It is with great pleasure that I can present a detailed photo tour of a course I've been curious about for years, Apawamis. A lurker of this site contacted me about the 1911 Daily Eagle hole diagrams I put up a few years ago. This led to an invite to the Club last Saturday.
If you put 'Apawamis' into the search engine, you'll find it has been mentioned on this site many times, but usually just in passing. And I've not been able to find any significant photos.
Apawamis began in 1890 and had a couple of nine-hole courses in the late 90's before building an 18 hole course at the current site. The architectural history, particularly that near the beginning of the current course, appears a bit muddled although I think I now have a better understanding of it. Their course history web page indicates a member and Willie Dunn are really responsible for the first iteration of the current layout, but I don't think that is quite accurate. Other places and people (including the late Tom MacWood) indicate Tom Bendelow was involved to some extent.
I'm quite confident the first iteration of the entire 18 holes of the current layout was by Tom Bendelow. He was living in the area at the time. But more on that later.
In the clubhouse is a framed layout of the course from 1917 by Donald Ross. I'm trying to learn exactly how much of his changes were put into place in the 20's (this is talked about in some depth in the 50 year anniversary book of the Club). Others have done work there since, the biggest being Gil Hanse in 2001. I've been in contact with the course superintendent, former GolfClubAtlas'er Bill Perlee, and he relayed the following is what Gil (and Rodney Hines) did:
In 2001 Gil rebuilt all the bunkers, several tees, expanded fairways, eliminated some trees, modified to some extent all the greens and totally rebuilt 6 greens with the intent to regain lost hole locations. He was sympathetic to the original design recapturing locations due to years of topdressing. In an effort to have the new greens (#2,4,10,11, practice, and chipping) blend in with the other greens we were fortunate to have the help of Dr. Huff from PSU. He gave us some POA cultivars from his nursery that he had collected from old courses around the country. We blended that with bentgrass and the composite of the new greens matched the existing greens in appearence. We also used a rootzone mix to match our existing mix was a rather dirty 6-2-2 composite. Gil and Rodney Hines were on site throughout the project and did all the final greens grading personally. Gil thoroughly researched old photos and aerials to restore features that had been lost over the years. The history at Apawamis is rich, with probably the most famous tournament being the 1911 National Amateur where British Amateur chamption Harold Hilton defeated American Fred Herreshoff in a 37 hole thriller. This was, IMO, the greatest game every played until Brookline two years later!
The course is shaped like the letter 'T' with the clubhouse at the bottom of the 'T'. The routing in place today is pretty much what Bendelow put in place back in 1899. Some extra land was gained so that some holes changed significantly, but the routing really has not changed.
Here is the current hole-sequencing:
From the back tees Apawamis plays just a hair under 6600 yards and a tough 72.1/139.
The terrain at Apawamis is just so interesting. Lots of obvious macro stuff (many exposed rocks) with plenty of micro too. I hope the pictures can capture some of it.
All the pictures below are "clickable" to obtain a larger size.#1. Named "Hilton's Rock", a staight-away par 4 with an uphill approach.
(Curiously, legend has it that Hilton's approach shot hit a rock on the 37th hole well right of the green and bounded onto the green with a lucky bounce, but my research suggests this likely isn't true!)
Tee view (note that like some old time courses used to do, the driving range at Apawamis utilizes the first fairway; so don't use a yellow ball on the first hole!):
The approach shot is very much uphill (I had a 7 iron in) with the 2nd tee high to the left, and the "Hilton Rock" to the right:
A view from the 2nd tee down to the green, with the 3rd green in the background very close by:
A view back down the hole from high up over the green:
#2. Called "Hillside", a par 4 with a very uphill approach shot to the 'regular' green.
Tee view (many will hit less than driver here to the bottom of the hill):
Here is the tee shot landing zone:
An uphill approach:
The green is big, and two-tiered:
Years ago the USSGA (United States Senior Golf Association) had the lower green built so they wouldn't have to walk up the hill:
It is no bargain as it is tiny:
#3. Called "The Dipper", a par 4. I believe the original tee, near the 2nd green, was moved once the alternate green was put in.
Tee view, where this fairway is really unusual and many won't hit driver:
If you get just to the end of the first fairway, you can sometimes get a view of the top of the flag:
Or I guess you can try to get to the next little landing area to again leave a semi-blind short iron to the green sunken below:
Here is a look back to this neat landform:
A view from short of the green:
And this very elevated view from long and left of the green (not far from the 3rd tee as well as the Hilton Rock):
More tomorrow, but I think this was a real nice start!