We've got Shipnuck's mailbag, but not much more than that with which to amuse you today. Just remember that I'm merely the messenger...
The Sheep Ranch in Full - Stephen Hennessy does a deep dive on the fifth Bandon offering, including some history of the site:
Sheep Ranch sits on about 140 acres north of the resort's Old Macdonald course, and for the past 16 or so years, there were 13 unirrigated greens played by a very small group of golfers. Fire trucks watered the turf, where Tom Doak and Jim Urbina did initial construction after they built Pacific Dunes. Mike Keiser, owner of Bandon Dunes among his other highly popular golf resorts, bought this land in 2000 with his business partner Phil Friedmann for $4 million in cash. Doak had designed these 13 greens with crisscrossing fairways accompanying them, allowing golfers to play into them from various directions. But at the time, Keiser and Friedmann, intending at first for their land to be the site of a new private 18-hole course, stopped funding the construction after locals started talking about this secret project, worried that the success of the resort could be in jeopardy.
So Sheep Ranch sat as an unlikely, untouched golf meadow of sorts for years: Only a select number of resort guests who asked the right person were given access to this informal golf experience on the ocean’s edge. Finally, now, Sheep Ranch has been developed and is a complete golf course.
The Friedman is the mystery man in all this, as this decision might prove to be one of the great missed opportunities in life:
Friedmann is someone golfers will begin to hear more about. Keiser’s business partner at Recycled Paper Greetings had passed on Keiser’s original offer to partner with him on the Bandon Dunes project. And after he and Keiser purchased the Sheep Ranch land in 2000, they decided the time was now to bring Sheep Ranch to the masses.
Admittedly it looks foolish in hindsight, but read Dream Golf before rendering your verdict. Bandon is quite the happy accident, and I'm guessing that Phil thought his business partner was tilting at windmills.
Equally surprising was the choice of architects:
Coore and Crenshaw, after designing Bandon Trails in 2005 as the third course at the resort, in addition to the 13-hole par-3 course, The Preserve, which opened in 2012, tookover the project. Nine green complexes are built against the bluffs, as Sheep Ranch boasts a mile of ocean acreage (compared to a combined two miles of ocean acreage on Bandon’s other courses).
“Getting the chance to go back to Bandon and work right on the ocean is almost beyond imagination,” Coore told Golf Digest in an interview last month. “There’s no way we could express our appreciation, certainly to Mike [Keiser], and perhaps even more so to Phil Friedmann.”Coore admitted to being surprised when Keiser called him to gauge his interest in studying the land for a potential routing. He figured Doak and Urbina, having done the original work, would be the likely team. Gil Hanse had also submitted a routing, and word got around that he might be working on the site.
“We just expected one of them would get the job,” Coore said. “But as I got to wander around that property over a fairly lengthy period of time, I just came to realize it had such beautiful contours for golf.”
Apparently they got the gig because their routing was superior, what a concept! Here's a bit more on the unique nature of the design, apparently an extremely windy site even by the standards of bandon:
What connected the entire routing was clustering a handful of teeing areas (namely Nos. 2 and 18; Nos. 5 and 15 and Nos. 8 and 10). This allowed Coore and Crenshaw to build holes in different angles away from each tee, instead of the traditional adjacent fairways and landing areas.
Doing this on a walking course made this possible, without having to worry about golf-cart traffic.
"We have not, that I can recall, used three sets of tees clustering them together so deliberately to increase the latitude of area where there could be landing areas," Coore said. "That was new for us. It was simply a matter of studying the ground and figuring out how to fit in as much golf as we could."
Well, they're clever guys for sure... How windy is the site?
What is inherently unique about this land is how windy Sheep Ranch is. And that's due to its history as being used by a wind farm for a utility company back in 1970s. Except, the site proved too windy, and the windmills fell apart.
That was the task Coore and Crenshaw had: Find as much area for golf along the coast on a small piece of property, while also making golf playable in the extreme wind conditions. Coore admits it "wasn't a cinch," but his team's routing solved the challenge.
