Taking my lumps

[Gary_Nelson]

I came across the May/June 2004 Links magazine which featured Friar's Head. The photo on pages 42 - 43 shows hole #2 looking back toward the tee.  The sides of the hole have "lumps" of a random nature scattered throughout.

The GCA Course Profile writeup describes hole #2 as follows:
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"2nd hole, 580 yards; The first transition hole, as the golfer starts high on a dune and ends at a green that was once in the middle of a potato farm. The all important question was how to gracefully transition the golfer from one extreme to the other. Coore & Crenshaw felt that these transitions were the single most crucial design aspect to the course's overall success. After speaking with Coore, Whitman went to work in his D-6 and shaped the dirt into random movements which start out bigger and more pronounced at the base of the sand dune and then gradually taper out at the green complex. Where man's hand starts and nature ends is undetectable, the true sign of a job well done. "
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I assume the land was relatively flat when used as a potato field.  Is the transformation really as simple as having a genius running the D6?   These "lumps" are in stark contrast to the containment mounding I regularly see.  Will we be seeing more of these random "lumps" in the future?

[Jeff_Mingay]

I definitely have some bias as it relates to the above caption re: shaping work at Friar's Head! Whitman's brilliant with a bulldozer.  

Nonetheless, Gary, the simple answer to your question is, yes. It's extremely beneficial to have a talented shaper who understands and can create natural looking landforms, and envision the golf course coming together along the same lines as the principal architect.  

[A_Clay_Man]

Not all Lumps are created equal.

Four of my favorites, and I have never seen'em, are those that encompass the eighth green at Augusta Nat'l.


Could someone wax poetic about them, so we can get a better sense, Please?