Design Notebook: Coore & Crenshaw Circa Y2K

Hello and welcome back to Design Notebook, where we’re resuming our regularly scheduled programming as our Masters hangover wears off.

In this week’s edition, Garrett Morrison discusses an underrated era of Coore & Crenshaw’s career and catches up on news from the golf-architecture world, including items related to projects at Augusta Municipal, Old Dane in Nebraska, and Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C.

Coore & Crenshaw’s Y2K Adolescence

By Garrett Morrsion

Occasionally, behind closed doors (or perhaps on the 11th page of a Golf Club Atlas thread), a second-tier golf architect will mumble something like, “Yes, Coore & Crenshaw are great—but how could they not be when they work on nothing but A+ sites?” Or, in a similar vein: “It’s easy to call yourself a minimalist when you get one ideal property after another.”

Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are both gracious enough to acknowledge that they’ve been fortunate with sites. Sand Hills, for instance, was probably the greatest property to become available for golf since the Golden Age, and Coore & Crenshaw got a crack at it even though their portfolio at the time consisted of just a few courses.

What Bill and Ben wouldn’t say—but I will—is that they have earned every opportunity they’ve been given over the past 30 years by doing terrific work. A lot of architects could have built a good course on the Sand Hills property, but almost none of them would have built something as good as Sand Hills.

There’s another problem with the notion that Coore & Crenshaw’s architectural philosophy and reputation rest atop an unlikely stack of outstanding sites. For a critical stretch of their career—between Sand Hills in 1995 and Friar’s Head in 2002—they plied their trade on a succession of less-than-amazing properties. I think of this period as Coore & Crenshaw’s “adolescence”: it was slightly awkward but important to their development.

The O’odham and Piipaash courses at Talking Stick (1997) were laid out on a barren desert lot. Klub Rimba Irian (1996), perhaps the most obscure item on C&C’s résumé, is tucked into the jungle of Papua New Guinea. Chechessee Creek Club (2000) sits on a Lowcountry marsh.

Coore & Crenshaw did work on a few higher-quality pieces of land around this time. The parkland properties at the Golf Club at Cuscowilla (1996), the Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame (2000), and Austin Golf Club (2001) are all solid, though nowhere near as strong as most of the firm’s post-Friar’s Head sites (Old Sandwich, Bandon Trails, Colorado Golf Club, etc.). East Hampton Golf Club (2000) was probably C&C’s best property from this period, but the project was still challenging, as nine holes had to be built within the confines of a preexisting routing.

Taken as a whole, this era of Coore & Crenshaw’s career served as a pressure test for their architectural abilities and philosophical beliefs. Could they build a functional, interesting course on below-average land? And would they remain devoted to minimalism even when nature offered little inspiration?

Over the past couple of months, during visits to Talking Stick and Chechessee Creek, I came to appreciate how emphatically they answered “yes” to both questions.

Both sites were essentially flood plains. At Talking Stick, the land was arid and nearly featureless. The Chechessee Creek property had many lovely trees and some frontage on the Port Royal Sound, but the ground itself was flat and mushy. In both cases, Coore & Crenshaw had to engineer golfable terrain.

They did so at Talking Stick by constructing a network of ridges and channels that moved water off of playing surfaces and toward boundaries. At Chechessee Creek, they sand-capped the entire course, elevated the greens above the water table, and left some swampy areas intact between holes.

As they built these functional components, Coore & Crenshaw simultaneously introduced golfing interest. The major manufactured features at Talking Stick and Chechessee Creek not only serve a drainage purpose but also enhance challenge and strategy. For example, the artificial barrancas at Talking Stick, which cut through the 12th hole on the O’odham Course and the 14th hole on the Piipaash Course, play a double role: 1) they route water off of their respective edges of the property, and 2) they function as diagonal risk-reward hazards.

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What’s most striking about this work is how understated it is. Yes, Coore & Crenshaw moved plenty of dirt at Talking Stick and Chechessee Creek, but they only moved as much as they had to in order to create compelling golf. This allowed both properties to retain their natural character. The O’odham Course at Talking Stick still looks like part of the Sonoran Desert, albeit with more concentrated and curated flora. (The Piipaash Course, where the owners insisted on a parkland aesthetic, feels more removed from its surroundings, but not in a jarring way.) And Chechessee Creek remains very much of a piece with the Lowcountry—mostly flat but contoured just enough to make the ground game engaging, and full of beautiful pines and live oaks.

