Jerry Pate Design will upgrade the playing surfaces and bunkers at a massive Dominican Republic resort.
Casa de Campo, the sprawling destination in the Dominican Republic with three resort golf courses, has announced plans to restore its Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog layout starting in January of 2025.
Teeth of the Dog – named for the small, sharp rocks along the shore – is widely considered one of the best courses in the Caribbean. Opened in 1971, the layout features seven dramatic holes that play tight enough to the ocean to get a player’s socks wet. The course not only was built by the legendary Dye, he lived there with his wife, Alice, for years, and some of his ashes were spread on No. 8 of Teeth of the Dog after he died in 2020.
The restoration will be done by Jerry Pate Design, the company owned by the winner of the 1976 U.S. Open and the 1982 Players Championship. After that latter victory, Pate threw Dye into the water on the new Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass that Dye had recently designed.
The Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog course at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic (Courtesy of Casa de Campo/Matthew Majka)
Much of the work to be done at Teeth of the Dog is cosmetic. All tees, fairways and greens will be re-grassed with Dynasty Paspalum, which is ideal for seaside courses, especially one like Teeth of the Dog where ocean spray easily can blow onto the golf holes. The fairways will be sand-capped three inches deep, which promotes firm and bouncy turf ideal for golf.
Pate’s team also will expand the current greens back to their original sizes, with some slight recontouring. All greenside bunkers will be reshaped and expanded to flat bottoms with enhanced faces for a sharper, more dramatic look. Other work includes renovating the cart paths.
Work is expected to be completed by November 2025.
“I have long admired Pete Dye, as he was a creative genius who transformed the modern game of golf with his immense talent and imagination, and no course typifies that more than Teeth of the Dog,” Pate said in a media release announcing the restoration. “The layout is truly one of the best in the world, and our job is to preserve Pete’s lifeworks and put a bit more bite back into Teeth of the Dog.”
Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
The resort’s other two Dye-designed courses will remain open to guests. The 27-hole Dye Fore course features many holes along incredible jungle cliffs above a river with long views down toward the ocean, while the 18-hole Links course plays through the center of the 7,000-acre property with wider fairways and tricky greens.
The resort as a whole is massive with a world-class marina, a smorgasbord of dining options, a wide assortment of activities ranging from shooting sports to the beach and one of the best beach bars in the world. The property includes an assortment of accommodations ranging from hotel rooms to luxury villas frequently rented by top celebrities.
The updates to Teeth of the Dog will be the first large-scale work to the course since it opened.
“We will miss Teeth of the Dog for most of 2025, but we are excited and honored to take Pete’s masterpiece to a new level and completely restore the integrity of his legendary course to new heights,“ Gilles Gagon, longtime friend of Dye and the golf director emeritus and senior director of golf sales at the resort, said in the media release. “With all the many years Pete and I worked together, I know he would be beyond pleased with the upcoming work to be done on the course that ignited his stellar career and legacy as one of the world’s premier golf architects.”
Check out the photos of the renovated host site for the 2024 men’s and women’s NCAA Championships.
Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, has announced June 1 as the full reopening date of its Championship Course, which has been rebranded the North Course after an extensive renovation by the architectural team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner.
The opening to resort guests and members follows the NCAA Division I Women’s (May 17-22) and Men’s (May 24-29) Championships on the North Course. The layout is also slated to host those college championships in 2025 and 2026.
Hanse and Wagner implemented significant changes to the North layout. Among the renovations: A new drivable par-4 11th was built, the green of the par-3 16th was repositioned in a fashion reminiscent of Augusta National Golf Club’s No. 12, and the par-5 18th was stretched to more than 600 yards with water on both sides of the fairway.
Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California (Courtesy of Omni La Costa Resort and Spa)
The revised layout will feature six sets of tees that play from 4,500 to 7,500 yards. Other changes include transitioning irrigation lines that will continue to use reclaimed water, the removal of several man-made ponds and the reintroduction of natural barrancas that feature drought-tolerant and native species of plants.
“The North Course is now positioned to return to its stature as one of the top venues for championship golf in Southern California,” Hanse said in a media release announcing the opening date and completion of work. “We were able to combine a respect for the natural contours, landforms and vegetation with an emphasis on strategic design. This combination of beauty and interest should prove enjoyable for everyday play by members and resort guests, while asking compelling questions to be answered by the best players in the world during championship events.”
