Golf Course Architecture

GCA highlights five new golf courses and five renovations to look out for in 2025 👇 Read what 10 projects we think are going to catch the eye of the golfing public in 2025: https://lnkd.in/e9fwmXCd

As the year comes to a close, we look back at some of our most popular articles of 2024, including: ● Adam Lawrence’s On Site report on the Jeff lynch renovation of Portmarnock Resort & Jameson Golf Links in Ireland. “The course has a much clearer identity of its own… and is also a stronger golfing experience.” ● Our feature on what makes Vietnam one of Asia’s great golf destinations, featuring insight from Adam Calver, Brian Curley, Mike Gorman and Kevin Ramsey. ● The spectacular Bill Bergin and Rees Jones design for The Keep McLemore Resort in northeast Georgia, USA. “We planned for a very big golf course because the site calls for that, the views call for that,” says Bergn. Read about these and find more highlights from 2024: https://lnkd.in/e6XexPtM GCA wishes all of our readers a Merry Christmas! #IrishGolf #VietnamGolf #TheKeep

Michigan’s Knollwood, a 1925 design, will reopen next summer following a Golden Age-inspired renovation by David Zinkand and Frontier Golf. “The effort to shift holes at the turn and finish in the gentler central stretch of the property has delivered great dividends by expanding these hole corridors, while also capitalising on the subtle terrain and greens complexes through new strategic angles and visual appeal,” says Zinkand. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eGQ3E5ZZ

The new Cliffhangers par-three course at Big Cedar Lodge, which has been designed by the resort owner Johnny Morris and his son John Paul, will open in summer 2025.   “There were a few question marks along the way [about] how we’re going to fit 18 holes on this crazy, steep hillside,” said John Paul. “I think we ended up with a heck of a routing and some unbelievable golf holes.”   Read more: https://lnkd.in/d37PKtYs   #BigCedarGolf #newgolfcourse

Inwood’s Daniel Friedman talks about the work the club and Renaissance Golf Design have completed over the last 20 years 👇   Read more: https://lnkd.in/eDkqmcKY

Brian Curley and Jim Wagner ASGCA are set to begin the redesign of Wildcreek Golf Course, home to First Tee’s Northern Nevada chapter. “The new par 35 layout will feature bold visuals but with a strong emphasis on playability for those taking up the game,” says Curley. Read more about the project: https://lnkd.in/edzuUmrw

Mark Wagner visited Cobbs Creek and spoke to the key players involved in the transformative project, including Mike Cirba, Jim Wagner and Enrique Hervada. “Our goal is to focus on design and ensure we bring back original intent while blending with current environmental realities present today and beyond,” says Jim Wagner of Hanse Golf Course Design.” Sure, there is huge social and sentimental value that will come with bringing Cobbs back to life; lots of history will be preserved as an educational tool.” Read more about the history, transformation and efforts from those involved: https://lnkd.in/exKxtEWW #CobbsCreek #HughWilson #GilHanse

Kipp Schulties and QGS Development renovate the North course at Vineyards Country Club in Naples, Florida. Michael Procacci Jr, the club’s chairman and co-owner, says: “These enhancements deliver not only a visually appealing, strategic course layout but they also embrace the natural beauty of Florida’s landscape in a way that enriches both our members' enjoyment and our community's ecological balance.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eBTxkytF

GCA editor Adam Lawrence speaks with Bill Amick, a golf course architect since the 1950s, about his career and attempts to encourage golfers to play shorter courses. “I played on my high school and college golf teams yet had no idea what I wanted to do as a future career,” recalls Amick. “That is until I was in my Ohio Wesleyan University’s infirmary as a junior with the flu. There to pass some time I picked up a copy of an old New Yorker magazine containing an article about Robert Trent Jones. Reading it, either despite or perhaps because of my temperature of 102 degrees, I immediately decided that’s what I wanted to try to do as a career.” Read more about Amick’s life and career:  https://lnkd.in/eBfttPN6

Kristine Kerr has developed plans for the remodelling of six holes at Boulcott’s Farm Heritage Golf Club near Wellington, New Zealand. In 2010, the Hutt and Boulcott clubs merged. Kerr aims to create a coherent style for the entire course. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dnXm4Mrw