Stories
Will Bardwell
Too Big to Trail

Imagine building 26 golf courses at the height of the golf development bubble, with nine figures in public pension money — in an effort that now loses money year after year. Welcome to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

Too Big to Trail
Stories
Will Bardwell
Rebirth and Reimagining in Mississippi

In theory, 12-hole designs should be cheaper to play, build, and maintain. But in the staid industry of golf course development, there’s been no rush to test the theory. The minds behind Sweetens Cove are ready to change that.

Rebirth and Reimagining in Mississippi
Stories
Will Bardwell
Rob Collins and the Long Road Out of Hell

Rob Collins had one shot. At Sweetens Cove, he took it — and he bet on himself over and over again. Somehow, impossibly, it worked.

Rob Collins and the Long Road Out of Hell
Pros
Will Bardwell
Coffee, a Dark House, and the Open

Waking up at 1:30 a.m. to watch golf isn’t conducive to work, or anything else really. But it’s become my favorite TV viewing experience of the year.

Coffee, a Dark House, and the Open
Pros
Will Bardwell
History will Judge the PGA

Through its silence in the face of Donald Trump’s racism, the PGA of America is not merely acquiescent in his behavior — it is complicit.

History will Judge the PGA

Conversations

Bunkie Perkins

Bunkie Perkins

“May is one of the few times when Oklahoma weather is actually enjoyable. The only real issue is that’s kinda tornado season.”

Chad Ramey

Chad Ramey

“If you’re gonna be really good, then you’ve gotta be super-consistent. Anybody can play with anybody for one day, or two days — but to string four rounds together, and to string an entire season together, you’re gonna have to be super-consistent.”

Jared Wolfe

Jared Wolfe

“It slowly got better. I won another one in ’18, and then ’19 hit: we won the first event out, and I thought, ‘Wow, we’re really validating that I can do this.’ From there on out, my mindset went from ‘let’s try to survive out here and make the cut’ to ‘let’s get in contention to win as many weeks as we possibly can.’”

Kyle Porter

Kyle Porter

“I think that these leagues — and this is not a PGA Tour-specific thing, because you see this in college sports — they pull back access. They don’t want you to have access. They want more control. And what that creates is more value on being funny or having the Twitter-type stuff. COVID’s only exacerbated that.”

Thad Layton

Thad Layton

“There’s a better way to do development golf: having the ability to influence that routing and have more of a core golf course that’s a cohesive golf experience, from green to tee and tee to green.”

John Boyette

John Boyette

“A lot of people still will come to Augusta as long as they’re playing the Masters, but some of the hospitality might be slowed down. Whenever this coronavirus scare is over, who knows how bad that’s going to affect some of these corporations and big spenders. I think there’s just a lot of unknowns in that area.“