Random Ruminations

[Mike Hendren]

With apologies to Blackie Sherrod, a few thoughts during de-compression:

•The 18th at Cypress Point Club is average anywhere, but poor with the trees that must be carried off the tee.
•I’m surprised MPCC-Dunes doesn’t get mentioned more often when the issue of which course has the finest set of one shot holes.  
•The shaved surrounds at Rustic Canyon are no less artificial than Rees Jones’ mounding. Caveat:  I liked Rustic immensely!
•The 4th at Spyglass makes my 31 flavors based on the green alone.  
•Mackenzie’s bunkering behind the 13th green at Cypress Point Club is not eye-candy  -  I was WRONG!  Viewed from the distance of the 9th tee or 12th fairway, it is the most amazing vista in golf (yes, even better than 16).
•It’s a shame the upper tee at Cypress Point Club’s 15th isn’t played more often.  The angle is superior (back left pin is more challenging and extreme right hand APPEARS more accessible) and the vista is better with the cove in the foreground and 16th in the background.  
•I love the carry bunker off the tee at Rustic Canyon’s 11th.  Us dinkers need the thrill of carrying such bunkers every now and then too.  I would have preferred more such opportunities – Talking Stick North comes to mind.  
•The 4th at Rustic is a fantastic example of a solid short hole that is much more difficult than it looks.  I found the 6th awkward and witnessed several ostensibly good shots there that wound up in some tall grass.  That might be a good thing.
•Several did not care for the one-shot 15th at Rustic.  I loved it despite Sky King’s gamesmanship that cost me a two foot birdie putt.  I thought the hole was well routed to transition up the canyon to the next tee and liked the awkwardness of the canted green.  
•Pebble Beach & Cypress Point Club are a push.
•The Old Course is better than both.
•There is room for those of us who chew Juicy-Fruit and dine at the children’s table in the realm of golf course architectural debate.
•When in doubt, go with what you like.  I might not know what’s great, but like The Big Bopper, I know what I like!
•Donald J. Ross was still jobbed in the Dead Architects Survivor Series.  

Please feel free to take pot shots, debate, etc.  I'm here to learn.

Mike

[Bill_McBride]

Mike, I agree with you about the carry bunker on #11 at Rustic.  It's beautifully situated and reminded me a lot of the same bunkering at #2 Cypress Point. Same angle off the tee and approximately the same distance I think.   On Sunday at the KPIII it was a challenging carry bunker into that 35 mph wind!  (Or "gentle zephyr," as Bob Huntley would have called it).

No argument about pretty much any of your points above.

I liked #6 at Rustic Canyon a lot more the 2nd and subsequent times I played it.  The first and only previous play was August 2003, and I had no idea standing on the back tee that there was so much fairway out in front of the green.  The high native grasses cleverly obscured that fact.  Made the hole a lot more tight-cheeked than it needs to be.

[THuckaby2]

All that is great by me, except on one point, on which my feeling is:

Cypress, The Old Course and Pebble are all among the world's greatest golf courses, but if I have to rank them, I'd put them in that order.  We can debate this one some time if you wish!

But I am dying here... inquiring minds want to know... did you succeed at CP#16 with your own driver as well as you did with mine?

Oh, one more thing:  MPCC Dunes DOES always get mentioned when the question of what course has the best set of one-shotters gets asked.  Let's put it this way:  it holds it's head up quite well with it's more famous neighbor you played on Monday.  QUITE well.

TH

[Jeff_Brauer]

Mike,

How are you familiar with Blackie Sherrod?

[Mike Hendren]

Jeff,

I began my career with NLE InterFirst Bank in Dallas in 1983.  I read Blackie, the other guy who referred to SMU as the "Polo Ponies" (well-known sportswriter whose name escapes me) and Joe Bob Briggs (Joe Bob Says Check It Out) religiously.  

I also knocked down a few ribs at Sonny's, a few Jimmy's Specials at Herrera's, and did a little shagging at Boardwalk Beach Club - but that's another story.

