One of the most prolific designers in the history of golf course architecture, Robert Trent Jones II has in recent years championed the environment and affordable public golf.

Few golf course architecture firms have as much global presence and notoriety as that of Robert Trent Jones II, whose most famous works include Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach, Washington’s upcoming US Open venue Chambers Bay, and several hundred others in more than 40 countries.

Jones, Jr. has never been anything less than brutally outspoken, and three years ago he issued his company’s Green Proclamation, a commitment to design golf courses in an environmentally responsible manner. At the same time he called on his peers to likewise dedicate themselves to these environmental tenets.

For 2012, Jones is back at the podium, and just has released a “Public Golf Proclamation,” comprised of ten tenets to support accessible and affordable public golf and bring our beloved game to more people in more places worldwide.

This proclamation follows on the heels of a recent letter to the New York Times, in which Jones, Jr. wrote, “Golf architects are often called upon to design courses that support upscale real estate developments.  But the game’s roots reach down into the Earth, not up into trophy homes.  Golf first developed 500 years ago as an accessible and affordable sport that brought people together outdoors, rather than separating them.  Many great golf courses serve the public and the environment. The future of our sport lies in embracing the Scottish tradition in which all people are equal as they stand over a white ball.”

Without further ado, here is the test of the company’s proclamation and 10 tenets:

PUBLIC GOLF PROCLAMATION
Our Exclusive Commitment to Inclusiveness

From its earliest origins along the coasts of Scotland golf has fostered community, bringing together disparate peoples to enjoy both competition and camaraderie.  In the modern era, golf courses throughout the world have been very successful when created in conjunction with resort and real estate developments and private clubs.  At Robert Trent Jones II we will continue to design the best possible courses to meet the needs of our many and varied clients.  But we believe that golf should also be easily affordable and accessible to everyone who wishes to play it.

As our founder, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., stated in a letter to the New York Times, “The future of our sport lies in embracing the Scottish tradition in which all people are equal as they stand over the ball.”

We applaud the global efforts of golf organizations, associations, and governing bodies, as well as our golf architecture colleagues worldwide, who have worked to promote public access to affordable, high-quality, environmentally responsible golf. In an effort to foster the communal spirit of the game we offer the following declaration to golfers and prospective golfers of every nation:

We aspire to:
1. Work with municipalities and other government entities to create great golf courses for their citizens through insightful, integrated master plans specific to each community.
2. Assist communities in creating programs and initiatives that make great public courses accessible and affordable to everyone.
3. Advocate for the creation of golf facilities on degraded sites to return unproductive land to productive and sustainable public uses.
4. Always protect and enhance the environment for the good of all.
5. Design courses that require less earth moving, water, fertilizer, and other resources in an effort to keep investment and operating costs—and therefore green fees—reasonable.
6. Create wider strategic routings and sets of shorter “family tees” to encourage children to take up golf and have fun playing it.
7. Advocate for innovative practice facilities where young people and newcomers can learn to love golf, and support programs and organizations that introduce new players to the sport.
8. Design facilities that encourage speed of play, including inventive layouts such as “Learning Courses,” par-three routings, 6-, 9-, and 12-hole loops, and others.
9. Create public courses that are flexible, fun, and challenging to golfers of a wide range of abilities.
10. Encourage golf course owners to support local businesses and take an active role in their communities.

Barnbougle Dunes is a bit of Scotland transported to Tasmania - and one of two adjacent courses here ranked in the World's Top 100.

As loyal readers know, I have been preaching the awesomeness of Australian golf for years, and way back in 2004 when I broke the Guinness World Record for golf travel, I started my epic trip at New South Wales Golf Club in Sydney. Now with the Presidents Cup having just put to focus back on Australian Golf, I wanted to follow up the event with another reminder of just how good golf Down Under is – especially as we head out of Australia’s spring and into summer.

