[jeffwarne]

Bob,
Aiken Golf Club is a gem.
Surprised I didn't mention it to you when we were discussing Palmetto.

It used to be Highland Park, a relic from Aiken's past as a winter resort.
The pro owner /operator redid the course himself sensibly, affordably and tastefully.
Did a good job of retaining/restoring the old Pinehurstlike feel.

Jeff

[jim_lewis]

Bob:

I agree with everything that Jeff said about Aiken Golf Club.

I was driving past Aiken about two years ago and decided to stop at Aiken GC just because I had a little time on my hands. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Frankly, I play most of my golf at high-end private clubs with expensive, well-manicured courses. Aiken GC is just the opposite, and I loved it.

Here is what I recall:

The course is short (6048 yards, par 70). The club is simi-private with apparently modest income members. The clubhouse is located in an old brick structure that was once the laundry that served a nearby resort hotel, which burned decades ago. The course is maintained fairly well, but probably on a limited budget. I don't recall the fee, but I think it was inexpensive.

The course belongs to an old gentleman named Jim McNair, who was in poor health at the time. His son, Jim, Jr., is the owner/operator/pro/green superintendent. Mr. McNair, Sr. was an outstanding amateur from Duke University back in the late 40's. There is a small "museum" featuring some of his trophies and memorabelia in a corner of the pro shop. When I returned to Pinehurst, I asked Harvey Ward if he remembred Mr. McNair. His response, "I sure do remember Jim. He kicked my butt a few times. He played with Mike Souchak and Art Wall at Duke and was the best of the three."

The course was opened in 1912, but I could not get a reliable answer to the question of who designed it. It certainly feels a little like Pinhurst #1 or #3 except that it is a little scruffier, which I like. There is no documentation that Ross was involved, but it certainly has that feel.

After I played, I sought out Jim McNair, Jr. to tell him how much I enjoyed the course and to see what I could learn about it's history.  I found him out back working on a piece of mantenance machinery. He said that he had tried unsucessfully to find a connection to Ross. As Jeff pointed out, they were in the process of upgrading the condition of the course. The greens had been rebuilt and they  were adding additional projects as revenue would allow. It was clearly a labor of love.

The whole place was such a "feel good" experience that I would have loved it, even if I didn't like the course, but I did. Walking and carrying my bag reminded me of my youth growing up on a small town SC course named Dusty Hills.

It may not be a great course, and not everyone will share my enthusiasm. Don't make a special trip, but if you are in the area......


Jim Lewis

[BCrosby]

Jeff -

Thanks. If you mentioned it I forgot it. I'll go by next time I am over there.

Jim -

Thanks for the details. Fascinating stuff about Jim McNair. He reminds me a bit of my good friend here, Charlie Harrison. Charlie was a superb player for GA Tech and later in major amateur events in the 50's and early 60's. He knew Bobby Jones and played in a couple of Masters. He is now actively involved with a number of the community programs at East Lake and has a house now on the 3rd fw at EL.

The Stan Byrdy book on golf in Augusta and Aiken may have something on the course. I'll look at it tonight. I wonder if the course didn't have a different name back in the '20's? As in the name of the resort that used to be next door?

Did you happen to see my niece at the North/South? Leigh Crosby got to the the quarters before losing. She's become a good little player. I told her not to call the cops if a distinguished gentleman approached her claiming to know me through a golf blog.

Bob

[John Foley]

Three courses that I found that were so good they far exceed my expectations.

- Wildhorse
- Newport National
- Crumpin Fox

All came recomended and all three we're far above how good they we're described.

Mike C - Victor Hills is pretty amazing. A tremendous amount of golf at some great pricing. Some very very good, alot Ok and a few head scratchers. The worse part is the used to have a great par 5 which they moved to a par 4 in order to shoehorn a par 3 in. Thaty was the best hole there.

Have you seen Ravenwood yet?

