Creek #13 Cape

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

This is an absolutely great hole.  As a template, it has some serious competition as far as being the greatest Cape.  


This is a view of what a ball finds if missing the green on the left.  This is another reason why the view from the 11th tee is aboslutley sublime.

[Patrick_Mucci]

RMD,

Thanks for the great photos.

The Creek is one of my favorite golf courses.

I think the reeds have compromised the hole, visually and tactically.  Normally, I might not object to the visual blocking by the reeds, however, with water right next to the left side, rear and right of the green, the view of the green from balls driven in the fairway can be obscured, hence, I'd get rid of them.

As recently as 1998 that area was mostly sand, however the reeds were beging to encroach, especially near the banks of the waterways.  Likewise, the area to the right of # 14 was mostly sand.  So, it's within the last 10 or more years that the reeds were allowed to grow without restraint.
Perhaps environmental restrictions prevented their eradication.

Let's ask TEPaul when he returns from visiting my relatives

George Holland was kind enough to give me an old aerial photo that shows that area as sand.  And better yet, every thing left of the fairway, almost to the green is sand.

It also looks like the entire 10th green is surrounded by sand.

The 17th is completely surrounded in sand as well.

The more trees that come down, the more the wind will come into play.

The Creek is a wonderful golf course and the facilities at The Creek are all-world.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

The reeds might be used to keep the geese away.  Unlike most of the neighboring courses, Creek did not have any geese.
Bill Jones would know for certain.  By the way, his conditioning for the '98 Met Open is still the best I've seen in all the Met Open's I've played.

[George_Bahto]

For what it's worth:

Many features of Creek-13 often struck me as having a lot features of a Road hole (flopped over) .... the dog-leg drive - esp the slightly blind part of the drive, the "road-type" hazard left and rear of the green, and a simplified version of the frontal hazard used by Raynor and Banks when they used a larger hazard along the side of the green rather than a pot, right in front.

Creek was completed in the early 1920's - I have it listed 1922 thru 1923, although plans were in process long before that.

[George_Bahto]

[Patrick_Mucci]

George,

I think the configuration of the 13th and 14th holes, with the vast sand expanses is far superior to the reed choked waterways.

As to the geese, that's a poor excuse for allowing the reeds to become so invasive that they block the view of the green from the fairway.

And, I don't think, for one second, that that was the reason that they were allowed to grow, unrestrained.

Geese can be kept away with other methods that don't adversely affect the architecture and the play of the hole.

[George_Bahto]

Pat: with the reeds out of there you have a very deceptive  and confusing choice for your line of play - "how much to do I bite off"

I really like that hole a lot.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Pat: with the reeds out of there you have a very deceptive  and confusing choice for your line of play - "how much to do I bite off"

I really like that hole a lot.

George,

I also like the hole, but, when a golfer's driven in the fairway and has to play a fairly long blind approach to a small, narrow target surrounded on three sides by water on a windy site, I think that's excessive.  The area short of the green, which is fairway, is also quite narrow with water left and right.

I've seen more golfers hitting woods and long irons than I have wedges.