Around this time, I usually do a long-winded year-in-review covering all sorts of topics both on and off the course. This isn’t really that, nor can it be. With two little kids and business picking up, that’s just too hard to do anymore. Still, as we head into a potentially exciting 2023, I wanted to share some of the highlights from the previous year 2022, especially work done and new courses seen, and what better way to do that than a bunch of photos. Scroll along for these highlights, the first of which is a career highlight, not just a year highlight.
Projects
Lake Merced (Gil Hanse Renovation/Restoration to as much as Alister MacKenzie version as possible) – Daly City, CA
One of the great opportunities of my career, if not the greatest, has been to work on this special Gil Hanse project and help put back together some of MacKenzie’s incredible bunkering and edits to the original Willie Locke layout. Ever since I moved out to the Bay Area 12 years ago and started to get to know the local golf architecture junkies, they had been talking and dreaming about what Lake Merced once was and had long lost. Most were skeptical a restoration was ever possible or would happen. But thanks to Gil Hanse and the weight of his successful restoration work elsewhere, it happened. Somehow, I was also fortunate enough to help out the Cavemen with it, especially on the 13th (historic 17), 12th(historic 16), and 16th (brand new Hanse par 3 down in that same corner). It was very fun both trying to meticulously match up the fine details to the many old photographs of the MacKenzie work but also to free-form on the new stuff and make an interpretation of his style that could hold up to the great “existing” stuff nearby. Very special to be a part of it all.
Teton Pines (Thad Layton/Arnold Palmer Design Co. Renovation) – Wilson, WY
This was phase 2 of the project we started last spring, this time doing the back nine. The inward half of holes has a bit fewer of the big mountain vistas of the front, but the tradeoff is a more natural and intimate feel through the woods and streams. Thad shaped out the three new greens while I stuck back on the bunkers, which, like last year, are some of my favorites I’ve gotten to do for their rugged faces and top lines meant to cast shadows and mimic the adjacent Teton Range.
The Tree Farm (Kye Goalby, Tom Doak, and Zac Blair New Build) – New Holland, SC
With Kye and his team closing in on the finish line for seeding, I was just here for a few weeks mostly doing whatever to help them get closer to achieving that goal. A lot of that was dozer sweeping fairways and working greens tie-ins, but there was also some more fun stuff too like native chunking and touching up or adding to some of the really cool and funky old-school heathland-like features that they have introduced to this awesome rugged property. Great place to hang out and work for a bit, and can’t wait to someday play what they’ve created.
Cedarbrook (Jaeger Kovich 4-hole phase 1 Renovation) —
Similar to the Tree Farm, I was here to help out my friend Jaeger Kovich as he introduced a real Tillinghast flair to 4 of the back nine holes at this beautiful 1960s property that relocated from an original Tilly/Ross site nearby. It was fun here to try and push out of my comfort zone, building humps in the middle of the 15th hole fairway bunker and making the landforms on the back of the 12th greenside bunker extra pointy. Jaeger’s done some very cool stuff here while also making the greens more contoured yet also more playable.
Best New Courses Seen
As always I sought out some new courses in my travels. There were no total knockouts this year (i.e. Doak scale 9s or 10s) but a very solid sampling of a high number of good courses, many of which were located in the Northeast and most of which were designed by Albert Tillinghast, whose work I had not seen nearly enough of in person to-date. My “Doak rating” is in [brackets] and only to be interpreted as a loose guide of what interests me in golf design, as is the general order of these. Feel free to debate me!
1. Hollywood - Deal, NJ (Walter Travis, with restoration by Brian Schneider) [8]
2. Palmetto - Aiken, SC (Thomas Hitchcock 4 holes, expanded to 18 by Herbert Leeds and James Mackrell, renovation by Alister MacKenzie and construction associate Wendell Miller) [8]
3. Manufacturers’ - Fort Washington, PA (William Flynn) [8]
4. Fenway - Scarsdale, NY (A.W. Tillinghast) [7]
5. Hidden Creek - Egg Harbor Twp., NJ (Coore & Crenshaw (James Duncan Lead)) [7]
6. Quaker Ridge - Scarsdale, NY (A.W. Tillinghast) [7]
7. Ridgewood - Paramus, NJ (A.W. Tillinghast) [7]
8. Lake Merced - Daly City, CA (Willie Locke, with revisions by Alister MacKenzie, near-restoration to that version by Gil Hanse) [6]
9. Forsgate - Monroe Twp., NJ (Charles Banks) [6]
10. Shooting Star - Wilson, WY (Tom Fazio) [7]
Other courses that caught our interest for different reasons:
Lulu - Glenside, PA (Donald Ross)
Aiken - Aiken, SC (John Inglis with major revisions by Jim McNair)
Philadelphia Cricket Club (Wissahickon Course) - Flourtown, PA (A.W. Tillinghast with renovations by Keith Foster)
Peninsula - San Mateo, CA (Donald Ross)
Yahnundasis - New Hartford, NY (Walter Travis)
Jumping Brook - Neptune, NJ (Willard Wilkinson with influence from A.W. Tillinghast)
Cedarbrook - Blue Bell, PA (Bill Mitchell)
Sandy Run - Oreland, PA (J. Franklin Meehan)
Links at Teton Peaks - Driggs, ID (David Druzisky)
Corica Park North (Front 9 only) - Alameda, CA (Rees Jones and Marc Logan)
La Rinconada - Los Gatos, CA (William Jefferson)
Montclair Pitch and Putt - Oakland, CA (Unknown)
Other Highlights of the Year
Some of which also loosely relate to golf
My son was born healthily during the middle of the Lake Merced project (thankfully waiting until after we wrapped up holes 12 and 13, though he sure threatened to come sooner!)
Having the family in Wyoming meant having my daughter often coming out to visit and get her hands dirty at the end of the day. She might just have a future working with Daddy!
We finally got back to Cornell this year, which was also the first time with kids. Pretty special to go back to the place where our family dreams all started with that family now realized. Also, my daughter couldn’t seem to get enough of it, always running enthusiastically to the next thing. So fun.
And last but not least, #BucketShots
Building the upper tee on the par three 13th at Lake Merced required some (occasionally hilarious) ice plant stripping but also afforded incredible views
A Final Word…
Thank you to all who have made it down this far, and thank you as always to all those who surround me and support me to make this crazy life possible, especially my wife and kids. It’s not easy, and I appreciate it more than you can know.
What was probably the best part of 2022 doesn’t show up in these images, as it was more the behind-the-scenes type of groundwork to set up what should be a more exciting 2023. Stay tuned for some potentially exciting announcements from us soon!
Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year
-Brett