[Tommy Williamsen]

Crystal Downs.  Someone in Michigan told me about the course.  I was on my way to Traverse City so I called and they let me on.  I thought it was the best course I'd ever seen.  It was 1980.  It was the best kept secret in the US.

This year I played Bethpage Black.  I really didn't want to play it but thought I should see it because of its reputatuion.  I was absolutely surprised.  With few exceptions it may as good as anything in the NY Metro area.

[Rick Shefchik]

Jim,

I'm glad to see that another GCA poster has had a chance to visit and enjoy Northland. It was my home course as a kid, and sometimes I've felt like a lone advocate here for a course that I know intimately. We all tend to become enamored with the course where we learned the game -- our first love, so to speak -- but repeated visits to NCC after I've moved away from Duluth have never disappointed me.

This year in particular, Northland is shining; a warm, dry summer has allowed the course to play the way it should; you bounce your ball onto #1, #9, #11, #13, #14 and #15 or risk playing your next shot from over the green. And you still can't beat the views of Lake Superior, irrelevant though they might be.

John Conley might be interested to know that I also played Golden Valley this summer for the first time in 20 years, and really enjoyed it. The recently-deepened greenside bunkers are among the most dramatic I've ever played; apparently they've been restored to the dimensions that Tilly originally designed, and that's a good thing.

Jim, if you can arrange a round at Oak Ridge on your next visit to the Twin Cities, I'd be interested in your comparisons to the other courses you played there. I'm coming to the conclusion that Oak Ridge is my favorite course in the Twin Cities metro area. There's not one weak, uninteresting or forgettable hole on the course. Talk about your hidden gems.

[Ray Richard]

Three friends and I wanted to play in the Boston Area. Tried a few calls at some name clubs with no luck.We ended up at George Wright Golf Course, situated in the middle of Hyde Park, a busy residental section of Boston.  I went in with very low expectatations-it is owned by the city of Boston. The course is really amazing.

1. Built by the WPA in the depression, some of the tee boxes are monstrous concoctions constructed with granite block sides.
2. The course is pure, unadulturated Ross-although most of it was built by one of his foreman. When every Ross was being tweaked during the last century, this course was either shut down, broke, or mismanaged and it remained unchanged.The layout reminds me of Oak Hill in Rochester NY.
3. The conditions were that day were not bad for a muni but the outstanding architecture made up for it.
4. The clubhouse is large and dignified, with grand scale and slate roof,like something out of Westchester County.

For a cheap green fee, this is quite a golf course.

[Gene Greco]

This year I played Bethpage Black.  I really didn't want to play it but thought I should see it because of its reputatuion.  I was absolutely surprised.  With few exceptions it may as good as anything in the NY Metro area.

However, stating this is, in effect, saying it "may be as good as anything" period.

To which I totally agree.

[jim_lewis]

Bob:

I will be interested in any additional, or different, information you might discover about Aiken GC. I'm sure that some of what I remember is inaccurate.

I was away during the Women's North/South, so I missed watching Leigh. If she was on the lookout for a "distiguished gentlemen", she never would have picked me out of the crowd!  Maybe next year. Where is she in school? I haven't heard anything regarding your nephew that I met a few years ago at the Men's N/S. Is he still playing competitive golf somewher? I presume that he and Leigh are siblings.

Jim

[Brad Tufts]

Ray,

I have long extolled the values of both George Wright and Franklin Park.

Your take on GW is apt, and a new management company has started putting some money back into the course, slightly improving the conditions.  There is also a Friends of George Wright group now, which is attempting to gather some money and/or foresight to preserve the Ross gem.  I've always thought of GW as the poor man's TCC, as #5, #7, and #9, #10, #12, #15, #16 and #17 are all very good holes.  #15 especially is a bit like #11 at TCC with the choice to carry or circumvent a rock outcropping/drop-off.

