The spotlight has been on Macdonald this week, thanks to David Moriarty's In My Opinion piece. So it continues with this update of the Mid Ocean profile.
Some folks are surprised to learn that this 1921 island work of Macdonald's leaves the cliff line at the fourth and doesn't return until the seventeenth. In that stretch, though, the holes play across remarkable terrain. Ala Cypress Point, the most photographed holes tend to be along the ocean while some of the best are inland with the great Cape hole being in a class all by itself. As usual for a Macdonald course, sound strategy is found throughout with every hole having genuine interest knocked into it.
The only thing missing relative to his very best works and that of his protégé Seth Raynor may be fairway width and the accompanying playing angles. Recent tree clearing by both man and hurricane have opened up long views and increased the playing options. Holes like the second, eighth and seventeenth are all better/more interesting than just five years ago. Yet, to see a twisting fairway like the tenth narrow down to thirty yards is a puzzler. In fairness to the Club, an old black and white photo of the eleventh fairway shows it to be a relatively narrow chute back in Macdonald's day. In Scotland's Gift, Macdonald praises fairways in the forty five to sixty yard range. I just don't know if Mid Ocean ever obtained that ideal?
Ironically, there may be too much Bermuda rough on this course. Ten plus yards of rough comes out from Mangrove Lake at the fifth and yet that is where the most level lies are found - why not maintain to within a few yards of the Lake as fairway? I don't know.
I also don't know how this course, especially with its new TifEagle greens, doesn't make it onto GOLF Magazine's world top 100 list. Its combination of world class holes and no weak holes plus the ever present wind make it a very powerful mix, one that certainly kept the pros at bay at the 2007 PGA Grand Slam.
Fancy new island courses open every year yet have you played one that comes close to this one? If so, where? Don't the modern courses tend to sacrifice good golf for great views? Of course, just classing it relative to island courses is too narrow. Well traveled people like Ben Wright consider it their favorite course period, small wonder when you see some of the thirty plus photos in its revised profile.
Cheers,