Matt Ginella is the Senior Travel Editor for Golf Digest. He used to live in San Francisco and is excited about the U.S. Open this year at Olympic Club. The course is going to be very difficult for the players this year and when he played there for the first time, it was so difficult that he actually did not have that much fun although he enjoyed finally playing there for the first time.
He has been travelling a lot lately and one of the places he has visited often is Pinehurst in North Carolina. When he spoke to the President of Pinehurst, he found out that there are plans to turn the old Pit Golf Course into Pinehurst #9 with Bill Coore of Coore and Crenshaw fame as the designer. The President also said that Pinehurst #2 is at the very least in the running for the 2024 U.S. Open.
Mike Keiser, the owner of Bandon Dunes, has always given golfers an excuse to return to the area as he has opened one course every few years and recently he opened a par 3 course. In the future, he is planning to open a 27-hole facility called Bandon Muni with Gil Hanse as the course designer.
In his opinion, anything a tour player does impacts the amateur golfer. There are thousands of amateur golfers all over the United States who have serious opinions about slow play within their own group of friends. Ginella thinks that LPGA Tour Official Doug Brecht did the right thing in enforcing the slow play rule by penalizing Morgan Pressel last weekend during her semifinal match with Azahara Munoz.
In his opinion, Donald Trump has been very good for the game of golf because he is not only buying and reviving distressed golf properties but he is also using his personality to bring increased attention not only to his golf properties but also the game of golf.