There has been a good deal of money put into Franklin Park, and it has alot of history as the first (or one of) daily-fee course in the US, the Ross redesign, and Bobby Jones using the facility to practice while at Harvard.  They have a new clubhouse and a First Tee program.  The conditions are not perfect, but not bad at all, and has a great outlook to preserve it's very open, old-school feel.  The days when the course was closed and locals used to mow a few holes and play all day seem like 100 years ago, even though it happened into the 80's.

George Wright may have gotten the short end so far, as it isn't a "first" anything, and is in a relatively hidden part of town, but with the success of Franklin Park, things are starting to come around at GW.

-Brad

[Chris_Clouser]

I wasn't going to post anything on this thread until I got home last night because of the course I saw yesterday.

I played the Links at Heartland Crossing (in 95 degrees with high humidity I took the cart, sorry guys).  

For those of you unfamiliar with Indy golf, most of the top public courses are found on the Northside of town or the Northern suburbs.  This course is tucked on the Southwest side of town, just outside of the 465 loop.  It was a combination of Purgatory and Prairie View for those that are familiar with those courses.  The Steve Smyers layout was entertaining and fun.  Unfortunately the course is paying for its location away from the core market in Indy for upscale golf and is going to have to make a change to its club structure.  It is going private instead of scaling back.  The good thing is that the model they are going to use for their privatization appears to be similar to a UK model that has been discussed on this site recently.

[Michael Ryan]

I'm a Northeast guy, and my biggest surprise was during a run of representing an auto company at various charity golf tournaments nationwide, I arrived at Blue Mound Country Club in Wisc. and played a fantastic golf course, of which I had no prior knowledge.  I now know it staged a PGA some 50 years ago...a real treat.

[Richard Phinney]

Not too long ago I finally got around to playing Laytown and Bettystown, the one links course I hadn't played in Ireland, and was surpised to find it altogether terrific fun...lots of rambuctious dunes, especially on the front side, a couple of stunning par 3s, and a charmingly quirky par 5 closing hole with a near blind drive and a green hidden by a fortification of hills.   Des Smyth is the hero here, having golfed his brains out there as a youth for the equivalent of $5 a year.    No one discernable designer, but a fully fledged (after the squeezed opening hole), occasionally thrilling Irish links. Highly recommended for those venturing to Baltray, which is close by (though entirely different).

[Dan Kelly]

Jim, if you can arrange a round at Oak Ridge on your next visit to the Twin Cities, I'd be interested in your comparisons to the other courses you played there. I'm coming to the conclusion that Oak Ridge is my favorite course in the Twin Cities metro area. There's not one weak, uninteresting or forgettable hole on the course. Talk about your hidden gems.

I have a hunch that he can (smiley omitted), and I hope that he does. I'd be interested in his opinion, too.

Where have I heard that "favorite course" Oak Ridge thing, before? Oh, yeah, that's right! I said it -- to you, during a stroll down the 18th fairway. Or was it the 17th? I think the way I said it was: "There's nowhere in town I'd rather play."

Of course, as you know, I'm speaking just of those courses I've actually played -- but Oak Ridge is more fun, for my money, than any of the contenders that I have played (Hazeltine, Minikahda [pre-tree removal], Somerset). And you're absolutely right about the holes: Even my foggy brain remembers every hole, and did after a single playing. I have no idea (and could not care less) where it ought to "rank" among the Twin Cities' best, as a matter of pure architectural excellence -- but I know how it rates on my own four-asterisk scale: ****. (I wish Jason Topp would expand his My Home Course profile to include the first eight holes. I agree with him that the back side is the superior one, but the front is aces, too.)

(And, of course, I might like Northland just as much -- but I'd have to get back there again, in the firm and the fast, to find out. And it's not in town, either.)

Oak Ridge is not only a Hidden Gem nationally. It's a Hidden Gem locally. You NEVER hear it discussed as one of the best courses in town. At least I don't.

[BCrosby]

Jim -

Leigh is playing no. 1 on a pretty good Central Florida team. Her brother is finishing his course work for his degree. What he plans to do next is unclear. He is playig a lot of golf, however, and playing very, very well. So we will see.

