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Articles by Hal Phillips
Good idea from Bad Bunny: ‘Together, We Are America’
USA-Mexico in Houston (2025). (Troy Taormina-Imagn Images) Neil Young first introduced me to appellative “American” chauvinism. Someone (probably a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan) had accused the Canadian guitar god of not being American — as part of the flack Young took for writing and recording the song, “Southern Man”.
It’s depth of choice that gilds this USMNT cohort
Gio Reyna (hugged by Brenden Aaronson) scored in the 4th minute of the USA's 2-1 win over Paraguay in his first USMNT start since July 2024. (Photo: Aric Becker/ISI Photos) In assessing the inherent, overall quality of a golf course — not in comparison to another but on its own, in a vacuum — it’s helpful to start at the bottom: What’s the worst hole out there? Out of 18, how many objectively bad or fair-to-middling holes are there really?
USGA's moisture meter gets raves from the field
| Filed to: USGA, Water, Golf Superintendent The USGA's new moisture meter is getting positive feedback from early users. Photos courtesy of the USGA Editor’s note: The following article was supplied by the USGA. All product claims, research cited and other information is directly from the company. One full golf season after the beta-test introduction of the USGA Green Section’s new moisture meter, the jury’s back in.
From architect to superintendent and back
| Filed to: golf course architecture, Golf Superintendent, Texas Brian Johnson, GCSAA Class A superintendent and general manager at Sand Hill Farm Golf Course in Waller, Texas, has a background in golf course architecture. Images courtesy of Sand Hill Farm Golf industry careers rarely move in a straight line. By the time Brian Johnson graduated from Iowa State with his degree in Landscape Architecture 25 years ago, he’d already done an internship in Bob Lohmann’s office.
Comprehensive, Credible, And Innovative
How the GEO Foundation makes the game of golf more sustainable Every time folks think they’ve wrapped their heads around the scope of transformation here at municipally owned Corica Park Golf Course (in Alameda, Calif.), there’s another spasm of revitalization and innovation—all of it sustainable, none of it a burden to taxpayers.
The Future of Sustainable Golf Tournaments
To mark the conclusion of Scotland's "Summer of Golf," GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation has published a new "outlook paper" exploring the future of sustainable golf tournaments, specifically the collaborative and leadership efforts that support them. GEO Sustainable Golf Foundation is an international not-for-profit based here in North Berwick, Scotland, but active in more than 75 countries.
High challenge in the high desert
| Filed to: sponsorship, weather, Texas Bill Newton, a six-year GCSAA member, jumped with both feet into his first lead superintendent position at Coronado Country Club. Photo courtesy of Bill Newton Editor’s note: The following article was supplied by Heritage Links. All product claims, research cited and other information is directly from the company. It’s August in El Paso and Bill Newton, a self-described “total weather nerd,” is still adjusting to the humidity.
The USGA’s GS3 tool is ready for action
| Filed to: USGA, data collection The USGA's GS3 ball is a data-gathering tool that helps superintendents quickly collect and analyze conditions on the course. Photos courtesy of the USGA Chad Allen, GCSAA Class A Superintendent at The Club at Chatham Hills in Westfield, Ind., has always been a data guy. When he first heard rumors of the GS3, the USGA’s new data-gathering apparatus, he volunteered for the PGA Tour’s Match Play event, down at Austin Country Club, just to get in on the beta testing.
Better living through chemigation
| Filed to: Water, sustainability, Texas Summit Rock at Horseshoe Bay Resort is a Jack Nicklaus-designed 18-hole golf course in Horseshoe Bay, Texas. Photo courtesy of The Club at Horseshoe Bay Resort For Rey Gomez, the road to water-use reduction started with a freshwater mussel problem.
Geotextile retaining walls solve construction challenge
| Filed to: Construction, Texas The 18th hole on the Fields Ranch East course at PGA Frisco. On three holes — the ninth, 11th and 13th — geotextile bags filled with sand were utilized to create mounds and retaining walls, a low-tech solution to a challenging construction problem. Photo courtsey of Omni Hotels and Resorts Stacks of geotextile bags filled with sand would never strike anyone as a particularly sophisticated construction solution. Nor is this “technology,” such as it is, proprietary.
If a Tree Falls (or falls ill) at Augusta National, Does it Make a Sound?
Ed. I’ve contributed dozens of stories to GOLF Magazine through the years (I’ve served on the mag’s world top 100 course-rating panel since 1997). But none landed with such a thud as this one, published in the March 1999 edition. I’ve heard nothing since re. the ill-health or subsequent removal of diseased loblolly pines at Augusta National GC.
Storm warning: Lessons from Hurricane Ian
January 2023 | Hal Phillips Hurricane Ian left behind plenty to clean up for Jesse Metcalf, the superintendent at The Forest Country Club in in Fort Myers, Fla. Photos courtesy of Jesse Metcalf Jesse Metcalf, the GCSAA Class A superintendent at The Forest Country Club in Fort Myers, Fla., thought he’d prepped about as well as one could prior to Hurricane Ian, which battered, drenched and ultimately submerged several golf courses on Florida’s west coast early in October.
Landscape enhancers
Hal Phillips | November 2022 As renovation continues to sustain the North American course design and construction markets, water and labor shortages increasingly inform that work. Water restrictions have obliged clubs and properties to reduce turf acreage throughout California’s golf-rich Coachella Valley and elsewhere.
Keep The Ball Rolling
Tales of Inspiration, Service and Terror — from American Soccer’s Before Time Casey Bahr’s journey from the Naval Academy to the ’72 Olympics, from the Philadelphia Atoms to the Philadelphia Fever, with a stop-off to claim that the German American Football Association might have been better than the NASL…for a year or two anyway. Casey Bahr, eldest son of American soccer legend Walter Bahr, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1970.
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