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Hochstein Design: Golf Course Design + Creative Construction, Lafayette, CA (2026)

01/08/2026

2025 was my greatest golf exploration year yet. Between the droughty turfs of England and Wales and the bucolic fall setting around some of the most stout New York Met courses, it was an epic year of study. There was some shaping work as well at , and I signed up two new clients, Santa Maria and .gc, with potentially more to come in 2026. Click on the link in the bio to see what I was up to last year, what’s in store this year, and what I thought of all the incredible courses I saw and learned from this year (along with over 200 photos). And feel free to fight me on my rankings! 😉

Cheers, and hope to catch you in this new year 2026

12/19/2025

Affordable and accessible golf is not just important to me—it’s the very reason I have the career I have and the life I have.

Growing up in Michigan, public golf was all I knew and all I played. From age 4, my dad would take me to all manner of public courses in the area—mom and pop shops, the new (at the time) daily fee places, and of course, munis. These places were where I fell in love with the game, and to a larger extent, golf course design. Without them, I would likely be doing something different today.

Now, I find myself working at some of those same types of facilities, from the municipal courses in Sacramento to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco to The Loop in Chaska, Minnesota. All work in this wonderful field is fulfilling, but knowing my own story and the stories-in-progress that I see every day out at those places, such work for these public facilities is that much more meaningful and satisfactory.

The recent news about and their fight to continue their mission is highly troublesome and worrying. There is no better, more passionate, and more genuine group of people to foster care for the DC courses. This is founder@michaelmccartin ‘s dream going back to his college thesis. The work they have done to date is thorough, all-encompassing, considerate of all groups and factors, and admirable. Every action is well-thought and every word carefully chosen. And they are just getting started, actually breaking significant ground in 5 years when other cities (Philadelphia and SF particularly) have taken well over a decade to get going at their prized munis (or not started at all). And I know they have aspirations well beyond DC. This is far bigger than what kinds of green shapes get built at East Potomac. The National Links Trust deserves to continue serving public golf.

(Pictured above top left going clockwise: my early day scorecards from public courses (Heather Highlands, Harley’s (Union Lake), White Lake Oaks, and Springfield Oaks), the doing lessons out on a green I helped build at , my master plan for in Sacramento, and me on the tee around age 6)

09/05/2025

Despite a recent years-long obsession with trenchy, textured bunkers that don’t show much sand, I came to a recent conclusion countering that trend: holes 2-6 at Cypress Point is the greatest five hole stretch of bunkering in the world.

I wrote more on my blog (link in bio) about how this sequence of holes comprehensively uses all of Alister MacKenzie’s tricks to powerfully create compositions that are beautiful, deceptive, strategic, and naturally tied into each other and the outstanding landscape that is Cypress Point. These holes are less heralded and less naturally stunning, but the Doctor finds brilliant ways to make them hold their own with their more famous brethren.

Please have a read and let me know what you think. And enjoy the Walker Cup!

07/10/2025

Looking forward to getting back to England soon and places like Huntercombe, which has some of the most amazing created features anywhere in the world of golf.

This may well be Willie Park’s masterwork alongside Sunningdale Old (where Colt’s later influence is probably understated). The greens at Huntercombe contain bold shelves and tiers oriented at different angles, perfect challenges for what in the summer is a very fast running course where approaches bounce their way up and on.

I can’t tell you too much about the routing, and I don’t know which hole is which here. My visit was a wonderful and very educational walk with head greenkeeper Grant Stewart, and we went out of order to dodge the numerous foursomes matches about the course.

That’s all right in this case, though, as what I most wanted to see were the old Park constructed pits and ridges. I’ve been fascinated in general over the past 5 years with these types of dug-out and above-ground old features, and the ones at Huntercombe are the most dramatic, lumpy, and sharp versions of such you will see anywhere. Add to that the evolution of certain mosses and plants that grow on them plus the ant hills that have popped up over time, and they’ve perhaps gotten even more colorful and textured with age.

Getting to see these things in person was as pleasantly jarring as I could have hoped; I really felt like I had entered some sort of different realm of golf—a different place, a different time. Few things can elicit such a strong guttural reaction in me, and it left me wondering which ways I could do the same in future designs—not so much in the exact shape of those features (though that would be cool!) but how it can make the golfer *feel* a certain way about the setting they find themselves in.