Mike

[Jeff_Brauer]

Mike,

I was once an Interfirst customer.  I was also Gibralter savings, First Bank, Nations Bank and now, Bank of America.  I have never swithed my account number, but the darn bank has sure switched names a lot!

I was wondering if Blackie had gone national, trying to match Dan Jenkins.

[David Kelly]

Mike,
The 6th hole at Rustic was playing a little strangely this past weekend.  I also saw a number of balls hit on the right side of the green apron and kick forward into the rough.  Generally most of the balls that hit into that area will take the slope and roll left down onto the green.  It didn't seem to be happening on Sat. and Sun.  

[DMoriarty]

In my opinion, when the wind is blowing hard down canyon, one has to play the 6th green like a biarritz.  Hit short or in the swale and let it run up.  

Re the aprons at rustic . . . Interesting observation, although I might suggest that there is a substantial difference in artificiality between setting a low mower height on relatively unaltered terrain vs. moving lots of dirt to contain virtually every hole, regardless of the terrain.   Do you feel the same about similar short grass on other courses (doesnt Pinehurst 2 have some tightly mown grass around the greens?    How about courses which maintain their fairways that short?   Is all mowing artificial, or just mowing approaches?  How about collars?

[Joe Hancock]

David,

Of course all mowing is artificial. It's also acceptable and necessary. We don't have the luxury of rabbits and sheep!

Joe

[Mike Hendren]

Good questions David.  First, thanks again for your great hospitality and hard work.

I would hope (as I have no idea) that Pinehurst #2 and any other course would maintain chipping areas/surrounds at fairway height with the same turf/grass strain less the course begin to look like an agricultural extension experimentation plot - one grass/height for tees, another for landing zones, another for approaches, another for surrounds, etc.  I did not particularly care for the bent grass approaches at Whistling Straits for example.  In my mind, it diminishes the concept of a golf course as a playing field.  Not unlike planting bent grass between the 9 and 11 yards lines to accomodate extra point attempts yet growing a more hardy dense turf between the 30 and 40 yard lines that the football rest upon to accomodate the longer kick.  Poor analogy?

I would have no issue if the turf for the entire course mirrored the surrounds at Rustic.  I'm just no big fan of the transition.  One thing it does, however, is create deception as to the relative location of the pin to the green edges.  I do like that aspect.  I just don't care for the artificial turbo boost.  

I'm not big on the first cut of rough either.  Why stop there.  How about an additional two inches of rough per five yards off line?  Maybe it's just me.  

Mike

[Forrest Richardson]

Mike —

Regarding the 18th at Cypress Point Club...

The towering cypress trees line the parade route back home. They are crowding the street and waving. As if our journey has not been full of surprise enough, we are now asked to play an obstacle course of woods that are closer to us that those we left just seven or eight holes ago. This is the home stretch of the routing. As the fairway rises to the right of the clubhouse, we see signs of activity. The anticipation of coming home is in the air.

And also...the 18th at CPC probably did not decide that many matches, as matches were over (perhaps well too early) within the stretch from 14 to 17...(statistics/match play.)

[Carlyle Rood]

I enjoyed the 18th at Cypress.  It's quirky and clever.  I suspect that many people would enjoy it more were it not  the last hole.

[Mike Hendren]

Forrest,

You Golf In The Kingdom nuts have the game all wrong.

Carlisle,

I can plant a tree in any fairway and make it quirky.  How is the 18th clever?

Mike

[ed_getka]

Tom,
  Mike made the carry, into the front bunker. Carlyle and David landed on the green and are both ecstatic that I am only charging them $500 for the videotape evidence. Brian alas was misclubbed by his caddie and visited the left beach. Every one of them put a nice swing on the ball. Much better than my first attempt years ago that was a heel/pull 90 degrees left that somehow managed to get into the iceplant.
   THE most impressive achievement I witnessed was Mike getting up and down on #12 for an all world par.
   There will be some talk of fog on #9 and limited visibility, but only Brian brought out the big dog, and put it right into the garden spot.

[THuckaby2]

Great stuff - thanks, Ed!

And interesting that Brian was misclubbed... that happened to me once there as well... in the end, to thine own self be true.  Easy to say, tough to do.

 

TH