I haven't made a post in some time - since after the whole Whsitling Straits mess with DJ's penalty - but seeing this thread on Apawamis prompts a contribution.
I am going to try and make a more detailed post on Joe Bausch's older, linked "1911 National Amateur diagram" thread but to satisfy the brief curiosities expressed here:
Apawamis is perhaps the most difficult course to quantify of any I've ever known well.
Most of the quirk and charm is front-loaded into the opening third of the course. But it so profound that you're probably shaken; to great delight or great anger by the time you play the blind approach into the 7th green, which is an amusing punchbowl-taco shell that pours out the back of the complex.
If you haven't gone to the poles of emotion and think to either demand membership on the spot or give up the game altogether, Apawamis settles into a traditionally stringent test associated with the nearby classic architecture in Westchester's rocky parkland. From 8-16, Apawamis doesn't really let up; sloppy play will not do. All the tasks are solvable but disaster awaits medal scores if mistakes are combined and/or repeated.
As the round draws to a close, a very satisfying visual and antique charm returns - specifically in the presentation of the par 4 15th and par 3 16th holes, which have a natural strategic beauty in their green sites. The last 150 yards of blind ski slope tumble into the par 5 17th green returns the charm to quirk, as does the short par 4 18th - which navigates a tightened corridor of dips and dales, to an elevated green in a pine clearing
Whenever I have seen a thread that rephrases the recurring question, "What are the aspects of a course called a 'a better Match-Play Course?' I think to point to Apawamis. Tournament amateurs, low handicaps and pros generally hate the place; it makes so-called "good" players very mad.
I think that in all the blind shots, awkward hazards and tiny, oft-vicious greens that appear at Apawamis, the par 4 3rd hole, "The Dipper" is the extreme pole of what is a match play hole, as distinct from any other type. It is the second shot, the most outrageous culmination of a two-shotter I've ever seen, that does it.
Most drives on this 330 yard hole end up 140-80 yards from the green. You can drive no father than that without great peril because at about that 80 yard mark, the hole drops straight off what is best described as a cliff - about 30 feet nearly straight down into chasm, which is where the tiny green sits, pitched to the back right, surrounded by six traps on all but the rear, where lost-ball OB oblivion waits.
If you haven't gleaned the experience from my poor description, think of the famous 7th at Pebble Beach...but played blind from the 6th green further back from the view. It's a drop shot off a cliff to an indistinct target of partial distance that can never be precisely measured.
Jack Nicklaus may not skull or duff a short iron like occasionally like we do, but on this hole and this shot, once we get it in the air, it's all up to fortune, a gust of wind and an apt bounce.
I suppose the Match Play course/hole point is that a hole of this design, says "There is no, benefit, advantage safety or relative fairness for either side. It does not match the player in their skill beyond minimum competence, it matches and compares the player in their fortune."
Some other notes/inquiries that has been part of the thread to date:
1. Gil Hanse - who for Tallgrass alone has become one of my favorite of current architects - did a fine job with this reno-storation. in fairness and disclosure, I only played and worked the course twice before his work. Odddly enough as I'm typing this post, I have the "Golf Course Master Plan" from 2001 in front of me, and have its entire all-but-final script to reference.
2. I wish I had the Club History for $50 - if I had $50. The point is that Apawamis is one of the more important club histories we have to examine...for its connection and contributions to American golf's origins including the 1911 Amateur... for its role in the USSGA and and its famiilarity to many notable players over the years (I think Ben Hogan called it the hardest short course in America)
cheers
vk