On July 1, Spanish Peaks Mountain Club opened its new Tom’s 10 golf course, designer and 2024 World Golf Hall of Fame inductee Tom Weiskopf’s final contribution to the sport before he passed away in August 2022.
The 10-hole par-3 course pays homage to Weiskopf’s favorite holes from around the world. A member of Spanish Peaks Mountain Club and resident of the Big Sky, Montana, community, Weiskopf designed the club’s original 18-hole championship course and, in his final years, collaborated with longtime partner Phil Smith of Phil Smith Designs on the new par-3 course.
With increasing membership and the opening of Montage Big Sky on its grounds, Spanish Peaks Mountain Club began looking at options for a new golf course in 2020. The effort was led by Ryan Blechta, senior director of grounds and mountain operations.
“Working with Tom on this course was such an incredible experience,” Blechta said. “From our first walk through the woods when he shared his vision till the last time he was on the site a week before his passing, I got to know Tom on not just a professional level, but a personal one, and will always cherish the time spent with him and his wife, Laurie. On behalf of the club, I’m proud to share this course with our members — I truly believe it kept Tom going in his final years.”
In Blechta’s time at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club, Weiskopf had taken to visiting his office on occasion to talk. On one of these visits, Blechta told Weiskopf of the club’s desire to expand and Weiskopf said he knew the perfect location for a par-3 course, a 35-acre site where he liked to walk his dog among the timber, streams and wetlands. Soon, the two were scouting the site on foot with Weiskopf describing potential locations for tees and greens.
The club broke ground on the course in summer 2021. Weiskopf brought in Smith throughout the design and construction process. Smith worked for Weiskopf for many years and continued to partner with him after starting his own company. Frontier Golf was the primary contractor. Construction took three summers because of the complexity of the project and its elevation at over 7,000 feet.
Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2020, Weiskopf was undergoing treatment during the initial design and construction of the course. In spring 2022, when his cancer returned, a second shaper was brought in to speed up the process. Weiskopf was able to work on the course until the week leading up to his passing in August 2022 and approved all but the final hole.
Spanish Peaks Mountain Club dedicated the course to Weiskopf with the name Tom’s 10 paying homage to the British Open winner’s favorite par-3 holes from around the world. Holes include the original 18th at the club, seventh at Pebble Beach, 18th at Loch Lomond, eighth at Royal Troon and 16th at Augusta National. Holes range from 90 to 161 yards and total 1,199 yards. The course has 200 feet of elevation change.
Unique features include a man-made half-acre pond stocked with over 1,000 westslope cutthroat trout — the state fish of Montana on hole 4 — a deep bunker at the front right of the fifth green set to Weiskopf’s 6-foot-3 height and an old log cabin from one of Weiskopf’s properties that was reassembled and converted into a comfort station filled with memorabilia from his career that was donated by his wife, Laurie.
“This new par-3 course really shows off the design principles we used throughout our time working together — It’s a throwback to a lot of fun things we’ve done in the past,” Smith said. “And it was very therapeutic for Tom. Because he lived nearby, he was able to keep his mind off his illness and give the project his personal attention. Being at Spanish Peaks from the inception of the original course till he couldn’t work anymore was such a gift. This final project is a direct reflection of his commitment to his craft.”
Tom’s 10 is open to members of Spanish Peaks Mountain Club and their guests.
GOING SOCIAL
It has been off to the races as we finally broke ground at Old Sawmill Golf Club in Charleston, SC earlier this Summer. We have four greens shaped (nearly five holes) and I think we will have some fun and interesting new golf to showcase to the Southeastern US. The website has… pic.twitter.com/qShesMJT3P
— Tyler Rae (@TylerRaeDesign) July 9, 2024
NEW NAME, NEW LOOK AT PORTMARNOCK RESORT
Portmarnock Resort in Dublin, Ireland, has completed a significant remodeling of its recently rebranded Jameson Golf Links. The two-year project has seen the renovation of numerous holes on the championship course. The redesign featured the work of Jeff Lynch, director and senior architect at (re)Golf, with work completed by Northland Properties and the Gaglardi Family.
Formerly known as Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links, various modifications have been made to Bernhard Langer’s original 1995 design. One of the most remarkable transformations has been the elevation of many of the tee boxes and greens, bringing the sea closer to the course to create stunning panoramas of North Dublin’s Velvet Strand and the famous island known locally as Ireland’s Eye. The final puzzle piece in the redesign was converting the challenging par-3 17th to a risk/reward, 355-yard, par 4 with a plateau green and enhanced bunkering.
The course now plays as a par 72, measuring 7,266 yards off the back tees. The course rebrand brings to life the inextricable link between the land, the clubhouse, and the famous Jameson whiskey dynasty—a family which played an important part in the introduction of the game of golf to Ireland and particularly the north Dublin coast.
“The feedback we are receiving from members and visiting guests about the changes made to the links over the past year or so has been fantastic,” said Paul McCanny, director of golf at Jameson Golf Links. "The aim was to make the most of our spectacular dunescape while heightening the golfing experience. We believe Jameson Links is now one of the best links golf experiences in Ireland.”
DYE WORK CONTINUES
Dye Designs Group, led by Cynthia Dye McGarey and her son Matt McGarey, has concluded work on a 10-week bunker renovation project at Englewood, Colorado’s The Club at Inverness.
"The bunkers at The Club at Inverness were desperately in need of renovation," Dye McGarey told golfcoursearchitecture.net. “Over the years, buildup from sand splash had become a significant issue with essentially all of them, while some had expanded to such a degree that they’d crept into the tree line. Many also had edges that were eroding and contaminating the little amount of sand that remained.”
An evaluation from Dye Designs produced a plan that shrunk the size of bunkers and removed eight of them. Better Billy Bunker liner and new sand were used in the 54 bunkers that remained after the renovation.
“One of our primary objectives was to reestablish the design intent of each bunker as efficiently as possible,” said Matt McGarey, who oversaw the construction process. “To do so, we used the extra soil that had built up in the front of each as fill. This approach allowed us to avoid any costs associated with the import or export of material from the site.”
The smaller greenside bunkers now pair more seamlessly with the size of the greens in terms of scale. They also feature enhanced visual appeal. With smaller bunkers, the amount of playable turf has increased, with an expected savings on bunker maintenance expense by 50%.
