Would "Calamity" have been considered a "redan" when it was built? What say ye?

[paul cowley]

I can't seem to find the old clippings....but there is evidence that Calamity Jane was named for the famous hole at Portrush. Wild Bill noticed her habit of drunkenly falling off her horse on her right side...but if she favored the her left side she was OK.

It seems Wild Bill developed quite a golf habit while taking his Show on a European tour....but he did have a disconcerting habit of firing his revolver in the air when someone uttered "good shot"....he was known to say "you think so? then watch this"

[Doug Wright]

Mike,

I played Calamity in September and never thought "Redan." I did think "This is a helluva golf hole."





The right side is really steep and deep. This photo doesn't really do it justice.
The dune above the player's head in this photo is probably 40 feet high.
 The caddy said to the fellow pictured, "I'm not going down there--you're on your own.
Good luck..."

[mike_malone]

 Having played Calamity several times and Merion as well, I have always thought #14 at Rolling Green , which I have played endlessly is much more like Calamity. The massive falloff on the right, the slightly elevated approach, the fairway in front are all similar. The only major difference is the bunkering on the left of #14 RG doesn't allow for  the Bobby Locke play that is available at Calamity.

   BTW  I see the need for some "fortifications" to have a redan.

[archie_struthers]

 


having had the great plesure of "hanging around " Portrush "  with Ian Bamford, a champion golfer and fabulous host for over a week two years ago...I have vivid memories of the perils of "Calamity"  the name for this fabulous par three.....it doesn't weem to qualify as a Redan by strict definition ...as I understand it ....the hole angles more left to right and doesn't fall away dramatically front to back ...in fact it falls from the right side of the green to the left...

a really cool shot is the chip from left of the green  after hitting a "safety"   you have to have the cojones to chip it with some pace to play it correctly ...with  the abrupt fall to the right (chasm) looking at you !

Quite the hole and a fabulous place!

Just can't forget the walk from the 5th tee to the fairway ....right path...you think you are in  "Brigadoon"

you young chaps can GOOGLE same  !  LOL

[Rich Goodale]

Archie

As you may well know, Bobby Locke deliberately played towards that left hand swale in all four rounds of the 1951 Open and got up and down each time!

Rich

[Mark Pearce]

The green at Calamity does not slope front to back, nor does it have much slope from left to right either.

Tom,

Reading your review of Alwoodley in the Confidential Guide last night I saw that you described the 11th as a Redan but it slopes quite steeply towards the front (indeed, go beyond the flag and two putting is difficult). It is possible to run a ball up from front right but equally possible to hit a short or mid iron all the way and hold it, with the assistance of the slope.  I must admit I was surprised to see that hole described as a Redan.

[TEPaul]

I believe I have posted this funny story before in years past but since the subject of this thread is "Calamity" I think it's worth posting again.

I was at that course for a few days as my club was on a team competition tour of Northern Ireland. The dates we were at Portrush were about 9/8 and 9/9, 2001 (a couple of days to go before the shit really hit the fan in NYC).

Anyway our team hosts from Portrush seemed quite fond of telling what they called "The Gary Player Story" when we arrived on Calamity's tee (for those who've never been there it is an inspiring sight to look at that green across the gorge but way more inspiring to look from that high tee down into the valley of the Valley Course at Portrush below).

Well, apparently one time Gary was on that tee with some of those members and there was a bit of a wait and Gary took the time to carefully observe the rugged Valley course below at which point he proclaimed to all: "That mess down there is not something that a fleet of D-8s couldn't fix."

Way to go Gary---never let anyone try to tell you that you aren't really into rugged naturalism in golf course architecture! 

[archie_struthers]

 


Pretty telling TEP  .....and proven out by his body of work !

[TEPaul]

ARCHIE STRUTHERS!!!!

Is that right? I don't know a thing about Gary Player's body of architectural work. Is it as small and dynamic and controversial as he is?

I met him once and spent a day or so with him, maybe around 1973 but it had nothing whatsoever to do with golf. I went out with this Kentucky belle back then and it turned out her father, Bull Hancock, Master of the ultra famous Claiborne Farm, had Gary Player as a thoroughbred client. It turned out that Gary Player completely idolized Hancock in that particular business.

Of course back then when I met him I knew damn well who he was but I didn't let on. I think I asked him if he was a jockey or something. And of course he told me he was a world famous golfer. I said; "No shit, you look waaaay too small to me to be a good golfer----matter of fact you look sooo small I bet I could beat you."

And then lo and behold we all went over to Idlehour and played golf but there were a bunch of us and unfortunately I wasn't in his foursome so I never got the chance to beat the shit out of him.

[archie_struthers]

 


TEP  .....Claiborne Farm  ....pretty heady stuff .. Kentucky girls are fun !

.what a name for the owner of  a  business that reaps from the  procreation   of it's stalllions   

....BULL HANCOCK....

how fitting

ARCH

[TEPaul]

ARCHIE!!!!!

You're right Bull was a pretty fitting name for that guy but he was by no means the only one back then of his friends with fitting names like that. Most of those guys, certainly including Bull, were pretty much bigger than life.

Here's some of their names:

Lyons Brown, he owned Brown Foreman Distilleries
Stetts Coleman, I don't know what he did but he was big time
Warner Jones, he owned Hermitage Farm and was the President of Churchill Downs.

Those four guys (and maybe a couple of others of their friends) actually syndicated a young Olympic boxer out of Louisville, Ky by the name of Cassius Clay and took him pro.

All those guys were around Gulfstream G.C. in Delray in the winter. That's where I met the Kentucky belle.

About two days after I met her down there, her mother, Wadell Hancock (she's a whole other story!!), sent me and the Kentucky belle, Clay Hancock, down to the Delray liquor store to pick up a ton of booz because all those characters were fixin' to have a wingding at Bull's house.

On the way back to the house from the liquor store, Clay reaches around into one of those cases of liquor and hauls out a bottle of 101 proof Brown Foreman bourbon and unscrews the top and proceeds to take a couple of really healthy swigs right out of the bottle.

I said: "Clay, what the hell are you doing, it's only about ten in the morning?"

And she says to me: "Boy, I guess you don't know me very well yet, I'm pretty much Kentucky Country through and through."