Oh, c’mon, who flew the drone over the Bengals – Ravens game?
In what embodies the NFL in 2023 more than anything we’ve seen recently, a drone stopped play during Thursday night’s Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals game.
During the game’s second quarter, a drone flashing red and green lights hovered above M&T Bank Stadium as Amazon’s game cameras shifted from the field to the sky to show the flying nuisance.
Veteran broadcaster Al Michaels had to send the game to a commercial break as game officials figured out a way to get this drone out of the field of play so that the game could resume.
If you were the person flying this drone above the stadium, we have a feeling you might not be invited back to a Ravens game anytime soon. Just a hunch.
The NFL has stopped play in the Bengals-Ravens game because someone is flying a drone inside the stadiumpic.twitter.com/6VBqoqv2bM
As momentarily humorous as it is to see an entire NFL game halted because somebody flew a drone over the stadium, it is incredibly annoying for everyone on the field and in the stands to have their nights delayed by this prankish disruption.
At the least, we hope the NFL figures out a way to keep these pesky drones away from open-air stadiums sooner than later so the show can go on.
Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner sought classic inspiration when building Ballyshear Golf Links near Bangkok.
SAMUT PRAKAN, Thailand – There’s been a lot of Lido talk in recent years in golf architecture circles. A new Lido opened this summer at Sand Valley in Wisconsin, attempting to recreate in great detail the original Lido course that was built in 1915 on Long Island, New York, with a design by C.B. Macdonald – that course was closed during World War II.
But Sand Valley’s rendition isn’t the only one.
Ballyshear Golf Links at Ban Rakat Club just east of Bangkok opened in 2021, and like its cousin in Wisconsin, this Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner design attempts to recreate many of the holes from the original Lido, sometimes in principle and at other times in detail.
At Ballyshear, Hanse and Wagner put into play many of the template holes established by Macdonald at the original Lido and beyond. The Eden, Channel, Alps, Short and Redan – each of those template holes and more are there to be played in Thailand. Such holes present shot values and demands identified by Macdonald that are now in play around the world, many of them borrowed from classic links courses. These holes are immediately recognizable to golf architecture buffs.
The back nine of Ballyshear Golf Links at Ban Rakat Club near Bangkok, Thailand (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Ballyshear was built on the site of the former Kiarti Thanee Country Club on a flat piece of land less than half an hour’s drive from Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The former course on the property featured tree-lined fairways and was often wet, as land in this area outside Bangkok is often inundated during heavy rains – the property is surrounded by rice fields.
Hanse and Wagner – the team behind several restorations of top classic courses, including Los Angeles Country Club before the 2023 U.S. Open – removed the trees, shaping the land into an open parcel more reminiscent of a classic links course. Much better drainage was installed, and a fair amount of engineering was necessary to create frequently rolling terrain that would hold up in the area’s climate.
That’s important, because the course needs to play relatively firm and fast to get the most of the template holes, their designs having been established on links ground and the best of them playing across sandy conditions. The ball needs to roll to make the most of such holes.
The private Ballyshear was covered with a local zoysia grass that does, indeed, play relatively firm and fast, especially in comparison to most other courses in Southeast Asia. A well-traveled player won’t confuse the conditions with those found on the links of Scotland or Ireland, but the ball does want to roll out a fair bit at Ballyshear, bringing the ground game into play.
Using the Lido templates was an intriguing idea for the Ballyshear site, as the land was flat to begin with. The original Lido was created by dredging a saltwater expanse and piling up the land until it was dry, then establishing interesting contours. Hanse and Wagner were able to do the same in Thailand. The use of the template holes from the Lido expanded on that theme.
The best part of Ballyshear: the shaping of the greens. Hanse and Wagner built some tremendous swales, valleys and ridges into these greens, many of them utilizing the traditional template greens. The putting speeds of the zoysia greens at Ballyshear will likely never be too fast, allowing the slopes to serve their purposes without getting out of hand. In that regard, they play much more like classic greens would have decades ago before the pursuit of speed rendered some classic slopes unplayable.
In all, Ballyshear (par 71, 6,690 yards) makes for a very different experience than found in much of Thailand, which has rapidly expanded as a golf destination in recent decades. From the low-slung, unobtrusive and perfectly comfortable clubhouse to all the nods at classic design, it’s a beautiful place to spend a day chasing a bouncing golf ball.
Check out a selection of photos from my recent trip to Thailand that included a stop at Ballyshear below.
Check out every hole of the new Lido at Sand Valley.
The Lido was long a historical fascination for golf architecture enthusiasts – until Peter Flory’s research led first to the famed Long Island layout being recreated as a video game and now coming fully to life again at Sand Valley in Wisconsin.
Flory – an amateur golf course historian from Chicago – collected photos and historical narratives that eventually led to Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design firm rebuilding the Lido in exacting detail. The layout fully opened to member play recently, and there are options for guests of the popular resort to score slots on the tee sheet at select times (check with the resort for details).
