Old Mac Stellar Review

[Jonathan Cummings]

All - here is a note I recently got from a good friend who is a friend of Keiser, a Chicago GC member and has written for Chicago newspapers/magazines about CB Mac.  As he says - Pretty high praise!  JC

Cabin,
 
Played the brand-new, not-yet-open-to-the-public Old Macdonald last Wednesday...twice....all 18.
 
I have found the quickest way to insure unmet expectations is to raise them to unrealistic heights.  Suffice it to say that in our retail golfer "12-some" composed of half Bandonistas and half Newbies with handicaps ranging from mid-single digit to mid-infinity...the concensus was that Old Macdonald is as good or better than Pacific Dunes.  Pretty high praise !
 
This is quite an accomplishment by the design team of Doak, Urbina & Keiser given that this was considered perhaps the least desirable land to work with.  They answered the question "What would Charles Blair Macdonald have designed ?" with a masterful tribute to the man mostly responsible for advancing golf course design and construction from intuitive roots in Scotland to the convergence of hunch, art and science in the early 1900's.
 
While 15 of the 18 holes feature familiar names (at least to GCA and golf history buffs) like Eden, Alps, Redan and Short....don't mistake this for one of those tacky "replica" courses.  As Macdonald studied and borrowed "best practices" from early, classic Scottish links (after all, they invented the game)....DU&K have creatively re-borrowed those early design principles to create yet another classic links that even the curmudgeon Macdonald would be proud to call his own.
 
How do you make the best public access golf resort in the world even better ?  Well, put it on your 2010 Bucket List (OM opens in June) and find out for yourself.  You might want to think about making a reservation soon !

[Richard Choi]

I really don't think you can raise the expectations for this course any higher than what it already is around here. But still nice to read such a positive comment.

I am literally counting my days. Just yesterday, I told my partner-in-crime "Do you realize we are only 6 exact months away from Old Mac opening?!!!"

[Tom_Doak]

Richard:

(Sit down, just to be safe.)

From now until June 1 is only FIVE months.


Everyone else:

The amazing thing about all this hype is that I am not doing anything to promote it, other than answering people's questions.  I am not surprised that Jonathan's source, who, after all, has frequently written articles about C.B. Macdonald, would love the golf course.  I am surprised at how many other people are so excited about it.

[Kyle Henderson]

I am surprised at how many other people are so excited about it.

Obviously there are dozens of reasons why people are excited by this project, namely the other 3 courses at the resort. But, the fact is, there are basically no new golf courses being built in the states, much less anything with a chance to be this great.

Old Mac has our undivided attention.

[JC Jones]

Richard:

(Sit down, just to be safe.)

From now until June 1 is only FIVE months.

He went to UofM, Tom, what do you expect?

[Jonathan Cummings]

Can't wait til spring!  Tom - do you anticipate being at Bandon regularly in May/Jun?  What are the planned grand opening events?   JC 

[Tom_Doak]

Jon:

I am hopeful that we will be too busy with new work for me to attend all of the different events in the run-up to the opening.

I know of four such events:

The official Grand Opening, June 1.
A rumored Golf Club Atlas function in May.
A get-together of the various C.B. Macdonald clubs, also in May.
And a fundraiser for the Evans Scholars, in early May.

I will definitely be at the first and last events.  I was asked to attend the latter by Bill Shean, who introduced me to Mike Keiser 15 years ago ... so you could say I owe him a favor!

I don't know if I will be able to get to either of the other events.  It depends on what else we have going on, and family, too.  But making three public appearances in a month is generally outside my time budget.  We'll have to see how the year goes.

[Steve Salmen]

I played Pacific Dunes two weeks ago.  From the 14th tee, you can see a lot of Old Macdonald.  The golf course looks spectacular.

[Richard Choi]

Richard:

(Sit down, just to be safe.)

From now until June 1 is only FIVE months.

Oh. My. Go

[paul cowley]

I knew it would be good Tom...where else was the challenge?...and by doing it on dirt that was the least of the best....doesn't surprise me either!

Can't wait to figure out how to find the money to play it!

[Adam Clayman]

I'm curious who knows what gave Mr. Keiser the impetus for the idea to do a C.B.M course?

[John Kirk]

The consensus positive response suggests there may be a growing acceptance of undulating putting surfaces.  Old Macdonald's greens are really wild.  The course looks ideal for low trajectory play in general.

Speaking of sloped greens, I gave an impassioned "most good golfers are pussies" speech on the 5th green at Stone Eagle this morning.

[Garland Bayley]

Anyone notice they raised the Nov and Feb green fees at the resort? 

[JC Jones]

The consensus positive response suggests there may be a growing acceptance of undulating putting surfaces.  Old Macdonald's greens are really wild.  The course looks ideal for low trajectory play in general.

Speaking of sloped greens, I gave an impassioned "most good golfers are pussies" speech on the 5th green at Stone Eagle this morning.

I would have liked to have seen that.  What spawned it?  Diet coke deprivation?

[Tom_Doak]

I'm curious who knows what gave Mr. Keiser the impetus for the idea to do a C.B.M course?

Adam:

I've had four different people tell me it was their idea, including George Bahto [whose idea was actually a replica of Lido] and Gib Papazian.  Mr. Keiser says he can't remember who all suggested it, but says that several sources got him interested enough to ask me what I thought of the idea.

[Jud_T]

I think one thing that has people away from this site excited is that in addition to potentially being a great course in it's own right, the addition of OM settles any debate about what is the single best golf resort in the states, if not the world....

[George_Bahto]

I'm curious who knows what gave Mr. Keiser the impetus for the idea to do a C.B.M course?