Melbourne is simply THE best golf city in the world for the traveling golfer, period, with seven fabled private clubs and eight courses all in one single stretch convenient to downtown – and allowing foreign visitors. Imagine a golf trip to New York if you could suddenly play otherwise off-limits Shinnecock, National, Maidstone, Winged Foot, Westchester Country Club and many more – and they were all in Brooklyn.

Yes, there really are kangaroos and wallabees on the golf courses here.

But golf in Australia is more than Melbourne, and to celebrate this, the Tourist Board just created something called Great Golf Courses of Australia, showcasing the fact that among the nation’s nearly 1,700 golf courses there are six that have been ranked in the World’s Top 100, which is pretty impressive considering that Australia has less than one half of one percent of the earth’s population. Or think of it this way: they have about 15 times the number of great golf courses per capita as the rest of the planet.

The half dozen stars are Barnbougle Dunes and Barnbougle Lost Farm in Tasmania; Kingston Heath and Royal Melbourne in Melbourne; New South Wales Golf Club in Sydney; and Royal Adelaide in South Australia.

The stately setting at Royal Melbourne, whose 36-holes just hosted the Presidents Cup.

Without bragging, I have to say that I have played each and every one of these courses and they are all standouts. My favourite is probably New South Wales and the hidden gem of the bunch is Royal Adelaide. Barnbougle is very much Australia’s version of Bandon Dunes, right down to similar topography, investors and designers. Royal Melbourne was the host of the last two President’s Cups played Down Under and its 36-holes are probably Australia’s most famous. Like I said, this is a notable bunch.

For more info check out the official tourism site.

Scottsdale is overflowing with great golf courses. My favorite is the 36-holes at We-Ko-Pa

Here in the northeast we have already been belted with Old Man Winter, and it is just the middle of fall. New York City broke its all-time snowfall record for October, and overnight temperatures where I live have been consistently below freezing. That means it the time of year when my friends and long lost acquaintances starter emailing me and asking where they should plan their winter golf vacation.

In a word, Scottsdale.

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. There are any warm weather destinations I love for golf, mainly the Dominican Republic, both coasts of Mexico, Hawaii, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Vegas.

But I keep coming back to Scottsdale. No place, and I mean no place, has such a concentration of outstanding courses. There is plenty of golf in Myrtle Beach and Virginia Beach, but there is not world class golf, like in Scottsdale, which has more great courses than the entire State of Hawaii.

Consider:

It is super easy to get to, with non-stop flights form every major city in the country, and an airport that rarely experiences significant weather or delays, period.

It has plenty of great food, shopping, alternative activities, entertainment, and nightlife of every type.

It has alternatives in every price range, and while it has some of the most luxurious golf resorts in the world, and winter is high season, there are plenty of more modest hotels, along with lots of condo and suite hotel deals and brokers available.

Likewise it has golf courses for every style and budget, from totally private to very high end resort to great daily fee and even outstanding munis. Several of the best are operated by Native American tribes, and courses run the gamut from traditional parkland to pure desert target golf to everything in between.

But what really excites me about the greater Scottsdale region is how many great multiple course facilities there are. Elsewhere it is more the expectation than the rule that if you have more than one course they will all be good. More common is to have a great course anchoring a facility with a not so great overflow course. But in Scottsdale, excellent 36-hole facilities abound, and that means less moving around and more epic 36-hoel days. Specifically, I mean the following:

We-Ko-Pa: My favorite in Arizona, two absolutely brilliant strategic designs, operated by the Fort McDowell Indian nation and its adjacent casino, with deals and reasonably priced lodging onsite. Golf simply does not get much better than these two.

The Boulders: Two great classic examples of pure desert golf with the utmost attention to service and manicuring.

Troon North: The public facility that helped launch the whole “member for a day” high-end public craze and put public desert golf on the map.

Grayhawk: I am not as enamored of this 36 as some of my colleagues, but everyone I send loves it, and these are two very solid desert courses.

The Phoenician: Okay it is just 27-holes, but given the over the top opulence of the resort and the crowd they get, these three very distinct and interesting nines come as a hugely pleasant surprise.

