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.
One of the key architects in the SentryWorld renovation shares the details of rerouting the Wisconsin layout.
Editor’s note:Jay Blasi is a California-based golf course architect originally from Wisconsin. He served as project architect, working in collaboration with Robert Trent Jones Jr., on SentryWorld’s 2013 renovation. He also serves as a Golfweek’s Best rater ambassador, which includes writing for Golfweek.
STEVENS POINT, Wis. – SentryWorld plays host this week to the U.S. Senior Open, the third USGA event at the course and it’s first major of any kind. The route the course took to get here, both from an ownership standpoint and a golf design perspective, is unique.
The course is owned and operated by Sentry Insurance, which has been headquartered in Stevens Point since 1912. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Sentry developed a one-of-a-kind campus. Decades before Google and Facebook were lauded for their innovative work environments, Sentry crafted a massive headquarter building complete with swimming, basketball, barber shop, auto center and more, the theory being that an attractive campus and quality of life for employees would allow Sentry to attract and retain top talent when competing against firms in big cities.
John Joanis, Sentry’s CEO at the time, also wanted golf as part of the mix. He hired Robert Trent Jones Jr. to design a course in a flat, wet and rocky pine forest. The Jones team created large water bodies and routed holes through the forests. It was the addition of No. 16 – the Flower Hole – that gained most of the attention.
SentryWorld opened in 1982 and was unique to Wisconsin. It was a sight to see, complete with white sand bunkers, bent grass fairways, caddies in full outfits and the flowers. Before the four courses at Kohler, before Erin Hills, before Sand Valley, it was SentryWorld as Wisconsin’s first destination golf course.
Shortly after SentryWorld opened, Joanis passed away. Over the next 25 years the course aged, as with most other courses. By 2010 the course was tired – it essentially was at a fork in the road. Should it go away or devolve into a muni-type layout, or should Sentry reinvest and restore the luster to the gem. Enter Pete McPartland.
McPartland took over as Sentry president and COO in 2010 and chairman of the board in 2013. He was unwavering in his belief that SentryWorld is the front door to Sentry Insurance, and it needed to be special. Under McPartland’s leadership the company embarked on a journey to transform SentryWorld into the destination it is today (and once was). The layout received Golfweek’s award as top renovation in 2013.
The new No. 3 at SentryWorld, created during a 2013 renovation, plays out to what had been an unused peninsula that was covered with trees. (Courtesy of Jay Blasi)
Not only has Sentry completely redone the golf course, it has rebuilt and expanded its giant fieldhouse, added on-course dining pavilions and crafted a boutique hotel dubbed The Inn that opened in 2022. In addition to campus investments, the company has become the title sponsor of the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua on the PGA Tour, the official insurance partner of the USGA and a corporate trustee of The First Tee.
Sentry’s path to becoming a leader in golf was unique, and so too was the evolution of the golf course.
After extensive study from 2010 to 2012, Sentry decided to completely rebuild the golf course in 2013 – all new irrigation, greens, tees, bunkers, paths, drainage and more. And the biggest decision was to reroute the golf course.
Many owners and clubs don’t reroute because they know the course as it is and are afraid of change. But the cost to reroute – if you are already redoing irrigation, drainage, tees, greens and bunkers – is nominal and the impact can be profound. Routing and green complexes are probably the two biggest factors in how well a course is perceived, so not addressing a less-than-ideal routing is a huge missed opportunity for any course that is renovating.
No. 4 at SentryWorld was converted from a par 3 into a par 4 during the 2013 renovation. (Copyright USGA/Fred Vuich)
When studying a golf course routing, it is important to assess what is working well along with opportunities for improvement. In the case of SentryWorld, the majority of the holes fit the land nicely and just needed more breathing room after 30 years of tree growth. Some holes with sharp doglegs through the woods felt awkward given technological advances in golf. The range was too small, and the short-game practice areas were limited.
There was also little variety throughout the round, with water on the left on eight of nine holes, plus trouble left and right on 17 of the 18 holes. The good news was there were unused pockets of land within the site.
The original layout was organized as two clockwise loops of nine holes. The front occupied the northern half of the property with the back nine on the southern side. As you played the course and studied the routing, there were some awkward spots that stood out.
The routing for SentryWorld in Wisconsin before the 2013 renovation – the yellow circles indicate areas of the course that were not utilized in the original routing. (Courtesy of Jay Blasi)
Hole 1: The dogleg was too sharp for opening hole, and the transition to No. 2 was awkward.