Bob

[Keith Williams]

Bob,

I just bumped two old threads about Aiken GC to the top.  There's some pretty good stuff on the course in them, from folks we don't hear much from anymore.

I don't make it out that direction much at all, but if I do, I plan on seeing the course.  To me it just has the "look" of a fun course.

Keith.

[Mike_Cirba]

Just this week I played what is probably the biggest surprise course I can recall.

Dev Emmett's Leatherstocking Golf Course in Cooperstown, NY, circa 1909.

They have just finished the implementation of a 10 year master plan put together by Bob Cupp, who I didn't think had much of a flair for that sort of thing.

The results are absolutely tremendous.   I don't know what the course was like previously, but in it's current state, it's one of the best vintage courses in America.

[Mike_Cirba]

...in it's current state, it's one of the best vintage courses in America.

Man, I thought that was a rather controversial, even shocking statement and not even a single challenging dissent.

Either everyone's asleep on a Friday or worried about Tiger's role in history.  

[wsmorrison]

Mike,

Did you investigate local historical societies or the National Baseball Hall of Fame to see if there are any architectural plans or ground photos that show the Leatherstocking course from years gone by?  I bet they've been playing the HoF golf tournament since the inaugural induction, so there are probably plenty of pictures.  If you need any help, let me know.  Sue has some contacts there that I'm sure would be glad to assist.

Oh, I agree, it is a wonderful golf experience with outstanding views of the Glimmerglass (Otsego Lake), a grand old hotel (Otesaga), a quaint Victorian town (Cooperstown) and the best Hall of Fame of them all.  Glad you enjoyed it.  Craig certainly seconded your experience.

[Mark Bourgeois]

MikeC

Send me a case of Ommegang and I'll argue whatever you want me to, albeit with progressively sloppy typing and reasoning.

Mark

[Mike_Cirba]

Wayne,

No, I didn't have the chance to do that yet.   I certainly want to do it retrospectively.

You know, I had to wonder.   With all of the railing about the sad state of golf course architecture prior to NGLA (vis a vis the recent discussion of the best course prior (Myopia vs Garden City vs Chicago), it occurs to me that if Leatherstocking was anything at all like its present state in 1909 when it opened it should have blown the golf world away.

However, given that it was built as a community club in a then remote part of upstate NY, I'm sure it wasn't much seen by the cognescenti of the time.  

If that course was built on Long Island, or outside Boston, we might be hailing Devereaux Emmett with much the same enthusiasm as is given Charles MacDonald, no disrespect to his wonderful contributions intended.

It's just that it's becoming very, very clear to me that Emmett had as much to do with the success of early golf course architecture in this country as anyone, and more than almost everyone.

Mark,

Too funny.  

[Ash Towe]

Alwoodley-At the time I did not know much about gca.  I had just played at Moortown, which had a better name in Leeds, largely due to its conditioning and excellent membership.  It made me investigate more about architecture and how it could make this great game even better.

[ed_getka]

Seeing Ash's name reminded me of my trip this spring. Titirangi was an unexpected highlight. Great land, great routing, and if any of the participating architects went in there and redid the greens it could be one of the great courses in the world. Not a course for championship length only snobs, but everyone else would really enjoy it.

I'll never forget seeing Plainfield for the first time. I had always seen it on ranking lists, but other than knowing it existed I didn't know much about it. I still consider Plainfield the best underappreciated course I have seen in my travels.

[David Stamm]

Ed, I've been told by quite a few that Plainfield is wonderful. It's rarely talked about on this site, along with Somerset Hills.

[ed_getka]

I've heard mixed things about Somerset, but I haven't met anyone who didn't love Plainfield yet. Plainfield deserves much greater appreciation. Plainfield was the first course I played where you had something to think about on every shot on the par 5's. That is just one  of it's many attributes. It isn't perfect all the way around, but I would imagine that few golfers go around there the first time without being very pleasantly surprised.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()