“It was a great night; an emotional night. Ben (Crenshaw) made sure that tonight was all about Jon, Seve and Jackie Burke.”
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Champions Dinner tipped its hat to Spain on Tuesday evening.
On what would’ve been the 67th birthday of Seve Ballesteros, the table of 33 champions welcomed its newest member — Jon Rahm — before flooding the room with memories of Augusta’s first European victor.
“It was a great night; an emotional night,” said Larry Mize, the 1987 winner. “Ben (Crenshaw) made sure that tonight was all about Jon, Seve and Jackie Burke.”
Rahm sat at the head of the table, side-by-side with Ben Crenshaw, marking the first time a LIV golfer played host to the dinner.
And even though the narrative of PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf remains heated to some, for one night, the sides united.
“We’re a fraternity,” said Crenshaw, who emcees the annual supper.
Added Charles Coody: “It couldn’t have been more congenial. Even Tom Watson at the very end of dinner, he stood from his chair and said how happy he was to see the camaraderie within our group. It was a wonderful night.”
Crenshaw, in his Texas drawl, opened the evening by welcoming Rahm to the Masters Club; he then gifted the Spaniard an inscribed gold locket in the form of the Club emblem.
Two years ago, at the 2022 Champions Dinner, Hideki Matsuyama stunned the table by reciting a speech in English, prompting Gary Player to toast in Japanese.
When asked earlier in the week about congratulating Jon Rahm in Spanish, Ben Crenshaw reflected on his Austin High School diploma.
“I took French,” said Crenshaw, laughing.
A Masters pin flag blows at the practice facility during the second round of the 2023 Masters. (Photo: Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY Network)
From there, stories immersed the room about Seve.
Bernhard Langer orated a tale about the 1983 Ryder Cup at Palm Beach Gardens when Ballesteros struck a 3-wood out of a bunker from 230 yards onto the green.
Langer told the table that from the lie Seve had, no golfer — aside from Ballesteros — would’ve cleared the lip with anything less than a six iron.
Crenshaw also mentioned the passing of 1956 Masters Champion Jackie Burke.
Burke, who shared a Champions locker with Tiger Woods, died on Jan. 19, 10 days before his 101st birthday.
“God put me down here for a long spell,” Burke said on his 100th birthday.
Thirty-three past champions attended the dinner. The only two absent were Angel Cabrera and Sandy Lyle.
According to Mize, Lyle’s wife, Jolanda, was having inner ear problems, and the 1988 Masters winner elected to remain home.
“Jolanda tried to get Sandy to come,” Mize said. “But he didn’t want to come without her.”
As defending champ, Rahm selected the menu for Tuesday evening, with his spread giving homage to Spain’s Basque region.
The meal began with six options for tapas and pintxos, Spanish for starters, before offering two main courses: Chuleton a la Parrilla, a ribeye with Piquillo peppers, or Rodaballo al Pil-Pil, a fish dish with white asparagus.
José María Olazábal chose the fish. Craig Stadler ordered red meat.
Coody picked fish.
“I didn’t want to venture too far into no-man’s land,” Coody said.
According to multiple past winners, similar to last year, Phil Mickelson remained quiet, and despite being close to Rahm, he elected not to give a toast.
The innovator of the 16th hole skip returned Tuesday to Augusta National.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — The innovator of the 16th hole skip returned Tuesday to Augusta National.
Fifty-two years ago, Gary Cowan was playing a practice round with Ben Crenshaw when the pair reached No. 16 tee. Cowan, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, turned to Gentle Ben and said, “Watch this.”
The Canadian skipped a 3-iron across the water, starting a Masters tradition that has lasted half a century.
On Tuesday, Cowan returned to the 16th hole and, alongside countrymen Mike Weir and Corey Conners, shot a pellet across the pond.
“Ben couldn’t believe what I was doing,” said Cowan, reflecting on 1972.
Many Masters traditions have indisputable timelines, such as the creation of the Champions Dinner in 1952, or Sam Snead being awarded the first green jacket in 1949. Other tales have gained legs over time without a surefire genesis.
One such custom is skipping balls over the pond at No. 16.
Ken Green and Mark Calcavecchia claimed to have started the tradition in 1987, until Lee Trevino and Seve Ballesteros one-upped the pair by saying they did it in the early 1980s. Then came photographs of Tom Kite mastering the feat in 1979.
“I was there. It happened,” Crenshaw said. “Gary used a 3-iron, put the ball back in his stance and bam, skipped it straight across the water.”
With Ben’s urging, Cowan successfully knocked three over before Crenshaw – competing in his first Masters – tried to duplicate the achievement to no avail.
