Gopher Watch

From issue 28 of Golf Course Architecture, published in January 2012.

We were interested to see how many entries we’d receive for the last Gopher Watch competition, given that the venue in question, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s majestic Sand Hills in Nebraska is, to put it mildly, off the beaten track. That there were quite a lot was pleasing. But then, Sand Hills has been voted the best course designed in the modern era by virtually every ranking that matters, so perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising. Also not surprising was that most of the entries were from America, but (and we didn’t fix it, promise) it was a British-based competitor, Sam Krume of Your Golf Travel in London, whose name came out of the hat first.

Off the beaten track could be used to describe Sandy’s home this time, too, as could the word majestic. Should there be more clues? Well, perhaps a small one. It’s not Scotland, but there are lots of people of Scottish origin in the area. Entries, as usual, to gopher@golfcoursearchitecture.net to win a golf shirt.