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.
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.
The geological period from which Cambrian Ridge takes its name was a time of dramatic change and evolution. Cambrian Ridge almost shows some of the same. Almost.
If, as the PGA has explained, holding the 2022 championship at Bedminster “would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand,” then Shoal Creek alone offers the PGA a mulligan.
“If you want to go over there and play Muirfield and Troon and Carnoustie and Dornoch — I certainly love those places, and I’ve done that. But as I’ve gotten older, I love these off-the-beaten-path places.”
Whippoorwill is largely treeless, frequently presenting no discernible playing corridor — just a teebox (if you can find it) and a flag in the distance (if you can read it). If it sounds disorienting, it is. But the result isn’t chaos — it’s adventure.
Oxmoor Valley’s Short course runs across some of the same dramatic land as the site’s two solid regulation-length courses, but at a third of the price.
Ballantrae Golf Club in Pelham, Alabama, is proof that a course need not go all-in on being a “links-style” design to successfully incorporate elements of links golf.