksland north of Dornoch and animated by the touch of Mike Keiser, seemed almost too good to be true. In February, it was: The Scottish government denied the necessary permitting needed for Coul Links to proceed (the name already existed, predating any talk of golf), citing environmental concerns including the impact on dune systems and projected disturbances of bird habitats.

In truth, this was never very fun—not for Keiser—whose projects include Bandon Dunes, Cabot Cliffs, Sand Valley and others—and the development team who met early, intense resistance from a coalition of special interests who were protective of rare plantlife and wildlife in the area. Even so, the project was originally approved by local commissioners—before that decision was overridden by Scottish Ministers during the appeal process.

The final Town and Country Planning report, released a few weeks ago, states that while the ministers concluded the Coul Links proposal “is of local and regional significance in socio-economic terms” and would create “good jobs” and help develop local communities, it was not “nationally important.”

“The likely detriment to national heritage,” the report reads, “is not outweighed by the socio-economic benefits.”

“The people of Dornoch and Embo were all for it, not to mention all the (area golf) clubs,” Keiser told Golf Digest this week, noting how adding another notable course in Inverness would attract significantly more golfers to region, benefitting everyone. “The ministers basically said, ‘That’s nice, but we’ve made our decision.’ ”

Asked how he has reacted to the news, Keiser said: “It’s been (going on) so long that it’s frustration, not anger.

“I know the players in these environmental groups don’t hate me, they just hate golf. They’re playing their role, and we in the golf community give them too much rope to hang us with.” (One person close to the project told Golf Digest that Keiser may have “got Trumped,” referring to the contentious construction of Trump International Golf Links, opened in nearby Aberdeen in 2012, that left a toxic and lingering animosity among Scots.)

The Coul Links denial could have long-term consequences, at least where coastal golf development in the United Kingdom and Ireland is concerned. Given the high cost of exploration (Keiser estimates it can cost around $3 million just to get a proposal through the application phase), the bureaucratic levers of the European Union and ingrained opposition from a variety of environmental forces, it’s unlikely another entrepreneur, especially an American, will soon foray into links golf. Which is unfortunate.

“I believe that golf courses, especially when they’re on a spacious site, will be deemed by scientists who quantify these things as carbon sponges,” Keiser says. “And wouldn’t that be good for golf?”

And the world.

The post Coul Links, Mike Keiser’s planned Coore, Crenshaw course in the Scottish Highlands, rejected in government ruling appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
KAPALUA, Hawaii — Don’t call the upgraded Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort a renovation or a redesign, even though either of those descriptive terms would suffice.

“The word we like to use is refinement,” said Ben Crenshaw, who with his design partner Bill Coore came in after the completion of the Sentry Tournament of Champions last January and began the task of revitalizing—there’s another appropriate word for it—their initial creation that opened in 1991.

Whatever you call it, the Plantation Course, re-grassed tee to green in a proven durable strain of Bermudagrass called Celebration and given an end-to-end facelift, will be a notably different test for the 34 players committed to competing in this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions, which starts Thursday.

“I like it a lot,” said Dustin Johnson, who broke the dawn on Dec. 26 as the first player in the field to get in a practice round, “but it’s definitely harder. It’s a lot more difficult.”

That was the mission—at least one of them—with which the Crenshaw and Coore team was charged as they worked with the Troon Development, headed by Alex Nakajima, general manager of Kapalua golf and tennis, and Mark Rolfing, the NBC and Golf Channel broadcaster who was part of the original Plantation Course development group. The PGA Tour also wanted to see the course play with more versatility, and to do that, the greens had to be “calmed down,” in Crenshaw’s words and recontoured to allow for more pin positions.

The most evident green refinements come at holes 6, 10 and 13, where the slopes were so pronounced only one side of the putting surface could be used to cut holes. The upshot of achieving that aim was the creation of distinct tiers.

