A Joe Bausch album of Hidden Creek, NJ - 12/18/08

[Mike Sweeney]

Once again a beautiful album by Joe Bausch of Hidden Creek yesterday. As I sit in Connecticut with 6-8 inches of snow on the ground and more coming, this seems like a month ago:



Slide show:

http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/Hidden_Creek/pages/page_1.html

[Joe Bausch]

Mike beat me to the 'new topic' button so I'll add the comments I was making on a new thread and put them here!

I think Hidden Creek has been covered here many times, including a neat profile by Ran.  But for the newbies to the board and others interested in seeing HC in December, I'll present a selection of photos from the gathering organized by Mike Sweeney on Thursday.  At 10 AM I teed off with Kyle Harris, Mayday Malone, and a buddy of Mayday's from Rolling Green.  The second foursome included the host, Kirk Bernetich, Steve Shaffer, and Mark Bourgeois (I think they are still on the course.    )

I was lulled into a false sense of security at HC by the very wide fairways, only to find my tee shots I thought were good had very tough angles for the next.  And the green and their surrounds were where I probably had the most fun.  I liked the variety of size and what seemed to be a few of them that were very long and narrow, sloping from front to back. 

All 120+ photos are available in a photo album here:

http://darwin.chem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/Hidden_Creek/index.html

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[Dan Herrmann]

Joe - thanks for sharing those pictures.  Glad you liked the angles.  I think C&C did a great job out there.

[Chip Gaskins]

this looks like my dream course.  north carolina sand hills, meets london sand belt, meets sandy new jesery land with touch and thought of C&C.  seriously, if i were Buffett type rich and bought some land and built a course and it turned out like this i would be beside my self with happiness.  how can this not be top 100 in the U.S.?

is the topo pretty flat?

[David Stamm]

Thanks Joe! Magnificent!

[Ed Oden]

Joe, as always, your photographs are fantastic.  I have always loved the look of this course.   It has a rough elegance to it that just fits my eye.  I look forward to seeing for myself one day.

Ed

[Jed Peters]

That looks like a course I could play every day and never tire of it.

I echo the rest of Chip's sentiments.

[Mike Sweeney]

how can this not be top 100 in the U.S.?

is the topo pretty flat?

Chip,

HC has been covered for sure. It is on the Golfweek modern list. It was on the Golf Magazine list and dropped off.

Mayday will be happy to tell you about the terrain.  Land rolls for sure, but it is South Jersey so there is no wild terrain around, and you just don't have the drama of Friars Head #14 and 15. Probably the only "All-World" hole on the course is #11 a short uphill par 3.

Very consistent course, back 9 is very tough to score on according to Jim Sullivan, aka our representative "good player". Probably the worst C&C course that I have played.  I will be shocked if The Dormie Club is not as least as good. However I am testing that theory next week with the former GCA poster Pete Buczkowski at C&C's Sugarloaf in Florida.

As I have said here before, if you only have one day in Atlantic City, you play Galloway as it is one of the best Fazio's out there. If you want to join a course in the area, you join Hidden Creek. Atlantic City CC is in that mix too, but falls a little short.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Mike

Your comment about it being a course where you'll never score your worst, but neither will you score your best: great food for thought, and I think that describes personal favorites #2 and Royal Melbourne to a tee.

And I sure liked HC more than Warren, maybe more than Rockport as well, so there! The best architectural lesson out there IMHO is green design, specifically size and internal contour.  There is no law that says every putt or even most putts from certain areas must be holeable under the laws of Newtonian physics. Mo better fun.

Also, this is a GREAT bunker and we all should spare a prayer for the less fortunate who lack the ability to appreciate genuine strategy:


Bunkers on the outsides of doglegs -- it's a Ganton Thing!

Mark

PS Joe thanks for the detailed photos.

[Dan Herrmann]

One thing you can't see from the pictures is the off-fairway fescue.  It's sparse, beautiful, and plays like a dream.  From my understanding, it's all planted too.

[Joe Bausch]

I like the contrast of these two photos of the 'long Redan' 4th.  This is Ran's below, where the pin must have been middle-ish or maybe even up front, as you can see most of the pin:



This is my photo from Thursday where the pin was back left.  I think it really shows the high right to lower left tilt of the green since the top of the flag is barely visible.

[Nicholas Coppolo]

I am embarrassed to admit I had never heard of this club....and I live in NYC.

Just georgeous, great look, great bunkering.

[mike_malone]

 The light on that day really made the course emerge from its usual subtlety.