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I recently had the privilege of appearing on the National Links Trust Podcast, speaking with Will Smith generally about the state of municipal golf in the United States (there’s also an early moment where I use my oft-repeated corpse metaphor to differentiate between black and death metal but, for the most part, golf was the topic). More specifically, Will – like most of you – realize that my primary draw on social media is bringing attention to smaller projects that don’t get as much love in bigger publications, so we discussed the macro-trends at play with municipal courses around the country…not just the National Links Trusts and Cobbs Creeks of the world.

That’s when he hit me with an interesting question: What municipal project am I following most avidly? I didn’t have an immediate answer; firing from the hip, I cited Todd Clark’s work at Swope Memorial, being that I’m a Tillinghast fan.

Driving home later, I thought more deeply about what the answer might be. I realized that there’s one project rooted deeper in my ideals as a golf course architecture hobbyist and, more importantly perhaps, as an environmentalist.

Continue reading “The Municipal Golf Course Project I’m Watching as of June 11, 2025” »

The Players Championship returns this week and I return to an eye-catching graphic that was shared by Garrett Morrison last year, displaying a dispersion of where tee shots had landed on the infamous island green, No. 17, for the day’s pin position, at the front-left. Six golfers, yes, had splashed down. More noticeable were the number of balls that “miraculously” came to rest on the edge of oblivion. 

Continue reading “Miss Nearly, Pay Dearly: Measuring Hazards Proportionally to Capability” »

An important preface from the author, aimed at all of those who will respond angrily because they didn’t bother to read this preface: Don’t get mad when reading this piece. Have fun and comment liberally with your own hole edits.

Another year and another opportunity for this middle-class pragmatist from Ohio to play a handful (or more) great golf courses. And, based on readership rates, another opportunity to take advantage of what is easily my most-read content of the year: the fourth-annual Design Swap exercise, where the world’s best architects take a stab at redesigning the worst holes on the best golf courses I’ve played during the past year.

Well…I redesign from the hypothetical mindset of said architects. After all, there’s too much bonhomie in the industry for, say, Tom Doak to make a hole redesign recommendation to David McLay-Kidd. And so, instead, I attempt to embody the architects in question while redesigning what I interpret to be the worst hole at the best courses that their “colleagues” designed. The requirements for inclusion are that I must have played this course for the first time this calendar year, and only one course inclusion per architect.

So, for example, we’ve seen Seth Raynor head out to the Sheep Ranch, Langford and Moreau make ballyhoo at Ballyneal, and similar perversions of conscience in years past.

If it sounds sacrilegious, get real: The courses included are great. They are not perfect. Ryan Book is not capable of making them perfect because he’s not a golf course architect. These guys have a better shot than I do…all I need to do is follow their lead.

Granted, more people are going to be pissed off about this post than usual, almost entirely because of the first hole that’s going under the knife. Let’s get to it:

Continue reading “Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross, Tom Doak and More Renovate The Best Courses BPBM Played in 2024” »

I’ve got opinions on what golf courses would most benefit from receiving a restoration from a qualified architect. As do you. We are both shocked when the rest of the world’s golf course architecture aficionados don’t prioritize the same projects that we do. The solution, obvious to anyone who has taken Statistics 201, is to create a larger sample size to determine what are truly* the most restoration-deserving courses in the United States. 

We sent invitations to participate to a range of course architects, superintendents, professionals, journalists, and otherwise well-traveled armchair enthusiasts in order to hear their ideas. The result is this, a countdown of the 25 courses that these experts most want to see renovated or restored. This list comes from 255 total courses, nominated by a group of 76 experts.

All nominators were instructed that they could nominate, in order of preference, up to 10 courses. If ranked, point values were assigned via a semi-academic reflection of preference emphasis, based on existing literature (i.e., I took a less amateur-hour process than “ten points for your first ranking and one point for your tenth ranking”). In the case of a tie between courses at the end of the process, the total number of nominators served as a tiebreaker. All nominees were required to be: 

1. In the United States (i.e., no Highland Links).  
2. Not undergoing another restoration or renovation project currently (many are unaware of the current plan in place for Kankakee Elks, but there is one). 
3. Exist in a location where reconstruction is possible (i.e. Flushing Meadows would be amazing, but it’s impossible. No Sand Valley Lido-style rebuilds allowed here).  
4. There was no prescribed method for what changes would take place at the course. They could be restorations, renovations, or Andrew Green-at-Congressional reorganizations. 

*Will you be angry about this list? Yes, inevitably. After all, both GOLF and Golf Digest create their course ranking lists, and we as a community hate them in spite of their efforts. This list will no doubt create similar reactions among ye. 

So here we go. The 25 courses that would benefit most from reno/restoration, according to the people:

Continue reading “America’s 25 Most In-Demand Golf Course Renovations/Restorations” »

An important preface from the author, an armchair architect at best and a golfer who enjoyed all the courses mentioned below quite a bit: Don’t get mad when reading this piece. Have fun, and comment liberally with your own hole edits. 

It was a relatively short golf year for me, so I briefly considered letting the third-annual rendition of this feature slide by the wayside. But last year’s edition also got a brief mention on GolfClubAtlas, which lends an air of legitimacy to my hobby (if not money), and so I decided I must go on. 

The gist: You’ve likely read a list, by someone much wealthier and/or better connected than you (power to them), listing the best golf courses that they played during the past year. These create intense levels of envy among the less wealthy / well-connected. I’m starting to get over that part, but I’m still bugged by how unwilling the average adventurer is to say something even vaguely critical about acclaimed clubs, unless that complaint has already been beaten into a clichéd pulp by the masses before them (trees at Augusta! You don’t say!).

