Wednesday, 10. March 2010
21:15 Eurosport, US PGA Tour 2010 - Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens
22:15 Eurosport, Golf Club

Thursday, 11. March 2010
23:00 DSF, Golf Journal
23:20 DSF, Audi Golf News
23:40 DSF, Golf Journal

Saturday, 13. March 2010
10:15 DSF, Golf Journal
10:35 DSF, Audi Golf News
10:55 DSF, Golf Journal

We would like to offer our warmest congratulations to our colleague José Juan Arias Guerrero who was crowned Champion for the Longbow in the 3rd Spanish Championships that was held on 27th and 28th February 2010 in Calahorra (La... Admin

They all laughed when Kevin Costner supposedly torpedoed his career by starring in Waterworld. Suddenly, it all seems rather prophetic.

They don't joke about a drowning planet over at Waterstudio, presumably. The Dutch company specialises in recreating the most unlikely architecture on floating islands - anything from mosques to car parks - and is now involved in plans to create the Maldives of the future - floating golf course included.

With the island nation seemingly doomed to be swamped by rising sea levels in the Indian Ocean, its leaders are implementing a strategy to delay the process and prepare alternatives should it happen. Part of this strategy involves a series of floating islands designed by Waterstudio's Koen Olthuis, to house facilities such as a convention centre and nine-hole golf course:

"the renderings for the amphibious mini-cities appear depict star-shaped, tiered islands with indoor spaces hidden under lush green-roof terraces, complete with interior pools and beaches"Get your passport ready Scott Miller, something tells me your name might be mentioned...

The rainy day has not avoid this group of brave ladies to play their tournament today at Arcos Gardens.disfrutara de su torneo. In the tournamnet Portuguese ladies are competed with Spanish ones in a match play. After that, they... Admin

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeTaking it as read that Gary Player and his colleagues have found an environmentally-friendly way to keep the course at Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Beach Golf Club moist, I congratulate him on a nice piece of work.

Clubhouse designer Frank Gehry may have to find his plaudits elsewhere, however.

I'm not sure quite what to make of the 18,000 square metre edifice. It's supposed to be finished in 2013, yet would World Architecture News run photos now if the exterior at least wasn't substantially as it's meant to be?

This is where we are with design now generally, it seems. The quest to push boundaries means many of us on the outside looking in are pressed to tell the difference between work in progress and the finished item.

So let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that 80 year old Frank has got another three years left in him and that there's still a way to go on that clubhouse profile. Because right now it looks like the London Olympics logo in 3D.

And that's not good.
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Pic of the Day - Arizona's Kierland Golf Club

Vårens golfresa är nu bokad! I år blir det Italien, Toscana med Golf Plaisir. Det ska alltså bli golf dygnet runt hela veckan :-) Nu gäller det bara att: Stå ut med att det är nästan två månader kvar till resan Börja träna muskler och kondis så resan inte blir en kamp mot otränad kropp Börja träna golf inomhus av samma anledning som nummer 2..

We would like to congratulate Nicky Maddison for the hole in one on the second hole here at Arcos Gardens, he used a 6 iron from the gold tees measuring 168 metres. Nicky represents the city of Newcastle Golf... Admin

I always think of that supposedly set-in-stone tenet, 'a golf course should look like it's been there forever', whenever I see a desert course.

And I smile.

Behold the new Gary Panks design at Conestoga Golf Club, Nevada, for example. Lush turf and arid, yellow rock. Together since the dawn of time...

And yet it's a contrast I still find irresistible, for reasons I can't begin to explain. If local feedback is to be believed, however, you may need to get in quick...

Wednesday, 10. February 2010
20:30 Eurosport, US PGA Tour 2010 - Northern Trust Open in Pacific
Palisades, CA (USA)
21:30 Eurosport, European Tour 2010 - Desert Classic in Dubai (UAE)
22:00 Eurosport, Golf Club

Thursday, 11. Februar 2010
23:00 DSF, Golf Journal
23:20 DSF, Audi Golf News
23:40 DSF, Golf Journal

Saturday, 13. February 2010
10:15 DSF, Golf Journal
10:35 DSF, Audi Golf News
10:55 DSF, Golf Journal

Image via WikipediaWhy does golf architecture's 'State of the Union' address succeed where its politicial counterpart tends to fail? Because Golf.com's John Garritty has chronicled something that sounds like it comes from the heart and not from a committee.

