Kelly Blake Moran’s not only building great courses on his own – Lederach G.C., just north of Philly wins best modern public course this year v- but he also is doing stellar restoration work on a Seth Raynor design at Rock Spring Cub in northern New Jersey.
The article is here.
2006 Winner – Black Mesa
THE KNOLL COUNTRY CLUB – WEST COURSE Knoll and Greenbank Roads Parsippany, NJ 973.263.7110 www.knollcc.com Architect – Charles Banks, Restored by George Bahto Par 70 Excitement Level – 10/12 Difficulty – 11/12 Design – Seven stars Natural Setting – Four stars Conditioning – Five and 1/2 stars Cost – $65 peak Yearly...
Well, it’s the day after Thanksgiving and everyone except me and a few other Turkey haters are eating leftover dry stringy bird remnants. I had steak and pasta yesterday, as usual, and watched everyone else fall asleep due to tryptophan or whatever it’s called. So it’s time to give out the Dry, Stringy Turkey of the Year Award. This time it goes to...
This year we have a tie for the best sports article of the year. The spectre of steroids burned like a proprietary torch everywhere in the sports world this year, even golf, where the PGA and LPGA TOURS enacted testing policies. Finally, we will never have to hear the drivel of “steroids can’t help your golf game” – they can – more...
With a full article to follow soon, Black Mesa GC in La Mesilla, NM takes home the Jazzy Award for Best Public Round of the Year. Design: Seven Stars. (All Ratings out of Seven) The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows (did you know that?) As Nancy Carpenter likes to say “if a person is perfect, then that’s their flaw.” However you want to look at...
Hey, since we’re doing the Jazzy Awards, have a Jazzy Christmas Wish!
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The “Bunker Mulligan Award” for this year’s best sportswriting goes to Game of Shadows authors Mark Fainara-Wada and Lance Williams. The famed excerpt which appeared in Sports Illustrated is here. Not only does it read like a confession and detail to perfection Bonds’ alleged steroid use, it debunks the myth that performance enhancers like...
Tom Doak had the most high profile year and takes home this year’s award for some searing achievements in the most pressure filled jobs. He certainly rose to the occasion with Sebonack, Ballyneal and landing the new course at Bandon Dunes – due to open in 2010. Jim Engh gets the runner up nod and gives Dan Maples and Pete Dye runs for their money as the...
Since it’s the holidays, it’s time to wind up the year with the Annual “Jay’s Golf Awards” a.k.a. the Jazzys. Today – Best New Private Course. This one was easy. At Ballyneal Golf and Hunt Club, Tom Doak built the O’Neal brothers a brilliant rejoinder to nearby Sand Hills and a terrific sister course to Pacific Dunes. The...
I have to disagree with GD’s choices for their “Best New” awards in some areas. They missed big by not including Pradera as a best new Private and Monterey Peninsula Country Club as a best redeisgn this year. Here were my votes, click on the link for a more detailed review: Best New Public Course – Lakota Canyon Ranch, Newcastle, CO (Jim Engh)...
I’m glad Bully Pulpit won Golf Diget’s best new affordable public award. North Dakota has a nice triumverate of courses now – Bully Pulpit, Hawktree by Jim Engh and Links of North Dakota by Stephen Kay. My vote went to Lakota Canyon Ranch this year. Personally, I thought it was well worth the $75 tag and should be in the “affordable”...
When he was President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, Dan Maples once observed at their annual meeting “Each year we try for twelve months to beat each others brains in but I can’t think of a better group of people I would rather spend my lifetime working among.” Indeed, the collegiality of this august body is inspiring, but this...
Great stuff on the Internet today regarding architecture. Geoff Shackelford has an absolutely hilarious satire of the Golf Digest Panel winter meeting here. Defending his panel (and his loyalty commands respect) Rob Thompson takes Geoff to the woodshed as more puerile than poignant. I threw my $.02 in on Rob’s site here, so click to see me stick up for old...
2005 JAZZY AWARDS – BEST CLASSIC PRIVATE COURSE: CRYSTAL DOWNS C.C., Frankfort, MI “We don’t often have seventy degree days in October, Jay” said Tom Doak I his usual matter-of-fact timbre. Confident but reserved, Doak doesn’t turn cartwheels down the fairway or “have fits of hysteria on every tee box” as his idol Mackenzie...
As I noted in part one of my interview with Jim Engh here, people mistakenly attribute Jim Engh’s success to beautiful natural settings and not his talent for building fascinating golf holes with multiple playing options. Pradera is a treasure trove of all of Engh’s favorite design features and incorporates Alistair Mackenzie’s “line of...