It’s Not Putt-Putt

I met Philip Turturro in April of 2019 at Augusta National. I’d launched my golf course design firm a few months prior, and an industry ally had gifted me a ticket to the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. I went alone. Amid the crowd, a friendly face emerged: Philip, who was volunteering on Amen Corner. I had no idea that I was walking up to my future first commissioned design client. We connected instantly, our shared passion for golf course architecture sparking a half-hour conversation where Philip spoke of his ambition to play every Seth Raynor course. Upon leaving, I handed him a fresh-off-the-press business card. Six months later, he called, and soon we were breaking ground on what would become known as Gator National GC.

Nearly seven years on, Philip is building artificial putting surfaces across the San Antonio metroplex. He’s one of my sincerest friends, a man with a peculiar nature but an almost childlike innocence. Philip first teed it up at age 12 at San Pedro, a nine-hole, par-3 course in San Antonio. Today, San Pedro is booming. The lit par-3 course logs more than 60,000 rounds per year, the lit driving range opens at 6:30 a.m. and is packed until close, and it also boasts indoor simulators, a teaching program and a casual vibe with TVs and a bar. And Philip has given something truly special back to the place where he learned the game: a putting course themed around Raynor’s template holes.

What makes golf special is the people you meet along the way. But what makes the game itself great is that the playing field isn’t defined, fostering the need for golf course architecture and the urge to travel and see different courses. Philip and I have an ongoing debate about the slippery slope of template holes and how, in theory, they can bite back against the greatness of golf by standardizing design. However, on this project, I have to give it to him—he has built a one-of-a-kind putting course by doing something I’m not sure anyone else has done: miniaturizing the templates.

“Not putt-putt! A putting course!” Philip once emphatically clarified for me.

And his putting course is a blast. I describe it to friends as the “ABCs of Golf Course Architecture.” Kids and beginners love it—and little do they know, they’re learning about some of golf’s greatest and most historic holes. He’s built nearly every imaginable template: cape, dogleg, hog’s back, double plateau, short, Eden, Alps, Redan, road, punchbowl.

The road hole is perhaps the most unique, offering an initial putt (or tee shot) that presents the option to launch the ball airborne over a ramp, “Old Course Hotel” tastefully inscribed on its small ledge. The creativity to incorporate the complexities of the road hole (No. 17 at St. Andrews) into a putting hole is a testament to Philip’s thoughtful design and meticulous execution.

The back of the San Pedro scorecard, left intentionally blank, allows kids to design their own golf hole and declare their favorite golfer and golf buddy. In a world that often takes itself too seriously, golf course architecture can also occasionally succumb to snobbery. But Philip’s project is a wonderful reminder that sometimes it’s best to drop the debate and just pick up a putter.