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Interviews

Golf Course Trades Runs my Interview with new GCSAA President Kevin Breen

Every year I get the privilege of interviewing the incoming president of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. And boy have those conversations gotten interesting as the last few years have rolled by! As always Golf Course Trades does a great job making it look good – thanks team! You can read the entire interview here. And don’t forget...

Voices of Pinehurst: Dan Maples – Golf Architect, Pinehurst City Father

PINEHURST, NC – It was nine years ago when Dan Maples and his family took me out for a Saturday night on the town in a limo during U.S. Open week. During dinner the whole town stopped by the table to shake his hand and chat. Dan just smiled warmly, thanked them kindly by name, and asked about their families and what they were doing. Everybody loved him, and he...

Go Gator! Steve Smyers Blazing Trail as Both Architect and Amateur Golf Star

It has to be great to be Steve Smyers. He gets to devote his entire life to golf. His wife is a former touring pro. His son is a first team All-American and a reigning Division II national champion. He has done golf design work at some of country’s most popular public golf courses, (like Southern Dunes), as well as some of the most esteemed private sanctuaries...

New interview with Robert Trent Jones, Jr. – Rio Olympics, Poppy Hills, and Other New Projects

JF: How disappointed are you that you didn’t get the 2016 Olympics Course gig down in Rio? RTJ 2: I’m not disappointed – I’m supportive of golf being successful in its re-emergence in the Olympics. However, the sand is running out of the hourglass, and everyone will have to get started soon if they want the proposed new golf course to be a...

My Interview with Pete Dye will be in the PGA Championship Program

So my preview for this year’s PGA Championship will not only be another hilarious laugh-a-minute romp with Kiawah Island course architect Pete Dye, but will also be in the PGA Championship program! Here’s a taste: JF: We hear some interesting things happened while you were building Kiawah Island? PD: Oh I got plenty of stories! Everything happened to us...

Golf Architect Bill Love Talks About Getting Olympic Club Ready for the 2012 U.S. Open

We caught up with Bill Love, the architect responsible for getting Olympic Club ready for this year’s U.S. Open. Jay Flemma: We’ve heard that the opening stretch of holes at Olympic Club will be the toughest start to a U.S. Open in recent memory, but that there might be some birdies coming home. What look to be the toughest holes at Olympic Club and what...

Interview with John Ladenberg on Chambers Bay

Try to time your arrival at Chambers Bay so as to be there for sunrise, the light is magnificent. As the sky slowly brightens from black to deep purple to blue, they’ll appear before you: eighteen precious jewels, each prim as a cameo, yet as cunningly and carefully designed as the many intricate facets of the gemstone. Yes, everything you’ve heard about...

Dan Hixson Interview Excerpts on Wine Valley, Ballyneal, and Do-It-Yourself Design

[Author’s Note: This interview was over 17 pages long. Here are some fun and interesting excerpts. You’ll have to buy the book for the rest:)] Dan Hixson – Zen and the Art of the Do It Yourself Golf Design Career MC Lars is actually wrong (for once!) Post-punk laptop rap isn’t the new DIY: golf course design is, at least if you’re Dan...

Q&A With Robert Trent Jones, Jr. on Chambers Bay

While I get a few more interviews and course reviews finshed, here’s some great insighta o Chambers Bay from Robert Trent Jones, Jr., who by this time next week = may pull a come from nehind victory in the Rio primary:) (I.E. The Olympics election…err…selection…) JF: Now those hummocks look like berms that Seth Raynor did at flat courses like...