RELATED: Tiger Woods won’t play Sentry Tournament of Champions, but the field has Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson

Some greens also were expanded while others, like at the par-4 seventh and the par-5 15th, were reduced in size.

“The course is even more of a second-shot golf course than it was before,” said Rolfing, who watched closely from the time work started on Feb. 11 until the course reopened on Nov. 23. “There are more shelf areas. The PGA Tour wanted more hole locations. The greens were softened and you have some flatter areas, but those transitions are more severe. That puts a real premium on shot-making like it was more in the earlier days. There’s more strategy than before. You can’t just bomb it off every tee, either, because you want to set up that second shot.”

The changes came in on budget, at $12.5 million, and on time, “and we did it in Hawaii,” Nakajima said proudly with a wide grin. “To shut the course down for that period of time showed a huge commitment from ownership, but I think the results speak for themselves. We did what we set out to do.”

Most of the cost of the project was due to material and the transportation of it, namely 33,000 tons of sand, brought in on three barges from Oahu. The majority of it was used as the new base for the greens, but elsewhere there were deposits onto some fairway in the landing areas while three new teeing grounds were added at Nos. 3, 9 and 10, bringing the par-73 course to 7,596 yards.

At the third hole, Johnson, who has won twice at Kapalua, in 2013 and 2018, was used to hitting wedge into the green. A tee 40 yards farther back establishes a landing area that is slightly uphill. As a result, Johnson needed a 6-iron to reach the putting surface, and that was in the face of a mere half-club wind. Thirty yards added to the short, uphill par-4 10th should yield a similar effect.

New landforms in several other landing areas will yield similar results. New fairways bunkers at Nos. 5 and 16 and the movement of other bunkers closer to the preferred lines of play also present additional challenge off the tee. The process of bringing back a more natural, or ragged, look to a number of other bunkers was begun but remains ongoing.

“I think the course will play largely the same, but with a few nuances to make it quite a bit more interesting,” said Crenshaw, who arrives in Maui on Thursday to watch the proceedings in person. “It’s a challenge taking your own design and modifying it, but we’re proud of the changes.”

An entire inventory of the alterations to each hole takes up two typewritten pages. In many subtle ways it’s a new course introduced along a familiar tract of land atop the west Maui mountains. In other ways, its original soul was restored. For instance, the introduction of the new grass will ensure a faster playing surface that will bring back movement of the ball along the ground, a feature that will surely help the resort player while adding yet more strategy and options for tournament golfers.

“I think the course has gotten its life back, gotten its energy back,” Rolfing said. “We’ve created a number of new shot values. I think we’re still going to have some great scoring out there, but they’re going to have to work harder to get it. I think it’s a better golf course. The work done was really spectacular.”

Xander Schauffele shot an 11-under 62 in the final round to win the 2019 Tournament of Champions. If someone can equal that course record this time around, they’ll have earned it.

The post The Plantation Course at Kapalua stiffened up for the PGA Tour’s 2020 opener appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Stephen Hennessey
The partnership of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the men behind new Byron Nelson home Trinity Forest, has been one golf’s most respected architectural teams for quite some time. And it all started back in the late 1980s, when the pair visited a site for a course that was never built. This came soon after Coore’s first course opened at Rockport Country Club in Texas, and Crenshaw—who had just won the 1984 Masters—was so impressed with Coore’s work, Crenshaw signed up to partner with the former Pete Dye associate. The talented duo has worked together for more than 30 years, producing some of the game’s most revered designs.

Here’s a look at those courses—ranked in the order our Golf Digest course-ranking panelists scored them based on our most recent America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses ranking and Golf Digest’s Complete 200 Greatest International Golf Courses ranking.

10 . Kapalua (Plantation), Maui, Hawaii
Though their partnership started in 1991, this was Coore and Crenshaw’s first completed design. No. 21 on Golf Digest’s most recent 100 Greatest Public Courses and No. 112 on our latest Second 100 Greatest, the Plantation course hosts the annual Tournament of Champions that kicks off the year on the PGA Tour. The course is set to undergo an extensive renovation after next year’s tournament, with Coore and Crenshaw overseeing most of the work.

