Recently we had the week of The Memorial the tournament that Jack built; his own private Masters Invitational Tournament. Once can argue about MVGC as a personal Augusta National, but not only Mr. Nicklaus (Castle Pines GC, Shoal Creek, etc.), but Rees Jones(LedgeRock, Red Stick, Piedmont Driving, ), Tom Fazio (The Alotian), and Lester George (Kinloch) for three have built lovely Modern Augusta National Model based clubs in various states around the nation. One might argue that Friar's Head in its own way is of that model, but I think it is too different so I won't include it in this discussion.
The Muirfield Village GC is probably the most like ANGC because it has its own now lengthy history of an invitational tournament and ANGC-like list of revisions, something on the order of 5 of them this year alone. A completely new par 3 16th with a pond is as notable as any change and as with 16 at ANGC, it has ... wait for it ... a pond now, just like the real one. to me the saddest (upcoming change) is the planned clubhouse demolition and new clubhouse. There was something special about that MVGC just as the originals at The Ocean Course at TPC Sawgrass - a special simplicity (although Ocean Course did a much better job on that clubhouse re-build).
But American Corporate Golfers just love that awe-inspiring clubhouse re-build that somehow AGNC has avoided. The presence of these large, top quality construction clubhouses do little to nothing to decrease the presence of these exclusive clubs in the mind of those seeking to play great golf courses, play Top 100 lists and just play travel and member-guest tournaments.
But this is the week of the USGA Open or The Open or The National Open, I prefer the USGA Open. It is at Olympic, a seminal venue for the USGA Open and a great example of the courses that host this tournament. It is relatively charming for a USGA Open site and has provided us with some of the best theatre ever in US Golf History - Fleck beating Hogan with his own clubs to deny Hogan the fifth he so deserved - and not the first or last time that happened. The foreshadowing of Payne Stewart as US Open Champion - then he was lost to us forever. What would his effect have been in the age of Tiger? I for one think he would have been able to perhaps understand and deal with Woods of that era as well as anyone due to his strong mental character which he forged, not unlike Hogan, pity he didn't get back-to-backs.
But there is the Greek Tragedy of 1966 if written by Dan Jenkins we would have rejected as preposterous. The King indeed - redeeming himself from the embarrassment of losing to Jack in his proverbial back yard at Oakmont in 1962. Seven up with 9 to play, he dared to break Hogan's Open record score and failed miserably - failed again on the sixteenth for any chance of redemption for a win in regulation also taking six on the seventeenth to tie only to fall apart again on the second nine in the playoff Monday round (this time only from two ahead). Read it as fiction, never believe it as plausible, yet it was real life golf.
We're hearing that it's the dawning of a new Age of Tiger and he's in for a walk off win. Remember, it's at the O this week. The bunkerless wonder with reverse cant fairways, still too many trees, too narrow fairways, bent greens that should remain pure bent until the playoff Monday is over and site of the loss of two very charming par 3 holes - most recently the lovely blind 8th (bearing no resemblance whatsoever to its origins) and previously at the hands of Weiskopf design the short 15th. We won't talk of number 8's creator and just sit back and watch. As Medinah #3 was my first "Open Course", O Lake was the first that I played as many as 50 times - and still the most played Major Tournament Venue for me - built on the most interesting terrain, certainly. I can't really praise O Lake architecturally as greatness, but it is near the top for where the USGA has left its mark.
As the hangover now begins we look back at yet another USGA Open of attrition. To be fair Simpson did win it shooting the only sub-par round in the final 18 players and Furyk uncharacteristically made a mistake and gave it away. He was flummoxed by a move of the tees on #16 (an awkward slog at best) of nearly 100 yards shortening which brought back into play the same sharp left turn than nicked Palmer back in 1966. The old story of 16 at O Lake is that Bob Jones easily hit it in two but of course there were no trees and there was technically an elbow hole rather than a dog-leg (Tillinghast made the distinction very clear). I don't know if that is lore or fact, but it is true that Sam Snead, the great bettor as well as great champion indeed suckered a younger long-hitting pro in a similar spot by goading the player "When I was your age, I used to just hit it over those trees there and cut the dog leg." When the younger player failed to do so, Snead of course finished the story ... "When I was your age, those trees weren't nearly as tall."
