The WiscoGolfAddict team had the pleasure of spending 10 minutes with up-and-coming Golf Course Architect Kyle Franz following Cabot Citrus Farms’ media day last month in Brooksville, Florida.
Kyle spoke with Contributing Writer Gregg Thompson and me following our morning round on the Karoo course, and it was fun to hear his thoughts on his career trajectory, design of the course and Cabot Citrus Farms project overall.
All day long I was telling these guys I keep seeing Scotland out here and like the Carolina feel kind of melded together totally Mackenzie you know it’s just it’s just so cool to see that uh in this part of in Florida to begin with just don’t see
Hes like this um just it feels like Hills in North Carolina yeah you H the nail ahead I mean that really uh I mean we never try and like typ cast ourselves too much into anything uh but when when we when we first started planning this
Project you know we thought a lot about you know one Piner obviously that’s where I live you know I worked on the restoration number two for cor crunch on that I’ve done all the solo work at Mid Pines and pine needles and Southern Pines we love those three mid pin is one
Of my favorite courses ever I’m from a I’m a member at a Ros horse in Wisconsin oh nice and I work with Drew Rogers for the last eight years on our restoration oh awesome wonderful yeah and when I went I felt like right at home MH I mean
It’s different obviously Sandy and just different but it’s it also felt at home especially getting around the greens you know so I mean we all of us fell in love with mid Pines and Southern Pines and the work you did there and pine needles too I mean
Classy yeah I know it’s just such such great bones there it’s been so much fun just like restoring all those old world elements and charm to uh to his designs there you I I really love that style I mean uh I I immediately just uh jumped
All over it when uh when we worked on number two and uh it’s been so much fun for my my you know my business to basically been start an a ran out of out of their uh um you know with the whims open last year it’s been a lot of fun
Yeah Kyle do you think that’s that’s a really good progression for you having started in restoration before you like did your own design yeah yeah and you know I’ve always felt like I got like a really great grade a education in the design World cuz you know I I started
Out working for do on some really great projects I was very lucky to worked on Pacific Dunes in barille I mean those projects changed the lives of everybody who was involved in them and I’m eternally grateful to Tom for for having that opportunity so I got a really great
Taste of of great new Build architecture right out of the gates um but you know you learn so much by going back and and editing and and uh and restoring and working on great architects work you know you learn so much about how uh detailed and nuanced they were and um um
You know you uh you get such a great sense for for timelessness you know what has really passed the test the time that people have really loved over 100 years and uh and that’s you know part of the reason where we wound up uh making the
Choices we did with this you know I mean my love of pioner and the work there that Ross did um but also Pine of Valley you obviously see it out here it’s been a part of uh you know kind of the heritage of what they try to accomplish
Here uh 30 years ago but you know you guys see it you know wow this we’re talking about you know the uh um you know I really love St Andrews the year I spent there was a dream come true for me and um um and just how fun and playable
And big and wide it is but also how cool the nuances are around the greens oh yeah and um and you see it you know you see you know some of the little details around nine green down there are straight up number two green there you
Know uh it’s there you know uh but I also love the National Golf Links of America so much you know uh uh probably us simply because you know it’s it’s copying so much of what he loved over there the McDonald loved over there so with the cool Wy green complexes you
Know like I’ve always admired like the boldness that uh McDonald I mean like what’s cooler the number one green of the National Golf leag you know uh so um you know those those elements that I really love just came really flowing out on this project for us you know uh but I
Also love you know uh you know what Thomas’s you know like this wild stuff that he drew of like multiple Fairways and multiple different routes you know uh creating a really big fun wild uh and wide landscape for the average player but but really making you know a world
Class caliber player you have to hit the right Fairways right sections of Fairways and uh and you see that out there as well so it’s a blend of a lot of things that that I really like and I’ve just tried to mold and mesh it into
A style that we feel like uh uh is our own and and allows us to uh you know really be creative and really challenge ourselves in ways where we’re not just you know copying my mentors uh but we’re really trying to do something that’s really fun and we’re pushing the
Initiative and uh taking some risks but hopefully in areas where everybody really likes it and enjoys it and they walk up and like huh I don’t think I’ve ever played anything quite like that uh it’s pretty cool so very cool well when you walk off this first like today I
Said I’m bringing some guys back here from my club awesome awesome that’s that’s the best compl we could possibly get right there that’s I i’ been I’ve been here three times uh when it was World Woods and I really like those courses too but oh my God everything’s better even my two
Favorite holes on the course uh 14 and is it four or five the the Fairway or the bunkers going down the middle y everything’s just better awesome what was it like that’s the goal that we we strive for all the way is really just take what was already really really cool
And uh and and make it as fun and interesting and uh uh as we possibly could and and that you know that guys that really get it and love it like you guys you know want to come back again and again and play it as much as