Originally designed by Dick Wilson and opened in 1965, the North layout had been renovated previously several times. It was part of a resort with a tournament pedigree that includes hosting the PGA Tour’s Mercedes Championship from 1969 to 1998, the inaugural WGC-Accenture Match Play in 1999 and the LPGA’s Kia Classic in 2010 and 2012.
The resort also announced its Legends Course has been rebranded to South Course. Both the North and South were the courses’ original names before being changed to Champions and Legends.
A renovated guest room at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California (Courtesy of Omni La Costa Resort and Spa)
The resort also will feature a reimagined practice facility designed by Beau Welling that will include Toptracer technology. It’s all part of an extensive multi-year renovation to the entire resort that stretches from guest rooms and villas to the spa, lobby bar and meeting spaces.
“Working with the ‘best of the best’ course architects like Gil Hanse and his design team is a prime example of our continued commitment and investment to be in the highest echelons of U.S. golf destinations,” the resort’s managing director, Craig Martin, said in the media release. “This transformation signals a full return to championship glory at Omni La Costa and joins the now-completed renovation of the property as a whole resulting in an elevated experience for our members and resort guests to enjoy for decades to come.”
Cliffside golf holes lead to exquisite dining experiences in Morocco.
MOROCCO – “You’re going where to play golf?”
That was a frequent response when a lucky group of Golfweek’s Best raters told friends about their next golf trip. The surprise was due to the fact that people just don’t think about going to Morocco for golf – at least not most Americans. But they’re oh so wrong. The country known for minarets and tagines, camels and Rick’s Café also has some incredible golf courses.
Near the end of 2023, 26 Golfweek’s Best raters from across the United States disembarked in Casablanca and headed to Rabat, the garden city of Morocco and home to King Mohammed VI. After a welcome dinner at the sumptuous Villa Mandarine set in an orange grove and a good night’s sleep, the group headed to the famous Royal Dar Es Salam golf courses to play the Blue the first day and the Red the second.
The Blue course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1974, offers a variety of hole designs. Trees and brambles narrow the fairway, and the greens are often behind doglegs and fairway turns.
A bus tour of the city followed golf and provided a glimpse of the Royal Palace, the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Kasbah of the Udayas. Delicious tagine dinners awaited the group at various local restaurants.
Royal Dar Es Salam’s Red Course in Morocco (Special to Golfweek)
The Red course at Royal Dar Es Salam, located in the heart of a cork oak forest, meanders through more than a thousand acres of trees, flowers and water. This Jones Sr. masterpiece is a par 73, and almost all holes are surrounded by bunkers from mid-fairway to the greens. The ninth hole is located in the center of a large lake topped with water lilies.
After our tour bus loaded up all the golf bags and luggage, we were off to Marrakech – a four-hour ride. The Sofitel Marrakech hotel in the heart of the city offered breathtaking views of the indoor pool and garden, palm trees, bougainvillea and the Atlas Mountains. Our welcome dinner of tagines and other Moroccan dishes concluded with a beautiful and delicious chocolate dessert while we listened to a Moroccan musical group.
The Al Maaden Golf Resort hosted the group for our first of three Marrakech golf rounds. American architect Kyle Phillips combined the spirit of a Moroccan oasis with a Scottish touch. The course is inside the Al Maaden Sculpture Park, and 12 sculptures are positioned on and around the course. The unique artistic water feature on two of the holes blends into the terrain and offers a challenge off the tee and second shots.
The Safran Restaurant, which two groups of raters selected for the fantastic views and scrumptious cuisine, was empty when we arrived at 7:30, but by 9:00 every table was filled. That’s when we were surprised with music, belly dancers and Moroccan male dancers who were able to lure two of our raters into the aisle to dance with them. Who knew these otherwise mild-mannered group members were able to shake it with the locals?
The Assoufid Golf Club was one of the newer courses on the itinerary. The course winds through a naturally undulating desert landscape and has received several citations as among the best clubs in Morocco and Africa.
After golf, a three-hour walking tour familiarized the group with the Secret Garden, Ben Youssef Madrassa and the main square and souks. Our last dinner in Marrakech was set in the beautiful Red House located in the chic Hivernage area in front of the walls of the Medina. The luxurious dining area had incredible tiled walls, arches and columns with beautiful drapes and chandeliers. The chef prepared delicious couscous dinners accompanied by wine. Morocco is a former French protectorate, and one can thank the French for the wines throughout the trip that were quite drinkable, as was the Casablanca brand beer.
