Designing Golf

Ten years ago today, Winter Park — a nine-hole municipal golf course in a suburban town outside of Orlando, Florida — underwent one of the most important renovations of the 21st century. On a budget of just over a million dollars, Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns, a pair of Coore & Crenshaw associates, transformed WP9 into an excellent, fun, community-focused golf facility. It’s a model for what the municipal game can and should look like. So, in this episode, Garrett chats with Keith Rhebb about the Winter Park project and what we can learn from it. They also discuss some tune-up work Rhebb and Johns did after a recent greenkeeping incident.

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Many golfers don’t like seeing out-of-bounds stakes anywhere near a playing corridor; they object on principle. Yet some of the most famous, revered holes in golf use out-of-bounds as a strategic hazard — so there must be something to it. In this installment of our Golf Architecture 101 series, Garrett takes his Fried Egg Golf colleague PJ Clark through the ways OB has been, and should be, deployed in golf course design. Garrett also brings in Craig Winter, the USGA’s Senior Director of the Rules of Golf and Amateur Status, for a quick lesson on the history of the OB penalty. Toward the end of the episode, Garrett and PJ discuss several famous, OB-centric holes, including Nos. 16 and 17 at St. Andrews and the sixth hole at upcoming Presidents Cup venue Medinah No. 3.

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On September 1, East Potomac Golf Links, a popular municipal golf facility in Washington, D.C., was supposed to shut down for a massive renovation led by the Trump administration and architect Tom Fazio. But then... it didn’t. So what’s going on here? And what’s the backstory? Garrett is joined by his Fried Egg Golf colleague (and DMV resident) Brendan Porath to go through the full history of East Potomac, from its beginnings as an innovative reversible golf course to its current status as a political football.

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When Mike Keiser opened Bandon Dunes in 1999, his son Michael was 18 years old. Michael Jr. went on to play a key role in the expansion of the Keiser family’s Dream Golf empire. Along with his brother Chris, he oversaw the development of Wisconsin’s Sand Valley, one of the most architecturally experimental golf resorts in the country. Now, Michael is creating three new resorts of his own, all opening within the next year and a half. There’s Wild Spring Dunes in East Texas, Rodeo Dunes in Colorado, and Old Shores in the Florida Panhandle. He and his wife are also supporting a handful of municipal golf projects. In this episode, Garrett sits down with Michael to explore this fascinating new phase of Keiser golf — what Michael is borrowing from the past, and how he’s trying to innovate.

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Among America’s greatest golf courses, the East Course at Merion Golf Club is one of the oldest. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s relatively small, occupying only about 115 acres. Still, the East Course remains a legitimate championship venue, with the 2030, 2040, and 2050 U.S. Opens on its docket. Next week, the club will host the U.S. Amateur for the seventh time. So there’s no better time to discuss Merion East in depth and ask why it has endured so strongly. Garrett opens the episode with a quick rundown of the course’s key characteristics, including its routing and primary hazards. Then he brings on historian Wayne Morrison for a full exploration of Merion East’s history and its intricate Hugh Wilson-William Flynn design.

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On any golf course, the greens are the center of gravity. Around 40% of the shots we hit in a given round on a regulation course are putts. Over half will be either putts or chips. And any decently hit approach shot will also interact with the green or its surrounds. So today’s Golf Architecture 101 topic is an important one. Garrett is joined by his Fried Egg Golf colleague PJ Clark to talk about greens: how they’re designed, how they’re built, and what makes a good one.

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Next week, Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, will host the Open Championship for the 11th time. The pros will probably love it (because they almost always do), but will we like it? In this episode, Garrett discusses all things Royal Birkdale with his Fried Egg Golf colleague Joseph LaMagna, who recently visited the course. Garrett and Joseph talk about Royal Birkdale’s history, land, routing, greens, and architectural philosophy before delving into the changes the club made in preparation for this year’s Open.

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One of the biggest stories in the golf course industry over the past 30 years has been the rise of the public destination golf. The 2020s in particular have seen a remarkable surge in remote developments featuring neoclassical golf architecture. So where are we now in the evolution of this type of resort? How has public destination golf influenced golf architecture? After reviewing several ongoing projects and discussing some recent trends, Garrett brings on architect Mike Koprowski to discuss his work at Candyroot Lodge, a new resort in the Carolina Sandhills. Garrett and Mike dig into the nitty-gritty of the design of Candyroot’s first course and how he’s challenging certain conventions of the public destination style.

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William Flynn, the designer of Shinnecock Hills, was one of the greatest golf architects of the Golden Age. In this episode of Designing Golf, we explore his distinctively naturalistic, restrained design style. First, Garrett lists what he believes are the five essential Flynn courses. Then Garrett brings on Jim Nagle, an architect who has helped restore many Flynn designs, to delve deeper into Flynn's career, philosophy, and legacy.

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In two weeks, the U.S. Open returns to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, for the sixth time. This episode of Designing Golf dives deep into the course’s history and current William Flynn design. First, Garrett talks with his Fried Egg Golf colleague Matt Rouches about the six things that make Shinnecock a great course. Then Garrett brings on golf historian Bob Crosby to discuss how the early iterations of Shinnecock Hills represent the evolution of golf architecture between the 1890s and the 1930s.

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