Which Pennsylvania GAP member course?

[Mark_Fine]

JES II,
If you are referring to me, yes I did  

[Mike_Cirba]

Mark,

Don't feel bad...according to some, Merion does have an Alps hole, or at least used to have one.  

Thanks for playing.  

[wsmorrison]

"Mike,
Just saw Brookside mentioned.  I don't get out there much but that is the course thinking through the clues.  I still think Merion was a close second

Has two par fives in the first 4 holes, both with a creek crossing? Merion does

- Has a par three in a quarry, followed by a hole where the drive must cross the quarry for a reasonable second? Merion does

- Has an Alps-type hole where BOTH the drive AND the approach are completely blind, playing steeply uphill to a punchbowl green?  This one disqualifies it.  Always did, despite what some have contested

- Has a number one handicap hole where there is a six foot elevation change from the front of the green to the back?  Merion's #5 is #1 handicap and side to side the elevation change is steep. But not back to front

- Was designed and built during the Golden Age? Merion was

- Maxes out at just over 6600 yards from the tips?  Who knows what the back tee yardage is at Merion these days.  It keeps changing. It maxes out more than that (just over 6600 would be just the added length on 5 and 6) but less than 7000

- Has at least 10 holes that turn or dogleg so significantly that the green is not visible from the tee?  Didn't think it through too closely but it might be right. Nope.  Many are visible even from the back tees.  You can see 1 green, part of 5 and 6, 7, not 8, part of 10, 11, not 12, not 14 or 15 and 16

- Has a par three of 116 yards from the tips?
Merion's #13 is more like 125 yards but it's close. 132

- Has greens as small as 19 paces front to back and as large as 38 paces front to back?
Possible 8 green may be that small front to back; the largest is 3, which is 48 yards front to back"

[Bill Brightly]

Weyhill could have so, so much better given the amazing land on which it resides.  Give me a year to improve it and it could become near all world.

Oh yeah, what would you do to it? And what architect would you hire to do the work?

[Brian Laurent]

Weyhill is one of my favorites.  From what I remember, they changed the routing after the club took control of the course from Bethlehem Steel.  Bethlehem Steel kept control of the Guest House and moved the locker room/grill room to an old house by the maintenence barn.  From what I've heard, the club recently took control of the guest house, so they may go back to the original routing.

You're correct on the opening four holes...first par 5 doesn't come into play until #6 (a great double dog-leg par five crossing the same creek twice).  

[TEPaul]

MikeC:

Brookside (Allentown) huh?

When I played a ton of tournaments and served on GAP there weren't many courses I didn't know at some point over the years.

We used to call courses like Brookside (Allentown) "country courses", and that wasn't even a back-handed compliment.

But that was back in the day when I just played to score and wasn't remotely interested in architecture.

Funnily enough Wayne asked me to call Skee Riegal the other day to ask him if he ever knew Flynn.

Skee said: "Ahhh, when I played tournament golf I was just trying to score and I couldn't have cared less about architecture or who the architect was."

In all my years of playing tournaments around here, and before I became interested in architecture there was only a single GAP course I remember that I never knew anything about that got my attention architecturally.

I went up to qualify for the state amateur at Lehigh one time and about two days later it hit me and I said to myself:

"Holy Shit, what was that?!"

[Mike_Trenham]

Here is an old thread.


http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=31382.0