Our last course in Marrakech was the Old Course at Royal Golf Marrakech. One of the most senior layouts in the country, it was inaugurated in 1927 as a four-hole course for the personal use of El Haj T’hami el Mezouari el Glaoui and expanded to nine holes the following year. The current design weaves through some 15,000 Aleppo pines, eucalyptus, palm, orange and olive trees. The course was remodeled in 1933 by French professional Arnaud Massy, the first non-British winner of the Open Championship in 1907. Extended to 27 holes in 2007 by Thierry Sprecher, it is a charming old layout played by such golfers as Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
After golf and a delightful lunch on the patio of the clubhouse, we boarded our bus for Taghazout Bay and the coastal town of Agadir. Popular as a vacation spot and retirement home for Europeans and Brits, the views from the hotel and most holes on the golf course were breathtaking and a dramatic contrast to the city locations of our previous stops.
The Tazegzout Golf Club, with a course designed by Kyle Phillips, opened in 2014. The routing meanders through natural Argan vegetation with deep rocky ravines and along a 260-foot cliff on the final three holes. The views of the Atlantic and the small fishing village were spectacular, and each hole offered a different challenge. This was definitely one of the favorite tracks of the group. Most unusual were the packs of dogs that roamed the course (sometimes playing on the greens with a golf ball recently hit by one of our raters), supposedly to keep away other unwanted animals.
Golfweek’s Best course raters in Morocco (Special to Golfweek)
The little fishing village offered great restaurants with amazing fish entrees and views of the Atlantic.
By now we had mastered the on-again-off-again loading and unloading of the bus, and our final leg took us to the Agadir Al-Massira International Airport for a short flight to Casablanca and Mazagan Beach and Golf Resort. The 462-room, Moorish-style resort built around a beautiful pool area had everything you might want for a longer stay: restaurants, bars, casino, night club, spa and fitness center and a variety of other leisure activities.
The resort is on the Atlantic, and fog delayed our morning tee times unless you wanted to play blind, which a few groups chose to do. This Gary Player-designed course was the most “American” and offered golf with a view on almost every hole. The longest course in North Africa at 7,532 yards requires players to stay in the fairway, as ice plants line the fairways and gobble up any errant shots. With lush greens and immaculate fairways, it’s golf played to the sound of waves rolling onto the beach. The final three holes parallel the ocean and make for a memorable golf experience.
Our farewell dinner at the Bushra by Budha-Bar, curated by renowned chef Joe Barza, served an endless number of mezze dishes before the main course that included a variety of tagines. A Moroccan band played wonderful electric string instruments as our group enjoyed its final meal together.
Someone might ask, “Ashno ban lik?” Which in Moroccan means, “What do you think?” I believe all of us would say in English, “It was an incredible experience.”
The lights on the #miniDunes short course can sync with music, offering a new cool experience in the desert.
Golfers looking to beat the heat this summer have a new option just south of Phoenix: Ak-Chin Southern Dunes has lit its par-3 course, named #miniDunes.
The six-hole short course sits on the range at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes in Maricopa, where the main 18-hole layout was designed by Brian Curley and Fred Couples – the course ranks No. 6 on Golfweek’s Best public-access course list in Arizona.
Holes on the short course stretch from 60 to 115 yards, and the layout features 15 lighting poles. The 88 LED lights can be synced to flash to music. Tee times become available April 26, and walk-ins are welcome.
The range serves as a normal practice area in the morning, then it is picked and holes are cut for afternoon play on the short course that was introduced in 2014 with new greens dotting the range. Night golf ramps it up another level in the desert setting, and the club’s restaurant will be represented at the short course with the Arroyo Grill – On the Go food truck/trailer.
“We are proud to offer the lighted #miniDunes as just the latest example of the commitment the Ak-Chin Indian Community has to creating memorable golf experiences for not only our local communities of Ak-Chin and Maricopa, but also for all of the region and its visitors who can now experience a taste of what Ak-Chin Southern Dunes has to offer at night,” Ak-Chin Indian Community Chairman Robert Miguel said in a media release announcing the night option. “I can’t wait to play golf under the lights with my friends and family.”
