Design Notebook: In Praise of Teeing It Wherever You Like

Today’s installment of Design Notebook begins with a reflection by Brendan Porath on the delights of playing golf without tee markers. Also, we give the lowdown on a Walter Travis-inspired renovation at a municipal facility on the Georgia coast and a Jeff Mingay-led project at Town & Country Club in St. Paul.

Unmarked

One of the best days I had out on a golf course this year occurred a few weeks ago at Pinehurst No. 10, which was not yet finished and will not officially open for play until next year. I recognize this enormous privilege. I also spent the subsequent days reflecting on why I had such a great time. The excitement of seeing a new course, the actual course design, the people, the weather, my own adequate play, the—ahem—lack of other groups getting in the way… so much played into it being a special experience that resonated with me.

When a day “works” or doesn’t, I try to think about why. (When it doesn’t, it is often owing to my own inadequate game.) In this reflection on No. 10, one element that I thought made the day more enjoyable was the lack of tee markers. The course is still being constructed in spots and not set up for official play, and there were no tee markers for obvious reasons.

I am not a course expert or savant, but I like to think I have a pretty heightened sense of what I’m looking at compared to the average golfer. The lack of tee markers made me more present, and I imagine it would do the same, even for non-GCA geeks. It encouraged me to take in the course, from the options off the tee up through the fairway and green, with more vigilance, and to appreciate more dimensions of Renaissance Golf Design’s work at No. 10. My playing partners often picked our spots to put a peg in the ground (Andy taking us all the way back almost every time), but I still stopped more frequently than I usually would to look at the hole ahead. Occasionally I’d make a suggestion of my own.

The sixth hole at Pinehurst No. 10: where would you tee it?

Golfers typically just go where they’re told, frustrated with or celebrating the events that just happened on the green while simply following the directions to the color tee they’ve chosen. The absence of markers at No. 10 made me look around at the possibilities and consider the intent of the design before me. More advanced minds, or those consumed with architecture and not the round, do this regardless, I’m sure. But for me, the sight of a bare teeing ground had a distinct “look around and think, don’t just follow the signs” effect. In the end, it caused me to appreciate No. 10 and the day I got to spend on it more.

I realize that, for many practical reasons, the course will have tee markers for resort play. Having every confused John Doe decide where to tee off from would be a nightmare. I’m a realist and far from a golf hipster. I would not expect or want a rejection of markers to be a prevailing practice at busy resort courses.

But no doubt at some courses, on some days, golfers can be offered this experience. The Dunes Club and Ballyneal manage it, partly because they are private clubs with relatively limited play. Can we afford to do it at more places? There can be drawbacks and impracticalities but also some major benefits, including an increased appreciation of design. It’s something to consider for occasions when it’s possible. -Brendan Porath

Jekyll comes out of hiding

Over the past couple of years, I have become smitten with the architecture of Walter Travis. His best work, which includes Cape Arundel in Maine and Country Club of Troy in Upstate New York, demonstrates both a respect for natural landforms and a penchant for bold artificiality. This is an unusual mixture—and, to me, a highly appealing one. Recently, Travis’s work has reached new prominence, with current architects like Brian Schneider and Andy Staples beginning to incorporate his influence into their own designs. So I was thrilled to hear last week that Jekyll Island Golf Club, a 63-hole municipal facility on the Georgia coast, is planning to carry out a Travis-inspired renovation.

Architects Jeffrey Stein and Brian Ross will combine Jekyll Island’s nine-hole Great Dunes course, designed by Travis in 1926, with half of the adjacent Oleander course, built by Dick Wilson in the 1960s. According to Stein, he and Ross will “faithfully restore” the Travis nine while “emulat[ing] Travis’s style” in a reimagining of the Wilson holes. “The end product will be a cohesive 18-hole tribute to Travis’s great work along the Atlantic coast in Georgia,” Stein told Fried Egg Golf. “We will clear back overgrown vegetation, add width, and expose the native sandy soil throughout. Think of it like the Pinehurst No. 2 / Mid Pines restoration treatment.”

Stein and Ross's plan for their Jekyll Island renovation

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In addition to bringing back the look and feel of Travis’s architecture, Stein and Ross will implement two main environmental strategies: conserving the surrounding coastal wetlands and introducing seashore paspalum, a salt-tolerant grass type that can be irrigated by on-site water sources.

The Great Dunes nine is one of only three Travis courses in the United States open to the public (the others: the beautifully preserved Cape Arundel and the much-altered—but potentially soon-to-be-restored—East Potomac), so this project makes Georgia’s “Golden Isles,” home to the Sea Island and Sea Palms resorts, a more enticing destination for golf nerds. It’s also a major opportunity for a pair of up-and-coming architects. Jeff Stein got his start as an intern for Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design, working on talent-stacked crews at Old Macdonald and Dismal River, and Brian Ross served as a shaper for Richard Mandell before going solo in 2019 and redesigning Park Mammoth in Kentucky. For both, the Jekyll Island commission qualifies as a big break.

The project is scheduled to begin in November 2024 and end in fall 2025. The Jekyll Island State Park Authority, which manages the golf club, intends to keep green fees affordable for state residents and local club members while charging a premium for out-of-state play. -Garrett Morrison

Town & Country goes all-in

Town & Country Club in St. Paul, Minnesota, has slowly been getting better. Over the past several years, architect Jeff Mingay and superintendent Bill Larson have removed hundreds of trees and restored a handful of historical features. But now Minnesota’s oldest country club is quickening the pace: on Saturday, it announced that it will undergo “a comprehensive golf course renovation project.” Working with contractor Duininck Golf, Mingay will oversee green and fairway expansions, bunker and tee work, and a reconstruction of the short par-5 fifth hole.

Town & Country’s golf architecture has a long and murky history. Five years after its founding in 1888, T&C added a rudimentary five-hole layout, which a member expanded to 18 holes in 1907. Prolific Scottish designer Robert Foulis also contributed to the design while serving as the club’s professional. Ultimately, though, T&C’s course doesn’t have an undisputed “golden era.”

“We’re definitely not aiming to strictly restore the course to a certain period in its history,” Mingay said. “However, we’re certainly inspired by history. Town & Country Club has a treasure trove of historical materials that’s allowed us to study the course’s unique evolution and provides aesthetic inspiration. In the process of developing our plan, we’ve effectively determined what’s worked over the years, what hasn’t, and why. As a result, the plan respects the course’s heritage but will also serve the club in a contemporary manner, well into the future.”

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Mingay’s work will begin in August 2024 and take three months to complete. The course is set to reopen for play in spring 2024. -GM

A course we photographed recently

The Lake Course at the Olympic Club (San Francisco, CA)—designed by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting in 1924, redesigned by Whiting in 1927, renovated by Robert Trent Jones in 1955, renovated again by Bill Love in 2009, and recently “restored” by Gil Hanse

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Quotable

“As a matter of fact most of the difficulties in golf are mental, not physical; are subjective, not objective; are the created phantasms of the mind, not the veritable realities of the course.” –Arnold Haultain