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2017

Been too long, but spent two weeks in Scotland. Highlights today and comments for Crail Balcomie, but more specifics to come. I will probably finally profile the Colleton Courses as the Nicklaus is about to re-open from re-grassing and a few very peculiar changes post Matthew to "Maintain Integrity" - I see a certain personal stamp -  by architect on retainer Jim Lipe. I have never somehow offered the Dye Course, but must take a few more photos prior.

So for Scotland - Coming or today:

• Old Course at Crail (Balcomie) Here today
• Walking the Old Course on a Sunday
• Prestwick
• Cruden Bay - even better than expected with high expectations
• North Berwick West Links - also even better than remembered
• Re-do at Alisa - very disappointing, I'm in minority, but will tell you why it's a fail for golf
• (.....)Turnberry Hotel renovation -  a fail for SPG
• Nicklaus CRP
• Dye CRP

So, in two weeks, I didn't play much, haven't been walking much because of a wonky knee. Tested it out at Pine Valley when evacuated for the hurricane and it did OK. Without being too technical, not amenable to a scope not really a TKRA problem, but other than getting sore and swollen, even took two days in a row.

Balcomie Crail

Sub 6000 yards with six Par three holes, but not a pitch-and-putt affair by any standards, it probably is a hickory payer's dream. The Old Course at Crail is as fun and quirky as ever, a good first stop, Gil's Course happily and very popularly booked solid, more than glad to play the Old because sole previous play was the same day as playing St. A's Old with Renee for her first time that same day. (R&A was in St. A's plus Dunhill prep prevented any golf at St. Andrews, original play for first 3 days) Two Medals were being contested, so it was a little slow giving ample time for a look-see. I'm not taking as many photos any more and Crail suffered the fewest photos because of being the first Course and low light. Seeing what was there on the ground proved how much a disservice playing 36 in a day on two different 18-hole courses really can be. Crail sanely keeps these greens no faster than nine. I'll be back again any time.

The Par 3's - Rather Notable
The Par three holes at Crail offer so much.

Starting with the blind third where having the knowledge of contours is invaluable, as well as a requirement to bring it in from the left (Sanely away from water's edge. Brilliant hole! A modified punchbowl affair, but far more interesting due to the contours. The hole had stuck so well in my memory, that I hit it in the right place and came up 8 feet short on line off the tee. Just lovely contours, perfect for a blind shot over a dune, this is truly a great hole and a major exhibit why blindness should remain a part of the game. Back pin from 2007 seen on 12 tee here:

The seventh at the first turn is a relatively modest and raised green affair, the least memorable of the six. Be sure to hit it far enough. Bunkering left keep you honest, still a fine hole many courses would gladly swap for on of their threes.

Everyone remembers the elevated and often into the wind 13th, short with a driver (I'm 66 now). A steep escarpment and elevation can make it seem impossible and it is for an ill-struck shot, you'll be in the organic matter of the face. Rather a small and contoured green considering, a four is just fine here.

2017

2017

Immediately following is "The Cave (Unforgettable and following the hole) a drop-shot hole with a crested or saddled green which is magnificently fronted by a very receptive bunker. At 145 yards, into the bunker, I was pleased with a four. One can hit the green and the ball can still easily find the bunker A hole to study for all architects considering another mundane drop shot hole, you CAN build a great one, come study how the green (Which cannot be run at 13 on the stump) makes the hole and is far better than anything that runs a fast green speed. See below (2007):

The Famous Spion Kop is the sixteenth, an uphill, often into wind hole that requires a truly committed shot. The shape of the green again determines play. Being domed as well as 1.5 clubs uphill, the ball does not really run up you must carry boldly.

Eighteenth Quarry is a fine and demanding finishing hole with Gorse right and a plethora of bunkers left, one other example along with Pasatiempo and Boston Golf Club for how a Par 3 eighteenth can test you. So easy to lose it right here and even if you hit the green.

