Feed The Ball

Brad Klein has been one of the media’s foremost authorities on golf course architecture since he began writing for Golfweek Magazine in 1988. He created that publication’s highly influential ranking of America’s 100 greatest modern and classic courses, and he recently, after 30 years, moved on to a new position with Golf Advisor and the Golf Channel.

Klein joined Derek Duncan on the podcast to share his thoughts on the sadness of sitting in airports on Saturday nights, life as a college activist in the ’70’s, life as a part-time caddie on the PGA Tour, having an outsider’s view on the calamitous overbuilding of the 1990’s and the insidious nature of the game of golf being run as a business, the absence of frank commentary in the media, loop golf courses, the honor of being threatened by Donald Trump, the short and ugly lives of Golden Age courses and what the next decade or so realistically looks like for golf design.

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 16: Bradley Klein appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Keith Cutten is an integral player in golf design’s next generation who has worked alongside a variety of architects including Bill Coore, Jeff Mingay, Doug Carrick and, most importantly, his mentor Rod Whitman shaping features, drafting plans, developing budgets and running job sites. He’s also one of the leading young historians on golf course design and expects to publish a book, “The Evolution of Golf Course Architecture” later this year.

He joins Derek Duncan to talk about the kinds of things Bill Coore might like as a gift, Canadian architects, the Dark Ages of architecture, why design styles changed after World War II and how architecture moved from the field into the office, the continual effort to combat technology with design, the effect of television on the increased presence of water hazards, the deleterious effect of advanced irrigation, Horace Hutchinson and the influence of the British Arts & Craft movement on Golden Age architecture and the possibility of Mammoth Dunes being the apotheosis (and final chapter) in the width/minimalist movement as we know it.

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 15: Keith Cutten appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Ian Andrew is one of golf’s most respected restoration and preservation specialists, working principally on Golden Age courses in Canada. He has few peers when it comes to observation and the analysis of golf course architecture, and he rarely shies from expressing candid opinions on the state of the game. His writings can be found in numerous magazines as well as online (ianandrewsgolfdesignblog.blogspot.com and thecaddyshack.blogspot.com) and a book on five of Stanley Thompson’s greatest courses is expected later this year.

Andrew joins the Feed the Ball podcast to talk about whether we’re taking the correct view of the “Second Golden Age” of architecture, how it’s difficult to find surprises in modern design, the trap of the “Prairie Dunes” aesthetic, the need for complete conviction in art, his idea for a third course at Sand Valley, the chase to design a sub-par-70 course, whether we’ve reached the end of the age of restoration, who he would choose to grass a golf course over anybody else in the business and who his Spidey-sense tells him might be the next great architect.

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 14: Ian Andrew appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Mike DeVries belongs to an elite class of golf architects working today who have been fortunate to work on properties that qualify as some of the best sites golf has seen since the 1920’s. His jaw-dropping design at Cape Wichkam Links on Kings Island in Tasmania, with wide holes rolling along the rocky ocean shore, stretching along high headlands and rumbling through interior sand dunes has rocketed into the world top 100 since opening in 2015.

DeVries sits down with Feed the Ball to discuss the wonderful provocations of Pete Dye, the devastating effect of higher green speeds, working long summer days at Crystal Downs, the “billion” holes that existed on the Cape Wickham property, which hole at Wickham he thinks is one of the coolest in the world, working with a young Tom Doak, the skills of Tom Fazio, not being a member of the ASGCA, owning one of the rare original Sand Hills t-shirts, and the person to whom he’s passing the crown of “most underrated architect.”

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes and Stitcher Radio

The post Episode 13: Mike DeVries appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Dr. Michael Hurdzan was on golf’s center stage the summer of 2017 during the U.S. Open, contested at Erin Hills, the giant, rambling meadow course he designed with then partner Dana Fry and Ron Whitten. It was a well-deserved moment for the architect known as much for building some of the most artistically voluptuous courses in the U.S. as for his nearly bottomless knowledge of golf, its history, equipment, construction methods and turf science.

Hurdzan joins the Feed the Ball podcast for a discussion that touches on his career, the future of golf design in China (Chinese architects?), the surprising sophistication of building courses with horses, how military tanks influenced golf design, serving in the chemical corps during the Vietnam War, how an architect can game the rating systems, how Erin Hills was intended to be a $50 “poor man’s Whistling Straits,” growing up in Columbus in the time of Jack Nicklaus, having Jack as a collaborator at Scioto and the virtues of being a golf course “plumber.”

