#19 KINGSBARNS GOLF LINKS, SCOTLAND (TIE)
Not even a decade old, Kingsbarns is now considered an essential addition to a St Andrews-Carnoustie pilgrimage. 011-44-1334-460860, kingsbarns.com
#20 DUNDONALD LINKS , SCOTLAND
Like Kingsbarns, this course is designed by Kyle Phillips, whose authentic work in the Old World belies his New World roots. 011-44-1294-314000, dundonaldlinks.com
The PGA of Sweden has officially opened the ‘Links’ course at its new facility near Malmo, in the south of the country.
Suitably accompanied by heavy rain and high winds, the course was launched with the help of an Annika Sorenstam drive from a hastily-erected tee sheltered inside the impressive clubhouse.
Designed by Kyle Phillips, the course tumbles across a landscape that was previously flat agricultural land, a transformation reminiscent of his work at Kingsbarns in Scotland, albeit without the coastline location.
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Valderrama has consistently been rated the best course in Europe, so why has the club intiated a three-year review of its layout by Kyle Phillips?
The fairway of the 385-yard 2nd at Valderrama arcs left-to-right between 30ft high cork oaks – apart, that is, from the one in the middle of the fairway that invites a lay-up and gives the hole its name of El Arbol. The velvety sward is trimmed to lOmm, the same length as the tees, and at its widest point stretches to 30 yards across a subtle camber. It is so smooth that, with even a shortish stroke, you can quite easily putt the ball from one side to the other.
In many ways, the second sums up Valderrama. Wide-yet-narrow, short-yet-long, it is a hole you’ll do better to sweet talk than yell at; pull driver out on the tee and you can just about hear the tree limbs whisper “Go ahead, make my day”. As the course unfolds, more sweeping angled fairways and cork oaks – some 5,000 – reveal a layout that will not be overpowered. In a golf world where power has become the new superbug, this track, at a little under 7,000 yards, is the perfect antidote.
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Golf World says: The Grove is one of the best golf complexes
in Europe, with an 18-hole championship course set in 300
acres of mature parkland just 18 miles from central London.
Designed by Kyle Phillips and opened in 2003, it hosted a
World Golf Championship in 2006, which was won by Tiger
Woods. With four sets of tees, visitors can select the length of
the course to suit their ability. It’s one of the best-conditioned
inland venues in the UK.
Where: Chandlers Cross, Herts.
Normal green fees: £125-£170.
More info: 01923 294266
www.thegrove.co.uk
2009 Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses
THE CLASSICS before 1960
60. California Golf Club 7.11
(NR; p) South San Francisco, Calif.
1926, Vernon Macan; Alister MacKenzie, Kyle Philips (2007)
http://top100.golfweek.com/GolfweeksBest/article.asp?ID=1608
Golf Monthly – March 2009
From Sotogrande New to Las Aves and now Valderrama, Malcolm
Campbell celebrates just how far Europe’s finest course has come.
“Rumours are rife of an announcement coming shortly on a new event for Valderrama”
Athough it does not seem like it,it is a quarter of a century since I took my first step onto the opening tee of a golf course that was then called Las Aves. At that time the course was barely known, other than to a fortunate few. It had not long changed its name from Sotogrande New. My old pal Derek Brown had decided to swap the decidedly chilly Perthshire winters of Gleneagles for a move to the Costa del Sol to join Tony Jacklin at what was then a fine, but rather remote, golfing outpost lying within earshot of the screams of Gibraltar’s Barbary apes.
I still recall the perilous journeys from Malaga airport along the road they called “Suicide Alley”. The fear was only overcome by the anticipation of playing the course where Jacklin held court. Even then, it was a beautiful place to play among the cork and pine trees.
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…The runaway winner of “Comeback of the Year” is California Golf Club in South San Francisco, Calif., which appears as No. 60 on the Classic after a yearlong shutdown and massive restoration/renovation project. Bay Area golf aficionados always had
respected the 1926 Vernon Macan design, especially after it was treated to highly-stylized bunkering by Alister MacKenzie. But the course suffered a clumsy partial rerouting in the mid-1960s.
California GC enjoyed the national rating limelight for one brief stint at No. 92 in 2003, and then fell off the Classic list as tree problems, a nematode infestation and poor drainage took their toll.
Starting in August 2007, architect Kyle Phillips, working closely with
course superintendent Thomas Bastis, undertook a gutsy project: five retro
holes created, the practice range moved, two clumsy ponds filled in, 450 yards added and the old fairway widths and bunkering restored. Along the way they also dealt with eucalyptus and pine trees that had overgrown the grounds.
The boldest move was utilizing a virtually abandoned l7-acre dump site on a hill overlooking the bulk of the course and using it for California GC’s seventh hole, a
stunning, wrap-around 402-yard par 4 where the fairway clings to the edge.
Golfweek
Bradley S. Klein
www.golfweek.com
As one of the Bay Area’s oldest and most respected private clubs, California Golf Club of San Francisco reopened to its members this summer in grand fashion. The first event at the newly renovated course was highlighted with a 6-hole exhibition by PGA Tour player Arron Oberholser and former U.S. Open Champion Ken Venturi hitting the ceremonial first ball.
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Corporate Golf World
So, who should design your golf course…Signature designer or course architect…A Nicklaus or a Kyle Phillips? James Norman investigates the very different benefits each brings to a course design project.
When Mark McCormack started to turn Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player into major companies in their own right, one key element of that strategy was a golf design division. It started a trend that today means you can play a Ballesteros, an Els, a Faldo, a Norman, a Montgomerie and even a Woosnam design. Tiger’s first course is only a few years away in Dubai. Read More…
