Detroit-based Soave Enterprises is aiming for an autumn completion of the project.
Detroit-based Soave Enterprises is aiming for an autumn completion of the Kinsale Golf Club at Vanderbilt Drive and Wiggins Pass Road in North Naples, Florida, and stretches to Tamiami Trail near Old 41 Road.
The project had received initial backing from Collier County about a half-dozen years ago, pre-pandemic, but work didn’t begin until 2023.
Famed architect Gil Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner are leading the project. They are known for major restoration work on some of the world’s most iconic courses including New York’s Winged Foot Country Club, the host of a half-dozen U.S. Opens, and the Los Angeles Country Club, where the 2023 version of the 128-year-old event was held.
Limited to a membership of 250 paying about $425,000 each in initiation fees, the 18-hole, par-71 course draws its inspiration from spots like the Old Course at the nearly five-century-old St. Andrews in Scotland, which some say features the toughest challenge in the sport, the 17th Road Hole that Soave is trying to replicate.
The plan calls for the course to be open early October through early June, with maintenance on tap for the summer on the 6,555 yards. As a comparison, last year on the PGA Tour, the average course was a shade under 7,300 yards.
“Our biggest challenge with Kinsale is with the size of the property,” Hanse said. “Everyone knows it’s a compact site, but if we didn’t think we could build a really great 18 holes out here, we wouldn’t have done the job. I’m 100% confident in our abilities to move the earth and create interesting golf holes.
“We’ve talked about, ‘How do we create a little bit more separation actually in the field? How do we align features? How will we align landscape materials? (You) are rarely gonna feel like you’re boxed in out here. I think that’ll be one of our greatest accomplishments when we get finished: That we’ve been able to find a little bit more wiggle room on the site in order to create the experience that we believe we can.”
Soave has hired Atlanta’s Steve Archer as director of club operations after its original top choice for the slot was arrested on charges of theft at a previous employer. For the past decade, Archer was the director of golf at Georgia’s Capital City Club and also served on that state’s PGA Board of Directors for four years as its education chair.
Among those joining Archer is Rusty Mercer, the director of agronomy, most recently in that gig at Lakeland’s Streamsong Resort.
(Editor’s note: An earlier version of the story had the initiation fee incorrect.)
Part of the reason Harman was keen on keeping the old course untouched was his success here.
FORT WORTH, Texas — With the way he saunters around a golf course, easy and consistent, it’s not surprising to hear that Brian Harman’s love for Colonial Country Club was rooted in its Texas charm, a mix of blazing heat and old Southern traditions.
After a significant renovation by the design team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, “Hogan’s Alley” has a modernized feel for the Charles Schwab Challenge this year, with fresher fairways and firmer greens.
But as much as Harman loved the classic course, his unflappable personality shined through on Thursday during the event’s opening round, as the University of Georgia product proved he can learn on the fly and put a couple of near-misses behind him. En route, he shot a 66 to find a tie atop the leaderboard at the end of the early wave of play, positioning himself nicely in a field that includes world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Max Homa, Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau, and Sungjae Im.
And his quick start was a fact not lost on the lefty, who entered play on Thursday with just one opening round under 69 this year, that coming in the season-opening Sentry back in January.
In fact, Harman hasn’t broken 70 in the opening round of his last seven events, including this year’s Masters, where he opened with an 81. Even at the Players, an event in which he tied for second, Harman struggled through a 72 in the first round of action.
At the new Colonial, however, Harman rolled off four birdies in his first eight holes before cooling on his final nine. He had a pair of birdie putts just miss on his second nine that would have put a little distance between him and others who shined in the early wave like S.H. Kim, Martin Laird, Davis Riley and Tony Finau, all of whom also finished with rounds of 66.
Still, with a bogey-free day in his back pocket, the 2023 Open Championship winner was happy with where he sat after Thursday’s action.
“I made a couple really nice up-and-downs for par as well. So I feel like that stuff kind of evens itself out. I just try to keep executing and my game feels really, really good right now,” Harman said. “I haven’t had the results that I feel like that I probably should have the last few weeks, but I’m playing some pretty good golf and it was nice to get off to a good start.”
Of course, part of the reason Harman was keen on keeping the old course untouched was his success here. In 11 previous starts, Harman has six top-25 finishes and three times has cracked the top 10.
