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• Golf Course Management Magazine | A s... Landscapes Unlimited founder Bill Kubly led a meaningful project at Monroe Golf Club   BillRead More

  Landscapes Unlimited founder Bill Kubly led a meaningful project at Monroe Golf Club

    Bill Kubly is known as the grandfather of golf course construction. In 1976, he founded Landscapes Unlimited, a longtime leader in golf course construction, renovation and management. The Lincoln, Neb.-based company’s résumé is extensive and includes work on several major-championship golf courses, including the construction of Erin Hills Golf Course, the public venue in Erin, Wis., that hosted the 2017 U.S. Open. But for Kubly, who turned 75 in July, no project hit closer to home and his heart than the recent bunker renovation he led at Monroe Golf Club in Monroe, Wis., where Kubly grew up. “The course meant so much to my family and me when I was growing up,” says Kubly, who learned to play golf on the course when it was known as the Monroe Country Club and fondly remembers attending Friday night fish fries at the clubhouse. “The opportunity to enhance it was a dream come true.” The club, which opened in 1923 as a nine-hole course and added another nine holes about 50 years later, was a mainstay in the small south-central Wisconsin town for many years. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a vibrant club that counted many medical professionals as members.   Read the full article on Golf Course Management Magazine.  Undo
• A Cool North Carolina Backstory | Gol... As post-pandemic golfer participation continues to rise, there’s a slew of new golf courses whichRead More As post-pandemic golfer participation continues to rise, there’s a slew of new golf courses which are in construction and opened of late. Several have unapologetically humdrum backstories.  Others come with historical and personal significance of which legends are made. We came across a cool one in the low-population town of Traphill, N.C.  It’s where the private Contentment Golf Club is being built, and the 800 acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains holds special meaning to its developer. Curt Sidden, a Davidson, N.C. resident, would retreat to find refuge with his late grandfather.  Sidden’s father, Dr. Curtis Sidden, 92, grew up in Traphill and is heavily involved in the planning of Contentment.  Now, Sidden’s vision is to provide the same, quiet, happy-place getaway for city and suburban dwellers alike. Unsurprisingly, the literal meaning of contentment is “serenity” that defines the breathtaking land on which Contentment resides. Read the full article on GolfGuide.com.  Undo
• “Feed the Ball Podcast” If might seem like golf course architect Scott Hoffman came out of nowhere with his design at LostRead More If might seem like golf course architect Scott Hoffman came out of nowhere with his design at Lost Rail, opened in 2022 outside of Omaha. However, he’d previously worked for over a decade with Tom Fazio, designing courses in the western U.S. He then worked with Tim Jackson and David Kahn for a number of years. Hoffman wasn’t pursuing new work when he was approached about looking at land for a club near Omaha, where he’s from, and those interests turned into Lost Rail, Golf Digest’s runner up for Best New Private Course for 2023. He’s now busy constructing Mapleton, another new stand-alone club near Sioux Falls, Idaho. Hoffman joins Golf Digest architecture editor Derek Duncan on the Feed the Ball podcast to discuss finding the land for Lost Rail, his instinct for routing golf courses, the insomnia-inducing puzzle of routing Lost Rail, the freedom of working for Fazio versus being his own business, how to water a 20,000 square-foot green, whether classical architecture influences his designs, the futility of properly evaluating a course after just one round and how he compares and contrasts Shinnecock Hills with National Golf Links of America. Listen to the episode here.  Undo
• Our team visited 55 new or renovated ... Each year Golf Digest honors the highest scoring new or remodeled courses in four categories:Read More
  Each year Golf Digest honors the highest scoring new or remodeled courses in four categories: Best New Public Course, Best New Private Course, Best Renovation (courses that undergo conventional improvements like tree removal, new bunkers, altered tees and expanded or relocated greens) and Best Transformation (courses that are fundamentally remodeled with new or rerouted holes).
  Nationally, we had the most course openings since 2010, and an increasing number of courses are undergoing major renovations. Golf Digest panelists visited 55 candidate courses for the 2023 awards (30 Best Renovation candidates and 25 Best New/Best Transformation). Both the quality and quantity of courses are up as the 2023 honorees are an extraordinary lot. ...

  Building Lost Rail, just southwest of Omaha, was something of a homecoming for Scottsdale-based architect Scott Hoffman, who grew up in the city and went to school at Creighton. The key to the design, named after an abandoned trainline that ran through the northeast corner of the property, was decoding the routing for this relatively small parcel of land, around 150 acres, or just large enough for 18 holes, a practice facility, clubhouse, parking and maintenance. The matter was complicated by the deep, wooded ravines that cut through the site and further limited the areas where holes could be placed. It was an exercise perfectly suited to Hoffman’s skills, who specialized in laying out the holes on numerous Tom Fazio projects across the western U.S. throughout the early 2000s. The ravines serve as both strategic and penal hazards, flanking and bisecting holes and creating dramatic, intimidating scenery.
  Read the full article here.  Undo