The deadliest wildfire in recent U.S. history displaced thousands of residents in Maui back in August, killing more than 100, swallowing the historic Lahaina town in flames and closing many of the area’s golf courses.

Officials are unsure what started the blazes that prompted some locals to bolt into the ocean to escape marauding flames, but some experts said they suspect human development on the island is at least partly to blame for the destruction.

Wildfires have quadrupled in Hawaii in recent decades, and many scientists say the culprit is unmanaged, nonnative grasslands planted by plantations and ranchers and others unfamiliar with the island’s native ecosystems. The grass is dry and prone to fires.

Kapalua Golf’s Bay Course re-opened on Sept. 20, and its Plantation Course is set to do so on Oct. 18. Both golf courses had been closed since the Maui wildfires on Aug. 8. Located in West Maui, the golf courses and facilities at Kapalua Golf were spared from the fires, which devastated Lahaina, about 10 miles away.

According to a story on mauinow.com, another major resort on the island is also nearly back up to full speed.

Kā‘anapali reopened its driving range and Royal Kā‘anapali Golf Course on Sept. 18 and will reopen the Kā‘anapali Kai Golf Course on Nov. 20.

Kapalua Golf ‘s Bay Course’s practice range reopened on Aug. 28. Wailea Golf Club remained open after the fires with Wailea’s Gold, Blue and Emerald Courses continuing to welcome guests.

The fires impacted associates at all three golf resort properties with many losing their homes and possessions. As the Maui community heals, the properties continue to welcome back team members to work as they are ready to return.

All three properties have focused efforts to support team members who lost their homes or loved ones, while also continuing to help the larger Maui community recover through donations and fundraisers.

“As part of Mauiʻs recovery process, we need our visitors to help keep our community employed,” said Sherry Duong, executive director of the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau. “We welcome respectful, responsible and compassionate travel to all accessible parts of Maui. We encourage our visitors to buy local, dine at local restaurants, enjoy Mauiʻs incredible activities and attractions including our beautiful golf courses, and most of all visit our island with patience and grace.”

“Our team truly appreciates the outpouring of support from around the globe over the past six weeks,” said Kapalua Golf & Tennis General Manager Alex Nakajima. “Our staff was deeply impacted by the fires, with nearly a third losing their homes and possessions. As associates and the community work to heal, we continue to support them; welcoming back team members to work as they are ready. As we continue the recovery process, we are reopening our two golf courses for Kamaʻāina (local residents) on island and for those planning their return to Maui. As millions discovered during the pandemic, a round of golf can be good medicine for the mind, body and soul.”

Kapalua Golf’s Plantation Course and Bay Course are open to resort guests and daily-fee play. Arnold Palmer designed The Bay Course first, in 1975, which is more forgiving than the Plantation, a Coore-Crenshaw design that the duo built in 1991 and renovated in 2019. The Sentry is played annually at the Plantation Course, which ranks No. 17 in Golfweek’s Best Resort Courses list.

It had been more than a decade since a new municipal golf course has been built in the state of New Jersey, but the soft opening of the Old Bridge Golf Club at Rose-Lambertson, nicknamed “The Rose,” put an end to that drought on Thursday.

Old Bridge’s mayor, Owen Henry, was part of a contingent on hand this week for a ceremonial opening.

“This is a jewel, and this is going to be here for the current and the future residents and generations of Old Bridge,” Henry told our network partner, the Courier News.

Although a soft opening for the driving range, putting green and miniature golf course took place on Thursday, the 18-hole course won’t open until mid-October.

Old Bridge Golf Club at Rose-Lambertson, called “The Rose,” (Photo: Alexander Lewis/myCentralJersey.com)

Here’s more from MyCentralJersey.com.

The project is located on about 218 acres of township-owned property – the Rose and Lambertson Tract area – on the north and south side of Lambertson Road. In a series of transactions, the township used state Green Acres funds to purchase the property to maintain it as open space.

Designed by New Jersey golf architect Stephen Kay, the complex includes a par-71, 18-hole course, an illuminated 30-bay driving range and a miniature golf course with lighting, water features and rolling terrain.

There’s also a 6,000-square foot clubhouse with a pro shop, concession area, cart barn and restrooms, as well as a 5,000-square-foot maintenance building and 110 parking spaces. The rental electric carts will be equipped with GPS screens.