His original reaction to the changes was positive, though. The course was founded in 1936 and hosted the 1941 U.S. Open. The renovation put an emphasis on returning the space to something that closely resembles what the original design team of John Bredemus and Perry Maxwell first sculpted.
“The fear when you redo an iconic place like this is that they mess it up and I feel pretty confident saying that they didn’t mess it up,” he said. “Now the course needs time to mature, the grass really isn’t quite where it needs to be yet, it just, it takes a long time for those roots to get their structure and for everything to settle down. I’m going to hold off judgment for another couple years probably on how I think about it, but I don’t think they messed it up. I think they did a pretty good job.
“I loved the old course so much, I had so many laps around this place, it’s one that I always had circled. I felt like I had a little bit of knowledge, especially on the younger guys trying to play Colonial for the first couple times. But, yeah, we’re all on the same footing now, but I feel like the essence of the course is still the same.”
Old-school difficult and a more modern thinking game come together at Les Bordes in France.
80 MILES SOUTH OF PARIS – How do you cap (pun intended) a lifetime of selling pens? You retire to your country estate in the Loire Valley of France, of course.
True if you are Baron Marcel Bich, the cofounder of BIC, which for more than 70 years has been the world’s leading manufacturer of ballpoint pens.
Called Les Bordes (translated as The Edges), Bich’s goal was to create a private compound for family and friends where they could hunt deer or wild boar and enjoy a bucolic getaway deep in the Sologne forest in the French countryside. But Bich also had a vision for “le golf” – golf on the highest of scales, and Les Bordes provided the perfect place to render his dream.
Architect Robert von Hagge was tasked to tackle Bich’s vision. With an unlimited budget, Bich’s one marching order to von Hagge was to make not just a world-class layout, but one that resisted par like few others.
Mission accomplished. Opened in 1987, the Old at Les Bordes is about as stern a test of golf as you can find.
The Old Course at Les Bordes Golf Club in France (Courtesy of Les Bordes Golf Club)
Fast forward some 30 years. Bich had passed away and the estate, while maintained, was basically unused. Financial manager Driss Benkirane purchased the property and set the goal of making it a high-end getaway. He enlisted the acclaimed team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner to add both a complementary full course (the New) and a fun short course (Wild Piglet). Benkirane didn’t stop there: He refurbished the clubhouse and cottages, restored the Bich manor and is in the process of converting it into an elegant hotel (not associated with the golf club). He also is adding a modest number of private residences available to members and visitors.
Let’s put on our Golfweek’s Best rater hats and have a look at Les Bordes’ twin efforts.
In its simplest form, a rater’s task is to judge landforms. A golf course architect both manufactures and borrows from existing natural landforms to tell a story, enrich the character, enhance the beauty and create interest in a golf hole. The more compelling the landforms (and the more artfully they are integrated), the more compelling the golf course.
Optimally, a golfer will respond both emotionally and intellectually. The emotional components of a golf course speak to your heart: what you find beautiful, harmonious, pleasing, ordered. The intellectual components spur all sorts of calculations: Should I or shouldn’t I? If/then? What if?
All great courses maximize these components, and Les Bordes’ courses certainly qualify.
The New Course at Les Bordes Golf Club in France (Courtesy of Les Bordes Golf Club)
First, let’s look at aesthetics.
From the moment you drive through the gate, you can’t help but be struck by the quiet, unspoiled parkland setting. Old growth forests of oak, beech, chestnut and poplar define the wooded portions, and bloom, bramble and heather – a diverse understory – blanket the more open heathland portions. The sights throughout are soft and pleasing.
The setting is pastoral, a place today for a quiet walk with clubs in hand, taking in the forested delights and communing with nature. It’s also a place where it wouldn’t be hard to let your imagination conjure up images of walking these grounds centuries ago with bow and arrow on a quest of another kind. Coos of collared doves and chirps from the dunnocks, blackcaps and other local songbirds provide additional charms to Les Bordes. Deer are common companions, and a sighting of a wild boar, while rarer, is not unheard of. And it’s not just the sights and sounds of nature; even the clean scent of the forest is pleasing.
The parts contributed by man are well done too. Finely appointed but understated, the estate compound – along with pro shop, clubhouse, practice area and cabins – is nestled lakeside, where the amenities complement and even enhance the surrounding natural beauty.
Now let’s look at the strategic and tactical aspects.
No question, Von Hagge and Hanse had fitting backdrops on which to build. The only issue was topographical: The property may be a little too flat, more so on the Old than New.
