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In his 2025 "Year-and-Review" communique, Jay Blasi revealed that he will be designing a new course called The Sand Mine in Whitehall, Wisconsin.

"This has been a dream project of mine since 2020, when I first visited the site," Blasi wrote. "In 2020, the previous property owner, a mining company, sold the land to my friend Derrick Bushman and his brother Mitch. Together, we will work to transform this abandoned frack sand mine into one of the top golf courses in Wisconsin and beyond. We have a great team ready to go. Stay tuned!"

Whitehall is just under two hours west of Sand Valley Golf Resort and actually closer to Minneapolis than it is to any major city in Wisconsin. So: pretty far out in the boonies. But that's the custom these days.

Given the existence of Pinehurst Sandmines, I might suggest a name change, but I'm excited to see The Sand Mine (working title) come together. Blasi has been on a roll lately, with terrific public-course renos at Poppy Ridge and Golden Gate Park in California.

Dr. Chipinski leading after Day 1, Blockie showing some mettle and isn't DFL - this tournament has everything.

Harris Kalinka, a company specializing in realistic renderings of yet-to-be-built golf courses, posted a heck of a tease today. "We can't reveal too many details yet, as this project remains confidential," Harris Kalinka said, "but we can share that it's set on a small island, is among the most picturesque sites we've worked on, and will feature a golf course designed by Clyde Johnson of @CunninGolf."

Clyde Johnson is a St. Andrews local, a Tom Doak associate, a frequent podcast guest in the Fried Egg Golf universe, and a great up-and-coming talent in golf architecture. This projects appears to be one of the most striking solo-design debuts in recent memory.

Any geography geniuses out there have an idea of where it might be?

The National Links Trust, currently in a struggle with the Trump administration to maintain control of three municipal golf courses in Washington, D.C., announced earlier this week that it will partner with the Friends of the Port Townsend Golf Park in Port Townsend, Washington. NLT co-founder Mike McCartin will develop a master plan for improvements to the 122-year-old course as well as design a new community putting course inspired by the Himalayas at St. Andrews.

"This partnership is an exciting step in expanding our work nationally and advancing our mission to protect and promote community-focused municipal golf across the country," the NLT said in a statement. Consider that a hint about what the NLT might do next if the Trump administration manages to chase the group out of D.C.

In any case, this is great news for Port Townsend, a beautiful and historic little town at the mouth of Puget Sound.

Elsewhere in the FEGC community forum, member Wesley Domeck asks which other municipalities would make good partners for the NLT. May I suggest Portland, Oregon?

Earlier this week, River Ranch Golf Resort near Pasco, Washington, announced plans for a first golf course designed by David McLay Kidd. I first reported on this development last October.

The property, formerly the site of a winery, features dramatic cliffs above the Snake River.

Kidd's plan calls for an intimately routed front nine and a much more spread-out, looping back nine, with a clifftop 18th hole.

And yes, the fairways will be quite wide.

According to Golfweek, Kidd's team started shaping holes earlier this winter. They hope to begin grassing this April, finish the bunkering in summer 2027, and have the course ready for a fall 2027 or spring 2028 opening. (I'll put my money on 2028.)

River Ranch has not yet publicized plans for additional courses, but if the first 18 does well, you can expect more. The owners have plenty of land. Hell, they could easily fit an executive course on the unused ground inside of Kidd's back nine.

The resort is three hours south of Gamble Sands, where Kidd has designed two 18-hole courses and a short course over the past 12 years. The River Ranch project confirms his ongoing dominance over high-end new builds in the Pacific Northwest. Kidd lives in Bend, Oregon, so it's no surprise that he keeps getting the best jobs in the region.

The city of Pasco — part of central Washington's "Tri-Cities" area — is three and a half hours from both Seattle and Portland, and a little under an hour from Walla Walla, Washington, where Dan Hixson's excellent Wine Valley Golf Club is located. There's a lot of good wine terroir in this region, including the famed Red Mountain, Horse Heaven Hills, and Walla Walla AVAs. So it makes sense that River Ranch is betting on the Tri-Cities as an ascendent weekend destination for well-heeled Seattleites and Portlanders.

