Chocolate Drops: A Look at Lake Oswego’s Reimagined Municipal Course

A few morsels from the world of golf course design to nibble on:

→ On Saturday morning, I dropped by the opening-day festivities for the Lake Oswego Recreation and Aquatics Center. The city-owned property in the Portland suburbs used to be home to an 18-hole par-3 course. Now it’s a multi-use complex featuring a gymnasium, two indoor swimming pools, classrooms, parks and recreation offices, an outdoor plaza, and a nine-hole golf course designed by Dan Hixson.

Hixson discussed the details of this project with me on the Fried Egg Golf Podcast in October 2023.

The new course sits on a smaller footprint than the original Lake Oswego Muni but is an upgrade in every other respect. It contains six par 3s and three short par 4s, giving players a chance to hit a variety of clubs. The greens are small and well crafted. Hixson’s greatest strength as an architect is designing green contours that feel original and unique yet simple and natural. I especially like the semi-Redan fourth green. The front half tilts away from the line of play, inviting a run-up shot from the elevated tee.

You’ll see some new tree plantings in my photos below. These were an unfortunate necessity: in building the course, Hixson removed about 160 trees, many non-native, but the contract with the city required him to plant approximately 130 trees in compensation. I would have preferred to have unobstructed views across the hole corridors, but hey, welcome to the Pacific Northwest. People love trees here.

All in all, the new Lake Oswego Muni is an exciting addition to the Portland public golf scene. I’ll be a regular.

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→ Architect Ian Andrew has broken ground on the first phase of a renovation of Beechmont Country Club, a 1923 Stanley Thompson design outside of Cleveland. This summer, Andrew will rebuild all of the course’s bunkers, recovering some lost stylistic elements of Thompson’s design. Beechmont member Louis Rittberger shared a couple of construction photos on Instagram (below). Andrew appeared with me on the Fried Egg Golf Podcast last year to discuss Thompson's work.

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→ Joe McDonnell and Sam Cooper, a pair of UK-based former associates of Clayton, DeVries & Pont, have formed their own golf architecture firm, McDonnell & Cooper. Both Joe and Sam have appeared on the Fried Egg Golf Podcast: Joe before the Open at Royal Liverpool in 2023, and Sam before the Open at Royal Troon last year. Smart guys, both.

→ Jay Blasi announced on social media last Friday that he’s getting started on a redesign of Burl Oaks Golf Club in Minnesota.

→ Gray Carlton posted some drone footage of Kye Goalby’s in-progress project in Twin Bridges, Montana. Lots of cool-looking stuff out there.

→ Last week, Landmand Golf Club — the eye-catching King-Collins course in Homer, Nebraska — released a half-hour documentary about its own origins titled “Anything But Little.” The piece was produced by a marketing agency called Oak Stump Strategy, with Landmand owner Will Andersen serving as executive producer. In other words, this is not purely a journalistic exercise. But I recommend giving the film a watch. It’s well-made and heartwarming, and I particularly enjoyed the textured portrayal of small-town life in Homer.