There are some hard-hitting sentiments expressed by those course designers whom Garritty has pressed for a view on where the trade now stands and yet while one must not make light of any situation that is costing people their livelihoods, there are clear hints that a better way could emerge from the current downturn.

"The day of the 800-unit master-planned community that features a sausage-link golf course routing, that's over"......................... "We'll just have to accept less-manicured courses," Engh says, adding, "I think that's fabulous. I like to see a little purple and brown in the grass"..........................
"Granted, Four Mile Ranch's fairways will be soggy after a storm, and you might not be able to use a golf cart for a day or two. But those are the kinds of concessions that Engh sees golf architects making in the next decade"..........................

"You can't rely on the 7,200-yard, par-72 golf course any more," says Hurdzan, who has long promoted responsible land management. "We should be looking at more 5,400-yard, family-style courses with six sets of tees"
I take it I'm not the only one who hasn't heard anything he doesn't like thus far?

Fazio-haters will pounce upon Tom's insistence that the latest generation of golf courses represents the best of times but he does know his way around the industry. That and my own knowledge of human fickleness means that I take very seriously his cautionary view of the Brave-New-Worlders: "Back in the seventies...there was an article...‘Let Your Course Grow Shaggy!' So we did that for a while. But all of a sudden we had growth and development, and everybody forgot about it"

It's Bobby Weed's observation that "golf architects have to get more involved in the financial and operational aspects of golf" that strikes me the most, however, for it coincided with my own increasing dismay as I read through the list of high-profile designers who are behind courses that have gone from being oases of green to elephants of white.

I don't care how blameless they are for the recession or whatever lack of foresight there may have been on the part of their business partners, it must surely sting the pride of men who invested serious time and effort in designing those tracks to see them reduced to hosting tumbleweed.

No developer should be either surprised or offended from now on if he finds his golf architect looking as closely at the nooks and crannies of the budget as he does at the contours of the site...
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Tricks of the Trade 101: design tips so clever, even I get them..

"The result is a course...that doesn't have a pricey infrastructure of ...subterranean drains. 'We didn't disturb the natural contours, so it drains naturally' "  - Jim Engh...............................................................................

Pic of the Day - 8th at The Ledges, Maine

Image by danperry.com via FlickrBad news about the proposed Golf Hole Hall of Fame: its debate-to-rancour decline will be measured in months rather than years.

Good news about the proposed Golf Hole Hall of Fame: golf courses neither bet nor take steroids. Two fewer things, at least, for folk to squabble over when induction time comes around.

It's a great idea and I wish it well. I just know that when golf architecture purists, self-appointed or otherwise, gather to discuss great holes, things can get real ugly...

You'll find it here. Memo to webmaster: under no circumstances open a forum...

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Medium: www.youtube.com
Link: www.youtube.com

Vargavintern behåller sitt grepp, och förutom ett och annat pass i inomhushallen i Hässleholm är det väldigt lite golf i livet just nu. Eländigt lite. Men då kan man ju istället ägna lite tid åt att fundera över kommande säsong, och vilka mål man har. I år är nog första gången jag inte satt upp något handicapmål för mig själv. Vet inte ens vad som i så fall skulle vara rimligt att sikta på från de 16.2 jag har just nu. I stället är mina mål i år: Att gå under 85 slag. Att lyckas spela 18 hål utan att treputta en enda gång (var såååå nära att göra det i höstas, en koppsnurr på 16:e ifrån att klara målet!). Samt att lyckas göra par eller bättre på hälften av hålen, alltså minst 9 par. Och sanningen är ju: Lyckas jag med mina uppsatta mål, då lär också sänkningarna komma.   Bara snön kunde försvinna så jag får börja snart....

