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Golf Traveler, always looking to play a new to me course. 47, 621 courses to date. @amgolfblog on IG, new member to FE, can't wait for the events.

I have two tee times booked at Poppy Ridge in mid December. I got the earliest times I could get, and the Sunday time is definitely a twilight time with some finishing risk. My son will join on Sunday.

• Sunday, Dec 14, 1:10pm, $100 per player (Chris Brooks, Jacob Brooks, two openings), pay at course
• Monday, Dec 15, 12:20pm - pre-paid $486.00, $121.50 per player (Chris Brooks, three openings)

I will also book the 9 holer for Monday morning (lots of times available) once we have an idea of our numbers. I'm going to be staying somewhere in Livermore on Sunday night.

Who wants to join?

Just dropped a new blog going over a little BTS for an LPGA/Epson PT this past year! A short read for those who would be interested in hearing a little more about the physical therapists role with the players on a given week!

Can't get the link to work but if you copy and paste this URL it will take you straight there!

https://www.back9pt.com/post/tour-diaries-behind-the-scenes-with-an-lpga-pt

I had the great pleasure of meeting up with four FEGC members yesterday at Golden Gate Park GC. Myself along with Chris Brooks, Ray Gobberg, Brett Hochstein, and Jamie Hiteshew had a great round. We snuck out at 3:00 and played as a group of five. Rounds like this are truly what fill my tank.

There were plenty of good shots to recount, but my favorite moment of the day was when Brett, who is a wonderful guy and who also happened to do a lot of work on Golden Gate Park during the renovation, recommended we all hit low runners into the seventh green, which he shaped, to try to catch the contours in the ground and sling balls into the back right pin. For those of you who haven't played GGPGC, the seventh has an awesome green with three distinct quadrants. Each quadrant is relatively small, but there is a lot of mounding to work the ball into tight spaces. It's phenomenal work that Brett did and provides an equal amount of fun and challenge. I've added a couple of photos below.

The pin shown above is in the back left quadrant, whereas we were playing to the back right (just over the bunker in this picture).

Here's a more aerial view of the entire green. If you choose, you can run shots into the green using the ground and mounding on the left to feed balls hard to the right.

My highlight from the day, though, was when Jamie tried to snipe a 4i into the green and got a wee bit aggressive with his swing and sent the ball sailing onto the next tee box, coming to rest at the feet of the group of golfers in front of us. At that very moment, I remembered reading a lot of member intros where most identify as "not interested in fighting." Thankfully for us, Ray's immediate comment was something to the effect that there are five of us and only four of them AND they look old, so we can totally take them.

So I guess the TL;DR here is that Ray Gobberg is interested in fighting!

Garrett’s Bob Parsons impression on the architecture pod today was all time. Laughed so loud in my office, le wife had to come make sure I wasn’t choking on my bagel.

Also got me thinking, what are some other great impersonations we’ve heard over the years, golf-wise?…KVV’s Gary Player comes to mind immediately, as well as Porath’s ability to spit Paul McGinley bars at the drop of a hat.

Maybe PJ could put together an all-time FE impersonations power ranking…

Hello everyone,

With the holiday next week, I will be doing a general mailbag with PJ, I will pull some questions from last week's architecture focused ones into the podcast but just wanted to put a call out for any questions. Thanks!

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let's do it live.

Today at 4:00 p.m. ET, we are going to reveal our 2026 FEGC and FE Events calendar. I'll include as much detail as possible but feel free to jump on and ask questions if you have them.

Join link here

If you are unable to join live, we will have all details emailed out and posted on the website this evening.

Get excited!

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-media-rights-deals-with-espn-nbc-netflix

Sunday Night Baseball has officially moved to NBC. Why do I post that here?

With NBC now officially booked every Sunday Night of the year between NFL, NBA, and MLB, this adds a major hurdle to the myriad suggestions every year that the FedEx Cup Playoffs move to the west coast and air on primetime. I also wonder about west coast US Opens.

I've been listening to SGS from the beginning and I could probably count the number of episodes I've missed in that time on one hand. As such, I consider myself highly fluent in SGS-speak. Nevertheless, it seems like a nickname or two fell through the cracks. As a result, whenever these people are subsequently referenced in an episode, I have no idea who they are talking about.

One such player that came up for me from today's episode with "The Boys" was Freddie Ketchup. I've heard that name used numerous times and I still don't know who it is.

I'm hoping this thread can serve as a hub where people can ask for SGS nickname clarifications without fear of judgement :)

I was fortunate enough to win Lottery tickets for the Master's this April, Are there any additional course recommendations outside of Tree Farm and Old Barnwell. We were fortunate enough to play them last year, but the pricing this year is out of control.