Just checking in on my boy Nick Dunlap after Andy and Brendan mentioned some big misses off the tee at Sony last week. These are all from the front nine today on the Stadium Course.......

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Ladies and gents,

This is long overdue but I'm happy to say that, starting in 2026, our Virtual Hangouts will be available as podcasts! You will always be welcomed and encouraged to join in live, but we know that everyone can't always make our monthly meetings.

The podcast is available as a private RSS feed. You can find instructions on how to add the podcast to your preferred podcast app in the FEGC Podcast Page. Note - This podcast is not available on Spotify as that platform does not allow for private RSS feed podcasts. iPhone users won't have any trouble using the Apple Podcast app and Android users will be best served to use the Pocket Casts app.

Let me know if you have any questions! Welcome to the 21st Century

Wanted to get your input on how you could renovate / improve these two holes. The first hole (farthest to the left) is a straightforward par 5 with one bunker on the shared fairway portion. The second is a par 4 where most players can’t hit to the shared bunker and only obstacle is the bunker on the left side of the fairway. Both holes are very straightforward. Hit it straight and that’s it.

We are going to be doing an new irrigation system install and I wanted to put this out there to see if any of you guys had ideas for small ways we could renovate these holes and give more character and strategy to these two holes!

This might be the ultimate Filling Foursomes post.

We had a twosome back out of our trip to SW Ireland at the end of April so we're looking for a couple of FEGC members who are interested in jumping in. Tossing the basics here but please feel free to email me at will@thefriedegg.com with any questions!

The Basics

Dates: April 25-May 2, 2026 (Depart USA on April 25, Return to USA on May 2. Golf on the 26th-1st)

Courses: Dooks, Tralee, Waterville, Ballybunion, Lahinch (2x)

Lodging: Grand Southern Killarney Hotel (4 Nights) & Vaughn Lodge (2 Nights). Lodging is Single Occupancy (each person has their own room)

Included in the Trip: Six rounds of golf, six nights of premium lodging, daily transportation, and two group dinners. Participants are responsible for airfare.

You can find full information of the trip on our Event Page.

Cost: $7,810/person

If an architect in 2026 decided to pull a CB McDonald and go in search of the best holes in the world, to then try and replicate (or mimic) on an ideal 18 hole course,

1. what holes would you put on the list?
2. what would a site have to look like to fit your holes on it? [assume all the lidar stuff from Lido is available to you]
3. what might you adjust about those holes?

These can be any 18 holes you want. You don't have to have a best 1st hole, best 2nd hole, etc., and you don't necessarily have to follow any standard Par 72 construct.

Howdy folks,

Has anyone gone through the Bandon Lottery process in the past? Was fortunate enough to be selected for the June-October window of 2027 (starting in a balmy 1,832th spot). Does anyone know what all I'll book on this venture? Is it just lodging, or will they want to do tee time bookings as well? Just want to know what to expect when they finally get to me.

Thanks in advance!

Following the awesome news from the NLT about partnering with the Friends of Port Townsend Golf Park it got me thinking about what towns and cities across America would make for great partners with the NLT. Where are the best opportunities across America?

Last years NCAA singles champion. Foregoing his last year of college and Masters exemption to join LIV. I’m an Ole Miss fan through and through, and always had mixed feelings about him. Think he will fit right in with LIV.

Fellow eggheads! A discussion on SGS this morning after replaying Caleb Williams's miraculous game-tying touchdown centered around some of the best, most memorable plays that eroded a little bit due to a loss. For me, I cited Rajai Davis's equally miraculous game-tying home run off Aroldis Chapman in Game 7 of the World Series in 2016 that would end in an extra innings loss. A memory for a lifetime even if only a moment of bliss.

Where and when has this phenomenon taken place in golf? There had to be some stakes -- i.e. player in contention -- and the shot is somewhat lost to history because the player did not go on to win the trophy. We want to talk more about this on the next SGS and would love to cite some fellow FEGC members.