Twin Hills OKC

[Wyatt Halliday]

First Post.

Thought I would mention that I am playing this Maxwell contribution in an individual tournament this week. Any thoughts on design features? Just wondering if it strays from standard Maxwell designs (Dornick, OCC, Southern).

I have read a few snippets from Chris Clouser, but was hoping for more detailed info. Thanks in advance for the comments.

[Matt_Cohn]

Wyatt,

Twin Hills definitely sticks to the Maxwell basics and it's a very good course. You'll find very few things out of place. I can't think of any at the moment.

It's pretty good land too - more movement than a lot of land around OKC, with a couple of creeks. There are a lot of good holes. There are two funky ones, kind of - #10 and #18. But you can see #10 from #9, and you should check out #18 from the parking lot before you play.

Wonderful course, nice history including a PGA Championship (!) and shockingly challenging given its length and appearance. If you're familiar with the three other Maxwell courses you mentioned, you will feel quite at home at Twin Hills.

[Chris_Clouser]

Wyatt,

Nice Tombstone reference by the way.

Twin Hills is really what I would call the stereotypical Maxwell course.  The course has the perfect axis routing that Maxwell would have envisioned.  It has some wonderful holes like 8 with a dramatic approach for us shorter hitters.  The rest of the front nine is wonderful as well.  10 is just not something that you see everyday, but I would not call it funky, and if the trees were eliminated on the right, would be a great risk/reward short four.  I can see some complaints with 18, but it is like a mini-version of the 18th at Southern Hills.  The whole premise to the way Maxwell laid out the course and used the terrain was to faciliatate surface drainage.  He had no other way to do it at the time in the hard Oklahoma clay soil carved out a forested site that has a lot of ups and downs primarily on the front side.  The back side is much more calm and has a lot less elevation change but Maxwell built in some ground contours.    

[Wyatt Halliday]

Thank you for the reply gentlemen.

As far as the tombstone reference, I have had to live with "straight shooter" comments for....oh , just thirty years now  .

[cary lichtenstein]

Just a cute story:

Johnny Revolta won the PGA championship in 1937 or 38 at Twin Hills. Johnny was my golf teacher.

In 1998, about a year before he died, I was out in Palm Desert with my wife taking what would be our final lessons with him.

We started at 6 am and finished at 9am, cuz it gets 110 degrees real quick in the summer.

So we go inside to watch the final round of the Britich Open and I ask Johnny about his PGA championship and what did he remember 50 years later.

Now the final was 36 holes in those days, held that year at Twin Hills. And Johnny was getting pretty forgetful, I think he was 79 at the time of this story.

Anyway, he proceeds to walk me thru every shot of those final 36 holes, every story, how he tricked his opponent on a par 3 by taking way too much club and hitting a punch cut into the green and the guy taking the same club and airmailing the green, the lock of eyes on the tee, the knowing glance, etc.

Wow, what a story from this great old guy, I'll never forget it.

[Chris_Clouser]

Cary,

Great story about Mr. Revolta.  

Perry Maxwell attended the 1935 PGA Championship at Twin Hills.  I'm sure that impacted some of his decisions in the design at Southern Hills as it was under construction at the same time.  I know it made him rethink some things about Dornick Hills as he went back and moved two greens on his own course and moved one tee as a result of what he saw at Twin Hills during the PGA tournament.  

[Wyatt Halliday]

For Chris Clouser:

Twin has proved to be very interesting.
For me #'s6-9 were the most interesting on the front, with 12, 14, and 17 standing out on the back.

My question for you is as follows::

I talked to certain members that insist #14 is the last "untouched" hole in terms of design. Funny thing is, most of these people lauded it as the worst, most uninteresting hole on the course. I could not have disagreed more.

No matter where the flagstick is, you only catch a glimpse of the top two thirds of it. This is fairly intimidating for a 195+yd shot into a prevailing wind.

Being a lefty, the cottonwood over hanging the left side of the back box makes it nearly impossible to play a draw. Basically, this "simple minded" three par was in my opinion, one the toughest pars of the day. I felt accomplishment by making three there.

Forgive my long windedness, but can you confirm this so called historical data??

[Travis Ripley]

my Dad was a member at Twin Hills when i was a pup...and i played there the better part of two summers....as a junior golfer in my early teens.  

I've always felt some of the holes after 12 and before 17 and 18 on the back nine were a bit weak/and the land was a bit unspectacular....but the compact nature, terrain, and quality of holes on the front nine were pretty special.  and some of Maxwell elements are there:  the risk-reward/high drama somewhat elevated tee shot on 1....and certainly the very much elevated tee on the par 3 #4 (a hole that was a blast to play as a kid)....that bring the prevailing south wind into play more than one usually realizes.    

interesting comments about 14....i would have never picked up on that as a kid.  

the greens were rebuilt several years ago to more closely resemble the original Maxwell design.  I have not played it since then (though i'd like too)....I will say that in the early 80's Twin Hills had excellent cheeseburgers and french fries.  

i always really enjoyed playing there.  
 
Twin Hills also hosted the USGA Junior Amateur in the mid 60's maybe.  Tom Kite played in it, if that gives any better idea as to actual year.