Littlestone GC Photos

[Craig Disher]

Finally responding to Mark's request from a few days ago... There were some Littlestone pictures here but I sure can't find them. I'll post the ones I have from a few years ago. Nothing's changed.

The front 9. Except for #4, the holes are going away from the clubhouse and are with the prevailing wind:

#1, short par 4, drivable but not much margin for error. The prevailing wind is from the rear, l-r. The rough anywhere on the course usually costs at least a shot.



#2, par 4. The approach is dictated by the location of the hole - best to be on the opposite side of the fairway.

From the tee:


The approach:



#3 par 4. Blind tee shot; bunkers in the face of the dune were filled.



From the dune; an approach from the left is best.



#4 par 4. From the new tee; drive is into the wind at a diagonal fairway surrounded by fierce rough; right of the bunker is the aiming point:



Approach to #4 green. Green is on the dune that fronted the 2nd green and held the 3rd tee:



#4 green:



#5 par 5. A flat, straight hole saved by the perched green on a narrow ridge.



#5 approach:



#6 par 3. One of MacKenzie's beauties; a par 3 that's much easier when played into a stiff breeze:



#6 green from the right side:



#6 green from the left:



#7 par 5; From the new tee; the line is straight down the o/b markers onto a diagonal fairway:



#7 approach; a drainage ditch crosses the fairway 150 yards short of the green which is guarded by a small ridge with 4 bunkers on each side:



#7 green:



#8 par 4 - another great MacKenzie creation; this hole has been weakened by the loss of a cross bunker in the fairway; still, an approach from the right after a drive over and around large mounds is best; the left side is safe but leaves a very difficult approach.



#8 approach from the right center:



I'll post the rest when I have some more time.

[Craig Disher]

#9 par 3. At the turn. A pair of pot bunkers on the right, large deep ones in front and on the left. The new tees increased the length to 210 yards. The wind is usually helping from the right.



#10 par 4. Jeff Maggert's demise. During the final round of Open qualifying, his drive carried 290+ into the face of a small pond. No one saw the ball enter the hazard so he was forced to play it as lost. It was found a couple weeks later. The holes from here in are into the prevailing wind. The green is behind the large bunker on the right.



The fairway doglegs around the large bunker to a flat green. The pond hazard is on the right.



#10 green from the right. The pair of bunkers influence shots played from the left rough.



#11 par 4. An influential early hole design cited by Darwin. A drainage ditch parallels the left side of the fairway; the tee is on the left side of the ditch. I suspect that fairway originally was on the left as well - it's a safer line but leaves a very difficult approach to the green.



The #11 green from the left. The surface falls away from the bunkers.



#12 par 4. Nr 1 handicap hole, only 430 but typically played into a 10-30 mph wind. A new tee was added that requires a 190+ carry over a 13' deep bunker. Local knowledge - the line is the church tower, not the aiming stake.



The 12th green was originally completely flat but mounds and depressions developed due to settling. The bunker in front replaced a smaller bunker similar to the bunker on the right.



#13 par 4. A pair of top shot bunkers at the ridge have been removed. The drive is blind to a fairway that is like a washboard.



13th fairway; the pair of bunkers are actually 20 yards short of the green.



The green has more undulation than any on the course and blends perfectly with the surrounding area.




More later...

[JMorgan]

Craig, how far is Deal from Littlestone?

[wsmorrison]

Thanks for the photos, Craig.  That looks like a wonderful collection of greens.  Wow, that rough looks a bit scary, thicker than other rough I've seen over there.  

Can you post a picture of the 16th?  Isn't that the Bottle Hole concept that Macdonald copied?  

Too bad the ridge fronting the 2nd green was scooped out.  When was that done?

[Brent Hutto]

James,

Craig will give an more authoritative answer but based on my one trip there last summer you'd better allow an hour or more from Littlestone to Deal in case you encounter a lot of truck traffic around Dover. It's probably doable in 45 minutes if you get totally clear sailing but I think the port at Dover makes clear sailing very unlikely.

[JMorgan]

Thanks, Brent.  One of these days I'll make it there.

[Brent Hutto]

Littlestone was my first links golf experience (Deal being the second) and my comment at the time was that Littlestone makes it easy to see why people like links golf. It's like a day at the beach and a great round of golf all at once. What's not to love?

I am so going back there, hopefully sooner rather than later. I "discovered" a coffee and sandwich shop in the village of Deal that would make it worth going there if there were no golf course and the golf course would make it worth going there if there were no village. And as for Littlestone...a sunny, breezy 36-hole day on that course is simply priceless.