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If Coore & Crenshaw had taken a more aggressive approach to these sites, they would have diminished the sense of place that makes all three courses so alluring. But—and here’s the rub—a more souped-up, eye-catching version of Talking Stick or Chechessee Creek might have done better in the rankings.

This, then, is the real test of an architect’s (and a client’s) commitment to minimalism: do you honor a property’s sense of place even when doing so sacrifices photogenic appeal and potential accolades from magazine panels?

During their turn-of-the-century “adolescence,” Coore & Crenshaw proved their bona fides on this front. I’m not sure how many of today’s rising firms would have the confidence and conviction to do the same.

Chocolate Drops

By Garrett Morrison

Fazio-Welling at The Patch. During his annual press conference before The Masters, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley revealed that Tom Fazio and Beau Welling will carry out a renovation of Augusta Municipal Golf Course, known locally as “The Patch.” The work will begin in January 2025 and be finished in time for the 2026 Masters. Ridley did not delve into the details of Fazio and Welling’s plans, but he mentioned that the focus will be to create “a great golf course and practice area” as well as “a hub for junior and high school golf.” A new short course is also a possibility. The project is the result of a previously announced partnership between ANGC, the First Tee of Augusta, and Augusta Technical College. Fried Egg Golf’s Matt Rouches visited The Patch earlier this month and wrote about his impressions of the course and hopes for the renovation here.

Dormer at Old Dane. Longtime Coore & Crenshaw associate Trevor Dormer has been hired to rebuild Old Dane Golf Club in Dakota City, Nebraska. Dormer will expand the affordable public course from nine to 12 holes, completely transforming the property. “It’s a dead flat site,” Dormer said, “so I’m trying to do some different, quirky things…. There will not be a single square yard of ground on the property that is untouched by the plow.” Old Dane’s owners, the Andersen family, also own nearby Landmand Golf Club, a King-Collins design that opened in 2022. The Andersens met Dormer when the young architect spent two weeks helping with construction at Landmand. Dormer’s work at Old Dane is scheduled to begin this October and conclude during the 2026 season. It’s an intriguing project in a number of respects—not least because it’s Dormer’s first big shot at an original design—but I’m particularly heartened by this sentence in the press release: “Andersen says he expects Old Dane’s green fees, which are currently $15 for nine holes and $25 for 18, to remain substantially the same.”

Trevor Dormer's plan for the reconstruction of Old Dane

Rock Creek gets closer. The Gil Hanse-led redesign of Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., discussed in Club TFE last January, took a big step forward last week, earning approval from the National Park Service to begin construction in late fall of this year. To mark the occasion, the National Links Trust, which operates D.C.’s three municipal golf facilities, released a video detailing the Rock Creek project.

Rae at Old Sawmill. Tyler Rae confirmed on social media that his firm is working on a 27-hole new build 30 miles northwest of Charleston, South Carolina. The private facility, named Old Sawmill Golf Club, will feature an 18-hole “main course” and a nine-hole par-3 course called The Lumber Yard. The club is set to open in late fall of this year.

A new shorty in Kentucky. Speaking of par-3 courses with “yard” in their names, Park Mammoth Golf Club, a municipal course in Park City, Kentucky, will soon have a nine-holer of its own called The Boneyard. Leading the project will be Brian Ross, who rebuilt Park Mammoth’s 18-hole regulation course in 2021. The Boneyard is expected to open for play in spring of 2025.

Brian Ross's plan for The Boneyard

Old Petty. Tom Doak’s new course at Cabot Highlands (formerly Castle Stuart) now has an official name, logo, and hype video.

A Course We Photographed Recently

Crossroads at Palmetto Bluff—reversible nine-hole course (“Hammer” and “Press” routings) designed by King-Collins, opened earlier this year

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Quotable

“There are two ways of widening the gap between a good tee shot and a bad one. One is to inflict a severe and immediate punishment upon a bad shot, to place its perpetrator in a bunker or in some other trouble demanding the sacrifice of a stroke in recovering; the other is to reward the good shot by making the second shot simpler in proportion to the excellence of the drive. The reward may be of any nature, but it is more commonly one of three; a better view of the green, an easier angle from which to attack a slope, or an open line of approach past guarding hazards. In this way, upon the long, well-placed drive—possibly the one that has dared an impressive bunker—is conferred the greatest benefit, but shots of less excellence are still left with the opportunity to recover by bringing off an exceptionally fine second. A course constructed with these principles in view must be interesting, because it will offer problems a man may attempt, according to his ability. It will never become hopeless for the duffer, nor fail to concern and interest the expert; and it will be found, like old St. Andrews, to become more delightful the more it is studied and played.” –Bobby Jones