Stan Badz/PGA Tour

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9 . Colorado Golf Club, Parker, Colo.
Named Golf Digest’s sixth Best New private course in 2007, this Colorado layout is currently No. 111 on our latest Second 100 Greatest ranking. The venue for the 2013 Solheim Cup will also host the 2019 U.S. Mid Amateur.

Chris Graythen
Azahara Munoz of Spain hits her second shot on the 14th hole at the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colo. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

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8 . Streamsong (Red), Bowling Green, Fla.
This Everglades-meets-Ballybunion layout, which is how Ron Whitten used to describe the Red course at Streamsong after it opened in 2013, is the highest ranked of the three courses at central Florida’s new Streamsong Resort. Coore and Crenshaw worked with Tom Doak on which land each would use for their routings at Streamsong, a rare collaboration among competitors, but not surprising given their friendship. The Red course, which debuted inside the 100 Greatest in its first appearance, is ranked No. 102 on Golf Digest’s most recent rankings.

The 8th hole at Streamsong’s Red course.

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7 . Bandon Trails (Ore.)
Carved mostly out of wooded land though it starts and finishes among massive sand dunes, the facility’s third course, which opened in 2005, is the fourth-highest ranked course at Bandon Dunes—sitting at No. 70 on our latest ranking.

Stephen Szurlej
The first hole at Bandon Trails

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6 . Old Sandwich Golf Club, Plymouth, Mass.
Old Sandwich’s 56th-place spot is the highest place it has held on our 100 Greatest ranking. Carved out of the brush and sand just two miles from the ocean, Coore and Crenshaw utilised some rolling terrain and beautiful landscapes to create another minimalist design (see Sand Hills, below).

he Henebrys/Courtesy of Old Sandwich GC
The 15th hole at Old Sandwich G.C. in Plymouth, Mass.

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5 . Barnbougle Lost Farm, Bridport, Australia
Sitting among towering Tasmanian sandscapes is this links course that was built to be the sister course of Tom Doak’s Barnbougle Dunes, No. 11 on our World 100. Lost Farm is currently No. 26 on our World 100.

Photo by Stephen Szurlej

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4 . Friar’s Head, Baiting’s Hollow, N.Y.
Built on sandy bluffs along the North Shore of Long Island, Friar’s Head is another minimalist success by Coore and Crenshaw, which despite losing out on Golf Digest’s 2003 Best New Private survey to the Club at Black Rock in Idaho and Dallas National, Friar’s Head ranks far above those designs, continuing to rise in our 100 Greatest rankings—up to No. 19, its highest-ever position.

Evan Schiller
The ninth hole at Friar’s Head Golf Club in Baiting’s Hollow, N.Y.

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3 . Sand Hills Golf Club, Mullen, Neb.
Perhaps most architecturally significant out of this group of courses, Sand Hills is regarded as one of the most natural golf courses ever built. As Golf Digest’s Whitten writes: “The golf course wasn’t so much designed as discovered,” and helped guide the later works of Coore and Crenshaw.

Dom Furore
An overview of Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Neb. (Photograph by Dom Furore)

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2 . Cabot Cliffs, Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada

John and Jeannine Henebry
The 16th hole at Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia.

On Cabot Cliffs, Golf Digest’s 2015 Best New honoree, Whitten wrote: “This is the second coming of Cypress Point, which in my mind was previously unmatched in its beauty, variety and thrills.” For a man not known for hyperbole, that is the highest praise. Cabot Cliffs was No. 9 on our most recent World 100 ranking.

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1 . Shanqin Bay, Hainan Island, China
Probably unknown by most casual American golfers, Shanqin Bay has been called by some the best course in Asia. Built on seaside sand dunes on China’s Hainan Island, Shanqin Bay sits at No. 8 on Golf Digest’s most recent World 100 ranking.

