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.
Episode 1 of the Lying Four podcast explores the landscape of golf media, from the entanglement of traditional media with the subjects they cover to independent media testing new revenue sources.
Conversations about the Olympics’ inability to attract top golfers should clarify that this is a problem on the men’s side alone. The women are doing just fine.
Aiken GC in South Carolina is a model for small, aging courses: it can’t compete with pedigreed, championship-length designs, so it doesn’t try. It’s unique, and that’s enough.
“I think what you see out there is that there’s a lot of reasons we play golf. And it’s not always to shoot the lowest scores. It’s not always to play tournament golf, or to try to improve.”