Chocolate Drops: Atlanta Athletic Club Goes Green

Here’s what I’m tracking this week in the golf architecture industry:

→ The members of Atlanta Athletic Club have endorsed a seven-year master plan to “update and renovate key operational areas of the club.” In addition to modernizing its clubhouse, tennis and aquatics complexes, and golf practice facilities, AAC will renovate its Highlands Course, which has been the site of several major championships, including the 1976 U.S. Open and three PGA Championships. Overseeing the work will be architect Andrew Green, best known for his renovations of East Lake Golf Club, Inverness Club, Interlachen Country Club, Scioto Country Club, the Blue Course at Congressional Country Club, and the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club.

Like many clubs that have recently hired Green, AAC previously worked with Robert Trent Jones, who designed the current back nine of the Highlands Course in 1967, and Rees Jones, who revised the course in 2006 and 2016. The RTJ/Rees/Green trifecta will be a common feature of many club histories in the future.

I’m curious to see how Green approaches this project. Since AAC does not have Golden Age roots, I doubt he will incorporate many historical elements into his plans. So perhaps he will do something similar to what he did at Congressional Blue, where he eliminated most traces of the Jones family’s influence in favor of a 21st-century, post-minimalist* style. Mostly, though, I just hope Green produces a course that feels unique—a trait in short supply among championship venues these days.

(*I need to define this term properly at some point. It characterizes a lot of 2020s golf architecture, I think: influenced by certain stylistic markers of “minimalism” yet maximalist in both method and effect.)

→ Last week, The Cabot Collection—the development company behind Cabot Cape Breton, Cabot Citrus Farms, Cabot Highlands, and other buzzy destination resorts—announced its expansion into golf course management. Previously, Cabot oversaw the strategy and operations of four U.S. courses through an affiliate, CDN Golf Management. Now the company has brought those properties under the central Cabot umbrella. Presumably, since this bit of corporate restructuring merited its own press release, the Cabot Collection is looking to expand its management portfolio. This sideline would further distinguish Ben Cowan-Dewar’s company from Dream Golf, which has thus far remained focused on resort development.

→ Thad Layton, who recently hung out his own shingle after decades with Arnold Palmer Golf Design, has started on a renovation of Fox Hollow Golf Course, a 27-hole municipal facility in Lakewood, Colorado. Layton is a talented and experienced architect, so I expect that this project will make the Denver area’s already strong public golf scene even better.

→ Seth Raynor scholar Anthony Pioppi has been posting recent photos of Gil Hanse’s ongoing restoration of The Yale Golf Course. Tantalizing stuff.

→ Watch your back, Bear Trap and Snake Pit! “Grumpy’s Gauntlet” is coming to town.

→ PGA Tour pro and YouTuber Wesley Bryan tossed some chum in the engagement pool with this proposal for a golf course:

Discuss!