The Arizona Biltmore: For those who want a break from desert golf, two of the oldest classics (1920s) in Phoenix predate water restrictions and are pure lush parkland layouts. Both were restored extensivly a few years ago.

TPC Scottsdale: Home to the most attended golf tournament on earth, the Phoenix Open (now Waste Management, formerly FBR), with two fun and scintillating stadium courses in an ultra-convenient setting with multiple hotels, including the wonderful Fairmont, onsite.

Talking Stick: Like We-Ko-Pa, another 36-hole Native American owned facility designed by Coore & Crenshaw.

See what I mean? Just this list gives enough to play 36 holes a day for over a week without a single weak link, and there are many more. There is just no equivalent to all these tremendous facilities in one setting this side of the British Isles and it is not exactly balmy there right now.

On its 40th birthday, Teeth of the Dog remains the highest ranked course ever built in the Caribbean.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years, but that is exactly how long Teeth of the Dog, the most famous golf course in the Caribbean has been open.

When Pete Dye first designed the course, there was nothing but jungle on this 7,000-acre swath of the Dominica Republic’s southern  coastline, and much of the work to build the course was done by hand, with picks and axes and wheelbarrows. The tiny water filled ditch that bisects what is now the Links course at the resort was built by Dye as a canal to bring water to the site, which had no infrastructure whatsoever. It’s hard to imagine any golf course being built in this manner today, and impossible to imagine one by a name brand architect, but then Dye was not a name brand architect until after he built Teeth of the Dog and garnered international acclaim for it. It has never wavered as the highest ranked course in the Caribbean in every major magazine, and while he is loathe to admit it, he has inferred that it remains his all-time favorite, and he has a house alongside its fairways.

After Teeth of the Dog got built, with its famous series of holes not just on the coast but on the beach and very nearly in the ocean, the Casa de Campo resort came to be the biggest golf complex in the Caribbean, and among the biggest resorts period, and today it remains the gold standard that many newer competitors have tried and failed to match. Dye returned to build a second course, the Links, which frankly is not very good, and quite poorly named, then a third, the private La Romana Country Club, just for residents. Then there was a considerable gap before he returned to build another masterpiece, Dye Fore, set on stunning headlands overlooking the wild Chavon River, where scenes from Apocalypse Now were filmed. There are no other golf courses quite like this one, perched on the edge of oblivion, and honestly, I have thought since opening that Dye For is even better than Teeth of the Dog, which is really saying something.

Well it just got even better; 2-weeks ago Dye unveiled a third nine at Dye Fore, expanding the facility to 27 holes, and the resort to 63-holes, the first step towards splitting Dye Fore into two full blown courses. The new nine is called Dye Fore Lakes, and comes on the heels of a $40 million renovation of the rest of the resort last year.

Casa de Campo is simply a fantastic place to go and play golf. For the most part, it is run as an al-inclusive resort, with lodging in a variety of hotel rooms, villas, and lavish private homes, with numerous bars and restaurants dispensing free flowing food and booze throughout. The place is huge and self-contained and includes a vast state of the art shooting facility, equestrian center, world-class marina with its own retail and dining village, and most shockingly of all, an entire hilltop village built by stone artisans to resemble a Tuscan medieval town. It even has its own airport. At Casa de Campo, when you go to play golf it is hard to decide where to tee it up, and when you are not playing golf it is nearly impossible to choose from all the options of what to do next. The easiest choice is just to go, period, especially with the new nine.

Refreshed? All the greens were completely replaced, trees, bunkers and tees added, even four new holes.

Florida has more golf courses than any other state in the Union – and more any other country on earth. But Pensacola has just one and exactly one municipal course, the Osceola Municipal Golf Course. And after 85 years of play, it got tired.

So it is good news for both locals and visitors to this popular vacation destination that the City of Pensacola and its Parks and Recreation Department just wrapped up a massive renovation of the course.

Hence the city’s new marketing slogan: “Come Play Osceola Again For The First Time.”

