Courses most representative of an architects work

[cary lichtenstein]

If you had to select one or two courses most representative of an architects best work, please list the architect and his work e.g., if possible, stay with public venues

Dick Wilson...Cog Hill
Mike Strantz...Tobacco Road
RTJ, Jr...Prince
Engh...Redlands Mesa and Lakota Canyon
Dye...Whistling Straits and River at Blackwolf Run

[JESII]

I have Tillinghast linked to Winged Foot too much, trouble is I couldn't pick between what I know of the West (awesome) and what I do not of the East (never played).

I would also like to think Flynn would pick Shinnecock as his crowning achievement.

Sorry Cary, I could not in good consience pick Bethpage and I have not played a public of Flynn's.




As far a Strantz is concerned, would you mind telling me how Tobacco Road is better than Royal New Kent? That's the onle Strantz course I've played and, other than being in the wrong part of the world for agronomic reasons (plus some routing issues) I thought the course was out of this world. Literally, out of this world.

[Marc Haring]

Colt, Swinley Forest.

Mac, Cypress Point.

[cary lichtenstein]

JesII

I have played all of Strantz courses except for 3, RNK, BB and the other one near RNK, so I can't answer regards to those 3, but from the others, the TR is far and away the best and really most representative of his best work.

[Tom_Doak]

For MacKenzie, Royal Melbourne (West) or Cypress Point.  The former is more representative of how he wanted his courses to play, the latter more representative of his aesthetic talents.

For Colt, Swinley Forest or St. George's Hill.

For Macdonald, NGLA is it.  Mid Ocean a distant second.

For myself, I'd be torn between Pacific Dunes and Barnbougle.  Both are links courses and I was so influenced by what I saw on the links twenty years ago that I would have to pick a course with true links conditions; they also have the two best sets of short par-4's that we've built.

[mark chalfant]

Cary   when I think of Donald Ross, Longmeadow, Franklin Hills ,and Brookside all spring to mind. All of these works of art
include fine routings and great greens. PCC and Metacomet are also splendid

[wsmorrison]

Jim,

I think Shinnecock is Flynn's crowning achievement and one of the great golf courses in the world (my favorite).  Ran thinks that Rolling Green represented the most Flynn attributes of his parkland courses.

[Ian Andrew]

Stanley Thompson - Banff Springs

I don't think it's his best - but his opinion is more important than mine.

I think we need to take care not to simply assign the best course we know and try to use the authors writing for their thoughts.

[mark chalfant]

public access:

Rogell-  Ross

Golden horseshoe-   RTJ

Engh -   Hawktree  ND

Dye   BWolf  river

AM    Pasatiempo

[Bill_McBride]

When I think of Robert Trent Jones I think of Spyglass Hill.  Just wish he had reversed the golf course there the way he did at Eugene CC!

[Bill Gayne]

Maybe it's mostly geographical bias but the RTJ courses that came to mind for me was Golden Horseshoe, The Dunes in Myrtle Beach, and Peachtree in Atlanta. The Dunes and Peachtree were built in late forties and really foretold a lot of the next thirty years. The Dunes and Golden Horseshoe has had renovation work done by Rees. I don't know if Peachtree has had renovation work.

I'm surprised no one has suggested Pinehurst #2 for Ross. Has the course that Ross spent a good portion of his life perfecting been changed that much?

[cary lichtenstein]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Spyglass designed by Sr. and Prince by Jr.?

[Jay Cox]

If you had to select one or two courses most representative of an architects best work, please list the architect and his work e.g.

Cary, do you want BEST or MOST REPRESENTATIVE?

Cog Hill is certainly Wilson's best public course, but I don't find it representative of his style at all:  not as much fairway bunkering, narrower playing corridors, more natural in appearance (perhaps b/c the land was better).  I can't come up with a better public example off the top of my head, but something in the style of Pine Tree seems more representative.

Ditto RTJ; I think Golden Horseshoe is to Jones as Cog Hill is to Wilson.  Golden Horseshoe struck me as a much "smaller" course visually than the average Jones course.  I think The Dunes and Spyglass are both more representative -- and, in this case, also better.  Again on the private side, Point O' Woods seemed to me very representative of RTJ's style.

For Ross, I think everyone's right not to nominate #2 b/c it's really nothing like anything else Ross built, esp. around the greens.  My personal pick for most representative would be Salem or Wannamoisett, but, again, both are private.

[cary lichtenstein]

Jay:

I think what I am asking is really this:

If you want to get to know an architect's work, what course would you play. For example, with Dick Wilson, his 3 best works are Cog Hill, Doral and Pine Tree.

Doral was been redone so that it is no longer Dick Wilson, Pine Tree is private, so if you want to play something that represents Wilson at his best, where he was given a pretty much free hand, and you can get on to play it, Cog Hill is it.

Cary

[Ted Curtis]

How about my beloved nut-case, Desmond Muirhead? Want to get really wacky, check out Aberdeen in Boynton Beach, FL, the perfect example of Muirhead's it-ain't-golf-until-you-build-a-course-with-a-naked-woman-design.

OK, so maybe it belongs in the Museum of Bad Golf (anyone ever visit the Museum of Bad Art in Boston?), but it is as representative of one's man vision -- as twisted as that may be -- as any course.

[Dan_Callahan]

Cornish: Hickory Ridge, Crestview. Nothing awful, nothing spectacular. Healthy dose of tree-lined parallel fairways. Very blue-collar. Because of lack of eye-candy type features, relatively inexpensive to maintain (I would guess).

Silva: Cyprian Keyes. Not his best course, but representative of his ability to fit some interesting holes into very small spaces. Cyprian is a good example of a tiny, difficult property that feels much bigger than it is. (For his much better courses on better land, see Red tail, Waverly Oaks)

Hurdzan/Frye: Widows Walk. Again, not their best course, but shows their dedication to a conscientious approach to environmental issues.