Good day Gentlemen;
I was out of the office yesterday using the day to set the modern consecutive three-putt record at the Westchester Country Club’s South Course in their annual Hoffine Memorial Tournament. Those devilish Walter Travis greens had me flummoxed!
To clear up something Mike DeVries wrote in his post: in spite of several attempts to dismiss me, I am STILL the exalted Chairman of the Green at Sunningdale, a position that sometimes requires the wearing of body armor when on the premises. To illustrate: In the past two seasons, we’ve have had stretches of weather that have been unbelievably hot and humid here in the Met area. Last year, these conditions caused several clubs (some household names included) to lose greens and now we’re starting to hear the same thing this season. Thus far, Sunningdale has been extremely fortunate to have avoided these problems. Mike DeVries, who mentioned that he’s enjoyed working with our Superintendent, Sean Cain, correctly described him as “being very good.” In this case, Mike is a master of understatement! Nevertheless, when we announced that we were going to aerate our greens August 15th, and not in the fall when it’s more convenient to some members, the long knives came out. From an agronomic point of view, it’s not even a close call, now is the right time to aerate, and Sean as our acknowledged expert has 95 per cent of our membership on board. Still we have a few loud, selfish knuckleheads that would rather risk the health of our greens than be inconvenienced. Sound familiar?
But back to the architecture. The 1926 aerial says a lot about what transpired at Sunningdale. The original Seth Raynor designed course was opened for play in July 1918, but changes were a coming, and by 1926, we can literally see the presence of several design styles. In our less than organized archives, we found a note that went out to the membership dated November, 1920. In it we’re told of the addition of several new greens, some additional tees and bunkers all done “according to the plans of Mr. Travis.” At the time, the golfing experts at Sunningdale found the course deficient in that there were “too many blind shots.” I’m also inclined to agree with Mike who theorizes that Raynor’s course was probably too difficult. Among their remedies, they decided to lift the “Alps” green (number 6) out of the hollow (where the second shot was blind) and move it into view. This, however, shortened the hole some 80 yards and was done post-Travis, around the time when Robert White was being retained “to make any changes that the Green Committee deems necessary.” This last quote goes to the heart of what we see today at Sunningdale: right from the get go, we’ve had a series of decision makers who, like a woman addicted to cosmetic surgery, couldn’t help themselves in trying to “improve” their golf course.
Again, I agree with Mike, in that we have most of Raynor’s intimate original routing on a property with land that moves really well. But like an old hardwood floor that has been sanded too many times, our golf course has had most of the Raynor, Travis and Tillinghast rubbed out by committee. Therefore, there’s no sense in even talking about a restoration, sympathetic renovation, etc. So like the recent thread regarding George and Gil’s soon to be work at Sleepy Hollow, the main charge to our architect is to make our course look like a classic era course again. I imagine Mike’s work will involve blowing up some green complexes and then starting over and in other cases expanding/reclaiming lost putting surfaces. In a few cases Mike will be tasked with adding contour to some of the greens where it has mysteriously disappeared.
The real charge to our architect: make Sunningdale a course you’d want to play every day. I'm psyched to have Mike DeVries's involvement and can’t wait to turn him loose!