The October 2024 issue of Golf Course Architecture magazine is out now.
Our latest issue features The Keep at McLemore, photographed by Evan Schiller, on the cover. With a spectacular setting on a mountaintop plateau in northwest Georgia, USA, the Bill Bergin-Rees Jones design is destined to make a big impact when it opens in 2025, as Richard Humphreys reports.
For our main feature, we ask why architects who trained with Pete Dye are so dominant in today’s golf design business. With input from Bill Coore, Bobby Weed, Chris Lutzke, Brian Curley, Tim Liddy and Marco Martin, we learn about the impact Dye had on those who designed courses with him.
Cedar Rapids in Iowa was devastated by a storm that tore through the course just a few years after a restoration by Ron Prichard. With thousands of trees felled and the landscape fundamentally altered, Prichard returned to oversee another transformation. Adam Lawrence reports: “The work at Cedar Rapids is nothing short of wonderful. From disaster has come triumph.”
In one of two feature interviews we hear from Bill Amick, who worked as a golf course architect for more than 60 years. Now retired, but still passionate about the profession, he continues to actively promote shorter courses and alternative forms of the game. “For a long time during my career, I have believed that many, many ‘kinder’, easier and less costly courses are justified and will continue to grow in popularity,” says Amick.
Irish golf consultancy Turfgrass has launched a US arm with a string of high-profile appointments. Adam Moeller from the USGA, Toro veteran John Lawrence and Augusta National’s Brad Owen speak with Richard Humphreys about how they will bring their experiences and knowledge to their new roles. Turfgrass founder John Clarkin and director of agronomy Julian Mooney also talk about the company’s success and future plans.
New York’s Inwood Country Club and Renaissance Golf Design have spent the last 20 years recapturing the character of its Herbert Strong course. Greens chairman Daniel Friedman tells us more: “There have been benefits from taking our time in that we have been able to tease out subtleties that might have been missed if we had proceeded at a faster pace.”
We also have reports on a new practice facility at Golf at Goodwood in West Sussex, designed by James Edwards and built by MJ Abbott; and California’s North Ranch Country Club, which has been re-envisioned by Jackson-Kahn Design and rebuilt by Landscapes Unlimited.
Elsewhere, our Tee Box section includes details of the new McLeod course at Trump Aberdeen; Todd Quitno’s plan for the Country Club of Lincoln in Nebraska; an update on Red Sea Global’s Shura Links course, which has been designed by Brian Curley; and the changes coming to the Ailsa course at Trump Turnberry.
There is plenty more too. We hope you enjoy the read!
View the digital edition of the October 2024 issue of Golf Course Architecture
Subscribe to the printed edition of Golf Course Architecture