Defining movement in a hole is challenging with a flatter piece of property. Some vertical elements are needed to afford better target and angle definition, more appealing vistas and generally a more interesting and pleasurable playing field.
The New Course at Les Bordes in France (Jonathan Cummings/Special to Golfweek)
The two architects took two distinctly different approaches in introducing a vertical dimension at Les Bordes. Von Hagge used ample containment mounding around hole perimeters to improve angle and distance definition. The problem is the mounding also obstructs views and constrains play, restricting golfers to play up the centerlines of a hole. Aesthetically, von Hagge’s mounding is also somewhat incongruous to the surroundings – man-made humps around natural flatter vistas.
Hanse took a different path. He addressed his vertical problem by introducing ample fairway bunkers and raising the back edges of those bunkers, sometimes by three to five feet, then capping them off with wispy “eyebrows.” The perimeter definition of holes is further accomplished with the use of surrounding fields of knee-deep native fescues. The brown of the tall fescues against the greens of the playing surfaces provides both pleasing contrasting colors and textures, and well sets off the playing surfaces from the surroundings.
Both solutions to the vertical problem get the job done. Straight lines of play are broken up with better-defined turns and angles, allowing for decision-making and providing interest.
Both courses are routed similarly. A southern front nine and northern back, both circular with returning nines to the centrally located estate compound (Old) and halfway house (New). Both nines on Old revolve counterclockwise, whereas on New the front turns clockwise and the back counterclockwise. On both courses, breezier conditions require a player to judge ever-changing wind vectors from hole to hole.
If you consider intimacy a measure of good routing, then Les Bordes may not get the highest of marks. Both courses, covering around 300 acres, feel more expansive, although both, particularly the New, are easily walkable. The walk on the New off the third green, past the first green to the fourth tee is also a little awkward, especially considering the almost limitless amount of available land.
Judging the overall land plan and how well it adds or subtracts to the experience may be premature, as the complex is not yet completed. In its current state, the original compound around the Old is balanced and well-integrated. The New, physically well divorced from the main compound, seems more of an entity unto itself, although this may change as planned additions to the property are built.
The New Course at Les Bordes in France (Courtesy of Les Bordes)
The quality of shaping, or how well the engineered movement of the land enhances playing variations, is very good on the Old and outstanding on the New. A survey around most of the greens on the New reveals a rich array of recoveries required for missed greens. Bumps, runs, putts, flops, pops, sand shots and even banks may be required around the greens. Once you find the putting surfaces, you’ll find the New’s greens more undulating than the Old’s and its green complexes more interesting from a playing standpoint. The Old’s putting surfaces are large, some extremely large.
With only a few exceptions, great golf courses are hard. Hard in a good way, or probably better described as challenging – both Les Bordes layouts easily check this character ingredient. With 117 bunkers, the test at the New is navigating a minefield of bunkers.
The von Hagge course … well, that takes hard to the next dimension. Until the recent 66 shot by Anders Hansen in 2019, the nearly 40-year professional – yes professional – record on the Old was 1 under par. For decades, the Old was not only recognized as one of the top courses in Europe, but also the hardest.
Boasting 13 forced carries, most requiring long shots to highly defended targets, your brawn is well measured. If you miss your approaches, you are often in trouble, sometimes deep trouble. When you ultimately find those enormous putting surfaces, you are faced with tough two-putts and sometimes even tough three-putts. It’s easy to see why the Old is considered one of the world’s hardest layouts.
“Within our membership we may have eight to 10 players with handicaps in the plus-4 range,” director of golf Jack Laws said. Stunning, but those top-notched players may need each and every one of those strokes to tackle the Old.
Generally, golf courses with a wider range of variation are considered better designs.
Hole directions on the Old favor right-to-left play with surprisingly little distance variation within the collection of par 3s, 4s and 5s. The New has a much broader range of distances for each of the par collections and is directionally well-balanced. Ironically, even though the New is about 300 yards longer than its predecessor, the Old plays longer and is clearly a tougher test. This effective length difference is also partly due to the Old requiring an aerial attack while the New allows a ground attack – in general, firm courses that provide more roll play shorter.
Course conditioning is not only an important aesthetic factor but a playing factor as well. With only a handful of rounds daily on each course, superintendent Romain Basque and crew can keep the courses in top condition. Mowing heights are crisp and even throughout, bunkers are groomed and consistent, and putting surfaces are immaculate. A carefully monitored watering regimen ensures firmer playing surfaces, especially on the New. All of which reduces the chance your shots are adversely influenced by variation in playing conditions and ensures your good shots are properly rewarded.
