The post Cabot team names designers for new 45-hole Florida project appeared first on Golf.

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The Florida destination formerly known as World Woods Golf Club, a longtime presence on best-in-state lists, is on the verge of a major makeover.

We learned as much earlier this year, when Cabot — the company co-founded by Canadian businessman Ben Cowan-Dewar and Bandon Dunes developer Mike Keiser — announced its acquisition of the 45-hole property, which has been renamed Citrus Farms.

Now, we also know the architects who will do the work.

Abiding by a template that has served them well at other multi-course properties (including Bandon and Cabot Cape Breton), Cowan-Dewar and Keiser have opted to spread the love, assigning different architects to each of Citrus Farms’ three courses: Pine Barrens and Rolling Oaks, both Tom Fazio originals, and a new 9-hole par-3 course.

For Pine Barrens, a rustic layout laden with sandy wastes that has appeared on some World Top 100 rankings, the Cabot team has turned to Kyle Franz. Since launching his career in 2000, Franz has worked with the likes of Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and Bill Coore on some of their best-known projects, including Pacific Dunes, in Oregon; Barnbougle Dunes, in Australia; and the restoration of Pinehurst No. 2. More recently, Franz has burnished his reputation with highly regarded restorations of Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Southern Pines, all Donald Ross classics in the Carolina Sandhills.

For Rolling Oaks, the job will go to Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns, respected industry veterans who recently formed a partnership. Their combined resumes include such notable projects as Winter Park Golf Course, in Florida, and Point Grey Golf Club, in Vancouver. Both also helped shape Cabot Cliffs, at Cabot Cape Breton.

As for the new par-3 course, its design will fall to Mike Nuzzo, a former aerospace engineer who has devoted the past 20 years to golf design. His most heralded work is Wolf Point Ranch, a richly imaginative course in Texas. In addition to the new short course, Nuzzo will also create new practice facilities and handle the redo of an existing short course and putting course.

Compared to Cabot’s other projects, Citrus Farms is a quicker trip to major urban centers (it’s about 50 minutes from Tampa and 80 minutes from Orlando). But the site does not have accommodations. The Cabot team plans to add those, along with a new clubhouse and an array of other amenities.

But first, the golf. Work on the courses is slated to begin this spring and is expected to be completed in 2023.

Need help unriddling the greens at your home course? Pick up a custom Green Book from 8AM Golf affiliate GolfLogix.

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From Canada to the Caribbean and now to a prized property in central-west Florida, one of the marquee names in golf development continues to expand its reach.

On Monday, Cabot — the company co-founded by Canadian businessman Ben Cowan-Dewar and Bandon Dunes developer Mike Keiser — announced its acquisition of World Woods Golf Club, a 45-hole public operation, roughly midway between Tampa and Orlando, that has long ranked among the finest public golf facilities in the Sunshine State.

Under the new ownership, World Woods will be renamed Cabot Citrus Farms and the property reimagined, with a refresh of its two 18-hole courses and a 9-hole par-3 course, all originally designed by Tom Fazio.

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The purchase marks the latest headline move by Cabot, whose growing stable of destinations includes Cape Breton in Nova Scotia (home to two of GOLF’s World Top 100 Courses, Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs) and a pair of hotly anticipated projects: Cabot Saint Lucia, set for late 2022 on the island of the same name, and Cabot Revelstoke, now in progress in British Columbia.

“I couldn’t wish for a better location for our first our first U.S. development,” Cowan-Dewar told GOLF.com. “The property is a nature-lover’s paradise.”

Since its 1993 opening, World Woods has been widely praised as a welcome departure for Florida golf, a break from the flat, manufactured design aesthetic that pervades the state. Its landscape makes you feel as if you’re somewhere else — sandy and rumpled, with palmettos and moss-draped oaks that invite comparisons to the Carolina Lowcountry. Its two 18-hole courses, Pine Barrens and Rolling Oaks, are an aptly named study in contrasts: the latter more treelined, the former more rustic, with wide fairways framed by expansive sandy wastes. While Pine Barrens has consistently been the higher-rated of the two, even creeping onto some World Top 100 rankings in the past, Rolling Oaks has been a fixture on best-in-state lists.

