Two Mini Trips into South Carolina: After returning from Australia/New Zealand, it took a few days to get rested up and the old batteries charged again. I did a couple of 1-2 day trips down to South Carolina. Played the 9th hole at Camden Golf Club (it was closed for the installation of a new sprinkler system when I played the other 17 holes on January 5, 2022). By the way…that is a real sleeper and worth the visit if you in the area. Also played Cheraw State Park and Quixote Club…both good but not great courses. Quixote is a wonderful club that exists to support a Charter School in Sumter, SC…a most worthy cause.
Trip Plans for 2023: Also was very busy planning some trips for 2023. One is pretty major. I am scheduled to go to Continental Europe and Great Britain departing Boston June 24 and arriving back July 18. Countries I hope to visit (with courses per country in parentheses): Norway (1), Denmark (2), Holland (1), Portugal (1), Spain (2), Scotland (5), England (5), and Wales(5)…a total of 8 countries and 22 courses. Of those 22, I have never played 19 and three are repeats for me (Muirfield, North Berwick-West Links, and Royal Porthcawl). During that time frame, Pat will spend 6 days with Grandson Duggan at Duke Basketball Camp in Durham, NC, then be back in Boston for three days and then fly over to rendezvous w moi at the Edinburgh airport. We spend about 5 days together playing golf and enjoying Scotland (around Gullane and then St Andrews) and then fly to London. At that point she joins one of her Castles and Gardens Tours…this time in Wales. I go play golf in England and northern Wales and pick her up at the conclusion of her Tour for three days of golf together in southern Wales…then we fly back to Boston together. Very complicated but we were able to make it work!
Also been planning a 3-4 day trip to Dallas with some other GOLF Magazine Panelists at the new PGA headquarters in Frisco, TX (about 35 miles north of “Big D”). We will be playing two new courses there that are highly anticipated in the golfing world and I hope to play two others on this trip which is scheduled from May 30-June 1.
MIami, Brazil, and Long Island April 21-25, 2023: Finally, I had to plan a 5 day trip to Miami, Brazil, and Long Island for late April. Early on Friday April 21 I flew from Raleigh-Durham to Miami to get to Indian Creek Country Club. Scott Weber, the son of Alan and Sue Weber (neighbors when I lived in Purchase, NY, and good friends during Alan and my days at Citibank going back to the early 1970’s), lives in Miami and now belongs to Indian Creek. Alan and Sue live in Boca and Scott, Alan, and I played Indian Creek that afternoon. I had played Indian Creek 2-3 times in the late 1990’s and it had just been renovated by Andrew Green, whose work has really impressed me. Indian Creek is the old $$ course in Miami. It was designed by William Flynn and opened in 1928. You have heard of island greens…well this is an island course…in Biscayne Bay. Along the circumference of the island it is lined with a series of magnificent homes. Ray and Maria Floyd used to live in one of them, and that house recently was purchased by Tom Brady who naturally tore it down and is building a home that appears to be about 20-30,000 square feet in its place.
The course is superb…Green has brought back all of Flynn’s wonderful bunkering and retained the brilliant subtlety of the course. It looks pretty simple until one ends up hitting into one of these greens from the wrong angle…then the “fun” starts. Having already proven his ability to restore a big/bold course (e.g. Oak Hill, Congressional, Inverness, Scioto), this one demonstrates Green’s ability to create effective “whispers” on subtle tracks.
That night I flew south to Sao Paulo, a quaint village of some 12.4 million residents (or 33+ million in the “macrometropolis”). Arriving at around 5am, I was taken to the home of Jairo L., a wonderful 84 year old Brazilian whom I met about 5 years ago at Muirfield in Scotland. Having not slept very well on the overnight flight, I caught a nap at Jairo’s home and then we went over to Sao Paulo Golf Club and played a quick 9 nine with Paulo Marzoni, Jr.
Santapazienza Golf Club: Paulo’s father, Paulo Sr. and Jairo were childhood friends and worked together in Brazil’s banking industry as adults. At some point, Paulo Sr. became enamoured with commercial real estate and became an important shopping mall developer. Eventually he accepted an offer for his real estate holdings that was too good to refuse. That deal provided the Mazoni’s liquidity that would be used to create their own 18 hole golf course 50 miles north of Sao Paulo. Today, that course is included in one publication’s World Top 100 listing, and that of course meant I had to get down there to see and play it.
