With Kyle H as tour guide, I had a hell of a day of golf in Philly. We played the duo of Inniscrone and Paxon Hollow today, and while we nearly followed it with an extra nine at Jeffersonville or an extra 18 at Walnut Lane (either one would have been doable in hindsight), the 36 hole journey was plenty of architecture for one day.
Paxon Hollow is a sporty track with a ton of great stuff going on, and it will definitely get some discussion later on. However, the course I really want to talk about with the treehouse is Gil Hanse's Inniscrone in Avondale, Pennsylvania.
Inniscrone is a remarkable place for several reasons. It was originally founded as an exclusive private club for the Philly/Wilmington, DE area. The course was then sold and went through several ownership changes and talks of restoration. Now, it is owned by the local township and open for public play at reasonable rates. Inniscrone was one of the first profiles I read from Ran this site, and it was one of those profiles that inspired me and showed me that there was some great golf architecture outside the magazine rankings. With that background, I got to play the course for the first time today and was thoroughly impressed.
Gil Hanse's work at Inniscrone is exactly what I am looking for in a golf course. Throughout my short experience with golf architecture, I have always been conflicted between the courses with heavy drama and quirk and those with more subtlety. Addington is a hell of a course, but the quirky and dramatic features wear the player out after awhile. On the other hand, a course like Swinley Forest is filled with understated elegance, but it runs a little short on the drama. Inniscrone finds a great balance between these two types of courses. With the first three holes, the golfer is introduced to Gil Hanse's understated style. He has limited bunkering, strategy that is exceedingly simple but timeless, and designs greens with one or two dominant contours. The course follows the lay of the land, particularly in the placement of the bunkers and the contour of the greens.
The 3rd at Inniscrone is one of my absolute favorite holes on the course. The dramatic fairway bunkering draws the golfer's eye to left first, and since this is a short par four, the golfer will be tempted to rip driver at the green. Of course, the best play is to the higher right side of the fairway. This position leaves a look right down the throat of the green, and the best drives may even catch the slope of the fairway and trundle onto the green. Yet no matter where the golfer leaves his tee shot, the fun is only starting. The green at Inniscrone's 3rd is impressive in its simplicity. It slopes slightly from front to back and follows the cant of the land from right to left. The green is not manufactured or contrived to be overly difficult. It is just there, an integral part of the land. The green's uncompromising naturalism makes any approach shot fearsome, as the golfer has to place in the right spot or face a high number on the course's shortest par four. The 3rd hole relies on brilliant use of the land and restraint to create the timeless strategy, an approach Hanse uses repeatedly in different form throughout the layout.
For all of the great subtle holes out there (3, 6, 9, 12, 13, and 15 are among the best), Inniscrone has tons of drama. This drama begins at the 4th, which features a long forced carry from the back tee followed by a long iron approach across a valley to a brilliant shelf green. It continues on holes like 8, a brilliant Redan where a driver from the back tees makes the kick plates pop out, 10, and 16 through 18. Each of these holes has their detractors, as they contain features that make them difficult for the weaker player. In my mind, this holes are brilliant because of their distribution within the course. These holes are used sparingly and placed at the correct intervals during the routing. The first three holes ease the golfer in before bringing on the thrill at the 4th. The golfer gets some subtlety for the next three holes before resuming the ride at the 8th. After a tough but brilliant 9th, the golfer gets the 10th, takes in some great architecture on the 11 through 15, and hits a dramatic flourish on the last three holes. These holes may be tough, but they are score-able and a hell of a lot of fun if you can hit the shots. The 17th is a giant par four with forced carries on the tee shot and the approach, but the hole is a thrill to play because of the benched greensite that allows golfers to feed in shots from right to left. These holes are difficult and may not fit the traditionalist mold, but they add to the rugged and simple appeal of Inniscrone.
Inniscrone balances these dramatic holes and subtle, strategic holes perfectly. The course is not an adrenaline high, but it instead shifts between the contemplative and the furious. Hanse knew when to take a risk (the 9th, with its ridgeline bunkering and bunkerless green, is a great example), and he knew when to leave well enough alone. He routes the course perfectly, never straining the course's flow despite the constraints of the property. Despite the recent development along the course, the golfer feels at one with the land throughout. Inniscrone never tries too hard; it just steps back and lets the golfer take it in.
Is Inniscrone the model for what architecture should be? Is it a critical study in minimalist architecture?