Feed The Ball

Ron Whitten, historian and former Golf Digest architecture editor, and Mike Davis, former USGA CEO and executive director, delve deep into the origins, evolution and architecture of Oakmont Country Club. We discuss how and why Oakmont developed the way it has, what makes it arguably the greatest championship venue in American golf, what makes the… Read More Read More The post The Rap: Oakmont, One of One appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Golf course designer Riley Johns joins Derek and Jim from his home in Canada to fill us in on his latest thoughts on course building and artistry. Johns has been splitting time between his own growing business with partner Keith Rhebb, leading projects for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and even working with Jim on… Read More Read More The post Salon Vol. 31, ft. Riley Johns appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Augusta National is complicated. It's the most famous course in the world and has been an architectural and maintenance ideal for decades, even though the design is in a continuing state of flux and the turf and bunker conditions have been far from perfect over its life. If it isn't what we think it is,… Read More Read More The post The Rap: Augusta Agonistes appeared first on Feed The Ball.

You may have read or heard someone talk about good or bad “tie-ins” on a golf course. It loosely has to do with how the architecture is connected to the land during construction, but the topic is much larger and more nuanced than that. Derek Duncan and Jim Urbina define and discuss tie-ins, what they… Read More Read More The post Ask/Answer: What is a “Tie-in”? appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Looking ahead to The Players Championship, former PGA Tour player Richard Zokol and designer Jeff Mingay drop in from Canada to break down everything there is to know about The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass (Zokol actually competed on Sawgrass in the 1980s). We get into the history and creation of the course, how… Read More Read More The post The Rap: Dye-secting TPC Sawgrass appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Writer Michael Croley, author of the book Any Other Place: Stories, veered into the world of golf with a revelatory profile on Tom Doak in 2017 in the Virginia Quarterly Review, hardly the place you'd expect to find an expose on a golf course architect. Now fully entrenched in the golf writing world while teaching… Read More Read More The post Episode 93: Michael Croley appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Former Australian, European and PGA Tour player and current CBS Sports golf broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch joins Golf Digest architecture editor Derek Duncan and golf course builder Jim Urbina on the Feed the Ball podcast. They discuss the lack of architecture discussion during tournament television broadcasts, the dangers of the distance professional players are driving the… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 30, ft. Ian Baker-Finch appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Texas-based architect Chet Williams joins the Feed the Ball podcast to discuss designing the 2024 Golf Digest Best New Private Course, The Covey at Big Easy Ranch near Houston. He talks about what made the land special, the ideal of creating as much hole-to-hole variety as possible, working with owner Billy Brown and how 25… Read More Read More The post Episode 92: Chet Williams appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Keith Cutten comes back on the Feed the Ball podcast to discuss the new Shorty's course at Bandon Dunes that opened last year, Brantford Golf & Country Club in Ontario and building Ken Baskt's The Ranch near Hobe Sound, Florida. He also explains the working dynamics of his firm Whitman, Axland, Cutten (WAC), how Dave… Read More Read More The post Episode 91: Keith Cutten 3 appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Mike Davis was the CEO and executive director for the USGA for over 30 years and was responsible for awarding U.S. Opens and Amateurs to host courses and helping to set them up for those tournaments. Over the course of his career he got to know intricately virtually every great golf course in the U.S.… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 29, ft. Mike Davis appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Benjamin Warren is a golf course designer and shaper from Scotland. We works all over the U.S., Japan and Europe, and he joins the Feed the Ball golf podcast to discuss building courses. The post Episode 90: Benjamin Warren appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Nick Schaan works side by side with architect David McLay Kidd out of their offices in Bend, Ore. Kidd is one of the most esteemed and decorated designers in the business over the last 25 years, and since 2006 Schaan has been instrumental in bringing to life acclaimed courses like Tributary, Mammoth Dunes and the… Read More Read More The post Episode 89: Nick Schaan appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Mike Cocking is the “C” in the Australian golf design firm OCM. His partners are former tour player and 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and Ashley Mead. The trio have built courses in Australia and Asia and consult with some of the top historic clubs Down Under including Victoria and Kingston Heath. Over the… Read More Read More The post Episode 88: Mike Cocking appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Lee Schmidt's lengthy golf architecture career began in the early 1970s working for Pete Dye and took many different detours through the decades. He worked closely with Landmark Land Company on numerous Dye projects in the 70s and 80s before taking a job with Jack Nicklaus' design firm. In the late 1990s he created his… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon 28, ft. Lee Schmidt appeared first on Feed The Ball.

