Mammoth Dunes

 A few years ago, when I heard that Mike Keiser, developer of the famed Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon, which boasts four courses in the top 100 in the United States, had plans to build a golf resort in central Wisconsin, I was excited. For years I had hoped that someday I would get to play a course that was birthed out of the current minimalist design philosophy which has brought golf courses back to their native roots of fitting in with the landscape as so many of the great links of the British and Irish Isles do. Keiser hires the best in the world at crafting such courses. Tom Doak, David McLay Kidd, the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are all such architects that have molded multiple of his courses, which span more than just the Oregon coast but are also found in Nova Scotia and farther-reaching parts of the globe. However, until this announcement, playing such a course was going to require a major amount of travel with a likely equally large bill. This revelation of Sand Valley Golf Resort in Nekoosa, Wisconsin, though, changed everything as it put me within a few hours’ drive of the premier golf I dreamed of playing. What seemed so far was now within reach.
 

In 2017, the first course, bearing the same name as the resort and designed by Coore and Crenshaw, was opened with much acclaim. This was followed by the opening of Mammoth Dunes in 2018, a David McLay Kidd design, that received equally stellar acclaim. With the resort up and running, all I needed was the right opportunity, which came recently in the form of my wife telling me I should do something big for the milestone age threshold I was about to cross. Sand Valley immediately came to my mind. And so, I set my tee time.
 

Even though I wouldn’t have to pay a large travel bill, the courses are still relatively expensive. I knew that even the fall rate I would be paying thanks to celebrating an October birthday was on the steep side, and therefore, I could only justify playing one of the two courses. This left me with a very difficult choice. To be honest, I was hoping that the resort would only have tee times available on one of the two courses on the day I planned to play as that would make my decision for me. Both had open times though. So, after some reading and pondering, I settled on the second course, Mammoth Dunes. At the end of the day, I knew that I was deciding between two top notch golf courses and really couldn’t go wrong. What really swayed me though were the reviews stating that the more visually striking course is Mammoth Dunes. From the sounds of it, Mammoth is the one to play if you get one shot at Sand Valley as the Sand Valley course is more of a track that reveals itself over time.
 

As I drove up to the clubhouse, and especially as I gazed out at the landscape from the clubhouse, I was mesmerized by what I saw: A sweeping landscape of sand dunes and golf holes that seemed to flow perfectly through them. It sure didn’t feel like I was in central Wisconsin. My excitement expanded as I prepared for my round at their first-rate practice facility, which requires a short shuttle ride to reach – something I had never experienced in my 19 years in the game of golf. This excitement finally reached its fulfillment though as I step to the first tee on a beautiful Autumn day. I loved what lay before me – a wide fairway. Mammoth Dunes had been touted as a golf course that was supposed to be fun to play. So many courses these days seem to be designed to punish, and David McLay Kidd has admitted to falling into this trap of thinking difficulty is king. His philosophy of fun came to the fore at Gamble Sands in Washington, which he created a few years back, and has extended to his track at Sand Valley.
 

Fun means not losing golf balls. As I nailed my first drive down the wide expanse of grass before me, I was indeed having fun. Fun are mounds that funnel the golf ball towards the green and not away. On a few occasions I put the ball on the green thanks to just such a roll. Fun is firm, fast conditions. On the par five third hole, I hit my second shot quite thin, but the ball still rolled to exactly the yardage I wanted it at for my approach to the green. Fun is risk-reward shots. One of which comes on the tee shot of the short par four fourteenth. Well struck drives can reach the green or end up in a small bunker just short as mine did.
 

 What fun should not be mistaken for though is lacking any challenge. Although the fairways are wide, some places on the fairway give better angles to the greens than others. Many times I stood on the tee and realized why they recommend taking a caddie, a unique feature of the resort which I did not partake in given the added expense, as it was hard to tell the best place to aim when looking out over what lay before me – although I must add that I made some good educated guesses. There is also sand aplenty. Not surprising given the name of the resort. Sand which got the best of me on a couple of holes. The greens are also large and welcome three-putts easily.
 

