With so many modern courses so strictly adhering to convention as to become predictable and yawn-inducing at times, it was refreshing and even shocking at times to walk the French Creek Golf Club in Elverson, PA last week.
Tom Paul mentioned it along with its neighbor, Stonewall II, in a previous recent thread on "Natural Bunkers", and I'd concur heartily with what he and others mentioned there about the bunkering of both courses (I saw only about 1/3 of Stonewall however). However, the bunkers at both are quite different from each other, but artistic and stunningly captivating, nonetheless. As mentioned, French Creek's bunkers look to have been ripped from the earth, and have the type of irregular edges that look like the walls of a creek bed after a torrential rainstorm has pulled away the smooth walls. Stonewall's are the type of "shadowy" bunker that start at ground-level and go DOWN, although shaped in somewhat of a Mackenzian fashion. VERY unique looking and I believe they'll have "collecting" qualities, as well, playing larger than their actual size.
However, this thread isn't about bunkers, per se, although the French Creek course is chock full of strategic ones.
Instead, I'd like to jot down a few impressions because there are any number of holes there that to me are "stretching the envelope" of what we normally think of as sound, traditional architecture in modern times, and I'm going to be very curious to see how well it's received by modern golfers.
My first thought is that it's going to be a course that drives the "scorecard mentality" player nuts! There are so many holes that are in the "half-par" range, and also holes where disaster looms so anyone trying to shoot a low medal round will have to really think their way around. What's more, they will have to truly forget about what par is on the card and play for the lowest score within their game.
I've argued in the past that par is completely meaningless, but I'm starting to think it can be a good tool that an architect can use to prey upon the ego of the golfer. None of the yardages or pars I'm going to list following are finalized yet, but consider the following holes to illustrate my point.
#2 - 464-500 yards - par four - A beautifully natural hole swinging downhill to the right around some gorgeous corner bunkering. Just short of the green is a 15-20 foot deep hollow that runs for about the last 30-40 yards. The green sits just on the high end of the other side and runs from front to back into death beyond. The left side of the hollow will accommodate a running shot, but there is a wonderfully placed bunker if one bails too far. MANY a ball will end up in the hollow, and it will be the scene of much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
#4 - 541 yards - par five - One of the most "manufactured" holes on the course due to the architect needed to create a somewhat level fairway on a steeply banking left to right part of the property. The teeshot needs to carry wetlands for about 160 yards, and bunkers protect the drive. However, what really makes this hole is the fact that the green is literally sandwiched between the steep hillside from the left, and a creek that runs to the edge of the green on the right, with everything flowing towards the hazard. There is also a layup area that has been created in the 100-150 yard range that is just full of bumps and hollows, and where visibility can be compromised by placement. There will be eagles on this hole, and there will be tens.
#5 - 122yds, par three - A short, uphill pitch over broken ground and a steep cliff-face wall, reminding me a little of #4 of Lulu CC. There is a bailout area left (right runs along the property line) but it's filled with little "dolomites", and the green runs away sharply left to right.
#6 - 586-610 yds, par five - UPHILL and seemingly forever, there are multiple cross bunkers that one needs to negotiate on each shot. The second shot in particular needs to either challenge the centering cross bunkers, in an effort to reach higher ground, or one is left with a partially blind, LONG approach. Similar in strategy to the 14th at TOC.
#7 - 376 yds, par four - Another perfectly natural hole, and apparently the first one that Gil Hanse & co. found out there. The tee shot plays slightly downhill only to find a huge ugly cross-bunker dead center of the fairway at about 260-270 yards from the tee. What's particularly interesting is that the view of the green is blocked by a couple of boulders and a natural knob just short right of the green, and the green runs from front to back, right to left. Anyone coming in "hot" from the right side is going to have their hands full. There is room out to the left, and a better angle, but I think this hole is going to be infuriating and perplexing to anyone who tries to play it aggressively.