But getting from a large piece of Brazilian farmland to a world class golf course is rarely simple and it certainly was not simple in this case. Starting in the late1980’s the two Marzoni’s went about designing and constructing a nine hole golf course. By 1993 the nine holer was completed and they immediately commenced efforts to expand the course to a full 18 holes. Much of the farm was coved with rain forests but in those days Brazil’s environmental regulations were weak and clear cutting was possible. By 1993 the course was a full 18 holes and the next 15 years or so were spent completing small but incremental improvements in the design and the course’s infrastructure (water sprinkling systems, drainage, etc etc.)
By the late 2000’s, the Marzoni’s realized it was time to secure professional help if they wanted the course to become special. They knew the property had huge potential…but that it would take real professional architectural help to bring out its best points. They read many very positive reviews regarding Tom Fazio’s work and approached Fazio…whose reaction was fairly negative given the logistical issues associated with such a large project in a distant land. Not willing to take “no" as an answer, the Marzoni’s invited Tom's son and partner Logan to come down and view the course. Logan made the trip and was immediately enamored with the situation and its possibilities. Logan convinced Tom to take a close look. The land was big and bold, the rain forest was enchanting, and the Marzoni’s clearly had the capacity and desire to think big. A deal was struck. In fact the Fazio’s and Marzoni’s became very close personal friends.
However, environmental laws had been passed that prohibited further clear cutting and provided protection for most of the vegetation. While some truly invasive species of plants (such as bamboo) were exempted from this legislation, many forms of vegetation were explicitly covered. So for the most part, it was no longer possible to simply clear cut new fairways. Fortunately, there was sufficient room in the fairways that had been cleared and the Fazio’s were able to make significant improvements. What was initially conceived as a set of minor improvements ended up being a six year project (2008-2014) upgrading the entire golf course.
However, some of the most significant improvements that the Fazio’s suggested were impossible to implement due to a county road that divided the property. The Mazoni’s decided to offer the county a new road to by-pass the current route if they could purchase (and eliminate) the original road. The negotiations (and the construction of the new bypass route) took some 4- 5 years to complete. Completion of the road allowed for the building of three entirely new holes, (today;’s #11, #12, and #18), switching the front and back nines, and other significant routing improvements.
In the second half of 2019 top100golfcourses.com listed Santapazienza at #98 in its World Top 100 listing. That same listing also listed Lanhai International (Yangtze Dunes)-Links at #92 in its World 100 listing…thereby knocking me "off” my World 100 Ever (All Sources) perch.
By 2020, the road deal had been finalized, Santapazienza was closed to visitors, and the three new holes were constructed and other changes made. During the next three years, the “minor changes” being made were always promised to be 3-6 months from completion. Frankly, based on my conversations with the Manzoni’s and others who had played the course, I do not think it was even close to being a World 100 track in 2019. My sense is that those who pushed it as a World 100 were trapped by their own early on exaggerations…if the course was known to require three more years of work, how could it have been a World 100 before that point in time.
However, even if my opinions as just expressed are correct…the issue regarding Santapazienza (as well as any other course) is: “is it a World 100 today?” I arrived in Brazil a skeptic, but the course’s real strong points are very compelling:
1. it has a good number of really strong interesting holes…that offer real “options” off every tee, options that force a player to think their way through the round. Many holes offer from the back (Black and Blue) tees a very difficult set of options (usually meaning that the “safe" play off the tee creates a very difficult 2nd shot)…but the forward tees create angles and hole directions that allow the lesser player to play conservatively and be somewhat challenged. The differeces in play between the forward and back tees is amazing…and not just in terms of length. The back tees often require at least one very challenging and risky shot on about every hole…but the average player can avoid those situations by playing an approriate set of tees. As many of you have surmised from my prior writings, I have never been a big fan of Tom Fazio designs…but this one is really an oxymoron..a Strategic Fazio Design. That is meant as a compliment…perhaps "left handed”, but a compliment in any case.
2. The bunkers here are simply enormous and are to be avoided at almost all costs.
3. The course challenges all parts of the player’s game..is very difficult, and often great fun!
It does have one substantial flaw in my opinion…the distances from a green to the following tee (especially on today’s front nine). The brilliant (and extraordinarily creative) Dr. Alister MacKenzie put forth his "13 Principles of Golf Course Design” in his 1920 book Golf Architecture and Rule #3 states: There should be little walking between the green and the tees, and the course should be arranged so that in the first instance there is always a slight walk forwards from the green to the next tee, then the holes are sufficiently elastic to be lengthened in the future if necessary.
After a 3 hour “tour” of Santapazienza with Paulo, Jr. on April 22 and a round of golf the following day, I thought hard about how to deal with the MacKenzie’s Rule #3 when evaluating Santapazienza and my World 100 ballot come late August of this year. I now think it should be a partial negative, because of the legal issues involved with the Rain Forest…and the fact that going through the Rain Forest between hole is a critical part of the very special experience offered by Santapazienza. And that experience is hugely enhanced by the opportunity to interact with Paulo, Jr. and Paulo, Sr., two wonderful gentlemen.
