WORK BY THOMAS BASTIS AND KYLE PHILLIPS GUIDES CALIFORNIA GOLF CLUB TO NEW HEIGHTS
By John Reitman
South San Francisco, Calif.
Sometimes, credit is the other side of blame. Consider Thomas Bastis, superintendent of the California Golf Club of San Francisco.
A $13 million restoration by architect Kyle Phillips in 2007-08 might be responsible for launching the Cal Club onto the Golfweek’s Best Classic Course list in 2009, at No. 60. But it’s Bastis who looks after the retro-look layout that keeps the Cal Club moving up the charts — to No. 54 last year and an eye-popping leap of 19 spots this year, to No. 35.
“It’s so fresh and different from where it was,” Phillips said. “Thomas has done a great job at keeping the course firm and fast. It’s a happy story; the kind you want when you get involved in a project”. READ MORE
Corporate Golf World
So, who should design your golf course…Signature designer or course architect…A Nicklaus or a Kyle Phillips? James Norman investigates the very different benefits each brings to a course design project.
When Mark McCormack started to turn Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player into major companies in their own right, one key element of that strategy was a golf design division. It started a trend that today means you can play a Ballesteros, an Els, a Faldo, a Norman, a Montgomerie and even a Woosnam design. Tiger’s first course is only a few years away in Dubai. READ MORE
R & A Golf Club News Bulletin
By Kieth Mackie
A substantial interest free loan has been granted by the R&A to the developers of the new golf links at Kingsbarns. In return they will make a number of starting times available to local golfers in St. Andrews and north-east Fife.
The agreement has been reached after discussions between the R & A, St. Andrews Links Trust and local golf clubs identified the growing pressure for starting times on the St. Andrews courses. READ MORE
Fairways and Greens
By Vic Williams
THANKS TO AN INFLUX OF CASH, REDESIGN ACUMEN AND COMMUNITY PRIDE, INCLINE’S CHAMPIONSHIP COURSE HAS THAT CLASSIC GLOW AGAIN
If Kyle Phillips isn’t careful, he’ll replace Rees Jones as “The Open Doctor.” He might even give modern design heavyweights like Jones and his brother, Robert Trent Jr., Pete Dye and the two Toms – Fazio and Doak – a run for their money. READ MORE
Golf World 2005
Why should I play it?
It’s just about the closest thing you’ll get to the 18th at Pebble Beach – in other words, a sweeping right-to-left par-five that skirts the rocky seashore of the North Sea. Its setting is eye-popping and at the end of it all, you’ll find a wickedly sloping and enormous green that seems to keep on going round the headland. Because the drive is downhill, birdies are possible. But so are bogeys, double-bogeys… READ MORE
Golf International Inc.
By David Brice
Most new golf courses are like wine – they often require time to mature and develop. But also similar to wine, there are some new courses that can be experienced young and are filled with character and personality from the moment they are first opened. READ MORE
Golf Business News
The International Federation of PGA Tours has announced that the American Express World Golf Championship will be played at The Grove from 28th September to 1st October 2006.
It will be the first time that the United Kingdom has hosted one of the World Golf Championships since the series of top class global events was inaugurated in 1999. The WGC – American Express Championship has visited Spain twice, the United States once and Ireland on two occasions, most recently this past week at Mount Juliet Conrad in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. READ MORE
Links
By Malcolm Campbell
Medieval kings and horse-racing dukes once claimed this scenic plat on the Firth of Clyde. Today a deep-pocketed American developer has some calling it the seaside sensation of Scottish golf. READ MORE
Robb Report
The Grove
A modern classic at England’s finest new resort.
Kyle Phillips’ work at Kingsbarns, neighbor to hallowed St. Andrews, has been universally hailed as an almost perfect modern example of the Scottish links course. Now the American architect has created his version of an English parkland course at the Grove, a quirky yet fabulous new resort in Hertford-shire, England, just 25 miles outside of London. READ MORE
Golf World
This summer another extraordinary links course will be officially unveiled. Dundonald, formerly known as Southern Gailes, just a couple of miles up the coast from Royal Troon, where this year’s Open Championship is due to take place, is the latest in a line of links courses which have recently been uncovered. READ MORE
