I've booked a foursome for this Saturday at the par 3 course at Olympic if anyone is interested in joining. I think the guest fee is $45 and if you're a member just shoot me a note and I can update the tee time and add you.
If we get more than four people interested and have another member we can book multiple times.
The weather looks nice and mid-afternoon has been the most pleasant to be outside over the past week or so.
I've booked a foursome for this Saturday at the par 3 course at Olympic if anyone is interested in joining. I think the guest fee is $45 and if you're a member just shoot me a note and I can update the tee time and add you.
If we get more than four people interested and have another member we can book multiple times.
The weather looks nice and mid-afternoon has been the most pleasant to be outside over the past week or so.
This was a pleasant addition to my Wednesday routine last summer but seemed like a short lived experiment. Are there planes (or even an opportunity) to do it again?
This was a pleasant addition to my Wednesday routine last summer but seemed like a short lived experiment. Are there planes (or even an opportunity) to do it again?
Doing a wishlist secret santa with my family this year so I needed to put in some gifts I would wish for. Got me thinking what gift ideas do you have or want as a golf nut / architecture nerd?
Doing a wishlist secret santa with my family this year so I needed to put in some gifts I would wish for. Got me thinking what gift ideas do you have or want as a golf nut / architecture nerd?
Thoroughly enjoyed the SGS nostalgia trip of early life beverage choices. Keystone, Natty, Smirnoff - these are the universal experiences that will bring our society together.
Thoroughly enjoyed the SGS nostalgia trip of early life beverage choices. Keystone, Natty, Smirnoff - these are the universal experiences that will bring our society together.
The family had gone to bed last night, and I found myself with a quiet house. Having not seen much of Royal Melbourne ever, I was excited to turn on the television and watch a bit of the tournament.
what I was treated to was roughly an hour of guys putting. That’s it. Putts. A few bunker shots. Then miraculously there was a digital flyover of a hole after about 45 minutes, and someone hit an approach shot. And then right back to putting.
i’m curious if anyone else has watched the coverage and seen something better. I was disappointed to say the least.
The family had gone to bed last night, and I found myself with a quiet house. Having not seen much of Royal Melbourne ever, I was excited to turn on the television and watch a bit of the tournament.
what I was treated to was roughly an hour of guys putting. That’s it. Putts. A few bunker shots. Then miraculously there was a digital flyover of a hole after about 45 minutes, and someone hit an approach shot. And then right back to putting.
i’m curious if anyone else has watched the coverage and seen something better. I was disappointed to say the least.
40 y/o, married with kids, no interest in fighting!
I'll be in the Sarasota area over the holidays (week in between Christmas and New Years) on a family vacation and I'm looking to sneak out for a round or two. Any recommendations in the area? I'm looking at public courses, but I'm a member at a club in Chicago so any private courses that are accessible with the old pro phone call approach are also a possibility (have had mixed success with that in the past).
I'm looking for a fun and playable vacation round - I don't really care about conditioning or non-golf course amenities. University Park and the Ross course at Bobby Jones were the options that seemed to pop up most via google.
40 y/o, married with kids, no interest in fighting!
I'll be in the Sarasota area over the holidays (week in between Christmas and New Years) on a family vacation and I'm looking to sneak out for a round or two. Any recommendations in the area? I'm looking at public courses, but I'm a member at a club in Chicago so any private courses that are accessible with the old pro phone call approach are also a possibility (have had mixed success with that in the past).
I'm looking for a fun and playable vacation round - I don't really care about conditioning or non-golf course amenities. University Park and the Ross course at Bobby Jones were the options that seemed to pop up most via google.
We pushed out a few forum updates today and hopefully you've already noticed but if you haven't:
We added the comments feed that has historically lived in the Clubhouse to the homepage of the Forum. (note: we have not finished this update for mobile yet but should have it done in the next day or so at the most)
We added a new Sort By options for posts. If you'd like to sort posts by the ones with the most recent comments you can do so by opening the dropdown near the search bar in the forum home page and selecting the option for Recent Activity. This will sort order posts based on the timestamp of their most recent comment (sorted newest to oldest).
We're almost done with Post and Topic following. If you click on a specific post now you'll see a + FOLLOW button in the upper right hand corner of the page. Clicking this will subscribe you to email updates of comments made to that post. Topic following will follow shortly. Additionally, there was a small bug in this feature this morning that should be remedied but if you follow and don't get emails know that we'll squash the bug in short order.
Aside from that, I'll most likely make a change to the Clubhouse later today to make it more focused on members-only articles and course profiles and remove the thread of comments as they now live on the forum home page. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.