#9 - 409 yards - par four - An uphill tee shot to a plateued fairway split by center bunkers into a "highroad/lowroad" scenario. The higher leftside affords a view of the uphill punchbowl green set in a high hollow, while the lower rightside leaves an "Alpslike" approach that is COMPLETELY blind.
#11 - 537 yards - par five - After a healthy drive over a wetland crossing on a fairly flat stretch with a WIDE fairway, (incidentally, almost every hole has significant width from the tee), the bomber is hoping to get home in two. However, THERE IS A (previously existing) 3 FOOT HIGH STONE WALL THAT BISECTS THE HOLE 15 yards short of the green!! I can only imagine the screaming about this one, especially when players unthinkingly become "stymied" behind it and have to play backwards!
#12 - 478 yards - par four - A hole that looks as though not a teaspoon of earth was moved (although the bisecting creek was man made) as one seemingly drives into a big, flattish, open meadow with plenty of room out to the right and the creek snaking into the left side of the driving area. The green is just to the other side of the creek, so that a drive challenging the creek leaves a good angle for a long running approach, (with no bunkers), and a shot from the right must carry the creek directly.
#13 - 468 yards - par four - From tee to green, I believe this hole plays about 70-80 feet uphill. (Eric Pevoto shared some pics of this one from the tee on the other thread). It swings right around some amazingly penal bunkering, and then heads more sharply uphill past "a place where golfers go to die" bunker on the left, and land falling off to the right. I'm not quite sure how one "lays up" effectively on this hole, because the hilltop green is blind if one doesn't get pretty far up there with the second shot.
#14 - 384 yards - par four - One of the most unorthodox and potentially maddening and score-wrecking holes I've ever seen. This hole is at that high-end of that side of the property, and skirts a steep fall off on the left, "riding the ridge" so to speak, before turning left for the approach. The fairway is somewhat hogbacked, but built up slightly on the leftside. There is a stretch of broken ground and boulders about 290 yards from the tee, which juts diagonally into the fairway from the left. The second shot is a steep drop shot to a small green that falls away to all sides into wooded, rough areas. The idea from the tee is to challenge the steep fall off to the left as closely as possible, simply because anything to the center or right of there leaves a completely blind second shot that is simply FRIGHTENING. Seeing the green on the second is scary enough. If there's a par four version of the "2 or 20" hole at Engineers, this might prove to be it.
#15 - 300 yards, par four - After the dizzying vertigo one might experience on the 14th, the 15th might drive one mad if not played with lots of thought. Diagonal bunkers come in from right to left, crossing the width of the fairway and once again creating a "highroad/lowroad" option. The green sits high on a natural plateau, but if one lays up to the lower ground left, the second will be vexing and exacting. A place for a birdie...or a 7.
#17 - 237 yards, par three - This uphill par three, discussed elsewhere as "The ABRUPTMENT" hole, is somehow par for the course and the appropriate denoument to a series of unusually unorthodox and perplexingly creative golf holes. Everything from the back tee aimed 45 degrees right of the green, to a blinding cross bunker 100 yards from the tee, to the steep false front on the right side of the green that would be at home on #17 Merion tends to create confusion and indecision here.
It will be very interesting to see how a course as fresh and potentially controversial as French Creek is received. Much of "neoclassic architecture" that has been built in recent years borrows much from the ideas and thinking of more traditional Golden Age architects. French Creek takes those influences, and attempts to expand on them in ways that are bold and daring. In a way, it probably owes more to some of the wild quirkiness found at places like Apawamis and Engineers than to something by Donald Ross or Tillinghast.
My sense is that most of it will work quite well, some of it will be VERY controversial and there may be demands for refinement over time, but that almost all of it will be FUN, particularly for the golfer with a match-play mindset who is willing to accept that adventure, humor, whimsy, guile, and perplexing idiosyncracies should be a valuable, welcomed part of the modern game.