Feed The Ball

Martin Ebert is one of the founding partners, along with Tom Mackenzie, of Mackenzie & Ebert, arguably the top golf design firm in Europe. Ebert has been the lead consulting architect, with Mackenzie, for most of the Open Championship courses as well as dozens of clubs in the U.K., Ireland and Europe. They also have several new courses currently under construction around the world. Ebert joins Derek Duncan to discuss the company’s rise to the upper stratosphere of golf design, his impressions of golf in the U.S., how the cost of building and renovating courses in the U.K. compares to the U.S., the way Mackenzie and Ebert use advanced technology to produce plans, his insistence that green surfaces be constructed down to the most minute details of those plans and the trend of architects build too much contour into their greens. Photos: Cover page, Royal Portrush (mackenzieandebert.com). Above, The Island (mackenzieandebert.com). Outro song: Brendan Benson, “Metairie.” Watch Derek Duncan break down the 16th hole at Cypress Point. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post Episode 97: Martin Ebert appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Trey Kemp has been one of the most active and influential figures in public and municipal golf design in Texas for over 15 years. He spent much of that time working with John Colligan and now has his own firm, continuing to improve public courses while also pursuing new course commissions. He joins the Feed the Ball podcast to discuss the challenges and opportunities working in the public sphere, what courses have guided his design aesthetic, the value of Tom Fazio, if the Raynor resurgence is played out, the secret sauce to making public golf profitable and what it takes to break into the architectural elite. Photos: Main page, Rockwood Golf Course (credit: fortworthgolf.org); Above, Texas Rangers Golf Club (courtesy of the club). Outro song: Wilco, “How to Fight Loneliness.” Watch Derek Duncan break down the original Redan hole at North Berwick. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post Episode 95: Trey Kemp appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Ron Whitten, historian and former Golf Digest architecture editor, and Mike Davis, former USGA CEO and executive director, delve deep into the origins, evolution and architecture of Oakmont Country Club. We discuss how and why Oakmont developed the way it has, what makes it arguably the greatest championship venue in American golf, what makes the greens so unique and so fast, whether it’s a purely penal design, how Whitten shamed the club into reclaiming their treeless identity in the 1990s and the course’s specific strengths and weaknesses. Photos: Main page, Oakmont CC, First hole; Above, Oakmont’s second hole. Watch Derek Duncan break down the 13th hole at Augusta National. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post The Rap: Oakmont, One of One appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Augusta National is complicated. It’s the most famous course in the world and has been an architectural and maintenance ideal for decades, even though the design is in a continuing state of flux and the turf and bunker conditions have been far from perfect over its life. If it isn’t what we think it is, and perhaps never was, and if it has passed through numerous very different versions of itself, how can it perennially and for most of its history be considered essentially one thing: arguably the best or second best course in the U.S. and number one on every golfer’s bucket list? Designer, historian and Golf Digest architecture emeritus Ron Whitten, and prolific author David Owen (who wrote the seminal book on the Masters called “The Making of the Masters“) sit with Derek Duncan to hash out all of this and explore the depths of Augusta. The Comprehensive Guide to Every Change at Augusta National. Watch Derek Duncan break down the 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post The Rap: Augusta Agonistes appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Looking ahead to The Players Championship, former PGA Tour player Richard Zokol and designer Jeff Mingay drop in from Canada to break down everything there is to know about The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass (Zokol actually competed on Sawgrass in the 1980s). We get into the history and creation of the course, how it exemplifies Pete Dye’s architectural genius, its influence on golf design, playing the course with 1980s equipment, how the professionals have adapted to it and commentary on its best, worst and most overrated holes. Outro song: “Comfortably Numb,” Pink Floyd. Watch Derek Duncan break down the 18th hole at TPC Sawgrass. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post The Rap: Dye-secting TPC Sawgrass appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Former Australian, European and PGA Tour player and current CBS Sports golf broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch joins Golf Digest architecture editor Derek Duncan and golf course builder Jim Urbina on the Feed the Ball podcast. They discuss the lack of architecture discussion during tournament television broadcasts, the dangers of the distance professional players are driving the ball, the importance of seeing as many different courses as possible, the different genius of Bill Coore and Tom Fazio, why PGA Tour rounds take so long, what makes Australian Sand Belt courses so distinct and what Baker-Finch’s ideal course design would look like. Photos: Above, Pebble Beach (Stephen Szurlej); Main page, Kingston Heath (David Cannon). Watch Derek Duncan break down The 17th hole at Whistling Straits. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post Feed the Ball Salon Vol. 30, ft. Ian Baker-Finch appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Keith Cutten comes back on the Feed the Ball podcast to discuss the new Shorty’s course at Bandon Dunes that opened last year, Brantford Golf & Country Club in Ontario and building Ken Baskt’s The Ranch near Hobe Sound, Florida. He also explains the working dynamics of his firm Whitman, Axland, Cutten (WAC), how Dave Axland and Rod Whitman work, the importance of small contours and what an updated chapter of his book The Evolution of Golf Course Design might look like. Photos: Above, Brantford Golf & Country Club (Brantford G&CC); Main page, Shorty’s at Bandon Dunes (Bandon Dunes). Outro song: “Time Stands Still,” Rush. Watch Derek Duncan break down The 13th hole at Pacific Dunes. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post Episode 91: Keith Cutten 3 appeared first on Feed The Ball.

Scottish golf course architect Benjamin Warren joins the Feed the Ball podcast with Derek Duncan to discuss building The Loop at Chaska in Minnesota, a course designed for adaptive golfers, working extensively in Japan, why recent architecture outshines that of the 80s and 90s, the challenge of building true links in the U.S. and shaping courses for architects like Bill Coore, James Duncan, Kye Goalby and Ogilvy, Cocking and Mead. Photos: Above, The Loop at Chaska (chaskaloop.com); Main page, The Tree Farm, hole 13 (Jeff Marsh). Outro song: “Better Trends,” Japanese Motors. Watch Derek Duncan break down The 13th hole at Pacific Dunes. Subscribe to Feed the Ball on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play Twitter: @feedtheball Instagram: @feedtheball The post Episode 90: Benjamin Warren appeared first on Feed The Ball.