Cheers!
P.S. We're still working on many other forum enhancements (most notably being able to add images to comments) but as always I'm happy to hear any and all feedback.
We pushed out a few forum updates today and hopefully you've already noticed but if you haven't:
We added the comments feed that has historically lived in the Clubhouse to the homepage of the Forum. (note: we have not finished this update for mobile yet but should have it done in the next day or so at the most)
We added a new Sort By options for posts. If you'd like to sort posts by the ones with the most recent comments you can do so by opening the dropdown near the search bar in the forum home page and selecting the option for Recent Activity. This will sort order posts based on the timestamp of their most recent comment (sorted newest to oldest).
We're almost done with Post and Topic following. If you click on a specific post now you'll see a + FOLLOW button in the upper right hand corner of the page. Clicking this will subscribe you to email updates of comments made to that post. Topic following will follow shortly. Additionally, there was a small bug in this feature this morning that should be remedied but if you follow and don't get emails know that we'll squash the bug in short order.
Aside from that, I'll most likely make a change to the Clubhouse later today to make it more focused on members-only articles and course profiles and remove the thread of comments as they now live on the forum home page. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.
Cheers!
P.S. We're still working on many other forum enhancements (most notably being able to add images to comments) but as always I'm happy to hear any and all feedback.
Yesterday, as FEGC member Pearce Barringer noted in his own forum post, TGL announced that architect Gil Hanse had joined the screen-golf league's roster of hole designers. Accompanying the announcement was an awkward, faintly surreal video of a bemused Hanse making a WWE-like entrance into an empty SoFi Center. I'd love to hear the instructions the director of this piece of content gave him before hitting record.
TGL also unveiled one of Hanse's designs, a 590-yard par 5 called "Stone & Steeple." The hole features a few recognizable Hanse motifs: a threatening boundary wall, a lone bunker guarding the second-shot layup zone, and a rambling "Sahara" bunker, strewn with turf islands, cutting across the fairway. The neighboring graveyard even has precedent in Hanse's body of work: in his renovation of Waverley Country Club in Portland, Oregon, he moved the second green about 50 yards back so that it abutted a 19th-century cemetery.
The most striking aspect of Hanse's design is the double diagonal formed by the two sections of fairway on either side of the Sahara bunker. The basic idea, I gather, is that the farther players hit their drives without carrying the bunker, the more to the right they will end up, and the worse their angle into the green will be. On the other hand, if they want to make the long carry over the bunker on the left side and earn a shorter second shot from a better angle, they will need to bring the wall into play.
Classic strategic-school stuff, in other words. I think I'd enjoy playing this hole, if it were real. And you know what? It basically looks real. And that might be a problem.
So far, the reception of "Stone & Steeple" on social media has been chilly. There seems to be an emerging consensus among TGL viewers that the virtual-hole designs, unconstrained as they are by physical and economic realities, should be crazier, more video game-like, more purely inventive. As my colleague Joseph LaMagna put it on X, "TGL's biggest whiff is designing realistic holes. It makes zero sense to play holes like [Hanse's] in the one arena that's free from practical constraints."
That's probably right. The realism of Hanse's hole registers as a bit unimaginative.
But I have a hard time getting worked up about it because — confession time — I don't really care about TGL. I could barely make it through a single match in the first season. And this is not to say that the product is bad or that the people who enjoy it are rubes. It's just not for me. A huge part of what I love about golf is the relationship between the player, the course, and nature. When you strip away nature — the outdoors, the elements, the land — I lose most of my interest.
But what I'd like to hear Hanse address at some point is why he was interested in TGL. In a press release from the league, he said, "Starting with a relatively blank slate for TGL has been liberating. Designing holes for TGL has given us an opportunity to step out of our comfort zone and step into other aspects of golf course design in the virtual world."
As an architect who typically likes to derive inspiration from physical terrain, why was he compelled by the prospect of a "blank slate"? And in what sense did he stretch beyond his "comfort zone" here?
These are not passive-aggressive questions. I'd genuinely like to hear his answers.
Yesterday, as FEGC member Pearce Barringer noted in his own forum post, TGL announced that architect Gil Hanse had joined the screen-golf league's roster of hole designers. Accompanying the announcement was an awkward, faintly surreal video of a bemused Hanse making a WWE-like entrance into an empty SoFi Center. I'd love to hear the instructions the director of this piece of content gave him before hitting record.