Amusingly, Mr. Hennessy struggles with the basic concept of cause and effect. The site isn't windy because it was used as a wind far.... rather it's the reverse. But I'm sure that excess wind is a result of climate change, as is the fact that you have a mere twelve years to go play the Sheep Ranch before we all die.
Houston, We Have a Plan - It may seem that I've been dumping on this week's Houston event, which is not my intention. I don't have a dog in this hunt, but we can all agree that this week's event won't be to anyone's liking.
There is something of a plan discernible, beginning with a change of venue next year:
Memorial Park, a municipal course located in the western shadows of downtown Houston, is expected to host the Houston Open beginning next fall, replacing the Golf Club of Houston, which will host the event for the last time this week, and generatingexcitement for a tournament currently in a transition period.
“It’s a win-win-win-win,” said Jim Crane, owner of the Houston Astros, during a January city council meeting in which voters unanimously approved the project.
The $13.5 million first phase includes a course redesign by renowned architect Tom Doak, new maintenance and practice facilities, the latter with a two-level, 84-bay driving range, and a First Tee complex with four-hole course. The second phase will be a complete clubhouse rebuild that figures to cost about $17 million.
The course, founded in 1912, is set to reopen to the public on Nov. 4 and should continue to offer affordable tee times. (Before the redesign, golfers could play for under $40 on weekends.)
We like Mr. Doak, though he's not known for designing courses for the world's best players. So what's he got in store for us:
What Doak did with this previously flat, flood-prone land was remarkable. He effectivelyadded elevation and improved drainage into the Buffalo Bayou, which runs through the park. (How effective? Tropical Storm Imelda dropped nine inches on Memorial Park last month; the next day, the greens and fairways were being mowed.)
He cleared out trees. He lengthened holes. He shortened holes. He widened fairways. He completely changed the second hole, bringing it over a ravine.
“This course is going to make the Tour players really think about how they approach every hole,” said Butch Harmon, who played the old Memorial Park during his 16-year stint as a teaching pro in Houston and saw the redesign for the first time Tuesday. “You just can’t bomb it on every hole there.”
How does one add elevation? You move a bunch of earth, which we don't usually encourage, but is admittedly necessary on challenging sites.
As you might have noticed from that first photo, he brought in an unexpected design consultant:
Yet, with its many teeing grounds, the 7,300-plus-yard layout will also be playable for anyone. The most noticeable change Doak made was adding a fifth par-3 while keeping the other four par 3s under 200 yards – a recommendation made to him by Brooks Koepka, who has done some advising on the redesign through his friendship with Crane and AGF president Giles Kibbe.
As Koepka told Doak: “We’ll be heroes if we do that.”
“I think that’s something that makes it harder for a guy who is trying to break par but easier for a guy trying to break 90,” Doak added.
I'm assuming that's under 200 yards for civilians.... Remember, in this day and age the Par-3's are the only time we get to see the big boys hit long, strike that, middle irons....
But, does this solve their most pressing issue? That being the absence of any ranked players in the field:
But will the Tour’s stars? This year’s Houston Open field marks the weakest non-opposite-field event in nearly five years, according to the Official World Golf Ranking, which rates the strength of field a 73. With just two top-50 players participating, Houston Open tournament director Colby Callaway blames the lack of star power on the event’s new spot on the schedule.“Hopefully we can force the Tour’s hand to move us.”
Harmon, who as the event’s new recruiter is tasked with luring the big names back to Houston, believes that will happen. Harmon said that Crane met with Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on Wednesday to discuss another date change, even if it means moving just a few weeks earlier in the fall.
Force the Tour to move you? After the check has cleared?
They are in perhaps the worst single spot on the calendar, the week before the Tour decamps to Asia. Their naivete in not understanding the this is quite amusing, as you'd think Jim Crane would be surrounded by better people:
“I’m learning that in the fall, players are interested in chasing the big money internationally and playing overseas,” Callaway told Golf.com earlier this week. “That’s not up to me to figure that out, but up to the Tour to help out because there are tournaments here who are saying, ‘What about us?’
Call me, Colby, and I'll be happy to explain how the world works. Travel and all, it can be quite complicated....