Courtesy of Shanqin Bay G.C.
The eighth hole at Shanqin Bay in China

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Other notable Coore and Crenshaw courses:

Sand Valley Golf Course was named the Best New golf course in 2017 by Golf Digest. It will be a candidate for our next 100 Greatest/Second 100 Greatest rankings, to be published in January 2019.

Trinity Forest Golf Club, site of the 2018 AT&T Bryon Nelson, will be a candidate for Golf Digest’s 2018 survey of Best New courses.

Ozarks National at Big Cedar Lodge—same as Sand Valley—has not yet been included on a published set of Golf Digest rankings.

Dormie Club: Narrowly missed making Golf Digest’s latest Second 100 Greatest ranking, and ranking 185th on Golf Digest’s 2015-2016 ranking, Dormie Club is No. 49 on our most recent 100 Greatest Public ranking.

Chechessee Creek in Okatie, S.C.: Like Dormie Club, made Golf Digest’s 2015-2016 ranking at No. 197, and narrowly missed in 2017-2018.

The Golf Club at Cuscowilla in Eatonton, Ga. — No. 11 on Golf Digest’s most recent Best in State rankings, the G.C. at Cuscowilla recently went full-private, previously being a 100 Greatest Public course.

East Hampton Golf Club: No. 28 on Golf Digest’s 2015-2016 Best in State rankings. Did not make the 2017-2018 rankings.

We-Ko-Pa’s Saguaro Course in Fort McDowell, Ariz.: No. 98 on Golf Digest’s 2017-2018 100 Greatest Public courses ranking,

Lonna Tucker
The eighth hole at We-Ko-Pa’s Saguaro course.

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Austin Golf Club: Ben Crenshaw enjoyed his layout so much in his hometown that he actually lives on property.

Bandon Preserve — The fun 13-hole par-3 course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has become one of the most popular rounds to book at the resort.

The post The best Coore and Crenshaw golf courses appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

As you may have heard, next year’s Nelson will be played on Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw-designed Trinity Forest Golf Club on a sand-capped landfill in rough and tumble South Dallas. The tournament, which has carried Mr. 11 Straight’s name since 1968, is leaving TPC Las Colinas, a bastion of the shiny affluence that distinguishes the northern reaches of the Metroplex, for a less glamorous area that retains the look and feel of a pre-boomtown past. Most importantly, it’s moving from the inherent artificiality of modern golf architecture to the elemental design values that harken back to the origins of the game.

In fact, Trinity Forest is night and day from any other venue on tour. A windswept, nearly treeless expanse of dunes, waving prairie grass, and fast, undulating turf, the new place has every attribute of a links except cawing sea birds and an ocean.

It’s a big risk for everyone involved. You can almost hear the hushed clatter of dice hitting the side rails, including those thrown by the sponsor (AT&T), the developers (Jonas Woods and Thomas Dundon), the members, the city of Dallas and the Salesmanship Club, which runs the Nelson.

Uncertainty will prevail for the next year. Everyone may miss the cozy confines of the Four Seasons, an infrastructure that helped make the Nelson No. 1 on tour in charitable dollars raised and a perfectly adequate—if not revered—golf course. The only way this thing works is if Trinity Forest is a home run.

That next year’s Nelson will cause a sensation is a given. There will be lavish praise, and there will be howling. Some players will love the cerebral, pinball-ish ground game at Trinity Forest, its ice-sculpture greens and the shabby chic of its out-of-play areas. Other expert practitioners used to hitting high shots to soft targets just aren’t going to get it. Someone will four-putt or five-putt and pitch a fit. Some viral videos may result.

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WATCH NOW: THE PRE-SHOT PUTTING ROUTINE YOU NEED UNDER PRESSURE

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Although architect Crenshaw, a traditionalist in such matters, will concede only that Trinity Forest is “links-like,” it’s essentially a links. That could be a problem. Tour players don’t do links or links-like (except for the one week in the U.K. in July) and they never have. Yes, Pinehurst hosted the North and South Open from 1902 to 1951, as well as U.S. Opens in 1999, 2005 and 2014, and some think of that North Carolina ground as linksy. But: pine trees.