Trev Dormer plans to do some “different, quirky things” in his renovation of a Nebraska nine-holer.
Canadian golf architect Trev Dormer, perhaps best known in the industry for his work as an associate for the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, has signed on for his first solo project.
Working with the farming family behind the development of the popular new Landmand Golf Club in eastern Nebraska, Dormer will completely renovate the family’s nearby nine-hole course at Old Dane Golf Club in Dakota City, Nebraska.
The Andersen family bought an 18-hole course in 2007 and converted it to nine holes, the current Old Dane. Dormer’s plan is to tear out the entire course and introduce a 12-hole routing that can be played as loops of six, nine or 12 holes across 93 acres of what is currently flat ground. Dormer’s team will build a lake that will provide fill to introduce elevation changes.
“There will be different ways to play the course – I just wanted to get as much golf on the property as I could,” Dormer, who recently completed his work at the new Point Hardy Golf Club at Cabot Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, said in a media release announcing the renovation of Old Dane. “It’s a dead flat site, so I’m trying to do some different, quirky things – a tee shot over the previous green for example. I think it will be significantly more fun and more interesting, and I hope it raises some questions among those who play it.”
Trev Dormer’s routing plans for the soon-to-be-remodeled Old Dane Golf Club in Dakota City, Nebraska (Courtesy of Old Dane Golf Club/Trev Dormer)
The current version of Old Dane will shut down in October, with Dormer and his crew immediately beginning the renovation, which will include the removal of the current driving range. Dormer expects the new, walking-only version of Old Dane to open in 2026.
The operators expect the green fees to remain substantially near the current $15 for nine holes and $25 for a double-loop of 18 holes. Dormer said he hopes to attract new players, especially children and families, to what will be an entirely new course.
“There will not be a single square yard of ground on the property that is untouched by the plow,” Dormer said.
The Andersen family has been in the golf news in recent years after employing King-Collins Golf Course Design to build the large-scale Landmand, which opened in 2022 to become the Golfweek’s Best No. 1 public-access layout in Nebraska and tie for No. 26 among all modern courses in the U.S.
Old Dane sits even closer to the Iowa border, about an 8-mile drive to the northeast of Landmand. Old Dane is about a 15-minute drive from Sioux City, Iowa, and is close to Sioux Gateway Airport.
“This project is about finishing what we didn’t completely do when we built the course originally,” owner Will Andersen said in the media release. “We bought the course because my dad wanted a place to go and hang out with his friends, and we achieved that, but we didn’t do that much with the golf course. The irrigation system is 23 years old, and it’s falling apart.”
Trev Dormer, right, speaks with Bill Coore, center, and Ben Crenshaw during construction of the recently completed Point Hardy Golf Club at Cabot Saint Lucia. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Dormer worked briefly with King-Collins on Landmand, and Andersen was impressed with Dormer’s efforts. Dormer started his career in the early 2000s and has worked with several top architects including Ron Prichard, Rod Whitman, Nicklaus Design and Gil Hanse.
“When I thought about rebuilding Old Dane, I had a chat with Rob Collins (of King-Collins), and he confirmed my thought that Trevor would be the right candidate to do the job,” Andersen said.
Cabot Highlands in Scotland reveals the name and logo for its new Tom Doak-designed layout.
Cabot Highlands in Inverness, Scotland, has chosen a name for its new Tom Doak-designed course that is now scheduled to open for preview play in 2025: Old Petty.
The name is a nod to the Old Petty Church, which was built in 1839 and sits off what will become the 16th green. The now-unused church is believed to sit at the site of an even older church, and the Old Petty Church is reported to have hosted an unusual custom: Mourners in the early 1800s would run to the church’s graveyard during funerals while carrying the coffin.
The logo for the new Old Petty course will be the highland cow, or “Hairy Coo” as the locals call them.
Cabot revealed the logo, based on a highland cow, for Old Petty, the new course being built by Tom Doak in Scotland. (Courtesy of Cabot)
Cabot revealed Doak’s planned routing for Old Petty last summer, with holes passing a 400-year-old castle that provided the previous name for the property, Castle Stuart, before the Canadian-based Cabot bought it and rebranded the northern Scottish resort in 2022.