I’m both realistic and, admittedly, cynical. I don’t believe the perfect golf course exists. In an attempt to project sincerely, and keep those GolfClubAtlas guys interested in my minimal adventures, I often don’t focus on the great stuff at the great courses I played. Hence my annual “best of” format: Rather than simply slobbering to you about about Ballyneal’s brilliance, I choose my least favorite hole and offer suggestions for improvement. 

That would be too easy, however, so there’s a twist:  I redesign each hole from the mindset of a different golf course architect…specifically a golf course architect who designed a different course on my year-end list, whose own hole will be dissected in the style of one of his cohorts later on. Confused? You’ll figure it out. Let’s start with a tough one, and hopefully learn something about these architects and some otherwise pretty great courses.

Let’s find out what might happen if LANGFORD AND MOREAU redesigned NO. 9 at BALLYNEAL GOLF CLUB.  (If you ended up enjoying it, you can also check out the 2021 and 2022 versions of this exercise) Continue reading “Tom Doak, Langford & Moreau, William Flynn and More Renovate The Best Courses BPBM Played in 2023” »

Mike Keiser and Dick Nugent (as well as Jim Urbina for more recent renovations) deserve credit for many things at Dunes Club. Swapping flag positions after players have completed nine holes goes a long way in diversifying two rounds, particularly on the par threes. Allowing the last hole’s winner to choose the tee on the next may have inspired the same admirable policy at Ballyneal, Ohoopee, and others. The Pine Valley aesthetic offends few, of course. 

Does any combination of new flags and new tees really make for a new course the second time around? No…this claim has been exaggerated on social media. Granted, the scorecard does offer an opportunity to turn your back nine into a Monster energy drink commercial…every par four can be played as a 3.5 from the forward tees. 

Should you? Probably not. Short par fours are fun, and the option to make par four drivable is fun. But five within one eighteen-hole routing waters down the concept, and ultimately weakening the course*. Should you get an invite, however, you’ll want to make at least two gettable. This ranking aims to help you choose wisely when that day comes. 

* = Bethpage Black Metal has been described as an “uptight prick” by several noted sources. 

Continue reading “Ranking The 5 Drivable Par 4s Hiding in Plain Sight at Mike Keiser’s Dunes Club” »

A simple question, really: Does the price of a round directly correlate to the quality of that round? This simple Statistics 201 exercise aims to figure out just how much a high price point equates to high quality of architecture in the eyes of major rating organizations. 

Continue reading “The Correlation — or Lack Thereof — Between Price and “Quality” in Top 100 Public Golf Course Rating Systems” »

If you’re on social media, you’ve likely read a list, by someone much wealthier and/or better connected than you (power to them), listing the best golf courses that they played during the past year. It’s obnoxious (again, power to them). What makes it worse is when their summaries are less insightful-look-into-the-minutiae-of-golf-course-identity, and more I-was-there photo dumps. 

I’m a cynic. I don’t believe the perfect golf course exists, in the same way that I don’t believe many truly terrible golf courses exist. I, a blogger and social media guy, provide very little value to you if I don’t emphasize fatty spots on what is otherwise a fine cut of meat. And that’s how I came up with my annual “best of” format: Rather than simply slobbering to you about how great a course like Bandon Dunes is, I choose my least favorite hole and offer suggestions for improvement. 

That would be too easy, however, so there’s a twist: 

Each hole is redesigned from the mindset of a different golf course architect. A golf course architect from elsewhere on my year-end list, whose own hole will be dissected in the style of one of his cohorts later on. Confused? You’ll figure it out. Let’s start with a tough one, and hopefully learn something about these architects and some otherwise pretty great courses. 

So…what would happen if HERBERT FOWLER renovated NO. 6 at BANDON DUNES?

Continue reading “Donald Ross, Seth Raynor, Bill Coore and More Renovate The Best Courses BPBM Played in 2022” »

I don’t advertise myself as a photographer for numerous reasons. The first, and secondary reason: It’s tough to be a consistent online photography presence when you travel as little as I do. The second, and more primary reason: I’m a writer by nature, and a guy who’s got a lot to learn in terms of photography. At least one web denizen caught on to how my black metal schtick works — low light, zero color and, on rare occasions for trve Norwegian effekt, high contrast — and he suggested I check out his club. Summer in Charleston he said…greens that were watered and not much else. Might suit my style. The club? 

Yeamans Hall. 

Even if he had been totally wrong about how the course presented in the black and whites…even if the photos did suck…I could have putted for days on these greens. As someone who tilts toward Tillinghast and Ross’s approach to golf course design, it pained me only a little to acknowledge that this set of Raynor’s was the finest group of greens I had ever putted upon. I’ve not traveled as far as many, but I reckon these will still be among the best when they lay me down. 

Oh but the photos…my host was totally correct on that front. They turned out. I don’t do course tours because, again, I’m humble enough to know my portfolio doesn’t justify it. But the conditions that day, coupled in part with oncoming thunderstorms, resulted in something really cool. Something that many more qualified photographers could easily recreate, grant you. But give me this one photo feature guys…I promised I won’t rag on you if you choose to write a blog post. 

And so, the greens of Yeamans Hall: 

Continue reading “Probably The Last Photo Tour You’ll See at This Site: Yeamans Hall’s Greens” »