The crux of the Trinity Forest matter is more than just Dallas’s venerable PGA Tour event. The TF guys set the bar really high. Take the first sentence on its website. The club, it says, “was created explicitly to attract prestigious golf championships back to Dallas.”

That means bringing a major, and hopefully more, back to Big D. Jordan Spieth’s hometown hosted the U.S. Open once, in 1952, at Northwood Club. Julius Boros won. Dallas Athletic Club staged the PGA Championship once, in 1963. Jack Nicklaus won. And that’s been it.

Is Trinity Forest worthy of another major? Or will it be?

Yes. Short of the British Open crossing the Prime Meridian, there’s no other feasible site (sorry Sand Hills and Bandon Dunes) that could offer as good a linksy, adrenaline-fueled thrill ride for the U.S. Open or PGA Championship as Trinity Forest. And with the possibility in a few years that the PGA Championship will be moving from its traditional August date to May, Dallas’ Sunbelt geography could make it a more attractive candidate in a month when Northeast sites tend to be too cold and soggy, and summer heat hasn’t yet overtaken Texas.

Such positive forecasting might sound foolish, but at least I know the place pretty well. For reasons that include a sharp desire to get my ass out of the office, I have been a part-time caddie at Trinity Forest since it opened last October. I have been on the bag of touring pros and abject hackers and all varieties in between. I have tended the pin for a gentleman putting from 79 yards on the double green for holes 3 and 11; he got it within eight feet and bumped my fist. I have endured many what-the-hell looks after a putt that I predicted would go a little left went a little right. I have managed not to point out that the sun was in my eyes, that the ultra-dwarf Bermuda greens are extraordinarily good for a new course but they’re not yet perfect, and that you, Mr. Golfer, are not exactly a surgeon with the putter.

What I’ve learned from repeated exposure is that your usual game ain’t gonna work. A hockey stick is literally more useful than a 60-degree wedge on these tight and dry zoysia fairways. Those who can’t bring themselves to putt or bump from off the green will give away strokes.

The first green accepts like a catcher’s mitt. The second green repels like the left field wall at Fenway. The fourth green is an infinity pool; you will very likely putt right off it. Ground zero for short-game tragedies is the adjacent fifth and the 15th greens, which are shaped like overturned cereal bowls. Five plays at around 340 yards and it’s not tight and there’s just the one bunker to miss but triple bogeys and Xs outnumber birdies there by a wide margin. At the grand opening, Crenshaw made a 20-footer—for 6.

“I love it,” Ogilvy said. “Strategically, it’s so interesting. It’s got everything that’s missing from modern architecture. There are ways to challenge golfers besides long rough and narrow fairways.”

Also: Imagination and feel can be as important as yardage, particularly on a windy day, which is most of them. And something Crenshaw said should be printed on the scorecard: “The closer you flirt with trouble, the greater advantage you gain … [that’s] the cardinal principle of strategic design.”

On Wednesday, 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy had his first look at the place since he tramped around the raw land on behalf of the design firm that he and Mike Clayton partner, which didn’t get the job. I forecaddied and the lanky Aussie talked between shots. Weeds and wild flowers—rebranded “native areas”—swayed in the breeze. So did the leaves on the trees in the dense surrounding forest, which is the largest urban hardwood forest in the U.S. Only two buildings were visible all day: the clubhouse and the Bank of America tower 10 miles away in downtown Dallas, which is the aiming point for the tee ball on 15th.

“I love it,” Ogilvy said. “Strategically, it’s so interesting. It’s got everything that’s missing from modern architecture. There are ways to challenge golfers besides long rough and narrow fairways.”