In any event, my decision will be held in confidence…but I did want to explain some of my thought processes. Who knows…maybe I am getting soft in my old age? Certainly hope not!!
Most important, this left me with just two to go to refinish the World Top 100 EVER (all sources).
After a quick shower, I drove back down to Sao Paulo with Jairo and caught a flight to Rio de Janiero. Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s I went to Rio probably 3-4 times (the first time in August 1974) on business for Citibank or to visit the Phillips’ and the Friesell’s who worked out of Rio. In those days almost all multinational companies doing business in Brazil had their main Brazilian offices in Rio. Over the past 30 years, almost all of that has moved to Sao Paolo due to the terrible crime problem in Rio.
Pat had asked whether I wanted her to go to Brazil with me on this trip. I had told her she has an open invitation as always to join any of my trips, but if she wanted to go to Brazil (and especially Rio), there were two requirements.:
1. she had to remove 100% of the jewelry she wears before the plane landed, and
2. if I was playing golf and she did not want to play that day, she absolutely could not go out and walk the streets, shop in stores, etc. etc.
Unfortunately, that immediately ended any chance of Pat joining me on this trip.
Rio Olympic Golf Course: I stayed at a nice Marriott Hotel on Copacabana Beach and had a car service take me everywhere. Early on Monday morning (4/24) we drove out to The Olympic Course (about a 40 minute drive). My tee time was 9:00 but there was almost no one there. I arrived at 8:05 and was off the first tee by 8:15. The course is on a very unusual site…it sits 1/3 of a mile from the beach and the Atlantic Ocean, but neither the beach or the ocean is visible from anywhere on the course. The land was obviously flat as a pancake when Gil Hanse first started his efforts, and the architectural work is brilliant…probably his best effort IMO (given what he had to work with). Almost no level lies on the course…except a few spot areas on each hole…all of which require one’s drive to flirt with danger to end up there (just like The Old Course in St Andrews). Lots of fairway width but the angles make for a real need to hit it accurately off the tee. And the greens are shaped and positioned beautifully.
The course was in very good condition…but once you left the fairway it started to get a little bit “ratty”…not super bad, just not good. But again, the tees, fairways and greens were very good. Not a World 100, but absolutely a World Top 100 and maybe Top 50-60 in terms of architecture.
After the round I chatted with the staff at the pro shop and then headed back to my hotel. Had a late check out and then a flight to Sao Paulo that afternoon to catch a flight to JFK Airport in New York.
Two Courses on Long Island: I had planned to play two courses near JFK (in Nassau County) that I needed to play to complete a new mini Bucket List…playing every course that has ever hosted a Metropolitan Open and/or Metropolitan Amateur. There are 83 courses that had done so, and I had played 63 (one of which no longer exists). Of the 20 others, 10 no longer exist, so I had 10 left to play (5 on Long Island, 3 in New Jersey, and 2 in Westchester County). On this day, 4/25, I was scheduled to play two courses…BUT my flight was an hour late causing me to miss my early tee time at one club…but but, a quick call to the pro at another gave me a second course to play (always helps to have a back up plan).
So at around 9:30 I teed off at Rockville Links Club in Rockville Center with a friend who met me there..Bob K, who is a member at Fresh Meadow CC, as well as their teaching pro, Phil Cardwell, who was an ass’t pro at Quaker Ridge about 10-12 years ago. Rockville Links was designed by Devereux Emmett and opened in 1924. It was later renovated by Jim Urbina. Front nine is very flat and is good but somewhat repetitive. Back nine is really very good. And now I only had 9 left!
After the round I had a drive of some 15 minutes to Hempstead Golf & Country Club. Built in 1921 and then renovated by A. W. Tillinghast in 1927, the course remined me in many ways of Winged Foot…trees were very similar and shapes of greens and bunkers were similar to Winged Foot’s. I enjoyed the course but must admit that I was tired by the time the round ended. Might have something to do with traveling for about 17 hours and then playing 36 holes. In any case…now 8 left on this Bucket List and this round brought me to 1539 courses played lifetime to date!
Headed back to JFK, caught my flight to Raleigh-Durham, and somehow made it back home around 11:30 pm…some 34 hours after leaving my hotel in Rio. No problem sleeping that night and great to be back.