The very popular course has a vivid history. It was designed in 1926 by William Earl “Wild Bill” Mehlhorn, a Texan who was the longest hitter of his day and won more than 47 tournaments and competed on the very first Ryder Cup team, as well as the inaugural Masters tournament. As a side note, Wild Bill famously wore a cowboy hat while he competed, something I wish one of the young kids out there had the courage to do today. That would be cool. And instant sponsorship.

Anyway, the changes are pretty extensive to this grand old course:  four entirely new holes, including three new par-3s. The length is about the same given the footprint of land, but the new configuration as a par-70 rather than 72 considerably ups the challenge. All throughout the layout are reconstructed green complexes with first-class putting surfaces of MiniVerde Bermuda, the same found at top PGA Tour venues like Bay Hill and TPC Stadium Course at Sawgrass. Other improvements include new cart paths, more bunkers, and more trees. Runway tees have been replaced with separated teeing grounds for men, women, seniors and juniors. In addition, the Osceola clubhouse has also been redecorated and features a new restaurant.

Osceola is also home to the area’s First Tee program, and these facilities are vastly improved, including a new 40-person practice facility complete with a massive putting and pitching green, and a separate sand bunker.

So after all this, guess how much it costs to play Osceola? Well, the high season weekend rate, with cart, for 18 holes, is a whopping $25. Really.

A grand re-opening event is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 7

Every hole at Salsih Cliffs is isolated by thick forests and laid out as eye candy.

Loyal readers know I have sung the praises of casino courses before, from Idaho to Mississippi, and with just one or two very minor exceptions, they are a uniquely American golf phenomena. At the moment they are also the only American golf phenomena still being built.

Casinos usually consider their golf courses an amenity for gamblers, a very large and grassy version of the free drink. They don’t need to make a profit on it like “normal” courses do, just like they don’t need to make a profit on the casino bar. Plus they often have money to burn.  So when building a course they tend to hire the best architects and spend lavishly – designer Rees Jones, no stranger to the casino golf business, told me that the courses he did for Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, which required an enormous amount of expensive blasting, would never have been built by a run of the mill developer. Casino courses, once built, also usually receive white glove maintenance.

Joining Rees Jones on the list of architects who have regularly embraced the casino golf craze are Tom Fazio, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., Jack Nicklaus, Davis Love, and Gene Bates. Bates’ may not be the most famous in the bunch, but his work certainly stands up to the highest critical standards. I recently wrote about his acclaimed Circling Raven casino course in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Circling Raven perennially makes every magazine’s list of the world’s best casino courses, and is usually the first or second highest rated layout outside of Nevada.

Last week Bates’ latest casino creation opened at the Little Creek Casino resort just outside Olympia, Washington, and very convenient to Tacoma (30 mins) and Seattle (60 mins). It is also very convenient (30 mins) to future US Open venue Chambers Bay, a new must-play for golf pilgrims, giving the area a one two punch that begs for a visit. The major difference is that while Chambers Bay is in the top price range of publics, the new Salish Cliffs golf club is a bargain, and you can practically play it four times for the cost of a round at Chambers. It is also really good.

Bates got about 400 pristine acres from the Squaxin Island nation, a hugely generous piece of land, and as a result, you cannot see any other holes from the one you are playing, with just two exceptions including the unique double green for nine and eighteen. The land is rolling on mountain foothills, with dramatic elevation changes, more than 600 feet on site, and it is covered with the signature tree of the Pacific Northwest, the majestic Douglas Firs. The bunkering is natural and first rate, the place is just beautiful, and for a maximum price of just $89 – including cart – you feel like you have the entire place to yourself, a beautiful round through nature’s solitude.

It also plays well for all abilities, forgiving off the tee but long form the back, and offers a great routing and hole variety, plus several risk/reward opportunities that put your course management to the test. I loved the drivable par-4 second (maybe because I drove it) and there are a few reachable in two par-5s, and an enormous length variety in the par-3s. Everything about the course works, from aesthetics to maintenance to the variety to the flow. It was a hoot to play – I played it three times and it never got old.

