Golf Course Architecture - Issue 59, January 2020

The par-three seventeenth at the new Bernardus course in the Netherlands Photo: kevinmurraygolfphotography.com 59 W hat is Kyle Phillips’ style? Take your pick from his design portfolio, and there doesn’t initially seem to be much in common. No trademark hole, bunker treatment or green style that labels it a Phillips design. But his courses do share one fundamental attribute. Whether it be the coastal links he created at Kingsbarns or the stroll through English parkland that is a round at The Grove, each pays homage to the historic landscape of the area. When Phillips first set foot on the land that is now Bernardus Golf – in the Dutch village of Cromvoirt near the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (better known as Den Bosch) – all that stood before him, as far as the eye could