East Lothian Week: All 18 From North Berwick, Plus Scotland Golf Guides

David Jones has given us a few wonderful gifts to kick off Scottish Open week in East Lothian. With things not quite back to normal, don’t expect to see players posting videos of their rounds at North Berwick and Gullane, but that’s where Jones and his UK Golf Guy site come in handy with a fresh look at the West Links.

But before that, I’ve long been meaning to direct you to the fantastic map he’s created of Scotland golf courses. At first glance this might seem unnecessary in a world where we have phone maps. But if you’re planning a trip there, or just dreaming of one, having a hard copy is incredibly helpful thanks in part to elements Jones incorporated of all 550 courses. Key elements:

• Every golf course in Scotland open for public play


• Top 100 courses in Scotland noted by a different color

• Number of holes for courses under 18 holes shown 


• Detailed insets for the Edinburgh and Glasgow areas


• Journey distance times between key courses


• Clear road mapping of mainland and islands


• Ferry routes


The chart for driving distances is worth the price alone, especially when tour operators can be prone to schedule some odd day-to-day adventures for unsuspecting visitors.

The price? £9.99 with free delivery in the UK and £3 for global shipping.

Now, on to the magnificent North Berwick which is pretty well documented, but not like this. I’m normally not one to like rear views but Jones used the super-early light (4:30 am, gulp) and different perspectives to show off the links like we’ve never seen before. It does highlight a few fairway contours that could use some widening to show off even more features, but I won’t quibble. Sit back and enjoy:

And the good folks at Scotland’s Golf Coast have a downloadable guide if you go to their website:

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Shadow Creek Primed To Be The First $1000 Green Fee Course

GolfDigest.com’s Stephen Hennessey with the gory details of Shadow Creek becoming the first $1000 green fee course, though it also requires staying at an MGM property so the price is actually higher.

Good news, it’s only $750 during off-peak months.

Meanwhile Pebble Beach is still below $600, but also requires a Lodge or Spanish Bay stay.

"The Monster is back."

Oh My! The 10th and 11th holes at Oakland Hills South. Look at that land! (Larry Lambrecht)

That’s what the Detroit Pree-Press’ Carlos Monarrez says about one of America’s most storied championship venues sidelined while undergoing reconstructive surgery to repair damage done by the Jones family.

Oakland Hills South has seen Hanse Design attempt to bring back more Donald Ross and prepare it for 21st century tournaments. The course reopened Thursday but has no events locked in right now.

Last week the USGA announced more future sites for the U.S. Open. The next open date is 2028, a year after Pebble Beach hosts the tournament. That could bode well for Oakland Hills’ chances since the USGA likes to alternate eastern and western sites every year for the Open.

“Restoring the South Course at Oakland Hills was a master class in scale from architect Donald Ross,” Hanse said in a statement Thursday. “By returning the proportions of the features to the large scale of the property, we learned so much about how to create interest, strategy and beauty. This was a truly thrilling project for us to be involved in and we are excited about the transformation that has occurred.”

Quadrilateral readers know 2028 is out barring some sort of last minute change, while 2024 and 2029 are already locked in at Pinehurst #2. So the likely next option is 2030 but there is a certain anniversary that makes Merion a possibility that year. Time will tell!

Gil Hanse has restored the Donald Ross flair to the South Course at Oakland Hills. A U.S. Open may be in Detroit's future. pic.twitter.com/zsnTQwtEmh

— The Fried Egg (@the_fried_egg) June 23, 2021

Torrey Preview: The Course, The Broadcast And More

I haven’t gotten around to a prognostication post but we still have time and early week reports to sift through.

In the meantime, just my contributions to the 121st U.S. Open preview coverage.

NBC returns to the scene of their greatest golf broadcasts.

Why the USGA cannot go the *&^%@ pairing route this week.

U.S. Open News and Notes, June 10th.

What to make of Torrey Pines with lots of pictures dissecting lazy, dated and costly renovation work.