The routing of the 18-hole layout was driven by wetlands and the natural topography. Unlike most American golf courses, the 9th hole does not return to the clubhouse because of the property’s unique features.

The Rose is the centerpiece of a more than $35 million public-private partnership between 2020 Acquisitions and the township.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In a way, it’s all come full circle.

Tom Weiskopf’s final golf course design, Black Desert, just opened in May in St. George, Utah, a burgeoning golf community. This gem has already landed a PGA Tour stop, coming fall of 2024. The LPGA is also going to stage an event there, starting in 2025.

Black Desert, a venue he did with partner Phil Smith, is the 73rd golf course in Weiskopf’s portfolio, which features layouts located around the world. There are dozens of courses in the U.S., of course, but also Scotland, Italy and China.

His very first design, though, was built in Arizona in a then-remote part of north Scottsdale, at Troon Country Club, the name serving as a tip of the cap to Royal Troon in Scotland, where Weiskopf won his lone major, the 1973 Open Championship.

“It’s funny because we did count them up and it’s 73,” said Smith. “Can you believe that? Between design and renovation we came up with 73 and that just seems to be his lucky number.”

The private layout at Troon CC, which Weiskopf did with Jay Morrish, is set to host the 2023 U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship, Sept. 30 to Oct. 5. It’ll be the second U.S. Golf Association event played there (1990 U.S. Mid-Amateur) and the 17th USGA tournament in all held in Arizona.

A mural at Troon Country Club includes a photo of golf course designers Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish. (Photo: Golfweek)

“The thing about Weiskopf courses is they can be played anybody or they can be set up to be played by the best in the world,” Smith said. “We based our design philosophy on that always. You think about TPC Scottsdale, where 95 percent of the time it has to be played by the municipal player and then one week out of the year you gotta be able to challenge the best players in the world [for the PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open] so that’s sort of been our philosophy and Tom’s philosophy from Day 1, so I think it’ll be great.”

Ranking 12th on Golfweek’s Best list of private golf courses in Arizona, Troon CC’s best stretch is on the back nine:

• The par-4 14th, dubbed “The Cliff”, which features a dramatic, elevated second shot down over a desert transition to a large green
• The par-3 15th, called “Troon Mountain”, which may be the most picturesque point on the property, with the iconic Pinnacle Peak seemingly towering over the green
• The par-4 16th hole, known as “The Gunsight”, featuring a pair of large boudlers that you hit your tee shot through while aiming at what many say is a gunsight-shaped formation on the distance landscape.

The par-4 16th hole called “Gunsight” at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo: USGA)

Like many Weiskopf designs, Troon CC features a driveable par 4, and the fourth will play 244 yards for the senior amateurs.

The USGA first did a site visit for the Senior Women’s Am in 2019. Troon CC was officially awarded the event 2021 and Weiskopf, who passed away in August of 2022, was an active participant in the course’s tournament preparations.

“It’s ironic. Troon is where he started and it’s where he found out he was sick, that’s where we were the day he found out he had cancer,” said Smith.

The USGA received a record 594 applications for the tournament, which was first played in 1962. There are 132 golfers in the field, including defending champion Shelly Stouffer. Three-time tournament winner Laura Tennant is also playing. She won it in 2021, 2019 and 2018. There was no event in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The entire field will play two rounds of stroke play Sept. 39 and Oct. 1. The top 64 golfers will then play five rounds of match play, with the 18-hole championship set for Thursday, Oct. 5.

A mural at Troon Country Club includes a photo of golf course designers Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish. (Photo: Golfweek)

“The most important thing about Troon is it’s where Tom started and he won best new course right out of the gate. Who does that, right?,” marveled Smith. “I think that just shows the fact that even in the beginnings of Tom’s career he had the talent and the chops to produce a world-class golf course and that’s where it all began.

“I think it’s just great they’re hosting this event. It’s a real showcase for Tom and the club.”

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — All eyes in the golf world for the next few days will be trained on Marco Simone Golf Club in Italy, specifically the rowdy first hole at the Ryder Cup.

Meanwhile, construction has begun on another golf arena halfway around the world from Rome.

Crews have started the buildout on the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale ahead of the 2024 WM Phoenix Open, set for Feb. 8-11.

The famous par-3 hole has become a bucket-list place for pro golfers and fans alike. The 150-yard hole is almost unrecognizable in its normal state.

Crews at the Stadium Course are also already building out the suites and grandstands along the par-4 17th hole as well.