A first try went kerplunk. Then a second.
“Ben was playing it too much like a chip,” Cowan said. “I told him, ‘Hit it hard and low,’ and sure enough his third one skipped right across. The crowd went crazy.”
For Cowan, skipping balls over bodies of water had become a favorite childhood game in Kitchener, Ontario. The member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame said, “I always liked to horse around.” So when he got to the 16th tee box, Cowan didn’t think twice about dropping a ball and skimming it at Augusta National.
“Did I think I’d get in trouble?” Cowan asked. “You know, that never crossed my mind.”
Crenshaw, Sergio Garcia, Kyle Chandler, Asleep at the Wheel and more were on hand for the event.
AUSTIN, Texas — Ben Crenshaw has worked on golf courses all over the globe, first as a two-time Masters champ and PGA Tour star and now as part of the illustrious Coore & Crenshaw golf course design team.
But one of the courses he’s worked hardest on, Lions Municipal Golf Course in this Texas capital city, still hasn’t seen the outcome he’s been hoping for.
On Sunday, Crenshaw and a cavalcade of stars were on hand at Austin City Limits’ Moody Theater, raising money as the Muny Conservancy attempts to purchase or lease the land and maintain it as a golf course and greenspace.
The land on which Muny sits is part of the 500 acres known as the Brackenridge Tract, all owned by the University of Texas. The course is considered the first fully desegregated municipal course south of the Mason-Dixon line and the city has leased 140 acres for Muny since 1936, paying UT about $500,000 a year. If the parties don’t come to an understanding, the university could be free to lease the property to another entity, develop it or sell it.
On Sunday, the group raised another $1 million for the cause, marking the third straight year the gala could be considered a major success. Musical talent included Asleep at the Wheel lead singer and Save Muny Board Member Ray Benson, Larry Gatlin, Jimmie Vaughan, and Gary P. Nunn.
But those on hand admitted some frustration as talks continue to lag, and university officials have done little to show which direction they might be leaning with the property.
“We’re hoping for a long-term resolution. We’d love to have a long-term lease,” Crenshaw said while flanked by his wife, Julie. “The city and the university need to get together somehow. And we need to extend it. It’s a hundred years, 100 years of success in our town. It’s not only a golf course, but it’s a great space. We’re growing so fast. In this town, we’re losing space rapidly. So it’s a multi-pronged asset. To me, it’s the health and vibrancy of the community. Because I think it raises good people.”
Among others on hand was actor Kyle Chandler of “Friday Night Lights” fame. Chandler has long been an advocate of the cause and he lives in Austin, where he has been known to play Lions with Crenshaw’s longtime manager and friend Scotty Sayers and others.
Chandler is hoping the fundraising and visibility will be enough to dissuade university officials from making a poor decision, but he’s also surprised this has carried on as long as it has.
“I’m always kind of shocked that it’s even an issue that this piece of property, this land, this piece of history would be an error on a piece of paper erased from the community,” Chandler said. “That is what it is. It’s community. It’s family. It is the history. It means a lot to people.
“And hopefully, the people involved in making these decisions can be a lot smarter than expecting people 20 years from now saying, ‘Man these strip malls are absolutely gorgeous, I hope they last another 80 years.'”
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 more quiet the university gets, the more worried Muny friends get and the more at risk the future of the course becomes.
AUSTIN, Texas — For years now, we’ve heard the pleas, and the voices are getting louder. But so is the silence on the other end.
Save Muny. Preserve one of the oldest public golf courses in Texas, its staunch supporters say.
But this is about so much more than golf and keeping a venerable course built in 1924, the same year Royal-Memorial Stadium went up on the University of Texas campus. It’s about social history, about civil rights as the first desegregated public course in the South, about opportunities for young and old, about high school golfers and senior golfers, about teaching the game, about a university’s umbilical cord with a city that supports it, about urban green space, about doing the right thing.
And, yes, it’s about money. Alas, the rallying cry might be falling on deaf ears.
Lions Municipal Golf Course is every bit as much in danger today as when the city’s lease for the historic property on the north bank of Lady Bird Lake expired in May 2019. Ever since, under an agreement between landlord UT and the city of Austin, Muny has operated on a five-month rolling lease.
Basically a handshake agreement. And the more quiet the university gets, the more worried Muny friends get and the more at risk the future of the course becomes. The site is already listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the 11 most endangered historic sites in America.
“The university has an opportunity to embrace this and understand what a great jewel it is and heal a part of the tortured past it has with the issue of race,” said Gary Bledsoe, the president of the Texas NAACP. “It’s a really big deal. This is an opportunity for the university not to continue its history of hostility toward African Americans. I don’t know if I’m disillusioned, but I have a great deal of concern and alarm.”
