One of the highlights in the development of the blogosphere over the past several years has been the emergence of specialized blogs. As an inveterate golfer, an interesting part of the blogosphere for me has been the golf blogs, a number of which are listed in the blogroll on the right.
One of the golf bloggers who I particularly enjoy is Jay Flemma (he actually maintains two blogs, here and here), who is a New York City-based intellectual property and entertainment lawyer who is carving a name for himself in writing about golf course design. In his latest post, Jay addresses an issue that this Ron Whitten Golf Digest article explored earlier this year: Is well-known golf course designer Tom Fazio good for the game?
Jay’s analysis of Fazio’s latest designs is timely in this neck of the woods because Fazio’s new course here in The Woodlands, Texas — where many folks still believe the Shell Houston Open should be played — will open on a beautiful piece of land in the western part of The Woodlands later this year. After noting that several analysts of golf course design are observing that Fazio’s recent designs are boring and excessively expensive to maintain (much less play), Jay observes the following about the direction of Fazio’s course design:

I stuck up for Fazio here. I love World Woods, Barton Creek, Pine Hill, PGA, TPC-MB, Ventana. . . lots of Tom. Then I played Atunyote in Utica and was underwhelmed. There was nothing of interest except two good risk reward par-5s, 5 and 12, and 9, 11 and 18 were good. The rest was nothing I had not seen before. This is $175. Casino Golf – nuff said. The design was muted, the natural setting was ordinary farmland and the price was twice what it’s worth . . . That’s why architectural echo is an important factor in rating a golf course. It offers a way to compare courses to the greats.

Jay covered the U.S. Open last weekend and his blogs include interviews with players and a level of analysis that you simply will not see in the mainstream media. If you are interested in golf, take a moment to check out the golf section of my blogroll, particularly Jay’s blogs, Geoff Shackelford‘s, and Texas Golf. The golf blogs are another reflection of how the blogosphere is redefining the way in which specialized information and knowledge is communicated.