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.
“When I went up to Canada, I told myself, ‘You’ve still gotta beat people.’ … A lot of guys will go up there, and they don’t think they should be there — they think they should be on the PGA Tour or the Web. But you just can’t have that kind of mindset.”