If might seem like golf course architect Scott Hoffman came out of nowhere with his design at Lost Rail, opened in 2022 outside of Omaha. However, he'd previously worked for over a decade with Tom Fazio, designing courses in the western U.S. He then worked with Tim Jackson and David Kahn for a number of… Read More Read More The post Episode 87: Scott Hoffman appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw joins golf course builder Jim Urbina and Golf Digest architecture editor Derek Duncan to discuss his long time partnership with architect Bill Coore and the beliefs and impulses that define the many courses they've built, from Sand Hills to Friar's Head to Bandon Trails, all the way through to their… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 27, ft. Ben Crenshaw appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Golf course architect Greg Letsche, lead designer for Ernie Els Design, joins Golf Digest architecture editor Derek Duncan and golf course builder Jim Urbina to discuss his early years working for Pete Dye, how running projects for Jack Nicklaus differed from his experience with Dye, the design similarities between Dye and Nicklaus, the sometimes absurd… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 26, ft. Greg Letsche appeared first on Feed The Ball.

In less than 10 years in the profession, Blake Conant has risen from crew member to shaper to the co-designer of Old Barnwell, a stunning new course near Aiken, S.C. Conant has primarily shaped greens and bunkers for Tom Doak at projects like Houston's Memorial Park, Bel Air, The National's Gunnamatta Course in Australia and… Read More Read More The post Episode 86: Blake Conant appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Shortly after Tom Weiskopf broke with design partner Jay Morrish in the late 1990s he turned to architect Phil Smith. Smith had been working with Nicklaus Design in Arizona, but the opportunity to partner one-on-one with Weiskopf was too good an opportunity to pass up. Over the next 24 years, Smith and Weiskopf designed courses… Read More Read More The post Episode 85: Remembering Tom Weiskopf with Phil Smith appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Don Placek began working for Tom Doak's Renaissance Golf Design in 1997 after being in Perry Dye's Denver office for several years. It was a significant jump, going from the types of technical builds Dye was coordinating in the western U.S. and Asia to Doak's more intuitive, organic way of designing and constructing courses. Placek… Read More Read More The post Episode 84: Don Placek appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Architect Stephen Kay has been involved in the building, remodeling or renovation of over 300 courses during his design career spanning back to the mid-1980s. He was one of the pioneering voices in the late 80s for looking at the historical record of a course during renovation to attempt to honor the original architecture. He… Read More Read More The post Episode 83: Stephen Kay appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Golf course builder Allan MacCurrach began working on crews for Pete Dye in the late 1970s and opened his own golf course contracting company in 1987. He's been involved in building or remodeling over 20 courses for Dye, who passed away in early 2020, as well as architects like Tom Fazio, Bobby Weed and Rees… Read More Read More The post Episode 82: Allan MacCurrach appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Designer and historian Josh Pettit began collecting the writings of Alister MacKenzie for his new compendium of essays, “The MacKenzie Reader,” years ago, and was ready to publish in 2020 when the pandemic postponed printing until the summer of 2022. The wait was worth it–the Reader is a gorgeous volume of Pettit's selections of the… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 25, ft. Josh Pettit appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Landmand Golf Club in northeast Nebraska, just across the Missouri River from Sioux City, is one of the largest and most expansive golf courses ever built, with the largest total square footage of greens of any course in the U.S. That it was designed by Rob Collins and Tad King, creators or the equally audacious… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 24, ft. Rob Collins appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Jim Nagle began working with golf course renovation and historical restoration legend Ron Forse in 1998, in what might be considered the field's pioneering days. Golf course restoration is an attempt to reestablish a course's first principles–placing it back in a specific point in time, usually in accordance with the way the original architect designed… Read More Read More The post Episode 81: Jim Nagle appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Jason Straka has been a principle in Fry/Straka Global Golf Design since joining with partner Dana Fry in 2012. Previously he was the senior architect for Hurdzan-Fry Golf Design, helping that company build landmark courses like Calusa Pines, Erin Hills and Shelter Harbor. Fry/Straka is one of the hottest design firms in the world right… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 23, ft. Jason Straka appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Andy Staples positioned himself as one of the profession's most creative architects with his throwback renovation of Meadowbrook Country Club near Detroit with its Willie Park, Jr. inspired early-1900s shaping. He moved into the 1920s with his green designs and shot strategies at The Match Course at PGA National Resort, opened in 2021, that pull… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 22, ft. Andy Staples appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Chris Cochran began his career building golf courses for Jack Nicklaus in the mid-1980s. With over 100 international projects completed, he is Nicklaus Design's longest tenured senior design associate, and since the early 90s has arguably been the most significant mover behind Nicklaus Design's global operation. Cochran sits down with Golf Digest architecture editor Derek… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Volume 21, ft. Chris Cochran appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Joe Jemsek grew up with Dick Wilson. At least figuratively. In the early 1960s, Wilson, one of golf architecture's most interesting and possibly misunderstood figures, designed the former America's 100 Greatest Course Cog Hill No. 4 in Chicago, known as Dubsdread, for Jemsek's grandfather. Few people knew Wilson or his former partner Joe Lee as… Read More Read More The post Episode 80: Joe Jemsek on Dick Wilson appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Tim Liddy and Dave Axland have worked together on a number of projects including, most recently, Harrison Lake in Indiana, a remodel that included the addition of several new holes and a re-routing of the course. Liddy, the primary designer, was a longtime collaborator with the late Pete Dye and knows his mentor's work and… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 20, ft. Dave Axland and Tim Liddy appeared first on Feed The Ball.