The Par 5's - Pleasant Enough - and a twist
The second, from the medal tees is actually quite a hole with an angled tee shot and North Sea hard right. Even the visitor's tee provides you the thrilling blindness of second shot. Proximity to two other holes left gives one a fair bailout to the left, but a large dune on the left of the fairway and shared bunkers complicate matters. Coincidentally, the 11th and 12th, the other Par 5's are the shared fairway. A rather clever bit sharing the width of the three long holes. on two, long can be dreadful. Very clever hole

Eleven is up the hill from a somewhat lowest point to one of the highest in that particular part of the course, first thirteen or so holes. Plays long uphill and shares a double green, the back of which is a Biarritz-y manner for the Par 4 eighth, a superb hole. Shared fairway right with 12 over to two, clever. Remember this is the sixth oldest course in the world! Scene of tee with great width from 2007 (there is a real Loo, not a porta-potty now for the sharp-eyed)

Twelve plays back down the hill and a burn comes prominently into play about 100 out from green front. Green set a bit on a table top sort of ploy, very modern holes still use this strategy as if it were fresh. The twist of course is the triple fairway on the three longest holes allowing forgiveness ona hard swing - fun matters here.

The Par 4's - a few highlights
The first is potentially reached with driver but a burn and a cavernous bunker in a grassy dune makes you think again and play hybrid - wedge. Big green, semi-blind very deep on the right. Perfect starter, tasty, making you hungry for more.

Four is the classic "(False moniker) Cape" tee shot. Greed is a lost ball, a lesser hole, but still fun. Birdie ....

Five - Again - classic "(False moniker) Cape" tee shot. Greed is a lost ball, the elevation is deceiving. too far left and you're yelling fore to the Par 3 sixth players where greenside bunkers double as fairway bunkers on this hole. Clever. Hard. This is a bitch to par. From 2007:

Seven - very clever land use, a plateau drops off 60+ feet  with 150 to go, but you can drive the green over the wall (all blind). You don't tee off until you see players on the next tee. Said wall integral and pithy. Not so well-defined in the 2007 photo here.

Eight is the architectural masterpiece of the fours. Left-turning elbow hole to the aforementioned double green, a Biarritz from this side. Simply thrilling.

Nine & Ten show the variety of truly excellent holes available under 350 yards and still fun and challenging due to ANGLES.

Fifteen reached by less than driver at 265 rather often. Or not. Hole high right yielded a birdie.

Seventeen tee is the Blog header photo from the previous visit with Gorse in full bloom.

That's it for today.


Routing - **
Overall quality of individual holes, par 3's, 4's  and 5's- 3 -** 4 - *, 5 - *
Cohesion of the course - **
Green Complexes - **
Bunkering schema - *
Conditioning - **
Appropriate Vegetation - ***
Ideally - **
The rest of the Club - **
Milieu - **

Ratings & Rankings Part I

Starting a treatise on ratings and ranking, some introduction and history. There has been for some time quite the buzz about them in the US especially as there is a lot of belt-notching that goes on. Some folks, especially business types like to post the pins in their GOLF Magazine pegboards for USA and World 100’s. Others truly love the variety the game’s playing field has and indeed there is a bit of overlap on the Venn Diagram (don’t worry, no picture today) – not just a tangential blow.

I first played The Goff in 1961; from the very outset I was fascinated by the different golf courses and noted every one that I drove or flew by (and whoever was driving before I could) and then if at all possible played them at some point if they had any iota of merit apparent or accessibility. Not just notching for its own sake but variety and exposure were the prime draw. Junior High School at the softball field, anyone wanting to learn to play formally was told to bring a few balls and clubs to the Math Teacher – Mr. Hart, a rotund rumpled robust tweedy English Uncle Sort after school on a particular Wednesday. I’d already had the virus planted from some Palmer guy on TV who went on to be known as “The King”. I liked all that jazz quite a bit better than baseball and football. I showed up and the rest to nearly a thousand played is almost a blur sometimes. Here’s some stories I hope that you enjoy.

