Feed The Ball

Is it possible we take Whistling Straits for granted? Of all the spectacular builds in the history of golf, from The Lido to Calusa Pines , very little is spoken about how Pete Dye and Herb Kohler transformed flat farmland and an abandoned Army airfield into the wild, multilayered Irish-looking golf course gouged into the bluffs of Lake Michigan that is the 23rd ranked course on Golf Digest Americ...

Davis Love III needs no introduction. But just in case, he’s a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame , has logged over 20 PGA Tour victories, won the 1997 PGA Championship, was twice victorious at The Players Championship and is a two-time Ryder Cup captain. He’s also a tournament founder (the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic at Sea Island), philanthropist and golf course designer. Love Go...

James Duncan came to the U.S. from his native Denmark in the early 1990s to learn the craft of building golf courses. He learned from the best, working first with Tom Doak and Renaissance Golf Design , then joining with Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to help construct courses like East Hampton , Old Sandwich , Bandon Trails , Clear Creek Tahoe , Shanquin Bay in China and many others. He has his own f...

Designer Troy Miller worked for Landmark Land Co. for a decade, building golf courses around North America, before leaving the company to settle down in his hometown of Charleston, SC. The move put him in a unique position to do something he’d first envisioned years before: help the city rebuild the popular but dated municipal golf course he grew up playing, that happened to be in the same n...

PGA Tour and current PGA Champions tour player Tom Lehman , winner of the 1996 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s , has seamlessly managed to maintain an elite game while developing a golf course design outlook that almost entirely eschews consideration of elite players. Lehman stops by the Salon to speak with Golf Digest architecture editor Derek Duncan and golf course build...

In a limited amount of original work, David Kahn has proven to be one of the most creative, courageous and expressionistic golf course architects working today. Along with partner Tim Jackson , the other half of Jackson Kahn Design , he’s reimagined the shaping and visage of the historic Dunes Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club , built an artistic and technical tour de force with The...

Canadian designer Ian Andrew , Feed the Ball guest from Episode 14 , is back to visit with Derek Duncan and Jim Urbina . The conversation turns to topics of: –Choose Your Own Adventure golf architecture; –The satisfactions of playing “unknown” courses; –Golf as an emotional experience; –The importance of “compression and release” in design; –Cr...

Larry Lambrecht has been one of golf’s most prolific and talented photographers for over 30 years. He’s shot golf courses and tournaments, as well as Super Bowls, World Series and other major sporting events, for virtually ever major publication. He’s also published a number of books and club histories along with his course photography, including, in 2004, “Emerald Gems&#82...

Golf course architect Forrest Richardson was elected in 2020 to be the 75th president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects , a chair that’s been held by such notable designers as Stanley Thompson , Robert Trent Jones , William Langford (twice), Rees Jones , Robert Trent Jones, Jr. , Alice Dye , Jeff Brauer and Steve Smyers . He joins Derek Duncan and golf course builder Jim Urbi...

Architect Kyle Phillips began his illustrious career as an associate working for Robert Trent Jones II in California. He gained unique design and planning expertise working on a slate of international courses for Jones, which later helped him garner major overseas jobs once he opened his own firm in the late 90s. Those include Kingsbarns in St. Andrews, Yas Links in Dubai, South Cape in South Kore...

The Highland Course at Primland Resort Few people in golf have had as rich or wide-ranging life in golf as Donald Steel . He began his career as the golf reporter for London’s Sunday Telegraph in 1961, memorably covering, as a rookie writer, Arnold Palmer’s back-to-back Open Championship wins at Birkdale and Troon . A few years later, while continuing his reporting duties, he joined th...

Egypt Valley Country Club in Michigan Golf architect Chris Wilczynski has bridged two distinct eras–that of the course-a-day, turn and burn construction frenzy of the 1990s and 2000s, and now the current period of “slow” golf with its focus on boutique operations and club restoration. He began his career as an associate with Arthur Hills , one of the busiest designers of golf and...

The Other Course–Scottsdale National After working for over a decade for Tom Fazio , Tim Jackson opened his own West Coast design firm with David Kahn , another Fazio alum. Jackson Kahn Design is known for their creative, ambitious ideas about design–as exhibited at, Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course and The Other Course and The Bad Little Nine at Scottsdale National...

Kinloch Golf Club Lester George was an artillery officer in the U.S. Army who rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In the late 1980s, already into his 30s, he made a career switch to golf design, setting up a business in his native state of Virginia. In the mid-1990s he was introduced to a magnificent property outside Richmond that he would eventually develop, along with legendary Virginia amat...

Calusa Pines Golf designer Dana Fry began his career learning the business as an associate for Tom Fazio , and later forged a prominent partnership with Dr. Michael Hurdzan . With Hurdzan he created such top U.S. courses as Erin Hills , site of the 2017 U.S. Open , and Calusa Pines in Florida. Today he runs his business with partner Jason Straka . He joins the Salon to talk to Derek Duncan and Jim...

Kirby was instrumental in the construction of Mauna Kea. It’s not unreasonable to suggest the path of golf architecture in the second half of the 20th century can be traced through Ron Kirby . His career has been a remarkable Zelig-like whirlwind placing him in the immediate proximity of Dick Wilson , Robert Trent Jones , Gary Player , Jack Nicklaus and many others. His name is on the design...

Cascata 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 allow...

The short par 4 12th at Gamble Sands 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...

Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida 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 par-4 10th at White Manor 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 all...

The par-4 17th at Ohoopee Match Club. 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...

The fourth at Cape Wickham (photo: capewickham.com.au) 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 ski...

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 i...

The Old Course (photo: hiddenlinksgolf.com) 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&#8...

The second green at Sand Hills. 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, readin...