Jay's Golf Awards for 2013 - Part 2

By: Jay Flemma

This is Part 2 of Jay's look back in the year in golf (and some other sports) for 2013.

Highlight of the Year - Phil Mickelson at Muirfield

They said he couldn't win an Open Championship. They said he didn't know how to play links golf. They said he can't play in wind and weather. They said he was suffering depression from losing the U.S. Open just three weeks before in heartbreaking fashion. They said he couldn't win the Open the week after winning the Scottish Open. They said he was too old, too risky, too stubborn, too American . . . too Phil.

Copy boy! Rewrite page one immediately!

Happily, all the naysayers, talking heads, and fickle experts stood up and applauded when Phil finally lifted the Claret Jug skyward in victory at venerable old Muirfield. His closing 66 was a round for the ages, a Sunday charge that will ring throughout the decades, and forever enshrine him in the Pantheon of Great Golf Champions that have won the Open at Muirfield.

And what a way to do it! Starting five shots behind star-crossed third-round leader Lee Westwood, Phil birdied four of the last six holes, including 17 and 18 with medium-length putts that sent the fans into the stratosphere.

"This is such an accomplishment for me," Mickelson said. "I never knew if I'd be able to develop the game and the shots to play links golf effectively. To play what is arguably the best round of my career, to putt the way I putted, to shoot the round of my life, it just feels amazing to win the Claret Jug. It may have been the best golf of my career," he said later, and caddie Jim "Bones" Mackay agreed with him.

"I've never seen better," Bonesy added. Neither have we, Bonesy. Neither have we.

Architect of the Year - Steve Smyers

Most of the time, the Architect of the Year is the designer who builds the best golf course for that particular calendar year. But sometimes the award goes to the person who had the most beneficial influence on architecture, if you understand the nuance. Two years ago Golf Digest's Ron Whitten gave the Architect of the Year award to Charles Blair Macdonald - dead almost 75 years - because of his far-reaching influence on an entire generation of modern architects.

This year, we also branch out a bit in honoring our Architect of the Year more for what he did for golf off the course than on. Steve Smyers - world-class amateur player, dedicated member of various USGA committees, and internationally acclaimed architect who has designed courses on every continent in the world - recently finished an 11-year research project into the impact of modern technology on classic golf courses. The results are the most far-reaching and analytical review of the intersection of technology and design ever done; they analyze almost 40 years of data from many of the nation's most ancient golf strongholds.

Smyers's research confirms that, yes, technology has had some impact on both distance and making classic golf courses outdated, but agronomic practices and set-up have also had a severe effect as well. His research shows that at both Pine Valley and Augusta National not only did green speeds increase (roughly) from 4 to almost 14 on the Stimpmeter, but mowing heights of the greens went from three-fourths of an inch to one-10th of an inch.

"The dilemma we face is that it will be hard to reverse these trends, even though we should. If we can't turn back those trends, we need to increase sustainability - water conservation and land conservation - and we need to make the game more economical, both in terms of the cost of a round of golf and the cost required to build and maintain a golf course," explains Smyers. "We need to use less land and less water and reduce the thumbprint; there needs to be less intensively maintained turf."

Smyers's work has earned the admiration of architects, course owners and governing bodies alike. "Smilin' Smyers," as he's known in the golf world, delivers the sobering results of his study in such a positive and enlightening way he not only persuades everyone in golf as to the urgency of the need for reform, but also rallies everyone in golf to the cause, galvanizing them to the task at hand. Hopefully, many new USGA, PGA of America and grass-roots initiatives will blossom from the seeds he has sown and will continue to nurture.

Best Restoration - Philadelphia Cricket Club (Wissahickon) Keith Foster

Talk about Steelers-Cowboys, Celtics-Lakers or Canadiens-Red Wings, the battle between Philly Cricket and Paramount for Best Restoration was one of the most eagerly awaited match-ups in golf design/travel circles. The debate will certainly continue well into next year (and by the way, last year's winner Rockaway Hunting Club - Gil Hanse restoration) should not be forgotten either, nor should Tom Doak's work at North Shore Country Club). And there will be proponents on both sides, and they all will make persuasive, indeed compelling arguments.

Golf magazine recently chose Paramount, but Philly Cricket was not eligible for the publication's award since PCC had not completed the work in time to be eligible for its award this year. (We operate on a calendar year at this publication. Golf magazine needs additional time for courses that finish the work late in the year. PCC finished in late September, too late for consideration for this year, but watch for PCC to win that award next year.) That being said, Jim Urbina's work at Paramount is nothing short of magnificent also, and the resurgence of that club is a great "feel good" story as well. But this year's award definitely goes to Philly Cricket, which restored the Wissahickon course to its former mid-1930s' splendor.