Drivable par 4s are the most interesting holes in the pro game. Measuring somewhere south of 350 yards, the best of them entice the game’s top players to grab driver –  or sometimes 3-wood, and in a few cases with the longest hitters, even a driving iron – and smash the ball onto the green in pursuit of an eagle, birdie at worst.

There is, of course, a flip side: bogeys, double bogeys, humiliation and a tumble down the scoreboard when things don’t work out as planned.

These short par 4s are sometimes called half-par holes, but even pros who only halfway commit or halfway execute are prone to full-blown scorecard disasters. And with so many options and strategies available – especially when factoring in match play – the short par 4s are where the fun will begin at this week’s Ryder Cup in Rome.

It’s a whole different galaxy of distance and options than encountered by most amateur players, who are far more likely to experience the thrill or despair of a somewhat drivable par 3 than a reachable par 4. Tour players are a different kind of animal, with the advantage typically tilted to the biggest guns in what used to be a knife fight.

Each year we see several drivable par 4s send PGA Tour pros into fits. Always in the spotlight is No. 10 at Riviera and its almost unhittable green. It’s the same story at No. 17 at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, with water in play left and a tucked Sunday pin location – undoubtably a better strategic hole than the amphitheater par-3 16^th that has gained so much fame in recent decades. These holes and dozens of others have oversized effects on eventual prize payouts.

Edoardo Molinari gets the European fans going for Viktor Hovland’s tee shot down 16 at Marco Simone #RyderCup pic.twitter.com/b7aghPyEg4

— Andy Roberts (@AndyRobertsGolf) September 27, 2023

In recent years, even the major championships have embraced their drivable par 4s. No. 6 at Los Angeles Country Club thrilled and confused in this year’s U.S. Open – Wyndham Clark just missed the green with a driving iron in the final round but produced a brilliant up-and-down from the gunch for birdie en route to victory. Likewise, Justin Thomas grabbed control of the playoff at the 2022 PGA Championship with a 3-wood blast that carried a creek to bound onto the putting surface of No. 17 at Southern Hills. Glory beckons on these short holes.

This week’s Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome promises such fireworks with several drivable par 4s. The fifth measures just 302 yards, but a pond guards the approach. No. 11 clocks in at 329 yards with a deep depression to the right of the green to gobble up wayward aggression. Both of these holes are within range for these Ryder Cuppers, but at what risk?

But 5 and 11 are mere warmups for No. 16, where plenty of high-pressure matches are likely to end and some Ryder Cup dreams are apt to crater. Just 303 yards long, the 16^th has a small pond guarding the right side of the green. The hole is within reach, but so is the water. It’s do or die with the world watching.

Ryder Cup: Check out Nos. 5 and 11 in the yardage book

A bunker plopped into the center of the fairway some 235 yards off the tee only complicates things, as does the water crossing 60 yards short of the putting green. Wary or wise players can lay up short of the center bunker and still hit a wedge into the green, or they can try the more unlikely path of carrying the bunker yet remaining short of the creek to set up an even shorter wedge approach – don’t count on too many players attempting that route.

Or … they can fire away at the green. It’s just right there, within reach, tucked between three bunkers and the acqua. Coming so late in the matches, it could be the one decision and one swing that decides who is the GOAT and who is the scapegoat.

The StrackaLine yardage map for No. 16 at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, site of the 2023 Ryder Cup (Courtesy of StrackaLine)

No. 16 has seen its share of splashdowns in the Italian Open since the course was redesigned by Dave Sampson and European Golf Design, with American architect Tom Fazio involved as a consultant hired by the club. Most notably, Rory McIlroy pushed his tee ball into the drink while in contention at last year’s Italian and eventually finished fourth. Will that memory provide motivation or scar tissue for Europe’s highest-ranked player and arguably the best driver of the golf ball of his generation?

Of course, not all tee shots that miss the 16^th green will find the water. Some might land in a bunker, or tall rough on a downhill slope with the pond beyond, or even the closely cropped fairway approach. The players and their stats masters have to factor if playing a shorter second shot from any of those areas is more advantageous than playing a full wedge from 120 yards back in the fairway. Yes, the goal is to drive the green, but most players who try won’t find the putting surface, instead relying on a spot of luck and their elite short games.