TGL also unveiled one of Hanse's designs, a 590-yard par 5 called "Stone & Steeple." The hole features a few recognizable Hanse motifs: a threatening boundary wall, a lone bunker guarding the second-shot layup zone, and a rambling "Sahara" bunker, strewn with turf islands, cutting across the fairway. The neighboring graveyard even has precedent in Hanse's body of work: in his renovation of Waverley Country Club in Portland, Oregon, he moved the second green about 50 yards back so that it abutted a 19th-century cemetery.
The most striking aspect of Hanse's design is the double diagonal formed by the two sections of fairway on either side of the Sahara bunker. The basic idea, I gather, is that the farther players hit their drives without carrying the bunker, the more to the right they will end up, and the worse their angle into the green will be. On the other hand, if they want to make the long carry over the bunker on the left side and earn a shorter second shot from a better angle, they will need to bring the wall into play.
Classic strategic-school stuff, in other words. I think I'd enjoy playing this hole, if it were real. And you know what? It basically looks real. And that might be a problem.
So far, the reception of "Stone & Steeple" on social media has been chilly. There seems to be an emerging consensus among TGL viewers that the virtual-hole designs, unconstrained as they are by physical and economic realities, should be crazier, more video game-like, more purely inventive. As my colleague Joseph LaMagna put it on X, "TGL's biggest whiff is designing realistic holes. It makes zero sense to play holes like [Hanse's] in the one arena that's free from practical constraints."
That's probably right. The realism of Hanse's hole registers as a bit unimaginative.
But I have a hard time getting worked up about it because — confession time — I don't really care about TGL. I could barely make it through a single match in the first season. And this is not to say that the product is bad or that the people who enjoy it are rubes. It's just not for me. A huge part of what I love about golf is the relationship between the player, the course, and nature. When you strip away nature — the outdoors, the elements, the land — I lose most of my interest.
But what I'd like to hear Hanse address at some point is why he was interested in TGL. In a press release from the league, he said, "Starting with a relatively blank slate for TGL has been liberating. Designing holes for TGL has given us an opportunity to step out of our comfort zone and step into other aspects of golf course design in the virtual world."
As an architect who typically likes to derive inspiration from physical terrain, why was he compelled by the prospect of a "blank slate"? And in what sense did he stretch beyond his "comfort zone" here?
These are not passive-aggressive questions. I'd genuinely like to hear his answers.
Hey everyone. I thought it would be good to get this going for the NYC area. Always down to get out for a round and occasionally hit the sim in the winter. 31 married w/ no kids
Hey everyone. I thought it would be good to get this going for the NYC area. Always down to get out for a round and occasionally hit the sim in the winter. 31 married w/ no kids
Interested to see what Gil brings to the screen golf. I've only played two of Gil's courses, Sewanee and Mossy Oak, but like everyone, I've seen my fair share on TV and social media. Gil usually brings restraint and simplicity to his courses, with an emphasis on green complexes and their surroundings. Not exactly something you can implement in TGL.
Side note, is this a sign of things to come for a working partnership with the PGA Tour? I'd love to see Gil get his hands on a course or two. I know TGL and the Tour are separate, but in partnership with one another. One can dream.
Interested to see what Gil brings to the screen golf. I've only played two of Gil's courses, Sewanee and Mossy Oak, but like everyone, I've seen my fair share on TV and social media. Gil usually brings restraint and simplicity to his courses, with an emphasis on green complexes and their surroundings. Not exactly something you can implement in TGL.
Side note, is this a sign of things to come for a working partnership with the PGA Tour? I'd love to see Gil get his hands on a course or two. I know TGL and the Tour are separate, but in partnership with one another. One can dream.
I love sand based turf as much as everyone and understand the agronomy benefits. Who doesn't love blowouts and open/isolated spaces. That being said I kind of wish there would be a few new parkland style courses. Ones not suffocated by trees and housing, not restorations doing a bunch of removal, and not perimeter tree lined places where the trees don't really come into play. Would be interesting to see one of todays top teams have to route the land and trees without bulldozing the lot.
Maybe there are such places that have been built and I'm just not aware of them. (I know Sedge was kind of done this way but is still sand with no trees in play)
I love sand based turf as much as everyone and understand the agronomy benefits. Who doesn't love blowouts and open/isolated spaces. That being said I kind of wish there would be a few new parkland style courses. Ones not suffocated by trees and housing, not restorations doing a bunch of removal, and not perimeter tree lined places where the trees don't really come into play. Would be interesting to see one of todays top teams have to route the land and trees without bulldozing the lot.