Old Petty will be on the southwest side of the property’s original Castle Stuart Golf Links built by Mark Parsinen and Gil Hanse, which ranks as the No. 4 modern course in Great Britain and Ireland. Built on land that was previously farmed, Old Petty will wrap down and around an estuary, offering stunning views and a layout that crisscrosses in a huge shared fairway for Nos. 1 and 18.
Cabot also plans to extend the unique white clubhouse to include a new whiskey and cigar bar, a clubhouse grill bar and a chophouse restaurant.
Check out several recent illustrations that provide a glimpse at how Old Petty might look.
The new Toptracer Range combines a cool pub scene with plenty of golf tech at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate.
CHAMPIONSGATE, Fla. – Want to beat a bucket of range balls near the tourist corridor in Central Florida? If you’re looking to throw in dinner and a cocktail and do it all under the lights, check out the new Eagle’s Edge range with Toptracer Range technology at Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate.
Hardly a week goes by without a golf club – typically multiple clubs – announcing the installation of a Toptracer Range. The popular tech tracks a golf ball’s flight with a system of cameras and sensors then projects its flight onto a screen. If you’re reading this golf story, you’ve surely seen the tech at work on TV broadcasts of the PGA Tour.
There are other similar systems, with Trackman’s radar-based system being a prime example. All such systems are designed to elevate the range experience from merely beating a bucket of balls, giving players data about their practice shots or allowing them to virtually play famous courses as a video game come to life.
Since being acquired by Topgolf in 2016 and rebranded from its original name of Protracer, Toptracer’s tech has taken off and been installed at more than a thousand facilities. The company says on its website that there are now more than 24,000 Toptracer hitting bays.
The new Toptracer Range at Eagle’s Edge at Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate is just a few hundred yards out the back door of the massive resort hotel. The facility is open to public bookings. (Courtesy of Omni)
Many private clubs have installed a few bays with food and beverage options for members, especially in colder climates where courses might be closed seasonally. Plenty of public-access ranges also have installed Toptracer tech, where players can hit balls and monitor their results on a monitor. There already were several facilities in Central Florida to have installed the tech, such as Tee It Up Golf Driving Range in Oviedo, some 20-30 minutes of driving northeast of downtown Orlando on the opposite side of town from the region’s theme parks.
The new public-access Eagle’s Edge at ChampionsGate ramps it up several notches, combining a high-end pub scene and Toptracer tech on the southwest side of Orlando not far from Disney World.
Eagle’s Edge offers 30 ground-level hitting bays playing out to an un-netted range, which on the far end serves as the practice facility for ChampionsGate’s two full-size golf courses, the National and International. The new Toptracer Range was constructed where coach David Leadbetter’s golf academy formerly resided.
The 6,000-square-foot Eagle’s Edge includes dining and a central bar just a few hundred yards out the back door of the massive Omni hotel, with food and drinks delivered to each bay. Raised and lit targets large and small were built on the half of the range closest to Eagle’s Edge, giving players something to aim for night or day. Shots are tracked on monitors adjacent to the high-end hitting mats, and balls are supplied via a machine with the swipe of a club in front of a sensor, the same as at a Topgolf facility.
The total Eagle’s Edge experience is much more like a Topgolf, which helped define the industry term of “eatertainment,” than it is a regular range. Hang out on a couch watching TV with a craft cocktail and plate of nachos, or pound balls with purpose; the choice is yours.
Food and drink are an integral part of Eagle’s Edge at Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. (Courtesy of Omni)
And like the targets at a giant Topgolf facility, those at Eagle’s Edge light up when a ball strikes home and the bayside screen registers the hit. Many players will spend most of their time whaling at a driver to see how far they might be able to hit a ball, but on opening night it was just as fun for the more serious golfers in attendance to try to make the lights dance with wedge shots bouncing off the smaller targets closer to the bays.
“With Eagle’s Edge, we are transforming the way our guests partake in the game and event gatherings through an all-encompassing venue that brings state-of-the-art technology, topline service and unmatched food and beverage offerings,” Scott Tripoli, general manager of Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate, said in a media release announcing the opening of the facility.
Each of the 30 hitting bays can accommodate one to six players. Walk-ups are accepted, but it’s best to reserve a bay via opentable.com. The price of a bay varies on demand, but expect to pay $40-$58 per hour depending on date and time as judged by a recent glance at the booking site – that price is the same per bay regardless of one player or six. The facility also accommodates large groups. Players can use their own clubs or swing with clubs provided at each hitting bay.