Hard to believe from TV but over the years many thousands of trees have come down at Olympic. Very good stroke play minded players like trees as they are "fair" and similar to water clearly reward "good" shots and punish "bad" ones. Golf is a bit cut and dried that way but it works for the USGA thus they love Olympic and plans are already being aired to return. Hopefully in their pursuit to find west coast courses for the USGA Open they will create new courses or ruin mediocre ones such as was done at Torrey Pines rather than doing any more of Fazio's "magic" to Riviera or one of the few other remaining golden age courses left anywhere near L.A. Basin.
So as the major season enters its overseas leg we can leave the single file fairways preferred by American golfers as "great tests" and return to the "unfair" links and fouil (proper golf) weather. My last Saturday's round was played in 20-30 m.p.h. winds and heavy overcast with 60 degree temperatures - just as I prefer - proper golf weather.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Friday, June 01, 2012
Where Do We Play Golf?
Golf in America is such a complicated event at times, it is so different from Scotland the birthplace of golf where virtually everyone can call virtually everywhere and ask to play. It might be rather restricted or at times insanely expensive but generally one gets to play a fine course at a fine price. There are in America so many different and distinct places and ways to play golf. This is a topic that I have gone over in my mind for so many years. There are really different and good options, we really do get spoiled.
The Municipal Course
The beloved Muni is where most players get started, even if they are privileged enough to have access through family to a Country Club or Golf Club. Why? It is easy to access, has good value for money and is completely non-discriminatory. Well, almost, you do pay more if you are not from the MUNIcipality where the Muni is located. Your tax dollars help support the muni and that's what the source of all the benefits and befalls a course springs. The tax structure of most municipalities provides for a parks & recreation system, not unlike on NBC Thursday Nights but without all the comedy and drama. That damned tax bill you pay every year allows your city county or other government to own, build, maintain and otherwise oversee that place thatis lovingly called a rat-ass muni. We are rather lucky where I live in that the daily resident fee for the muni done by Ault & Clark runs about $20 more or less. There is a restaurant run by a local brew works that serves a solid meal and even breakfast that I will eat. Mine is within a mile of my house, in fact I can see it from the upstairs bedroom. We get a course that has no bad or stupid holes in reasonable shape where you can walk, ride, pull, carry whatever and at up to 7100 yards Par 72. The next town over has another solid muni with a few better more interesting holes and a few not up to the rest. Overall it's not in quite as good of shape, but it is maybe $5 more. There is not the same food facilities but "good enough". At each of these there is a reasonable yearly rate of under $1500.
Private Daily Fee
Two towns over to the east is a less than 10 year old Kelly Blake Moran masterpiece of quirky hillside routing that is in superb shape. It is in a housing community and the second nine has the two best mountain par 5 holes in one nine anywhere. As a Senior, most days I can play for $35, regular Joes & Janes $45 and conditioning (THE single most important criteria to American golfers according to NGA polls) basically equal to the two world class private clubs in the immediate area. When I lived in Chicago, the Jemsek family ran Cog Hill and six other courses. Within an hour of my house, privately owned Public access courses were everywhere and by seemingly every architect. Most of the time the conditioning of a privately owned daily fee is notably better than your Muni. It is definitely NOT your CCFAD.
The Resort
One goes on vacation to these places, a destination with one, two or many courses and with lodging on site. At the top of the "most courses list" is certainly St. Andrews, the daddy of all destinations albeit without titular lodging. The Old Course Hotel is owned by Herb Kohler and thankfully he has nothing to do with any operations of the St. Andrews Links, that is up to the Links Foundation who controls the public lands and runs the systems used to access these wonderful courses. USA-wise: In sheer numbers, the Pinehurst Resort probably has the most directly associated courses although some of them approach Doak 0 category. Resorts are chock full of things for non-golfers to do, should have a pool and plenty of hot water Jacuzzi Spas, if not, I don't want to go. The class of these is Bandon Dunes Resort, uniquely American despite their efforts to convince you otherwise, a good resort always is enjoyable even if buyer's remorse hits you at check out. When you faint, you are at Pebble Beach or Kohler. At the value for money end in the USA s the superb 3-course resort replete with Indian Casino in the very best sense at Turning Stone, Oneida, NY. There is everything else in-between including multiple design-your-own at Myrtle Beach, SC. Myrtle is pleasing because one goes off the reservation with no problem. Kiawah, Bandon, Pebble, Homestead, Turning Stone, Pequot, etc. Choose your poison, these often have very fine and even world-class golf available. The best have caddies.
