History of Himalayas putting green

[Doug Siebert]

Anyone know anything about when it was created, by who, why, how natural or unnatural the mounding is?  I assume it was created for ladies before they were permitted on TOC.

If anyone has ever played TOC without playing Himalayas, shame on you.  No visit to St. Andrews is complete without at least a couple trips around the Himalayas.  If there was a local course that had something similar they charged a buck for, I might be a better putter because I'd actually practice!

[Yancey_Beamer]

 The Ladies Putting Course was designed around the turn of the century by Old Tom Morris with significant shaping by OTM. I agree,its a remarkable part of the experience .

[Steve Lang]

 

We watched some ladies before our round there, didn't have time for more than a look.. I must say they were quite keen on their play!

[tonyt]

I have been trying to find some photos of the Himalayas, to no avail. Does anyone know of a link or existence of any?

[mike_malone]

 Pocono Manor had a fabulous putting green for games. I can recall a few double digit efforts on a 20 foot hole.

[Andy Levett]

Yancey.
Thanks. Interesting that Old Tom should have created something so wild, especially as he didn't attempt anything remotely like it while overseeing construction of the New course.
Maybe his ideas got more radical over the years?

From the course profile:

[Doug Siebert]

Yancey, thanks for the info!

The thing that I found the most interesting about the putting green was that on some of the holes where you putted somewhat through a valley towards the hole, you could hole it by starting out somewhat left or right and letting it move off the side, or by starting it out sharply to one side or another, hitting harder, and having it break 3 to 5 times.  Lots of options, but more to the point in being fun for contests, you can play games where the winner of the last hole can choose whether everyone has to start out aiming left or right of the hole, require going around certain landmarks in a slalom style, etc.  Really tests the mind and prepares one well for the types of ground game shots one encounters on TOC and other links gems in Scotland.

[Paul_Turner]

I do know that Harry Colt wanted to incorporate the "Ladies Putting Green" into an extension of the New course's 18th ( he redisigned some of The New).

What an idiot, good job he was thwarted, I reckon.

[Doug Siebert]

Yeah that is good he was thwarted.  Though I love the Himalayas for what it is, its just way too crazy to be used as the green on a  course.  It might require the first case ever of par incorporating three strokes instead of two as the standard for "expert play"!

[Bryan Izatt]

Tony,

Here are a couple of pictures.





One way to play the Himalayas is to chunk a 3 iron off the first tee (well Tiger was hitting irons off it, and it looked like a short hole, and there were a lot of people watching), and then follow it up with a 3 wood to the green.  It doesn't take much of a tail to end up in the himalayas rather than on the 1st green, maybe 25 to 30 yards to the right.  

[Patrick_Mucci]

Doug Siebert,

Ridgewood, an underrated AWT course has a wonderful version in their practice putting green.

At their member-guest they hold a putting contest that is both fun and highly challenging.

Perhaps someone with photos of the practice green can post them.

[Jonathan Davison]

Recently we surveyed the putting course for an assignment for the EIGCA professional diploma course. It was an interesting piece of work and if I can remember around 1.5 metres difference from low points to high.
My thoughts were, it was designed by Alistair Mackenzie.

[Marty Bonnar]

Another cracking nice day in sunny St A...

Pics taken about five minutes ago:





FBD.