06/10/2025

Hey folks: did you know that the Golf Course Master Plan has elements inspired by Oakmont, this week’s U.S. Open host?

On the 9th hole, we want to open up the front of the green, make it more rectangular in shape, and guard the sides with flanking grass-faced bunkers, much like you see at numerous holes at Oakmont. We also want to straighten up the angle of it, yet still keep it tilted a bit to favor the play from the right, where we also want to build out the shelf in the fairway—from which the green is more visible—to be more reachable for most. The fairway bunker would be eliminated, as that direct-line angle from that left side would be more difficult and visually uncomfortable on its own. The hole should be more playable for most and more thought-provoking for the better player.

At 8, we seek to solve the winter drainage issue in the short landing zone by introducing a ditch, much like Oakmont has throughout the course to alleviate saturation on their heavy clay river soils (similar to our heavy clay river soils!). Rather than how most of theirs flank, however, ours at Land Park would cross at a strategy-inducing angle and allow play to both sides of it. The more direct line low left will cut off significant distance, but it also leaves an uncomfortable blind shot with the bunkers and hummocks on your direct line to the green and layup zone. The play out right, especially if you can reach the top of the ridge, will leave a longer shot but also a more open and visible one that contends less with the left bunkers and hummocks.

Some things to think about during your next round or while watching the tournament this weekend 🙂

05/22/2025

My leader for favorite course seen or played this year up until recently was Woodhall Spa. It’s still a course I very much think about 3 months later (and imagine I always will).

I have a particular fascination with flatland course architecture, as I contend a flat site is hardly a bad one for golf, and especially so if it is sandy. So, , which is generally flat and very sandy, is a great case study in backing my theory.

And back it up it does. With key deep cuts into the sandy ground and creative fills to make green pads and defense features, this otherwise subdued site is loaded with charm, character, and strategic playing interest. You will do best to avoid those pits at all costs, though they tempt you to play oh-so-close to them. One example of this is the deep coffin bunker guarding the outside edge of a broad feeder slope into the 2nd green, which awaits those who get a bit too greedy seeking the slope’s help (pic 4). Another is the tee shot at the 7th (pic 8), which tempts one to take on the corner of the dogleg but risk finding serious trouble in the bunkers, cops, and heather. Tree removal by here has done wonders to amplify the luring effect.

Plotting your way around these features is not only a thrill given the way it engages the mind, it is also delightful just in how charming and ruggedly beautiful they all are. Combine this with the linkslike fescue fairways (which played far better than anywhere else in this very wet February), the heather, the moss, the occasional Scotch pine, and cool features like the old hunting tower ruin (pics 5&13), and this is the delightful type of golfing landscape one could play over for the rest of their days.

Special thanks to my host Richard Latham, past GM who was instrumental in the excellent recent work with the Renaissance team and provided great insights to both that process and the course’s history itself. It was an amazing day (despite the brutal soaking we received on hole 10!).

Woodhall Spa is well worth its countryside trek.

05/06/2025

An alternative look at MacKenzie’s famed Gibraltar leads this photo tour of . To me, this view is a representation of what I most absorbed from the day—that Moortown may be the single most fascinating study of feature construction among MacKenzie historians and golf designers/builders who cherish his work.

Abrupt, sharp, funky, occasionally linear: these are the traits you find among the course’s hummocks, bunkers, and in the case of the opening photo—back of the Gibraltar green. For an architect most known for his ability to blend the natural with the constructed, often doing so with very long, sweeping lines (as evidenced at places like Cypress Point), the features at Moortown are archaic and almost foreign from what you expect of MacKenzie designs. This is the fascinating part, as it shows two things. One is the beginning point of an evolution that spanned gentler stylistic changes and experimentation across England, a major and immediate change to bigger and smoother features in California, the unique sandbelt style of Australia (which notably lacks mounding more than other MacKenzie styles), and the bunker reduction/wild green era of South America, Sacramento Municipal () and ultimately Augusta. Which, interestingly, I almost see some of that work as the start of a return to some of the early era quirk, with scragglier bunkers and deliberately built mounding in select places.

