Challenge – what is the right amount?
We all like to shoot low scores and bore our friends with the hole by hole details
. Too much challenge, we get beaten up and are less likely to return to the site of the mugging. Too little challenge and even a good score leaves you wanting more.
For instance, I wish that the bunkers at Doak’s Heathland Course at Myrtle Beach were just a bit more in the line of the play. Another example WAS the Ross Course at French Lick. As it played a decade ago, the wild driver (i.e. me) routinely escaped without punishment. Its famous greens alone weren’t enough to fully engage the golfer. That has changed!
In 2006, a multi-million restoration was performed by Lee Schmidt with the help and guidance of The Donald Ross Society and its Executive Director Michael Fay. Thanks to the restoration of twenty-nine fairway bunkers to Ross’s original design and the course’s new fescue grass scheme, the golfer now must be mindful of where he positions his ball down the fairway corridors. In particular, the number of deep central bunkers recaptured is fantastic as they act as true strategic hazards.
Bottom line: Now the challenge is well balanced as thought-provoking options occur on both the tee as well as the approach. In fact, with menacing central hazards galore and several greens that feature at least four feet of movement in one direction or another, the Ross Course has all that is required to become a cult course. Maybe it is already and I don’t know it! Indeed, I am not even sure what a cult course is but I imagine some of my very favorites like Royal Worlington and Lawsonia qualify.
Speaking of Langford & Moreau’s masterpiece at Lawsonia, this course reminds me of it to a certain degree. Both are on open parcels of land and the steep and deep design mantra applies at both. Normally, you don’t readily associate the phrase ‘steep and deep’ with Ross. However, built in 1917, this falls in the first third of his career when his work often featured unique qualities. À la Wannamoisett and Essex County, French Lick has some singular green pads and other playing features that I never seen on any other Ross course. Certainly, you always must consider who was Ross’s on-site man and in this case, it was Sandy Alves. I wish I knew more about their other works together because some of the more abrupt green pad angles and brazen green contours really resonate.
For sheer boldness, don’t you think that the French Lick course ranks near the top in Ross’s portfolio? Best of all, this course is open to the public and resort guests. At $90 on a weekday, the green’s fee is reasonable considering the quality of the course. Certainly, on a hole by hole basis it competes well with the other courses that I have played in the golf rich state of Indiana (I didn’t play its sister Dye Course), including Victoria National (which surely is near the very top of Fazio’s work), Wolf Run, Crooked Stick and Ross’s own Broadmoor.
By enhancing the pleasurable challenge off the tee, The Ross Course at French Lick has been returned the halcyon days when it hosted the PGA Championship that Walter Hagen won in 1924 – see if you agree!
Cheers,