A Road Hole Restored!

[JNC Lyon]

Since my picture was used and my name was mentioned, I felt like I had to chime in!

The restoration work here looks great.  The bunker mimicking the "road" between 9 and 18 looks very cool.  18 was always one of the better holes at Hackensack in my mind, with a thrilling uphill approach and some wicked internal green contours. 

My question, though, is this: wouldn't the orientation of the green be very unusual for a Road hole?  The 18th is a beast now, but it was likely even more of a beast in the 1920s and 1930s.  Would players really be interested in driving to the outside of the dogleg and taking the longer route into the green?  Even if it was the better angle?

[Bill Brightly]

Since my picture was used and my name was mentioned, I felt like I had to chime in!

The restoration work here looks great.  The bunker mimicking the "road" between 9 and 18 looks very cool.  18 was always one of the better holes at Hackensack in my mind, with a thrilling uphill approach and some wicked internal green contours.  

My question, though, is this: wouldn't the orientation of the green be very unusual for a Road hole?  The 18th is a beast now, but it was likely even more of a beast in the 1920s and 1930s.  Would players really be interested in driving to the outside of the dogleg and taking the longer route into the green?  Even if it was the better angle?

Right of center definitely gives you a better look at the green. From the left, the Road Hole Bunker is all you can see. Also, if you are playing your approach from 190 or longer, you'll probably have to bounce it on, and right half of fairway sets up so much better for that.
Of course, if you are 275 off the tee, you are probably hitting a short iron to the green, and there is not much that can be done to bother that shot, but the landing area for the bombers has been signifcantly toughened. What I like about the restored version is that the landing area for shorter hitters has been widened by about 8 yards on the left, so their route to reach the green in 3 shots is much easier.

[Colin Macqueen]

Bill,
"The old wall was retained after the train station was moved to Cupars (?)."

As Bob C. suggests the railway spur from Leuchars to St. Andrews was axed and the line continued directly to Cupar. In the early to mid 1960s many smaller and spur railways lines were closed by Beeching the then Transport Minister. Uproar at the time of course and nowadays there is talk of many being re-opened to help re-vitalise local economies. That would be a blast from the past being able to lug golf clubs by train to The Old Course!

This thread has been very instructive and interesting. I note that other templates on Hackensack are mentioned …….. Punchbowl, Redan, Biarritz ,,,,,,are you going to present them here in the same vein? I hope so as this sort of dissection/discussion really educates me. It highlights the inherent strategy in the original and demonstrates how adaptions can really work well viz a viz the snaky/sneaky bunker becoming The Road.

How many "templates" do you have on Hackensack and have you retained the original names for these holes?

Cheers Colin

[Bill Brightly]

Colin,

Hackensack was built with the four, classic par three templates: Biarritz, Redan, Short and Eden. We have restored the Biarritz and I've posted a complete thread on this work, including returning the swale that William Gordon filled in. Our Redan is superb because of the great natural setting of the green, and it has the coolest ridge that creates slight front and back tiers. But we need to restore the depth of the front bunker. Our Eden hole is hopelessly lost: Gordon flattened the green and we added a committee-inspired pond in the 1990's, which our membership likes... but we will restore the lost Banks bunkers to the left and behind the green. (Banks did not build any great Edens anyway!) Our Short is like Sleep Hollow's (just before George and Gil restored it  )

In addition to Road and Punchbowl, we have a Double Plateau,  Plateau par 5, Levan (to be restored), Sahara, Principal's Nose (to be restored,) Long (to be restored, hopefully with Hell bunker.) Our Alps hole hill was cut out to allow players to see the landing area, sigh...

Hackensack might be viewed as a microcosm of what happened to many golf courses built by the ODG's in the States. Construction in the first quarter of the 20th century, removal of some features during the Great Depression (thanks, A.W. Tillinghast...) modernization in the 60's to look like a Robert Trent Jones course, add a thousand white pines in the early1970's to create separation from other holes (thanks Augusta,) bring in Rees Jones in the 90's to rebuild the collapsing sand faced bunkers Gordon put in, a major tree removal project started 10 years ago, and finally, a restoration to attempt to return as much as possible to our Macdonald-Raynor-Banks roots.  Geeze, it is exhausting just to type all of that!

I will continue to post updates, next will be our punchbowl. It is dramatic, but the fairway bunkering may be my favorite part!

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bill,

Forget all the pictures and how nice things look.

When are you inviting Mike Policano and I over to play and experience your road hole ?

[Thomas Dai]

Bill,

This is an interesting post and the photos are really splendid. Thanks for posting.

One query if I may. The grass around the bunkers, that mown to a greater height than the adjacent fairways, appears to be quite thick in the photos. Will a ball stop and settle on the grass banks around the greenside bunkers or will it roll down the banks into the bunker?

I look forward to reading more and seeing more photos of the punchbowl etc.

All the best.

[Bill Brightly]

Thomas,

The longer grass around the bunkers is newly sodded bluegrass. The steepness of the bunker faces is critical and this will make almost every ball roll back into the sand. I suppose that grass may keep some balls on the outside banks, but I'll have to look more closely at that and watch how they play. But if you study the photos, you'll see that our new bunkers have fairway in front except for a very small low-cut bluegrass collar that is generally on the downslope. The intent is to definitely have more balls feed into all the bunkers we are re-building.

Hackensack is NOT a links course and we cannot get away with shortgrass everywhere (like you might see at National or most links courses...) but trust me when I say that this new look is a VAST improvement in terms or removing rough barriers that served to "protect" our bunkers. The first aerial photo shows the "protective rough" that is very common on US parkland courses, a look we are trying to eliminate one bunker at a time.

