Hi there, members. Have you heard about the FEGC Hole Design Contest? Read up here.
Here’s some cool (or at least interesting) stuff happening in the golf course industry this week:
→ Iowa doesn’t have as much high-quality public golf as neighboring states Wisconsin and Nebraska. That may be starting to change.
The University of Iowa announced last week that Finkbine Golf Course, home of the university’s golf teams, will be redesigned by architect Scott Hoffman. The project will be backed primarily by Fritz and Mary Lee Duda, who also funded the construction of Finkbine’s new clubhouse in 2020. Work on the golf course will begin this fall and continue through 2026.
{{related-articles/right}}
Hoffman will reconstruct Finkbine completely, rerouting the course and modernizing its design. “Only two holes will really be recognizable to what they were before,” Hawkeyes assistant men’s golf coach Steven Ihm told me. “It’s really going to be a new product.” Hoffman’s holes will explore some currently unused land at the north end of the site, opening up space in other portions of the property. His plan also involves “incorporating sustainable turf technologies, aimed at reducing water usage and maintenance costs,” according to a university press release.
Finkbine, designed by Robert Bruce Harris in 1955, is a well-liked public course, though not renowned for its architecture. “I don’t think Finkbine has ever been in danger of hosting a USGA championship,” Ihm said. “But it’s one of the nicer courses in the area.” In recent years, it became clear that the course’s irrigation system needed to be replaced. Since this costly work had to be done no matter what, Finkbine’s staff and the University of Iowa’s golf coaches figured that a larger, more ambitious renovation would be possible. “It just reached the point where we had to make an investment in the irrigation,” men’s head coach Tyler Stith told me. “If we’re going to do this [bigger project], we have to do it now.”
Scott Hoffman is a fast-rising star in U.S. golf architecture, nabbing a series of desirable new-build and reconstruction jobs. His original designs at Lost Rail Golf Club in Gretna, Nebraska, and Mapletøn Golf Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, both opened within the past three years and received positive reviews. Recently, he signed on to build Kettle Forge, a new private destination course in Wisconsin.
A product of the Tom Fazio design tree, Hoffman worked with fellow Fazio protégés Tim Jackson and David Kahn at Monterey Peninsula Dunes and Scottsdale National before hanging up his own shingle. Like Jackson and Kahn, Hoffman has a visually flamboyant, unabashedly modern sensibility. I wouldn’t expect him to take on many Golden Age restoration gigs, in other words.
Hoffman’s reimagining of Finkbine Golf Course will be his first major public-course project and, for many golfers, an introduction to his work. “It’s definitely going to change the landscape of golf in Iowa,” Stith said. “We’ve got five or six pretty large metropolitan areas within a few hours, and I think you’ll have to go to Sand Valley or Erin Hills to find as good a public golf course as what we’ll have here.”
→ In an article detailing U.S. President Donald Trump’s renovation plans for various federal properties in Washington, D.C., James Liddell of The Independent dropped this nugget:
“[President Trump] is weighing the refurbishment and rebranding of the East Potomac Golf Links at Hains Point, two sources said.
“After a staffer first presented the idea, the president warmed to purchasing* the public course, one of the sources said.
“The club, the sources said, could be called ‘Washington National Golf Course’ with a new logo rendered nearly identical to those for the president’s other clubs.”
(*The word “purchasing” doesn’t make a lot of sense here, given that the National Park Service, a federal agency, already owns the property. “Taking over management of” or “asserting more direct control over” would probably be more accurate characterizations of the potential move.)
As longtime Fried Egg Golf readers and listeners will know, D.C.’s three municipal golf courses—East Potomac, Rock Creek, and Langston—are operated by the National Links Trust, a non-profit committed to accessibility and historic preservation. I don’t want to put words in anyone else’s mouth, but from my perspective, a Trumpian rebranding and renovation of East Potomac would likely be an awkward fit with NLT’s ethos.
→ Brambles, a newish Coore & Crenshaw course an hour outside of Napa Valley, has posted a ballot for public play on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Cool opportunity.
→ Social media roundup:
Frank Pont of the firm Clayton, DeVries & Pont will oversee restoration work at Sutton Coldfield Golf Club, a heathland course outside of Birmingham, England, where Alister MacKenzie did some work.Last Saturday, Clayton, DeVries & Pont officially announced something that I noted in a July edition of Chocolate Drops: CDP will partner with Harley Kruse on a master plan for Catalina Club in New South Wales, Australia.Restoration specialist Jim Nagle shared an update from his under-construction project at NCR Country Club in Dayton, Ohio.Brian Schneider posted another photo of his ongoing restoration of Donald Ross’s Woodhill Country Club in Minnesota.
