For years, Rees Jones was known as the Open Doctor, the mantle he inherited from his father, Robert Trent Jones Sr. The moniker made sense. Like his famous dad before him, Jones had become the go-to architect for updates of major championship setups. Before the 1993 U.S. Open at Baltusrol, for instance, Jones renovated the club’s Lower Course, adding length and refining bunkers to enhance the shot-making and strategic challenge. He would later carry out similar commissions at Torrey Pines, Congressional and Bethpage Black. There were others, the Atlanta Athletic Club included. But you get the point. If nips and tucks were needed to test the world’s best, the Doctor was your guy.
But Jones has never dealt exclusively in mega-dose designs. And he’s now prescribing something very different. His newest project, The Shoe, which opened in July, is a friendly test for the rest of us: a 9-hole par-3 layout at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va., a property that already bears the Jones family print. Rees’s father designed the club’s Gold Course in 1963; Rees himself returned years later to build the Green Course next door. The Shoe fits beside them, with holes that range in length from 43 to 137 yards. It opened in conjunction with a 14,000-square-foot putting course, designed in similarly entertaining style.
The Shoe walks in step with a broader trend in golf. At top resort across the country, from Pinehurst to Bandon to Streamsong and Kohrler, par-3 and short courses have become the rage — the darlings of an industry that has awakened to their value as affordable, accessible and sustainable fun.
The governing bodies are fully aboard. To more faithfully reflect how the game is played today, the USGA and R&A have updated the World Handicap System so nine-hole and par-3 rounds count toward indexes (if don’t have a handicap, you can sign up for one here). Of course, big, brawn layouts still count, too. And you should post those scores as well. But sometimes, when you’ve got the golf bug, nine holes is all the medicine you need.
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