On Thursday, I spoke with two local, low-handicap amateurs who’d ridden the wild pony. “Hated it,” said one. “Ben Crenshaw can’t hit a green so he made it a contest of who can make 12-footers—and Jordan wins.”

“It was incredible,” said Mark Krasovec. “I’ve seldom stepped on a course and said, ‘I wanna be a member,’ but I did at Trinity Forest. Had a great caddie, too. Jesse. A fireman. Has about five kids.”

None of this clears up the major question, of course. But on Monday the tour caddies will gather at Trinity Forest for their annual tournament. Those guys know golf courses. And they know majors. Let’s see how they like the only links on the schedule.

The post Trinity Forest Golf Club promises to be the PGA Tour’s most intriguing venue appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

I Think…

In the pre-Ryder Cup Task Force days, we never would have seen a team captain without a major championship on his résumé. In this new Ryder Cup era, wiser thinking has prevailed and potentially opened the door for winning U.S. Presidents Cup captain Steve Stricker to lead the American 2020 Ryder Cup squad at Whistling Straits in his home state of Wisconsin. “Shoot yeah, I want to be captain,” Stricker said on Sunday at Liberty National, after the winning point was clinched for Team USA. “If I was given the opportunity, then sure. But I don’t know if they’re going to step out of the box, or not.” All indications are they would, “they” being the newly constructed U.S. Ryder Cup committee comprised of three PGA of America officials and three players. In this case, the three players are Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and the current captain, Jim Furyk. All of them are extremely close to Stricker, who says he would like to make Furyk’s team as a player in 2018. That goal aside, the resounding victory over the International team this past weekend, and the way the team bonded under Stricker’s leadership, would seemingly make the 50-year-old a lock for three years down the road. The only mandate in the new power structure is that a captain needs to have served time as an assistant captain, which Stricker did under Davis Love III in the six-point U.S. victory at Hazeltine National in 2016. “Strick’s going nowhere,” said another respected voice in this, original Task Force member Rickie Fowler. In other words, in this new system, the players are not only hitting the shots. They’re more involved in calling the shots, too. That’s a big reason for the turnaround.

I Saw…

Scott Halleran/PGA Tour

Branden Grace outside the International team room on Sunday morning, his side down 11 points going into the singles, with a big smile on his face as he told me the goal was to pull off the greatest golf upset of all time. The day before, Nick Price was feeling the frustration after spending six years of his life wanting to make the Presidents Cup competitive. “What more can I say to these guys,” Price said several times, before punctuating the moment by adding, “They’re trying.” That night in the news conference he admitted his team had its sense of humor back, and by Sunday morning Price had to break into a grin himself when hearing of Grace’s comment. “You never know,” he said. “I’m not going to stand here and say I’ve got a feeling about this like Ben Crenshaw. But you never know, stranger things have happened.” Price can take solace that his players showed their pride during the singles, going 5-4-3 in the session. Still, it’s going to be a little while before the sting of this eight-point blow out fades. “It’s not exactly a dream week for us,” he said.

I Heard…

Chris Condon/PGA Tour

Straight from Ernie Els that he would like to follow in Nick Price’s footsteps and become the next International team captain. “I’m up for it,” Els told me Sunday night outside his team room at Liberty National. “It would be a dream job.” Brought in by Nick Price as his protégé, Els brings all the right qualities to the role: Legendary Hall of Famer (like Price), just approaching his 48th birthday (he will be 50 at the time of the Cup), having played a role in perhaps the all-time greatest Presidents Cup moment (his duel with Tiger Woods at Fancourt in 2003), with a history at Royal Melbourne (he’s won there three times and has the course record, 60). “Like Pricey, he’s a players’ guy. He mixes with all of us,” said South African countryman Louis Oosthuizen. “I think he will be an amazing captain.” Els told me that remaining current is important, and to that end he will be playing more of an international schedule over the next two years as part of the education process with new players. As Els said, spending time “with the boys,” looking at the competition more as a captain than a competitor for the first time, “was quite an education.”

