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
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
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
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
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
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
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 & 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.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Ever since it opened for play earlier this year, the Yas Links Abu Dhabi has been bestowed by superlatives.
From “stunning” to a “desert miracle” to “the best golf course in the Middle East”, accolades have poured in thick and fast for this Kyle Phillips design.
Sport 360°’s deputy editor Joy Chakravarty caught up with the celebrated designer, and talks to him on Yas Links, and various aspects of his business and philosophy.
Kyle, almost one year now since the Yas Links opened. The reception among members and players has been fantastic. What are your thoughts now?
That’s right. We had the front nine ready last year and the back nine was completed this year in March. I don’t think you can notice the difference between the conditions now.
Mike (Course Superintendent Michael Clark) has done a great job in integrating the two nines. And as I hear the feedback from the members, I am very proud of what we have created here.
Yas Links is something unique, certainly in a place like the UAE.
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Tuesday, October 5, 2010
GCA visited Yas Links, Kyle Phllips’s recently opened course in Abu Dhabi today, and found what must surely be considered the Middle East’s best golf course.
Located right next to Abu Dhabi’s new Formula 1 racing circuit, on the enormous Yas Island development being created by the state-owned company Aldar, Phillips’s course breaks the Gulf mode. It’s a total core golf experience: there is no real estate on the interior of the course, and, rather than the waterfront space being saved for property, there are golf holes all the way down the 3km coastline.
In fact, Phillips did more that just design the course – he designed the coast as well! Yas’s waterfront is built up using fill dredged from the sea, and part of Phillips’s task was arranging for that fill to be placed in such a way as to enable him to create exciting waterfront holes – which he has certainly done, with the par three thirteenth and seventeenth both being among the most photogenic golfers will see anywhere in the world. Phillips’s staff shaper Dave Smith has done a wonderful job in replicating the contours of a true links course; the challenge will be for greenkeeper Mike Clarke to get the Platinum paspalum grass, supplied by Jennings Turf International running quickly enough to make the contours stand out.
Adam Lawrence
Golf Course Architecture
15 September 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
With the opening last month of Yas Links, Abu Dhabi’s latest new golf course, traditional links-style golf has arrived in the United Arab Emirates, according to course designer Kyle Phillips.
“What makes Yas Links so intriguing is how traditional it is, because nothing like it has ever been attempted before in the UAE,” said Phillips. “There are a lot of very good courses in the UAE but up until now there hasn’t been anything that would feature on a golf connoisseur’s must play list.”
Phillips has made a dozen trips to the site since February 2007, overseeing the construction details. Presented with a flat desert wasteland devoid of vegetation, Phillips created a dunescape which he reckons evokes a Scottish links flavour. “It was a tough challenge and we had to work out where we could find the material to build the landforms necessary to create a true, traditional-style links course. We also had to take great care in preserving the ecology and every aspect of the course design took this into account,” he said. “Any good golf course has to have a big finish, and I believe the three closing holes at Yas Links are three of the best closing holes of any course in the world I know.”
Yas Links is situated on Yas Island, a major sport and entertainment development created by local firm Aldar, 15 minutes from Abu Dhabi’s city centre. The course measures 7,394 yards from the back tees. Eight holes hug the coastline and 109 bunkers to negotiate along with shifting winds. Five of the last six holes play along the sea. Paspalum grass on all the playable areas should allow for firm and fast surfaces all year round.
Golf Course Architecture
July 9, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Yas Links is a nod to tradition in a stunning location
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 neighboring 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. Let’s face it, that’s not where Abu Dhabi’s at.
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 appear absurd at first, but Yas Links is remarkably authentic, from the wispy fescue grass to the crumpled dunes and the hickory flagsticks. Yas has traded the bling factor so pronounced in other new golf courses here with a minimalist approach that is both welcome and refreshing.
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Friday, May 14, 2010
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).
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Thursday, February 18, 2010
Acclaimed designer Kyle Phillips speaks to Joy Chakravarty as he gets ready to add another jewel to his portfolio with Yas Links
Kyle Phillips, the man behind the soon-to-be-launched Yas Links, is as unique as his creation.