Maybe there are such places that have been built and I'm just not aware of them. (I know Sedge was kind of done this way but is still sand with no trees in play)
A tradition here at Fried Egg Golf, we posted this year's Content Cornucopia this week, a collection of our favorite pieces of content from others in the industry. Of course, we can only fit so much in there. What else would you all add to the list?
A tradition here at Fried Egg Golf, we posted this year's Content Cornucopia this week, a collection of our favorite pieces of content from others in the industry. Of course, we can only fit so much in there. What else would you all add to the list?
Not sure who Doug is, but thank you!
Regarding the bunkers, yes, we've taken some criticism for them, which is very fair. There are quite a few that I like the look of (especially on 12 and 18 green), and some others that do look quite similar to one another. I'm not sure it's worth diving deep into an explanation of the play-by-play and how they came to look like that as it will just sound like making excuses at this point. I will say, we did focus on the gameplay aspects of the bunkers as a first priority, and it's been nice this year to see a few be quite consequential to play, especially on 1 tee, 6 tee, 15 tee and 18 green.
Great hole-by-hole analysis, Doug. But as I look at the photos I am reminded that all the bunkers look the same. What was the thinking behind making them all be round with a tongue of grass in them? To me that is a huge negative that is hard to overcome.
I remember on an old "State of the Game" podcast, Mike Clayton was asked about some course whose name I long ago forgot but I never forgot his answer, "All the bunkers are in the rough." He dismissed the course in one sentence. Bunkers matter but they should not all be the same.
Spot on with this article! Years ago, as a Standard Bearer at the Northern Trust in NJ (so bummed they took this tournament away from this market!!!), i was shocked when I pulled Phil's tee time. To that point, one of the top players I got to walk 18 holes inside the ropes with. At the start, he was very humble and appreciative, introducing himself as "Phil" like he is not one of the biggest faces of the PGA (obviously this was a tad before LIV came on scene). Unfortunately, not much else was memorable about those 18 holes. It's always nice when the players show their appreciation of the volunteers with a signed golf ball, but Phil was always a real stickler with not giving them out at the end of the round (which is totally his prerogative). Been a fringe Phil fan over the years, not much more. But he has gotten his just desserts these past few years with LIV and the negative feedback/controversy he has earned. Also, about to embark on Billy Walters book which should be eye opening regarding Phil and his "alleged" gambling. Again, great article... Sparked my trip down memory lane with him "inside the ropes".
Great read. And no one probably cares, but my perspective: I still vividly remember the joy I felt when Lefty finally broke through at Augusta in 2004, and the bewildering mix of elation and disbelief I had when he pulled off the PGA in 2021. Those feelings were genuine and true at the time, and they still resonate today.
Phil's actions (and alleged actions) since then have surely added layers and complications to those feelings, but they really haven't taken away the fond memories. For me (as a sports fans of a certain age), the 1998 Sosa v. McGwire home run chase is a close parallel. My spine still tingles when I think of that summer or when I stumble across highlights, even as the revelations over the years caused me to think (and to say) various combinations of . . . "what the fuc&?!?"
A final note: this is a whole other topic, but not a Phil fanboy here. I'm far more of a Tiger guy (a man with his own complications!), but I've also always believed more in "and" than "or". I mean, I can (and do) enjoy the music of both Prince and Metallica, the films of both Kubrick and Scott, etc.
Can’t wait to see a full write up on this. I’ve always wanted to see and learn more about it. Seems destined to host a TFE event someday, if I can dream
Indeed. The Loop is much more forgiving off the tee compared to FD. Night and day really.
The greens on The Loop truly are the defense. They are fun, wild and a bit scary at times.
Thanks for the info! I’ll be driving through NJ on the 22nd so might try to play it that day. I know Mondays can be tough with work schedules, but there might be other eggheads out there that day who are attending the Long Island event the next day. If any meetup gets planned I’ll loop you in.
Hey Kevin, I just joined FEGC and saw this when scrolling through recent posts. I live in South Orange and play Byrne all the time. I’m always looking out for new people to play golf with, so let me know if you ever want to meet up! I have a kid so I try to play early on weekends when I can, but often do late mornings/early afternoons just because getting prime tee times at Byrne is very difficult.
+1 to the comment about trying the day before - this year it’s a 12 hour cancellation policy so lots of people tend to hang on until the last minute and cancel around 12-14 hours before their time.
The Loop is super forgiving. I tried really hard to lose balls and always found them. The ground game is key here though. It’s best to go in with an open mind and enjoy a different type of golf. For me that’s what made it so fun.
I feel like the Loop is going to be hit or miss in my group. It looks pretty straight forward from the flyovers, I know that doesn’t do the greens justice.