The CCFAD (Country Club for a Day)
This is the more upscale Private Daily Fee morphing into the Resort, usually with one or two courses. There is a hazy line where one turns into the other ..... It is arguable that the very first of these was in suburban Illinois in the form of Kemper Lakes. It opened in 1974 or so and I was able to get out there right from the start. This was before the swarms of employees outfitted with wireless communications enveloped you as they do today. The worst part of all of that is that you are expected to buy your way in and out with $1 and $5 bills, getting your bag out of your vehicle, parking said vehicle, directing the bag stand operator which your and your group bags are, again identifying them downstairs going to the range, meeting the starter, meeting and being serviced by the (hopefully) hot cart girls, and at the end the bag-off-cart taker-offers, rack storers (down and upstairs the club polishers the valet return driver and the bag (badly and inevitably how you do NOT want them) trunk placers. My wallet seems light from typing this. Odd considering that I A) Never carry cash B) have a throng of cards to pay for things. Many of these are pasture pool fields of perfect turf devoid of architectural strategy. From what Kemper Lakes was in the mid-1970's to what this class of course is currently is a case of sad inexorable decline.
The Country Club
Country Club is not Golf Club, nor should it be. It is basically your private resort with a heavy emphasis on added activities (swimming, tennis, workout, child care, fine dining - even horsey stuff & skeet) to your beloved golf. However at most country clubs golf is the main attraction. Some golf and country clubs so state, but these are the majority of where private golf is played in the USA.
The Golf Club
Golf. A place to change? Probably. Have a drink? Likely. Swim, play tennis? No, not here. Just golf - although I once wrote that the "New Country Club" required you to fly forever, drive to nowhere, stay on site, drink too expensive of wine & other booze but offer only golf and call it Golf Club of Nowheresville or the Rattlesnake Grill and Club or other cute name somehow reflective of the location. I'm not sure what to call these, but they are too limited for me, generally. Golf Clubs are still near civilization and allow other activities because they actually are somewhere and you don't need a secret handshake to get the code to the gate on the dirt road in from the county-designated highway.
Anyone else?
The Municipal Course
The beloved Muni is where most players get started, even if they are privileged enough to have access through family to a Country Club or Golf Club. Why? It is easy to access, has good value for money and is completely non-discriminatory. Well, almost, you do pay more if you are not from the MUNIcipality where the Muni is located. Your tax dollars help support the muni and that's what the source of all the benefits and befalls a course springs. The tax structure of most municipalities provides for a parks & recreation system, not unlike on NBC Thursday Nights but without all the comedy and drama. That damned tax bill you pay every year allows your city county or other government to own, build, maintain and otherwise oversee that place thatis lovingly called a rat-ass muni. We are rather lucky where I live in that the daily resident fee for the muni done by Ault & Clark runs about $20 more or less. There is a restaurant run by a local brew works that serves a solid meal and even breakfast that I will eat. Mine is within a mile of my house, in fact I can see it from the upstairs bedroom. We get a course that has no bad or stupid holes in reasonable shape where you can walk, ride, pull, carry whatever and at up to 7100 yards Par 72. The next town over has another solid muni with a few better more interesting holes and a few not up to the rest. Overall it's not in quite as good of shape, but it is maybe $5 more. There is not the same food facilities but "good enough". At each of these there is a reasonable yearly rate of under $1500.
Private Daily Fee
Two towns over to the east is a less than 10 year old Kelly Blake Moran masterpiece of quirky hillside routing that is in superb shape. It is in a housing community and the second nine has the two best mountain par 5 holes in one nine anywhere. As a Senior, most days I can play for $35, regular Joes & Janes $45 and conditioning (THE single most important criteria to American golfers according to NGA polls) basically equal to the two world class private clubs in the immediate area. When I lived in Chicago, the Jemsek family ran Cog Hill and six other courses. Within an hour of my house, privately owned Public access courses were everywhere and by seemingly every architect. Most of the time the conditioning of a privately owned daily fee is notably better than your Muni. It is definitely NOT your CCFAD.
