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.
Cider Ridge Golf Course in Oxford, Alabama, is more a forgery of a golf course than a real one: penal and poorly thought out, routed from the scraps of land left over from a surrounding housing development.
Tony Finau isn’t one of the chokers that Jack Nicklaus could count on to melt down at the top of a leaderboard. But he doesn’t have a knack for climbing on top, either.