Architecture expert and PCC member Powell Arms offers poignant insight into the club's thought process in the restoration:

"The decision was made to restore the course in accordance with the Tillinghast plans and design intent. The basis for this decision is that the course is predominantly Tillinghast."

It's the right plan. Picking a specific architectural theme makes it easier to research what to restore and offer clear guidance as to what the finished product should look like. Keith Foster's efforts at PCC - along with the sterling research of Tillinghast expert Philip Young - has united the golf design world and architecture cognoscenti in their praise of both the work and the club's vision.

"It's superb beyond belief; they truly brought back what was there in the '30s. Though they have expanded a few holes so that the back tees can play to 7,200, this is a true restoration in every other aspect. All the original tees are still there, so you can play the mid-'30s design, the angles are there, the wonderful old hazards have been brought back, the greens are expanded back to original size, and the original routing restored," confided a clearly impressed Young. "The church pews are back and look fantastic, the Hell's Half Acre is absolutely gorgeous, and they even brought back a feature I call Hell's Quarter Acre - a bunker and rough complex at No. 14 of roughs and bunkers that are deep and dense. It's trouble you don't want to be in!"

"Best of all, we brought back all these great architectural features to Tillinghast's home course," added Arms, and he's right.

Other ardent and well-traveled golfers have been equally delighted. Here are samples from a few online reviews:

"It like night and day. What a great job, and what a phenomenal piece of property."

"I love that they brought back the old lines of play and old strategies. Like at 16 - no more aiming it up the left side and swinging for the fences."

"So much more fun to play, and visually stunning."

"The membership must be drooling right now." (Author's note: always a good thing…)

"Absolutely awesome."

And our personal favorite:

"Simply delicious!"

Thanks for that! Is it a golf course or your Christmas candied yams?

The work has so captivated the mind of the golf world, Foster's work - really a mix of restoration and renovation in places - has already attracted the Golf Channel Morning Drive crew, who broadcast live from the course last fall.

Once the course officially reopens on May 23, it's sure to skyrocket back to the top of the short list of Tillie's best courses. At times enthrallingly sublime, at times staggeringly dramatic, the Old World feel of the course is a walk back through golf history. That's the magic of PCC - paying homage to history, preserving and embracing its architectural quirks, cherishing its heritage.

Best of all, the course is in unbelievable condition despite the 100-year flood conditions of this spring and summer. The maintenance staff, led by superintendent Dan Meersman, has it running better than a Formula One race car.

Best Sports Writing - Kevin Cook, "The Last Headbangers"

While it was a lean year for sports books (and golf books in particular), former Sports Illustrated editor Kevin Cook provided us with one for the ages, a true instant classic. His new book, "The Last Headbangers," traces the NFL from the Immaculate Reception, Franco Harris's miraculous, last-second, shoestring catch and touchdown romp against the Oakland Raiders to Dwight Clark's "The Catch," which ended the playoff runs of both Roger Staubach and the Tom Landry-led Dallas Cowboys.

With interviews and insights from the players involved in the plays that built the NFL's legacy - Bradshaw, Harris, Madden, Landry, Walsh and Montana, Cook puts you in the huddle when Bradshaw calls the last play of the game, makes you feel the bone-jarring crunch of a fourth-quarter Jack Lambert sack, lets you hear the snarling epithets of Hollywood Henderson and Mean Joe Greene, and let's you feel the sniff of the coke as Raider lineman John Matuzak snorts a line, then screws his wife in the locker room of the Kansas City Chiefs. (It was "make-up" sex . . . after she tried to run him over in her car, and he had to hide in a cemetery.)

Once again, it's Cook's inimitable storytelling and remarkable attention to detail that paints a picture of the formative years of football. It's an absolute must-read for any football fan.

Since launching his first golf writing website in 2004, http://jayflemma.thegolfspace.com, Jay Flemma 's comparative analysis of golf designs and knowledge of golf course architecture and golf travel have garnered wide industry respect. In researching his book on America's great public golf courses (and whether they're worth the money), Jay has played over 420 nationally ranked public golf courses in 40 different states, and covered seven U.S. Opens and six PGA Championships, along with one trip to the Masters. A four-time award-winning sportswriter, Jay was called the best sports poet alive by both Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports writers and broadcasters. Jay has played about 3 million yards of golf - or close to 2,000 miles. His pieces on travel and architecture appear in Golf Observer (www.golfobserver.com), Cybergolf, PGA.com, Golf Magazine and other print magazines. When not researching golf courses for design, value and excitement, Jay is an entertainment, copyright, Internet and trademark lawyer and an Entertainment and Internet Law professor in Manhattan. His clients have been nominated for Grammy and Emmy awards, won a Sundance Film Festival Best Director award, performed on stage and screen, and designed pop art for museums and collectors. Jay lives in Forest Hills, N.Y., and is fiercely loyal to his alma maters, Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and Trinity College in Connecticut.

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