What really made this course fun though is its aforementioned beauty and the fact that there was not a single bad hole in the whole set of 18. I love them all. They were fun to play and everywhere I looked truly was an enjoyment for the eyes. Words can’t truly do justice to the beauty though, and so, I suggest looking for yourself: https://sandvalley.com/. Mammoth Dunes certainly lives up to Sand Valley’s billing of “Golf as it was meant to be.” As of now Mammoth Dunes is the best golf course I have ever played, and I must say that its woolly mammoth logo is the best I have seen for a golf course. I hope to go back though to play the Sand Valley course someday. I suspect that it will make my declaration of the best course I have played more difficult. I look forward to such a day.

The Distance from 42 to 43 is 4 and a Half Years

When Phil Mickelson hoisted the Claret Jug in 2013, it looked as if he was on a path to be just as productive in his 40s as he had been in his earlier years. But then 2014 passed without a win, and 2015, and 2016, and 2017. It wasn’t as if he dropped off the map though. He came dangerously close to winning the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla and the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon. He also remained competitive and productive on Ryder and President’s Cup teams. However, Phil plays to win.

As 2018 commenced, Phil got off to a slow start on the course with a missed cut and a T45 finish. His results on the course changed markedly though after the calendar turned to February as he posted T5, T2, and T6 finishes in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour’s west coast swing. While that was a nice string of tournaments, it led to no new additions to Phil’s mantle.

As the PGA Tour moved south of the border for the World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship, Phil’s hot game followed, and, after 3 rounds, Phil found himself poised on the precipice of triumph; he was 2 shots back. The final round saw Phil post 4 birdies in the first 6 holes, marred only by one bogey. Phil had to battle through the middle of his round though as he made par saving putts at 8 and 9 and scrambled for a bogey on the par 5 eleventh. Still, he found himself tied for the lead with holes running out on him and his competitors. The announcers talked about Phil’s focus and drive to win as well as how sharp he was on the driving range. It felt like it was finally his time. But then, arguably the hottest golfer on the planet, Justin Thomas, did the unbelievable and holed his second shot for eagle on the par 4 18^th hole from more than 100 yards away. This vaulted Thomas to a 2 shot lead.

Phil still had holes to play though and one could sense that he still had something to say about who would claim the trophy in the end. On the green in 2 at the par 5 16^th, Phil 2-putted for birdie. After holing a long birdie putt at 16, Phil was tied with Thomas with 2 to play. It bears mentioning that Englishman Tyrrell Hatton had suddenly slipped into a tie for the lead too. At 17 Phil rolled a putt that looked as if it was in the whole way. He settled for par. On 18 he stood in the middle of the fairway with wedge in hand. Surely most expected him to hit it close. He didn’t. Two putts later the stage was set for a playoff between Phil and Justin Thomas as Hatton made bogey on 18.

Thomas drew the right to hit first on the par 3 17^th hole, which is where the sudden death playoff was to start. He put a crisp strike on the ball, but he went over the green. Phil took the opening and hit a solid shot to about 15 feet. After a lackluster chip from Thomas that left him 6 feet short, the door was open for Phil to end the longest winless drought in his Hall of Fame career. He hit a perfect putt that curled elegantly towards the hole, but when it got to the hole it decided to kiss and roll around the edge of the hole. Phil was visibly distraught. Thomas still needed to hole his putt to extend the playoff though. He didn’t. Phil was finally a champion again.

When Phil found himself an Open Champion at Muirfield in 2013 – his 42^nd PGA Tour victory – I think he and his fans thought that 43 wasn’t too far behind. Sometimes in life, patience is necessary, however. After a drought of a little over 4 and a half years, Phil finally has 43 finishes of first on the PGA Tour on his resume. By the way, that’s 7 more PGA Tour victories than Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, and Rickie Fowler combined. The young guys are good, but they still have a ways to go to reach Phil who, although he’s turning 48 in June, still has petroleum in the tank.

