Zinkand Golf Design (ZGD), led by golf course architect David Zinkand, is approaching the completion of a renovation project at Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course in Pebble Beach, California.
Currently ranked among the top 100 courses in the United States by Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and Golfweek, the Shore Course opened in 1962 but received critical acclaim after a significant reimagining in 2003 by the late golf course architect Mike Strantz.
ZGD’s multiyear plan respectfully pays homage to what Strantz and his co-designer, former PGA Tour pro Forrest Fezler, created two decades ago, while evolving the design to enhance aesthetics and adapt to modern expectations. The current project, the third phase of the master plan, touches all of the course’s bunkers and waste areas as each is receiving new drainage and capillary flow liners. New sand is being laid in formal bunkers, while existing bunker sand is screened and placed within the waste areas. Some hazards have also been repositioned, frequently toward the line of play, to encourage decision-making on the tee and make the course more challenging.
“The Shore Course is rightfully regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful locales for golf,” Zinkand said. “Our team has remained true to what Mike created, while ensuring the course’s eminent playability and seaside character continue to shine through.”
The current work, which is expected to be completed by June, follows a pair of earlier renovation phases. The first was a turf reduction and waste area expansion project that further elevated course aesthetics by increasing the number of native areas featuring unmown fescue grasses. This approach had the important benefit of reducing the course’s water consumption. Overgrown coyote bushes were also thinned and replaced to improve vistas and highlight the property’s native cypress trees and seaside aesthetic.
More recently, a tee renovation project included leveling, refurbishing and regrassing all teeing areas. Select tees were also repositioned. This step was taken to respond to advancements in equipment, as well as provide additional strategic options created by the turf reduction, waste area expansion work and the current bunker renovations.
“Throughout the entirety of the project, we’ve viewed our work not only through a strategic lens, but also an aesthetic one,” Zinkand said. “For example, we’ve made a concerted effort to pull elements of the seaside holes into the inland stretch of the Shore Course as a means of creating a heightened sense of place. This respect for a golf course’s aura and ecology, leaning into the natural ‘genius loci,’ is a core tenet of our firm.”
Prior to founding ZGD, Zinkand was a long-time design associate with Coore & Crenshaw, and before that worked on projects with Pete Dye, Gil Hanse and Mike Devries. These experiences gave him an in-depth understanding of how the classic courses utilize strategy and the natural terrain to instill atmosphere, fun and intricacy into a round of golf. ZGD is currently engaged with a wide variety of projects across the U.S., ranging from restorations of golden age courses to new builds with routings that push the creative envelope.
A BUNKER RENO AT RISING SUN
Love Golf Design, led by Davis Love III, has signed on for a bunker renovation project at the Rising Sun Golf Course at Emigrant, Montana’s Mountain Sky Guest Ranch.
The Love team will remove 10 bunkers from the 2011 Johnny Miller design and add 30. Working in conjunction with Heritage Links, Love will also modify the layout’s existing bunkers and update them with enhanced drainage and edging utilizing the EcoBunker system. That system, used at such respected top-100 venues as Royal St. George’s, Kingsbarns and Italy’s Marco Simone, site of the 2023 Ryder Cup, incorporates stacked sod edges using recycled artificial grass, thereby improving drainage.
The course will also install Sandtrapper liners in the bunker basins to yield better drainage and to avoid washouts during heavier rains. The bunkers will then be refilled with the same sand that is found in the existing bunkers.
"The bunker renovation is a major investment back into the Rising Sun Golf Course and emphasizes our desire to maintain a world-class golf course for our ranch guests," said Mike Petersen, superintendent and general manager of Rising Sun. "The new bunkers will enhance the golf experience at Rising Sun, both aesthetically and from a playability standpoint."
Heritage Links began the bunker enhancement project in mid-March and expects to complete work sometime this summer.
GREG NORMAN GOES SHORT
Resort destination Mandarina has opened a nine-hole short course designed by Greg Norman Golf Course Design.
Norman and his team draped the layout into “the Flatlands,” a lush, 10-acre valley in Riviera Nayarit, sandwiched between the Sierra De Vallejo Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
The course consists of nine par-3 holes with some embracing a links style, others parkland and still others Norman’s native sandbelt. Greens are strategically designed with flexible pin positions to allow for diverse play options, balancing difficulty at each hole. For settling wagers, or as simply bonus golf, Norman crafted an extra challenge hole.
The family-friendly design features hole yardages ranging from 60 to 160 yards, with multiple sets of tees; yet, players of every ability will be challenged by sectionalized greens with varied hole locations that can accommodate running shots. Outstanding vistas from the course include the mountains, a beach club, an equestrian center and the ocean.
"Mandarina’s course offers something truly different — every hole tells a story," Norman said. "We created a course that’s approachable yet exciting, offering both leisure and a touch of challenge in a setting you won’t find anywhere else."
The Mandarina short course is primarily an amenity for community residents and the on-site One&Only Mandarina hotel, but is also open to outside play. Future growth includes a Rosewood hotel and additional residences.