Minimalist in its architecture, World Woods has also long been modest in its amenities. It has no accommodations. Cabot plans to build those, along with a new clubhouse, retail, restaurants, a spa, a fitness center and a farmer’s market, among other appointments in a project that will feature a real estate component, designed to blend with the surrounds.

But first things first, Cowan-Dewar says: The initial focus is on spiffing up the golf, including the par-3 course, the putting green and the practice facilities. An architect has not been chosen yet, but that should happen within the next 60 days for work that the Cabot team regards as more of a refresher than a major overhaul.

“This is really the embodiment of the fact that great land allows for great golf,” Cowan-Dewar says. “Our job is really just to let the land shine through.”

Compared to Cabot’s other projects, Citrus Farms will be a quicker trip from major urban centers: about 50 minutes from Tampa and 80 minutes from Orlando. It’s also the first project for the Cowan-Dewar-Keiser tandem that does not revolve around new-course construction, though that, too, is in the blueprint. In the deal, Cabot also acquired an adjacent 600-acre parcel, with plenty of room for more golf in the future.

The more immediate work begins this spring. Until then, both 18-hole courses, as well as the par-3 course and a 3-hole practice loop, will remain open.

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It’s getting hard to keep up with the folks at Cabot, the golf and real-estate developer.

Not content to stand pat with a vaunted resort in Nova Scotia and another in the works in the Caribbean, the company is now set to stretch its reach across the Great White North to the mountains of British Columbia, in western Canada.

On Monday, the Cabot team unveiled its plans for Cabot Revelstoke, an alpine resort in the folds of the Monashee and Selkirk mountain ranges, in an area famed for its heli-skiing.

Scheduled to open in 2023, Cabot Revelstoke will expand upon the offerings of an existing property, Revelstoke Mountain Resort, with real estate, accommodations and an 18-hole course, called Cabot Pacific, by the architect Rod Whitman and his new design firm, Whitman, Axland & Cutten. The Lodge at Cabot Revelstoke, a 150-room hotel, is slated to open in 2024.

“Great golf sites in the mountains aren’t easy to come by,” said Cabot CEO Ben Cowan-Dewar, who co-founded the company with Bandon Dunes developer Mike Keiser. “You want land with movement, but that movement can’t be too severe. This site is ideal in that respect, in surroundings that are just jaw-droppingly beautiful.”

When it opens, Cabot’s latest project will add to a portfolio of golf destinations that includes Cabot Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia, and Cabot Saint Lucia, on the Caribbean island of the same name. The former is home to two GOLF Magazine World Top 100 Courses, Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs, and a 10-hole par-3 course, The Nest. Cabot Saint Lucia, slated to open in 2022, will be anchored by a seaside course by the celebrated design duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

The first mountain project for the Cabot team, Cabot Revelstoke also reunites Cowan-Dewar and Keiser with Whitman, the Cabot Links designer. A native of Alberta, the province just east of British Columbia, Whitman came of age admiring the work of Stanley Thompson, the great Canadian architect of the Golden Age. At Revelstoke, Whitman now has a chance to work on a site that marries elements of two famous Thompson designs, in Banff and Jasper, that rank among the finest mountain courses in the world.

Ringed by snow-capped peaks, amid glaciers and old-growth forests, Whitman’s routing at Revelstoke will run along a ridge overlooking the Columbia River, winding around creeks and cliffs and rock outcroppings, with holes that give way to long views of the mountains.

Photos of the landscape make it easy to see how the region emerged as an alpine mecca and a primo destination for heli-skiing. But check out the renderings of the course at Revelstoke. Looks hella good for golf, too. For more information, visit cabotrevelstoke.com.

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Take a look at Cabot’s new short course, ‘The Nest’.

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The post A trip to stunning Cabot Links is the perfect reminder of the ties that bind us appeared first on Golf.

The post A trip to stunning Cabot Links is the perfect reminder of the ties that bind us appeared first on Golf.

