Great stuff, Matt! Your course profiling chops just keep getting better and better. The vocabulary you deploy in describing the courses adds to their sense of place, yet feels accessible to all readers regardless of where they might be on their journey into the golf architecture rabbit hole. Always an exciting day when a new Matt Rouches course profile drops. Keep up the excellent work!

I think about NWGC all the time. What a place!

Was out there last week, prior to the Fried Egg event at Prairie Dunes. Did the Wooga/Gunch combo. It's been 20yrs since I was out there and I still think WH has greens that stack up with the best in the country. [June 2025] They are building a small Par 3 course. The land sits between the right side of #10 and the driving range, down below the large practice putting green. The land has 30-40' of elevation change and good overall movement. The overall space looks to be about the same size as the adjacent driving range. They are still shaping the holes, and apparently haven't finalized how many holes they will have in total. I would have taken some pictures, but it's still in the very rough shaping stage, so without a drone it would be tough to get a sense of how holes are laid out. They are also building additional on-site lodging for anyone doing a stay-and-play.

Can you explain why bigger greens are better (than smaller greens). Said another way, why would bigger greens at Pebble Beach or Bethpage Black make these courses better. Should all greens have 4 different pin positions? With green speeds increasing, some areas on greens cannot have a pin position anymore (effectively reducing the size of the green). Does this mean that greens need to be "softened?" Is there a way to map greens so they can be softened yet maintain original design. Can you think of an instance where rough made a course better? When did rough start in golf course architecture?

Allegheny is great. Private golf in Pittsburgh is phenomenal and somehow underrated.

I’m glad others commented. I don’t have anything to add except to say that I greatly enjoyed this.

Andy, I heard you reference on this podcast visiting Rodeo Dunes. I was just out there to see it yesterday and was amazed by the landscape. Interested to hear more of your thoughts about it. Are you going to be putting out some content on it soon?

I do think it is an interesting concept (is experiment a better word?) when we consider the absolute golf mania seen in South Korea, combined with their lower number of courses / smaller geographic footprint. Sort of a build it and they will come? We'll have to wait and see I guess! :)

Thank you, Laurence. Very kind words.

Yeah that course is eye-catching and intriguing, perhaps in both the wrong and right ways. The wrong is the fixed width of the corridors and overall sterility of the place. The right is the randomness of those pot bunkers and the reversibility of the holes. In that sense there's some Old Course-esque mystery/nebulousness of how exactly to play the holes, at least at first. Maybe there's something there, if executed properly and thoughtfully?