Thank you,

Alex Solnick

I know Fried Egg isn't equipment-centric (except when it comes to regulating it), but I thought I would start a topic near and dear to my heart - putters. I'm a Scotty Cameron loyalist, proud owner of 10 of them, and very excited to try the new OC line of low-torque putters that Scotty just released.

Putters, like golf architecture, are more of an art than a science, and different things appeal to different people. I'd love to hear from others on what they use, what they like, and what they collect.

The National Links Trust announced yesterday that Rock Creek Park Golf Course, a municipal facility in Washington, D.C., is now closed for the first phase of a "full-scale rehabilitation project." I detailed the plans for this project back in 2023. The National Links Trust holds the lease to operate D.C.'s three National Park Service-owned golf courses: Rock Creek Park, Langston Golf Course, and East Potomac Golf Links.

From the press release:

"Currently, we are continuing our adaptive management approach to invasive vine, shrub, and tree removal and finishing site work before we begin vertical construction on the new, modern maintenance facility and clubhouse, driving range, and putting course. Vertical construction will begin in the coming weeks.

"Next spring, our intention is to reopen at least nine holes of golf with a modified routing to accommodate for clubhouse and maintenance facility construction. The holes that reopen will continue to improve in playability and conditions, like we saw this year, as the turf receives more sunlight and better airflow and the corridors expand to their historic widths."

Whereas phase one of the Rock Creek overhaul will focus on the property's buildings and practice facilities, phase two will include Gil Hanse's redesign of the golf course. Hanse plans to split the current 18-hole course into a nine-hole regulation course and a nine-hole par-3 layout.

The news that work has begun at Rock Creek comes amid concerning chatter out of NLT-managed East Potomac Golf Links, where the Trump administration is creating an enormous mound out of rubble from the ongoing East Wing renovation project.

There's been a growing interest in pre-1935 hickory clubs and 1950-1990 steel shaft persimmons & irons. Let's exchange info on makers, how to build a set, connections to people that do restoration and reproductions, etc.

I'll start with hickories since I restore & play them. A number of states have active hickory groups who are very knowledgeable & helpful. The first organization I recommend joining is The Society of Hickory Golfers, tremendous resource for all things hickory including posting hickory scores & a hickory handicap system. Only $65/year: https://www.hickorygolfers.com/membership-join/

I've started dabbling in vintage/retro clubs with sets from 1958 (MacGregor) & 1970 (Hogan). Garage sales, auctions, 2nd hand/thrift shops, eBay are just some places to find gear. There's quite a few sites on IG for retro/persimmon, etc. aficionados too.

I'm in WI & you can find me on IG at: the pond is good for you or X at: golf69ski88

This week I will be recording a new architecture mailbag pod with Garrett.

Fire away any questions you have.

Thanks

Andy

Pinehurst No. 2 is considered by many to be the magnum opus of Donald Ross. People like the Fried Egg's very own Garrett Morrison have written about the wonderful routing that takes full advantage of the subtle natural topography. Walter Travis, Pinehurst member and 5x North and South Amateur Champion described Pinehurst as having "scientific" bunkering. But we all know that the greens are the star of the show when you go and play it. With that being said, it seems to be pretty much accepted at this point that the greens on No. 2 are not original to Ross (or at least drastically more severe). Pete Dye, who was stationed at nearby Fort Bragg during his Army years had a CO that was an avid golfer, and Pete had the opportunity to go and play No. 2 with him many times. He claims that the greens were much flatter in the 1940s and that the domed greens that we know today are due to decades of top dressing. This should track, as the original "greens" at Pinehurst were all flat, and sand covered squares. Ross and Frank Maples were not able to convert all 18 greens to grass until the 1930s. Bradford Becken, President of the Donald Ross society wrote in his book The Golf Architecture of Donald Ross: "As with the rest of Ross' work, there is considerable variety to his green designs. Many Ross fans associate the turtleback greens found on Pinehurst 2 as emblematic of his work, but this is not the case. in fact, looking at the body of his available drawings, such greens appear to be more of an exception, leading some to attribute the shape to years of top dressing and other maintenance practices rather than what was originally envisioned by Ross."

The Question that this is leading me to is this: Why Pinehurst No. 2 specifically? Why did top dressing not effect the greens on No. 1, No. 3 (which does have some crowned greens, but nothing like No. 2), Pine Needles, Mid Pines, SPGC, etc...? Same playing surfaces, same soil composition, conceivably same general maintenance practices. So why would the greens on No. 2 specifically be top dressed in a way that creates greens so extreme that it has mistakenly became a characteristic of Donald Ross?