Chocolate Drops: A New Show from Fried Egg Golf

Howdy, Club TFE. Here’s some fun stuff happening in the golf architecture industry right now:

→ Is it conceited of me to frame the debut of my own project as ‘news’? Whatever, I’m plowing ahead. Designing Golf is a new Fried Egg Golf show about golf courses and golf architecture. I’m the host. Each episode will dig into a different topic, whether a basic design concept or the history of an important course or the best places to play in a particular region. The episodes will be relatively focused and structured—rooted more in storytelling than in the “free-flowing conversation” mode.

If that intrigues you, consider subscribing to the podcast feed.

We’ll be releasing new installments every two weeks, but to celebrate the launch, we’ve dropped three episodes at once. They’re waiting for you right now. The first is a preview of the year in golf architecture with Andy Johnson; the second is an introduction to penal and strategic design with PJ Clark; and the third is a conversation with Geoff Ogilvy about the four courses that had the biggest impact on him.

I’m super excited to get Designing Golf rolling and incredibly grateful to my colleagues—and, of course, to all of you in the Hottest Club in Town—for the opportunity.

→ As Brendan Porath detailed in Club TFE last Wednesday, Streamsong Resort announced that David McLay Kidd will build the fourth 18-hole course at the Central Florida destination. Streamsong opened in 2012 with the intertwined Red and Blue layouts—designed by Coore & Crenshaw and Tom Doak, respectively—and has since added Gil Hanse’s Black course and Coore & Crenshaw’s The Chain, a 13-hole short course. With the addition of Kidd’s yet-to-be-named design (can they really call it anything other than White?), Streamsong will be the only golf resort to boast creations by the Big Four* of Coore & Crenshaw, Doak, Hanse, and Kidd.

*This is a contested term. Some would say there’s a Big Three, or even just a Big Two. Scottie Scheffler might say there’s a Big One, and His name is not Bill, Tom, Gil, or David. We all have our own perspectives on the matter.

Kidd’s plan for the new Streamsong course contains many of his post-Gamble Sands motifs: ultra-wide fairways, large waste areas dotted by grassy islands, and an acreage-eating routing that follows a wandering, out-and-back loop. It all strikes me as pretty similar to a lot of his recent work, but you can only tell so much from a map. I’d like to hear more about how Kidd intends to adapt his style to this particular piece of land.

Map of David McLay Kidd's new course at Streamsong Resort.

→ The R&A announced last Thursday that the 2027 Open Championship will be played at the Old Course at St. Andrews. No surprises there. The Old Course hosts the Open approximately every five years, and the last St. Andrews Open, won by Cameron Smith, was held in 2022.

What’s notable is that the R&A still has not joined the USGA’s rush to select venues decades in advance. Only three future Opens are currently booked: 2025 at Royal Portrush, 2026 at Royal Birkdale, and 2027 at the Old Course.

→ In other St. Andrews news, the Old Course grounds crew has been busy this winter, rebuilding about 100 bunkers, including the famed Shell bunker on the seventh hole.

Screenshot of Andrew Anderson’s Instagram story.

→ Also busy: Tyler Rae. Last week, the architect shared his plan for a “thoughtful Seth Raynor restoration” at Mountain Lake in Lake Wales, Florida. Bulldozers will arrive in 2026. He received additional good news from Glen View Club, which announced to members last Friday that an assessment plan for Rae’s renovation of the William Flynn course had been approved by an 86.4% vote. The work at the Chicago-area club will begin in 2026 as well.

Plan for Tyler Rae’s restoration at Mountain Lake.

→ 21 Golf Club, a private golf development between Aiken, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia, revealed last Friday that earthmoving is underway on a re-creation of El Boquerón, a never-built reversible course that Alister MacKenzie designed in 1930 for a client in Argentina. Advising on the project is Brian Zager, a young architect whose expertise in LiDAR mapping earned him a key role in Tom Doak and Brian Schneider’s reconstruction of The Lido at Sand Valley.

The timeline for 21 Golf Club’s match-play-centric Hammer Course, to be designed by King Collins Dormer, has not yet been announced.