The Tryall Club
Tryall, Jamaica
The trade winds off the Caribbean Sea, rolling topography, sloping greens, and tropical vegetation make Tryall one of the game's most distinctive playing experiences.
In terms of courses built from 1950until 1970, only Pete Dye’s The Golf Club is profiled on this web site. In a broad generalization, courses builtduring this dark age in golf architecture were long in length and short in both character and charm. The bunkering was unimaginative,repeatedly forcingthe same kind of aerial approachshots.Monotonously longholes resulted in the birth of the dreaded’7,000 yard championship course’ phrase.
As with any generalization, there are exceptions with one of the mostimportant being Ralph Plummer’s design of Tryall Golf Club. Opened in 1958, the course measured 6,324 yards. Yet,thanks in large part to its sloping greens and the ever present trade winds, golfers of the highest calibrehave failed for over five decades to tear it apart.
Recognized early on asthe Caribbean’s first course of genuine character, Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf staged a match here in 1962 between Dow Finsterwald and Peter Alliss.Finsterwald won the match with a score of72 toAlliss’s 75.
Twenty years later, a desire by the club to host important eventsmanifested itselfand the Mazda Champions LPGA – Senior PGA were heldat Tryallfrom 1985-87. This event was followed from 1988-1990 with the LPGA Jamaican Classic, which in turn set the stage for the Johnnie Walker WorldChampionships from 1991 through 1995.
Just prior to the 1991 Johnnie Walker World Championship, a sports columnist not so shrewdlypredicted that one of the professionals would break 60 as this par 71 coursestill measured below 6,800 yards. That year’s winner was Fred Couples and not only did no one break 60 but Couples was the sole person in the field to break par for the four day event.
Thesubsequent winners of the Johnnie Walker (Faldo, Mize, Els, and Couples again) were all major championship winners,which suggests aquality course. What then areTryall’s attributes that promotethe best to flourish?
Certainly, the course’s island setting adds much toTryall’s allure and inspires one to play his best. However, it speaks little as to the lasting meritsofrepeated games here. The trade winds which average 20 miles per hourpose the same question as the winds in the United Kingdom: can the golfer control the trajectory of his shots? The golferwith the talent to do so shines here. Those who followed Nick Faldo during his 1992 win of the Johnnie Walker marvel to this day athis complete ball flight control with every club in the bag.
The first six holes at Tryall are routed near the coastline, and apart from the romance of such a location, Mother Nature didn’t imbue this flat portion of the property with many natural features. Thus, Ralph Plummer did what ever good architect should: he created the character but he did so in a manner that is peaceful to the eye. The land in no way looks tortured and the holes sit peacefully upon the property. In The Golf Course by Ron Whitten and Geoffrey Cornish, Whitten notes that ‘Plummer was known for the attractiveness of his layouts and for his remarkable ability to estimates cuts and fills and shape greens and bunkers by eye.’
The only man-made water hazards on the course are ponds found on the first six holes, namely at the one shot 2nd and in the landing areas for the second shots on the par five 3rd and 6th. (Fortythree years later, the Club acquired the property to build a true coastal hole – today’s 4th – which is also a water hole, albeit atotally natural one). Plummer used the fill from theponds to build up the tees and greensa fewfeet, thusproviding the necessary drainage on these first six holes. With no extraneous land movement from tee to green, Plummer’s low profiledesign at Tryallstill enjoysa timeless appeal.
Though manufactured, the pond that fronts the second green looks a part of nature. No harsh bulkheads that scar so many modern courses are found here. Plummer modestly built up the 2nd green and gave it enough pitch so as to properly drain.
Thiscomplete absence of clutter is most appreciated, especially relatively to other courses built after WWII. Plummer didn’t build three bunkers when one would suffice. Plummer didn’t follow Robert Trent Jones horrific example at Oakland Hills six years prior in 1952 of pinching in fairways with bunkers on either side. Instead of reducing width and ruining playing angles by overbunkering holes off the tee, nine of the fourteen non-par three holes at Tryalloriginally hadno bunkers off the tee (the 3rd, 8th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, and 18th).
