Photography
Photographic Design, Inc., is selected by Florida's First Coast of Golf to provide photography to all of its 36 member courses.
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People
Cecil Brandon, retired executive director of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and founder of Brandon Advertising, is the recipient of the third annual Jimmy D'Angelo Award, presented by the Golf Writers Association of America.
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Players
U.S. native Edward Loar's victory in the Thailand Open Sunday moved him into 16th position on the Asian PGA Tour Order of Merit.
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Courses
Yarrow Golf and Conference Center in Michigan is set to add golf to its growing number of resort amenities. The Golf Club at Yarrow was designed by Michigan native Raymond Hearn, who also created The Grande, Twin Lakes, Island Hills and Hemlock, and is set to open this spring.
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Tournaments
The Office Depot Championship Hosted by Amy Alcott benefiting City of Hope will see its purse increase to $1.75 million for the 2004 LPGA Tour season. It is the third consecutive purse increase for the tournament that has grown in stature from $800,000 in 2001.
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Editor's note: Rees Jones, a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, has become known as the "Open Doctor" for his many years of work preparing courses for the U.S. Open.

By Rees Jones, ASGCA

In early May of 1995, U.S. Golf Association Executive Director David Fay invited me to join members of the USGA staff to scout the Black Course at Bethpage State Park on New York's Long Island as a possible site for a U.S. Open tournament. Fay had wanted to take the national championship to a truly public course for years, and he felt Bethpage Black was ideal. We found A.W. Tillinghast's original design -- a splendid big, long, difficult, ingeniously designed course -- could, with a major facelift, be a true test of golf for the game's best players.

The decision to host the 2002 U.S. Open was made in late 1996. We began work in the fall of 1997 and reopened the course in the spring of 1998. The course was lengthened by over 300 yards and completely rebunkered. Some green sizes were increased, some were decreased, and some were conditioned. When the tournament was over, only Tiger Woods was under par; the course had indeed held up to the best in the game. The USGA, which had funded the restoration to the tune of over $3 million, had given a gift not only to the Bethpage public players for years to come, but also to the best players in the game. The U.S. Open is returning to Bethpage Black in 2009.

Torrey Pines' third hole.

The selection of Torrey Pines in San Diego is another story, more "if you build it, they will come." A magnificent seaside publicly-owned course, Torrey Pines South already was host to the annual Buick Invitational, run by an organization of San Diego residents called The Century Club. The fact that the USGA had decided to play the U.S. Open on the public Bethpage Black course spurred them to dream about bringing the tournament to the West Coast and Torrey Pines South.

They felt that the course had the beauty, terrain, character and space to host our national championship, but it needed to be renovated to ultimately challenge today's top players. So, Jay Rains, Century Club president, called me with the idea; I embraced it and we got to work. We developed a plan to completely renovate the course and presented it to a group of civic-minded San Diegans, who immediately raised $3.5 million to cover the costs. We rebuilt the course in 92 days. The USGA visited in October, 2001. The tour professionals validated its redesign during the 2002 Buick Invitational. The USGA announced its decision to bring the 2008 U.S. Open to Torrey Pines South in October, 2002. It was three amazing years from dream to reality.