Hole 3: The dogleg was sharp, and the water and bunker on the outside of the dogleg were awkward.
Hole 9: A hidden creek and trees blocked the route to the green on the right.
Hole 11: There was hidden water left of the green.
Hole 13: There was a sharp dogleg with blind water through the fairway.
Hole 17: There was a sharp dogleg with a turning point at an awkward spot, and an impossible approach.
Looking at the image, you also can identify several spots on the property that were not being utilized for golf (yellow circles).
The area left of No. 3 green.
A peninsula of land on north side of the lake left of No. 3 and 13.
The woods right of No. 9 fairway.
A wooded area right of No. 11 green.
An area right of No. 12.
The woods between Nos. 17 and 18.
And so begins the puzzle of using the open spaces to get to the routing you see today.
The routing for SentryWorld in Wisconsin after the 2013 renovation – the letters are areas of the greatest change, as described in the story below.(Courtesy of Jay Blasi)
Here are the 10 moves that were made to get to the current layout:
A: Combining Nos. 1 and 2 into a long par 5, which is the new No. 10. This allowed us to eliminate the awkward tee shot on No. 1 and the awkward transition to No. 2. It also allowed us to expand the driving range.
B: Add a new par 3 out to the peninsula north of the lake, which is the new No. 12. This allowed us to take advantage of a great natural green site and spread out the routing.
C: Change the tee angle on No. 13 by 90 degrees. The new hole plays straightaway over the water, eliminating the sharp dogleg and blind water. The key to this change was Sentry installing a new bridge across the lake.
D: Open the right side of No. 9. This allows players options off the tee and on the second shot for the par 5.
E: Shift the 11th green to the right up the hill for the new second hole. This makes for a straight hole playing slightly uphill and eliminates the blind water. It also opens up a space for back tees on No. 6.
F: Eliminate the old No. 12 and create a new hole in the woods right of the old hole, which is the new No. 3. This takes advantage of some topography and offers a new shot with water behind.
G: Extend No. 4 back, converting it from a par 3 to a par 4. This allows for a seamless transition from the new No. 3 and offers a drivable par 4 with options.
H: Open the right side of No. 17 and shift the green to short of the water. This provides players with options off the tee and a short, tricky approach with water behind the green.
I: As evidenced above, this made for new hole numbers in the routing. They are as follows:
Old 10 = Now 1
Old 11 = Now 2
Old 12 = Now 3
Old 4 = Still 4
Old 5 = Still 5
Old 6 = Still 6
Old 7 = Still 7
Old 8 = Still 8
Old 9 = Still 9
Old 1 & 2 = New 10
Old 3 = Now 11
New hole = 12
Old 13 = Still 13
Old 14 = Still 14
Old 15 = Still 15
Old 16 = Still 16
Old 17 = Still 17
Old 18 = Still 18
The renumbering allowed us to recapture the original tee shot from the course when it first opened while keeping the Flower Hole as 16.
All told, the changes to the routing allowed us to eliminate the awkward shots, highlight some great unused parts of the property, add 400-plus yards to the course and add variety, playability and flexibility.
The changes also allowed Sentry to attract the U.S. Senior Open.
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:
The architect’s firm will adjust the front nine and build a back nine for the municipal layout in California.
Robert Trent Jones Jr. has signed on to renovate and complete the North Course at Corica Park in Alameda, California. The layout – just south of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco – is scheduled to open in December of 2024.
The front nine of the North Course, most recently renovated by Marc Logan with input from Golf Digest architecture editor emeritus Rob Whitten in 2021, will remain open for play during the Jones Jr. renovation. Logan’s plans to build a back nine were halted during a legal battle between himself, the course operators and the city of Alameda, and the course was never completed. Those legal issues were resolved in January 2023.
Jones’ firm, Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects, will make adjustments to the existing front nine while constructing the new back nine. Work is scheduled to begin in June. The original 18-hole North Course was designed by William Park Bell and opened in 1927.
The municipal Corica Park also is home to the South Course, originally designed by William Francis Bell Jr. (son of William Park Bell) and opened in 1957. That 18-hole layout was renovated by Rees Jones, brother of Robert Trent Jones Jr., in 2018.
The project was initiated by Greenway Golf, the long-term lessee, developer and manager of the 333-acre golf complex. Greenway Golf is owned by Avani and Umesh Patel.
