Rees Jones‘ design work has touched public, resort, club golf and major championship golf as much as any architect of the modern era. He enters the Salon to talk with Jim Urbina and Derek Duncan about balancing the many voices that weigh in on projects in the “remodeling era,” constructing on technically challenging sites vs finding holes, if golf designs should be allowed to evolve or if at some point they should be locked in time, the challenges of working in the shadow of Robert Trent Jones and the value of having an architectural “style.”

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From the original course at Bandon Dunes to The Castle Course at St. Andrews, to Gamble Sands in Washington and then to Mammoth Dunes in Wisconsin, David McLay Kidd has been one of the most innovative and courageous course designers of this generation. He joins Derek Duncan and Jim Urbina in the Salon to discuss “setting the table” at Bandon, if the Castle Course will someday be perceived as an overlooked jewel, whether its more desirable to achieve commercial or critical success, the redundancy of template holes, the revolution of fun and playability and building golf for the masses.

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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Bruce Hepner and Jim Urbina both began working for Tom Doak at Renaissance Design in the early 1990s, spending many days and hours together on the road for well over a decade. Hepner opened his own business in 2012 and is now one of the most admired renovation and restoration specialists in the business. He joins Urbina and Derek Duncan to talk about the unsung heroes of golf construction, the starburst of Renaissance, how widening fairways and mowing lines can actually make a course play more challenging, the art of tree clearing and the best jobs that Renaissance golf didn’t get.

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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Few people in the golf design business knew Pete Dye better than Bobby Weed, who first interned for his mentor in the 1970s. Weed comes into the Salon with Derek Duncan and Jim Urbina to share his thoughts on how Dye continues to influence him, the overriding consideration of drainage, being courted by Jack Nicklaus, the classicism of S-shaped holes, how shaping allows the right-brain to kick in, the liberating effect of designing on a flat site like The Grove XXIII, pushing back against the trend of naturalism, working in sand versus taking on big problem sites and the value of quirkiness.

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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In this volume of the Salon, architect Gil Hanse sits with Derek Duncan and Jim Urbina to discuss how he and design partner Jim Wagner build golf courses. They talk about the sanctity of being on machinery, if routing is more vital to a good course than shaping, the importance of “cooling off,” the importance of “living” the golf course through the design process, cheating evolution, giving himself permission to push the envelope, the heroic strategies of Ohoopee Match Club, developing a feel for the ground, whether or not we’re in a “Second Golden Age” of design or if it’s more a period of revivalism, and the lasting impact of the best modern architecture.

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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Architect Mike DeVries steps into the Salon with Jim Urbina and Derek Duncan to discuss arguably the granddaddy of all design topics, routing. The long and winding conversation touches on the exposures of Cape Wickham, sacrificing extraordinary holes for the sake of rhythm and continuity, routing around natural greensites, if routing is a skill that improves over time, laying out Kingsley Club over difficult terrain, “throwing the scorecard away,” resisting building “concepts” into course routings and opinions on the 18th hole at Whistling Straits.

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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Thad Layton, principal at Arnold Palmer Design Company, enters the Salon to talk to Derek Duncan and Jim Urbina about Palmer and the rules of architecture. Specifically the discussion revolves around fundamental rules, when it’s advisable to break them, whether it’s ever permissible to design crossing holes, working within the constraints of conservative developers, straight versus irregular water lines, Palmer’s architectural principles, addition through subtraction, and how architects can artistically distinguish their work in a design culture where most practitioners feel liberated.

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Top photo: Naples Lakes (photo: napleslakesfl.com)

Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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Golf course designer and renovation specialist Jeff Mingay enters the Salon to talk about St. Andrews with Jim Urbina and Derek Duncan. The central theme is, if The Old Course is so great, why aren’t there more courses that are like it? Topics include the importance of boundaries to traditional golf expectations, blind tee shots, the Old Course’s infinite variety, democratic vs. dictatorial design, St. Andrews’ ugliness, its resistance to emulation, encouraging golfers to utilize ground contour, grassing lines, whether the course is still relevant for tournament golf and the influence of the design on Old Macdonald.

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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Designer Bill Coore comes into the salon to discuss greens and putting surfaces with Jim Urbina and Derek Duncan. Topics include the importance of shaping greens and surrounds in relation to single holes or the entire golf course, the 14th and 2nd greens at Sand Hills, building “floating” greens and finding natural landforms, looking vs. seeing, reading a site’s guideposts, finding and fabricating greens when there aren’t great green sites, fallaway greens like the 9th at the Sheep Ranch, and the evolution of the Coore and Crenshaw greens.

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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Jim Urbina and Derek Duncan discuss George Thomas, Pete Dye’s par-5 holes, Riviera, the Ghost Tree at Old Macdonald, whether bunkers have become too sanitized, “reasonable” green speeds, Stimpmeter readings from the 1970s.

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Then Don Mahaffey enters the salon to talk about the beautiful simplicity of Mike Nuzzo’s Wolf Point, the PGA Tour’s bunker sand standard, using local sand for bunkers and going bunkerless.

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Twitter: @feedtheball

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Listen to Derek discuss the legendary book, “The World Atlas of Golf” on the Good-Good Golf Podcast.

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