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.
“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.”
Audubon Park is perhaps the closest thing that American golf offers to the Scottish tradition: a course that truly belongs to its community, not only because it is a public course, but because it is literally accessible to everyone — golfers and otherwise.
“When we organize ourselves in groups — yeah, that kinda stinks, because we start to shout; we start to divide. But person to person, there hasn’t been a person that I haven’t enjoyed meeting and getting to know.”