OB SPORTS GOLF & LEISURE
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SPRING 2018
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obsports.com
l
TOUR REPORT
train
ride
south
from
Paris.
Its
water-
logged
closing
stretch,
including
two
island
greens
among
its
final
four
holes,
is
sure
to
produce
risk-reward
drama.
The
long,
tough
track
will
be
well
known
to
Europe's
best,
as
it's
the
annual
venue
for
the
PGA
Euro-
pean
Tour's
French
Open.
Toss
in
gifted
young
bloods
such
as
Rahm,
Fleetwood,
Thomas
Pieters,
Alex
Noren
and
Tyrrell
Hatton,
who
join
still-hot
veterans
such
as
Rose,
Garcia,
McIlroy,
Henrik
Stenson
and
Paul
Casey
and
we've
got
a
real
match
to
embrace.
There
is
no
pressure
in
golf
like
Ryder
Cup
pressure.
With
the
pro-
Euro
crowds
in
full
cry,
the
nerves
–
and
theater
–
will
emerge
early
and
often.
•••
BEN,
BILL
AND
BYRON
A
fistful
of
new
and
seldom-seen
venues
will
greet
PGA
Tour
players
in
2018.
Among
the
best
are
U.S.
Open
site
Shinnecock
Hills
–
a
World
Top
10
course
in
eastern
Long
Island,
New
York,
that
golf's
elite
hasn't
tested
since
the
2004
U.S.
Open
–
and
Bel-
lerive
in
suburban
St.
Louis,
Missouri,
site
of
the
100th
PGA
Championship
in
August.
Bellerive
played
host
to
the
1965
U.S.
Open,
1992
PGA
and
more
re-
cently,
the
2004
U.S.
Senior
Open,
the
2008
WGC-American
Express
Cham-
pionship
and
the
2013
Senior
PGA
Championship.
That
said,
the
new
course
I'm
most
looking
forward
to
is
Trinity
Forest
Golf
Club
in
Dallas,
now
the
home
to
the
AT&T
Byron
Nelson.
Created
in
2016
by
Bill
Coore
and
Ben
Crenshaw,
winner
of
the
1983
Byron
Nelson,
Trin-
ity
Forest
will
delight
some
players
and
confound
others.
The
400-acre
golf
development
itself
is
treeless,
but
unusually
is
surrounded
by
the
6,000-acre
Great
Trinity
Forest,
creating
an
almost
arena-like
effect
for
golf.
Its
heaving
canvas,
ever-present
winds,
close-cropped,
fast-running
Zoysia
fairways
and
firm,
quick
Cham-
pion
Ultradwarf
Bermuda
greens
will
present
pros
with
the
most
links-like
test
this
side
of
the
British
Isles.
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