My colleague Robert “Bad Bob” Fagan joined me on the trip, and his recent write up is much more detailed. I’d just like to alert readers to a notable new course that is also one of the top golf values in the nation, and will almost certainly be ranked alongside Bates’ Circling Raven – if not higher – in the Top 100 You Can Play come next year.

The JW Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert, CA has two nice courses - and both are on sale!

It’s now getting into the 40s at night where I live, which means summer is almost over – less than a week from now to be exact.

That also means it is time to switch gears to warm weather golf, and few places are warmer than Scottsdale, AZ and Palm Springs, CA. To further heart things up, both are offering bargain priced all-you-can-play specials.

Sibling Marriott resorts, the JW Marriott Camelback Inn Resort & Spa in Scottsdale and the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, are running similar packages, both good through December, so you have a couple of months to get your golf in.

The JW Marriott Camelback is one of Scottsdale's top golf resorts.

There are minor package differences, but both include accommodations and unlimited golf, plus a slew of minor discounts and extras, from free breakfast to spa discounts. The Fling & Swing package in Scottsdale adds a $50 per night resort credit good towards food or drink, plus free tennis and bicycle rentals, and is cheaper, from $169 per night. It’s a busier season in Palm Springs, so the Unlimited Golf package at the Desert Springs has less extras, and starts at $329 per night.

Both properties have two 18-hole courses, and both are part of Marriott’s highest luxury level brand, JW Marriott, so you are not going to be slumming at either!

The view from the 12th tee shows the beautiful landscape of NW Idaho

The Circling Raven Golf Club at the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort in northwestern Idaho rightfully makes every list of the nation’s best casino courses, usually right near the top after the much more expensive super heavyweights, Shadow Creek and Fallen Oak. In fact Circling Raven makes the Top 100 Public Course lists of both GOLF Magazine and Golf Digest against all comers, casino or no.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing Circling Raven – and most of the other great casino layouts in the US – and pound for pound it does not get any better than this, a great course that is also a bargain. The only weakness facing visitors to this incredibly beautiful part of the country has been the associated casino hotel, which was strictly  middle of the road compared to its competitors, and did not suit the quality of the course.

So I am very glad to announce that the Coeur d’Alene Tribe has upped the ante and reinvested considerable portions of its casino earnings – $75 million to be exact – in the facility, upgrades that were completed a few months ago.
“When we announced we were going to undertake a expansion, many thought we were crazy,” said Coeur d’Alene Tribal Chairman Chief Allan. “The Tribe didn’t sit back and wait to be victimized by the economy. The Tribe took control of its own destiny. We moved forward with a vision, the results of which can now be found inside this beautiful resort.”

The new more luxurious guest rooms are a welcome addition!

This was the seventh but most important expansion completed at the resort since it opened in 1993. The improvements include the much-needed addition of nearly 100 upscale and oversized hotel rooms in two wings that overlook the golf course, with the latest technology and dramatic 10-foot floor-to-ceiling windows. Dining options were limited, so the hotel added a gourmet steakhouse called Ts’elusm, which means “stand before the fire,” where chefs grill the finest dry-aged prime beef over an open wood fire. Another new option is a sports bar and café, offering a vast selection of beers, wines and spirits and a pub-style menu. The final missing resort ingredient this expansion remedied is a new 15,000 square-foot, full-service spa. Substantial improvements were also made to the resort’s grounds and common areas.

The Coeur d’Alene area offers visiting golfers two other big appeals besides the excellent Circling Raven course and much improved casino resort. The town of Coeur d’Alene is charming and sits on an incredibly beautiful lake, and the weather is truly phenomenal, among the best in the nation from early spring to late fall, sunny almost every day with rain extremely rare, making it  a very reliable choice for a golf vacation. It’s also a very affordable choice, with stay-and-play packages start at $199 per night which includes a standard room and golf for two.

You can’t beat that, and if you get lucky, the blackjack table might even pay for your whole stay!

Our team - with PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley - should have been on this Leaderboard

True Story.