Standout holes on the Old include the sixth with its large thumbprint on the front of the putting surface falling off to a massive greenside bunker and the crazy-hard 14th, a long par 5 where your third shot may require a hybrid or more, all forced carry over a fronting pond. But maybe the best hole on Old is the 10th, a medium-length par 5 on which von Hagge used the dredgings from the lakes to build a significant hill some 15-20 feet tall, on top of which he perched the green. Falling off on all sides the 10th green is stubbornly defended by a field of hillside bunkers – a rewarding but tough target and visually arresting.
An beautifully understated hole sign on the New Course at Les Bordes (Jonathan Cummings/Special to Golfweek)
Standout holes on New include the second, a double-dogleg par 5 with well-defined turns and a depressed, somewhat blind green complex offering optional lines of attack. Nos. 5 and 8 are both huge, par 5s masquerading as par 4s for many players – or as purists say, each is a par 4 and a half. On the inward half, standouts include the very cool 13th with its old-school field of crossing bunkers, then the short 11th and 15th featuring imposing fairway bunkers pushing you away from direct lines of play. The 18th is a visually arresting finisher requiring a long carry over a lake to a rather stingy green – it’s a carry that might be a tad too long for any but the better players.
Perhaps the best hole on either course is the super-short par-4 ninth on the New. A study in placement, Hanse offers a myriad of ways to play this hole. Blast it up the right then bump-and-run it from the side of the green. Or lay way back with a mid-iron off the tee, leaving you a full wedge in. Or fly the first bunker field and tackle a 60-degree wedge over the fronting bunkers closely guarding the green. It is said that golf course architects find it most challenging to design a good short par 4 – the New’s ninth ranks up there with some of the world’s best.
Where do we stand? For aesthetics, both courses score very high marks. The setting coupled with the natural unspoiled beauty of the property makes a round of golf at Les Bordes about as pleasurable as you will find. The cerebral components, those that make this a “thinking” game, earn equally high marks, more so on the New. There is a high degree of required problem solving to successfully navigate the New, while it’s more of a “hang-on-for-dear-life” on the Old. Both leave you satisfied after a good round, the New because you solved a puzzle and Old because you ran the gauntlet.
What overall rating do I give the pair? I think you can tell quite high, but as for divulging numbers, my lips are sealed.
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.”
This covers a sprawling 165 acres with an 18-hole regulation course, a nine-hole par-3 course.
It sits at the end of a half-mile gravel road leading to what was once 306 acres of lemon and mango trees in Thermal, 10 miles south of downtown Coachella. It is located where no desert golf course has been built before.
For more than a year, Ladera was the Coachella Valley’s mystery golf course, known mostly for who was building it and its rumored ultra-exclusive future. Few people knew about the project and fewer had seen the course during its construction and opening months of play.
Now, one of the co-owners of the layout is unafraid to say what he hopes the golf course’s stature will be in the desert and across the country.
“When people talk about the Coachella Valley, Palm Springs, I want them to say that’s the home of the Coachella (music festival), home of the (BNP Paribas Open) tennis tournament, home of The American Express, home of the Acrisure Arena and home of Ladera,” said Irving Azoff, a long-time music industry mogul and co-founder of Oak View Group, builder of arenas and other venues including Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert. “That’s really what I care about.”
The first design by the team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in the golf-rich Coachella Valley that features 120 courses, Ladera covers a sprawling 165 acres with an 18-hole regulation course, a nine-hole par-3 course and native landscape surrounded by what is still a working lemon farm. The landscape slopes 140 feet from the high point near the Santa Rosa Mountains across once-level land.
But the golf course — Golf Digest reported the course alone cost $40 million to build and does not include flood control and other costs — is only part of what Azoff and his best friend and co-owner Eddy Cue, a senior vice president for Apple, envision for Ladera. The experience of the course for the exclusive membership should be like no other course in the desert, Azoff said.
“I want them to go out there and say I had the most peaceful, enjoyable, relaxing, one of the greatest golf days ever,” Azoff said. “I want it to be an all-day experience.”
The golfers enjoying the course, for the most part, won’t be Coachella Valley residents. Ladera is designed as a destination golf course, meaning members can be from anywhere in the United States who spend time in the desert or who fly into the area specifically to play their golf course. That’s similar to the idea of the national membership at Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters in Georgia.
