[Ran Morrissett]

Mike Clayton brings a unique perspective to golf course architecture. Growing up in the sandbelt region outside of Melbourne, Australia, Mike was a successful professional golfer for many years and has traveled to all points on the globe. As a result, he has had the opportunity to study the great architecture on offer in the sandbelt region plus he has seen many of the world's great non-U.S. courses that a lot of us can only dream about.

As his playing days started to wind down, he formed Michael Clayton Golf Design in 1995 along with John Sloan and Bruce Grant.

Along with his love of course design/restoration/renovations, Mike is also a powerful writer on the subject of golf course architecture.

His writings appear in the major Australian newspaper and in Golf Australia Magazine, and it is through these writings that I came to understand his deep appreciation for good golf course architecture.

Hope you enjoy this October Feature Interview and Mike will be responding to questions from time to time.

Cheers,

[Paul Turner]

Makes me want to pack up and go "down under" right away.

I've seen photos of Spring Valley, a lesser known sand belt course that Mike Clayton renovated; the bunkers are Mackenzie style and look wonderful.  Has anyone played there (looked a bit flat)?

And Mike, can you comment on The Dunes course in Oz, it looks quite dramatic from the few photos on their website:

And anyone who has followed European golf in the past, will know that Mike was a bloody good player!

[Paul Turner]

oops! I'm sure your still a bloody good player  

[Ted_Sturges]

Mike Clayton:

I have had friends tell me great things about a course you no doubt have seen called Hope Island.  Can you give your thoughts on this course?

TS

[Jason_Henham]

Mike,

It's was ten years between my two visits to Kingston Heath, one in February this year and one when I was a trainee at Cranbourne (John Sloan had just joined us at that time).

I couldn't remember the 2nd hole particularly from 10 years, but it stuck it my mind in February that its the one hole that appears out of character with all the others. There are some tight(er) undulations that aren't apparent on the rest of the course and the rough is different in character. Do you know what changes were made there?

Thanks,

Jason.

[Mark_Huxford]

I thought Mike was very candid (as Aussies usually are) in his replies and was a great choice for the October interview. Well done Ran also.

Mike, a few weeks ago there were a couple of threads here about the 1926 MacKenzie period in Australia and another, which I started, about Alex Russell. As the Architect of my home course I was keen to know more about him.

With the help of Paul Turner, Neil Crafter and some others I was able to get a pretty good idea of Russell's involvement during this period. Along with the two courses at RM there was Yarra Yarra, Lake Karenyup... Victoria was mentioned. Are there others that you know of?

I believe it was Neil who wrote that Russell's son Phillip once spoke of the family spending eight summers in Gullane, Scotland sometime before 1946. Did he ever design a course in Britain? I always had the feeling he may have been there during the war and therefore did not design.

Finally, what was your home course in Melbourne when you started golf?

Many thanks,
Mark

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mike:
Do Sand belt bunkers require the sand be flashed? Would they work with flat bottoms?

[Mike_Clayton]

Paul                                        
Spring Valley has some very good examples of sandbelt bunkers but its very flat and one repeated flaw is its dogleg holes dont work well because in several cases its too short a shot to the corner.We have altered some -2,6,16 -but 11 and 13 are still poor.

Ted,
Hope Island is probably Peter Thomson's best known course in Australia.It's a links style course built on an old swamp and many rate it highly.In the latest list it rated 15 in the country.

Jason,
They moved the tee back at the second at KH and redid the bunkers on the corner which made the tee shot more difficult but ,i agree the new mounds on the right look a little strange and I suspect that side of the hole was fine the way it was.

Mark,
It seems like Russell's main courses were The East at RM ,Yarra Yarra ,Lake Karrinyup and Paraparaumu.Apparantly he lost the argument with the LK committee over the club
house position and it got put on top of the hill and it hurt the routing so it falls in behind the other three which any architect would be proud to call their own.
I grew up playing at a course called Eastern a hilly claybelt layout and every good player in Victoria gravitates to the sandbelt because everybody thinks you  need to do that to improve.
In 1988 we played the Spanish Open at Pedrena ,Seve's home course.It was exactly like Eastern -short,clay,tight,long irons into the short par fives and long par threes plenty of short game variety -in other words a perfect place to learn to play.

Jim
All sandbelt bunkers have sand flashed all the way up the faces but on occasion there have been attempts to try grass faces and all the impact is lost.Of course there are a variety of lies -up,down and sidehill- but esentially the bottoms are flat

     

[richard]

MC

I know this is off topic from golf architecture, but hell, i'm going to ask anyway....

I remember you trying to back-hand a putt in an Aussie tornament a few years ago and ended up sprawled on the turf like a drunken sailor. It might have been at NSW or Castle Hill. What happened there ?

It was one of the funniest things i've seen on a course in recent times.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Oh great, another hero I have to put on my list.

Mike, Its great to know that down under is being covered so well by people who clearly "Get it."

[Paul_Daley]

Richard:

Merely a demonstration of the strength of wind we have to contend with when golfing!

[Paul_Daley]

Michael:

Thanks for your interview.

You built a sound case for Royal Melbourne (East) being under-rated, inspite of its already very high ranking. I agree with the East holes you highlighted, and would also include the quaint par-four, 5th, which strikes me as a great Sandbelt hole; with penalties for missing left, or overhitting straight from the tee. Yet, there is plenty of fairway room to the right to accomodate golfers. The green is very easy to hit, but among the hardest in Melbourne to hold,
falling away on its sides - placing a premium on accurate approach play.

The medium-length, tempting 14th hole has long been under-rated and under-discussed: play safely to the right and its "two woods and a taxi", while taking on the ti-treed corner may leave the bold golfer with an eight-iron, if successful, or a 'reload' and double-bogey if short. If the weather is only moderately windy, the hole can be a brute.

So much of Royal Melbourne - East and West - is 'risk and reward golf'. I do like that brand of golf architecture.

[Mike_Clayton]

Paul

Thanks.
Richard, 14th green NSWGC -unexplainably ridiculous but it was a 20 footer not a tap in and it did make CNN play of the day.

[Ran Morrissett]

Michael,

Did you play in the Johnnie Walker at Hope Island? I remember enjoying watching Faldo work his way around the course but was in a plane back to NSW when Long called the penalty on himself, helping to clear the way for Els.

Do you like Hope Island? I thought it would get the Oz Open after the successful staging of that Johnnie Walker tournament?

Unlike 99% of the resort designs built in the US from 1950-1999, Hope Island features genuine central hazards in the middle of many fairways. Depending on the day's wind etc., the golfer would play the hole X way one day and Y way the very next - for that reason, I really appreciate what Thomson & Co. did there. Plus, they did an admirable job of wall to wall shaping to give the flat land/swamp some character.

Also, is Woodlands as good as Doak claims?

Finally, does Terry Hills' design impress you?

Cheers,

[Mike_Clayton]

 Ran,

I did play  the JWC and enjoyed Hope Island- strategically its interesting and it is more difficult than a very similar course TWP did up the road called Twin Waters.Nearly all their new courses are a 'links style' design and I wonder why they havn't built more courses along the style of the sandbelt.
Woodlands is unquestionably the most underated course in the country.5 and 17 are fantastic medium length par threes  and its a great example of how to design a difficult ,but not overly long course.

Terrey Hills I liked -the front 9 especially is through some typical Australian bush with a terrific feel .It has a number of good solid holes without anything great- certainly nothing approaching Woodlands.

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