Podcast-wise, I discussed my history with Torrey Pines and the thinking behind my McKellar Issue 5 essay on its design:

And the latest State of the Game covered an array of topics including the U.S. Open:

The 1-18 flyover compilation from the USGA. Unfortunately it appears to have been shot a while ago, so we don’t see the final rough lines and buildout:

Jack Discovers Why Muirfield Village's 16th Did Not Work

Nine years ago Jack Nicklaus installed an all-new 16th hole at Muirfield Village, and Tiger’s amazing hole-out notwithstanding, the par-3 over water has not been well received by players. Besides not really fitting well with the course (rear catch basin, artificial pond, etc.), looking better from angles other than the tee location, the shot has been difficult for even the world’s best to hold the green.

In renovating the course last year, Nicklaus discovered why. From Dave Shedloski’s GolfDigest.com item:

“The green actually pitched away in the back. I did not know that,” Nicklaus said with genuine wonder but blamed himself. “I figured it was built just as I drew it. So, I took seven inches out of the middle of the green and added seven inches to the back of the green. It changes the whole profile of the green, so it sits more towards the tee.”

I’m not sure why it took reconstruction to discover something determinable with surveying equipment, but maybe the hole will play better going forward.

First Looks At Jack Nicklaus' Last (He Says) Renovation Of Muirfield Village

Golf.com has posted a documentary that aired on CBS last Sunday called “One Last Bite.”

It’s worth it even though you’ll have to deal with the usual pop-ups hawking Golden Bear hats (still!).

WBNS TV sent out Drone10 for a (slow) flyover of all 18 holes. First reactions: several fairway bunker rearrangements look to be calling for shaping tee shots a bit more (in line with Nicklaus’s most recent and best version of the 17th). The new look 15th still isn’t clicking with me given the raw beauty of the old hole. The creek and banks may improve with age, but at least the new green complex looks a bit more demanding to with a fun back right pin placement.

Quadrilateral: In Appreciation Of Free-Flowing Tees

After watching Southern Hills the last four days, a short newsletter for paying subscribers on the super-sexy tees at the 2022 PGA Championship venue. We need more of them and links to return to free-flowing over the box system.

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who have served.

Colonial To Go Under The Knife After 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge

As play gets underway at storied Colonial Country Club, the often tinkered with John Bredemus/Perry Maxwell design has green lit more work, this time approving a Gil Hanse master plan. Work will start after the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge, with the course reopening a year later.

From Randy Jennings in the Dallas Morning News:

The project will include a modern irrigation system, new bunkers, tees and green complexes.

Soil temperatures will be controlled by a subterranean cooling and heating system for the green complexes.

Features will be rebuilt and new turf will be established throughout the entire course.

“While Colonial is one of the most recognizable names in golf, the course has evolved far afield from its original vision,” Hanse said in a statement. “We are honored that the members have entrusted us with this classic gem and will work hard to make it more visually artistic and more interesting to play.

”We are similarly hopeful that upon playing the restored course the best players in the world will find that the attributes that make Colonial challenging will still be at the heart of the design.”

R.I.P. Arthur Hills

The golf course architect and former ASGCA President was 91. The ASGCA’s announcement of his passing:

Arthur Hills, ASGCA Fellow, dies at 91 

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) Past President Arthur Hills, ASGCA Fellow, died May 18, 2021, in Florida. He was age 91.

A graduate of both Michigan State University (science) and the University of Michigan (landscape architecture), Hills excelled at golf as a member of the MSU Spartan golf team. He formed his golf course architecture firm in the 1960s. Today, Hills * Forrest * Smith, Golf Course Architects continues to, as their website states, “create golf course designs that stimulate the senses, display creativity, and honor the hallowed traditions of the game as they relate to strategy, shot values and aesthetic character.”

