Waialae Country Club by Seth Raynor

[Coral_Ridge]

With the popularity of Seth Raynor on this forum and talk of his well known golf courses, I haven't seen any mention of his Waialae Country Club design.  I am enjoying reading my recently received copy of 1001 Golf Holes by Jeff Barr.  It is a private club that although hosting the PGA's Sony Open, it might not get much outside play.  I did discover the following about the course that may have an affect on its reputation.  


"The Waialae Country Club is one of the oldest, most exclusive and very private golf clubs in Hawaii.  Yet, it opens its doors to thousands each year as the host of the Sony Open the week of January 10 -16, 2005.  And if you like video games, you can play virtual golf, as Waialae was one of the first golf courses in the electronic game world."

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"This course was redesigned in 1966 by Bob E. Baldock."

[Russell Lo]

I think if you do a search there is some discussion of this course. George Bahto has written quite knowledgably about this course. You can really see the Raynor influence on the Par 3s. The member's 2nd (Tournament 11) is designed like Eden at St. Andrews. The backdrop of the hole is the Pacific Ocean rather than the Eden Estuary, however, now the seaside is obscured by growth.

The 13th (Tournament 4) which Shigeki Maruyama aced in last year's Sony is Biarritz type hole that measures 205 straight into the wind. The dip in the green drops down around 2 1/2 feet with the green sloping from back to front. The green is guarded by two deep bunkers on each side of the green.

Your picture shows the view from behind the green on the oceanside 8th (Tourney 17th-site of the infamous John Cook-cellphone incident a few years ago). The hole ists right along the beach with the prevailing winds blowing left towards the ocean. It is designed as a Redan, but over the years the back of the green has risen quite a bit which takes away the run up option.

Last year's Sony had winds coming directly into the player's face which made the hole play extremely difficult. Vijay, for instance had to hit a 5 iron into the 195 yd. hole.

Overall the course is a fair test with the wind and trees playing a major factor in scoring.

[Coral_Ridge]

Thank you for your input.  Before posting this thread, I did search the web site for Waialae Country Club and got nothing.  Just searching Waialae gets me the info I had wanted.  

I will post some info from an earlier thread and written by George Bahto;
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Here’s some information about the Waialae course.

Seth Raynor laid out this course about a month of two of so before he died. Banks built the course.

It was built for in conjunction with the building of the Territorial Hotel Co’s Royal Hawaiian Hotel. An magazine article, Feb 1927, said: “Although it was not completed until after his death, the plans and models for the greens were all laid out by him before he left the island in December 1925 and no later changes were made.    ..........  The course now stands (1927) built as the final work of his genius - - built exactly as Mr. Raynor wished it to be”

I cannot tell you how many clubs have been calling their course “Raynor’s last design”  

So far I have about 15 courses claiming this.

I have an article actually written by him describing the holes on the course. “........... holes from St. Andrews, Prestwick, National, Piping Rock, Lido, Chicago and other ........ “

Original corse was about 6,600 from the long tee,  6,400 and 6,000 from the forward tees.

Someplace along the way the nine’s were reversed but here are a couple noteworthy “famous” holes to look for (GOOD LUCK!)

From the original routing: ... the original plan shows the place was a minefield of bunkering!!

#2 Eden - 160 (originally - now 11)  - across a ravine (how deep could it be?)

#3 looks as though it was a Double Plateau (orig 446)

#4 Raynor’s Pr Dog-Leg

#8 Redan - (now 17)

#10 Road Hole with two tee-boxes

#12 was Bottleneck at about 360

#13 Biarritz - (now 4) and only 203 .... was originally 220 from the middle of the back, the ONLY tee

#17 was originally a 2-shot Redan with what looks like a 90-yard wide landing area before it dog-legged to the right

something happened to a couple holes - looks like something was eliminated and something else added someplace else on the layout

The Short hole was #16 and is now #7

see what you can “find”
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Again I ask if this course might one day get more positive recognition within the architectural crowd?

[Wayne Freeman]

Jon-  don't count on gettng a lot of input on this course. You can try to make it sound classic in design, but the fact of the matter is that it is a very average course on a rather boring piece of land.  The ocean is right there and you barely see it. It is a good club and they really know how to put on a great tournament (I played in a member -guest there);  the best thing about it is the flavored ice tea- awesome.  

[Dale_McCallon]

Wayne is right about his assessment of the course.  When I played there I knew nothing about architecture or who Seth Raynor was, but I came away from the course disappointed.  I guess since this was the first "tour" course I had ever played I really expected something more.  Best I remember, it is a fairly dull piece of land, that has really been pinched in in spots by the residential neighborhood that borders some of the front nine.

As far as how private it is, my round was aranged through the concierge at my hotel.  When I got there, I played with two others and I don't think we saw but one or two other groups.  I talked to one of the employees at the range, and he said that was about normal for the week.

[George_Bahto]

The original bunkers compexes Raynor/Banks drew up for this course was very complex - Waialae was littered with sand hazards - very much like the original bunkering for Yeamans Hall.

I doubt if ALL of it hit the ground when built - remember this was a "hotel" course.

I have a pretty large collection of their "concept" drawing, many of them will be in the "Raynor" book - (yes, I'll finish it one day soon.

That book will feature the course reviews of the many course they built.

The story of the founding of those courses is more interesting than the courses themselves. Macdonald's friends were the wealth of the country and they were involved with most of these courses.