Clear Logic

The University of Central Florida (UCF) went undefeated (13-0) – no challenger in all the land was able to defeat them. Furthermore, one of the 13 in the left column for UCF was Auburn. Auburn triumphed over both Georgia and Alabama – the two participants in the College Football Playoff Championship game – during the regular season. The logic is clear. Therefore, it is with great excitement that we at jasathletics.blogspot.com bestow upon UCF the 2017-2018 jasathletics College Football National Championship. 

This marks the first time since the 2014-2015 college football season that jasathletics has deviated from “the establishment’s” college football national champion and it is the sixth time in twelve years that such a discontinuity has presented itself. UCF showed resilience throughout the season. From a hurricane interrupted September to a final three games that each pushed them to the brink of defeat. All three saw them ultimately secure a seven-point victory over a team that tallied ten wins by season’s end. Congratulations UCF! An undefeated national championship season is no easy feat. I applaud UCF for paying its coaches their national championship bonuses and for their plans to hold a championship parade and hang a championship banner too. They have definitely earned it!

As an aside, congratulations to former UCF coach Scott Frost for taking the next step in his career by going back to his alma mater Nebraska. I have a special connection with Scott Frost as I first became interested in college football while watching him lead Tom Osborne’s option attack all the way to a shared national title with Michigan in the 1997-1998 college football season. A season that Nebraska capped by dismantling Peyton Manning and Tennessee 42 to 17 in the Orange Bowl. I hope that Frost’s success on the sideline at Nebraska is equal to his success between the lines there. The Big Ten will be better if Nebraska returns to national prominence.

Penny Takes Prize

On Saturday, Baker Mayfield of Oklahoma took home the number two prize in college football – the Heisman Trophy. His numbers were certainly impressive this year. He threw for 4,340 yards with a total of 41 of his passes ending with his receiver in the end zone. Just as impressive is the fact that only 5 of his tosses ended up in the hands of the opposing team. He also added 310 yards and 5 touchdowns on the ground. He was seemingly a lock for the top prize in college football too. At the same time though, a man on the West coast was quietly composing a resume impressive not only for the size of its numbers but also the diversity of categories that they fall into. Mayfield’s often less than honorable antics didn’t help his cause either. So, with that being said, I would like to name San Diego State running back Rashaad Penny as the 2017-2018 jasathletics College Football MVP.

Overall, Penny ran for an impressive 2,027 yards and 19 touchdowns. He also added 142 receiving yards including 2 touchdowns. What took him over the top though, was his added diversity of 1 punt return touchdown and 2 kick return touchdowns. Penny is truly a man that knows how to find the end zone. He also came up big against power 5 opponents. Against Arizona State he ran for 216 yards and 1 touchdown and caught 4 passes for 38 yards and 1 touchdown. Against Stanford he ran for 175 yards and 1 touchdown. Not only were his stats impressive, his team won both games. Penny came up big down the stretch too, finishing the year with 4 straight games with more than 200 yards on the ground. In each of those games he found himself in the end zone multiple times, and each of those games ended with San Diego State having a larger integer on scoreboard than their opponent as well. Congratulations Rashaad! We at jasathletics look forward to seeing you on Sundays next year.

An American Abroad

When Peter Uihlein arrived at Oklahoma State, one of the top college golf programs in the nation, he had big expectations. This was due in large part to the fact that he was a two-time American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year, but also because his father Wally is CEO at Acushnet – the parent company for Titleist. His time in Stillwater was certainly a success as he won multiple college tournaments and also claimed the 2011 Ben Hogan Award, which goes to the top college golfer each year – recognizing success in both colligate and non-colligate tournaments. His time on the golf course while unofficially representing the Oklahoma State orange was fruitful too as he won the 2010 United States Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay in Washington. Even with this success, some found it to be a curious choice for Uihlein to turn professional at the end of 2011 and not play the spring portion of his final year of college eligibility. Perhaps even more surprising was that he decided that Europe, and not his native United States of America, would be where he would try to forge the origins of a hopefully positive career trajectory.