There’s plenty to take in at the new Lido. Flory – a financial consultation who also serves as a Golfweek’s Best rater ambassador – takes us through each hole below with videos shot by Golfweek videographer Gabe Gudgel before the course opened (notice that not all the bunkers are yet full of sand).
See the photos of some of the most visually dramatic oceanside golf holes ever built.
What do you get when you hire the famed design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to build a course on one of the most dramatic meetings of land and sea imaginable? Ben Cowan-Dewar, co-founder and CEO of the Canadian-based Cabot Collection, has his answer in the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia.
Scheduled to open in December, Point Hardy Golf Club at Cabot Saint Lucia is perched above the Atlantic Ocean on cliffs that offer a simply ridiculous set of visuals on more than half the club’s 18 holes. Picture any of the most scenic holes anywhere – Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, Pebble Beach Golf Links or Cypress Point in California, even the original Cabot courses in Nova Scotia as famous examples – and Point Hardy matches them all for you-gotta-be-joking views, proximity to the ocean and pulse-raising golf shots over cauldrons of salt spray.
All the holes at Point Hardy, including the inland holes atop a ridge or playing through a valley, are within sight of the ocean, and eight of them offer a chance to rinse a golf ball in salt water. On a day when the trade winds kick it up a notch, golfers will feel ocean spray at several points along the routing.
The hard part wasn’t building a dramatic course on the steep ground at the northern tip of the volcanic island. On a recent walk around the course as construction of Point Hardy nears completion, Coore said the toughest part was building golf holes on which the fun factor at least approaches the level of the visuals.
“Playability, playability, playability,” said Coore, who has routed some of the best courses to be constructed in the world over the past 30 years. “It would have been very easy to build a course where the views are incredible but that just wasn’t any fun to play, because the terrain is so steep. The challenge was to make it fun, to make people want to play it again.”
Did the team succeed on that front? Time will tell, and Golfweek will have plenty more on Cabot Saint Lucia in the coming months. In the meantime, just take in the incredible photos below of the two strings of golf holes closest to the ocean at Point Hardy.
Keep in mind with the following photos that the course is still in grow-in and that several holes haven’t been grassed yet, so brown areas on greens and fairways seen in these photos are completely expected as the grass takes root. The bunkers have not yet been filled with sand and appear as natural scrapes in the photos. This is still very much a work in progress.
And to answer a few questions we know are coming:
Point Hardy will allow some versions of public-access play early on as its membership role is filled, with details still being determined. Eventually the course will be at least mostly private.
Yes, it will be expensive compared to most U.S. daily-fee prices. Green fees and stay-and-play options have yet to be set, but don’t expect it to be cheap on a site like this. A vehicular analogy: This course is a Lamborghini full of bravado and pulse-racing moments, not a four-cylinder Kia that simply gets the job done, and the pricing will be along those lines.
Will it be among the best courses in the world? There’s no way to know where it will sit on Golfweek’s Best rankings of top courses in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and the Atlantic Islands until our raters visit and offer their scores. But don’t be surprised to see Point Hardy very near the top of that list.
Cabot Saint Lucia includes a housing development, ranging from fairway villas all the way up to mansions priced at millions of dollars. Besides the golf, there will be a beach club in a gorgeous bay and a full slate of luxury amenities. There are no plans for a traditional hotel. Accommodations will be available as rental luxury residences and villas.
Point Hardy Golf Club will play to 6,616 yards with a par of 71.
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Check out the aerial photos of the renovated Cape Club of Palm City in South Florida.
The Cape Club of Palm City, located about 90 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale depending on traffic, was purchased in 2022 by an ownership group led by Massachusetts real estate developer Michael Intoccia, and the now-private facility has been hard at work on the property formerly known as Fox Club Florida.
In a South Florida market where entry fees for private golf clubs regularly climb into six figures, the Cape Club of Palm City is currently offering a comparative bargain with a $25,000 initiation fee. While that’s not loose change in every player’s pocket, it’s a relative steal in recent years for a solid, major-market course where ownership has committed to improved playing conditions and member facilities.
After five months of renovations and grow-in that are still ongoing, golfers who played the daily-fee Fox Club Florida might be hard-pressed to recognize several of the holes. Massive cleanup efforts included removal of overgrown brush and assorted native flora both in the line of play and especially on the perimeter of several holes. Turf was replaced, greens were resurfaced and sometimes recontoured, all the bunkers were overhauled and the range was renovated. Playing adjacent to Interstate 95 at the northern edge of Martin County, the layout now provides an upgraded Florida golf experience through slightly expanded corridors with water in play on almost every hole.
The Cape Club of Palm City’s course, which has been bought and sold several times, originally was designed by Roy Case and opened in 1989. It was redesigned in 2004 by Darren Clarke and Eoghan O’Connell. This most recent work was done in-house.