Ryder Cup format matters, too. In the fourball matches – two-man teams with each man playing his own ball, and the lowest score for each team counts – plan to see at least one player on each side swinging for the green on the short par 4s, perhaps after his partner lays up safely. Things are more interesting in foursomes, in which the alternate-shot format often focuses on not leaving your partner in a bad spot. Then the gloves come off in singles, each man (and his team of advisors) having to choose the best route to birdie or better by considering his strengths versus those of his opponent as well as his own bravado versus his own demons.

There are so many options, so many possible outcomes. The realistic scores range from 2 to 6. Expectations are high, as are demands on length plus precision multiplied by some unknown confidence factor.

Brian Harman plays from a greenside bunker on No. 16 during a practice round at Marco Simone before the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome. Players who try to drive the green but miss might find themselves in such a spot, with a long sand shot to a green backed by water. (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)

Both team captains were titans of the precision and confidence parts. European captain Luke Donald was never known for his distance off the tee but he climbed to No. 1 in the world, and American captain Zach Johnson proved to be the master of the layup by never going for a par-5 green in two en route to his 2007 green jacket. What will be their marching orders? Bet that reams of data will be analyzed figuring out go versus no-go.

There’s no doubt today’s professionals can reach the green of any of the short par 4s at Marco Simone, even guys such as American Brian Harman, who dominated this year’s British Open with a mix of precision iron play and gutsy putting. Short in comparison to Ryder Cup bombers such as McIlroy or European rookie Ludvig Aberg, Harman is still more than capable of driving the ball 300 yards downhill. But will he try? Better question: Should he?

On No. 16 in particular with the hopes of two continents on the line, it’s distance versus control, carpet bombing versus a sniper sneaking up on you. Expect to see eagle putts that knock opponents onto their heels, and also know there might be watery crashes. Hang on to your headcovers.

A Florida-based company that purchased three golf courses on the state’s west coast in the spring is at it again, this time with the purchase of a country club in Sarasota.

According to a story from our network partner the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Coral Investment Group, along with its partner ITG Group, bought the Misty Creek Country Club for an undisclosed amount, which brings the number of golf courses owned by the company to nine, with 13 total courses under management by Coral’s hospitality management portfolio.

“Our strategy is to continue growing our golf business along the I-75 corridor between Naples and Tampa,” Lee Weeks, chief operating officer at Coral Hospitality, said in a release. “Of course, if other sites become available, we will certainly consider those opportunities as well.”

Here’s more from the story:

The purchase of Misty Creek Country Club followed the April announcement that Coral investments Group had purchased Calusa Lakes Golf Club, Waterford Golf Club and Capri Isles Golf Club in the Venice area.

Known for its hotel and resort management, Coral’s other golf properties in Florida and Georgia include Arrowhead Golf Club, Eagle Ridge Golf Club, Misty Creek Country Club, Jacaranda West Country Club, Riverwood Golf Club, Rosedale Golf and Country Club, Brasstown Valley Golf Course, Georgia Veteran’s Golf Course and Wallace Adams Golf Course.

Misty Creek Country Club is the only golf course in Southwest Florida that is “entirely in a 350-acre wildlife preserve,” according to the company.

The course was designed by Ted McAnlis in 1985 and is open to the public and offers several levels of membership.

GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy — Short of news that Rees Jones is gassing up his bulldozer, nothing makes golf course architecture aficionados reach for the Pepto Bismol quite like a Ryder Cup, or more specifically, a Ryder Cup in Europe. While editions held in America still occasionally visit sublime course designs — The Country Club, Oakland Hills, Bethpage Black in two years — those staged in the old world offer a quadrennial reminder to purists that the Ryder Cup, like a presidential election, is now essentially a commercial enterprise.

As the economic importance and global stature of the event has grown, there’s been a commensurate dilution in the caliber of host courses on the eastern shore of the Atlantic. You have to scroll back more than 40 years to find one that earns near-unanimous praise for its design merit: Walton Heath, in 1981. In the years prior, the biennial battle visited Royal Lytham & St. Annes, Muirfield and Royal Birkdale, all Open Championship hosts of indisputable stature. Then, starting in the late ‘80s, Europe began to dominate, fans began to pay attention, broadcasters began to pay significant rights fees, and corporations began requesting ever-more extensive hospitality suites.

So for 30 years, Ryder Cups in Europe have illustrated the difference between a great golf course and a great venue. They’ve had plenty of the latter, none of the former. Marco Simone Golf and Country Club continues that tradition.