Adam:

I've had four different people tell me it was their idea, including George Bahto [whose idea was actually a replica of Lido] and Gib Papazian.  Mr. Keiser says he can't remember who all suggested it, but says that several sources got him interested enough to ask me what I thought of the idea.

Adam and Tom:

Here is what happened (to the best of my knowledge):

1.  I know Gib sent Mike a copy of The Evangelist of Golf and suggested (to Mike) the idea of reconstruction the Lido course.

2.  In the middle of 2003 Mike called me and asked me what I thought about that idea. I told him I thought it was a great idea but would it fit properly on the 350+ acres and those huge dunes.

3.  In 2003 Mike had me out to the property for about 5 days to check the feasability of “reproducing the Lido EXACTLY”

4.  I had great fun with the 5-speed Deere machine running up and down the dunes and all over the property with the help of his staff. I made 5 different routings but in the end, even though they were in the proper order and capturing the strategies exactly, many of the holes had to be twisted and turned to make it fit.

5.  “Exactly” being Mr. Keiser’s key word.  So, no not exactly.  I have a treasure trove of Lido information that I have not disclosed (hoping at the time for a project such as this or for a Lido book)......   construction pictures and a number of oblique aerials included.

6.  The project went into a “wait and see” mode and I figured it was totally dead - it was!

7.  A couple years later Tom called me and said “Mike want to do Macdonald” and wanted me involved. ......  After I got up off the floor ................... hah

and now you know the rest of the story............ !!   Thanks to the left course Armenian for getting it all started

so then the meetings at Sebonack and off to the Bandon property - you know the rest and hopefully Tom and Jim captured it all.

It was a thrill to be involved and a few of my thoughts were helpful.

[Tom_Doak]

George:

The only missing part of that story is that during your step 6, Mike sent me three of your routings, and asked if I thought you could recreate Lido on the site.  I said I did not think it was worth trying unless you could do it pretty exactly, and that because the shape of the property wasn't the same (and because the ocean was on the wrong side), it wasn't going to be an exact copy.

On all the plans I saw, you were kind of cut-and-pasting the Lido holes onto the site [in different alignments], and I remarked to Mike that was not that much different than what Macdonald always did ... he had a bunch of holes in his mind that he wanted to build, and he looked for the best place on each site to build them.  Mike asked if that was a reasonable approach to designing a course on the site, and I told him I thought it could be.  And that's how we wound up with the job.

[George_Bahto]

Tom, thanks for filling in that blank.

The idea of reversing the course because of Atlantic vs Pacific did not bother me much because one of the keys to that project was to have the Lido Ocean hole, #8, (Biarritz) along the stretch of oceanfront. I think we only had a bit over 700-yards along the Pacific - some of that stretch was not useable but the setting of the Biarritz along the cliff-line, running north to south was spectacular.

I could only get a little over 200-yards (downwind) and the Biarritz green would be back to back with Pac Dunes 13th. ....... really back to back!!

It was Sunday, we were leaving, Mike had been busy with budgets etc but we had an hour or so to go up to where the hole would have been and he liked it a lot.

In the end I like what we did with Old Macdonald a lot more than another replication course - of course Lido done properly - perhaps someplace else  - would have been quite spectacular.

[Tom_Doak]

George:

I hope you get a chance to build the replica of Lido someday.  I'd love to play it.

[George Freeman]

Tom and George,

Thanks for the sharing such fascinating insight on the creation of Old Mac.  You just can't get this stuff on Golf.com!

George:  What are your plans for the rest of the "undisclosed" material on Lido?  Is a book still a possibility?  Hopefully it will get out in some fashion.

Tom:  Did you find if more or less difficult to route the course as you stepped into the shoes of C.B. and attempted to find holes with specific templates in mind?  Can you talk to that process as compared to your normal strategy?

Thanks in advance,

George

[ChipRoyce]

Agree George - this is why I hang out on this site.

Not to listen to hardcore opinionated banter... I much more enjoy the backstories in the world of golf. (Off the beaten track, how modern clubs come into being and the seldom-heard history of the classics).

I wonder how interesting this place would be if Tom, Jeff B. and other Archies didn't hang out here (and those like Ben C and others who lurk more than they let on)?

[Bill_McBride]

The consensus positive response suggests there may be a growing acceptance of undulating putting surfaces.  Old Macdonald's greens are really wild.  The course looks ideal for low trajectory play in general.

Speaking of sloped greens, I gave an impassioned "most good golfers are pussies" speech on the 5th green at Stone Eagle this morning.

You Oregon guys have it really good!

[George_Bahto]

George Freeman:

I’m not sure what I want to do with the Lido information. Certainly a book on Lido - actually it would be easier than trying to figure out the 90-100 course Raynor and Banks built. (Imagine, just one course). It would be a breeze but I mainly want to get the full Seth Raynor story out there - itz too important.

I have a lot more on NGLA that would go well too. They let me access just about everything in the Library. Publisher wanted a separrate book on NGLA


Tom:

I don’t think I’d want to do the Lido course.

There is, though, another Raynor course that never got built that had (perhaps) even better holes that the Lido.

I love course restorations (or variations thereof).

It seems I’ve been restoring things most of my life. I’ve restored a number of cars (Thunderbirds), a baby grand piano (1902 Baldwin), an 1880 Pool table that was a shambles - now down in my office (a beautiful thing), an 1880's Victorian house into office rentals, so restoring a course kind of fits the mold.

Working with you and your disciples on Old Mac was a blast.

I would, however, like to design/build a course not along the CB Macdonald line of thinking just to show I can do something different as well.

[Jud_T]

George-

I'll pre-order a copy of the Raynor book!