Great article - thank you! Nice to see an example of a course - Tain - that is not referenced often. It would be interesting to also highlight courses that have the opportunity to create change, but choose not to do so - i.e. are a monotonous trudge despite having the opportunity to create change / drama. Maybe too many to mention, but comparing and contrasting would be interesting.

I did get the chance to walk the back nine at Harbour Town a couple days ago. The scope of the work is limited to tees and greens and surrounds it appeared, with slight, and I mean slight fairway expansions. I never saw the course before, but having watched it on TV, it seemed to be small changes. The most visual changes were the conversion of some of the small bunkers to Astro turf sod wall revetted bunkers in a few places. The narrowness of the course will remain, the trees focus your eye, and I found it to be a unique way to navigate an 100 yard corridor.

Love the swing tier system. What exactly does the label "Blue Blood Swing" and "59 Swing" mean?

Love the quote from Doak. Land and hazards together are more important than mere strategy, which should come in moderation. The same type of risk-for-a-better-angle situation on every hole gets boring after a while.4-5-8 are really world-class holes (5 was my favorite), but I found 6 awkward. That proposed 7th hole could be awesome! Would also decrease the current similarities with 9.

Not sure if this has been discussed, but I just saw that Mike Devries purchased Dunham Hills in Fenton, Mi and intends to build a course that “brings the best of the UK golf model” to metro Detroit.Curious as to what this means and if it is truly possible to copy across the US.

Fair! I'm not super familiar with Marine & Lawn. I just know they've done stuff in GB&I. Is it an ultra-upscale brand?I think you can definitely expect lodging prices at Mid Pines and Pine Needles to go up. Look what happened at Southern Pines post-reno. Those places left a lot of money on the table for a long time, and now they're capturing it. It's tough for those of us who enjoy affordable green fees and hotel stays, but probably inevitable? In any case, I'm with you.

Appreciate it, Dale!

What a great course to highlight! Really enjoyed going through this one. I also really appreciated calling out the false AI claim, it really shows the depth of research you put into these. I also really liked learning about the nuance of how the term "bold" is used in golf course architecture.

It’s certainly reasonable and understandable that renovations and updates would occur. The Marine & Lawn branding is what had me skeptical that it won’t end up in the same price bracket as the other resorts that are increasingly difficult to afford.

My wife & I just returned from our first trip to Sand Valley. Unfortunately, we weren't able to play Sedge (thunderstorms) or Lido (access) during our stay. For context we played Sand Valley > Sandbox x2 > Mammoth. Both SV & MD were played in high heat and winds of 15-25mph. I had not read this course profile before going but I did think the master plan seemed a little odd when we were there given the location of the courses relative to when each was built. Then I read this after we got home and saw that the original starting and finishing holes of MD were intended for a different spot. I think everything at SV will feel different in a few years with the evolution that includes the commons and practice facility but I would love to know where the clubhouse was originally planned when Kidd routed the course. Based on the overhead map it looks like there were only a few places it could have been if all he did was reorder the routing: 16 becomes 1/15 becomes 18 (closer to the entrance and north side of the sandbox but further from SV), 12/11 (in the northeast corner a long way from everything else), or 5/6 (near 8 & 9 SV / Craig's Porch and seems most likely?). If it was indeed originally intended to start on 6 and end on 5 I wonder how that would change the perception of the course as the stretch of 2-6 was my favorite in the routing. Overall, I thought the design did promote interest relative to angle of play, but would benefit from more variety of risk and club selection. I played better while my wife played worse compared to SV but that seemed to be more related to our respective putting performances than anything else. We both enjoyed Sand Valley more than Mammoth but will definitely play it again the next time we go. The aspects that left me wanting to play again were the conditions, the size of the greens and likely hole location variety, the dramatic dunescape, and the high quality of several shots/holes (2-6, 8-11, 13-14, the second into 18). It did not play as firm as Sand Valley, the Loop, or Scotland but it was way above average and an aspect of golf I value as much as almost anything else (probably because it seems so rare).