Hills designed more than 200 new golf courses around the world and renovated more than 150 other courses. His new designs include: Bonita Bay, Naples, Florida; The Golf Club of Georgia, Atlanta; Bighorn Golf Club, Palm Desert, California; Keene Trace Golf Club, Lexington, Kentucky; and Hyatt Hill Country Resort, San Antonio, Texas. Hills-designed courses have hosted a number of distinguished amateur and professional tournaments, including U.S. Opens and the Ryder Cup.

“As a kid drawing golf holes and dreaming about becoming a designer, I would read the magazines and marvel at the articles about new courses,” ASGCA President Forrest Richardson recalled. “One was Tamarron in Colorado, a new course by Art Hills set in a rugged valley with steep cliffs. Eventually I got to see it firsthand, and it inspired me with its bold greens and creative routing.

An environmental pioneer, Hills designed the first Audubon Signature Sanctuary courses in the United States, Mexico and Europe. ASGCA Past President Pete Dye dubbed Hills “the Mayor of Naples” for the number of private country club courses that he designed in and near that coastal Florida location.

ASGCA Past President Steve Forrest said, “He started the business by placing an ad in the Toledo, Ohio, Yellow Pages under ‘Golf Course Architect’ while operating a landscape contracting business. I had the great privilege of learning all aspects of golf course architecture from a distinguished professional practitioner and humble gentleman over 42 years. Arthur became a father-like figure to me who was a mentor, an instructor, exhorter and admonisher while always trying to improve his own skills and increase his personal knowledge every day.”

“Mr. Hills was among a handful of golf architects who subscribed to a newsletter I published about golf design in the 1970s, and he also took time to comment and contribute,” Richardson said. “While he left an incredible legacy of work across the world, for me I will always recall the kindness he showed a young aspiring student — a gift we should all pay forward.”

Hills has been inducted into both the Ohio and Michigan Golf Halls of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award from the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association.

He became an ASGCA member in 1971. Hills served as ASGCA president in 1992-93 and achieved Fellow status in 2003. He is survived by his wife Mary. They had eight children, 24 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.  

Visitation will be at Reeb Funeral Home, Sylvania, Ohio, on Sunday, May 23, from 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. Funeral Mass will be at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Sylvania, Ohio, on Monday, May 24, at 11 a.m.

Chris Powell's MacKenzie Reclamation Is Featured By The NY Times, Golf.com

During the coronavirus pandemic Chris Powell became obsessed with restoring a lost Alister MacKenzie design in Wales and mowed enough down to play it…for a day.

Josh Sens at Golf filed this take on the wild story, with a definite bent toward golfers who will enjoy the details.

And in Sunday’s New York Times, Jack Williams filed a similar feature with photos by Phil Hatcher-Moore.

While others in Britain spent the past year or so navigating coronavirus lockdowns and picking up indoor hobbies, Powell estimated that he had spent roughly 1,000 hours roaming this land that was once his town’s local golf course — a site that closed more than five decades ago and has slowly been melding into the landscape ever since.

Thanks to Powell’s dedication to discovery and his skills as a one-man renovation team, he managed not only to identify all of the previous tees and greens, hidden among the hills and foliage, but also to repair the course to a playable state. There were surprises along the way, too — like the discovery of ties to a certain course in Augusta, Ga. — and now he and the group were ready to tackle the Rhayader Golf Links once more.

Anyway, both are super reads about a pretty fun story.

Kiawah Primers: Scot Sherman Q&A And The Ocean Course In 4K

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Absent hole-by-hole flyovers I have the next big thing: enough to whet your appetite for next week’s PGA Championship and an update on Kiawah since we last saw the Ocean Course in 2012.

Golf architect Scot Sherman kindly takes us through the course in Part 2 of my Quadrilateral Q&A.

In Part 1 we discussed Pete Dye and the challenge of keeping his courses up-to-date without ruining the Dye.

Andy Johnson takes through specific changes since the last PGA there along with this Fried Egg look at the Ocean is especially good on a big 4K screen:

Golf Digest Ranking Runs Incorrect Numbers After Touting Commitment To "Objective Data"

The top 25 based on published data before the numbers were removed from GolfDigest.com

With the release of their latest top 100 ranking Golf Digest featured the usual oddball emphasis on theatrics beyond golf architecture.