A few weeks earlier could be huge, as it avoids the complication of the Asian swing. Of course there are already tourneys taking up those slots, including the Greenbrier and Silverado stops that have obvious attractions. As I look at the schedule the weak link would seem to be the Sanderson Farms, though that might merely be my New Yorker's natural aversion to Mississippi. In any event, it's on and those folks in Houston had better stop passing the buck and figure out how this game is played.
Alan Shipnuck did touch on this issue, so let's take our first foray into his mail satchel:
Does the Tour need a rule that says if you want to chase the cash and FedEx Cup point grabs in Asia, you have to play a domestic fall event? Seems like this sort of field could kill the Houston Open -@brianros1
Poor Houston. Not a single player in the top 30 and even the defending champ (Poults) is blowing off the tournament? Clearly the Tour has screwed this up. There should definitely be a bye week, and maybe two, ahead of the fall Asian swing, just as there is one after. Your proposed rule has merit, but I think most players would still want to schedule their mandatory appearance far from the heavy travel demands of Asia. So the fields in Napa or at the Greenbrier would likely improve but Houston would still suffer.
I'm not sure the Tour would agree that it's their screw-up. They don't seem to view themselves as responsible for ensuring that their sponsors receive value for their money.
Metaphor Alert - Doug Ferguson is apparently now writing for Golfweek, though nobody alerted me to that move. I'm unclear if those folks write their own headers, but this one should come with a warning label::
Column: Phil Mickelson racing the clock and spinning his wheels
As for the wheel-spinning, we all understand his objective:
Mickelson is running out of time to show why U.S. captain Tiger Woods should pick him for the Presidents Cup. At stake is a streak that is unlikely to be matched. Mickelson hasplayed on 24 consecutive Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams, qualifying for 20 of them. The last time he wasn’t on a team was 1993, the year Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth were born.
Through two tournaments, there are few signs of progress except for his weight loss.
As always with Mickelson, there is no shortage of optimism.
The question remains. Who ya gonna believe, Phil or your lyin' eyes?
Prez Cup Stuff - To the surprise of exactly no one:
In addition to boasting another small, but elite field, this year's Hero World Challengealso will serve as a Presidents Cup tune-up for the first time. Not surprisingly, everyone who automatically qualified for Team USA will tee it up in the Bahamas in front of captain Tiger Woods, who also happens to be the event's host. There's just one big exception.
World No. 1 Brooks Koepka is not among the 16 golfers committed to the tournament in a list announced on Wednesday. Koepka, who was also the leading points earner in the Presidents Cup standings, will take the week off before playing for Woods—and possibly, alongside Woods—at Royal Melbourne the following week (Dec. 12-15).
As are most of the bubble boys...the timing is interesting, and I wonder if there was ever any discussion about moving it closer to Australia. They have made one concession to reality:
Despite the absence of Koepka and World No. 2 Rory McIlroy, the field at Albany Dec. 4-7 (the tournament is finishing on a Saturday to allow more time for the team to make the long trip Down Under) is quite strong. The rest of the top 10 will be there, plus reigning U.S. Open champ Gary Woodland, one of those hoping to be one of Woods' four President Cup captain's picks.
If the team looks as sluggish as it did in Paris, we'll know who to blame.
Back to Alan on this subject:
Is it better or worse for the Presidents Cup to be held in December, contra the typical, Ryder Cup-ish spot right after the Tour Championship? -@ANTIFaldo
December is too late. The long, tedious build-up just saps any buzz the event could be enjoying. I think it should come on the heels of the real season, not the tail end of the low-wattage Fall.
For sure, as long as you maintain your xenophobic U.S.-centric focus. But te problem with trying to create an alternative to the Ryder Cup, is that the opposition team gets accommodated occasionally. There's a long history of important events in Australia i December, and this is to facilitate more players appearing in those events. It's frighteningly rare to see the Tour do anything that benefits others, so let's at least give them a modicum of credit here.