“The Patels and Greenway have a remarkable vision for municipal golf courses, one that evolves the role municipal golf can play in mitigating climate change and creating green spaces for everyone to enjoy,” Jones Jr. said in a media release announcing the news. “Our goal is to deliver on their vision of a memorable, challenging golf experience for all players, while taking a holistic approach to design and sustainability of the natural environment.”
Greenway Golf said in its media release that it has worked for 10 years to upgrade the facility, which also includes the Mif Albright Par-3 Course, the Lucius Bateman Driving Range and an extensive practice facility.
“The property remains a favorite for players and fans alike.”
Chambers Bay has proved its ability to test the best professional and amateur players in the world, so much so that the U.S. Golf Association has announced it will return to the municipal course on the Puget Sound near Seattle twice over the next 10 years.
The USGA will hold the 2027 U.S. Junior Amateur and 2033 U.S. Amateur championships in University Place, Washington, the fifth and sixth USGA championships to be contested on the design by Robert Trent Jones Jr., Bruce Charlton and Jay Blasi (a Golfweek’s Best rater ambassador and contributor to Golfweek.com). A stroke-play companion course for both championships will be named later.
Chambers Bay previously hosted the 2010 U.S. Amateur (Peter Uihlein) and 2015 U.S. Open (Jordan Spieth), as well as last summer’s 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur (Saki Baba) and 2022 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball (Kiko Francisco Coelho/Leopoldo Herrera III).
“There have been several memorable moments for us already in Chambers Bay’s short history, and the property remains a favorite for players and fans alike,” said Mark Hill, USGA managing director of championships. “We’re grateful for our continued partnership with Pierce County and look forward to bringing these two premier championships to such a special property.”
Ever dream of saving an abandoned golf course? An Alabama prison officer made it happen.
ALPINE, Ala. – Ever seen an abandoned golf course and wondered, is it still possible to play golf there? Is it salvageable? How much would it take to reopen, at what cost?
With hundreds of courses having closed in the U.S. after 2008’s market meltdown, there are plenty of such overgrown properties – including dozens of layouts by famous designers. Nothing comes from many of these properties except memories and maybe a few dreams of golf renovation.
Rarely, those dreams of resuscitating an abandoned layout become reality. It just takes the right person.
Enter Tony Parton, a former federal corrections officer living in rural Alabama. He had no plans to take over a failed course. But he loved golf – and one particular layout.
It was called Alpine Bay. The majority of Alabama golfers never heard of it, and most of the minority who knew of it never bothered to play it. They couldn’t tell you how to get there or even if it was still open.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama, after the course was salvaged and reopened (Golfweek)
Located in east-central Alabama 44 miles east of downtown Birmingham near the southern shore of Logan Martin Lake (part of the broad Coosa River water basin), Alpine Bay Golf Club originally was planned to have two 18-hole courses. But as funds for a major resort development were lacking, only one of the two courses opened in 1972.
That course had a lot going for it: a par-72, 6,518-yard championship layout designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., namesake of Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail that was built decades later. Moreover, Jones built it with assistance of his son Rees Jones, then in his early 30s, who became a prizewinning course designer and brand name in his own right, as well as young Roger Rulewich, the architect who two decades later would actually design most of the courses on the Trail.
Troubled financially from the start, Alpine Bay – with its one course and a sparse nearby population – struggled year after year to stay in business. Although a beautiful layout in a brilliant natural setting, Alpine Bay was hard to reach even from Birmingham, with at least part of the drive on winding, lonely two-lane roads. After barely managing to stay alive for decades, it was shuttered in 2014.
The closing of Alpine Bay caused hardly a ripple in the golf world, even in Alabama. But the place had built a loyal following. Namely, Tony Parton. And Alpine Bay’s closure did not end Parton’s love affair with the layout. One summer evening in 2016, he and his wife, Jan, took a walk along the abandoned course.
Course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., left, with Alpine Bay Golf Club owner Tony Parton (Jim Hansen/Golfweek)
“When we got to what had been the eighth green [a par 3 over a small lake],” he remembers, “we were shocked at the abysmal condition of the course. It was all grown over, just terrible, with weeds and wild plants growing waist-high and the original grass all but dead.”
The Partons committed themselves to pulling up the worst of the weeds on just the one green. “We came back several nights in a row, working to uncover what was left of the golf course we loved.”