Four weeks ago I went to Jackson, Mississippi to play in the Pro-Am of the Viking Classic with one specific mission: to pick PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley as my partner in the pro-am drawing.

Four weeks ago, despite having a breakthrough win and several strong finishes already in his rookie year (way more than can be said for Sergio or many more highly touted prospects), Keegan Bradley was almost entirely unknown among golf fans. If they knew him at all, it was for being the nephew of LPGA star Pat Bradley, rather than for his own surprising accomplishments.
So why did I want him as my pro-am partner?

Because very, very few folks (I can count them on one hand) from Vermont, where I live, have ever played on the PGA Tour, and Bradley played high school golf in the same town I ate dinner in last night, less than 20 minutes from my house, Woodstock, Vermont. I had the good fortune to meet our last local hero, Jeff Julian, before he passed away from Lou Gehrig’s disease, back when he was still a club pro at the Quechee Club and not a PGA Tour player.

Bradley also used to play with my good friend Dave McGrath, who helped coach our local high school team, knows all the people involved with golf locally, grew up in my backyard, and knows all the courses around here, so I figured we would have something to talk about, which is about the best thing you can have going for you in a pro-am. After all, I’ve played with some really famous, Top 10 in the world golfers and we had nothing to say (see my pro-am articles here, here, here, here, and here). I can almost guarantee I would have been the first amateur he got paired with ready to discuss the finer points of the wacky third hole at the John P. Larkin CC in Windsor. I wanted to ask him if he’d ever tried to drive the green.

First, I had to sell all my teammates on the idea that they should skip over much more famous players to let me take Bradley. Being gentlemen, they succumbed to my logic, and I figured we would all have a grand time, and it would be relatively easy to get him in the lottery, since few other teams would be gunning for him like we were.

So what happened?

He withdrew last minute.

It would have been prescient to have played with the now Major Champ a month ago, it would have been a good story to tell, but most of all, it would have been a lot of fun, and we would have been quite possibly the last group of amateurs Keegan Bradley will ever play in a pro-a with who tried to pick him as a partner for a reason other than his Wanamaker Trophy.

Oh well. I still wish him the best of luck on Tour, and many more Majors!

Guys: Can you say Scotch Whiskey?

Really strange things happen at Skytop Lodge, a grand hotel in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.

It’s not the most famous golf resort on earth, not by a long shot, but it’s fascinating, sort a smaller version of the Greenbrier or Homestead transported north. There’s a big old-fashioned fancy hotel, with a big spa and several restaurants, plus tons of outdoor activities like rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, canoeing, tennis, fly fishing, shooting, skiing, skating, and the like. For me the main attraction is the golf course, rated a near perfect 4 ½ stars by Golf Digest’s Places to Play, and the resort is also home to the Brian Boyle School of Golf.

This grand old hotel is ready to party!

The last time I wrote about Skytop, it was because of a truly astonishing golf record set there: playing in a tournament, head instructor Boyle and his partner both made aces – on the same hole. Yep, they scored a team 2 in stroke play, or -4 versus par, a feat Golf Digest calculated to be a one in 17 million occurrence.

The place must be magic.

As if the promise of the lowest scores humanly possible weren’t enough, now Skytop is luring us with its ultimate mancation: “A vacation strictly devoted to doing only guy things, with only the guys.”

“This three-night/four-day ‘Ultimate Mancation’ package kicks off with a scotch tasting (included) at the famous Tap Room, which boasts a 40-bottle single malt scotch list. Friday and Saturday are all about Skytop’s meandering golf course… Take in the stunning mountain views and great outdoors by enjoying an array of top-brand cigars (three cigars per person included) at the newly added fire pits. Looking for more adventure? Why not spend a day rock climbing, mountain biking or white-water rafting. Is fishing more your thing? Spend a day bass fishing on the 75-acre Skytop Lake, or learn to fly-fish on the many native streams, abound with freshly stocked trout.”

Skytop’s Mancation package also includes three meals per day, and starts at just $570 per night per double room ($285 per person) but you need a foursome to book it, and the package can only be reserved until August 31, so hurry!