Multi-platform project to chronicle the careers of golf course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw

A multi-platform project celebrating the outstanding career of golf course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw is in production. Produced by golf journalist Adam Lawrence and Vaughn Halyard of StoryLounge, the project includes a book and documentary series created in partnership with Coore & Crenshaw.

Coore and Crenshaw founded their design firm in 1986. One of their early designs was the Kapalua Plantation Course in Hawaii, but it was the Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska that solidified their reputation. Sand Hills, built in 1995, is widely regarded as a landmark design. Their unique craftsmanship and their use of natural obstacles can be seen on their courses built around the world.

“It’s not an understatement to say that Coore & Crenshaw changed the direction in which the game was heading. When they built the Sand Hills course in Nebraska, they started a movement to return to the classic values of golf design, and so many great courses have been built since that draw from their lineage from Sand Hills,” Halyard said. “It’s one of the greatest stories in golf.” 

Halyard is a two-time Grammy winner and a former senior executive with Sony Music, Columbia Records, Motown and Disney Studios. He is the golf and greens chair during the restoration of Cedar Rapids Country Club in Iowa, and the current president of the Donald Ross Society. Lawrence, a golf journalist of Oxford Golf Consulting, met Halyard at the opening of Sand Valley, a Coore &Crenshaw course.

Lawrence had interviewed Coore for a project and asked why no one had ever done a book on the pair. The time had never been quite right. Lawrence and Halyard worked on a proposal that would satisfy Coore & Crenshaw.

“I decided to send them a pitch, and, while conversing with my friend Vaughn about it,” Lawrence said, ‘That’s a brilliant idea, but it’s also an iconic 360-degree project.’ Over the next few months, we crafted a proposal with the commensurate depth and pitched it … so we fine tuned the package in a manner that enabled C&C to say yes. We are truly humbled that they have chosen to partner with us.”

Over the years, Coore & Crenshaw’s business manager Scotty Sayers has heard many book pitches, all met with reluctance from the team.

“This one struck the right note,” Sayers said. “Trust is essential to our team and families. As such, we spent a long time pondering this proposal. We feel this is the right time to tell our story and are very much looking forward to working with Adam and Vaughn.”

Halyard has recruited long time friend, notable media and tech attorney/strategist/entrepreneur, Ken Hertz to advise the media project. Hertz, a golfer, was blunt: “I was in before the end of the pitch.” Production has already quietly commenced as the team continues to fine tune their portfolio of multi-platform storytelling strategies, as well as creating an entity that will be jointly held by Coore & Crenshaw, Halyard and Lawrence. “This will be a long road – a story this big is going to take time to tell properly – but we are honored, thrilled and humbled to be going on so fantastic a ride,” said Lawrence.