...complete with a bunch of pictures from a perfect autumn day.
Willie Park's work at the turn of the 20th century at Sunningdale and Huntercombe was a watershed event for golf course architecture. As Tom MacWood writes in Part IV of his Arts and Crafts treatise, "At a time when Victorian golf-architecture was suffering from mathematical precision, symmetry, artificiality and a total lack of imagination, Willie Park was able introduce the qualities which had been exclusive to golf by the sea -- variety, strategic thought and use of natural features. By adopting the changing aesthetic tastes and introducing them into golf design, Park revolutionized golf-architecture."
Some twenty years after Sunningdale and Huntercombe opened, Park was awarded a great opportunity at Maidstone. Like Flynn (another architect who rarely seems to get his due), when Park was given an exciting piece of property on the east end of Long Island, he too built his masterpiece.
While everyone loves the obvious dunes holes 8-10 and most love the stretch 5-14, I just don't see any weakness or toleration for sloppy play on holes 1-4 and 15-18 either. From the 1st green complex atop a knob that falls away on all sides to the boldly contoured Home Green, a game at Maidstone is a chess match all the way, especially when the wind is up. To me, there are few more clever designs in the world - or ones that are more fun to play.
Cheers,