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Michael Moore

  • Karma: +0/-0
CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« on: October 19, 2007, 07:25:17 PM »
I just got back from a wonderful golf trip to western Massachussetts with a detour to Troy, New York, and I must say that I was overwhelmed by the generosity and warmth that I encountered while I was away. Let me publicly thank Mike Kucera, A. Montana, M. Cobb, the Cranwell Resort and Spa, Scott Wood, Tom Sullivan, Steve Curry, Bob Meheran, C.M.B. Nugent, S. Dakai, E. Armstrong, Dan Taylor and Jim Stickels for making this trip memorable.

Mark Chalfant and Sweeney insisted that I visit the Country Club of Troy, so, in the style of and with many thanks to Ran Morrissett, here you go.




Country Club of Troy
Troy, New York
Walter Travis, 1925
6622 yards, par 71




1st hole - 405 yards
Just like the opener at Travis's Cape Arundel Golf Club, the first green can only be seen after a very good drive onto the hillside fairway. The tiny green appears benign from a distance, but is crowned so as to repel a miss in any direction.

Nothin' wrong with a little framing. These trees are gorgeous.



6th hole - 358 yards
Afer a modest start, the course starts to heat up with this short hole that plunges straight downhill. These bunkers right and left, 220 and 250 yards away, encourage an aggressive tee shot.

Plenty of long views at Troy.



7th hole -559 yards
Standing on the tee of this very flat hole, you just know that the green is going be outrageous. A slight rise in the fairway 50 yards from the green makes many third shots blind.

Travis porn



8th hole - 193 yards
Further proof that Travis was masterful on flat ground, the ninth hole attacks with a fussilade of blindness, length, interiour contours, and bunkers.




9th hole - 425 yards
Sensational blind tee shot. The third crazy green in a row lies way down the other side of this hill.

Bruce Hepner and Renaissance Golf have done some work here recently, including this aiming bunker,
which the author appreciates as his crushed tee shot was lost on what appeared to be a good line.




13th hole - 387 yards
The total package - gorgeous NASCAR fairway that banks around two bunkers, and an intensely swaled green.






14th hole - 357 yards
A blind approach (the author faced eleven on his visit) to the wackiest green on a course full of them.



The twice-a-day hit-and-run enthusiast may sometimes need a cart for holes 28-36 BUT he is often treated to excellent low sun angles in the evening.



16th hole - 427 yards
Textbook, and how! This mound at 245 yards can either propel the ball into short iron range, or eat you alive.




18th hole - 405 yards
Straight up the hill, this hole has ten bunkers, including these four that are completely sunken and flush to the ground. A most interesting conclusion.


With a dense jungle on the right hand side of the eight holes on the perimeter of the property, Troy demands a controlled tee shot. With small greens that cannot be seen from the fairway, the course also rewards faith and patience. Throw in the excitement of putting on these greens, and you have a great test of golf - one with fine scenery and a deep feeling of isolation and quietude.

Metaphor is social and shares the table with the objects it intertwines and the attitudes it reconciles. Opinion, like the Michelin inspector, dines alone. - Adam Gopnik, The Table Comes First

Robert Thompson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2007, 07:40:02 PM »
This looks like an interesting Travis course. I've only seen a handful (Cherry Hill and Lookout in Ontario, Scranton in Penn), but from what I understand (largely what Ian Andrew has explained to me) there's no real standard features in Travis' work, though interesting greens seem to be commonplace.

Who works at Troy? How intact is the course?
Terrorizing Toronto Since 1997

Read me at Canadiangolfer.com

Mark Bourgeois

Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2007, 08:23:04 PM »
Michael,

Please tell us everything you can about 14 green and don't neglect to provide the POV on the two pics -- and many thanks.

Mark

Eric Pevoto

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2007, 08:52:33 PM »
That looks fantastic.  It's hard to tell from the picture, does the fourteenth green open up by playing left off the tee?  That diagonal swale reminds me of CC of Scranton.  
There's no home cooking these days.  It's all microwave.Bill Kittleman

Golf doesn't work for those that don't know what golf can be...Mike Nuzzo

Ian Andrew

Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2007, 10:21:35 PM »
Bruce Hepner's work is excellent at Troy - that style is the most common - but the variance found at other places is quite remarkable.

God how the man loved blind tee shots - there are 8 blind ones at Onondaga alone!

Steve Kline

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2007, 10:42:52 PM »
That course looks like a ton of fun to play. The green contours look really wild and fun - ones that you wouldn't grow tired of.

