Chocolate Drops: Hillcrest Country Club Goes Web3

Happy Presidents Day to all who celebrate—and especially to the parents who, on the Sunday before every Presidents Day, say, “Wait, there’s no school tomorrow? Are you f***ing kidding me?” Anyway, here’s some interesting stuff happening in the golf architecture world right now:

→ LinksDAO—the cryptocurrency-based company behind Links Golf Club, a digital community consisting of several thousand coin-holding members—announced last week that it had purchased a stake in Hillcrest Country Club in Kansas City, Missouri. Hillcrest dates back to 1916, when it debuted as a private club with a Donald Ross-designed course. During the Recession, Hillcrest went public and became known as a scruffy but high-quality and affordable glimpse of Golden Age golf architecture. LinksDAO, along with Kansas City-based partner Robb Heineman, is taking Hillcrest private again. The new owners will pour approximately $30 million into a transformation of the club’s buildings and a Tripp Davis-led reconstruction of the course. If all goes to schedule, the reimagined Hillcrest will reopen in spring 2026. The club will attempt to cultivate a local membership while also offering access to the members of Links Golf Club.

This is LinkDAO’s second big acquisition. The company’s other property, Spey Bay Golf Club on Scotland’s Moray Coast, is undergoing a renovation by Clayton, DeVries & Pont. Clearly LinksDAO feels bullish about its model, perhaps partly because of the second Trump administration’s crypto-friendly leanings. Whether this type of large, Web3-powered digital golf club will become common remains to be seen, however.

I first heard about the Hillcrest project last November, before LinksDAO came on board. Here’s what I wrote at the time: “The Hillcrest overhaul has me slightly concerned…. In spite of the course’s Ross pedigree… Tripp Davis’s plan calls for many of the holes to be rerouted. Yes, the old course was short by modern standards. But if top-100 status is the goal, why not restore the design of an architect who produced about a dozen top-100 courses in his career?”

My concerns remain. LinksDAO’s marketing pitch puts Donald Ross’s legacy front and center. How does this square with blowing up his actual work? If LinksDAO and Heineman don’t believe the current course is good enough to help the club reach its goals, fine. I would just prefer that they not keep invoking Ross’s name at the same time.

→ A long-discussed proposal to build a golf facility on the Feddinch Mains property near St. Andrews, Scotland, has received approval from local councilors. According to Golf Course Architecture, the development company behind the project, Alvarez & Marsal Golf, hopes to create “an 18-hole course, a par-3 layout, practice areas, a clubhouse, a luxury hotel and spa, and six cottages for guests.” Alvarez & Marsal also owns Hogs Head Golf Club in Ireland and Paako Ridge Golf Club in New Mexico. No word so far on whether the company plans to hire an outside golf architect to help with the new St. Andrews course.

→ The Cliffs Kangaroo Island, a destination resort in Australia featuring a course designed by Darius Oliver, dropped an unlisted YouTube teaser a couple of weeks ago. Preview play is set to begin in January 2026.

→ Since Club TFE members sometimes aren’t aware of the public content we publish, I’ll link to my article from last Friday about how the meaning of golf course “restoration” seems to have shifted in recent years. Feel free to discuss it in the comments section below!

→ Got five more minutes? Check out this video about this winter’s in-house course improvement projects at the Old Course at St. Andrews.