18 TEE BOX THE BIG PICTURE The fifteenth hole on the new Coore and Crenshaw-designed The Chain course at Streamsong Resort in Florida, photographed by Bill Hornstein, which opened for preview play in December 2023. The fourth course at Streamsong, The Chain has 19 short holes with flexible teeing areas – the beginning and end of which are marked by dragline chains that give the course its name and are a relic of the site’s history as a phosphate mine. Players are encouraged to tee off from wherever they want within the chains, which on several holes will give the choice between a carry over a waste area or a ground-game shot that could be played with a putter. The Chain is walking-only and – like the new two-and-a-half acre putting course, The Bucket – located close to the entrance to the Streamsong Lodge. It has a sixhole loop of holes that range from 50 to 150 yards around a grove of oaks and then players move to a thirteen-hole loop where the longest hole – the eighth, visible in the background of this image – can be played at almost 300 yards. “When you take strength and length out of the equation, golf becomes much more fun for a vastly expanded group of players,” said Coore. “And from an architectural perspective, we can do more interesting things, particularly on the greens and around the greens.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=