The Resort
One goes on vacation to these places, a destination with one, two or many courses and with lodging on site. At the top of the "most courses list" is certainly St. Andrews, the daddy of all destinations albeit without titular lodging. The Old Course Hotel is owned by Herb Kohler and thankfully he has nothing to do with any operations of the St. Andrews Links, that is up to the Links Foundation who controls the public lands and runs the systems used to access these wonderful courses. USA-wise: In sheer numbers, the Pinehurst Resort probably has the most directly associated courses although some of them approach Doak 0 category. Resorts are chock full of things for non-golfers to do, should have a pool and plenty of hot water Jacuzzi Spas, if not, I don't want to go. The class of these is Bandon Dunes Resort, uniquely American despite their efforts to convince you otherwise, a good resort always is enjoyable even if buyer's remorse hits you at check out. When you faint, you are at Pebble Beach or Kohler. At the value for money end in the USA s the superb 3-course resort replete with Indian Casino in the very best sense at Turning Stone, Oneida, NY. There is everything else in-between including multiple design-your-own at Myrtle Beach, SC. Myrtle is pleasing because one goes off the reservation with no problem. Kiawah, Bandon, Pebble, Homestead, Turning Stone, Pequot, etc. Choose your poison, these often have very fine and even world-class golf available. The best have caddies.
The CCFAD (Country Club for a Day)
This is the more upscale Private Daily Fee morphing into the Resort, usually with one or two courses. There is a hazy line where one turns into the other ..... It is arguable that the very first of these was in suburban Illinois in the form of Kemper Lakes. It opened in 1974 or so and I was able to get out there right from the start. This was before the swarms of employees outfitted with wireless communications enveloped you as they do today. The worst part of all of that is that you are expected to buy your way in and out with $1 and $5 bills, getting your bag out of your vehicle, parking said vehicle, directing the bag stand operator which your and your group bags are, again identifying them downstairs going to the range, meeting the starter, meeting and being serviced by the (hopefully) hot cart girls, and at the end the bag-off-cart taker-offers, rack storers (down and upstairs the club polishers the valet return driver and the bag (badly and inevitably how you do NOT want them) trunk placers. My wallet seems light from typing this. Odd considering that I A) Never carry cash B) have a throng of cards to pay for things. Many of these are pasture pool fields of perfect turf devoid of architectural strategy. From what Kemper Lakes was in the mid-1970's to what this class of course is currently is a case of sad inexorable decline.
The Country Club
Country Club is not Golf Club, nor should it be. It is basically your private resort with a heavy emphasis on added activities (swimming, tennis, workout, child care, fine dining - even horsey stuff & skeet) to your beloved golf. However at most country clubs golf is the main attraction. Some golf and country clubs so state, but these are the majority of where private golf is played in the USA.
The Golf Club
Golf. A place to change? Probably. Have a drink? Likely. Swim, play tennis? No, not here. Just golf - although I once wrote that the "New Country Club" required you to fly forever, drive to nowhere, stay on site, drink too expensive of wine & other booze but offer only golf and call it Golf Club of Nowheresville or the Rattlesnake Grill and Club or other cute name somehow reflective of the location. I'm not sure what to call these, but they are too limited for me, generally. Golf Clubs are still near civilization and allow other activities because they actually are somewhere and you don't need a secret handshake to get the code to the gate on the dirt road in from the county-designated highway.
Anyone else?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Ratings & Rankings Part II
The Masters Invitational Tournament 2012 has come and gone and we are into the golf season for men professionals full tilt. At one time the Augusta National Golf Club was rather different than it is today having undergone wholesale re-design at least three times now most recently in the 21st Century with the changes enough to obliterate all the uniqueness that Jones and Mackenzie originally had hoped the course would possess. Augusta National is a perfect example to segeway into a discussion of the morphology of a so-called Tournament Course. When I was a boy in the 1960's taking up the wonderful pastime of golf there were two prominent aspects of golf design that one could not avoid. The first was the beginning of prominence of the designer or architect of the course with Robert Trent Jones, Sr., blazing the way for the "Signature Architect". We learned a little of who RTJ and Donald Ross were, in fact at one time there was common knowledge that Donald Ross was responsible for the design of well over six hundred courses and RTJ was the hot ticket. The second was that thewell-recognized non-description "A Championship Golf Course" ensured little more than a back tee yardage approaching the magical 7000 yard endorsement of (frequently unrealized) implied quality. As a youth in the flatlands of South Florida seemingly every course had tacked on tees frequently unused which filled this apparent need.