In addition,Plummer eschewed containment mounds and framing green sites. The challenge at Tryall intensifies the closer one gets to the greens – a tenet of classic architecture that allows the greatest range possible of golfers to enjoy a course (in fact, so fierce where Plummer’s orginial green slopes that the greens on holes 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 16weresoftenedwhen Club switched from the old bermuda grass greens to today’s swift tifton dwarf greens).
Startingat the 7th, Mother Nature’s natural attributes are more profuse and Plummer took full advantage as he perfectlydraped the holes onto the rolling foothills of the property. As withhis other best west works like Preston Trail Golf Club, Great Southwest Golf Club, and the Cypress Creek Course at Champions Golf Club,Plummer’s routing makes intuitive sense to the golfer as one good hole follows another with the green to tee walks always short.
The golfer’s judgementis continually taxed at Tryall onthe variety ofapproach shots required: the uphill approach at the 9th, the sharply downhill one shot 10th where one doesn’t want to be long, the uphill approach at the 11th, the downhill one shot 12th where one wants to be long, the uphill approach at the 13th, the downhill approach to the 14th. The continually shifting demands keep the golferoff-balanced, a great attribute for any architect to achieve (though few rarely do) as it means the golfer will nevertire of playing there.
The fourteenth tumbles downhill toward the Caribbean Sea.
In addition to the rolling topography, a creek bed falls from the hill top and Plummer used it to perfection: the 8th green is just across it, the bed parallels the 9th fairwayon the left, the 10th green is placed onits farside, and a great risk-reward diagonal carry is created off the 11th tee.
Plummer gracefully created a plateau atop a bed of coral for the 8th green, just over a creek bed. Note the perfect color of the fairway: overwatered, soft fairways are absent in Jamaica.
When the flatter but more exposed first sixholes are combined with the rolling nature of the remaining twelve, theresult is irresistible as afull spectrum of challengesis encountered at one point or another throughout the round.
Holes to Note
Third hole, 520 yards; A dogleg left hole full of neat playing angles, the tiger golfer hoping to get close to the green in two needs to be mindful of three palm trees approximately 100 yards shy of the putting surface. For many though the green is always out of reach as the holetypically plays into the prevailing tradewinds. And as at the 6th, Plummer incorporated into the hole’s strategy a large pond 90-120 yards shy of the green, meaning that the second shot requires great thought/care andis much more than just a layup.
The view from the third tee - note how peacefully the fairway lays upon the land. No insipid mounding spoils the view and man's hand is very soft upon the landscape.
After a long drive down the middle, the tiger golfer might have to shape the ball to reach the 3rd green in two.
Better yet, the golfer can place his tee ball down the left of the fairway to gain a better angle into the green.
The third green is flush against the Caribbean Sea and is much wider than it is deep. At only 20 yards in depth, the green can be hard to hold with a long approach shot.
Forth hole, 175 yards; This hole is not original to Plummer’s 1958 design as the Club at that time did not own the property where today’s 4th green and 5th tee now reside.The 4thwas added in 1992 by IMG for that year’sJohnnie Walker Championship. Eight holes later at the 12th tee, the golfer is180 feet higher thanhere at theshoreline and hecan’t help butreflect upon the great variety found within the holes at Tryall, with this shoreline hole being avery important elementto that mix. Though Plummer’s 4th hole (which essentially played from near today’s 4th tee to today’s 5th green) was a clever hole in its own right, the course is the better for embracing the shoreline.
Looking back toward the tee, this early morning picture makes the fourth appear deceptively calm. The trade winds generally kick up later in the day and blow hard left to right across the hole.
The fourth green complex is located across from where the Flint River feeds into the Caribbean Sea.
Seventh hole, 435 yards; Texas based Ralph Plummer was no stranger to wind and fast and firm playing conditions. On several green sites (here, the 12th and 14th holes),the high ground beside the green can easily be used to bounce the ball onto the putting surface. Though Plummer could never have envisaged how far the professionals would be hitting the ball today, the average club member stillhas a longish shot in to this green and should use the sloping ground to his advantage. Seeing a ball bound sharply to the right and feed toward the hole is one of the most satisfying shots on the course.
The tee ball from the back markers is played through the stone pillars of an aqueduct ....
... that feeds a waterwheel that was constructed 180 years ago when the property was an active sugar plantation.
The left to right slope of the terrain on the high left side of the green is evident in this photograph. The stunning 18th century Georgian style Great House presides over the course.