I’m used to finishing rounds in all sorts of weather. This one was different. Barreling down the fairway ahead of me was my nine-year-old stepson, Austin, my oversize jacket draped over him like a cape to help shield him from the stinging rain. On my left was Lindsay, my wife, her head buried into my shoulder, her accelerated gait in lockstep with mine. We are all smiling and laughing—almost home. Near the green we spot our two-year-old, June, in Grammy’s lap on the porch of one of the villas lining the grounds. We’re a thousand miles from home, on the rugged coastline of Nova Scotia, home of the world-class Cabot Links Golf Resort and its pair of Top-100-rated courses.

And we’re very happy.

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This wasn’t my first trip to Cabot Links. I’ve shot photographs here. I’ve boondoggled here. Even Lindsay is familiar with the place, my having proposed to her on the spot during the soft opening of the Cliffs course a few years back. Ever since, I’d been itching to get back, the entire Hafer clan in tow. Most people don’t normally view golf resorts as ideal family vacation spots, and maybe I didn’t either during earlier stages of my golfing life. But things change. My family is obsessed with the game. Austin is an avid player who often can be found glued to the TV on Sunday afternoons, rooting on his heroes as they head down the home stretch. We regularly cut away to our local muni on school nights for six holes, or until darkness runs us off the course. (Lindsay joins when she can; June taking top priority, of course.) Together, we decided to raise our family in a golf environment, our approach to the game being to bond through its varied experiences, the trip to Cabot being just one of them.

On the course, we compete, laugh and—hopefully—teach each other a few lessons about ourselves. It’s never about making Austin, or one day June, into the next elite junior or Tour player. We simply encourage the desire to play.

I do it from the road, too, sharing snaps of the players I’m covering or the courses I’m visiting. Bonus points for when he catches a glimpse of me in the background during a Tour telecast. There are many ways to turn a passion into inspiration.

Our trip to Cabot won’t be our last. I can still picture Austin eagerly hitting every shot without a moment’s hesitation, running from lie to lie, ultimately finishing his first official 18 holes of golf. I see Lindsay and me, walking slowly, soaking up every fairway and nuance, basking in our good fortune to forge new family stories while chasing a little white ball around. Trust me: Taking your family on a golf trip will pay for itself in smiles and memories in spades. The sense of adventure and joy you’ll receive from journeying to some far-off place is only part of the trek. Selfishly, you’re creating time with your loved ones in the bubble that golf gives you, which couldn’t be more needed in our current world situation. It’s the reason why golf resorts and courses are perfect for families, whether they’re elite or comfy.

It’s the reason why golf is the perfect sport.

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The post GOLF’s Photos of the Year appeared first on Golf.

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Whether it was Tiger Woods winning the Masters or a magical rainbow setting over Cabot Cliffs, 2019 provided plenty of sights to be seen. Here are some of the most memorable pictures our GOLF team captured this year.

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Competition between siblings is as old as civilization itself. Right this minute in professional golf, the Molinari brothers, Francesco and Eduardo, the Korda sisters, Jessica and Nelly, and the Jutanugarn sisters, Ariya and Moriya, are entertaining proof that sibling rivalries are alive and well.

It’s no different for golf courses that compete against each other. We’ve identified a fistful of superb layouts that get completely overshadowed because they have the misfortune of sitting adjacent to an even better or more famous one. Here are five terrific tracks you can play that are worthy of much more respect than they get.

Whistling Straits (Irish)
Kohler, Wis.; $80-$220
americanclubresort.com
Mo’ Famous Sibling: Whistling Straits (Straits)

Nearly as brawny as its older brother, the aptly named Irish mimics classic Emerald Isle layouts in some ways with its towering sand hills and a rolling landscape peppered with nasty bunkers (all man-made at the hand of Pete Dye.) In other ways, it’s All-American modern golf, with forced carries over creeks and ponds. What it adds up to is a strong, walkable course that sports a unique personality, which makes it a must-play in its own right.

Bethpage State Park (Red)
Farmingdale, N.Y. $43-$133
parks.ny.gov/golf
Mo’ Famous Sibling: Bethpage State Park (Black)

Few championship layouts anywhere serve up as stern a test as the fearsome Black course at Long Island’s Bethpage, the first municipal course ever to host a U.S. Open. Perhaps that’s why its reputation dwarfs that of its remarkable little brother, the Red. As with the brawnier Black, it boasts an A.W. Tillinghast design pedigree and is plenty tough on its own, starting with the monstrous 471-yard, par-4 first, which plays even longer. The Red may lack the drama that the Black provides, but with its walkability, variety, plethora of long par 4s and distinctive closer, it’s a worthy Plan B.

Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach, Calif.; $395-$430
pebblebeach.com
Mo’ Famous Sibling: Pebble Beach

One can see by the town it sits in and by its web address that Spyglass Hill basks in an enormously long shadow. It deserves better. The 1966 Robert Trent Jones Sr. design is actually the more demanding layout—unless the wind is howling—and boasts an opening five holes in the dunes along the ocean that is vastly superior to Pebble’s start. After the fifth, the course rises and falls through an enchanted pine forest, with deer prancing here and there. While it’s a letdown to some that it never returns to the sea, the quality of these inland holes is unquestioned, including two gorgeous, pond-menaced par 3s on the back nine. It ain’t Pebble, but it’s pure golf all the same.

Torrey Pines (North)
San Diego, Calif.; $116-$145
torreypinesgolfcourse.com
Mo’ Famous Sibling: Torrey Pines (South)

Torrey Pines North has long served as co-host for rounds one and two at the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open. But it’s generally taken a backseat to its beefier, more prominent sibling, even though the North is the more scenic of the two. Following a 2016 Tom Weiskopf renovation, however, the North shines with new luster. All 18 greens were rebuilt, all fairway bunkers were reconstructed, and more tee boxes were established for more variety. The stellar ocean views remain intact, although Weiskopf reversed the nines, so you’ll have to wait until the 15th hole for the jaw-dropping par 3 that goes full frontal with the Pacific.

Cabot Links
Inverness, N.S., Canada $93-$228;
cabotlinks.com
Mo’ Famous Sibling: Cabot Cliffs

Ever since Cabot Cliffs debuted in 2016, it’s generated non-stop positive buzz thanks to Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s masterful design. While totally well deserved, the adulation has tamped down the love and respect for its equally worthy elder sibling, Cabot Links. The Rod Whitman creation may be less dramatic, but it’s remarkable in its own right for rumpled, seaside holes that play down closer to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, like a true Scottish links. The par-4 sixth, which boomerangs around a fishing harbor, and the tiny par-3   14th, which heads straight to the beach, are unforgettable.

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The post Signature screw-ups: Do you play great holes badly? Here’s how to start playing them well appeared first on Golf.

The post Signature screw-ups: Do you play great holes badly? Here’s how to start playing them well appeared first on Golf.

On April 11, 2016, I stood on the tee box of the most iconic hole in golf. 
 
My caddie, Dave, snapped a picture of my setup as Hogan’s Bridge, Rae’s Creek and all that other good stuff you see on TV framed the green. The 12th hole at Augusta National was mine for the taking. 

I waggled over my Augusta National-logoed ProV1 that I’d bought at the Augusta National pro shop and absolutely … nuked my tee shot. As the ball sailed long and left over the green, I watched in horror. I can still hear Dave as I shuffled head-down off the tee.
 
“What club did you hit?” he said. He genuinely had no idea.
 
What Dave also didn’t know was that this was just a small sample of a serial problem: I’m not a horrible golfer but I play great holes HORRIBLY. Have a signature hole at your course? An island-green par-3, perhaps, or a lakeside closer? No doubt I can yank, chunk or hoselrocket my way to a double or triple bogey.
  
Maybe you can relate. Anyone who has had the chance to play a highly rated course has felt the anticipation build, waiting for that signature hole — the one you see on magazine covers, on TV, in rankings, on your scorecard and in your dreams. My job has allowed me to play a number of these holes, which has meant so much heartbreak. The 12th at Augusta, which I got to play after I won the Masters media lottery in 2016, was no outlier.
 
In fact, I tried to redeem myself on the very next hole — the majestic par-5 13th — but a good drive and layup left me a wedge to a green guarded by water and vibrant azaleas. Then I laid the sod. Splash. Triple.
 
