Patrick,
This came up recently, and I've taken this response from an earlier post and reworked it a bit:
Original UnderstandingAs George notes in his book, Macdonald's understanding of the hole was quite specific. Macdonald's and Whigham's 1914 Golf Illustrated article on on the Cape (in their all too brief
Representative American Golf Holes series) leaves no doubt about what they considered a Cape Hole:
"The fourteenth hole at the National Golf Links is called the Cape Hole, because the green extends out into the sea with which it is surrounded upon three sides." Here is a stitched photo of the plasticine model of the original hole, from the article mentioned above:
H.J. Whigham offered a very good of the fundamental strategic principles underlying the hole in his 1909 Scribner's article:
"The same principle is applied at the 5th hole, which will be perhaps the most celebrated in the country. The actual distance from tee to flag is about 290 yards—one would have said the worst possible distance for a hole—but it works out beautifully. The hazard in this case is water. Here it is impossible quite to reach the green, but the fine driver if he likes to take a risk and go almost straight for the hole, may get within putting distance and so have a good chance for a three. But the least slice will carry his ball into Sebonac Creek; or if he fails to get 240 yards he will have a difficult little pitch shot onto the promontory. The man who can drive 200 yards may prefer to play fairly well to the left so as to be sure of opening the hole; but then he has a long approach onto the promontory. Finally, the short driver can get across the water by playing well to the left and carrying less than 100 yards; but he has a long second to play and may easily take a five. In fact, the hole is either a three or a four or a five, according to the way the tee shot is played."Whigham's diagram of the tee options from his 1909 Scribner's article:
The Modern Conception: A Dumbed Down Cape.
As Macdonald described in Scotland's Gift (and as George succinctly reports in his terrific book) the Cape hole lost its cape green not long after its creation. This left the hole with a diagonal carry off the tee where one could get closer to the green the more one cut off, and perhaps this accounted for the eventual change in understanding of the concept. Now almost any sort of hole with a diagonal carry off the tee is called a Cape Hole. The golfer has a choice of how much of the diagonal to cut off. The more he cuts off, the less he has left to the green.
In my opinion we've lost some things in translation and/or transition. While some of Macdonald's Capes had a diagonal carry over trouble (Mid-Ocean and NGLA most notably) there was more to the hole than just cutting of distance. The trick was understanding one's abilities and executing one's shot to not only get close, but also to get
the best angle into the green. So for example at NGLA's Cape the most daring carry might leave the shortest shot but the absolute worst angle to the green unless the golfer could carry all the way almost even with the green. Conversely a less daring but well placed shot might leave a slightly longer shot but a much better angle, while the safest carry might leave the longest shot and a difficult angle. If I recall correctly, George noted that some cape greens favored the angle more from the outside while some (Mid Ocean?) favored the angle from more inside.
So it wasn't just about cutting off as much as possible to get closer to the hole. It was about balancing the temptation of getting as close with the restraint of knowing one's game and choosing the best line and angle. And then of course the golfer had to execute, and not just on the drive. Now, like many of our supposed "strategic options" the concept of the cape has been dumbed down to simply cutting a corner to get a shorter shot in.
Other Applications of the Original Cape Concept.
Many prominent designers and course builders adopted Macdonald's and Whigham's definition of a cape, although they obviously often substituted bunkers or other trouble the water surrounding three sides. CBM, Raynor, and apparently Banks built many to fit this mold. In the mid-20's when increasing traffic on Ardmore Avenue necessitated the change, Wilson replaced the CBM style "Alps" 10th at Merion East with a CBM style "Cape" hole. Flynn described the cape similarly and noted that it was one of his three basic hole concepts for par fours (along with the elbow and dogleg,) and Tillinghast did so as well.
There are also many other fine early examples of the concept in the ground, including a short par four at Pine Valley that reportedly fits the mold (not sure if it was one of the few CBM suggestions that Crump reportedly followed there.) While I am not sure he identified it as such, Thomas built a heck of a cape hole at Riviera's 10th. When thinking about how Prairie Dunes must have played as a Nine Hole course, I was struck by how much the 3rd (now the 6th) must have felt like a cape in the original sense, although incredibly Maxwell created this sensation using mostly contours. The 12th at Rustic is very cape-like (in the original sense) but the back is guarded by nothing but ground slope away (and in ideal conditions nothing else is needed.) Other examples abound. It is really a terrific hole concept and works wonderfully on a short par 4, providing a fan of options where oftentimes the full consequences of the drive are not fully felt until the second.
Below are the description of Merion's "cape hole" and two photographs, all from the USGA Green Section Record (Nov. 1925.) [One interesting aside is the measure of the hole: 330 yards. From the tee in the photos, the hole was at least 50 yards shorter.]
Sorry for the lengthy reply.