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1 week ago | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
Amidst all the new private clubs emerging in south Florida, there are several aspects that combine to make Apogee Club unique: an absence of real estate, extensive practice facilities, a template short layout and, leading the list, a choice of three eighteen-hole courses.
The first of those, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner’s West course, was completed in 2023. Its strength is subtlety (several spectacularly bold greens aside), occupying gently contoured ground with only a few feet of elevation change.
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2 weeks ago | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
Gary Johnston of European Golf Design (EGD) has become the new president of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects (EIGCA), following a ceremony at the institute’s annual meeting and 25th anniversary celebrations in Dornoch, Scotland.
Johnson has been with EGD for over 20 years, collaborating with Ian Woosnam for the Pirin CC and Lighthouse Golf Resort designs in Bulgaria, and Colin Montgomerie for newbuilds in Morocco and Turkey.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
The new Old Petty course at Cabot Highlands in Inverness, Scotland, will open for walking-only preview play in August and September 2025.
Tee times will be made available to golfers who also have a reservation at Cabot Highlands’ Castle Stuart course.
Tom Doak designed and routed Old Petty, with associate Clyde Johnson taking the lead on the project. Agronomist and shaper Chris Haspell, who worked on the original Castle Stuart links, also assisted.
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Nov 10, 2024 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
Delray Dunes Golf & Country Club in Boynton Beach, Florida, has reopened its 1969 Pete Dye layout following the implementation of a new master plan by Scot Sherman.
In what he refers to as a ‘sympathetic restoration’, Sherman, who previously worked with the Dyes, has brought back features that have been altered over the years, as well as restoring some green contours and introducing new features inspired by other Dye designs from the period.
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Oct 16, 2024 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
Architect Trevor Dormer has started construction work on the rebuild of the Old Dane course in northeast Nebraska, USA.
Work began with the excavation of a two acre lake, to store irrigation water and provide around 40,000 cubic yards of fill material for Dormer to reshape the extremely flat golf course.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
The enduring appeal of Sahalee Country Club – where in the late 1960s Ted Robinson carved 27 holes from evergreen forest just east of Seattle – is a reminder that great golf design is not a one-size-fits-all exercise.
With its single-file fairways framed by towering firs and cedars, Sahalee exemplifies a style of course – where each hole sits in natural isolation – that some decades ago was considered the ultimate golf experience.
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Jul 29, 2024 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
Golf course architect Tom Doak has spoken about his desire to create a second course at the Cape Kidnappers resort on the southeast coast of New Zealand’s North Island.
“The very first time I went to Cape Kidnappers was the end of 2001, and I was late,” recalled Doak. “They picked me up in a helicopter and landed me on the point down below.
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Jun 20, 2024 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
One good test of a golf course’s ability to accommodate players of all standards is a pro-celebrity tournament. So when the PGA Tour Champions’ new James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational debuts in 2025, we’ll find out whether golf course architects Rees Jones and Bryce Swanson have met their brief for the renovation of the host venue: the Old course at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Florida.
The opening two days of the tournament will see 78 tour players joined by 26 NFL legends.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
Wellman Golf Club in Johnsonville, South Carolina, has been reborn as a municipal facility, following the resurrection of a course that had been closed since 2010.
With nine holes originally laid out in 1966 by Ellis Maples and nine added by Maples and Ed Seay five years later, the former Wellman Country Club course has now been completely renovated by Rees Jones and design associate Bryce Swanson.
Funding for the project was largely covered by a Florence County ‘penny tax’.
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Nov 19, 2023 | 
golfcoursearchitecture.net | Toby Ingleton
Merit Club in the northern suburbs of Chicago has appointed Todd Quitno and Nathan Crace to prepare a renovation masterplan for its course, which opened in 1992 and hosted the US Women’s Open in 2000.
“It’s a great layout,” said Quitno, highlighting the “especially great job with the routing” done by original architect Bob Lohmann, who Quitno worked with until establishing his own practice in 2022.
