California Golf Club of San Francisco

California Golf Club of San Francisco

California Golf Club of San Francisco
San Francisco, California

In 2007 the California Golf Club of San Francisco, one of the Bay Area's oldest and most respected private clubs, was completely renovated under the direction of Kyle Phillips Golf Course Design. The original A. Vernon Macan design was architecturally restored within the current property boundaries, using 1927 as a benchmark, when Dr. Alister Mackenzie re-bunkered the course.

Del Paso Country Club

Del Paso Country Club

Del Paso Country Club
Sacramento, California

Del Paso Country Club celebrated its 90th anniversary when the new course redesigned by Kyle Phillips opened for play July 2006. Founded in 1916, Del Paso once hosted tournaments that included legendary players such as Sir Henry Cotton and Tommy Armour, as well as the 1982 US Women's Open. The architectural personality of the original course designed by Scotsman John Black has been maintained while regaining its championship status.

Dundonald Links

Dundonald Links

Dundonald Links
Loch Lomond Golf Club, Troon

This Kyle Phillips link course can be added to the list of Royal Troon, Prestwick and Western Gailes, all connected by the historic Ayrshire rail line. Making its debut when the world of golf comes to Troon for The Open Championship in 2004, Dundonald has already been mooted as the future venue for the future venue for the Scottish Open.

Golf Eichenheim

Golf Eichenheim

Golf Eichenheim
Kitzbuhel-Aurach

The majestic Wilder Kaiser or "Wild King" mountain range serves as the backdrop for the Par Five, Tenth Hole at Golf Eichenheim. This Kyle Phillips design is the site of the Austrain Masters and is already one of the top-rated courses in Austria.

Kingsbarns Golf Links

Kingsbarns Golf Links

Kingsbarns Golf Links
St. Andrews

Near St. Andrews, Scotland, Kingsbarns is a magnificent seaside links course ranked among the Top 50 courses in the world by Golf Magazine 2001. It also received Golf Digest's Best New International Course in February 2001. Kingsbarns opened July 2000 and began hosting the Dunhill Links Championship in 2001.

The PGA of Sweden National Golf Resort

The PGA of Sweden National Golf Resort

The PGA of Sweden National Golf Resort
Troup

Only 30 minutes from Copenhagen, Denmark and 15 minutes from Malmo, Sweden, this scenic southern location offers players a longer golf season. This spectacular facility features the highest quality golf and training experience in Scandinavia, consisting of two new Kyle Phillips Golf Course Design championship courses and a nine hole short course. The Links Course, with its classic links-style architecture and traditional fescue grasses opens for play in May 2009.

The Grove

The Grove

The Grove
London

Beautifully situated along the Grand Union Canal on the site of a 17th Century English Estate, this Kyle Phillips course has been designed in a traditional English style. This course is part of a 300 acre five-star country estate located within 40 minutes of London's West End.

Incline Village Championship and Mountain Course

Incline Village Championship and Mountain Course

Incline Village Championship & Mountain Course
Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Located on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The Championship Course at Incline Village enjoys views of Lake Tahoe and the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains. Originally designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1964, the course was completely remodeled by Kyle Phillips and reopened in the fall of 2004.

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Friday, May 14, 2010

The Real Deal

Yas Links is like nothing you have ever seen in the UAE.  It’s a nod to tradition in a wonderful setting.

When it comes to Abu Dhabi’s grand masterplan, Yas Links Golf Club is something of an anomaly. You only have to look at the neighbouring structures of Ferrari World, the Yas Marina Circuit and the chameleonic Yas Hotel to appreciate the emirate’s taste for the futuristic. And yet Yas Links is a tribute to an era where golfers played in plus fours, smoked pipes and answered to names like Old Tom Morris: An era about as far removed from modern Abu Dhabi as you can get. The most amazing thing about the course is, simply, that it works. In this hot, desert climate, the concept of emulating a seaside Scottish links appears absurd at first, but Yas Links is remarkably authentic, from the wispy fescue grass to the crumpled dunes and the hickory flagsticks. Yas has forgone the extravagance so pronounced in other new golf courses here with a minimalist approach that is both welcome and refreshing.

Credit must go to the developers, Aldar, for having the willingness to attempt such an audacious project, but American designer Kyle Phillips is the star, bringing his vision of a modern links course to life in dramatic fashion on the gently curved shoreline of Yas Island.

“What makes the course so intriguing is how traditional it is, because  nothing like that has ever been attempted before in the UAE,” says Phillips (who is the designer behind acclaimed modern Scottish classics Kingsbarns and Dundonald).

“There are a lot of very good golf courses in the UAE, but up until now there hasn’t been anything that would feature on a connoisseur’s ‘must play’ list,” Phillips explains. “I suppose that was our aim at Yas, to produce a different course that is complex and varied enough to appeal to the most passionate of golf enthusiasts.”

It’s very early days for Yas Links Golf Club (the full course is scheduled to be open by August) but judging by the early play on the newly opened front nine, Phillips looks to have  emphatically achieved that objective. This is not the kind of golf you will be accustomed to playing in the UAE, where a driver is an almost mandatory weapon off the tee. Phillips has not only achieved the look of a genuine links, but the playing characteristics of one, too. As such, Yas Links presents a superb examination of your all-round game, from your strategy off the tee to your ability to judge a subtle wind and play the right type of approach shot. Once the turf on the course has had time to bed in, tighter surfaces will produce an even more exacting test of the kind of golf you could previously only experience in Ireland or Scotland.

The third is a tremendous par 4 that sweeps in a gentle dogleg left along the mangrove lagoon that borders many of the holes on both nines. The approach on the par 5 seventh hole brings to mind the challenges of Northern Ireland’s Royal County Down, with a blind shot over an imposing dune. And the back nine, when it opens this summer, promises to be even better. Yas Links has the potential to be a modern classic, testament to the genius of Kyle Phillips.

Robbie Greenfield
Golf Digest
May 2010

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