In just the last several years, designer Andrew Green has played a prominent role in guiding back to their founding architectural spirit a number of prominent major championship courses, including America's 100 Greatest Courses fixtures Inverness Club, Oak Hill East and Congressional Blue. He's also brought back to life the most interesting features that had… Read More Read More The post Episode 79: Andrew Green appeared first on Feed The Ball.

The topic is bunkers: should they be placed scientifically or randomly? Should there be more or less, or any at all? Has the naturalistic look become ubiquitous and overused? What about proper bunker depth? Are liners a waste of money? And are bunker still the hazards they once were, have they lost their importance, and… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 19: Bunkers ft. Ron Whitten appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Like most architects, Steve Smyers has a deep reverence for the classical era and the strategic brilliance of Harry Colt, Alister MacKenzie, George Thomas and others. However, as an elite player as well as a veteran designer, he realized the basic strategic precepts that have existed since the early 1900s and have guided much of… Read More Read More The post Episode 78: Steve Smyers and Rethinking Strategy appeared first on Feed The Ball.

In this Feed the Ball podcast, we get deep into some Wisconsin golf talk with golf course architect Craig Haltom. Haltom joins Golf Digest architecture editor Derek Duncan to discuss recreating C.B. Macdonald's The Lido at Sand Valley, how GPS technology has the potential to change the way courses are preserved and finished, how he… Read More Read More The post Episode 77: Craig Haltom appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Is it possible we take Whistling Straits for granted? Of all the spectacular builds in the history of golf, from The Lido to Calusa Pines, very little is spoken about how Pete Dye and Herb Kohler transformed flat farmland and an abandoned Army airfield into the wild, multilayered Irish-looking golf course gouged into the bluffs… Read More Read More The post Episode 76: Making Whistling Straits appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Davis Love III needs no introduction. But just in case, he's a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has logged over 20 PGA Tour victories, won the 1997 PGA Championship, was twice victorious at The Players Championship and is a two-time Ryder Cup captain. He's also a tournament founder (the PGA Tour's RSM… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 18, ft. Davis Love III appeared first on Feed The Ball.

James Duncan came to the U.S. from his native Denmark in the early 1990s to learn the craft of building golf courses. He learned from the best, working first with Tom Doak and Renaissance Golf Design, then joining with Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to help construct courses like East Hampton, Old Sandwich, Bandon Trails,… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 17, ft. James Duncan appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Designer Troy Miller worked for Landmark Land Co. for a decade, building golf courses around North America, before leaving the company to settle down in his hometown of Charleston, SC. The move put him in a unique position to do something he’d first envisioned years before: help the city rebuild the popular but dated municipal… Read More Read More The post Episode 75: Troy Miller appeared first on Feed The Ball.