The Tree Farm, SC, Sunday April 30, 2023: As I have said a number of times, the volume of new courses, retro’s,and reno’s underway in the USA and worldwide these days is nothing short of astounding. One of the most highly anticipated has been The Tree Farm located between Aiken, SC and Columbia, SC. The “force” behind this club is a member of the PGA Tour, Zach Blair. Zach has had a dream to build a great golf course as home for a world class golf club. He searched for appropriate land in his home state of Utah with no success and then looked at this property in near Aiken, SC. All the while he was “running” a “golf club” called The Buck Club which was selling merchandise and running/promoting golf events on line.
Having found the SC property, he revised his architectural plans and decided to get personally involved in that end of the business. Until that time, Blair was planning to use the team of King-Collins (think Sweetens Cove outside of Chattanooga, TN and Landmand Golf Club in NE outside of Sioux City, IA) as his architects, but this arrangement was terminated on friendly terms after the SC property deal happened. Instead, he struck agreements with Tom Doak and Kye Goalby to handle the course routing and course construction respectively. Blair planned to work on some of the architectural details as well as recruit members for the club, staff , etc etc…this is intended to be a real business and that takes some skill and effort to put the pieces together.
The golf world has been all excited about this project, especially since another high profile project (“Old Barnwell” ) was announced shortly shortly after The Tree Fram’s announcement and is under construction with some eight holes playable at this point.
Dave F., a fellow member of our Global Golf Centurions Club joined The Tree Farm and invited me to join him with two others on April 30. That Sunday morning I left home around 4:45am. The weather forecast was fairly iffy, but this was an opportunity not to be missed due to “possible” bad weather. I arrived around 8:10am. The club is for sure a work in progress which is what I expected. Almost all new course built today are launched with sparse amenities, which are completed after the course is open. The current “clubhouse” at The Tree Farm is a temporary tent.
The weather was threatening but looked like it might hold off. Our foursome consisted of Dave and two other golf affection ado’s whom I knew of (and vice versa). We started on hole #10 and played the back nine first followed by 1-9. On #10, I hit a good drive, then hacked it around and was lying 4 just over the green when I canned a 50+ foot putt for a bogey five. That was strange way to start the round to say the least, but whom am I to complain?
I walked (with a caddy) the first nine holes we played (the back nine) and given the weather and the terrain it was a tough walk. As we made the turn to #1 I grabbed a cart. I played well shooting a 42 on the back and 39 on the front for an 81 but was playing a very short course (well ahead of the club’s most forward tees which at 5750 yards are too long for my game). I will make a few comments about the course and the club.
The land the club has been constructed on is simply magnificent: lots of land movement and a good sand base. Best holes IMO are (in the intended order of play on the card):
—#4…a 230 yard (from tips) uphill toughened version of Pine Valley’s #5
—#15…185 yard Redan with controversial high mound hugging right side of green
—#7…wonderful short par 4 to small well protected green
—#18…controversial “par 3.5” finishing hole…where I stuck a 9 iron to about a foot for a birdie, so hole must be good!
The routing and basic architecture is superb. However, over the prior two weeks this area had received a significant amount of rainfall and that highlighted some areas of the course that require modification to deal with drainage issues that became obvious due to those heavy rains.
So in summary, I view this one as requiring more work which seems to be scheduled. Not an unusual circumstance IMO…often times these things just need to be “tested’ in the real world to see what “tweaks” are necessary. Time will tell.
Mimosa Hills Country Club, May 5, 2023: Mimosa Hills is a Donald Ross track (opened in 1929) located about 50 miles NW of Charlotte. It was included on GolfWeek’s Top 200 Classic Courses from 2011-2013. Given the flood of great courses built (or revived) in the ensuing years, I doubt it will make this list again. The back nine is very good, but the front nine too repetitive (I also am repetitive, because I made the same comment regarding Rockville Links 😀).
I also was at Greensboro CCs’ City course (another Ross) that week with Hayes H. and DoG Tyler Gosselin…the weather was much too cold for this body…in the 40’s with winds of at least 15mph, so I played “spectator”, meaning it does not count in my list of played courses…for obvious reasons.
Status and Plans: That brings me to 1541 courses played to date. Starting with my drive north to Boston later this week, my calendar is pretty well booked for the next 60 days or so, including the Continental Europe/Great Britain and Texas trips mentioned near the top of this post, plus:
5/19-21: hopefully knock off either 4 or 5 of the courses that have hosted a Met Open or Met Am…which should leave me with 3 or 4 left to play;
6/12-16: In the early stages of planning a trip to midwest and Upper Plains and hope to play about 7 courses (all but one of which will be new for me); details not ready for “release” as of yet
Will be a busy next 60+ days!!
