Designing Golf

In the future, when we look back on the years between 2010 and 2025, what will we see as the golf courses that defined the era? Andy Johnson and Matt Rouches join Garrett Morrison to discuss.

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What is the so-called “Golden Age of golf architecture”? In this installment of our Golf Architecture 101 series, Garrett introduces his Fried Egg Golf colleague PJ Clark to the three big ideas that sparked the Golden Age at the beginning of the 20th century.

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In the U.S., many of the greatest old golf courses have already undergone restoration work. So where can historically informed golf architecture go next? In this episode, Garrett explores a few projects that represent intriguing frontiers of the golf course restoration and renovation industry. First, he sits down with Jeff Stein to talk about Stein’s and Brian Ross’s historically inspired redesign of the Great Dunes at Jekyll Island Resort. Then he speaks with Clyde Johnson about the subtle craft of restoring British links courses.

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The Sandbelt of Melbourne, Australia, boasts one of the densest concentrations of great golf courses in the world: the West and East courses of Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Victoria Golf Club, and more. In this episode of Designing Golf, Garrett dives deep into the Sandbelt’s history, geology, golf, culture, and virtues as a destination. His guests are Harley Kruse and Lukas Michel, both Australian golf architects who are deeply familiar with the region.

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Last year, a devastating wildfire hit Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. Jasper Park Lodge and its beautiful Stanley Thompson-designed golf course sustained heavy damage. In today's episode, Garrett speaks with Canadian golf architect Ian Andrew about Jasper Park's road to recovery. They also discuss the history of Jasper Park Golf Course and the design philosophy of Stanley Thompson.

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Garrett sits down with Greg Nathan, president and CEO of the National Golf Foundation, to take stock of the U.S. golf course industry. Has the post-Covid surge in participation proven sustainable? What kinds of golf course development are we seeing? Why does there seem to be an under-supply of public golf facilities in certain areas? How are short courses faring? Garrett and Greg get into these questions and more.

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With the Ryder Cup approaching, Garrett asks a question that has been on his mind for a while: what, if anything, suits a golf course to the match-play format? Garrett talks to two different architects: first, Andy Staples, who recently designed a match-play course called The Match at PGA National Resort; second, Brian Schneider, who is somewhat skeptical of the notion of a “match-play course.” To close out the episode, Garrett discusses his takeaways from his chats with Andy and Brian, and he offers some thoughts on Bethpage Black’s design and suitability for the Ryder Cup.

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Building off of our latest Golf Architecture 101 episode, Garrett Morrison sits down with golf historian Bob Crosby to discuss the historical roots of the notion of fairness in golf course design. Garrett and Bob explore how two major figures of the game in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Laidlaw Purves and John Low, came to represent opposite sides of the fairness debate—a debate that still rages today.

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On today’s episode, we dive deep into the history and architecture of Cypress Point Club, site of the upcoming 50th Walker Cup. First, Garrett speaks with David Normoyle, author of Cypress Point’s soon-to-be-published centennial book, about the history of the club. Then Garrett offers some of his own reflections on the course’s land, routing, and design features. Finally, he brings on Joshua Pettit, founder of the Alister MacKenzie Institute, to discuss a few lesser-known facts about Cypress Point’s construction.

(0:00-8:35) Introduction and Personal History

(10:26-51:07) Interview with David Normoyle

(53:24-1:21:55) Cypress Point's Land, Routing, Design, and Presentation

(1:21:55-1:40:48) Interview with Joshua Pettit

(1:40:48-1:50:53) Concluding Thoughts

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In the latest installment of our Golf Architecture 101 series, Garrett sits down with PJ to discuss the hot-button issue of fairness. What does it mean for a golf course to be fair? What kinds of design features might be considered unfair? Should we expect fairness out of a golf course? Garrett and PJ discuss it all in this episode.

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