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...
I recently wrote that Tom Doak’s rise to prominence as one of the two greatest living golf architects most closely resembles the career arc of a band that’s a shoo-in for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Phish. Like Phish, Doak conquered the World, and did it his way showing everyone that all the mainstream artistic concepts and business models they had...
It’ll be up at Cybergolf tomorrow, here on Tuesday, but “Traverse Rock City, Exile on Fishers Island” will compare golf designers and musicians. Here’s a teaser: Pink Floyd – Pete Dye. Pink Floyd has the same monumental legacy as Led Zeppelin, but their music is slightly more accessible to a broader demographic. It’s progressive...
A new Cybergolf article here! Highlights: 1. Pete Dye’s recent ace at the 3rd at Delray! 2. Analysis of the courses and clubs! 3. Laughs at Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller:):)! And more! From the article: Dye explained the formative years of his design philosophy in an earlier interview with your author: “Back then, Trent [Robert Trent Jones, Sr.] was...
PORT ST. LUCIE, FLA – The greatest compliment I can pay a golf course is that I choose to return to play it over and over. That is a short list, let me tell you. On the public side Bandon Dunes Resort, anything by Mike Strantz, (that covers Pinehurst, Williamsburg, and Caledonia/True Blue in Myrtle), New Mexico…there’s a few others. On the private...
Here’s the 24 hour delay on my favorite piece of the week. Man, the three-shot lead curse strikes again… HAVEN, WI – It’s 7:50 p.m. The sun is setting is setting on Whistling Straits, but third round leader Nick Watney is still on the practice range hitting balls. Most other players are at Stefano’s Italian restaurant in Sheboygan...
I just got off the phone with a former rules official who tells me he would have been aggressive about reminding Dustin about that being a bunker, but that’s 20-20 hindsight. In today’s piece, I call out the broadcast for misleading viewers, but also Dustin, a guy I covered from his college days at Coastal Carolina. From the article: Let’s get...
I wrote it here at Cybergolf. Watney channels his inner Retief, Dustin at Pebble, blows 3 shot lead. We are tied at the PGA. Meanwhile, that’s my fave piece of the week so far. From the article: “Tonight, Watney sleeps on a three-shot lead, but that may be the most unsafe margin in golf. Retief Goosen was in a similar situation in the 2005 U.S. Open at...
HAVEN, WI – You can score anywhere from 68 to 78 at the topsy-turvy Straits Course at Whistling Straits. In benign conditions and softened by the season-long rains, 87 players finished under par yesterday. When the wind howls off Lake Michigan however, the course is fearsome. In 2004 Vijay Singh won the PGA Championship with the highest closing round in...
Today at Cybergolf, I breakdown the key holes at Whistling Straits – the swing holes or “half-par” holes.
I also dodge lightning, drive through fog, and chase around golfers for quotes:)
HAVEN, WI – A wine-dark sky of swollen clouds grumbled ominously with thunder before the heavens opened up and rained bricks and bats on Steve Underwood’s head. It was okay though. He had Tim Clark’s umbrella safely in the golf bag. Meanwhile, Todd Sunderland counted D.J. Trahan’s clubs one last time. Fourteen, everything is fine. So as soon...
My latest piece. Enjoy. A day in the life of Steve Underwood (Tim Clark) and Todd Sunderland (D.J. Trahan).
HAVEN, WI – We may be in Wisconsin for the 92nd PGA Championship, but – Surprise! – the players are not having any whine with their cheese. In 2004, the players cried like Nancy Kerrigan over how tough Whistling Straits’s fearsome Straits Course played. Golf architect Pete Dye was castigated every bit as vehemently as he was when both Sawgrass...
The plane taxied to the terminal zone, cut its engines, and cooled its wings while I hi-tailed it out the door and into ground transport for the ride to Whistling Straits.
While I walk the course and cull a few quotes from players, here’s my Pete Dye interview from PGA.com.
He may be half 168 years old, but he’s still a lion in summer when it comes to golf architecture. The Dean of modern golf course architects, Pete Dye blends cunning design strategies that beguile pros with artistic flair that bewitches amateurs. His popularity across the globe is unquenchable, despite his reputation for building courses that play hard and look...