How was the course off the tee? I have some low handicaps and high handicaps.
Some additional food options:
Breakfast in TC
- Frenchie's (small cramped dining, amazing brunch)
- Bubba's (lots of seating, great worse for the wear food)
- Sugar 2 Salt (near the GT commons)
- The Dandy (right downtown, not the best options for kids menu)
- Sisters (just across the street from Modern Bird)
- Red Spire (in the historic GT commons)
- Chez Amie (reimagined Patisserie Amie in the Warehouse MRKT)
- Potter's (local donut shop)
Lunch in TC
- Chef's Inn (sandwich shop connected to Burrit's Fresh Market for wine, speciality meat, and seafood)
- Chubby Unicorn (sandwich shop in downtown across from Little Fleet food trucks)
- Oakwood Proper (smashed burger shop near the base of the peninsula)
- Glendale Burger Shop (right near M-72 and M-22 intersection on west side of TC, easy if heading to / coming from Leelanau)
Dinner in TC
- Mama Lou's (mexican in downtown)
- Filling Station (brewery + pizza + dog friendly near boardman lake)
- Charles & Reid (detroit style pizza in downtown)
- Forrest, A Food Studio (two person operation with 24 seats, prepared menu, table reservations open the first of the month for the next month and go quickly)
Bars in TC
- Workshop (warehouse mrkt district downtown)
- U & I (local dive bar)
- 7 monks taproom (downtown)
- Low Bar (dark quiet lounge below 7 Monks)
Dessert in TC
- Buchan's Ice Cream (just west of TC near Glendale Burgers)
- Moomer's (just West of TC)
- Dairy Lodge (cash only*)
- Bardon's (base of peninsula near Oakwood Proper)
Leelanau County Spots:
- Art's Tavern (Glen Arbor - cash only*, B/L/D, famous chicken jalapeño soup on Wednesday)
- The Mill (Glen Arbor - dinner spot in renovated mill right on the river)
- Wren (Sutton's Bay - downtown dinner in Sutton's Bay)
- The Tribune (Northport - brunch)
I volunteered at Gaston CC as a walking scorer and it was one of the coolest things I have done in golf.
Joseph Bramlett was in my group and he was still very much in contention on the final 9. Watching him grind away up close was amazing. He got it up and down from everywhere but unfortunately was undone by a late bogey and missed birdie putt.
I would strongly recommend to the Coop that if you get a chance to volunteer at an event like this, please do it. What a great day. And, it reminds me of just how good these guys are - they play a different game than we do!
P.S. Chesson Hadley was also in the group, but quit after 9. He asked to see the live scoring and realized it was not going to happen.
Ha, I made the same comment to my two fellow architecture-enthused friends who were out there with me, but they were hearing none of it. I think playing it into a three-club wind made trying to be that precise a bit too much of an ask.
Same when I was there, although funny enough I think that made it a better hole. Laying back and left made it a blind approach and pushing it up right gave you a look at the green
Lowering expectations has helped me. I played in 3 tournaments last year. I felt very prepared and focused going into two of them and before the other I could hardly play due to a minor neck strain and work. I shot 80 in the two and 69 & won that I didn’t prep for. I’m sure it won’t always work that way either but it’s easy to overthink things and think that you need to do all the right things or make the time. I’m trying to be less stressed about it and see how that goes. I also think of the most nervous Or disastrous golf situation I’ve been in. The most nervous being the 1st tee shot at the Old course I hit right down the middle. The most disastrous being a tournament when I was 15 where I shanked the first tee shot OB, popped up my provisional into the water, dropped made 9. Topped my next tee ball into the water and walked off. My dad was watching from the car off the road and was already in the parking lot when I walked in utterly disappointed that I quit. Can’t get much worse than that!
Lowering expectations has helped me. I played in 3 tournaments last year. I felt very prepared and focused going into two of them and before the other I could hardly play due to a minor neck strain and work. I shot 80 in the two and 69 in the woke I didn’t prep for. I’m sure it won’t always work that way either but it’s easy to overthink things and think that you need to do all the right things or make the time. I’m trying to be less stressed about it and see how that goes. I also think of the lost nervous Or disastrous golf situation I’ve been in. The most nervous being the 1st tee shot at the Old course I hit right down the middle. The most disastrous being a torment when I was 15 where I shanked the first tee shot OB, popped up my provisional into the water, dropped made 9. Topped my next tee ball into the water and walked off. My dad was watching from the car off the road and was already in the parking lot when I walked in utterly disappointed that I quit. Can’t get much worse than that!