Some purists would like fairway completely around the bunkers, but this would create tremendous maintenance problems and make the hole completely out of character with the rest of the course. Once the new sod has been fully established, the rough faces can be cut a little shorter to prevent balls "hanging up" in the faces.

[Mike Policano]

Bill was kind enough to give me a tour today. The changes are awesome!  The Road Hole bunker between 9 and 18 is excellent. The work being done on 16, the Punchbowl. Is very dramatic making  this hole very unique. Added to the changes made previously on 13, the Biarritz third hole and the Redan 12th hole, Hackensack is the perfect place to stop on your way to or from a trip to Paramount.

[Thomas Dai]

Bill,

Thank you very much for a most comprehensive response to my query. I'm looking forward to seeing your future posts on this subject.

All the best.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Waht a beautifully conditioned looking golf course,another road trip

[Bill Brightly]

Interesting old thread on Road Holes:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,6023.0.html

[Bill Brightly]

I hope this photo shows that many balls played to the right side of the green, away from the Road Hole Bunker, will feed back on to the putting surface. This will be a popular strategy for all those who need to use a 4 iron or longer club to reach the green. Of course, some shots will have too much pace and end up "in the road." But it will be a fun shot.



And you'll be aiming at the above from this look:

[Garland Bayley]

Hackensack Golf Club was Charles Banks' first solo design after Raynor died. He secured this contract while supervising the second year of construction at Fishers Island. The 18th at Hackensack was his first Road Hole. While it has undergone many significant changes over the years, it has always been regarded as one of the better closing holes in New Jersey because it is a beautiful dogleg to an elevated green guarded by a deep front left bunker. It has finally been faithfully restored to Banks' vision. In fact, it is far better than what he built because the club's leadership in 1926 did not allow him to build all the bunkers on his plan:  


The hole is 421 from the regular tees, 439 from the Blacks. Playing uphill into the prevailing wind, I think it is a perfect par 4 and 1/2.
 
In 1960 our leaders determined that the course needed to be modernized, and William Gordon was hired. He raised the floor of all the deep bunkers, eliminated turf faces and installed sand faces, and removed all the back bunkers (because as his son David told me: "Dad felt that going over a green was enough of a penalty".) Most notably, the "Road"(a 60 yard long bunker) behind the green was removed and a much smaller bunker was built about 30 yards short of the 18th green, so it was more of a hazard for the 9th green. Rees Jones was hired in the mid 1990's to re-build the bunkers which were old, tired, and collapsing. He returned the grass faces but did not restore the bunkers to their original depth. (He was not asked to restore the course.) Here is what the  hole looked like before restoration started:



About 6 years ago we went back to Rees and asked for a pure restoration plan, which he prepared and was approved by a 188-12 membership vote. I know that Rees often gets knocked on this site, but as I think these photos will show, when asked to RESTORE, his work can be excellent.

From the tee before




And after


The first mound you see on the left is at most a 200 yard carry from the regular tees and has no sand. It is "the hotel" at St. Andrews and primarily serves the purpose of partially obscuring the landing area. The three bunkers on the right are about 220, 240 and 260 off the tee. The bunker on the left is 275 off the tee and is the only diversion from Banks' plan, necessiated by the loss of a 100 year old oak (during Superstorm Sandy) that made a play from the left rough/left edge of the fairway problematic. Without this bunker, bombers wouild ignore all the bunkers on the right and have a simple wedge to the green.

The fairway bunkers on the left removed and the fairway extended left by about 10 yards. Shorter hitters can play to this spot for a fairly simple three shots to the green strategy. You can also see the tree on the left that was lost.


After the work, about 200 yards from the green


Prior to the work


After, about 165 to the green


From the 150 before


After



The Road is restored!!!


View from the 9th fairway



Prior to the work, Jon Lyon just short of green



After









As you can see by the photo above, the restoration of the fairway height kickmounds will be an exciting new element, especially for those players needing to play a longer running shot to the green. Prior to the work the right side of the green (a common bailout) was thick rough, leaving players a difficult yet boring downhill flop shot. Now there is a good chance the ball will kick back onto the green, or perhaps roll over into the bunker.

Leaving NGLA out of the discussion and admitting my home course bias, I'll submit this as one of the best tributes to the Road Hole that you will ever play.

[ChipOat]

First, any serious attempt to either restore and/or create a legitimate Road Hole deserves much kudos!

I played Hackensack once many years ago before I really understood NGLA (i.e. pre-Golf Club Atlas).  I thought it was pretty good then, so it must REALLY be good now.

I don't have the imagination to really appreciate a golf hole unless I play it a couple of times (usually poorly).  From the pictures, it does not appear that the Road Bunker is quite so penal or that the bunker on the right side of the green is quite so deep as to be penal, either.

The beauty of the National's #7 is that the ONLY decent place to miss is long/left.  Every other approach (third or fourth shot) to the green is, for me, excruciating.  Of course, the prevailing "down wind" makes it even worse.

Either way, well done!

What really struck me is the description of what Gordon took OUT in 1960.  That is worthy of a separate thread.

[Bill Brightly]

Chip,

The bunker in front of the green is at least as deep as National's. It probably looks less menacing to you because it is larger. I think the rough face also softens the look.

The bunker behind is nearly as deep. My photos don't show this, but there is a diagonal spine on the green. So if the pin is right and you go into the back bunker, you'll be hitting a sandshot to a downslope are NOT going to be able to keep the ball on the proper side of the spine. If the pin is left its not TOO bad, because your ball will roll.

[ChipOat]

Bill,

That all sounds pretty good to me.