HUNTINGDON VALLEY
If I were asked which course would be a great test for the pros without being 7,000 yards. Huntingdon Valley is it, at 6,872 yards it may be the toughest course I have seen! Why?
1. Side-hill slopes for awkward stances
2. very intricate and difficult greens to place a premium on the approach putting
3. actual old fashioned grain on the greens to test a players ability to read the greens
4. hard and fast playing conditions which force shot-making
5. very uphill and downhill shots to demand distance judgement
6. fall away greens, requiring bounce in approaches
7. tee shots with up-slopes in the landing area that control length
Huntington Valley has got all the key ingredients…… and so very much more.
I loved Flynn’s quote found in the 1927 Golf Course Architecture and Construction. It says, ”The problems which should be developed on the various holes in their order of importance are first—accuracy; second—carry; third-- length, which includes carry and roll. The premium on accuracy should carry the greatest reward for that is the essence of any game. Carry, while slightly less important than accuracy is important in that it promotes boldness. Length may be considered least important but this becomes quite a factor when a player is able to mould all three tests together ”
Flynn definitely regarded accuracy and positioning as the key to design, and in particular to playing well at Huntingdon Valley. I was really impressed by how used terrain to his advantage, and to become the key element to demanding accuracy from the player.
Flynn not only worked holes into the natural slope of the valley, but occasional against the natural slope. In this Flynn has presented a few types of holes that are fairly unique in today’s context.
The most unique feature Flynn used to test a great player is the holes that dogleg against the land. Let’s use the 16th as an example. He has a dogleg bending to the left where the land is falling to the right, the tee shot is uphill all the way to the landing, and to make it more demanding he makes the landing area the highest point on the pitch of the hill. The player is placed in a position where they have to hit their driver, to be long enough to see the green; and they must play a draw to hold the ball on the fairway, a cut will simply not stay on the fairway. At the Sixteenth green, the contour falls hard to the right, which favours a draw approach; but Flynn has put the player in a position where they have a fade lie. This puts tremendous pressure on a player’s ability to make shots.
The 16th and its approximate landforms are shown in yellow, the general slope in red and the desired ball flight in white. The gold line on 14 shows the typical carry angle used by Flynn to indicate the desired route to the best location for your next shot.
The 14th is a different technique to make a player hit the same two shots (as in 16). As you can see in the photo below, he has ingeniously used two landforms going in opposite directions to set up the hole the same way. Off the tee the player must play a cut to hold the slope from the tee and keep the ball on the fairway, the next shot is designed to receive a cut shot; but this is from a draw lie. Two different methods to make a player have to work the ball to be successful.
Note the two opposing landforms.
Most of today’s players choose not to work the ball. They hit the ball so far and carry their irons so high and long, that they have learned to use distance control to overcome just about any modern hazard. The reason I feel that Huntingdon Valley is the model to test the tremendous skills of a modern player is that the players will have no choice but to work the ball. They are not as comfortable working the ball, and today’s technology is designed to reduce the amount of curve in the flight of the ball. This, to me, seems the only way to get away from the distance and control game that golf has evolved into, and return some of the shotmaking back to golf
I’ll try illustrate my point with this review of the way Flynn used the slopes to test the players ability to work the ball
1 385yds, very downhill
-whole hole slopes hard from right to left
-the slope of the fairway gets steeper the more aggressive you play
-aggressive play brings the fairway bunkers into play
-the approach is from a downhill and side-hill lie to a flanked green
2 431 yards uphill tee shot, downhill approach
- the fairway slopes hard from right to left
-the green slopes hard from right to left and the green falls away from play
-the only way to hold the green is to cut the ball in from a draw lie
-a run in shot is possible but very difficult to execute since the ball would roll longer with a
draw and the green runs away from play
3. 212 yards uphill hole to a fall away green
-requires a cut to hold the green, but that’s the shallowest part
-a short ball will get held up in the approach slope to the green
-the green runs away to the left
4 366 yard downhill
-a flat fairway where being far and right gives the best angle
“One drive and run-up, elbow or cape type, with premium on length of drive.”
-green falls away from play
5 169 yards downhill
-wonderful diagonal with creek
-green slopes aggressively from left to right, above is an impossible recovery
-large false front
-missing right is in the creek, great back right pin
6. 450 yards
-the hole slopes left and downhill all the way to the green with a green that steps away from the player
7. 556 yards, uphill tee shot, down hill to green
-need to play a cut shot to hold the ball against the right to left sloping fairway
-need to cut the next ball into the second landing to hold the slope
-green
'One real three-shotter, not merely a hole somewhere over 500 yards.
8. -400 yards, blind uphill tee shot
-fairway slopes very hard to left with large undulations in the fairway
-green is above the second landing
9. -460 yards, very downhill hole to very elevated greeen
-downhill stance to green on a severe plateau above the landing area
-short is at the bottom of the hill and long is an impossible shot