Early morning preparations are made prior to the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National on September 27, 2018, in Paris, France. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

The DP World Tour owns a sizable chunk of the Ryder Cup, and proven loyalty to the circuit is a factor when it comes time to award its most prized asset. The Belfry (’85, ’89’ ’93) held its first European tour event in 1979. Valderrama (’97) had been a regular tour stop for almost a decade. So too for the K Club (’06), Celtic Manor (’10) and Gleneagles (’14). Le Golf National (’18) paid its dues even longer.

An alert, ambitious developer will spot a sure-fire, if long-term strategy for securing golf’s premier team event: build a course with ample room for infrastructure, offer terms favorable to the suits at HQ in Wentworth, then wait a decade. The Ryder Cup is a prize earned, not an honor bestowed.

Talk to enough people who play golf for a living and you’ll learn that most see the course merely as a stage upon which great actors perform. For idealistic design nerds, however, courses are a central character in the drama, of such nuance and intricacy that they make even great actors forget their lines. Marco Simone may discombobulate the cast of 24 actors this week, but not with nuance or intricacy.

The Ryder Cup is match play, and an ideal match play course encourages short-term risk-taking. There are enough holes here to encourage that, or sufficient flexibility with the set-up to manufacture it. Sure, the design is uninspiring and the aesthetics limited — save for a few ruins scattered around the property and a distant view of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica — but functionally Marco Simone is up to the ask. It’s not a great course, but it might be declared a great venue when the circus pulls out of town.

This being Italy, logistics could prove troublesome, though perhaps not as dire as at the Solheim Cup last week in Spain. Rush hours and the national nonchalance about timekeeping could see travel to the course take long enough for a couple of governments to form and collapse. And players will not be immune if such issues arise.

Most European venues in the last four decades have been resorts with accommodations on-site, meaning that teams, administrators and hangers-on didn’t need to leave the grounds for the entire week. Whatever happened beyond the wall was not their concern. In Rome, both teams are staying at the Cavalieri hotel, 10 miles from Marco Simone. That journey might take 30 minutes, or it might be a multiple of that. Since their hotel is within earshot of the Vatican, they might have to whisper the lord’s name in vain during delays. That began on Tuesday. One coach griped that his ride took well over an hour. His driver had no idea where the venue is located.

That’s a gentle reminder that golf doesn’t rank among the dozen most popular sports in Italy, but also emphasizes a reality unsettling to design devotees: if the Ryder Cup is to be used as a platform to grow golf in new territories, then the odds of there existing a must-play course is almost zero.

The boxes that purists most want to see checked are wholly optional for Ryder Cup organizers here. A great course is a bonus, not a baseline. If you want elite team competition on elite designs, the Walker Cup has you covered.

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome – site of the 2023 Ryder Cup between teams from the U.S. and Europe – originally was designed by David Mezzacane and Jim Fazio and opened in 1989.

The layout was completely renovated in 2018-2020 by a team of European Golf Design led by Dave Sampson in conjunction with Tom Fazio II, a leading American architect and the son of Jim Fazio – Tom Fazio worked for his dad on the original layout. The renovation included a complete rerouting of the hilly layout with the Ryder Cup in mind. With 155 feet of elevation change across the course, the holes were laid out to favor match play, with several drivable par 4s.

Marco Simone – a public-access layout with tee times available on the course’s website – will play to a par of 71 with the scorecard showing 7,181 yards. It’s likely the host European team will adjust yardages in attempt to benefit itself. The rough has been reported to be deep and thick heading into the Ryder Cup, putting an emphasis on accurate tee shots to relatively tight fairways.

Thanks to a yardage book provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players face at the Ryder Cup. Check out the maps of each hole below.

NEW LONDON, Minn. – Even before Jim Nantz stepped foot on property at Tepetonka Club, he dubbed it “Minnesota’s masterpiece.”

Those words had a nice alliterative ring to them but now that he had toured the grounds for the first time, including what will become The Prox, a short course to be designed there by the team of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Meade, in the western corner of the Land of 10,000 Lakes, he smiled and doubled down, declaring in his familiar voice, “This land will become world-renowned.”

Nantz, the 64-year-old voice of CBS whom sports fans have welcomed into their living rooms and mancaves for more than three decades, may have a thing or two to do with that. He’s serving as design consultant on The Prox but as he so elegantly put it, “This is like centuries ago telling Michelangelo as he painted the Sistine Chapel, ‘Why don’t you do this?'”

