We report on projects at Teeth of the Dog, Yale and Myrtle Beach National, interview Jan Bel Jan, and ask architects about the most difficult sites of their careers
By Richard Humphreys |
17 April 2026
The April 2026 issue of Golf Course Architecture is out now.
The iconic Teeth of the Dog course at Casa de Campo Resort, photographed by Pat Koenig, features on the cover of our latest release. Jerry Pate Design has overseen a restoration of the Pete Dye layout in the Dominican Republic, rebuilding course features to withstand the impact of the harsh coastal climate.
“The goal was to improve and polish the course without changing it,” says Pate. “Our aim was one of architectural preservation, to modernise the course, but to keep it familiar.”
In the main feature of this issue, ‘Doing it tough’, we speak with architects about the most difficult sites of their careers. Designers Steve Smyers, Neil Crafter, Jason Straka and Adrian Stiff share their experiences of creating golf courses on challenging sites. Sam Thomas of GEO Foundation says: “Those awkward disrupted sites we have worked with over the past 10 years have seen transformations in real biodiversity jumps, reconnected habitat networks and renewed green-blue infrastructure networks that – alongside good golf – have breathed life back into the land and, in some instances, the communities of the places.”
Elsewhere, Adam Lawrence reports on a trip to South Carolina to see Brandon Johnson’s work on the King’s North course at Myrtle Beach National (MBN), one of the earliest Arnold Palmer designs.
“King’s North is now by a long way the best of the three courses at MBN,” writes Adam. “It cannot have been an easy project for Johnson; though the ground is sandy, it is mostly extremely flat, and there are plenty of spots around the course where moving water was not easy, given the lack of topography.”
Brandon Johnson has overseen a renovation of the King’s North course at Myrtle Beach National in South Carolina (Photo: Founders Group International)
Adam also spoke with Jan Bel Jan, one of the few female golf course architects in the industry, for our feature interview. Jan describes how her interest in golf was piqued by the enthusiasm her dad and uncles had for the game, how Tom Fazio gave her a start in golf course design, the courses that were pivotal in her career, and a desire to see more women in golf course architecture. “I want to mentor other women in the industry – I want them to believe they can be golf architects, but understand how much work it is,” she says.
We have contributions from Rogelio Abarca of Greg Norman Golf Course Design, who talks about the firm’s least-disturbance approach to design projects in Mexico; and Hunter’s Carl Eberts, who discusses how Centro Nacional de Golf in Madrid, Spain, revamped its golf course irrigation to meet a sustainability target.
We also report on the Fry/Straka-designed Plover Cove course that is being built in Hong Kong; WinStar World in Oklahoma, which is set to reopen following a $22 million renovation; and Dhoho Golf Club, Brian Curley’s new layout in the East Java region of Indonesia.
Curley says: “I feel we got a lot out of a tough site with a relatively modest earthmoving effort given the terrain. The results mean dramatic views are incorporated at most holes, with all holes looking very natural.”
Dhoho Golf Club is preparing to open its Brian Curley-designed golf course (Photo: Cheah Kok Aik)
Before all that, the issue opens as always with our Tee Box section, a round-up of news from around the globe, which this issue covers the reopening of Yale Golf Course in Connecticut following a restoration by Hanse Golf Design; the new Bone Valley course at Streamsong, designed by David McLay Kidd; and an interview with Vijit Nandrajog about the redesign and extension of Kharghar Valley golf course near Mumbai, India.
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