Big Changes Planned for the Old Course; Hawtree to Do the Work

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

New photos showing work in the second. This looks to be changing the hole dramatically.

http://www.golf.com/photos/old-course-st-andrews-changes/second-hole-sign

[Tony_Muldoon]

I'm pleased to say it won't just go away.


It's got MacGinty's goat!

http://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/defacing-mona-lisa-of-golf-is-a-crying-shame-3323266.html

[Mark Bourgeois]

It certainly won't, Tony, especially as he continues to show so little regard for opposition to (some of) his changes that he characterizes it as 'hysteria':

golfweek.com/news/2012/dec/12/dawson-shocked-uproar-over-changes-st-andrews/?utm_medium=twitter

How long before the outside PR firm is hired? Don't take the work, African Animal!

I expect some sort of organised opposition is just over the horizon.

[Garland Bayley]

I haven't read this whole thread, as I have not played the Old Course and felt unqualified to comment. However, I was reading an old Golf Digest and came across a little gem.

But Peter Dawson, secretary of the R&A, which conducts the Open, resists the idea of adding bunkers to tighten any landing areas, insisting that would change the fundamental character of the place.

"Because of the history of the Old Course, moving hazards is not the option it would be at many other courses," Dawson says, "You simply can't move a bunker here or there at the Old Course."

Ron Whitten, "A new look at the Old Course", Golf Digest, Vol. 56, No. 7, July 2005, pp 138-144.

The quote above is on page 144.

[Bill_McBride]

The Orwellian nature of the Trust's public statements jump off the page.

Not unlike ANGC's statements that the addition of thousands of new trees to the course was in keeping with the "spirit" of the design of MacK and Jones.

The Orwellian crime is always twofold. It's not just turning the truth on its head. It's also degrading the meaning of everyday words. Each crime is bad enough, but the latter is more troubling (because it's more insidious) than the former.

Bob

  

Hopefully of this group's commentary goes into the memory hole!

[Pete_Pittock]

Golf Central just showed the work being done on 2, 7, 11, and 17. It was in the last fifteen minutes of the hour boadcast and should be repeated. Part of it was a walking interview on a forsty day.

[Mark Pearce]

Great find, Garland.

It would be great to hear Dawson explain what has changed in 7 years to alter his position on that.

[BCrosby]

"Because of the history of the Old Course, moving hazards is not the option it would be at many other courses," Dawson says, "You simply can't move a bunker here or there at the Old Course."  Peter Dawson, from Ron Whitten, "A new look at the Old Course", Golf Digest, Vol. 56, No. 7, July 2005, pp 138-144.

I am speechless.

Bob

[jeffwarne]

"Because of the history of the Old Course, moving hazards is not the option it would be at many other courses," Dawson says, "You simply can't move a bunker here or there at the Old Course."  Peter Dawson, from Ron Whitten, "A new look at the Old Course", Golf Digest, Vol. 56, No. 7, July 2005, pp 138-144.

I am speechless.

Bob

Louis O's -16 total in 2010
If they just used the USGA's trick  ::)of lopping a stroke off par on two of the par 5's, and convince Louis to make 10 on the last, they'd have had a winner at -2 and -1.
and all would be good in the world.....

[BCrosby]

Jeff -

If so, that is weak soup indeed. Dawson needed only to look at the numbers. Louis O's and Tiger's winning scores were outliers. TOC held up quite well against the field in both of those Opens. The 2nd and 11th held up especially well. Mark B ran the numbers and they do not justify anything like Dawson's reaction.

Bob

[Philip Gawith]

Mark, your wish is my command!

[Howard Riefs]

Edit: St. Andrews Links' blog post on the changes to rebuilding Hell Bunker:

http://blog.standrews.com/rebuilding-hell-bunker/

[Ian Andrew]

St. Andrews Links' blog post on the changes to Hell Bunker:

http://blog.standrews.com/rebuilding-hell-bunker/

What we must be careful with is, what is regular maintenance, versus what is change.
I don't know in this case because I have not seen the work.

I attended a presentation on the Old Course by Gordon McKie where he showed what they do year to year to keep the course.
The rebuild cycle was surprisingly short for bunker faces.

I was also astonished at the damage created by winter winds.
They had to fill one dramatically to return the floor to where it was.
Others had sand removed to accomplish the same goal.

He was the golf superintendent in residence for a week at University of Guelph.
Because of my connection I got to see him multiple times and ask a lot of questions about the way things work.
He was very up front about everything including the politics.

[Niall C]

Sand blowing about ? Surely not, I thought the Old Course had been set in stone since 1906 ?

Niall