BVince

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2007, 10:49:51 PM »
I love that picture of the 16th hole.  Spectacular shot.  The course looks beautiful and I love the way the trees look with the changing leaves.  
If profanity had an influence on the flight of the ball, the game of golf would be played far better than it is. - Horace Hutchinson

Ray Richard

Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #7 on: October 20, 2007, 10:26:44 AM »
You have to love those Travis chocolate drops, particularly greenside. Very similar to Cape Arundel,Maine. Travis built some of the sharpest mounding I've seen.

mark chalfant

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2007, 01:51:39 PM »
Michael,
thanks for that  wonderful report. What did you think of #2 and #12, a couple of very good but different par threes ? Doesnt #  12 have a  'bathtub green' ?  

Mike Sweeney

Re:CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #9 on: October 20, 2007, 07:47:24 PM »
When you make that turn into CC of Troy and its very long driveway, you leave a classic Upstate NY middle class neighborhood and end up in this GCA oasis of open space.

Mr Moore,

It appears that they cleared the course for you. I had no idea the pull that you have.

Michael Moore

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2010, 10:36:48 PM »
Many years later, I respond to your excellent questions . . . as I sit in the basement and review these photos on a winter evening, I have to say that this is one hell of a golf course.

Mark B./Eric -

Athough its background looks like a nice tumbling fairway, the first picture of the fourteenth green was taken from the left hand side of the green. The second is from the front right. You can now see that there is a HUGE thumbprint in the green, front and center. I have never seen anything like it.

Mark C.

I thought the second was OK, benched into the hillside. It was one of the few greens on the course that relied on slopes rather than contours. I remember twelve as a sturdy 220 yard downhiller with wonderful undulations on the green. I birdied the shit out of this hole with my 2-iron and cannot therefore bear witness in a credible fashion.

Metaphor is social and shares the table with the objects it intertwines and the attitudes it reconciles. Opinion, like the Michelin inspector, dines alone. - Adam Gopnik, The Table Comes First

Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2010, 11:05:07 PM »
One could cross from Fonthill, ONT (Lookout Point) to Ridgeway, ONT (Cherry Hill) to Orchard Park, NY(OPCC) to Batavia, NY (Stafford CC) to Syracuse, NY (Onondaga CC) to Rome, NY (Yahnundasis CC) to Troy (CC Troy) and play seven fine Travis courses.  The man clearly anticipated the I-90 across NYS.  For more:  http://www.buff-golf.com/travis.htm
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Mike Cirba

Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2010, 11:34:28 AM »
Ronald/Michael,

I'm really, really hoping to see CC of Troy, and Yahundasis this year.   Onondaga would be gravy.

The more Travis I see the more I want to see.

Dan Boerger

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2010, 05:01:13 PM »
Mike - Just don't go to Rome to see the Yahnundasis ... it's technically in New Hartford but think Utica. ;) Really a neat course.

(But do go to Rome to see Teugega.)
"Man should practice moderation in all things, including moderation."  Mark Twain

Ian Andrew

Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2010, 05:20:39 PM »
I'm really, really hoping to see CC of Troy and Yahundasis this year. Onondaga would be gravy.

They are all worth seeing. Each has an interesting aspect that is unique to the course. The punchbowl greens at Yahundasis are quite facinating and the "nutmeg grinders" at Onondaga are the only ones I've ever seen outside of Garden City.

Mike Cirba

Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #15 on: January 19, 2010, 07:53:41 PM »
Mike - Just don't go to Rome to see the Yahnundasis ... it's technically in New Hartford but think Utica. ;) Really a neat course.

(But do go to Rome to see Teugega.)

Dan,

Yes, I have played Teugega and it's a real treat.   They could lose some trees, but overall it's a joy.

Ian,

"Nutmeg Grinders"?   Makes me wince a bit, and slightly cross my legs in reflex!  ;)   ;D

What are they, pray tell?

Ian Andrew

Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #16 on: January 19, 2010, 08:06:51 PM »
These are Nutmeg Grinders


Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #17 on: January 19, 2010, 08:15:26 PM »
Good catch on the Rome mistake...must have been thinking Teugega fo' shizzle.  Absolutely Utica/New Hartford.
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Mike Cirba

Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #18 on: January 19, 2010, 08:17:51 PM »
Ian,

I'll try to stay out of those, for obvious and imagined reasons.   ;)

Bill Hyde

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: CC Troy - Walter Travis - PHOTOS and review
« Reply #19 on: January 20, 2010, 11:12:16 AM »
I believe I threw some clubs on this Travis masterpiece during the NYS Boys' Championship back in the early 80s as I missed match play by a wide margin, no doubt. Now, I finally must admit appreciation for this course...thanks for the photos and for bringing back memories, fond or otherwise!

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