During one of their first trips to the abandoned layout, Tony got a phone call from his friend Mark Calhoun, also a previous regular at the golf course. “Mark asked where I was,” Parton remembers. “I said, ‘You’ll never believe me, but I’m at Alpine.’ ”
Calhoun got in his pickup truck and drove right out to the spot where Tony was power-mowing weeds and grass. “Mark and I took a close look at what had been the green, trying to figure out what we could do about it,” Parton said. When the tall grass on the former green was mown to a reasonable length, they realized, “There was hope for this course.”
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
The 144-acre property that was the golf course, practice range, putting green and small clubhouse had been for sale for months. Parton quickly called the realtor and made an offer. The price tag was $144,000. The process took only a few months. By early 2017, Parton, then retired from the federal prison system, put together enough money to take over the course.
Buying Alpine Bay was one thing, but getting it ready for golfers was something else. The next step in the process was to get more people on board. With Calhoun’s help, Parton established Alpine Group LLC. A handful of investors boosted the value of the limited liability company to $520,000. Still not much to run a golf course.
It took five months of diligent restoration and backbreaking work to get the course ready for play. “No words can describe the emotions of watching golfers tee off at the course for the first time,” Parton said.
In the 12 months following its reopening in the summer of 2017, the semiprivate Alpine Bay Golf Club acquired 60 members. Today it is home to just more than twice that many, virtually all of them from the surrounding communities of Lincoln, St. Clair, Vincent, Coosa Pines, Harpersville, Childersburg, and Talladega. Right at 15,000 rounds have been played on the course each of the past two years, with peak green fees reaching just $46 on weekends and holidays.
Still, Alpine Bay is the Rodney Dangerfield of Alabama golf – it gets no respect. Rarely does anyone from Birmingham, Montgomery or Huntsville make the drive to play. Most golfers in the state still have never heard of Alpine Bay, and those who have heard of it dismiss Alpine Bay as no longer in business or not worth playing.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
To demonstrate the long-forgotten and ignored virtues of the Alpine Bay golf course, Golfweek included a day at Alpine Bay in its 2021 Architectural Summit near Birmingham honoring the legacy of Robert Trent Jones Sr. The summit was attended by 44 of Golfweek Best’s course raters. By and large, the raters, who came from as far away as Northern Ireland, found Alpine Bay more than deserving of their visit. The course’s conditioning still needed substantial work, but the bones of the course are outstanding. In many respects, it is a truer example of a classic Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout than any of the courses on the Trail.
Putting in a special appearance that day was Robert Trent Jones Jr., the eldest son of Trent Sr., along with Jr.’s own son, Trent, the chief operating officer of Robert Trent Jones II, Inc. This was the first time for either Jones Jr. or Trent to visit the course that Jones Sr. had designed a half-century earlier.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
As Jones Jr. went around the course with Parton, he was constantly reminded of the characteristics that were typical of his father’s designs. In an impromptu talk after the round, he said that Alpine Bay “deserved a much better fate than it has gotten, so far.”
Truth is, if made a part of the Robert Trent Jones Trail – and updated and refined accordingly – Alpine Bay could become one of the more remarkable and unique golfing destinations in the state of Alabama.
But perhaps it is better to keep it as the neglected hidden treasure that it is –the way Parton has loved it.
The golf course designer has thoughts about trees, Chambers Bay, distance and changing fashions.
Robert Trent Jones Jr., designer of more than 250 golf courses around the world, has plenty of strong views on architecture and the state of the game. The 82-year-old is the son of famed architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., and he’s seen many changes and trends in design over his six decades in the business – some he loves, others he would love to see discarded.
Jones Jr., a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, recently spent several days with Golfweek’s course raters at the Golfweek’s Best Architecture Summit at Ross Bridge near Birmingham, Alabama. Ross Bridge is part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, an ambitious project largely designed by the senior Jones that now includes 26 courses at 11 sites. Jones Jr. attended the summit to speak about his father’s legacy on the Trail and beyond.
Jones Jr. graciously answered many questions after playing one round of golf at Ross Bridge and another at nearby Alpine Bay Golf Club – which is not part of the Trail but which was designed by Jones Sr. and reopened in 2016 after having been shuttered for nearly two years. Following are selections of his replies. Editor’s note: These responses are not shown in their entirety and have been edited for brevity.