During Uihlein’s first year as a professional he saw limited starts accompanied by limited success on the European Tour. His time on the European minor league circuit, the European Challenge Tour, indeed proved to be a challenge too as he didn’t claim his first top ten until late July. This was a turning point though and marked the beginning of a seven tournament stretch where he finished in the top ten six times. All things considered, 2012 was a successful maiden voyage into the world of professional golf as Uihlein finished 26^th in the final Challenge Tour rankings.

After a resilient first year as a pro, Uihlein broke into full stride in 2013 with two top ten finishes on the main circuit early in the year. Then, in May, he notched the first win of his European Tour career by claiming the Madeira Islands Open. This solidified the main tour as his home. Uihlein did not rest in his success though; he kept the momentum rolling throughout the year, and among other things, added two second place finishes late in the season. His success didn’t go unnoticed by his colleagues across the Atlantic either. Both Uihlein and Brooks Koepka (a young American following a similar career path to Uihlein) qualified for the PGA Championship and played a practice round with Phil Mickelson. At year’s end, Uihlein was 14^th on the European Tour’s ranking list – a tour and 12 places better than the year before. This gained him the honor of being named the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year.

At this point, Uihlein looked poised to continue to progress. Instead he regressed. With only two top ten finishes in all of 2014, Uihlein found his name next to the number 65 on the final European Tour rankings. Instead of getting to follow his friend Brooks Koepka, who finished 8^th on the European Tour order of merit bolstered by a late-season win in Turkey, to the United States to play the PGA Tour in 2015, he remained a nomadic American.

The year 2015 proved to be a solid year for Uihlein as he regained some form. There was nothing spectacular about it. He consistently made cuts and threw in the odd top ten. It was good enough to get him to the final event of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai playoffs, an honor that goes to the top 60 in the rankings. After signing his final scorecard in Dubai, his season added up to a 47^th place finish. Even though it was solid, it didn’t match up with the success that 2013 foreshadowed.

After showing some initial promise with three top tens in a row early in the year, 2016 ended up being Uihlein’s most difficult trek as a professional. Injuries stunted his season. He only played in 14 tournaments, and not surprisingly, he finished the 2016 campaign in 126^th place. Exclamation points had officially been replaced by questions marks.

What cannot be questioned is Uihlein’s resilience. It’s early in 2017, but Uihlein has already posted three top tens and eight made cuts in nine events on the European Tour. He also made a solid guest appearance on the PGA Tour as he finished T5 at the Puerto Rico Open, which earned him a start the following week at the Shell Houston Open where he finished T23. All of a sudden 2013 doesn’t feel all that distant. The PGA Tour seems within grasp, and indeed was, albeit for only a fortnight. A pro career that mirrors or even overshadows his amateur and collegiate career in wins and associated awards seems possible again.  For now, he continues down a road rarely traveled by an American professional golfer as he is back on the European Tour this week teeing up his golf ball at the Shenzhen International in China. I don’t doubt that this road will one day end up on the PGA Tour. When he finally does make it there as a full-time member, he will bring a wealth of experience and memories that he never could have amassed if he hadn’t left the safety of the States. Experience and memories he could only gain as an American abroad.

Shaped by Greatness

When most people think of elite golf in the state of Minnesota, Hazeltine National is the layout that comes to mind. What most people don't know is that great courses designed by some of the best known golf course architects of all time graced the Minnesota landscape well before Hazeltine was conceived by Robert Trent Jones in the 1960s.