Check out a selection of images of the new facility and its Toptracer tech below.
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw turn up the volume with The Chain at Streamsong.
BOWLING GREEN, Fla. – There are expectations for architects as they design a golf hole. Length, width, severity of contours, difficulty, placement of the green – there’s room for creativity, sure, but stray too far from tradition and a few eyebrows certainly will be raised.
Except for short par 3s. Great architects have long let their imaginations wander with the most miniature of holes on many acclaimed courses.
“It seems that’s there a theme that every wonderful, great course I’ve ever seen always includes a little short par 3 somewhere,” said Ben Crenshaw, the two-time Masters champion, golf historian and design partner with Bill Coore. “Short par 3s are pretty tantalizing for a lot of people. There’s so many brilliant examples of that. It just adds spice.”
Coore and Crenshaw have included many such holes on the dozens of golf courses they have designed together. Often not much over 120 yards or even shorter, these pint-sized par 3s are famed for offering intrigue as players plan for birdies but often pencil in bogeys or worse on their scorecards.
Soon comes a new chance to play a string of such holes as Streamsong opens all of its newest short course, The Chain, to preview play March 31. Until then, the resort is allowing limited preview play on less than the full course as it continues to grow in. The Chain is expected to fully open to resort play later this year.
The new par-3 course, The Chain, at Streamsong in Florida (Courtesy of Streamsong/Matt Hahn)
Built by Coore and Crenshaw, The Chain will offer 19 holes ranging from 41 to 293 yards, each offering a vast teeing area that allows players to pick a length. Want to play No. 8 with a driver? Step back to the huge metal chain link sunk into the ground and swing away. Want to play the same hole at 170? Go for it. It’s totally up to each group, or even each player. No. 1 can be 57 yards or 110, all the way to No. 19 at that ranges from 115 to 145.
The resort never refers to par for any hole, though the vast majority of them will require just one full shot for most players. Call them par 3s, or call them whatever you like – the resort’s operators don’t really care as long as players are having a blast.
The course was laid out in such a way that players can take a six-hole or a 13-hole loop, but resort operators expect most to play all 19. The Chain is a short walk from The Lodge at Streamsong, so late-afternoon tee times will be at a premium after many players tackle one of the resort’s highly acclaimed full-size courses – Red, Blue and Black – in the mornings. The Chain should prove especially popular during Streamsong’s peak winter season, when curtailed daylight might prevent a second 18-hole loop, and among players arriving to the resort mid-afternoon or simply those who just don’t want to stretch their golf to 36 traditional holes a day.
Nos. 18 and 19 of the new short course, The Chain, at Streamsong in Florida (Courtesy of Streamsong/Matt Hahn)
Also expect to encounter plenty of fun shots on The Chain. Coore and Crenshaw were granted a feast of freedom in designing the layout that maxes out at 3,026 yards, and they dreamed up plenty of internal contours and ground features that will only improve as the greens and their sandy surrounds continue to mature and become even more firm and bouncy.
“We can do things with a shorter course, where players are hitting shorter shots and you can be a bit more aggressive with the greens and some of the things,” Coore said recently after a tour of the layout alongside Crenshaw. “Things are in more of a reduced scale, and you can take more liberties and a few more risks to do greens and surrounds with interesting things that you might not be able to do with a regulation course. …
“For years, people have said (about full-size courses), ‘You can’t do that, it won’t be accepted, that’s too radical.’ With a par-3 course, you can kind of dispense with that a little and say, ‘It’s a par-3 course; we can do that.’ If you’re in our profession, it gives you freedom to work.”
The Chain includes a bunker in the middle of a green at No. 6, the aforementioned No. 8 that can play for many as a short par 4, and several trips across water and quarries at the former phosphate mining site. There are plenty of slopes that will help feed golf balls onto the putting surfaces and more devious contours that can sweep a ball off a green.