This prompted a plea from to pay attention to things that make a course fun and timeless, but the damage was already done.

There is also the matter than you can pay to join the panel here for $1300.

Not great.

But that’s their business.

For the sport of golf, the elements consistently rewarded by Golf Digest tend to lean expensive, unsatisfying to play and obnoxious for the planet. There’s a case to be made that the ranking has been one of the worst influences on course development since its 1966 inception. But they bill it as the “oldest and most respected list in golf.”

Thankfully, the golf world is trying to move away from the values endorsed by Golf Digest, with fun and low key atmosphere’s revered, but that doesn’t mean the 2021-22 ranking improprieties should be laughed off.

In the latest ranking rollout, Derek Duncan touts how Digest’s “commitment to emphasizing objective data in an inherently subjective endeavor has only intensified.” He lays out a system to get course votes more timely and to no longer count votes after for a course since modified significantly, plus other ways to keep the list relevant.

Then Duncan writes how close things get among the Top 100 courses.

The space between those fractions of a point might not seem like much, but they matter. Though acknowledging that it’s hard to do, we ask panelists to sweat the details and carry their 1 to 10 scores to two or even three decimal places. This is to delineate between contenders because the scores become increasingly compact the farther down the ranking one travels. What separates No. 114 (Mayacama in Santa Rosa, Calif.) and No. 115 (Stone Eagle in Palm Desert, Calif.) is miniscule: .0003. The difference between being comfortably inside the 100 Greatest (Pete Dye Golf Club in West Virginia, No. 87) and outside (Baltimore Country Club East, No. 102) is only five-tenths of a point. This means a club could elevate its numbers across each category by .07 and potentially improve position a dozen or more places.

That attention to math seems excessive at best and might explain why the panelists are focusing on analytics instead of artistry. But the number crunching looks downright absurd after a former panelist noticed the 2021-22 posted data was not matching up with its revamped category and scoring system.

Jason Jones initially posted on GolfClubAtlas.com about the discrepancy featuring No. 1 Pine Valley:

So, what is interesting about this list is that if you take the methodology described, and the data that is provided, their math is wrong.

For example, their described methodology is to take (2x Shot Options) plus (the other 6 categories). 

For Pine Valley, their published total score using this methodology is: 72.1554

However, if you take the published categories and enter them into their formula, Pine Valley's total score is: 71.8386.

Given that most of these scores are within tenths (or less) of each other, some rankings are different mathematically than their published ranking.

Jones later posted all of the numbers and highlighted the discrepancies in another post ranking the top 100 based on Golf Digest’s initially published numbers.

Those numbers were taken off the website and an updated version now appears.

It’s unclear if the published ranking was off the data since removed or an accurate counting of the numbers or some other combination. No editor’s note or asterisk was attached to the updated page, casting even more doubt about the legitimacy of the process.

On top of the compromised data, the magazine is also not taking criticism well from its own.

Pat Craig posted on GolfClubAtlas of his dismay at dreary Butler National landing above the magical Shoreacres, hardly a controversial sentiment. Craig also posted an emoji after writing simply: “Spring Hill at #100….sure………….”

Craig said he received a note from panel leaders Duncan and Stephen Hennessey with “a screenshot of my comment above which they understandably not happy with.”

Craig then posted he had resigned from the Golf Digest panel and questioned its direction after the installation of a $1300 entry fee that seems to allow anyone to join.

So they are attempting to squelch panelist opinions after publishing incorrect numbers, all while touting the data. What a mess. And even more reason to discount a profit-focused ranking that has rarely bettered the art of golf architecture.

A Palate Cleanser: Golf Magazine's Top 100 You Can Play

After Golf Digest unfurled another odd ranking living about three decadent decades ago, Golf came to the rescue with the Top 100 Courses You Can Play.

