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.
Wolf Hollow Golf Course, on the campus of a community college in southwest Mississippi, is a true diamond in the rough: a shot-making joyride, all for a preposterously low greens fee.
“I kept seeing all these architects, and I kept calling bullshit. I’d go in their offices, and I’d watch this stuff — and here I am, just a smartass kid selling equipment, but I kept saying to myself, ‘There’s something that doesn’t make sense here.’”
Somehow, in an era when the Internet has uncovered all of golf’s secrets, the Fields GC in La Grange, Ga., remains a true hidden gem. That seems destined to change.