...under Architecture Timeline and Courses by Country.
2006 was the year of Hoylake.
Not that it had gone anywhere, but its monumentally successful staging of the Open Championship showed a whole new generation of golfers that the supreme place Hoylake has held in world golf for over a century still holds true.
The dry English summer left the Club and the R&A with fast and firm conditions but little rough. Coupled with a dearth of wind, there was concern that the professionals might dissect the course. Fear not. Unlike the U.S. major courses with their slavishly boring set-ups featuring thick rough and absurdly narrow fairways, the golfers were allowed to play golf at Hoylake, as it was the bunkers (rather than the rough) that dictated the play off the tees. Some players opted for the approach that Ballesteros took at Lytham in 1979 by focusing solely on avoiding the bunkers, regardless of where that took them with their driver, while others favored a more controlled strategy. Viewers were rewarded with numerous full shots that will be recalled for years, as well as one of the game’s all-time demonstrations in controlled course management. It was Tiger Woods’s supreme confidence in his iron play that allowed him to play irons off so many tees. For lesser players, such a plan would have failed miserably, as so much pressure was placed on the middle and long irons into the demanding greens.
On what other courses could we see a difference of 70 yards in the approach shots of the two players in the final pairing in the final round of a major championship when each hit had hit his tee shot exactly as he wanted? This was the case on the 2nd hole (members’ 18th) with Woods and Garcia at Hoylake. Tellingly, Garcia, who had played driver from the tee, was not able to get closer to the demanding hole location with a wedge than Woods who, after an iron from the tee, had a middle iron into the green.
In this process, the intrinsic merit of Hoylake’s holes shone through. Ted Sturges was staying with me that weekend in Southern Pines and by mid-telecast on Saturday, he asked, “Is this the best non-Old Course course on the Open Championship rota?” Ted is from Indiana so his English is what it is
but the point is an interesting one.
Like Royal County Down, no one person deserves credit for the course of today. The more courses that are built today by architects with 100 or 200 or 300 courses on their resume, the more one appreciates Hoylake for its uniqueness. Its combination of field and dunes holes, internal and external out of bounds and its huge expanse that the wind sweeps across make the course like no other.
Member Alistair Beggs was a huge help on this course profile (all aerials photographs are courtesy of him) and he suggested that I stick with the normal sequencing of the holes and not the Open one. This was welcome news as holes like the 1st and 6th and 8th and 9th etc. have been famous for so long that to refer to a hole like the Punchbowl as the 11th would have been a mess.
In the past two weeks, we have posted course profiles from County Down and Cape Breton Highland Links. Throw in Hoylake and one can’t imagine three courses more disparate, yet each among the very best and each reminding the golfer of absolutely no other course. Of course, after a round at Hoylake, the members and their guests repair to the one of the game’s great clubhouse, with items hanging on every wall that account for someone or something of great doing that has occurred here. One is free to absorb the magnitude of favorite son amateur John Ball’s playing record (eight
Amateur Championships and one Open Championship) or reading one of (the late) John Behrend’s seminal research books (GCA.com’s Hoylake profile doesn’t even mention Ball once – what would Behrend think about that
). Many a traditionalist will tell you there is no other place he would rather find himself. Indeed, the evening of October 3rd was an unmatched highlight in my golfing life, enjoying the camaraderie of 30 plus members from Hoylake and GolfClubAtlas.com and listening to every word spoke by the legendary figure of Anthony Shone.
Cheers,