The disasters go on and on — 17 at Oakmont (thin!), 16 at Cabot Cliffs (heavy!), 18 at Harbour Town (fore left!), 14 at Liberty National (long!), 15 at Portmarnock (who knows!) — with seemingly no end in sight. It’s a fever I can’t shake. [image:14129476]

Enter Dr. Joseph Parent. A mental coach and the author of Zen Golf, Parent has worked with hundreds of pros including Vijay Singh and Cristie Kerr during their respective ascents to No. 1 in the world. If anyone can help me, I thought, it’s this guy!

So I called him.

“Dr. Parent,” I said, “why do I play signature holes badly?”
 
Parent equates the term “signature” to “special.” And that can have a negative impact. Wanting do hit a “special” shot on a “special” hole of a “special” course, he said, creates unnecessary pressure — we think that our ordinary swing isn’t good enough. That’s when we start going through quick fixes and swing thoughts in our heads.
 
“We give ourselves about a dozen different instructions of what to do and not do and twist ourselves up into a pretzel,” he said, adding that trying to perform well and the fear of performing poorly is a scary combination. “The crescendo of hope and fear just makes you crazy.”
 
Parent said that when golfers get to a hole they deem “special,” or when they start feeling additional pressure or enter a situation where they want to excel, an internal switch goes off.
 
“This is the key,” he said. “They start getting a mindset of, ‘How can I not screw this up?’ rather than, ‘How can I hit a great shot here?’”
 
If you worry about results (WAR), he said, you are at war with yourself. Parent said Kerr came up with the acronym during one of their sessions. 

“That’s the main source of interference in someone making the swing that they’re capable of making, and that is to worry about the outcome,” he said. “The way that manifests in your swing is helping, or projecting, or both. In these cases, many times it’s trying to protect from going somewhere bad — or trying to help it get to the green where you want it to. You know, if you’re at Cypress Point, on the 16th hole, you’re hitting over the ocean, you’re trying to help it get to the green. When you’re at [the 17th hole at] TPC Sawgrass, you’re trying to prevent it from going in the water.” 
 
The visual setup of a hole can provide another set of problems — like the island-green 17th at the Stadium Course, where the pros played last week. 
 
“What you want to do on a hole like that is recognize that if that green were sitting in the middle of a field, it would be one of the easiest shots you ever played,” he said. “But it’s the threat of the water. You start thinking about what could go wrong instead of what could go right.”
 
Parent cited the 16th hole at Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in California. This par-3 has a long, pinched green in the back with a cliff left, OB right and bunkers short. During one evening of night golf glow sticks were placed around the green to illuminate the putting surface. To the eye, the hazards disappeared, and about three-fourths of the people who teed off found the green. Take away the glow sticks and bring back the daylight, Parent says, and not nearly as many find the putting surface.
 
“If you are really trying hard — trying over trusting — then everything freezes up,” he said. “You produce what you fear because you tighten and try to control. You have to give up control to get control. You have to free up to let your body and the club do what it’s supposed to do.”
 
But how do we stop these thoughts, these fears, from entering our minds? Sure, I know I need to give up control and free up my body, but how do I actually do it?
 
“Trying to control the swing and outcome lead to manipulation,” he said. “For the swing, it means mechanical thoughts that interfere with flow. Not such a good idea to give yourself a lesson while you swing. For outcome, it means helping the ball move toward your target or preventing it from going where you don’t want to go.”
 
To give up control and free up your swing, here were three tips he offered:
 
1. Get a good feel in your “programming swing.” Parent calls a practice swing a programming swing because you program in a feel and then let it run. Trusting your keys helps you not try to control your swing.

2. Take a deep breath. Let it out and sink into the ground. Feeling more grounded gets you out of your head and into the feel of freeing it up.

3. Accept that #$&! happens. Being able to “pre-accept” a bad outcome will help you from stressing too much about trying to prevent a catastrophe and commit to your plan. 

After our chat I felt rejuvenated — like I was ready to strap on my bag and run through a wall to the 1st tee. 

Yep, even back to the 1st tee at Augusta.
 

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11 courses made their debut on GOLF’s Top 100 for 2017-2018.

11 courses made their debut on GOLF’s Top 100 for 2017-2018.

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