PGA Tour and current PGA Champions tour player Tom Lehman, winner of the 1996 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s, has seamlessly managed to maintain an elite game while developing a golf course design outlook that almost entirely eschews consideration of elite players. Lehman stops by the Salon to speak with Golf Digest… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 16, ft. Tom Lehman appeared first on Feed The Ball.

In a limited amount of original work, David Kahn has proven to be one of the most creative, courageous and expressionistic golf course architects working today. Along with partner Tim Jackson, the other half of Jackson Kahn Design, he’s reimagined the shaping and visage of the historic Dunes Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, built… Read More Read More The post Episode 74: David Kahn appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Canadian designer Ian Andrew, Feed the Ball guest from Episode 14, is back to visit with Derek Duncan and Jim Urbina. The conversation turns to topics of: –Choose Your Own Adventure golf architecture; –The satisfactions of playing “unknown” courses; –Golf as an emotional experience; –The importance of “compression and release” in design; –Creativity beginning with… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 15, ft. Ian Andrew appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Larry Lambrecht has been one of golf’s most prolific and talented photographers for over 30 years. He’s shot golf courses and tournaments, as well as Super Bowls, World Series and other major sporting events, for virtually ever major publication. He’s also published a number of books and club histories along with his course photography, including,… Read More Read More The post Episode 73: Larry Lambrecht appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Golf course architect Forrest Richardson was elected in 2020 to be the 75th president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, a chair that’s been held by such notable designers as Stanley Thompson, Robert Trent Jones, William Langford (twice), Rees Jones, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., Alice Dye, Jeff Brauer and Steve Smyers. He joins… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 14, ft. Forrest Richardson appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Architect Kyle Phillips began his illustrious career as an associate working for Robert Trent Jones II in California. He gained unique design and planning expertise working on a slate of international courses for Jones, which later helped him garner major overseas jobs once he opened his own firm in the late 90s. Those include Kingsbarns… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 13, ft. Kyle Phillips appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Few people in golf have had as rich or wide-ranging life in golf as Donald Steel. He began his career as the golf reporter for London’s Sunday Telegraph in 1961, memorably covering, as a rookie writer, Arnold Palmer’s back-to-back Open Championship wins at Birkdale and Troon. A few years later, while continuing his reporting duties,… Read More Read More The post Episode 72: Donald Steel appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Golf architect Chris Wilczynski has bridged two distinct eras–that of the course-a-day, turn and burn construction frenzy of the 1990s and 2000s, and now the current period of “slow” golf with its focus on boutique operations and club restoration. He began his career as an associate with Arthur Hills, one of the busiest designers of… Read More Read More The post Episode 71: Chris Wilczynski appeared first on Feed The Ball.

After working for over a decade for Tom Fazio, Tim Jackson opened his own West Coast design firm with David Kahn, another Fazio alum. Jackson Kahn Design is known for their creative, ambitious ideas about design–as exhibited at, Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course and The Other Course and The Bad Little Nine at Scottsdale… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 12, ft. Tim Jackson appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Lester George was an artillery officer in the U.S. Army who rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In the late 1980s, already into his 30s, he made a career switch to golf design, setting up a business in his native state of Virginia. In the mid-1990s he was introduced to a magnificent property outside… Read More Read More The post Episode 70: Lester George appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Golf designer Dana Fry began his career learning the business as an associate for Tom Fazio, and later forged a prominent partnership with Dr. Michael Hurdzan. With Hurdzan he created such top U.S. courses as Erin Hills, site of the 2017 U.S. Open, and Calusa Pines in Florida. Today he runs his business with partner… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 11, ft. Dana Fry appeared first on Feed The Ball.

It’s not unreasonable to suggest the path of golf architecture in the second half of the 20th century can be traced through Ron Kirby. His career has been a remarkable Zelig-like whirlwind placing him in the immediate proximity of Dick Wilson, Robert Trent Jones, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and many others. His name is on… Read More Read More The post Episode 69: Ron Kirby appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Rees Jones‘ design work has touched public, resort, club golf and major championship golf as much as any architect of the modern era. He enters the Salon to talk with Jim Urbina and Derek Duncan about balancing the many voices that weigh in on projects in the “remodeling era,” constructing on technically challenging sites vs… Read More Read More The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 10, ft. Rees Jones appeared first on Feed The Ball.