Reading Tom Doak's posting I got the impression that perhaps he has an issue with the flow. In any event that is my main critique. Here is a passage from my review of Deal:
"Some of the holes are unique and playing them is a game all by itself, whereas a few others are a bit more conventional in comparison. This leads to a somewhat jerky rhythm, the routing doesn't flow effortlessly like at most other world class courses. The many different architects appear to have been pointed at local issues. It seems that in the last 100 years there has been no interest to look at the whole picture, perhaps rightfully so."
It's an issue of personal preference how much weight this issue ultimately carries. I can see Deal dropping out of a Top 100 list because of it, but golfers playing "hole by hole" and not "the course" probably wouldn't mind at all.
What I didn't quite understand was Tom's notion that Deal didn't have enough strengths. There are a number of features that I have never seen on any other course. The fairway bunkering and green of #3 is an example, as is the running approach to #16 or the crumpled fairway of #17. I can see Deal succumbing to a few weaknesses, but it does provide a handful of totally unique situations.
Ulrich (opinion based on 5 rounds)
Ulrich, I have always respected your opinions and views. I guess my rebuttal for Deal would start with this:
Flow according to the acclaimed psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (chick sent me hi phonetically) is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.
Now I know your critique was meant to explain the rhythm and feel of the golf course (you feel it gets pedestrian in spots) after leaving you sequestered in some "unique" experiences. That is why I brought up the psychology of flow because the first time I played Deal I felt what Csikszentmihalyi describes and it had nothing to do with the scorecard. It is in fact the reason I joined--more on that in a second.
The great writer Steven Pressfield believes every great pitch for a book or a movie can come down to 3 elements.. You can describe it in 3 acts.. For example:
Here’s Moby Dick in three acts:
1. Ahab sets out after the whale.
2. Ahab chases the whale to the ends of the earth.
3. Ahab and the whale duke it out to the death.
Act One is the hook. “A priest, a rabbi and a gerbil walk into a bar … ” The purpose of the first act is to engage the audience. The greatest Act One ever is a roller coaster. Up, up, up and then … over the falls! You’re hooked.
Two other aspects of a great beginning: it must be unique and it must make a promise. A great fishing lure is a shiny, eye-catching object that makes the prey think, “Ah, a delicious meal!”
So let me do this for Deal:
Act 1- Holes 2-10, you play thru the landscape and dunes--akin to playing the orb over nature as the shepards did in the origins of the game back at St. Andrews. It is this which makes Deal unique and subsequently superior to a course like Birkdale with its huge dunes adjacent to the playing field. Also this thin ridge peters out, building from the crescendos of the all world 3rd green (and hummocks before), the pulpit green at holes 4 and 6 and the great angles on 10. (THE HOOK)
Act 2- A brief soliloquy at 11.. Some will say this starts at 8, some will say at 9 but as I've said before there are no indifferent shots at Deal followed by another indifferent shot.. We have described the great approach to #7 above, #9 is followed by the the Sir Guy Campbell's depiction of greatness by the "blow of an angel's wing" at #10 and #11 has the Roman Road plus the great approach/green site at #12. To me the Old Course would suffer your disruption in flow at the 9th and 10th, two holes while drivable I don't find thrilling and gulp a bit pedestrian.
Act 3--The finishing 4 starting at 15-- Back in the dunes with thrilling shot at 15,16,17 and great greens--#15 works away from you and needs a shot that dies at the front ridge, #16 I agree with Peter Allen as the best green in all of links golf, #17 is a wonderful natural punchbowl). I think the 18th green requires more artistry than people who have only played the course several times know.. You can drive into the ditch and the green is not receptive at time if your do run it up the left side. The recovery shots on 18 are also quite fun.-- NOEL GOT HOOKED, SOLD ETC
For me Deal flows, it keeps me switched on all the time and I have "condensed flow from the vapor of its nuances" on all shots. For example 8 is the only shot at the sea, surrounded by bunkers and requiring a hard fade into the southwesterly. The drives on #9s and #11 get critiqued for being similar but the doglegs are at much different angles (just look at an aerial).
What inspired me to join Deal and to write about it here a decade ago was that when I finished playing it I found I had played a game of chess with not only a cruel taskmaster (holes 8,12,14,15) but with a girl who is a tawdry affair candidate (holes 3,6,16) and a harlot (holes 1,2,17) and not a plain Jane but holes a links apologist will love (holes 7,9,11). So I felt flow, I was into every shot and it appealed to my golfing psychology.
I realize many will not experience that and some think Deal isn't "pretty". But do what Mark Chaplin does sometimes and what I do now. Walk along the beach and eventual sea wall to the course and then over the landform to the clubhouse. If that isn't beautiful or inspirational, than I don't know what is. When you stand in the low points of the dunes on holes like 2,3,15,16 is it not some of the best golfing grounds in the world? I will submit in my experience one is. But still this won't get many to admit Deal's beauty so I'll leave it to Darwin who said the larks always sounded louder at Deal cheek by jowl on Pegwell Bay than anywhere else. When the sun comes out and I see the cliffs of Ramsgate and hear the birds sing after a summer equal and look out upon that azure blue water from the 4th tee, I feel like Matthew Arnold did (Dover Beach). Maybe the larks know something..
Or maybe my brain has had too much Peyote..
Tuco/Noel