The tee markers at The Chain at Streamsong are huge chain links left over from mining. But instead of markers on each side of the tee, these links mark the front and back positions for each tee, which can stretch for dozens of yards, allowing players to select the yardage they will play each hole. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
The hole most likely to be relived over post-round beverages is the 209-yard (max) 11th, where a punchbowl green awaits on the opposite side of a pond, just a thin slit in the nearly vertical bank showing the putting surface from the tee. Players can try to just crest the forward mounds with their tee shots, or they can intentionally take it deep past the flag and trust that the ball will roll backward onto the green – this might be the safest route, and it’s a blast to watch balls scamper back toward the putting surface as if pulled by a string.
“Probably most people would point to that hole,” Coore said when asked what he anticipates will be the biggest talker among the 19 holes. “You play over the beautiful lake. It used to be a flat piece of ground out there, and we just mined a bunch of sand out of it and made a big hole.”
But don’t expect No. 11 to be a pushover, even with slopes on all sides of the green to feed the ball toward the hole – especially for players who flirt with the water short or right in trying to play a shot to the yardage instead of just hitting it long. Streamsong Black, the 18-hole design by Gil Hanse, already offers a famous punchbowl green, but The Chain’s variation is much smaller and tighter in scope, fitting with Coore and Crenshaw’s focus on right-sized targets for the par-3 course.
“I think the long punchbowl hole, in this little family of holes, will probably be maybe the toughest hole because it’s a long carry,” Crenshaw said. “It’s basically an old idea if you have a long shot across something, that you have a gathering green, a punchbowl. That may be one at the top of the list” that players remember.
The new Bucket putting course at Streamsong in Florida (Courtesy of Streamsong/Scott Powers)
Before or after a loop around The Chain, players can tackle The Bucket, the 2.6-acre putting course that sits within the par-3 course. Drinks and snacks also will be available onsite with the resort planning to add a clubhouse later, surely making the new complex a preferred hangout for resort guests.
Coore and Crenshaw also designed the Red Course at Streamsong, which opened in 2012 and ranks as the No. 2 Golfweek’s Best public-access layout in Florida and ties for No. 16 among all resort courses in the United States. The resort’s Blue Course by Tom Doak also opened in 2012 and ranks No. 3 among Florida’s public layouts and No. 20 among all U.S. resort courses, while the Black by Hanse opened in 2017 to become No. 4 in Florida and No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best resort list.
Coore said he’s always loved the allure of the site, where sand was piled high for decades as part of phosphate mining operations. The name of The Chain references the dragline chains used by miners, and The Bucket is so named because of the massive scoops once used to move earth at the mining site, one of which has been placed at the new putting course.
“People love it when they get here,” he said. “It’s a little mysterious the first time, but when they see it, they say ‘I’ve never seen anything like this in Florida.’ It has been so much fun to be a part of it.”
Crenshaw summed it up: “We do believe the Chain will be a positive extension of the journey.”
The perfect round of golf to some is composed of pristine greens and untouched fairways, but to Golfweek’s Averee Dovsek and Chase Smith, it’s a bit more.
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“Delight in the wildlife. That’s my idea of heaven.”
Tony Johnstone waited 20 years to get his first photograph of a gorgeous bushshrike, a bird that is easily heard, but it takes something of a miracle to be seen.
Johnstone’s favorite bird is the lilac-breasted roller, which is unofficially considered the national bird of Kenya.
“It’s the most stunning bird you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Johnstone, who hails from Zimbabwe but now lives in Sunningdale, England. “I can’t drive past one without stopping to take it.”
When the DP World Tour heads to South Africa this week for the Jonsson Workwear Open, Johnstone will be there, colorfully calling the action at Glendower Golf Club from the booth.
Lilac-breasted roller (Tony Johnstone photo)
A six-time winner on the DP World Tour, the 67-year-old Johnstone is one of golf’s great characters. Combine his passion for the game with his passion for the wildlife in Kruger National and the result is a television series called “Bush Hacking,” where Johnstone offers insight on birds and animals as he plays a round of golf through the African bush. The series lasted three seasons, and snippets are still shown when the tour plays events in the area.
Johnstone describes himself as fanatical about his photography, and he loves to share his discoveries on social media. His fascination with birds began about 25 years ago and now extends to creatures of all sizes. He’s fond of going out in Kruger National Park around 4:30 a.m. with his wife and staying out until 6 p.m.
“We just drive the whole day, and just delight in the wildlife,” he said. “That’s my idea of heaven.”
The talented Johnstone shared a number of his favorite wildlife photographs from over the years with Golfweek. Scroll on to get lost in another world.
