Mounding: Seaview vs Myopia Hunt

[Malcolm Mckinnon]

What makes good mounding?

I played the Bay course at Seaview today and some of the mounding was very reminiscent of Myopia Hunt. Both courses's feature mounds that are long and abrupt berms, often parallel to the fairway but also sometimes slanting. They seem more primitive and threatening than the offerings we see from today's architects. Some at Seaview are accentuated with steep trenches alongside with a narrow bottom of sand.

I  have heard that Herbert Leeds covered existing fieldstone walls to create some of his mounds at Myopia. Seaview's are entirely artificial yet evoke a pre 1920's golf architectural aesthetic. Both are fantastic.

I played Myopia in September and was surprised to see that the three foot berms that used to encircle the rear of the 14th green had been removed and now there is only bunker behind the green. Those berms were a terrible hazard, if your approach to the green was too strong it would nestle up against the bottom and would leave the player with an impossible pitch back as there was zero room to execute a backswing. I think the mounds formed a more penal and far more vexing problem than the bunker behind the green does. My good friend, who is a longtime member, told me that the mounds were not an original Leeds creation but were added later and the decision to remove them was made in the spirit of restoring the course back to it's more original form.

I dissent! Even if the mounds were not Leed's they were in the spirit of the course and removing them made the hole more modern but much lass charming in a penal antediluvian way.

Back to my point, I am a fan of the "old style" mounding and really enjoyed seeing it at Seaview today. Give me more of that "Retro" style.

What think you?

[Kyle Harris]

Mounding that's part of the picture, not part of the frame.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Love the old style.  Another great example is the old Indianwood course in Lake Orion, Michigan.

There is no self consciousness about "the right way" to build those mounds, as that all came later.  They just sort of built what they needed and could.  The smaller scale and abrupt change of slope is part of the charm, too.

Frankly, I could see those returning in place of bunkers in many many cases.  One probem is that with wall to wall irrigation, it is hard to place them to where the fescues can stay wispy enough to play well and not lose golf balls, which is different from when they were first built.  But, I guess if we can alter perfect irrigation spacing around bunkers, we could do it for around steep bank mounds, although it would drive most irrigation designers crazy!