The post Captain’s log: Steve Stricker wants a crack at the Ryder Cup while Ernie Els is ready to lead the Internationals appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The 17-year-old Dubai-based Indian amateur No.1 was two-under at the turn in his opening round at Skokie Country Club but eventually mixed five birdies with as many bogeys (including dropped shots on 16 and 18) to sign for an even par 71. It left the dual Dubai Creek and Emirates GC member, ranked 66^th in the official world amateur rankings, in a 17-way share of 49^th place in the 156-player field.

The leading 44 players and ties after today’s second round advance to Thursday’s final 36 holes of stroke play. Thereafter, the top 16 progress to the ‘Sweet 16’, the historic event’s match play phase to be decided over Friday and Saturday.

Thomas tees it up at 8.40am (5.40pm UAE time) today and surviving the first cut would be another huge confidence boost after he missed the match play phase of The (British) Amateur in Northern Ireland by a solitary stroke before becoming the first Indian to progress to the semifinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur at Flint Hills GC in Kansas last month (he was beaten 5&4 by eventual runner-up, Texan Noah Goodwin).

Thomas moved inside the top 1000 of the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) on the back of his U.S. Junior Amateur performance. To put his 972^nd rating into context, injury-sidelined former world No.1 Tiger Woods is currently ranked 1046^th.

The Emirates Golf Federation star is five shots adrift of the Western Am’s overnight leaders – Americans Stephen Franken, Dawson Armstrong and Collin Morikawa, Australian Ruben Sondjaja and New Zealander Nick Voke – and a sub-par round is likely to do the job Wednesday. Among other notable scores, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo shot 80 in his first big amateur event while defending champion Dylan Meyer ( Indiana), made two bogeys over his final five holes to finish with a 72. Morikawa is the world No.2 and 2013 Western Am champion while Armstrong captured the 2015 edition of the tournament first played in 1899.

The Western Am is one of the most prestigious events on the amateur calendar. Past champions include Francis Ouimet, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Chris DiMarco, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard, Woods, Ryan Moore and Danny Lee.

Catch the first round highlights here:

The post Thomas walking a knife-edge at Western Amateur in the US appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

This year’s MENA Tour order-of-merit champion will tee it up at the $6.9 million Dean & Deluca Invitational at historic Colonial Country Club in May next year.

The coup comes courtesy of a close relationship between one of the MENA Tour’s tournament sponsors, Thailand’s MahaSamutr Country Club, and fine food specialists Dean & Deluca.

“This partnership, in conjunction with Colonial Country Club, marks another ground-breaking step forward for the MENA Tour as it aims to form new alliances around the world that can benefit its members and grow the game of golf,” the MENA Tour said in a statement.

Two-time major winner and former world No.1 Jordan Spieth is the reigning champion at Colonial in a tournament which drapes its champions, a veritable whose who of the game’s greatest names, in a red tartan jacket.

Jordan Spieth will defend the famed red tartan jacket at Colonial in May. Photo: Getty Images

Ben Hogan won the inaugural tournament in 1946 and went on to capture the title a further four times. Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Ben Crenshaw, Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson and Adam Scott have also won in what is the longest running event at the same venue and the 10th oldest event on the PGA Tour.

The invite adds considerable lure to the MENA Tour which already offers its members starts at the European Tour’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic and Trophee Hassan II in Morocco in addition to playing privileges on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour and exemptions into the final stage of Asian Tour Q-School.

It also comes after chairman Mohamed Juma Buamaim critically secured Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status for the developmental Pro-Am tour last year.

The MENA Tour began in 2011 and is affiliated to The R&A and the Arab Golf Federation. Spanish rookie Leo Lilja currently leads the moneylist after winning the season-opening Casablanca Open before missing the cut in the most recent Royal Golf Mohammedia Open, also in Morocco, which was won by Dutch amateur Pierre Junior Verlaar.

