[Mark_Rowlinson]

Who said of the 11th hole on The Old Course?:

If a cross bunker were constructed at this hole, it would become appreciably diminished in interest in consequence.  The narrow entrance and the subtle slopes have all the advantages of a cross bunker without making it impossible for the long handicap man.  These contentions are borne out by those attempts that have been made to copy and improve on the hole by a cross bunker.  

There are few, if any, other ideal short holes in existence.

[JESII]

MacKenzie?

[BCrosby]

I too would guess MacK.

I would also guess that it is a response to Joshua Crane's criticism of the 11th. He said it was a weak hole because you could play it with a putter.

Bob

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Spot on, both of you.  It was from Mac's 'Golf Architecture' (1920).

[Tom_Doak]

Bob C:  I know you are big on Crane, however he was not exactly the first guy to object to the potential use of a putter at the Eden.

C.B. Macdonald wrote in 1906 that "Harold Hilton told me it would be a good hole if a cross bunker was put in and Strath closed.  Heaven forbid!"

Interestingly, when Macdonald later adapted the hole for the 13th at National Golf Links, he "had the tee shot played over some seventy-five yards of water and meadow-grass, which, of course, satisfied the justified criticism" [that a player could top his ball on the tee and reach the green without punishment].

[TEPaul]

TomD:

Bob Crosby is not into Joshua Crane at all. If the guy somehow managed to come back I think Bobzee would figure out some way to have the man assasinated. Crane was responsible for trying to mathematicize golf and golf architecture and he opened the door to the beginnings of a rampant standardization mentality in golf in this country. The man should have stuck to what he was good at which was designing and building toilets. Frankly that probably does take a good mathematical mind to do well.

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