Design Notebook: Merion Reflections, Yale Conditions, and Muirfield Tensions

Happy Tuesday, Fried Egg Golf Club members, and welcome back to Design Notebook, your exclusive debrief on what’s happening in the world of golf architecture. 

In today’s edition, I talk with Geoff Shackelford about the updated edition of his book Grounds for Golf, the increase in golf architecture literacy over the past two decades, and the challenges and opportunities facing the golf course industry today. First, though, let’s run through some news and notes…

Chocolate Drops

The East Course at Merion Golf Club acquitted itself well as last week’s U.S. Amateur. The fifth hole was an electric factory, and the short par 4s in the middle stretch were as delightful as ever. I even enjoyed the much-criticized 18th hole, though, as I outlined here, this great par 4 certainly isn’t playing as Hugh Wilson and William Flynn intended.

Still, the championship did confirm some fears I have about the course as a major venue. To put it bluntly, it was a wedge-fest out there. Only three par 4s — Nos. 5, 6, and 18 — were long enough to consistently demand full irons (albeit short irons, typically) after good drives. When the course plays this short, what should be its best defense, its green architecture, is partly neutralized. Clever contours and tucked pins can’t do much against an onslaught of Vokeys.

Of course, this is an equipment-regulation issue, not a Merion issue. But my heart sank as I saw Jack Whaley and Jay Leng Jr. (the eventual winner and runner-up, respectively) hit wedge after wedge into formerly fearsome par 4s during Sunday’s final match. I realized that the East Course’s goofy fairway lines and absurdly thick rough aren’t going anywhere. Not as long as Merion stays on the U.S. Open rota, at least.

Two weeks ago, Golf Digest writer Alex Myers caused a stir on X when he posted a few photos of a wet, apparently struggling Yale Golf Course. “Curious how people would feel paying $350 to play a (great) golf course in this condition?” he wrote. 

Yale reopened in late April after a two-and-a-half-year historical renovation by Gil Hanse. I haven’t visited it yet, but I talked to a few people who have, and here’s what I gathered about Myers’s photos and the course’s current condition:

1. Myers played Yale after a series of summer storms, and his photos focused on a few trouble spots for drainage and turf coverage. Everyone I spoke with told me the course is in better shape than these photos indicate.

2. Yale is newly renovated, and newly renovated courses need time to settle in, establish strong turf, and sort out drainage issues. Let’s be patient.

3. That said, every golfer I talked to expressed some level of concern about the future maintenance of the course. Yale is a big ballpark, but the grounds crew is small. In order to keep the course in great condition and retain the architectural details that Hanse brought back, the university must step up with proper funding. But I don’t see that happening — at least in the short term, while Yale administrators are busy trying to appease a vindictive Trump administration on one side and pissed-off students, faculty, and alumni on the other.

4. The course has been getting a ton of cart traffic. This is probably inevitable, given the severity of the land, but the more Yale can do to encourage walking, the better. 

5. The most concerning of Myers’s photos is the last, which shows turf loss at the crest of the Biarritz ninth hole’s back tier. Has the staff been overusing rollers here? Is the contour too sharp to be sustainable? Yale needs to figure this out on all of its restored greens, and quickly.

6. The non-affiliate green fee is steep, no doubt. And if you ask $350, you’d better deliver $350 conditions. But we should be glad that Yale is continuing to offer public access. Remember, before Covid, play was largely restricted to the university community and a small membership. (Also, the $35 evening walking rate for students is nice to see — though I recall paying $10-15 almost any time of day when I was an undergrad in the aughts. The past is a foreign country, as they say.)

Look, things are still better than they were five years ago. During the pandemic, this place nearly went fallow, and many of us wondered whether it would come back in any form. Now it has been renovated by one of the world’s leading architects, and it’s hosting a ton of public play.

Yet university leaders continue to seem ignorant of the course’s historical value and maintenance needs. Just like Connecticut Hall and the Beinecke Library, Yale Golf Course is an architectural marvel, and it deserves careful, enthusiastic stewardship.

Jamie Kennedy wrote an illuminating piece for Golf Digest on why Muirfield hasn’t returned to the Open rota since hosting the championship in 2013. After agreeing to admit female members and hiring R&A favorites Mackenzie & Ebert to consult on course renovations, the East Lothian club seemed poised to earn an Open in the late 2020s. However, the 2028 slot just went to Royal Lytham and St. Anne’s, while 2029 remains TBD. As Kennedy reveals, some members of the Honourable Company may be balking at the changes suggested by Mackenzie & Ebert, which reportedly include shifting the fifth green to the left. (I’ve also heard that relocating the first hole is on the table.)

Fight the good fight, Muirfield. You have one of Harry Colt’s best golf courses. If that’s not good enough for the Open, I don’t know what is.

This past weekend, Smyers, Craig & Coyne — the firm led by Steve Smyers, Colton Craig, and Tom Coyne — announced a new project near Webster, South Dakota. Sunken Prairie Golf, Rod & Gun Club (quite the name!) is a high-end private destination about two hours north of Sioux Falls. The golf course will sit on an island formed by a flood in the 1990s.

The Instagram announcement notes that real estate lots are for sale right now and touts the benefits of "South Dakota's state tax laws." Smyers, Craig & Coyne will break ground on the golf course this fall, targeting a 2028 debut.

Sunken Prairie is Smyers, Craig & Coyne's second recent commission in the Mount Rushmore State. The first, Lazy J Sporting Club near the town of Ideal, is under construction, with an opening set for summer 2027.

As first revealed on an April episode of Designing Golf, Back Nine Press will be publishing a 25th-anniversary edition of Bradley S. Klein's pathbreaking book Discovering Donald Ross. According to a press release, the new edition — titled Re-Discovering Donald Ross, natch — will feature "new photographs, updated text, rare drawings and maps, and new chapters devoted to recent restorations and renovations of Ross courses.” 

"Donald Ross's work has never really gone away," Klein said. "What has changed is our ability to recognize what made his courses so successful. The restoration movement has given us an extraordinary opportunity to look at Ross's work with fresh eyes and to understand why his design principles continue to matter."

Re-Discovering Donald Ross is available for pre-order now and will be released on February 1, 2027.

Design Notebook is Presented By

This edition of Design Notebook is presented by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

GCSAA supports more than 21 thousand members worldwide – from superintendents and equipment managers to students and educators. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, GCSAA continues to ensure that its members are at the forefront of research, education, innovation, and advocacy through a range of programs and services.

_‍Some quick hits to wrap up:

→ Renaissance Golf Design broke ground on a restoration of St. George’s Hill Golf Club, a heathland classic designed by Harry Colt. An exciting project!

→ David McLay Kidd will build a new 18-hole course for the Wellington, a private golf and residential development in South Florida. Construction is scheduled to begin next spring.

→ Richard Humphreys has an interesting article for Golf Course Architecture on Shura Links, a new Brian Curley design on a Red Sea island in Saudi Arabia. As LIV Golf withers on the vine, the Public Investment Fund’s big golf-tourism play appears to be alive and well.

→ Salt Lick Golf and Hunting Resort, near Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas, released some grow-in photos.

→ Seth Raynor-designed Mountain Lake in Florida is set to reopen in November after a restoration by Tyler Rae. 

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Underlined and Starred

“Why should an architect have to saddle himself with one or two projects, when six or seven could be had? This has led to the franchise mentality which plagues so much of golf course architecture, producing a sameness to many layouts built during the last 20 years…. As a result, there is a tendency to rely on what has worked in the past and to shy away from the unconventional or innovative.” -Gil Hanse (1997