The other thing this style indicates to me is the power of period in which the course was built and its place in the greater evolution of golf design and feature construction. The naturalism of the Golden Age was still trying to pry itself still from the formality of the Victorian Era, and there are remnants of such found in almost all pre-WWI work. Part of that is a “bridging” of style, and part is just the available construction techniques of the day, which still largely consisted of doing hand work and only being able to execute ideas in small spaces. MacKenzie’s work in this period reflects that, though you can clearly see his efforts toward some version of “natural.”

No place still showcases this all as wonderfully well as Moortown.

04/30/2025

Picking back up on England with some courses toured over this past winter’s stint at Hadley Wood.

First up is Walton Heath Old and New, one of the most charming and fascinating golfing grounds I’ve ever seen, laden with deep rugged pits (both natural and dug), delightful spoils pile mounding, sneakily tilting greens, and random patches of broken heathery ground that simultaneously break up the vast landscape and provide all sorts of golfing challenges. I found myself constantly looking in all directions, far and near, observing all these features and how they changed in form from different angles.

Walton is also one of the most historic places you’ll find in golf. Course architect Herbert Fowler lived there for years, constantly tweaking the layout a la Donald Ross at Pinehurst. James Braid, multiple time Open winner and prolific golf architect in his own right, served as long-time club professional, with his shop still standing today adjacent to the putting green. Winston Churchill was one of its many famous members. One of the earliest printings of MacKenzie’s famous Old Course map stands in the clubhouse, bearing signatures of those who’ve won The Open, from Nicklaus and Watson to Arnold Palmer to Ben Hogan to the early player/architects of Braid and J.H Taylor and Harry Vardon to Willie Auchterlonie, 1893 winner and club maker whose shop still stands a few doors down from St Andrews Old’s 18th green.

Phillip Truett, co-author of an excellent biography on Fowler and perhaps the foremost collector of golf books in the world, also lives on property. After my full day around the Old and New, Phillip welcomed me into his library for a tea, chat, and browsing of just a small part of his amazing collection. There, I saw numerous club histories, gazed upon the earliest known printing of the word “golf” (1497!!), and held in my hands a book owned by Allan Robertson, a rarity for a working class man of that time and surely one of his few prized possessions. The latter still gives me chills to think about.

This frosty day at Walton Heath was all around one of the best days I’ve had in golf. Very grateful all who welcomed me in to experience this special place.

01/27/2025

No. 13; ~1930 and 2024

01/22/2025

On Jim Urbina’s recent restoration of Alister MacKenzie’s Pasatiempo, the main mission of our assisting role was simple—put it back like the photos.

That’s not quite as easy—nor simple—as it sounds. I put together some comparison pictures of the recent work matched up against the pictures we were trying to build to to see how we did. Some are shared here, but more are in a post I wrote about on my site (LINK in bio).

The results you see are from a combination of intense scrutiny of the old pictures, figuring out logistics and a gameplan with Jim and (superintendent) Justin Mandon of just how much you can actually put back, a TON of walking back to the picture spots and seeing how things are lining up, and lots of careful support from others involved, in this case Theisen and Nate’s team and Justin Mandon () and his crew. It’s a lot of work with a lot of moving parts and a lot of subtle variables, but it’s work that is well worth it.

12/30/2024

2024 was a pretty great year. A master plan revealed at Land Park, shaping work at two Alister MacKenzie courses (Pasatiempo and Hadley Wood), developing a master plan for another (Haggin Oaks), and maybe the best year of seeing/playing new golf yet, largely boosted by my time over in England. All that and a bunch of other special memories with special people along the way. Very grateful for these experiences and the direction everything is heading.

As per usual, I wrote about it and shared some photos (too many photos?) posted at my website. Link is in bio.

Thank you all for checking it out, and Happy New Year!

12/20/2024

Some scenes from the first two weeks of Pasatiempo’s re-opening ⬆️

Hochstein Design: Golf Course Design + Creative Construction

01/08/2026

12/19/2025

09/05/2025

07/10/2025

06/10/2025

05/22/2025

05/06/2025

04/30/2025

01/27/2025

01/22/2025

12/30/2024

12/20/2024

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