I have had many great days on great courses, but certainly none better than my recent visit to The National. I had high hopes and they were easily matched. I found the whole experience very powerful. The clubhouse is magnificent, capturing perfectly the club's huge place within the history of American golf and the huge personality behind it.
And the course was sublime - I felt a sense of excitement at being out on such a perfect links, and that sense did not really diminish over the next eight hours or so. The three strongest senses i had in playing the course were, firstly, of the sheer openness and width - you really felt you could open your shoulders. Second, it was spectacularly visual - all the angles seemed to work, everying seemed so natural, albeit the course is in parts very sculpted. Finally, the wonderful variety and challenge of the golf - you stood on every tee, approached every green with a sense of pleasure and wonder.
Anyway, enough of the guff. I will not claim to have even started to appreciate the strategic challenge of the course - I will leave that to others and mostly stick to the pictures which i will split into three groups.
A view of the first from the left rough. Only 330 yards from back markers, with the challenge mostly lying in hitting and not taking too many putts on the very tricky green.
This shot gives you a sense of the approach
A view from back of the first green
A view of the second green - this bunker is about 70 yards out. The drive is totally blind and this is definitely a hole which needs a few goes to get the feel of where to go, how far to hit it
Second green with panorama of the course behind, including the 15th green, and the redan 4th green
The tee shot on the the famous Alps hole - the third. Driving line is the central smiley bunker on far side of the fairway. From this angle you can just see at the top of the hill the start of the green complex, but when you are down below on the fairway it is as blind as it gets.
This is the amazing green complex you see when you crest the brow on the 3rd - definitely one of the features of the course.
Another view of the 3rd green - which is vast!
This time a view of the right side of the 3rd
The redan hole in the middle ground, viewed from back of second green (with Shinnecock clubhouse looming in the background)
The redan hole as you see it from the tee
Another view of the redan - from the landing area where you can feed the ball in.
Another semi blind tee shot - the 5th (Hog's Back)
The 5th green - no push over after you have come 480 yards!
A good view of the wonderfully contoured sixth green - Short.
The tee shot on six - only 140 yards from the back, downhill...
A side view of the same green