The list is put together by a small panel not squeezed for dues that appears to genuinely focus on golf architecture. The list has been expanded to include Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean. I’m not sure that was necessary nor am I buying that this helps you “find courses in prime condition at any time of year.”

But the bigger takeaway should be the focus on rewarding the elements that should be emphasized if you want to see courses rewarded for fun, nuance and day-to-day enjoyment.

Golf Digest Course Ranking 2021: You Get What You Charge For?

I got several fine laughs reading Golf Digest’s “2021-2022 ranking of America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses”, which was touted as being “ready for its close-up” by authors Derek Duncan and Stephen Hennessey.

A close look shows not much has changed except that it’s a for-profit model now, where you can try to sign up and pay the $1300 to join here and you better like your courses exclusive and difficult.

Tom Fazio remains a panelist favorite the way Michael Bay is big with teenage moviegoers and not many others, delivering thirteen top 100 courses to Donald Ross’s ten, followed by Tillinghast’s eight, Pete Dye’es eight, Tom Doak’s five, Alister MacKenzie’s five, Seth Raynor’s five, Coore and Crenshaw’s four, William’s Flynn’s three and Gil Hanse’s single inclusion on the list.

The best laugh may be Muirfield Village landing 15th even as Jack Nicklaus has taken a bulldozer to it. Pinehurst No. 2 at 29th would suggest maybe it’s time for the resort to realize Digest panelists won’t ever get that whole strategy/nuance thing.

On that strategy topic, the panelists already have been told they focus too much on theatrics instead of pure design values. How do I know this? Why, the panel head Duncan eviscerated panelists for not paying attention to what matters in a March 2, 2021 email forwarded to me by multiple raters.

After hitting the panel up for their $300/1300 (depending on returning or new status) and explaining a sign-up system for courses in demand, some scolding for “checklisting” ballots on some other websites was delivered before the fun began.

As always, this is an exciting time and an important institution for Golf Digest. I’m very proud of the effort everyone puts into creating the America’s 100 Greatest Courses list, and you should be, too—your hard work and keen eyes and analyses make it happen.

Greasing ‘em up before a good old fashioned slapping!

 I will, however, take this opportunity to make a comment on our scoring:

I did an exercise while compiling the final rankings to list, along with the total score, the highest individual category score each course received. I thought it would be interesting to see in what category each of the 100 courses was strongest—for instance, Winged Foot West’s highest score, 8.62, came in the Character category. About 20 courses in, I realized I couldn’t send the results out for publication.

Oh?

The highest score for almost every course came in either Character or Aesthetics. Here’s the breakdown:

CHARACTER: 42

AESTHETICS: 19

CONDITIONING: 15

CHALLENGE: 14

DISTINCTIVENESS: 6

LAYOUT VARIETY: 4

SHOT OPTIONS: 0

 In other words, according to the majority of the panel, the greatest strength of two-thirds of the 100 Greatest courses in the U.S. has to do with aspects other than how the course actually plays.

This is like scolding Oscar voters for judging movies by the theater seating, Emmy voters for how well their remote control worked, and Tony panelists for emphasizing the playbill’s paper stock.

But please, keep scolding…

That not a single course in our top 100 distinguished itself above all other measures in Shot Options is stunning—this is the most fundamental aspect to architecture and thus our rankings. It’s why we afford it double points. 

Maybe not flood the panel for profit? I’m wrecklessly brainstorming here, I know, so continue…

We are placing too much emphasis on intangibles like character and aesthetics and not enough on architecture, strategy and layout.

Come on, that shallowness is a Digest staple! How else could so many forgettable Fazio’s rank so well!

Yes, ambiance, history and sense of place are all important to the golf experience—they are major reasons why we all play. But your job as course-ranking panelists is to study the golf holes and the architecture and not be overwhelmed by beauty and reputation.

But if they have a killer bar and the owner personally signs a thank you card, we totally get that.

