"There's just so much going for us here, and it starts with the course."
Great to see the positive early reviews on Sedgefield, new host of the Greensboro event and a Donald Ross design restored by Kris Spence.
Even more remarkable was Robert Bell getting Lee Janzen to talk. I had heard the two-time U.S. Open champion was an architecture aficionado from Rocco Mediate. So Tuesday of U.S. Open week I went up to him while he was cleaning a club during a practice range session, introduced myself, and asked if I could ask him a couple of quick questions about the setup for a Golf World story. I was told simply, no and he went back to cleaning his grooves. Then I asked nicely if perhaps I could get him after his practice session, and was told no again. Back to cleaning that club. I don't know, maybe Grounds For Golf offended him?
Anyway, congrats Robert Bell for getting all of this. Then again, it was a Monday pro-am, but still, most admirable.
"A lot of old courses are modified where they take out the mowing patterns and let the bunkers grow over through the years, but this ... this is something different," Janzen said. "It's like I took a step back in time and I'm seeing what Donald Ross saw all those years back."
Such high praise is exactly what Wyndham officials were hoping to hear when they rolled the dice earlier this year and moved Greensboro's golf tournament from Forest Oaks to Sedgefield. Greensboro businessman Bobby Long, chairman of the foundation that runs the Wyndham, is hoping the move across town will help the struggling tournament gain some clout on the PGA Tour.
"We're really counting on the word getting out about this place," said Long, who, along with Jim Melvin, Wyndham CEO Steve Holmes, and Sedgefield president Joe DePasquale, played with Daly on Monday.
"There's just so much going for us here, and it starts with the course." Janzen said.
The course, designed by Ross in 1925 and built a year later, is not like the typical tour site.
"The green complexes are amazing," said Janzen, referring to the heavily undulated greens surrounded by the shaved collection areas. There's not one hole out here that's like another. You go to a lot of modern courses and play a hole and it reminds you of a hole earlier on the course. Here, each hole is unique."
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 07:55 PM
Reader Comments (7)
End of conversation.
I've never figured that out, I guess he doesn't like top 100 rankings.
Why on earth would you want to waste your time talking to Janzen? He really didn't say anything new in the comments above either. I'd rather listen to Ogilvy talk in his sleep than Lee Janzen talking about golf course design.
...complete u-turn the day that happened.
JD