“If someone said you can come to Augusta or you can come here, without hesitation, it’s 100 percent here,” said Rich Bressler, who fits the course’s membership profile as president and COO of media firm iHeart Radio. “I really do feel like the experience here is second to none.”
Bressler is one of just over 40 members at the club now, with Azoff saying perhaps the membership could grow to 100 in coming years. The membership needs to fit a certain devotion to golf, Azoff said.
Friends and golfers
“What we want for the membership is really a group of our friends and business associates. You have to have respect for golf, the game of golf,” Azoff said. “You don’t have to be a great golfer, but you have to have respect for the game of golf, and you have to be able to appreciate why there are no cart paths, why there are no ponds, why there are no palm trees. And you might look at the greens and go, well, that one might have been inspired by Seth Raynor (an architect active in the 1910s and 1920s).”
Among current members and friends of Azoff who are members include Bressler, Golden State Warriors co-owner Fred Harman, Rob Light, the managing partner of Creative Artists Agency, and even English pop star Harry Styles.
Other tributes to the game at Ladera include a preference for walking the expansive course, though golf carts are available. It’s all a spirit of the game and a membership size and demographic that appeals to Paul Marchand, the director of golf at Ladera.
Marchand is well known in golf circles as a long-time coach for Fred Couples, but he is also a member of the Texas Golf Hall of Fame and was for years the director of golf at places like the 1,200-member Houston Golf Club. Marchand met Azoff and Cue when he was director of golf at Madison Club in La Quinta, where the co-owners of the new course explained their concept of a club honoring the purity of the game and the golf experience.
“At all high-end private clubs, the head of the pro staff is trying to help create or maintain a wonderful experience that is unique to that place,” Marchand said. “A place with a smaller club or a place with a big staff where you can have time to be in that lane yourself, to be the leader and actually spend time with the members, which is what I prefer to do, like hands on, one on one, spending time on the lesson tee or on the golf course, that’s my passion.”
Azoff, who is also the head of entertainment rights company Iconic Artists and at one time owned TicketMaster, is a member at golf courses ranging from Madison Club to Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. He also travels the world with his family to play the game. So why would he and Cue build a golf-centric club like Ladera in the Coachella Valley?
“I guess it’s because we can,” Azoff said. “I’ve worked hard for over 50 years, 55 years and it’s just the opportunity came up. I’m spending a lot of time down here at my house at Madison Club. Eddy and I were sitting there one day and he said to me, ‘let’s build our own golf course.’ I was just in the middle of opening the (Acrisure) arena, and I knew I was going to be spending a lot of time down here and our family has such a great affinity for the desert.”
Large white sand bunkers, a tribute to George Thomas bunkering at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, are a major part of the look at Ladera Country Club in Thermal. (Photo: Channing Benjamin/Special to the Desert Sun/USA Today Network)
Like Azoff, Bressler says the experience at Ladera is what compels him to live in Miami but search out the Thermal course.
“What is so interesting about the experience is not that it feels different the first time. Everywhere feels different the first time,” Bressler said. “But the 10th time or the 12th time, you feel the way you felt the first time you come here. You still have that and you grow with the experience. Every time you are here, you feel a little bit different about the experience.”
Hanse and Wagner’s first desert course
As for the course itself, the first Palm Springs-area design by Hanse and Wagner, who are perhaps best known as the designers of the Olympic course in Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Games, the layout is unlike other area courses. Ladera does not feature any homes on the course, and the course sits away from any other development, giving it the feel of being part of the native desert.
The first 18-hole course built in the Coachella Valley since 2008, Ladera’s fairways can be 70 or even 80 yards wide, but there is no rough on the course. Off the fairways are areas of native desert landscape, either natural or recreated through the moving of 2 million cubic yards of earth. The black tees measure 7,365 yards, though the course with five par-5s and five par-3s can stretch back to more than 7,700 yards and also has several sets of shorter tees.
Throughout the course are large, white-face bunkers, a tribute to architect George Thomas and his bunkering at Riviera Country Club. A barranca that cuts across the fairway of the par-5 first hole is also a tip of the hat to Riviera’s first hole. Many of the white-sand bunkers are large cross bunkers in fairways or deep greenside bunkers making precision shots into sloping and undulating putting surfaces vital. Azoff laughs that many of the bunkers are ornamental and may never see a golf ball. Rugged, often jagged bunker lips are a reflection of nearby mountains that aren’t part of the course but serve as a backdrop for many shots.
