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[Ran Morrissett]

Wherever he goes (last year we profiled his work at The Country Club of Fairfield and Canterbury), Bruce Hepner does as good a job as anyone at teasing the best features back into play on Golden Age designs. Here at Essex County is no exception and his work is augmented by the strong support of the club as well as Green Keeper Eric Richardson's excellent work over the past two years.

Just take a look at the photographs and perhaps you might even wonder along with me if this isn't the best presented Ross course in the game today. Put another way, because of its diversity and how it resists being stereotyped, Essex County is the first course I would take someone to showcase Ross's talent as a golf architect. Yes, Essex County is easily one of the courses that would be in my version of Tom Doak's Gourmet's Choice (which is only appropriate given that Tom did such a great job rebuilding the fourteenth green here), joining the likes of Swinley Forest, West Sussex, the short nine at Morfontaine, De Pan, The Jockey Club, Eastward Ho!, Brancaster, Woking, Somerset Hills and Yeamans. Similar with all these courses, it finds the perfect balance between fun and challenge. That's not meant to sound like a cliché but I'm no wordsmith and that's the highest compliment I know to give.

On a side note, I wish the people down the way at Myopia Hunt would appreciate what the return of width has meant to Essex County - and how their own course would greatly benefit from similar measures.

I intend to be at The Curtis Cup next June. Here is its link www.2010curtiscup.com and maybe a bunch of us can meet there - it will be a fantastic opportunity to study the course and see how it still challenges the best.

Cheers,

[Paul Thomas]

I agree Ran:  Essex is quite special!

[Rich Goodale]

Nice pics, Ran

Makes me sad that I never got to play the course when visiting my cousins there in the 1950's.

Rich

PS--how did as rube such as Ross m anage to create such a gem during the 1908-1913 period without (apparently) getting advice from the "Godfather of American Golf" (CBM) ?

rfg

[Slag Bandoon]

  "Unlike all but a very few courses in the world, Essex County obtains the perfect balance between fun and challenge. As such, it stands as one of the ultimate benchmarks as to how any course should be judged."   R"C"M


   A timeless statement about a seemingly timeless golf course.  Kudos to Hepner and crew.





 (And Ran, you are a wordsmith, I don't care what Tom Paul says.)

[Ian Andrew]

Bruce Hepner does as good a job as anyone at teasing the best features back into play on Golden Age designs

I couldn't agree more.
I think the grassing lines at Essex are some of the best that I have seen and I know Bruce has been working at this patiently for years.

I took a group from Plymouth up to see Essex and used the examples to explain what they needed to do with tree removal, short grass and long grass.

Essex is my favourite Ross course that I have played to date.

[John Mayhugh]

Wow.  The variety of holes is really cool. Ross could definitely route a course.

That first photo of the tenth and eleventh greens is about as good as it gets.