(Photo, Shelter Harbor by Larry Lambrecht)

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 12: Dr. Michael Hurdzan appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Do you love Donald Ross and the idea of experiencing accurate expressions of his designs? Then this podcast is for you. Architect Kris Spence made the jump from golf superintendent to the design and build world when a club in North Carolina hired him to help restore the lost features of its Donald Ross course. 20 years later he’s become one of the country’s most passionate and dedicated practitioners of golf course restoration and an authority on Ross designs in particular.

Spence spends some time with Feed the Ball to talk about sand greens, following Ross’s career path from greenkeeper to architect, how his first restoration project came about because other architects turned down the job, his revelation at Pinehurst No. 2, pure restoration vs. “intent” restoration, the frustration of dealing with the PGA TOUR‘s tendency toward timid and destructive course set-ups, Ross’s philosophy of angles, restoring Ellis Maples, occasionally getting out of the Ross “box” and who Tom Fazio’s wife thinks is the one of the game’s greatest architects. Plus: a breakdown of Streamsong’s Red and Blue courses!

(photo: Roaring Gap Club, NC, by krisspence.com)

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 11: Kris Spence appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Nobody’s roots stretch deeper into the field of golf architecture than Robert Trent Jones II’s. Oldest son of Robert Trent Jones and now in his sixth decade of design, he’s been literally almost everywhere, seen everything and been a prominent voice the industry his entire life.

After some light banter about fatalism and nuclear bombs, Jones joins the Feed the Ball podcast and discusses his new course on the west coast of Ireland (Hogs Head), the concept of the “High Art” of architecture, his early pioneering spirit of exploring far flung golf markets (including ’80’s-era Soviet Union), why Chambers Bay needs no defense or excuses, the competing ideologies of Dick Wilson (dogleg) and his father (straight), the similarities of Spanish Bay (v.1) and Chambers Bay (v.2), the romanticism of — and problem with — pure restoration, “fresco” architecture and a little known course in Colorado that has some important fans. Plus: Bob reads a poem!

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 10: Robert Trent Jones II appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Rod Whitman has been one of golf’s masters of construction for nearly 40 years and has designed a number of courses on his own. In 2010 he got the call every architect dreams of — an offer to design and build a course on one of the world’s great new seaside properties, in this case at Cabot Links, a golf dreamscape of humps, hollows and bunkers overlooking an endless expanse of the St. Lawrence River in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Rod visits the Feed the Ball podcast to talk about Cabot Links and how he finally landed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, gaining Mike Keiser’s trust, learning the craft from Pete Dye and Bill Coore, the difficulty of getting design jobs, the art of turning potato fields into top 100 courses, and who would be on his dream team of golf course shapers.

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 9: Rod Whitman appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Following the economic crash of 2008, Love Golf Design, founded by brothers Mark Love and Davis Love III, decided to step back. Now, after a hiatus, the company has resumed business with several new renovations in the works following last year’s  completion of Atlantic Dunes, a total remodel of one of the Lowcountry’s original golf courses at Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island.

Mark Love recently visited Feed the Ball for a round-the-world discussion about geeking out on golf architecture, how he and Davis got into the business, their “old world” inspirations and favorite courses, the “lost” course designed by his father Davis Love, Jr., jumping holes at Pinehurst courses No.’s 1-4 as a kid, building at one of the world’s best coastal golf sites, why we don’t want to see Vijay Singh get into golf design and what makes Winged Foot so good.

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 8: Mark Love appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Few living architects are better than Steve Smyers at combining an understanding of golf shots and strategy with holes that possess immense visual flourish. Based in Florida, he’s designed courses and played in top-level amateur tournaments all over the globe. He joins Derek Duncan on the Feed the Ball podcast to discuss how he’s always evolving as a designer, being the king of bad sites, what piece of equipment he’d change for TOUR players (it’s not the ball), the contrast between Dallas’s two newest golf clubs (Maridoe and Trinity Forest), how player fitness and athleticism has changed the game, what the increase in average shoe size of TOUR pros tells us and what fellow designer he’d pick as his partner in an architectural two-ball match.

Listen here to Derek Duncan discuss Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland” with hosts Rod Morri and Adrian Logue of the iSeekGolf Podcast.

Twitter: @feedtheball

Instagram: @feedtheball

Feed the Ball on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and Google Play

The post Episode 7: Steve Smyers appeared first on Feed The Ball.