[NAF]

Am I a homer about Deal?-of course I am.  I'm just sad the last group I hosted back in May here played under the worst conditions I've ever seen there.  Although the 3rd played very short downwind with 30mph winds gusting to around 40--with rain.  I show this picture mainly for a few reasons--look at all the interest and rolls short of this green and think back to the haskell/gutta percha era when one had to use the landforms to get an approach close (even with this green's punchbowl/bathtub form)  In this picture, you are looking back at the tee at Lang's Neck which helps to blind the golfer's second shot into the hole.  During spring-fall, this hole plays 540 from the tips or about 470 mid tees downwind (southwesterly).  In the winter into the wind it is totally different.  When Ran visited in October last year we played it into a nice 10-12mph headwind (the winter northeasterly) which makes it easier to hold an approach.

This and Deal's 16th remain on my favorite list of Links holes in GB&I.

[Marc Haring]

Great picture. Really shows the ground game options.

I was lucky enough to play Deal I guess a couple of weeks before you and Ran back in November. My partner chopped his way up the right side of #3 only to pitch in from one of the humpy dunes on the right for a birdie. I on the other hand went good drive, complete top (the result of the excesses of the previous night), three iron just short and then a solid three stab trying to negotiate the 6 ft of fall betwixt ball and hole. Still I was 2 under par at the time having birdied the first two in the semi half light of our 8.00am start. Marvellous things hangovers for producing peak performance. They just seem to allow one to remove the obstacles created by clear thought.

By the time we got to the 16th the hangover had lapsed into history along with my score.
Here’s the approach to #16 taken at the time.

[NAF]

Ah- Matey, that is the VALLEY OF INGLORIOUS SECURITY..thank you Bernard Darwin..

Curiously, I've eagled both 3 and 16....My best start at Deal was 2 under thru 3 holes but I've never broken 42 on the back 9!

The 16th also has one of the toughest greens to putt on the course.. 17 is also a master punchbowl green..

[wsmorrison]

Noel and Marc,

Thanks for the photos, not that my memory of Deal needs to be jogged much.  What a wonderful golf course.  Noel, your homerism for Deal does show but it is perfectly justified.  I can't wait to get back.  The day with you, David, Ran, Jeff, Russell and other members of Deal was wonderful.  So was dinner that evening!  Great start to a fine trip...despite Jeff's dreadful driving (a Manhattan cab driver in college)

Rick Holland made one of the great lag putts I've ever seen on the 3rd green.

[James Edwards]

Noel,

Have you ever played a round of golf there with Andrew Reynolds, the professional?  He is a fantastic guy, knows all the history and has played, pretty much, all the best golf courses in the world with some of the best players.

[Marc Haring]

Noel.

Here’s #17.



I also love #6 the short natural par four that changes direction by 90 degrees at about 280 yards. I managed to stripe it down the middle but had simply no option but to bump it up the bank. The green was just too small and firm to stop a wedge on. Great little hole.

[James Edwards]

Mark,

Great snaps my friend.

Agreed, Two super little holes

[RT]

To add is the fantastic no. 4 green.  Here looking from behind the green to the main tees center right of the frame, with 3rd green in the middle of the pic.

Wind usually back to front of pic, so if the pin is anywhere back the challenge is enormous.  Birdies are rare.

[ForkaB]

Thanks, Noel

I loved the 3rd at Deal.  Its a shame that modern designers (even the neo-golden-age ones) can't/don't seem to want to build those fallaway greens hidden in a dingly dell.  In small doses (i.e. 1-2 per course) they are great.

Yes, Deal in 30-40 mph winds and heavy rain wasn't for wimps, but that is how one determines character.  So where were you that day, James?

[NAF]

Rich-

If the Open Championship was held at Deal that day, it would have been tough for any pro to crack 40 from the back tees on the homeward 9.

The green at #4 is a JSF Morrison special (learned from Colt, Paul Turner eh comrade?) which is longer than it is wider.  It took the old Sandy Parlour green and blind shot out of play in 1937 in preparation for the 1938 Open which flooding negated.

Trying to land a wedge or 9 iron downwind to hold the green when it is crowned on all sides is very difficult.  From the tee you have to hit it high and land it in a small zone as anything short will kick off and anything in the back of the green off as well (as the photo shows distinctively).  

The 6th hole's genius lies in the fact the green slopes AWAY from the player and one must try to hold an approach often to a front pin placement.  This is next to impossible without the feather touch of a pro--and they have difficulties as well.. I've driven the green once and still only made birdie--so did Rich Goodale.  More often than not, a 4 is the best you are going to do.

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