Category: Other Places

Nothing Conservative About The Conservatory at Hammock Beach Resort

Nothing Conservative About The Conservatory at Hammock Beach Resort

The Tom Watson-designed Conservatory Course and its elaborate “Crystal Palace” clubhouse — both amenities to the Hammock Beach Resort a few miles away — were built and opened at extreme expense just in time for the global economic recession and the crumbling of owner Bobby Ginn’s resort and real estate empire. The Conservatory is located on garbage land not…

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The Sea Remains the Same — The “Old” Ocean Hammock

The Sea Remains the Same — The “Old” Ocean Hammock

The Ocean Course at Hammock Beach Resort, originally called Ocean Hammock, surprised a lot of people when it opened in late 2000. One reason was that six holes touched on the dunes running along the Atlantic, something that rarely happens in Florida anymore. The other was because Jack Nicklaus and Nicklaus Design had built what was unquestionably a…

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Broadmoor East: Ross Turns the Table

Broadmoor East: Ross Turns the Table

Poor Donald Ross. For decades since his death in 1948, Ross — and the spirit of Ross — has been forced to suffer the fate (and sometimes the indignity) of watching his golf courses stripped, stretched, overhauled, burnished and otherwise bastardized by generation after generation of greens committee and architect. Ross’s courses have probably seen more changes through…

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Breaking Mold at The Breakers Rees Jones Course

Breaking Mold at The Breakers Rees Jones Course

Outside of his courses in New York, maybe, Rees Jones is probably better known for his work renovating and prepping courses for major championships than he is for his original designs. He earned the moniker “The Open Doctor” (his father, Robert Trent Jones, was the original Open Doctor) for his renovations of courses like The Country Club, Pinehurst No.2, Bethpage Black, Torrey Pines (South) and Congressional for…

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Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail: A Real Stew at Grand National’s Links Course

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail: A Real Stew at Grand National’s Links Course

If it’s true the Lake course at Grand National is the most balanced course on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail (perhaps), the Links is where all the unused parts and rejected ideas for it went. But Mulligan Stew can hit the spot sometimes, and at the very least you can expect flavor. That’s what you get…

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ChampionsGate-International–Stranger in a Strange Land

ChampionsGate-International–Stranger in a Strange Land

The International Course at this 36-hole complex a few miles southwest of Disney World was conceived to emulate the look and characteristics of Scottish and Irish links (there’s also the National course, designed in an “American” style). I’m not sure  which links courses exactly, because I can’t think of any off the top of my…

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