EarthGolf

Gil Hanse is one of the rising stars in the golf course architecture world - his work in and around the New England area has drawn a lot of attention for the creativity and interest it shows. His finished up “tweaking” of TPC Boston undoubtedly has given the course both a much better look and added strategic interest. The fact that he was asked to change the course after just four years of being opened says something - but Hanse is careful to not level criticism at the course’s original architect, Arnold Palmer.

“I hope this never comes out as a criticism of Palmer’s design,” Hanse said. “The tour has decided it wants to look at different options and different presentations, so it wasn’t as if what was done was wrong or bad. It is just that there is a different thought process that is occurring on the tour. That’s really what we were after, to try and capture some of that.”

Well, Hanse’s comments being called critical would be fair - but it is constructive criticism.

“The key thing was to make the golf course feel like New England,” Hanse explained. “What we were asked to do was make the golf course feel a little bit more like this area. There was a general feeling that it didn’t capture the feel of New England.”
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“They were hoping to make every stop on the FedEx tour be distinct and representative of its area, as opposed to having courses that look exactly the same week after week,” Hanse said.

That’s a fair and valid point - it’s also why so many of the TPC courses seem to be in a constant state of redo. At least the Tour is finally realizing that formula courses are not in the Tour’s best interest.

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