[Sam Morrow]

Let's play a fun game that can't possibly become an argument. You have the chance to build a course for you and your friends, you can pick anywhere in the world and pick any architect you want. Here's the catch, it's the only course you can play the rest of your life.

All I ask is tell me where you would put the course, the architect you would pick and why.

I will start, I would build in the Texas Hill Country and have Coore and Crenshaw. I've seen what they can do it an environment they know well and I want that.

[Keith OHalloran]

I would pick the bluffs of Wading River , NY and also go with C & C.  I have seen Friar's Head, and I want that!

[Philippe Binette]

I'll do it,

would probably be a 9-hole course with 2 sets of tees, not too long... somewhere lost in the Eastern township in Quebec...
short, corky unique

[Ally Mcintosh]

Pure linksland on the west coast of Ireland would do me... I'll design it myself...

[Ronald Montesano]

I'd wedge 12 holes in on Navy Island in the Niagara River. Originally slated to be the home of the United Nations, it's now a nice little island between my island and Canada.



My last holes, accessed by taking a boat ride downstream, toward the Falls, would be on the islands between the Horseshoe falls and the USA falls.



Truthfully, the course would suck but the memories would be singular.

[Paul Jones]

I would build a course in Central Park and have Trump design it.

[Ben Sims]

For funsies, say I win the lottery.

I'll use my family farm of 300 acres; rolling pines about 45 minutes west of Atlanta.  I call Brett Hochstein and Zach Varty because they're young, ambitious, and smart.  I want to see what prodigies can do with no leash.  I tell them to be heroes, and make sure we have some variety.  Hopefully they'll seek some counsel from architect's they've worked for.  I'd bring Don over to teach us what humps and rolls work best on an 11 gang and triplex and how to keep a year-round maintenance budget around 350K.  After I say these things, I take a year to travel the world with my lovely wife. 

When I come home, whatever result is in the ground, I transfer the ownership to Jim Colton to manage as he sees fit (cause he's a finance guru and I'm not) with only one caveat.  That I get to be the superintendent.

It doesn't get anymore pipe dream-ish than that. And it's completely ridiculous.  But its fun to write ridiculous stories.

[Wade Whitehead]

I'd hire Lester George to design a course on the old Saul dairy farm between Mill Mountain and Windy Gap Mountain in Mount Pleasant, Virginia.

WW

[Tim Gavrich]

I'd pick some acres on the marsh around McClellanville, SC and have Forrest Fezler and his group consult with me to build a course that would be complementary to Bulls Bay, just down the road.  I would hope to make it so good that I could shop it to the fine folks at Bulls Bay as a second course for their club and turn over control of it to them, eventually, in return for lifetime membership to both!

[Jon Wiggett]

I would build a course in Central Park and have Trump design it.

 

[George Pazin]

Not sure where - maybe those beautiful dunes on Cape Cod, maybe dunes somewhere else, maybe some sandy hills in Nebraska - but I'd have Mike and Don do a real 9 and then I'd have fun with another 9. I'd expect most of my guests to prefer the former...

[Bruce Wellmon]

Buy Dormie.
Ask C & C if they want to do anything to it.
Lester MUST build his "Proving Ground" practice area, otherwise the deal is off.
 
  

[Shane Wright]

The tract of linksland about 10 minutes from my home in Tralee - There were plans for a 36 hole complex there to be called Kilshanig cross (sic) - one course to be designed by Doak, the other by C&C - some land ownership issues scuppered it if I recall correctly. I would like to have enough funds to make that problem go away - if I had to go with one architect, I will go with Doak - as I have played more of his courses and he has a better links portfolio.

Ill go in on this one with you. You took the words out of my mouth.

[Scott Stearns]

Mine's already been built.  Its--

pretty flat, so i'll be able to walk it into my 60s.

Fairways are wide, so I dont lose balls all that much.  

par gets defended at the green, so i can play with my son when he gets longer and better at the game than I

---my "wish" is a three-green short game "course" too, where i could putter around with a wedge and an 8 iron for chipping.


--Is it too late to put the UN on an island in a river?  that would be poetic....

[Ash Towe]

Tom Doak is already building it just north of Auckland.  The problem is I am not the client and I have not seen the cost of membership.

[Bob_Huntley]

Tom Doak is already building it just north of Auckland.  The problem is I am not the client and I have not seen the cost of membership.

Ash,

The one and only time I played Titirangi was in December 1971. I played with Bob Glading who won the NZ Open as an amateur and the NZ PGA a year or so later. He mentioned at the time that winter rains made many of the courses around Auckland a bit of a slog because of the soil conditions, a heavy clay base; has that been alleviated over the past forty years?

Bob

 

[Gary Slatter]

Fortunately, it's already there, I could play the OLD COURSE forever.  However, I'd hire Rod Whittman to come over and renovate the New and Julbilee, Ian Andrew to renovate the Castle, and Jeff Mingay to do all the bunkers.   I'd lobby the locals to get the Old open on Sundays, and use that revenue to lower the price of Bellhaven Best.

[Kyle Henderson]

I'd like to own Clear Creek Tahoe. Failing that, I'd try to bribe the California Coastal commission into letting me build in the dunes north of Monterey. My choice of architect would follow the usual "group-think" of the treehouse.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Fortunately, it's already there, I could play the OLD COURSE forever.  However, I'd hire Rod Whittman to come over and renovate the New and Julbilee, Ian Andrew to renovate the Castle, and Jeff Mingay to do all the bunkers.   I'd lobby the locals to get the Old open on Sundays, and use that revenue to lower the price of Bellhaven Best.

Gary,

Why do we need Rod and Ian involved

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Jeff,

X2

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

My personal course would be laid out here at Magheraroarty in north Donegal. I've thought of building a golf course here since my childhood; my bedroom window looked out over this majestic piece of linksland.      





"Lough" hole across the inlet. I'd probably have to build some sort of footbridge as the walk around would take half an hour.



"Sahara" hole in the distance.

The huge sandy area in the distance is a very dynamic landscape. Thirty years ago that sandy area hosted a huge sand hill (called the Dumhaigh) that rose as high as the headland in the background. Today, as a result of the powerful winds, it's just a shadow of it's former self. Dreaming aside, I would hate to see this land set aside for a golf course. It's an incredible landscape that is constantly evolving, and to stabilize this large sandy area would be a crime. Thank goodness it's not located in Aberdeenshire.



"Muckish" hole. A long par three to the small dune in the distance. Notice that the dune itself is a mirror image of the mountain in the background. A nice touch by the architect there.  Muckish is the Irish for pig, as the mountain resembles a pig's back.



My "Alps" hole. Needless to say, this would be a walking (or climbing) course.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

My personal course would be designed by myself with bunker design and shaping by Jeff Mingay.

I would
build it on the sandhills of Prince Edward County, near Picton, Ontario.

I walked that land with Robbie Robinson before it was made a Provincial Park.
I don't think there are dunes like that anywhere else in Canada.

The dunes in AB and SK are not on the water, as these are.

[Tommy Williamsen]

There is some very special dunes land near Muskegon Michigan.  I would do the routing myself and have Lester of Tom Doak design the holes.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Tommy,

Do you not think the routing is the most important part of the design?

[Ash Towe]

Bob,

The short answer to your question is no.

Some clubs have used sand carpets when renovations have taken place.  Titirangi has cut down many trees and improved the amount of sun and wind reaching fairways and greens.  There is no doubt these changes have improved matters but at the end of the day they are still built on clay.

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