We can all appreciate the totality of a golf experience—it’s unrealistic to think that won’t have an impact on your impressions—but golf is about hitting the ball across a landscape that presents a variety of obstacles and enticements, trying to get it into the hole in as few as strokes possible. We are there to analyze how effectively and with what amount of entertainment a course achieves that. 

 Pssssst…Derek, this is Golf Digest, not Golf or Golfweek. Ranking courses based on everything but architecture is how so many ads were sold before it became all about house ads.

Please consider how much you are weighing the importance of different categories. Please re-read the category definitions. And make efforts to distinguish each category from each other—our best panelists earn high marks for doing so.

 Do they get a dues rebate for being Best In Panelist?

Lastly, I’ve had several private email exchanges with individual panelists about their scoring habits and techniques. We do not intend to tell you how to score courses and categories, as long as you can rationally justify your evaluations. But we do want you all to be discerning and understand what your scores and numbers mean. This ties back to the predominance of high Character scores: a sizable portion of the panel might consider approaching their evaluations with a more discriminating eye.

 What fun that would be? Never stopped Golf Digest panelists before.

In some of the cases I reviewed, panelists were overscoring courses, awarding points that would have placed a course barely making the Best in State list in the top 15 of America’s 100 Greatest Courses ranking.

Hey, top 5 in Kansas, top 15 in the USA…what’s the big difference?

Ok that’s enough fun at the expense of Golf Digest’s panel for one blog post. There will be more to laugh at as the explanation’s pour out from Digest. But I just want to return back to the idea that the leading course with “Character” in the United States is Winged Foot West.

A fine test for sure. And home club to the last two Golf Digest editors. Plus the West also hosted last year’s U.S. Open and will host many more down the road. It’s brilliant at times and has loads of character.

But the design with the most character in the United States?

Heck, if you polled the Winged Foot membership, I’m fairly certain the neighboring East Course would easily win the character debate. Like, 7&6.

But we all have different definitions of character. Particularly the Golf Digest panel.

Podcast: Communities For Coul Tries To Resurrect Links With Mike Keiser

"One course is a curiosity, two is a destination."

Locals @Communities4Co1 are fighting to save Mike Keiser's Coul Links.

— Scottish Golf Podcast (@ScotGolfPodcast) April 30, 2021

You may recall past posts about the proposed golf course near Royal Dornoch that sadly did not get approved.

It’s visionary seems to have stepped back but a combination of locals with the long term health of Highlands golf as a destination have devised a creative approach to resurrecting the project. If they are successful, Mike Keiser has vowed to bring his development vision to get the course built.

While the area is already a destination with the courses it has, Coul Links would undoubtedly add to the Highlands and bring more affinity for several gems. The site is extraordinary but is sensitive, which makes the careful approach of the first and latest efforts worth tracking.

In the latest Scottish Golf podcast Ru Macdonald interviews Gordon Sutherland, who operates Fionn Lodge overlooking Dornoch’s first green and is part of the Communities For Coul effort. They’ve crafted some compelling ideas for land stewardship and long term protection of huge swath of land that is not currently getting the care it deserves. It’s a great listen.

The group’s page is worth checking out as a clear and concise explanation of what they’re trying for. They also have a sensational silent auction for incredible golf trip to raise funds. I’ve been to all the places, eaten at the world class Links House Hotel, had the local whiskies and gins, and can say the package for up to eight and worth £10,000 is dreamy:

• Accommodation in the five star Fionn Lodge, a luxury self-catering property 
• Five rounds of links golf, one round at each of Royal Dornoch’s Championship and Struie courses, Brora, Golspie and Tain.
 • Dinner one evening at MARA, the fine dining experience at five star Links House Hotel.
 • Private dinner at Fionn Lodge on three evenings.*
 • Private tasting of local whiskies and gins.
 • Private transport between Fionn Lodge and Brora, Golspie and Tain golf courses (if required).
 • An accompanied visit to Coul Links to view the site of the proposed new Mike Keiser golf course, designed by
 Bill Coore of Coore & Crenshaw

Bids are to be emailed to buildcoul@gmail.com.