Interestingly enough, I learned to play golf and played exclusively in Florida (only Delaware is flatter) for the first few years and thus played two-dimensional courses for the most part. About 5 years ago that was brought back to me when I played Palma Ceia in Tampa and that course must have no more than 8-9 feet of elevation change. I’ve been blessed with a three-dimensional memory ability which has been very useful, in fact an architectural sort of gift that in another life might have led me to commercial if not golf architecture rather than a Viet Nam avoiding Surgical Career. I very distinctly remember holes of note and variety as if it were yesterday afternoon. If anyone has ever played the wee Lake Worth (FL) Municipal golf course on the eponymous intercoastal waterway, they’ll likely remember the 264 yard 90° dog-leg par 4 with the green set amongst and in front of the mangroves resting at the shore of the lake. Later, that sort of design of hole, was a revelation in my education; on the second nine at Medinah #3 (The number keeps changing as they repeatedly bastardize the layout in the name of the USGA) – that one you all know as the Sergio-a-leaping hole. When I turned that corner in 1978 and saw that shallow green perched on that shelf above the end of the fairway going left, I knew I was way beyond some point of return – it became religion, too, I suppose.

Medinah #3 was my first actual USGA Open course although I had previously played my first major-hosting (before the actual 1971 PGA) venue. That was in a 1967 High School match at the then PGA National (Then JDM – yes Macarthur) now Ballen Isles East course. That was a very special place in a number of ways but I also tried to break into the caddie pool for that tournament joining in with the other amateur caddies hoping to shag balls for a professional. We as a group kept shouting “Pick me Pete, pick ME!” to Pete, the caddiemaster. Neither I nor my friends I’d come with got a job that day despite enthusiasm for hours, it was for nil. That particular PGA Tournament was part of an experiment to move the Major from its Open Championship time conflict. It is well-known that Ben Hogan in 1953 was prevented from capturing a True Modern Major Grand Slam. He surely would have taken it and how golf’s history would have been changed.

There was a great irony in one JWN’s victory there literally a 10 minute drive from his family home in Lost Tree as Jack did not need the famous towel to pick up the trophy that February unlike August, 1963. The trophy was not 150°F as it was when he won his first PGA in Dallas. I think the Masters® didn’t like being upstaged and that surely was part of the move from and back again to August perhaps even dictating Golf as a hot weather sport in America (another day, another essay). Even I was not immune to the power of Television and Media as a part of anointing Golf Courses and noting them as somehow elite back then. There is a very important connection between “great” and “famous” to many American golfers. Even today on The Golf channel, it was offered that the Sony Open was to be played on “that great old course” a thought to freeze the blood of any true Raynor student! With all due respect that course is notable as a peg in your home-made “PGA Tour Stops” board only.

Another bit of irony in Medinah #3 being my first real “BIG” golf course if you will is that at this point in time is its near dismissal as a top golf course by me. I cannot place it in anything but “Top 100 hardest” or Top 100 “over-rated and tournament boosted”. There are very highly ranked courses that really don’t belong where they are or at least as high as they are. Muirfield Village and Whistling Straits are two prime examples, but at least MVGC has one solid hole.

The American obsession with ranking started with Golf Digest and their original 200 toughest in America based on stroke rating and slope which rather quickly morphed into their Top 100, proffered as the “Oldest Rankings in Golf”. It is important to look carefully at rankings historically as there is both reluctance on the part all current raters (world-wide) to over-throw the sacred cows and even more importantly to the rank and file golfer’s detriment - to favor certain architects preferentially. Rankings are always a combination of individual’s ratings with some mathematical formula. Golf Digest is in trying for transparency guilty of attempting to insert science into the formula without an inkling of scientific methodology.

With a system mathematically computing to the one-one-hundredth of a point – yet fudging very dramatically for pure difficulty and allowing a disproportional methodology for subjectivity with the indefinable “shot values” and “Tradition” respectively yielding a very biased self-perpetuating process in which is a meritocracy for a chosen set of courses nears irrelevancy for most golfers. These have kept the ever-changing Augusta National Golf Club, the most sacred of sacred cows at or actually on top of the ratings. ANGC is the only upper echelon course in America narrowing fairways and planting trees. All golfers worthy an inflated handicap groveling to attend a practice round there know now that über-green and over-conifer-ed are just so wrong, especially at YOUR course.

To be continued …