The most notable such course is Interlachen Country Club in Edina, which is the number one golf course in Minnesota according to Golf Digest. Interlachen was designed by the great Donald Ross in the early 1900s during the golden age of golf course architecture. Ross is certainly one of the best and most prolific golf course architects to have held that vocation. Ross' most well-known courses include Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, Seminole Golf Club in Florida, Oakland Hills Country Club (South course) in Michigan, and Oak Hill Country Club (East course) in New York. Interlachen's resume is further bolstered by the history that has unfolded over its fairways and greens as Bobby Jones won the U.S. Open there in 1930 on his run to the Grand Slam - possibly still the greatest achievement in golf history.

While Interlachen is the centerpiece, the story doesn't end there. Donald Ross had a hand in designing multiple other Minnesota masterpieces too. Included among them are The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Northland Country Club in Duluth, and White Bear Yacht Club in Dellwood. The narrative doesn't end with Ross either though as other elites of the golden age plied their trade in the soil of the North Star State as well. The names A.W. Tillinghast, Seth Raynor, and Stanley Thompson all are credited with designing at least one course in Minnesota.

Like Ross, Tillinghast is one of the giants in the history of American golf course design. Among his most famous designs are Winged Foot Golf Club's West and East courses in New York and Baltusrol Golf Club's Lower and Upper Courses in New Jersey. In Minnesota, Tillinghast designed a pair - Golden Valley Country Club and Rochester Golf and Country Club.

Seth Raynor worked many years as C.B. MacDonald's understudy. MacDonald is known as the father of American golf course architecture with classics like National Golf Links of America in New York and Chicago Golf Club to his name. This is no doubt that MacDonald casts a shadow over Raynor. However, Raynor carved out a nice career apart from MacDonald too, and one must not underestimate his contributions to courses where MacDonald played the leading role either. His career removed from MacDonald included gems like Fishers Island Golf Club (with Charles Banks) in New York and Shoreacres Golf Club in Illinois. As for Minnesota, Raynor created a trio of Twin Cities tracks, all country clubs - Midland Hills, Minnesota Valley, and Somerset.

Finally, there is Stanley Thompson - perhaps the most surprising name from that prime era of golf course design to have a course in Minnesota on his resume. This is because Thompson is the greatest Canadian golf course architect of all time and has relatively few forays to the fifty when compared with his comprehensive portfolio of Canadian courses. His Canadian courses are spectacular and many are set in places of utmost natural splendor. Some of the more noteworthy are Capilano Golf and Country Club in British Columbia, Banff Springs Golf Course and Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course in Alberta, and Highlands Links Golf Course in Nova Scotia. His one Minnesota design is North Oaks Golf Club, which was finished in 1950 towards the end of Thompson's career and technically after the golden age of course design. North Oaks was recently refurbished by Tom Lehman and hosted this past year's MGA Amateur Championship.

Surely Hazeltine will continue to be the course most associated with elite golf in the state of Minnesota, especially after the amazing Ryder Cup that unfolded there only months ago. Hopefully more will come to know that the story of great golf in Minnesota started well before Hazeltine though, and that those courses were indeed shaped by greatness.

Clemson Claims Crown

I already had the title written: “Highlight Alabama, Copy, and Paste”, but then they played the game. I must admit that, going into the playoff, I didn’t think Clemson was a great team. Certainly a very good team, but not a great team. Part of this is due to the fact that they were a short NC State field goal away from having two losses and not even being in the playoff. Even after their win on Monday, I am not completely sold on their body of work as a whole. There is no doubt that their two playoff games were impressive. I feel like their team was better last year though. The problem is, Alabama was better last year too. If Western Michigan had gone undefeated, I definitely would have given them strong consideration.

With that being said though, I must say that I admire Clemson’s resilience. To come so close last year and be able to come back the next year and win it all by defeating the team that took what you wanted only a year before is not easy. So, I would like to announce Clemson as the 2016-2017 jasathletics College Football National Champion. Clemson is certainly a program that has made a great rise under the leadership of Dabo Swinney. Even with the departures of key players like Deshaun Watson and Mike Williams, I expect Clemson to be on the national stage for many years to come. Congratulations Clemson! The road was not easy, but you battled strong and earned this crown.