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TOM CUNNEFF 2013-01-02 AS INCREASED DEMAND AND SEVERE WEATHER SQUEEZE OUR WATER RESOURCES, COURSES—AND GOLFERS—MUST ADOPT A DIFFERENT MINDSET     CHANCES ARE YOU DON’T think much about water, and why should you? You can turn on your tap at home and run it for as long as you like with very litt ...

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Living Laboratory

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TOM CUNNEFF 2012-09-28 FARMLINKS IS NOT JUST A TOP-RATED RESORT—IT’S ALSO A RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT GOLF COURSE THAT HAS SCHOOLED THOUSANDS OF SUPERINTENDENTS   LOCATED AT THE FOOTHILLS of the Appalachian Mountains in Sylacauga, Alabama, FarmLinks Golf Club has everything you’d expect from ...

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Standing on Principle

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Tom Cunneff, LINKS Magazine 2012-08-27 SOME OF THE RULES OF GOLF MAY SEEM UNNECESSARY—EVEN UNFAIR—BUT THERE'S A DISTINCT REASON, LOGIC, AND SPIRIT BEHIND THEM. There isn't a golfer out there who hasn’t at one time or another decried the Rules that govern the game, loudly proclaim ...

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A Simpler Game: To Preserve And Protect

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Tom Cuneff, LINKS Magazine 2012-03-30 Golf environmentalism is not an oxymoron to Mike Keiser, particularly with the opening of his newest course, Bandon Preserve When Mike Keiser was growing up in Upstate New York in the 1950s, his father was always planting and pruning trees on an open plot of land nea ...

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A Simpler Game: The 10 Golden Rules

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On most days, these are all you need to know   Since the humble beginnings of organized golf, more than two and a half centuries ago, almost every element of the game has changed and grown. But surely no aspect has expanded more dramatically—and some would say needlessly—than the Rules. ...

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Introducing 'A Simpler Game'

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Caught in the imperfect storm of rising costs and falling revenue, facilities are discovering that the model, which equated length, conditioning and visual stimulation with the quality of the golf experience, is no longer sustainable.  For a number of reasons, we think golf would be best if it returned to the way it used to be. The game thrived for centuries on seemingly inferior attributes: firm, brown, natural. These conditions would require fewer resources for construction and maintenance, resulting in cost savings for courses.  ...

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Trees? A Crowd

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While trees invariably enhance the scenery and provide a host of practical and environment benefits, they are not essential to most courses. In fact, they can drive up the cost of course maintenance drastically. To determine the exact cost of trees, we surveyed 14 private facilities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with a wide variety of tree proliferation and maintenance budgets. Here is what we found, with all figures representing averages per 18 holes. ...

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A Sandy Recovery

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Golf celebrates a quiet but significant anniversary in 2011 with the centenary of the opening of Long Island’s National Golf Links of America, C.B. Macdonald’s masterpiece that was not only was the first great course in the United States, but also the layout that ushered in the Golden Age of course design.   Now more than ever, the platinum standard remains the Golden Age philosophies of multiple playing options, lay-of-the-land features, and naturally firm, fast conditions that make for fun, engaging golf experiences - the pillars of our “A Simpler Game” campaign.    ...

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An Open Message

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 The U.S. Open layout should be the model to which every course should aspire. USGA President Jim Hyler certainly hopes so. That is why he wouldn’t mind seeing brown grass at Pebble Beach, as the maintenance staff will apply less water on the course, both in the weeks leading up to the event and during the championship itself.   ...

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A New Model for Golf

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For decades, the model for golf course aesthetics has been Augusta National Golf Club. The annual telecast of the Masters has shown a seemingly impossible range of shades of green on the grounds, from the pines to the greens to the fairways.  ...

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The Hazards of Slow Play

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Over the last couple of years the economy has sadly driven some respectable golf courses out of business. Others are struggling not to lose golfers who are fed up with what just about everyone calls the number one problem in golf today—slow play. However, a few courses—those whose owners and managers have accepted the challenge of thinking and acting differently—are filling their tee sheets and gaining market share. Take a good look at these. ...

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