Fishers Island #4- "Alps & Punch Bowl"

[TEPaul]

George Pazin said:

"Jamie -
The day I refer to a 42 as an awful back nine is the day I will have really reached my golfing nirvana."

George:

I know Jamie Slonis and I've seen how he plays. When he said something like that I can guarantee you he isn't being catty or big-headed or bragging or anything like that.  A 42 on any nine is not a good one for him---really bad actually! Jamie Slonis is really good---without question one of the handful of strongest amateur contenders in any class A tournament in this section which is a pretty good section for quality players.

The thing I really like about Jamie, particularly his participation on this website discussion group is he's very honest and very informed about certain things to do with good player as it relates to golf architecture and he's no dreamer or exaggerater in the slightest---incredibly realistic in fact---and I think that's valuable---at least it is to me. If someone (like an architect) was to ask Jamie what he actually and realistically counts on to CARRY a drive in neutral conditions, for instance, Jamie would tell him honestly and accurately without the slightest exaggeration.

I know because I once asked him exactly that although he may not have known I pretty much knew the answer anyway. I do a lot of officiating at some good tournaments and sometimes it gets a bit boring out there and I do thinks like watch carefully what various players do like how far they actually carry the ball (particularly in sort of neutral conditions). I'd pretty much figured out how far he did carry the ball in neutral conditions before (and after) he actually told me and he was right on the money!!

I realize you're remark about the 42 was facetious George (I knew it anyway but the smiley confirmed it) but your remark gave me the opportunity to tell you that about Slonis anyway!  

[TEPaul]

Hey Donnie Beck:

Do you see that big bare patch in the fairway right behind Jonathan Doyle's knees while he's lining up to hit his shot into #4??? And do you see that other bare patch in the fairway right behind his ass??? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THERE WITH THOSE BARE PATCHES, DONNIE??

Hey, relax! Don't sweat it! I love stuff like that on a golf course, particularly an ultra natural one like Fishers! It's old fashioned, it's cool and it adds to the aura and the unique playability. I was just looking at a few aerials in the Fishers Island book from the old days and you can see the green tees and the green greens and the rest of the course is just scorched light brown! Coolest thing I ever saw.

So next year if you don't have those brown bare patches on #4 fairway Donnie, I suggest you make them anyway!  

[George Pazin]

Tom P -

I know all about Jamie's game, having had the privilege of witnessing it first hand at Inniscrone a few years ago. A more modest possessor of a big game on this site you will not find!

JohnV told me next year's PA Open is at Sunnehanna, so hopefully I'll see you and Jamie there next year there.

[TEPaul]

"Tom P -
I know all about Jamie's game, having had the privilege of witnessing it first hand at Inniscrone a few years ago. A more modest possessor of a big game on this site you will not find!"

GeorgeP:

Don't you believe that. What you saw from Slonis at Inniscrone was another man. Slonis now is the compleat golfer! That's because in the 2-3 or so years since you saw him at Inniscrone I've had the opportunity to actually teach him everything there is to know about course management and Jamie Slonis being the intelligent, honest and realistic man I just said he was had the good sense not to listen or to attempt to put it into practice. That's because he doesn't need it right now. He's long and straight, thinks pretty well and has all the components to be a compleat golfer. (The only possible danger area with Slonis is he's a young guy and a great player with a long putter and that's never a good sign!).
 
But one day the time will come when even Slonis will need to know how to really sneak up on things like long par 4s before they see him coming and zap them and nobody was better at knowing how to do that than I was!  

More than ever now I appreciate that famous remark from someone as great as the great Bobby Jones when he had the opportunity later in his life to really observe the game of Jack Nicklaus and when asked what he thought said;

"He plays a game with which I'm not familiar!"

[JSlonis]

 

Thanks for the kind words.  You guys are too nice.

George,

I wish I would see you at Sunnehanna next summer but unfortunately as a resident New Jersian that is not possible.
Maybe I'll have to work on a inexpensive Non-Resident membership at some PA club, because I know they always play great courses in the PA events.

As for Tom Paul...I'd trade a little of my length for his "wiley" short game in a second.

Here's another pic from Fishers. Approach to #9-"Double Plateau", 364, Par 4.  Needless to say, for your approach shot, long is not good.

[TEPaul]

Jamie:

Look, Sunnehanna is a great golf course and don't you worry about the fact you're from New Jersey and don't belong to a Pa club and aren't eligible to play in the Pa Open. You just let me handle those trivial technicalities. When they email the "field" out to me I'll just put it on my word processor and knock out some nobody who got lucky and qualified and send it back to the Pa Golf Association. I'll even write a nice letter to that no-body qualifier and tell him he unfortunately lost out to a great player we forgot to give an exemption to.

You know our executive director is the same one for GAP and he's so used to seeing you in GAP events he'll probably just forget we're all at a PA State Association event.

What the hell, even if you do get caught you should get at least a round or two or maybe all three in at Sunnehanna and that should be worth the app 4 hour drive. If they ask you how you got in just tell them I told you you were in because they all know I've lost my mind anyway.

The only other logical way for you to play Sunnehanna is to just go ahead and win the New Jersey Amateur and that should get you into the "Sunnehanna".