Nantz’s only golf architecture credit to his name consists of a backyard hole, a miniaturized replica of the seventh at Pebble Beach Golf Links, that he created not far from the real thing. So, why is he being allowed in the sandbox to draw up holes? In a word, friendship, but stick around for the full story.

Mark Haugejorde’s special bond with Nantz dates 46 years back to their college days. They were teammates on the University of Houston men’s golf team and famed coach Dave Williams assigned Haugejorde, a senior at the time, to befriend the freshmen, which included Nantz, Fred Couples and another future PGA Tour winner, Blaine McCallister.

“He was this scrawny kid and all he wanted to be was a sportscaster,” Haugejorde said of Nantz.

Blue-tipped flags mark tees, red-tipped flags the center lines and green-tipped stakes for the greens at Tepetonka Club in Minnesota. (Courtesy Tepetonka Club)

Houston’s golf team was a juggernaut, winning 16 NCAA titles in a span of 30 years, though Nantz is quick to point out he contributed nothing to the cause.

“I was without question – I’m not trying to be humble about it – the worst player in the history of the program,” he said.

But Williams didn’t become a legendary coach without learning to build a team where every player had a role and he carved out a special one for Nantz.

“I was kind of the den mother,” Nantz recalled. “I think he saw in me as someone who was a real goal-minded individual because the first time I met him I told him I didn’t want to be a professional golfer, I wanted to talk about professional golfers. I wanted to work for CBS since I was 11 years old. I wanted to call and host the Masters. That was what the dream was that was in my heart. So, he found a role for me. He put me in a room with the three best incoming freshmen. At the time, I was working hard to crack the top 10 and try to get close to the top 5 that would play the tournament. But I made sure every day that my roommates got up, ate breakfast, went off to school and did their homework.”

Geoff Ogilvy speaking about Tepetonka Club, a private destination club that OCM is building two hours west of Minneapolis. Check out my story here: https://t.co/wucZy79EVM pic.twitter.com/391ol3kVYD

— Adam Schupak (@AdamSchupak) September 22, 2023

Nantz recalled Haugejorde as “a towering presence for us incoming freshmen and generous to us too as young kids.” They stayed in touch and a few years ago Haugejorde visited Nantz in California and they played a round at Cypress Point Club and had dinner at Pebble Beach. Haugejorde shared his dream to build a golf course, much like his father, who during a stint in the military was asked to build a golf course for the officer’s club in Japan in 1947. Later, his father spearheaded efforts to build Little Crow Country Club (now a 27-hole facility known as Little Crow Resort), a public course, two hours west of Minneapolis. Haugejorde picked up the game there and won the 1973 high school state championship. He was convinced that he had found land for a course and a motivated seller but when his business partner walked the site, he had to level with Haugejorde: “Mark, it’s just not special,” he said. Back to the drawing board.

Any sports fan worth his salt knows how the dreams of those young Houston golfers that Haugejorde looked after during his senior year panned out.

“Fred said he’s going to win the Masters. That’s all we ever talked about. That it was going to happen,” said Nantz, of what came to fruition in 1992. “And they all looked at me like naturally I was going to work for CBS one day. Not that I was entitled to it, but they were living the dream with me and they’ve lived it every step of the way for 38 years. They’ve been with me and I’m grateful for that. We were this amazing group of believers. I believed in them, they believed in me and our lives turned out the way we wanted them to be.”

A clearing for a future tee box at Tepetonka Club. (Photo: Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

On May 22, 2021, just a few months after dinner with Nantz at Pebble, Haugejorde was driving his 94-year-old mother to Little Crow to play nine holes. Coasting past land where he used to pheasant hunt as a kid, he took a left turn and was struck by the expanse of farmland, the beautiful cedars and a ravine and slowed his roll as he continued half a mile down a gravel road. He looked out the window and said, “That’s it.”

He stopped the car and used onX, an app used by hunters with GPS tracker, waypoints, property lines and accurate land ownership names, to mark the spot and took a picture at 8:21 a.m.

“It’s going to be framed,” Haugejorde said.

The land, which has plenty of movement, reminded the architectural team of Ogilvy, Cocking and Meade of the sand hills of St. Andrews Beach back home in their native Melbourne, Australia. There’s Shakopee Creek, a tributary of the Chippewa River, which cuts through a quarter of Tepetonka’s property. Visiting the property for the first time over Easter weekend, the Aussies had to borrow jackets from Haugejorde when snow fell. Inside the warmth of Haugejorde’s mother’s lake home, Cocking and Meade sat with laptops facing each other as if they were playing Battleship as Ogilvy looked over their shoulders at the topography of the land.