“The 15th (a 320-yard par-4) is kind of inspired by No. 10 at Riviera. The only difference is instead of the sand, you have the big runoffs,” Azoff said. “You noticed on the par-3 12th, there is a biarritz (a gulch running through a green). Well, we did kind of a half biarritz, with the dip in the back of the green.”
The design is Hanse’s interpretation of what Azoff and Cue wanted.
“Gil asked us questions about what we liked. He asked what do you think about barrancas,” Azoff said. “The one thing we all spit out at that time was no palm trees, no ponds. This is not a Palm Springs golf course. We want the desert to feel natural. We want the mountains to feel natural. And we wanted to keep some sort of tradition from the lemon trees.”
A day at Ladera can end on a nine-hole par-3 course where golfers can basically hit from any tee box to any green.
As for the legacy of his new course, Azoff says he and Cue want to pass Ladera down to their sons. Azoff’s two sons are strong players who pulled their father into the game, Cue is a golfer who wants his own sons to embrace the game. Azoff admits he wants the course on top-100 lists as a way to add luster to what he feels is the faded glory of Palm Springs golf. He also wants people to understand his excitement about the course and its place in golf.
“It’s the spirit of the place. It’s the staff, it’s the practice facilities,” Azoff said. “Look, I’ve built a lot of stuff, and usually if it comes out 75 percent of what you have envisioned, it’s great. This came out 200 percent. It nails it as far as we are concerned.”
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)
[afflinkbutton text=”Book discounted hotel rooms near Orlando” link=”https://www.sportgotravel.com/hotels/city/800047448?campaign=wGekekGlGw&cid=haehdndaon”]
Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner looked to the past to set up Olympic Club for the future.
SAN FRANCISCO – From the first tee to the 18th green, golfers will notice plenty of differences on the recently renovated Lake Course at the Olympic Club, a layout that already had seen plenty of changes since it was first designed in 1924.
As they did at several other major championship courses including 2023 U.S. Open host Los Angeles Country Club, Hanse and Wagner planned for the future by studying the past.
Hanse Design associate Tommy Naccarato said that meant researching old aerial photos from the 1920s and ‘30s as well as Spring Valley Water Company’s plans. That allowed the team to identify fairway bunkers that had been abandoned over the decades, and the historic research also provided clues on fairway widths, approaches and green surrounds.
The Spring Valley Water Company’s historical plans show the routing of the the Lake Course at Olympic Club. (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
Ultimately the Hanse plan would call for the reintroduction of fairway bunkers on Nos. 4, 9, 14, 16, 17 and 18. Other refinements included the expansion of greens by roughly 33 percent to provide more pinnable space, widening fairways by roughly 25 percent to better fit the land, expanding approaches to greens to offer more ground-game options and converting numerous green surrounds from fairway to rough for consistency course-wide.
The final piece of the plan was the creation of a new seventh hole to better connect Nos. 6 and 8 after the 2009 shifting of the tees on No. 8. The new No. 7 remains an uphill and drivable par 4, but the green was shifted down a hill to the right. The tee shot offers numerous options, the best of which come when players challenge a new fairway bunker about 50 yards from the green, Hanse said via zoom at a September reopening event.
The land for the new No. 7 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco before the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)No. 7 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco during the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)No. 7 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco during the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
Players can notice the differences from the first tee shot, where the removal of dense shrubs between the first tee and second green has opened a view across the property and down to Lake Merced, all the way to the 18th, where fairway bunkers were added and the green was expanded.
All told, the refinements have provided the Lake Course with a more consistent Golden Age look and feel as well as improved playability for day-to-day play.
The Lake Course offers a rich history that Hanse and Wagner were able to tap into. William Watson and Sam Whiting designed the first version of the Lake in 1924, but storm damage led to a Whiting redesign in 1927.
Starting in 1955 the Lake Course became a familiar home to USGA championships, hosting U.S. Opens in 1955, ‘66, ‘87, ‘98 and 2012. It also hosted the U.S. Amateur in 1958, ‘81, and 2007, as well as the U.S. Women’s Open in 2021.
Throughout its championship history, plenty of work was done to the course while leaving the routing intact. Before the 1955 U.S. Open, architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. toughened the course. In 2009 the uphill par-3 eighth hole was shifted to the north and the greens were converted from poa to bent grass. And in 2016 a bunker renovation was executed under the direction of Bill Love.
