Tom:
The course, at least from my limited knowledge, appears to be holding true to several of Alison's key design concepts. Quoting from your GCA "Gliding past Fuji" article:
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"All these influences contributed to the Alison style, a style that did feature very deep bunkers. Not only were his bunkers deep - both greenside and fairway - they were also very large in scale. Alison’s greenside bunkers were frequently as large as the greens they guarded. He often elevated the green well above the approaching fairway or tee, bunkers were then cut well below the elevation, in effect increasing their depth. Fairway bunkers were placed against or below mounding, also increasing their effective depth. And he was not opposed to an occasional forced carry -- usually with bunkers set at a diagonal, allowing for choice and rewarding the bold play.
"Greenside mounds would often encroach upon the putting surfaces. This was Alison’s preferred method of creating undulations in his greens, extending and merging either natural undulations or mounds on to the green surfaces. And like many designers his greens were oriented to one side or the other through the placement of greenside hazards or pronounced contours, rewarding those who chose the best angle of attack (occasionally the center was the preferred approach). Another common device was the tilting of his greens sideways -- an approach from the wrong angle or one poorly struck would fall away.
Alison wrote very detailed descriptions of how his design features should appear. His mounding was to have a ‘broken horizon’, and his bunkers were to have the sand ‘splashed’ up to point where it met a band native soil and the grass of the mound. He referred to this meeting of sand and grass as 'rivetting' - although he did not use the term in its classic sense - and it was to have an uneven outline. (Many of his bunkers in the US now have grass facing, with little or no flashing and are very regular in outline)...
"He was among the first architects to embrace the use of water in his designs--perhaps the influence of Pine Valley. This is somewhat of a paradox, throughout his career Alison wrote that water was a bad feature, or at least the excessive use of water was bad. “Water is a bad feature in that the ball cannot be played from it, and in consequence it does not test the golfer’s skill. Its hideous charm lies in the fact that it is inexorable, and its landscape effect is often very valuable.” In regards to Japan he observed, “The Japanese love of ponds and lakes, and their exquisite skill in making them, is known throughout the world. Their love of water-hazards, were it not for their self-control, might develop dangerously.”
"Kirtland, Sea Island, Colony, Timber Point, Milwaukee, Tokyo, Hirono and number of other courses utilized rivers, streams, ponds and marshlands as integral design features -- almost always oriented at an angle allowing for choice."
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I think you can see many of these features incorporated into Milwaukee CC. Certainly the most distinctive are the flashed-up, high-lipped greenside bunkers (as well as many fairway bunkers). The bunkers are truly on a grand scale -- large, wide, and in many cases, quite deep, where a player in the lowest point of the bunker often cannot see much if any of the playing surface. Fairway bunkers, for the most part, appeared fairly penal -- with some, a shot at the green is possible, but with others it's simply a matter of advancing the shot forward because of the high lips of the bunkers.
Alison made use of the curving Milwaukee River (essentially two backward S's form the eastern edge of the course), in a way similar to what he did at Kirtland. At Milwaukee, he didn't necessarily incorporate the river in a strategic way (although the golfer hits over it a few times on tee shots). Rather, in a way strikingly similar to Kirtland, he utilized the river valley as a routing tool to get the player from the course's highest ground (near the clubhouse) into the valley holes. The holes that run alongside or near the river (holes 11-15) feature the flattest terrain on the course, and consequently feature some of the boldest bunkering on the course.
Other notable architectural features are: the use of a ridge line on holes 4 (a long par 3) and 18 (a fine finishing hole) to either site a green (4) or provide a target for the golfer to go over and be rewarded with an easier approach shot (18); the use of dramatic false fronts on greens (notably 9 and 11, the two shortest par 4s on the course); and a deep ravine incoporated into the 8th and 9th holes (although much more of a factor on 8 than 9). Greens for the most part do not feature significant internal swales; more often they are tilted, either from back to front, or to one side toward a bunker. The long, tough uphill par 3 17th, e.g., is made all the more difficult by a green tilted toward a deep greenside bunker.
Two holes have been significantly rebuilt, with new greens -- the shortish par 5 3rd, and the difficult par 4 14th. Certainly the greenside bunkering on both reflects the trademark Alison bunkering approach; they holes look pretty seamless in how the fit in with the rest of the course (14 perhaps a bit more than 3).
No. 10, a short par 5 for members and a long par 4 for the Mid-Am, has not been completey rebuilt, but significantly altered. A fairway bunker left was replaced with a series of bunkers right, while a greenside bunker left has been eliminated. A long row of trees lining the right side of the fairway has been completely cut down. Members I spoke to at the Mid-Am thought the hole had been significantly improved.
The course, although still heavily treed, has undertaken a significant tree removal program, opening up views to the river on holes 10, 11, 14, and allowing for a new back tee on the long par 5 15th. The recent Mid-Am featured several days with a fresh Wisconsin fall breeze, and I can't help but think the tree-cutting made the wind more of a factor. Still, there are some places where I think the course could take down even more trees (notably a stretch of back-and-forth holes on the front nine -- holes 5, 6, and 7).
I hope to post some pictures of the course within a week or so.