“I was just doing laps around the table as we went back and forth saying, ‘What if we did this? What if we did that?’ ” said Ogilvy, the former U.S. Open winner.

The future site of “The Dead End,” one of the comfort and refreshment stands to be built at Tepetonka Club. (Adam Schupak/Golfweek)

OCM figured they could get a hole or two along Shakopee Creek but it turns out the water will weave in and out of play and should be visually or strategically involved in the layout on seven or eight occasions. Some cut lines, paths and tree removal are underway with blue-tipped flags marking tees, red-tipped flags for the center lines and green-tipped stakes for the greens. Construction will commence in 2024 with a course opening scheduled for 2025.

“It’s a pretty well-worn marketing spiel that was used a lot on sites like this that God intended this to be a golf course. But it’s quite amazing how suited the land is to golf,” Cocking said. “It’s on coastal sand dunes. The spacing of the dunes and size of the dunes, the contours and scale of the dunes basically play through the valleys or the tops of the dunes, from dune to dune.”

When Haugejorde let Nantz know he had found his property, Nantz agreed to join as a founding member and tabbed the project his pal’s “true calling.”

“He’s finishing that script,” Nantz said. “His father brought golf to this area. Now he’s going to bring this part of the world and golf to the whole nation to see something this state has never seen before. He has these three genius guys to shape this land to make this an iconic place. He could not have chosen a better team, and it is a team, which is another thing I really admire about them.”

Tepetonka is Minnesota’s first entry into the private golf destinations category. The whole notion of destination golf began with Nebraska’s Sand Hills in 1994 and the model of excellence was defined by Oregon’s Bandon Dunes, which serves resort play, in 1999. If Bandon Dunes’ owner Mike Keiser had asked the National Golf Foundation to conduct a feasibility study, NGF president and CEO Joe Beditz said the answer would have been, why bother? In short, no metrics would have advised building one course let alone five that have each become bucket-list destinations. But what was once bold and audacious now is becoming commonplace.

“That’s where most of the industry is moving right now,” Beditz said. “In a survey we did just last week, 5 million golfers, 1 out of 4, are highly interested in visiting destination golf. The demand is there. Baby boomers are 59-77 years old with 10,000 a day reaching the retirement age of 65. The demand for a product like this especially in the vacuum of Minnesota is brilliant and I think it will become part of a very important Midwest rota as it pertains to golf.”

And so just last month Nantz flew in to West Central Minnesota ahead of broadcasting the BMW Championship in suburban Chicago and walked The Prox and broke bread with Haugejorde, several of his fellow founding members and “the three geniuses”who will integrate the short course into Tepetonka’s practice facility.

“I’m in awe of these three,” Nantz said of OCM. “I don’t know what I can impart at all because they’re on top of it. I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve spent a lot of my life around the greatest golf courses in the world. I’ve been a member at some of the finest golf courses in the world. I need golf like I need oxygen. And I know when I see things that are done the right way. If there is anything that I see that can make the club a little better, I will talk to my buddy Mark or Haugie.”

Nantz could have his pick of the litter of golf courses to associate his brand with if he wanted to. Make no mistake, he is here because of his fellowship with his fellow Cougar.

“When a brother comes over and says I’d like you to be a part of this, it’s all coming back full circle for me. I believe in him. I believe what’s inside that heart and inside that head. I believe he has great judgment,” Nantz said. “I plan on spending some time here. I’m at a point in my life where I want to do the things that make me happy. I think I always have but early in your career you’re trying to make sure you do all the right steps and your career is growing and you’re trying to manage a family at the same time, which is more important than anything. I’ve been able to do all that. The things that I want to hitch my wagon to these days are the two most important things: with people I want to be with and as a father.”

Nantz continued: “I want to bring my son here. I want to bring my friends here. It’s going to be great. This is just early stages, lots to do but it’s amazing to see where they’ve already gotten with the routing, the plan, the vision. It’s an incredible team. I can promise you one thing: Haugie’s going to make you proud, he’s going to make Minnesota proud. And I’m going to sit back and cheer him on every step of the way, just like we did for one another 46 years ago at the University of Houston.”