P.S. Although I understand from the Buda Cup folks that a cold, windy competition day at Littlestone can be, shall we say "no day at the beach".

[Craig Disher]

Finishing up...

#14, par 3. As tricky a mid-length par 3 as you'll find. Bunkers ring the green and the wind strength determines the correct line.  All the par 3s play to opposite directions on the compass so for example if the wind the was at your back on #6 will be hard l-r here - unless it's changed with the tide.



The green from the left rear.



#15, par 4; A short dogleg left with a very difficult approach. The green is long, narrow, and flanked on both sides by steep slopes.

From the tee, the aiming line is left of the hut.



The approach must be just to the right of the front bunker and not too far onto the green. Any shot towards the center/left will be down the slope and off the green. The English Channel is just over the ridge behind the green.



#16, par 4; One of the most difficult par 4s anywhere and the model Macdonald used for the 4th hole at The Lido. 460 yards into the prevailing wind over a rolling, well-bunkered approach to a perched, smallish green. Not fun at all but a great match play hole.

The green is just visible from the tee through the corner of the dogleg. Any drive to the right of the bunker at the corner leaves an approach of 200+.



Bunkers (James Braid's) across the fairway come into play when the drive has gone into the rough.



After the perils of arriving here, there's no relief. The green is small and very quick back to front.



#17, par 3. A MacKenzie treasure. The 17th originally played from the valley over the dune to a large flat green. MacKenzie brought the green up onto the dune; the tee was moved onto the ridge by 16th green sometime later. This hole plays directly into the prevailing wind from an elevated tee; good players have used any club from a 3 wood to a pitching wedge.



From the right of the green. Note the terrific tee shot.



#18, par 5. Back onto the flat plain that surrounds the clubhouse. MacKenzie rescued this hole by creating an interesting greensite - although it does look a bit out of place. There's some good fairway bunkering too although a couple well-placed ones were taken out. On the occasions that the wind is off the sea, the hole loses about 100 yards in effective distance.



The 18th green and clubhouse. A green-side bunker on the left was removed but thankfully the one on the right wasn't - avoiding it is critical which often leads to a shot too far left which falls into the deep bunker to the back left of the green.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Craig,

Is that a bunker fronting the right side of 5 green?

Can you post the pic of 8 when it opened?

I take it you've read through the "long list" of Mac's recs. Which ones would you like to see done that haven't been done?

I would imagine sometime through the years an architect came through and gave advice on that list.  Yes?

Thanks for posting these!

Mark

[Craig Disher]

Mark,
No bunker to the right of the #5 green. What's there are some sleepers that replaced a bunker that sat right on the water table and was constantly wet.

I haven't seen MacKenzie's report and I'm not sure it exists. The club history cites changes that were made based on his recommendations and I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't looked through the archives for the original document. I'll do it this summer. I suspect most if not all of MacKenzie's recommendations have been addressed in some way - some better than others. For example, the cut in the dune on #2 looks very unnatural; correcting its appearance wouldn't be expensive.

In the meantime, this is a photograph from a series taken after the course re-opened in the 1920s with MacKenzie's modifications. It's the 8th and I've marked it for comparison to a recent view.



Taken from nearly the same spot this photo shows the evolution of the bunkers. What had more effect on the architecture was the shrinkage of the green. Mac's original had the steep slope cutting across the right third; now that slope is on the right edge. Now bunker G is an afterthought, rarely coming into play.

[Mark Chaplin]

Some great pictures of Littlestone, the course is very under rated and worthy of closer study by students of GCA.

It has the destrinction of having my most despised putting green. Playing in a county junior championship many years ago it felt like 2" of rain fell during the morning round.  50 drowned rats appeared in the clubhouse for lunch praying for the afternoon round to be cancelled. Sadly the aforementioned putting green refused to flood so the County duffers sipping their gins in the warm dry clubhouse sent us back out as the rules stated "play will only be suspended for lightning or flooded greens".

[Craig Disher]

Mark,
I've never seen standing water on any of the greens at LGC. The 8th fairway seen in the above photo was under water a few years ago and the 5th has been known to hold water for a while but generally Littlestone as well as Rye drain so quickly that a little rain is never an excuse for canceling a match.  I'm sure you boys were well fed and returned to the course with vigor.

A couple years ago a county match started in a fairly heavy rain which progressively worsened. A half hour after all the matches had cleared the dune on the 2nd hole, every match turned around and headed back in. The sight of all the golfers coming over the dune with their power caddies looked like Monty's army coming across a ridge at El Alamein.