Like the last thing you expect to find in the desert landscape of the UAE is a piece of Scotland – and that’s exactly what the stunning links course at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island looks like – it is equally difficult to link Phillips, an American, as the designer of some of the most acclaimed modern links courses, a domain monopolised by the Scots and the Irish.
But that’s the truth. Kyle Phillips has cemented his place in the history books of the game as the designer of Kingsbarns and Dundonald – two of the finest modern links courses of recent times. That list may soon have a new addition when Yas Links is unveiled. Situated on the west shores of Yas Island, the par-72 golf course will play to 7450 yards with all 18 holes having coastal views. Virtually starting from nothing, Phillips has created a true-blue links course.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Mike Galemore walks the course and talks to designer Kyle Phillips who has created something completely different in the Middle East – a traditional-style authentic links course that brings a new experience to the region.
SEEING is believing, they say – and Yas Links is a golf course that has to be seen to be believed. Walking the course last month with designer Kyle Phillips was akin to being transported to the seaside links of St Andrews, Royal Birkdale, or Ballybunion.
I’ve played many of the treasured links of Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales over the past half century and invested in more balls than most in the process but if I could have disregarded the warm sun on my back and the calm aqua-marine ocean I could have been back home battling the elements.
It’s remarkable how Kyle Phillips has created a genuine, traditional links course out of nothing. Where there was once flat desert wasteland there are now rolling wide fairways, deep bunkering, wispy rough and inviting, sloping greens with their traditional heartbreaking run-offs. It’s pure coastal-style links on a par with Kyle’s other links masterpieces, Kingsbarns near St Andrews and Dundonald near Troon in Scotland.
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
“Yas Links is on schedule to become a unique and memorable golfing destination in the Middle East.”
-Chris White, General Manager of the Aldar Golf Division talks us through this magnificent, traditional golf development on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.
Kyle Phillips continues to build his name and reputation on delivering ‘the purest’ form of golf. All over the world there are naturally beautiful golf courses where the architect has been able to meander golf holes through natural vegetation or landforms.
The challenge of some sites is to create a natural looking golf course from what might have been a relatively flat piece of land – Kyle Phillips has done that in the most dramatic way on Yas Island.
The design and building of the golf course not only involved the creation of landforms but also in gaining the maximum aesthetic and playing challenge from the coastline. The long, linear site has no fewer than eight holes that play parallel to the sea front whilst all 18 holes offer the most spectacular views of the beautiful Arabian Gulf.
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
“What makes yas links so intriguing,” designer Kyle Phillips tells Golf Digest, “is how traditional it is. Because if you think about it, in golf terms there’s currently nothing in the UAE that’s even remotely traditional.”
For a country that revels in glitz and extravagance, the idea of recreating an ancient throwback of a golf course and placing it directly opposite the gargantuan structures of the extra-terrestrial styled Ferrari World and the Yas Marina Circuit, seems peculiar. On one side of the road is more technological know-how than you’d find at the headquarters of NASA, and on the other is a golf course that’s decidedly minimalist, from the sparing use of cart paths to the windswept features that are so joyously informal and unkempt.
And the best possible tribute we could pay designer Kyle Phillips as we stood on the tee of the par 3 8th hole, is that were it not for the backdrop of Ferrari World, looming like an enormous red UFO, not to mention the 25 degree warmth of the sun, we might easily have been in Scotland.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Worldwide Golf talks to KYLE PHILLIPS on how he went about transforming the ‘captivating’ site of Yas Links into an “authentic links style course – and the first true links course in the UAE. It was clearly one of those sites that required turning up the volume and creating bold links-like landforms.”
Q. The setting for the course is spectacular. What were your thoughts when you first visited the site?
A. As you can imagine, I look at a lot of sites, but there was something about this site that captivated me, particularly the prospect of transforming the site into an authentic links style course and the first true links course in the UAE. At that time the site was a 3,200 metre long strip of fiat, sandy, undelined shoreline along the southwestern edge ofYas Island. It was clearly one of those sites that required turning up the volume and creating bold links-like landforms.
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