Possible you did a fantastic job thanks excited to see the rest too yeah yeah no we have a lot of cool stuff that we’re working on across the way over uh at kuu um you know it’ll have some of the kind of sandiest sort of stuff on the holes
That are adjacent to kuu that uh that You’ got familiar with today but then it also goes out into some really big rolling beautiful terrain uh where it goes more into the Live Oaks and it’s different soils and uh um like really hilly in a couple of
Places in a good way um and some uh some like almost quish and sinkhole sort of areas um uh just some cool stuff created by Mother Nature so um it’s going to go off into some really really fun stuff in those holes we almost have like a almost
Like a gusta National sort of vibe where there’s a lot of turf uh very few bunkers and um uh some really really interesting green complexes so for two golf courses right next to each other even sharing some of the same terrain we’ve really tried to max out the complete uh the most interesting
Complete differences we possibly could with them awesome can’t wait to see that yeah I am too kind of reminds me of what they did with do did with SED Valley at Sand it’s so different than yeah you know the original two courses in the Leo course it’s totally different I’m super
Excited to see that stuff phenomenal that’s that’s it’s hard pretty it is pretty phenomenal you better be a good ball Striker for some of those carries like the channel hole the Alps hole um strategy I mean you got to hit a really good drive and a really good elevated
Long second shot yep now I’m really excited to see that um I mean we’ve been so busy with the great projects that we have going on right now I’ve had I’ve had no time for for social anything the last year it’s just been you know we’ve been working really hard and I’ve been
On the road a lot of the time so I haven’t got a chance to catch up with my my old boss Tom I’d love to love to go see that thing and uh and kind of pick his brain a little bit cuz as you saw it there there’s some there’s some kindered
Spirit In The Styling that we’re trying to accomplish to what they were trying to do with that so uh yeah C McDonald what’s your favorite green that you uh that you redesigned out here on K that’s a that’s a really good question tough one there were some great ones oh my God
You know we’ve had uh I’ve had a couple questions today about you know um you know favorite favorite hole and it’s it’s really hard because we’ve tried to focus in so much on you know one just getting the maximum out we could with the designs of the holes but also just
Like the uh the balance between you know really cool sporty interesting holes but also like you know trying to Mellow down in some places where it wasn’t over the top and uh um I think I really so when it gets down to Greens you know I really
Really like the uh the third green I think it’s really cool the the bounce down slope you have with the right but also the succession of rolls within the green it’s really cool to where you’ve got a in the perfect spot on that Hillside and it will bounce down to
Certain whole locations within those succession rolls and that pin at the very back up there that little pedestal when we could put the te’s way forward uh is going to be really really cool you know the one thing that we haven’t talked about in the overall design is we
Really tried to get a a tremendous amount of elasticity in the design where you can play it way forwards and way back dayto day you know uh kind of like what Thomas tried to accomplish at laccc where you could play it as a par 72 7,000 you course one day then play us
Like a a par of 70 and it would be like 60200 yards and you set wild woolly pins that kind of thing and that’s where something like three kind of that fits in we can put the te’s way forward and you got to hit on that tiny little like
2800 foot precipice oh my God is that what is that why there’s not a 6,000 yard on the card because you can do whatever you want without exactly yeah we want it to change every day you we have a term uh that we use just among amongst us you know between myself Sam
Or whoever he’s highing around out here uh and uh where we talk about we don’t want people to have to lay up for life you know a lot of the time when the te’s are in the same place you have a bunker on the interior side of a dog like like
I’m never getting over that thing I’ve never been able to and it didn’t get any better from here whereas we want to be able to move the t’s forward and backwards to where like sometimes that thing’s out of play out there you me think about it another day you’re way up
In front of like wait a minute I can try and carry that thing and uh and have a whole new lease on life with the with the styling so uh um so yeah we really want to really throw the tease around quite a bit to where uh you know it’s a
Whole new golf course every day in your mind’s eye from a year ago did it come out the way you wanted it to is it it’s it still like Donald Ross it’s always going to be a work in progress the um um I I’m super happy with where it’s at right now
We still have a lot of work that we’re just kind of contining to pick away at seeding native areas and hand planning native areas and just working on the details out there so it’ll really just continue to get better and better as we get into the uh uh back into kind of the
Growing season and whatnot um but uh I’m going to spend a lot of time out there watching golfers and uh like I just had fun out there just watching y’all out there today uh cuz we’re going to be you know analyzing to see if there is
Anything that we could do with it I’ve always felt like I’ve always thought that it was really cool that when when Tom finished Pacific Dunes uh that really almost nothing has ever changed with it hardly ever since you know it’s pretty well nailed I would hope that we
Nailed it out there uh but but uh but I’ve also appreciated the fact that Donald Ross spent 40 years the almost the entire last half of his life uh continuing to try and make pinor Su two better it’s pretty cool to have that kind of ambition to like be able to take
Back a step back and be like I can make that even better you know uh that’s uh uh that’s great art you know so uh so we’ll we’ll go both directions with it depending on how it all shakes out pafic is my favorite