[TEPaul]

If I had your game and I took that many photographs during a tournament I think I might shoot a 42 on one nine and a 78 too!  

[JSlonis]

redanman,

I'll answer in the voice of Jackie Mason..."Such a deal..."

Tom,

There's more to do than tune up your game during practice rounds...long live the digital camera.  Before you got me hooked on this website, I did used to "just practice".  Know I find myself looking for all the little design nuances, how a particular hole fits in to its surrounds, how is the architect trying to trick me, blah , blah, blah...geesh...golf has never been so fun!!

[TEPaul]

"Jamie

You can use my home address to join the Allentown Muni.    $25 a year  "

Jamie:

If you take redanman up on that I'll be so pissed off at you I'll give you a 6:07am starting time at the PA Open at Sunnehanna with a marker as a fellow competitor (me)! And I'll not only have redanman permanently expelled from the state of Pennsylvania, I'll have him deported to the country he really belongs in-----FRANCE!

[JSlonis]

6:07 AM!!

Great...I'll see you on the tee...I can't wait...nice freshly cut greens with no footprints...away we go!

Tom,

Sign up redanman and me up for next year's Pennsy Better Ball.

[TEPaul]

Jamie:

Do you know I actually forgot a couple of years ago you and Rock Irey were out first as a twosome in the Patterson Cup at Wilmington and Fieldstone and you were off and away like rabbits so fast you were probably back home in New Jersey in bed before the results were finally tabulated which determined you won the tournament. If you take redanman up on that then I'll see to it you're behind a group of three from Overbrook in the end of the day that will be guaranteed to drive you out of your mind. As for me, you marker and not technically a fellow competitor, I'll simply be practicing putting all over ever green at Sunnehanna just to see what happens and perhaps to determine Sunnehanna's "reasonable maximum" green speed in the process. Just watch them try to penalize and perhaps even DQ me, you're marker, for a constant 6-7 rules violation. I'll have them in a constant rules argument they'll never forget and you can have the unique opportunity to watch all this! I suggest you bring your camera! At least you can photograph a lot of great architecture while you wait to hit your next shot!  

[TEPaul]

"You want a PA handicap or not?"

redanman:

Here in Pennsylvania we don't have "Pennsylvania handicaps" you francophile idiot! We all use GHIN handicaps in this rather large regional vicinity---but don't tell that to Rich Goodale!

[TEPaul]

Redanman:

Yes, his marker you sex crazed, UnAmerican francophile romantic idiot! Every competitor has to have someone to mark for him and there probably won't even be any "competitors" at Sunnehanna at the Pa Open at 6:07am, about an hour and a half before the first regular starting time! So I'm volunteering as Slonis's marker! Have you never played with a non-competitor marker in a tournament? If you'll simply recall your trivia you may recall that David Eger actually filled in at the US Open at Shinnecock in 1995 as a "marker" and I believe actually outscored the US Open competitor he was playing with.

[TEPaul]

"PA Handicap = GHIN with a PA address

D-oH!

Do I have to spell everything out?"

redanman:

Nice try but a very poor one. Slonis's NJ GHIN handicap, and his NJ address will do just fine in PA, thank you very much. He doesn't even need a PA address to play in the PA Open, as far as a handicap or handicap limit is concerned. What he needs is a PA golf club membership that's a club that's as member of the PA Golf Association. His address has nothing to do with it. Would you like to give him your Lehigh membership? Don't you screw with me on the technicalities of the PA Golf Association, redanman, or I won't just deport you to FRANCE, I'll see to it that your address in France is that famous address known as the Bastille!

I love having these discussions with you, redanman, because it shows how much you think you know about everything and anything but really don't!  

[Donnie Beck]

Tom,

Jonathan's pictures are a few years old. I can tell by looking at the punchbowl. The greens were still being cut with tri-plex mowers and the inside of the punch bowl is still cut at rough height. This has all been transitioned to approach height to allow the balls to better funnel onto the green surface. The greens has also been enlarged slightly since that photo was taken, but since you liked the patches so much I will be sure to re-create them 1st thing this morning.

[TEPaul]

Donnie:

I expect you to not only recreate (restore would be the operative word on this website) those bare patches but to very lovingly "maintain" them into eternity!!! Those bare patches just may turn out to be the best representation of the gloriousness of the "way things once were" in the good old days of golf and classic architecture. If we all get lucky, who knows, the bare patches of Fishers Island just may turn out to be the very thing the world of golf and architecture wants to have again and we can all say---it started all over again at Fishers Island!!    

PS;

For anybody who has the Fishers Island history book just check out the aerial photo on page iv! I'm not saying the course has to look like that all the time but if that's the way Mother Nature wants it to be some of the time---hey, just let it be!

[TEPaul]

redanman:

Isn't that absolutely fascinating to know!? Did you also know that I'm=I am? If so, congratulations, you're=you are making progress. I still think you should take these fascinating distinctions to France and say them in French. You'd fit in well in a country where the entire population thinks they know everything there is to know!  

[Donnie Beck]

I played Yale this past Friday. Their 3rd hole is remarkably similar to the 4th at Fishers