PGATour.com reports on the latest salvage of George Thomas' original thinking at Riviera; restoring the barranca that defines the split-fairway 8th.
"The intent of the modifications, directed by Fazio Golf Course Designers, was to restore the 1926 original design intent of George Thomas' "Double Fairway built around a dry wash." In 1939, the original design intent was lost to a strong flood that scoured the "dry wash" along with the right fairway.

Phase I of the restoration, in 2000, involved restoring the right fairway. Phase II involved restoring the dry wash barranca..."It made me realise just what a gem this course is, alongside the other courses on America's Major roster, so many of which are more exacting than exciting.

After the unusual opening tee shot, from an eyrie 70 feet above the fairway, comes Ben Hogan's choice for the greatest par three in America, the bunker-within-a-green 6th, the 8th, an architectural masterpiece at the 10th and, of course, that superb amphitheatre around the 18th green.

Enduring proof that greatness can embrace quirkiness.

Good on Riviera, too, for the nuggets of wisdom from the architect that preface several holes on the website course tour. More examples here.

Reservations: +34 956 704 131 | email: recepcion@arcosgardens.com... Admin

Wedndesday, 3. February 2010
22:15 Eurosport, US PGA Tour - San Diego Open (USA)
23:15 Eurosport, European Tour - Qatar Masters in Doha (QAT)
23:45 Golf Club

Thursday, 4. Februar 2010
14:30 CNN, Living Golf
18:30 CNN, Living Golf
23:00 DSF, Golf Journal
23:20 DSF, Audi Golf News
23:40 DSF, Golf Journal

Image by silverhawk42532 via FlickrOh well, that went well...

Cheap Golf's Finest Holes not having struck quite the chord I was hoping, I've reverted to the Golf Course as Art as my golf architecture creative outlet of choice.

Just can't give up this love affair with golf courses...

Ganz Hamburg ist derzeit hibbelig, ob oder ob nicht nach 13 Jahren wieder mal ein Alstereisvergnügen stattfinden kann. Golf spielen kann man dort aber schon jetzt, vorausgesetzt man ist morgen um 10 Uhr am Alster Cliff:

Am Dienstag, 26. Januar 2010 ist mit dem “Golfclub auf der Alster” der wohl exklusivste Hamburger Golfclub gegründet worden.

Abgeschlagen wird jeden morgen um 10:00 Uhr am Abschlag “Alster Cliff”. So lange das Eis trägt und nicht zu viele Menschen auf den eisigen Fairways sind.

Am Samstag ist das “Alster Ice Golf Masters” geplant. Gleiche Zeit, gleicher Ort.
Skikleidung und die (alten) Golfschuhe mit Eisenspikes sind empfehlenswert.

3. Alster Ice Golf
- Ort: Golfclub auf der Alster (vorm Alster Cliff)
- Datum: Donnerstag, 28. Januar 2010
- Zeit: 10:00 Uhr - 12:00 Uhr
- Kosten: keine

Teilnehmen können alle Golfer, die sich nicht zuletzt aus Sicherheitsgründen an die Etikette halten können
(zur Anmeldung).

Unterstützt von:
Golf Lounge Hamburg www.golflounge.de
Golf und Foto Stefan von Stengel www.golffoto.vonstengel.de
GreenBC AFTER-WORK-GOLF.net www.greenbc.net

Frieren muß niemand – es sei denn, es fehlt ein Zuhause und wärmende Kleidung.

Datum: Samstag, 27. Februar 2010
Golfclub: Gut Kaden Golf und Land Club
Ort: Alveslohe bei Hamburg

Viele Wege führen in die Obdachlosigkeit, aber leider nur wenige wieder heraus. Hinz&Kunzt ist für viele mehr als der letzte Strohhalm – immer wieder – und hilft dem Einzelnen, den Teufelskreis aus Wohnungs- und Arbeitslosigkeit, Sucht und Einsamkeit zu durchbrechen und wieder einen Fuß in die Tür zu einem wärmeren Leben zu bekommen.

Wir laden Sie ein, auf den IceOpen 2010 Ihre Zeit im Freien zu nutzen, um jenen zu helfen, die derzeit keine Wahl haben.

Anmeldung

oder im Sekretariat von Gut Kaden.