And a couple on a guy that's not, at least yet, in the field at Albany:
Has there been a greater turnaround in public perception than that of Kevin Na? Slow-playing, driver-yipping villain to walk-it-in, sauce-serving hero. -@tweetnickpt
It is heart-warming how the golf world has fallen in love with Na over the last few years. A lot of that has to do with how honest and real he was in confronting, and discussing, his many demons. It’s a good lesson for every athlete — humanity is what draws in fans, not the robotic perfection for which the players strive and the artificial reality they peddle on social media.
Well, it also helps that the results improved, but Alan is onto something there. Even when he was the poster-child for slow play, Na was able to communicate his concern for others and share his struggles, and I do agree that helped.
I was golfing today (just to get you salty) and loads of people were calling for Kevin Na on Presidents Cup team. But to me he doesn’t have the mental game for teamand match play golf. He was very jittery on the back nine (10 tee shot was terrible after many practice swings.) I’m glad he won, but as for the Presidents Cup? No. -@AussieInAfrica
I disagree wholeheartedly. Na would be a maddening opponent in match play, because of his curious tics, pace of play and especially his ability to hole putts from everywhere, to say nothing of his strutting and preening. I desperately hope he is picked for the U.S. team because he would add some much-needed personality. Don’t forget that Na and Cap. Woods go way back to the Southern California junior golf scene and, as we saw with their hijinks at the Players, there is a lot of affection between them.
True that, at least Alan's bit. Not only can the man putt, but he walks them in, which would be merely epic in a team competition.
A couple of takes on those already assure their slots Down Under:
Are we sure Bryson DeChambeau’s recent vow to “get bigger” this off-season isn’trelated to ESPN’s 2020 Body Issue? -@three_putt_golf
There’s something amiss because Bryson is already a big, strong dude. Haven’t the players paid attention to Tiger’s cautionary tale? Golfers should be supple, flexible and wiry strong, but adding a bunch of beef is irresponsible. There is already so much stress on their joints and tendons, how can 20 or 30 unnecessary pounds help? Look at how Tiger’s body has broken under the strain. McIlroy has periodically been dinged up, and Koepka recently underwent stem cell therapy on his knee, to go with his previous wrist injury. Vanity and longevity appear to be at war with each other.
You guys know my thoughts on this, as I'm old enough to remember Tiger's 1996-97 body, which seemed just perfect for the task.
And this:
Does Brooks get to 10 majors? -@GolfLover67
It was interesting to hear him say last week that he thinks he had five or six years left in his prime, but it makes sense. These guys are pushing their bodies so hard and making so much money careers are going to get shorter and shorter. I have no doubt Koepka is going to win more majors, but 10 is a monumental number. That would put him fourth all-time, behind only Jack, Tiger and Walter Hagen. Is Brooks going to win more majors than Hogan? Snead? Player? Trevino? Watson? Palmer? I’m gonna have to say no.
he's had quite the run, but we should have learned long ago not to extrapolate forward at the same rate. I'm not entirely clear that he'll get to five....
Exit Question - This is as good as any way to go out:
You win the lottery and can join any five golf clubs in the U.S. At which five clubs will you not get a hole in one? Why did you choose them? -@RyderHouck
-Cypress Point: Duh.-Monterey Peninsula CC: two incredible courses, maybe the prettiest driving range on the planet, fantastic food and it’s only a few minutes from my house.-National Golf Links: Who wouldn’t want to play that course every day? Also, when you sit down for lunch they bring you a whole lobster like it’s salsa and chips.-Cal Club: An incredibly fun course and one of the best hangs in golf.-Augusta National: The place gives me the creeps, but it would be a blast to take friends there to liven up the proceedings. And I’d have so much fun swanning around in my green jacket during Masters week while breaking all kinds of rules just to mess with the the stuffier members.
I have little interest in belonging to Augusta Nation, though I'd give several body parts to play it. Of course I love his bit about The National, because of the shock when they dump that cold, unshelled lobster on your plate. But I do agree that's a golf course that would be a joy to experience on a full-time basis.... It's really just a load of fun, and the parallel with Cypress is quite obvious to me.
Let's hope we have more content for tomorrow.
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