Ben Crenshaw reads a Golfweek article about a course in Palm Beach, Florida, that’s working with the PGA of America. Crenshaw is working to save Austin Lions Municipal Golf Course, the course he started playing as a kid. (Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)
Looking for a cause? Follow the money
The problem is money, as it always is. Muny sits on the 345-acre Brackenridge tract, and the 141 acres for the golf course could command a price tag ‘in excess of $750 million,” one prominent local real estate developer told the American-Statesman last week.
And the figure could grow even higher with density allowances and possible height variances that other large tracts in Austin have received. The developer said he could see the land being used for “high-density housing” but also including commercial offices and upscale retail stores. Such a deal would probably require keeping up to 20% of the land devoted to green space.
The Muny Conservancy is hoping at a minimum that the 18-hole golf course amid the thick canopy of oak, elm and ash trees tucked away in that West Austin neighborhood could survive as that mandated green space, even if UT wants to develop the rest of the land.
“The land where the golf course currently sits was donated to the university to benefit our students,” Kevin Eltife, chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, told the Statesman in a statement Wednesday. “The Board of Regents and the university leadership take their responsibility to steward this gift and all gifts seriously. We will continue to work with the flagship to understand all options that accomplish the best long-term use of the asset, making sure our students for generations to come benefit along with the Austin community.”
Bob Ozer (Left), Ken Tiemann, Peter Barbour and General Marshall at Lions Municipal Golf Course in Austin, Texas.
Are you listening, Texas?
The best option is probably to keep Muny as it is. Simple as that.
So is the university actively seeking a buyer for this attractive property just minutes from downtown?
“We don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors,” said Scotty Sayers, Ben Crenshaw’s longtime manager and co-chair of the Muny Conservancy with Crenshaw. “They hope nine holes is what we settle for and they can develop the rest. But for a golf facility to thrive, to have it be a teaching facility and host competitive tournaments, it needs to be 18 holes.”
By the way, this year is the 100th anniversary of the course, established by the Lions Club. What better way to celebrate the land that in 2016 was designated as a civil rights landmark by the National Register of Historic Places than to announce a 100-year lease to the city?
Oh, yeah, it’s much more than a golf course.
It’s one of the first peacefully desegregated golf courses in America and became such in 1950 when two Black kids no older than 9 chose to play at Muny. After initially being stopped, they were given the famous go-ahead from Austin Mayor Taylor Glass. “Let them play,” he said.
“This was an enormous action by people of power,” Bledsoe said. “It was not just look the other way. They opened up the course. When African Americans found out they could play there, they drove in from all over the state. And this was 19 years before Julius Whittier,’ a tight end from San Antonio who became the first African American letterman for the UT football team.
Meanwhile, Heman Sweatt from Houston was becoming the first African American in the UT School of Law, thanks to a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after the university initially refused to admit him.
“This occurred in 1950, the same year Sweatt went to UT Law School and the dangers and fears he felt walking to law school,” Bledsoe said. “His first night, his tires were slashed. But he was supported by a group of white supporters who provided protection for him.’
That’s why Derrick Johnson, the national president and CEO of the NAACP, stopped by recently to declare his organization’s full support for saving Muny. He recognized the significance of preserving history and appreciating it and learning from it.
“Golf is a game of power, a vehicle that has been utilized to advance business, policy, and build relationships with some of the most influential individuals in our society,” Johnson said. “As we work to advance progress for our community, it is crucial that we preserve and create new pathways for Black America to have access to the game of golf.”
Amen. Are you listening, Texas?
Scotty Sayers, left, and Ben Crenshaw enjoy a laugh during the Imagine Muny gala at ACL Live’s Moody Theater on Sunday night. The event netted around $800,000 for renovations at Lions Municipal Golf Course. (Photo courtesy of the Muny Conservancy)
Lions, UT are at a historic crossroads
Hey, February just happens to be Black History Month, too. What better timing could there be to preserve a place in history? Like the Meadowood tobacco farm in Connecticut where a young Martin Luther King Jr. worked during summers and was inspired to become one of our nation’s biggest social activists. Like the Pullman National Monument in Chicago celebrating the birthplace of the first Black labor union. Like historical black districts and homes.
Others have joined the chorus of voices lending their support.
Muny Conservancy will sponsor a third annual, celebrity-filled gala March 24 with another live auction that has already raised more than $1 million. They need it to finance needed repairs such as paint jobs for the pro shop and a new roof, but it’s hard to go full bore to raise money without any assurances the course will survive.