The new ownership also plans to install cabins along the ninth hole, which played as No. 18 before the nines were flipped in the recent renovation. All facilities including the clubhouse have seen marked improvements.
The Cape Club Collection of private facilities includes two other courses, both in Massachusetts: the Cape Club of Sharon and the Cape Club of Falmouth.
Check out several photos below of the Cape Club taken this week during an outing for Golfweek’s Best course raters.
Twitter Reactions: Falcons fans were happy to see the team hang on for a 27-23 win over the Seahawks in Week 3.
After a back-and-forth battle against the Seahawks in Week 3, the Atlanta Falcons finally stood their ground and came away with their first win of the season on Sunday.
On Twitter, Falcons fans were frustrated by the poor defensive performance, and somewhat confused by the drone situation, but ultimately, they were just happy to see the team leave Seattle with a win.
Check out the photos of a recently restored Southern Hills Country Club heading into the PGA Championship.
TULSA, Okla. – The PGA Championship visits Southern Hills Country Club for the fifth time this week, giving the club a chance to show off a recent restoration by architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner.
Originally designed by Perry Maxwell and opened in 1936, Southern Hills is No. 1 among private courses in Oklahoma in Golfweek’s Best rankings, and it is No. 38 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S. The rolling layout has been host to four PGA Championships (1970, ’82, ’94 and ’07) and three U.S. Opens (’58, ’77 and ’01), among many other elite competitions.
Check out the photos below, some provided by the PGA of America (Gary W. Kellner) and the rest by Golfweek’s Gabe Gudgel and Jason Lusk.
Take a behind-the-scenes look at the Augusta National clubhouse.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — A ticket to the Masters is one of the most exclusive in all of sports. A pass to get access inside the Augusta National clubhouse is even more rare (and expensive).
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to drive down Magnolia Lane? Or wanted to see the view from the balcony overlooking the 1st and 10th tees, 18th green and practice putting green? The champions locker room? The Crow’s Nest?
Wonder no more thanks to this incredible drone video from the Masters that was dropped just hours before the first tee times of the final round of Sunday’s 86th Masters. If you thought you were excited to watch Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith and Co. later this afternoon, just wait until you watch this.
HAVEN, Wis. – Whistling Straits’ Straits Course, home of the Ryder Cup on Sept. 24-26, is one of the most dramatic visual treats in golf.
Built by Pete Dye on the shore of Lake Michigan, the formerly flat site once housed a military base before the legendary designer trucked in some 13,000 loads of sand to shape an incredible vista of flowing dunes, fescue grass and incredibly difficult golf shots.
Golfweek’s Gabe Gudgel has shot aerial drone videos of each hole to get you ready for the Ryder Cup. Video of one hole will be released each day for 18 days. Today’s hole is No. 18, which will play as a 515-yard par 4 for the matches between the U.S. and Europe.
Mike O’Reilly, the golf operations manager at Whistling Straits, has provided commentary on each hole. He began his career at Destination Kohler’s sister club, Blackwolf Run, as a caddie before Whistling Straits even opened, and he has had a front-row seat to all the action in three previous PGA Championships. His insights are invaluable.
The Straits will play as a par 71 at 7,390 yards for the Ryder Cup. It’s normally a par 72, but the par-5 11th will be shortened to a par 4 for the event. The Straits ranks as the No. 1 public-access course in Wisconsin on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list, as well as No. 8 among all of Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses in the U.S.
And for more golf in Wisconsin, check out this road trip that played the top five courses in a surprisingly strong golf state.
MOSEL, Wis. – Whistling Straits’ Straits Course, home of the Ryder Cup on Sept. 24-26, is one of the most dramatic visual treats in golf.
Built by Pete Dye on the shore of Lake Michigan, the formerly flat site once housed a military base before the legendary designer trucked in some 13,000 loads of sand to shape an incredible vista of flowing dunes, fescue grass and incredibly difficult golf shots.
Golfweek’s Gabe Gudgel has shot aerial drone videos of each hole to get you ready for the Ryder Cup. Video of one hole will be released each day for 18 days. Today’s hole is No. 17, which will play as a 223-yard par 3 for the matches between the U.S. and Europe.
Mike O’Reilly, the golf operations manager at Whistling Straits, has provided commentary on each hole. He began his career at Destination Kohler’s sister club, Blackwolf Run, as a caddie before Whistling Straits even opened, and he has had a front-row seat to all the action in three previous PGA Championships. His insights are invaluable.
The Straits will play as a par 71 at 7,390 yards for the Ryder Cup. It’s normally a par 72, but the par-5 11th will be shortened to a par 4 for the event. The Straits ranks as the No. 1 public-access course in Wisconsin on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list, as well as No. 8 among all of Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses in the U.S.
And for more golf in Wisconsin, check out this road trip that played the top five courses in a surprisingly strong golf state.
