...under Courses by Country and Architecture Timeline.
Architecture fans don’t have much reason to watch golf on television. If on the very rare occasion that the professionals go to a great course like this week at the Plantation Course, they complain. Their comments this year that the course is too easy are particularly infuriating
as, over the years, they
1) Have made the Club slow down the areas in front of such greens as the eighteenth,
2) Had C&C ‘clean-up’ the bunkers, thus making the hazards less hazardous,
3) Continue to treat the 'jungle' left and right of holes as lateral hazards as opposed to treating balls that go in there what they are: lost, with stroke and distance in effect.
Why even watch professional golf in general - perhaps to learn etiquette from Roy Sabbatini?
One of the few bright spots in television viewing this past year was when the Dutch Open was carried by The Golf Channel and folks State-side got to see/appreciate Kennemer.
One point that sets apart Kennemer is the impact World War II had on the grounds. In the United Kingdom, the Second World War’s effect on golf was mainly a restorative affair - removing barbed wire and pillboxes, re-building greens. When the Germans blitzed through Holland, they decided to build a bulwark of bunkers (of the concrete variety) on the linksland owned by Kennemer. Once the ravages of war ended, the 120 (!) embankments here were grassed over and became part of the golf terrain. Truly, the course is a museum piece. Fortunately, the Club's archival treasure of Colt's notes and golf drawings allowed a restoration that continues today by Frank Pont. (On a side note, as found and presented by Tom MacWood, The National Golf Review ranked Kennemer ninety-fifth in the world in 1939 as seen here
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/opinionmacwood6.html . This poll was done around the time when Germany invaded Poland and several months before they got to Holland).
As Philip G. waged his own match play battle on the Colt eighteen, the infamous Rick Holland and I slipped off to see Pennink’s third nine. Though traditionalists sniff, we were rightly impressed by how the holes were laid over the inspired tumbling landscape. Indeed, they fit the ground so well, we were not surprised to learn that Colt had in fact routed these holes some fifty years prior to their actually being built. Many of the leading clubs in Europe (Royal Zoute, Saint-Germain, Morfontaine, etc.) have more than eighteen holes. The third nine at Morfontaine is particularly noteworthy but there is an expansiveness found on Kennemer’s third nine that most other additional nines simply don’t enjoy. The Dutch Open utilizes the Pennink holes as their front nine and then goes to a mix from the two Colt nines. The end result, as many of us saw on television during the Dutch Open, is one of the few compelling courses that the professionals play in world golf.
When you go, don’t despair approaching the Club as driving through the seaside town of Zandvoort does not inspire confidence that a classic golf course beckons. After all, this is the Low Country. When we stopped for gas, we thought we were well away from the Club as everything was FLAT. Instead, we were within one kilometer but our hopes quickly climbed once the traditional Dutch clubhouse came into view. All twenty-seven holes are a delight, and mercifully, the professional golfers haven’t ruined one of Europe’s hallmark courses.
For those who have played it or seen it on television, how do you think Kennemer holds up versus Colt’s best work in the United Kingdom? Some may feel that Tom Doak was a bit parsimonious with his 1985 grade but, then again, a lot of good work has occurred here in the past twenty-two years since Tom’s visit.
Cheers,