Muny remains the most used public golf course in the city, with more than 65,000 rounds every year. Last year’s participation rose 6%. It’s also home to 124 golf tournaments a year and 58 nongolf events. Where would those be held?
Mayor Kirk Watson is on board. So is actor Kyle Chandler. Angela Garcia, the daughter of All-America quarterback Marty Akins, and husband Sergio endorse Save Muny. Heck, maybe Lions should invite Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift to get married on the Muny grounds.
And the number of supporters is growing.
Clearly, UT needs the money. Wink, wink. After all, the American-Statesman and USA Today recently reported that the school had generated $271 million in annual athletic revenue, including $122 million in profit from football alone. This is a school estimated to have a $42.3 billion endowment, second only to Harvard.
Muny has been recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as an important civil rights landmark. Consider that upwards of 95,000 sites in the country are designated as historically significant, and just 32 of them, including Muny, are dedicated to civil rights or Black causes.
Heck, former UT golf coach Tom Penick and his legendary brother, Harvey Penick, held Longhorns weekly golf practices at Muny for 30 years. Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis got in a couple of rounds there. Ben Hogan has a hole named for him. Golf Hall of Famers Tom Kite and Crenshaw learned the game there.
We haven’t even discussed the enormous traffic gridlock that would result from a commercial development on the property.
We don’t need less green space in the city. We need more. It’s part of what makes Austin Austin. These sacred grounds are two years older than Zilker Park, for Pete’s sake.
“We’re hoping the community lets Texas know how important Muny is,” Bledsoe said. “This is something we want to keep. It will take that kind of outcry to really grab their attention. This course benefits everyone.”
History and heritage collide at this very public and significant intersection, and we wait to see what UT truly values as it prepares to join the SEC and tell those schools what Texas is all about.
“UT can come out looking like heroes,” Sayers said. “We want everybody to win.”
Cabot opens new courses in Florida and Saint Lucia, with more on the way.
Cabot effectively was a niche golf operator for much of its existence since the Canadian company opened its first course in 2012 on the remote shores of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
The original layout, Cabot Links, was exceptional, and it was followed a few years later by the even more highly ranked Cliffs course. More golf was added in 2020 in the form of a new short course, The Nest. The destination was a home run for company co-founder and CEO Ben Cowan-Dewar, who wisely put the emphasis on best-in-class golf at the Cape Breton property that was aided by the interest and investment of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort founder Mike Keiser.
But like Bandon Dunes, Cabot Cape Breton is a long way from most anywhere, and the Canadian golf season that far north runs just six months. While the Cabot brand represented the peak of modern Canadian golf, a world-class destination not to be missed by any seasoned golf traveler, for most of its existence the company wasn’t quite a major world player.
That has changed.
Cabot has grown up, and much of the globe is now its playground. By purchasing existing properties when promising and building from scratch when necessary, Cowan-Dewar has expanded Cabot’s operations south into the United States and across the Atlantic Ocean to Scotland. He has developed a focus on high-end accommodations, frequently manifesting in the form of aspirational real estate. And without defining how far he hopes to take the Cabot brand, he doesn’t plan to slow down.
The split-fairway, par-5 14th at Cabot Citrus Farms’ Karoo Course (Courtesy of Cabot/Matt Majka)
The growth has come fast and furious in recent years, most notably with the concurrent introduction of two courses in two different countries.
The built-from-scratch Point Hardy Golf Club – on one of the world’s most jaw-dropping pieces of golf land – opened to its members in December at Cabot Saint Lucia in the southern Caribbean. It soon will be followed in late January by the public-access Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida opening its first course, named Karoo, for preview play on the site of the former World Woods Golf Club.
All that is on the heels of Cabot having purchased Castle Stuart in Scotland in June of 2022, rebranding it to Cabot Highlands and announcing plans to add a second course designed by Tom Doak slated to open fully in 2025. And don’t forget Cabot Revelstoke, a mountainous destination planned to come online in 2025 with a layout by Rod Whitman, who designed the original Cabot course at Cape Breton. Revelstoke is in Canada, but this development is on the opposite side of the continent in British Columbia. Both these properties also will feature residential opportunities.
All the sudden, Cabot has become a year-round operator with developments that span nine time zones. It is now a company on which the sun will never set during the long days of a Canadian summer.
“We’ve always got a lot of irons in the fire,” Cowan-Dewar said in December while he overlooked a tropical marina not far from Point Hardy, trying to relax for a few minutes during a casual interview the day before his private Saint Lucia property hosted its members’ first rounds. “Did I ever conceive it would play out just like this? Of course not. But we did have plans to grow.”
