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.
Oxmoor Valley’s Short course runs across some of the same dramatic land as the site’s two solid regulation-length courses, but at a third of the price.
Ballantrae Golf Club in Pelham, Alabama, is proof that a course need not go all-in on being a “links-style” design to successfully incorporate elements of links golf.
A golf course built around the idea of having fun shouldn't be novel. The fact that it is says more about other designs than it does about Sweetens Cove.
Pinehurst’s tremendous golf courses lure the visitor into 36-hole days, but the real fun around Pinehurst lies in the area’s small pleasures, like a late night of crushing inadvisable 5-irons at Donald Ross’ 100-year-old fireplace.
Fairhope, Ala., was founded in 1894 as a socialist utopia. It’s since moved away from that ideology, which is unfortunate for its municipal golf course, which needs a redistribution of width.
Alabama’s Gulf Coast is full of monolithic, unremarkable courses that do not stand out from one another. Timber Creek does nothing to disturb that monotony.
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.
For the past decade, casino revenue in Mississippi has fallen nearly every year. The golf courses made possible by the gaming boom haven’t escaped that decline.
Rudimentary design and underwhelming conditions hold East Potomac back, but there is something special about this place. And there’s reason to hope that change might be coming.
It’s marketed as “The Augusta You Can Play.” But Dancing Rabbit Golf Club’s Azaleas course lacks Augusta’s strategic challenges. At best, it’s an Augusta knockoff.
This municipal course in New Orleans’ Gentilly neighborhood is a representation of the whole city post-Katrina: it’s not perfect, but it’s back, and it’s wonderful, and that alone is amazing.