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.
Augusta National’s failure to make a clean break with its ugly past leaves fans clinging to a flimsy distinction between the club and the tournament it hosts.
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.
Even by golf’s standards, golf course architecture badly underrepresented Black people. That failure endangers the game’s viability for Black and white players alike.
No other group so strikingly represents golf’s institutional racism than the PGA Tour, and no other group in golf is so well positioned to do something about it.