It seemed very unlikely that anyone was able to find anyone at any of these courses who could define just what a "Championship Course" actually was. Today we actually have a designation "Tournament Course" and it is far more than specific yardages. The current formula includes Narrow fairways, preferably tree-lined and isolating and original bunkers if the course was constructed prior to World War II. Also included is agronomic perfection - Bluegrass rough of at least 3-4", greens, generally flattened of contours, homogenous cultivars capable of Stimpmeter speed exceeding 13.
The Modern Concept of Tournament golf and especially men's tournament golf has done great old courses little in the way of favors. Courses such as Oak Hill East (this time last year) really started my scrutiny of the ratings and rankings but specifically got me to analyse the concept of a Tournament Course. As a kid that meant every hole had a tee about 30 yards back, now it means 100. Trump has been stumping for the USGA and has already held joint Boys and Girls Junior events simultaneously at his Bedminster facility, site of Trump's Gem - The "Old Course" at Bedminster, New Jersey. It is also one of Tom Fazio's most versatile and interesting courses; playing it with greens about 10 on the stimp is great member fun while ratcheting the same greens up to 12 or so requires real skill. Still for my tastes overall it is a little bland for my own personal tastes as I like the quirk. The "New Course" there is a valid championship snooze, great for card & pencil types but built to be played in the near 7500 yard range it holds little interest at 6500 yards no matter what the greens are that day. I mention Trump because a recent visit took me to Trump's D.C. location where The "Championship Course" of 7400 yards was created out of two courses from the Loewe's Island Resort that it once was. I has holes from each course a Golf Buddy Platinum faithfully asks if you want to change courses when you go from what was formerly the other course to the main one. I mention this course in particular because it is such a hodgepodge trying for difficulty and yardage - yardage by adding tees on several holes across two roads and a slough off the river to add over 100 yards to a particular hole. Walking the course leads one to a three hole stretch near the turn where your caddie puts your clubs on a cart to remain on a cart path into and out of a wooded area while the remainder of the course is out overlooking the Potomac River, a rather odd version of attaining that "over 7300 yard total". Apparently plans are in the works to improve the routing but many a tournament course nowadays has bee transmogrified to include epic walks. Since it is a work in progress, I'll give it a pass and I look forward greatly to see updates.
These Tournament Hosting Courses are important in this discussion for a variety of reasons. Most importantly it has led to a Frankenstein-like change in what were once nice little or pastoral places to play. On the one hand the not too interesting "Old" Course at Saucon Valley Country Club (A USGA Favorite site with plenty of parking access and infrastructure) was modernized and revised from a half -(Herbert) Strong Course to a full-fledged Fazio Course replete with cookie stamper cape and bay bunkers with orphaned tees tacked on 50-100 yards hither and yon to get the yardage up to counter-attack the out-of-control ball. I wrote on this as there is precious little Strong left anywhere and the bunkering could have at least emulated what was once done by Strong in this re-do. SVCC Old is still a better than average Tournament Venue for the club player and is centerpiece of perhaps America's most pastoral club. Perhaps not enough for the Men while poor old Merion East - Pennsylvania (at least the Eastern part)'s Historic gem has been made a mockery of with absurd back tees on holes such as five and 18, single file fairway widths and rough one might lose a toddler in on tournament day - all in defense of par. Then there is the mis-named Alister Mackenzie's Augusta National Golf Club - that which 68% of American men would wear a dress to just watch the Masters played there - just what is it with that course and just what is that course in 20012 or was it in 2008? Thus in the name of Tournament Integrity, we have Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo - for those not deeply into movies The Good, The Bad and the (just plain) Ugly.
