Kyle Phillips

[Mark_Rowlinson]

You may be interested in the following (from Golf Monthly October 2003):

Phillips is critical of some of the current generation of players who put their names to new course designs without having been closely involved in their development. 'I've had folks contacting me saying they have a player who has won Majors and is figuring out what to do before joining the Seniors tour. "If we can scare up some work, could you basically design something with his name on it?"  It's not that I am above all that but it's just not something that has gotten me excited.  If you're going to write a book you might as well put your name on it.  Besides people don't go to Pebble Beach or Sunningdale because of who designed it - they go there because of the experience when they get there.'

One or two regulars to this site might disagree!

[Tim_Weiman]

Mark:

The practice of putting a professional golfer's name on a project is a total turn off for me. Either the person does some real work or their name shouldn't be included at all.

[Gyrogolf]

Off the subject, but I happened to meet Kyle this weekend and am convinced that he is ridiculously under rated. Morgan Creek up in Roseville, CA was excellent.

The irregular mounding and top line look of the bunkers came out very well and there was hardly an ordinary hole on the golf course.

He seems to have a real grasp of how to inject strategically placed internal hazards into each hole. There are an enormous amount of houses planned for the perimeter of many fairways, but I do not think it will be as distracting as say, Empire Ranch or Shadow Lakes, because the visual arrangements draw your eye down the fairway and not to the edges of the playing area.

Worth a look for the Treehouse gang IMNSHO. They open officially in a couple weeks.        

[THuckaby2]

Gyro - played Shadow Lakes again on Sat, and wow as the houses get actually built my god is the visual distraction now crystal-clear... it's too bad because the course remains damn good, IMNSHO.  But visually all the cool vistas are now gone.

Morgan Creek?  Add that to the hundreds of courses I need to see... So many courses, so little time.  Sounds good, in any case.

And Kyle Phillips need do nothing more than Kingsbarns and Granite Bay and he's great in my book.

TH

[Mark_Rowlinson]

The same magazine article said that Phillips 'brought us The Wisley in the early 1990s - a slice of America constructed in the heart of Surrey, complete with bent grass tees, greens and fairways as well as six lakes.'  The club gives the credit entirely to RTJ Jnr.  I've not played it, but I was allowed to walk round it, making notes and taking photos for a book I wrote a few years ago.  It is, if I may say so, very American but it has oodles of character and several genuinely handsome holes, unlike the Oxfordshire (Rees Jones), The London (Nicklaus + Golden Bear), Hanbury Manor (Jack Nicklaus II) - other high profile courses within easy striking distance of London which are also in the American style (whatever that may be) and designed by Americans.  Unfortunately The Wisley is a members-only club so you can't even get in through the electronic gate just for look.

There is a photo of Southern Gailes in Golf Monthly, but it is not very flattering.