From left, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw, Mike Keiser and Ben Cowan-Dewar at Cabot Saint Lucia (Courtesy of Cabot/Jacob Sjöman)
The golf always came first for Cowan-Dewar, whose early ambitions drew the attention of a like-minded Keiser. The American developer serves as a sounding board for the Canadian, and from the beginning his advice has been to build great golf holes, then establish a business model around them.
That starts with the course architects. For Saint Lucia it would be the acclaimed team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who also designed the Cliffs at Cabot Cape Breton, rated by Golfweek’s Best as the top modern course in Canada. At Cabot Citrus Farms just north of Tampa, Cowan-Dewar selected the up-and-coming Kyle Franz for the Karoo course and is employing Franz alongside Mike Nuzzo and advisor Ran Morrissett for the second full-size 18 named The Roost, still in development and ambitiously slated to open for preview play in the spring of 2024.
Then it’s just a matter of giving the architects enough latitude to create something special on beautiful pieces of land ideally suited for golf.
“We’re hiring some of the greatest people to ever practice their craft,” Cowan-Dewar said. “How many times in your life do you get to work with some of the greatest artists at a moment in time when they are the best? And we’re lucky to do that. So we want to give them the biggest canvas possible with no limitations. Trust in the architects, and we can figure out the rest around that.”
That trust has led to two very different golf courses in Point Hardy and the Karoo at Cabot Citrus Farms.
Start a conversation about the greatest golf legends from the state of Texas and you’re bound to hear Ben Crenshaw’s name dropped.
The Austin native was a star at the nearby University of Texas, won 19 times on the PGA Tour, captured a pair of green jackets, and has become one of the industry’s leading course architects.
And although he could call anywhere home, he’s still often spotted at the municipal course on which he first learned to love the game — Lions Municipal — a place he has been fighting to save for decades.
On January 11, 2024, Crenshaw reached the ripe age of 72 years old.
Here is a look at some snapshots of Crenshaw through the years.
Kapalua’s Plantation Course is steep, but exactly how steep? A hint: No. 18 tumbles down more than 50 feet.
Kapalua’s Plantation Course in Hawaii – site of this week’s season-opening The Sentry on the PGA Tour – was the first course built by the now-legendary design duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The mountainside layout opened in 1991 and was restored in 2019.
The Plantation maxes out at 7,596 yards with a par of 73, and it has only one par 3 on the back nine. With several downhill tee shots and the possibility of several drives rolling out past 400 yards, the course usually plays significantly shorter than the yardage might indicate.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.
Thanks to Golfweek’s Best rankings, we break out the top courses around Orlando and Central Florida.
Looking for a break from the theme parks around Orlando? Whether you want to stay close or you’re willing to drive a bit, there are several courses available that appear on the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top public-access layouts in Florida.
But it’s not as easy as pulling up our state-by-state rankings, which lists Florida courses that might be a full day’s drive away from Central Florida. We wanted to focus on the eight top-ranked courses that, while they might require golfers spend up to 90 minutes in the car, are within reasonable driving distance.
For the purpose of this exercise, we limited driving time to within 90 minutes of Disney World. Why 90 minutes? Because it can take a while to get anywhere around Orlando, especially if you’re stuck on Interstate 4, so 90 minutes seemed like a reasonable amount of time in a car to reach great golf.
And why Walt Disney World Resort? Because chances are if you’re visiting Orlando, you will be bunking up not far from that entertainment giant’s theme parks or Universal Orlando nearby.
We used Google Maps for its drive times, keying in Walt Disney World Resort at a time with no significant traffic slowdowns. Take all drive times around Orlando and Central Florida with a grain of salt, of course, as backups frequently happen.
None of this is to say there aren’t plenty of other worthy places to play around Orlando. As a nearby resident, this author will attest to the simple pleasures to be found at Winter Park Golf Course – frequently called WP9 – just north of downtown Orlando. The short nine-holer is one of the most fun two hours you’re likely to spend on a golf course.
Included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers.
Included with each course is its position in Florida on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For any course that appears on our other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.
A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.
The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.
(Google Earth/Golfweek)
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Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built since 1960, such as Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straits and more.
Want to play the great modern golf courses in the U.S.? From Hawaii to Boston, we have you covered. So welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 200 Modern Courses built in or after 1960 in the United States.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
There’s one course of particular note this year. Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska, debuts the highest of the courses new to this list, climbing into a tie for 26th. Designed by Tad King and Rob Collins, Landmand opened in 2022. It and the Sheep Ranch at Bandon Dunes are the only courses to have opened since 2020 to rank among the top 200.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, then the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2022.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