No. 1 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco before the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)No. 1 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco after the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
The course played beautifully during a media event thanks to the work of director of grounds Troy Flanagan and his team that worked closely with Hanse’s team, including shaper Shaymus Maley who was on site every day throughout the project.
“Tapping into his knowledge and enthusiasm allowed us to do a better job and be much more responsive on how the golf course plays,” Hanse said of Flanagan. “I can’t think of better greens I’ve played on for an opening day.”
The praise of the course was music to the ears of Olympic Club president Jim Murphy, who led the club through what is always a nervous time for a membership.
“First there was uncertainty, then there was anticipation and now there is jubilation,” Murphy said of his members’ response to Hanse and Wagner’s work.
Those sentiments were echoed by longtime Golfweek’s Best rater and Olympic Club member Pat Murphy, who said, “I’ve been a member of the Olympic Club for 65 years, and previously served as green chair, on the board and as vice president. I feel this renovation has done a great job of honoring our past and positioning us for the future. The golf course is as beautiful, fun and engaging as it has ever been in all my years.”
No. 18 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco before the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)No. 18 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco during the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)No. 18 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course in San Francisco after the restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner (Courtesy of Hanse Golf Course Design)
There is no doubt the course refinements will be embraced by the membership, but perhaps the bigger question is how will the course play in championships. The Lake Course is set to host the 2025 U.S. Amateur, 2028 PGA Championship, 2030 U.S. Women’s Amateur and 2033 Ryder Cup.
The amateur events and the Ryder Cup should be able to tee off while maintaining the added fairway width thanks to their match-play formats. It will be interesting to see how chief championships officer Kerry Haigh and the PGA of America prepare the course for the 2028 PGA Championship, for which conventional wisdom would suggest the narrowing of fairways to add challenge. But a potential ball rollback, more hole locations from which to choose and more rough around the greens may see them embrace the added width – we can only hope.
Two of the hottest designers in golf will rework one of the main layouts at Pebble Beach Resorts.
Pebble Beach Company has hired the team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner to redesign The Links at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, California.
Opened in 1987, the original layout was designed by the trio of architects Robert Trent Jones Jr., former USGA president Sandy Tatum and PGA Tour player Tom Watson. Situated between the Inn at Spanish Bay and the Pacific Ocean, the course was built on the site of a former sand mine with ocean views on nearly every hole.
Hanse and Wagner have become one of the most in-demand architecture teams in recent years, with original designs such as Ohoopee Match Club in Georgia and the Black Course at Streamsong in Florida. They also have completed historic restorations to many highly ranked courses including Los Angeles Country Club, site of the 2023 U.S. Open.
The Links at Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach Resorts in California (Courtesy of Pebble Beach Company)
Details on the timing of the renovation were not included in a media release announcing the news.
“The Links at Spanish Bay possesses nearly every raw element you’d want in a golf course, from expansive ocean views to rolling, sandy terrain,” Hanse said in the media release. “With these natural attributes already in place, our team will have a significant head start on delivering a final product that will be in the top echelon of ‘must-play’ courses.”
Pebble Beach Company also operates Pebble Beach Golf Links, which ranks No. 10 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S., and Spyglass Hill, which tied for 26th on the list of top modern courses in the U.S. The company’s Pebble Beach Resorts also operates Del Monte Golf Course and The Hay, a par-3 course designed by Tiger Woods.
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 the photos of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner’s latest course creation.
Much attention has been paid to the design duo of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in recent years for their work restoring multiple host sites of major championships, and rightfully so. Los Angeles Country Club, The Country Club, Winged Foot, Southern Hills and more have hosted majors after the designers lent their expertise in putting the courses back into the shapes intended by their original architects.
But what about Hanse and Wagner’s original work? They can bring the heat to their own designs, too, and that is on full display with the Fields Ranch East course at Omni PGA Frisco Resort near Dallas, the new home of the PGA of America.
The East recently opened to public play shortly after hosting the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship (won by Steve Stricker), the first of dozens of top-tier events scheduled to be played there.
Playing as long as 7,863 yards with a par of 72, the East is part of a new complex that includes a resort, meeting spaces, dining, shopping, a lit par-3 course, a massive putting green and plenty of ways to practice. It sits alongside the West, a course designed by Beau Welling.