Why are these courses so important? There are hangers-on from the old days in terms of what were once great golf courses lost forever and not really all that good any more. I want to cite two great examples that are a little different yet. Aronimink Golf Club and Oakland Hills (South) - both originally Donald Ross and both modified for Tournament play at least twice and with greatly different results and eventual outcomes. One thing they have in common is that the two clubs had the sense of purpose to recognize that the green complexes of Ross could not really be improved upon and were chosen to remain in situ or de novo. Aronimink hired Mr. Jones Sr. to tournament-up the course for a mid 1960's PGA that never happened by creating a wasp-waisted signature at about 260 off the back tees with single file fairway between those Jones cloverleaf bunkers.
At Oakland Hills - Jones Senior toughened up the fairways and bunkering from Ross' original to create the "Monster" that Mr. Hogan so proudly brought to its knees with a first round 67 in his magnificent Grand Slam year of 1953. He was five under par overall and six ahead of perennial runner-up Sam Snead. When time came for a further toughening update of the course, consulting son Rees Jones mindlessly bunkered literally each side of each play hole with fairway bunkers flanking narrowed fairways removing any possible semblance of a strategic approach to any of the wonderful greens. Aronimink? Originally opposed by a club president now long gone was a plan to restore Ross' original intent. Finally, Ron Prichard created a sympathetic restoration (I called it on these pages a "Rescue") retaining the Ross greens then creating bunkering similarly to the original design but accommodating current technology. Two vastly different outcomes. The great news for Oakland Hills is that if they ever choose to do so - since they have not re-built or abandoned holes such as some courses have - they can obtain a similar outcome as Aronimink did. Oakland Hills South remains in my own personal opinion the highest calibre tournament modified classic course. Just for the possibility of its return to roots by elimination of that absurd and unsightly bunkering.
Getting back to the ratings and rankings - these historic tournament create a legacy, a boost an improper recognition of perceived greatness of architecture and in Golf Digest's system is actually directly rewarded for such changes by the nebulous shot values and difficulty from the back tees that they so cling to in their absurd decimal to the hundredth of a point system which still has arbitrary fudge factors as well. This effect is mirrored by all world rankings and when modern and classic courses are lumped together we see such anomalies as Whistling Straits (home of two of the worst golf holes I have ever seen, no less on the same course) such a missed opportunity with a blank slate poorly used, hystrionic mounding and scraped out bunker/waste area mostly out of play for the class player but an absolute nightmare for the proverbial 190 yard driving 18 handicapper who comprises the virtual Average Joe at America's Country Clubs. I counted 21 real bunkers in play on that course - the rest is candy for the eyes. Worldwide Top 100 lists somehow include this over-priced mess of a course as well as courses like Muirfield Village Golf Club. MVGC has an interesting hole or two but with a figure of 8 routing through neighborhoods of large homes that is a nightmare for spectators, force-grown bent grass, top billing as a Top Notch Course because of Jack William Nicklaus' Memorial held there, it can not even really claim to be America's Best Housing Course ABHC).
TV
Our exposure to courses created or modified to attract tournaments drives some courses to the proverbial top but most are absent from my recognition of greatness. What the future holds for the place of golf architecture that can test the world's elite of elite players is yet to be seen, it it certainly in evolution. We still get these head-scratching courses that everyone wants to play because they are famous on TV. There are indeed courses that A) You can play B) You can enjoy and C) both. Monday was my yearly chance at one of the "C" group. None other than the Black Beast at Bethpage State Park, New York. What a very special course. It is a bit different than the other beast of pro golf in that it, too is restorable to normal fairway widths and it is manageable from a grass standpoint. More later.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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 …
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 …
Monday, January 02, 2012
Happy New Year
Hereby resolved to be more productive.
Axiomatically, Mud Golf is better than no golf but just barely. There has been a very wet 2011 here in the eastern US and the courses with a history of poor maintenance practices and foresight have fared the worst. Boston Golf Club fared extremely well under Rodney's hand, he is one of the very best.
2011 real golf ended 2 holes after this,
it was much darker than it appears. By design, we were last off the course and it was dark.
I told Santa I that wanted more like this in our offseason:
We'll see.
Axiomatically, Mud Golf is better than no golf but just barely. There has been a very wet 2011 here in the eastern US and the courses with a history of poor maintenance practices and foresight have fared the worst. Boston Golf Club fared extremely well under Rodney's hand, he is one of the very best.
2011 real golf ended 2 holes after this,
it was much darker than it appears. By design, we were last off the course and it was dark.I told Santa I that wanted more like this in our offseason:
We'll see.
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