“The invitation to play in one of the most prestigious PGA Tour events is a great development for the MENA Tour, one that will resonate on many levels, reinforcing the growing strength of the game in the MENA region,” said Buamaim.

“I would like to thank Dean & Deluca and MahaSamutr Country Club for their gesture and believe it will further motivate tour members to keep pushing forward. All we want is to fuel an ideal climate for competitive golf in the region for young golfers to come through the ranks and make a name for themselves. Every step is a leap forward.”

The invitation follows PACE Development’s on-going commitment of the opening event of the MENA Tour’s three-tournament Thailand swing, the $50,000 MahaSamutr Masters at Banyan Golf Club in Hua Hin (May 2-4). It is followed by another 54-holer, the $30,000 Mountain Creek Open by Golf Citizen (May 8-10), and the $50,000 Pattana Golf Championship, the tour’s first 72-hole event, from May 16-19.

Dean & Deluca was recently acquired by Pace Development Corporation, one of Thailand’s leading real estate firms that owns MahaSamutr Country Club. The latter made a foray into golf sponsorship when it sponsored the 2016 inaugural MahaSamutr Masters at Banyan Golf Club.

Chilean Antonio Costa, the winner of the MENA Tour’s 2016 MahaSamutr Masters, with Kajohnphob Teepaganont of Pace Development Corporation, MENA Tour chairman Mohamed Juma Buamaim, H.E. Pasan Teparak, Stacey Walton of GLS Asia, and Korrakoch Charoenplung of Pace at Banyan GC

“PACE Development Corporation is delighted to be sponsoring [the] MENA Tour for the second consecutive year and opening the tournament [Thailand swing] with MahaSamutr Masters 2017,” said Sorapoj Techakraisri, CEO of Pace Development Corporation Plc.

“We are also excited to offer this year’s tour winner an invitation to the DEAN & DELUCA Invitational in 2018 to support the tour’s long-term commitment to bringing the popularity of this game to Asia and being the first step before taking on the world stage. Good luck to all of this year’s players.”

The post MENA Tour champion to earn prestigious PGA Tour start in 2018 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The new Latrobe blade style putter, part of the brand’s lineup of five new models for 2017, is a throwback to the Wilson 8802 model that the late Arnold Palmer made famous back in the day.

Palmer used the Wilson 8802 model, the flanged-blade model based on an original Tommy Armour Ironmaster, for many of his victories in the 1950s and ’60s, and later Ben Crenshaw used a version he called “Little Ben” to win two Masters titles.

“This one is us paying homage to the King, of course,” said Sean Toulon, senior vice president at Callaway, general manager of the Odyssey brand and the founder of Toulon Design with sons Joe and Tony.

“He’s been near and dear to many hearts, but has had a special place here at Callaway Golf. This is a very difficult putter to mill well and required a lot of input from the team here, as well as Austie Rollinson and Roger Cleveland, especially in terms of getting the blend of the hosel right.”

Unlike other Toulon Design models, the Latrobe extends the diamond mill pattern all the way across the face. Like the original blade models from 2016, the Latrobe, as well as the other three new blades for 2017, are all milled from 303 stainless steel.

The Latrobe features a 40- or 50-gram sole plate to get the total weight more in line with modern head weights of 340 and 350 grams. The Latrobe actually is part of the Toulon Garage line, which allows users to fully customize paint fills, graphics and finishes.

The Latrobe will be offered in both brushed satin and black finish. A special version of the Latrobe, which was presented as a tee prize during the Arnold Palmer Invitational Pro-Am, included a leather grip with Palmer’s signature.

The Latrobe seeks to neatly confirm Toulon’s guiding design principle with his putter line: “If it’s going to improve performance then we’re going to put it on the product, and if we’re going to put it on the product, we’re going to take the time to do it so it’s beautiful.”

The Latrobe and other Toulon Design models in the 2017 line will be at retail starting April 14 at $400. —Mike Stachura/@MikeStachura

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