Just as contestants are arriving in Brookline for the 2013 US. Amateur Championship, we take live a Feature Interview with The Country Club’s golf historian Fred Waterman.
The Q & A covers a lot of ground because, well, there is a lot of ground to cover at a place where golf has been played since 1893. No club has a richer history and it will be added to after a champion is crowned next Sunday. I am geared up to watch it on television since my presence was not required as a participant.
What a great summer it has been – Merion, Castle Stuart and a browned out Muirfield. Now comes The Country Club. The four courses have one thing in common: no tricks required – tee it up and the best man will likely win. At Brookline, the players will find themselves engaged in a chess match next week, partly against their opponents but mostly with the course. Fred lays out the evolution of Brookline’s 27 holes and we’ll understand that no single person is responsible for this strategic gem. For architect buffs, The Country Club is fascinating precisely because there is no towering figure à la Ross at No.2 or Fownes at Oakmont or Macdonald at NGLA. Personally, I think the club is at its zenith, thanks to the unifying work done by Gil Hanse since 2007. I don’t consider Oakmont or Merion to be parkland courses and The Country Club has now become my favorite parkland course in the U.S.
It seems that the field for the Amateur gets younger and younger each year. Thirty-something year olds are almost like dinosaurs but I wonder what some of these youngsters will make of these greens that average a mere 3590 square feet? Will they be accustomed to this old-fashioned brand of golf? If not, how quickly will they adjust? Unlike modern courses that go for short grass galore, that’s not the case at TCC. Missing these canted greens left, right or long starts a long slippery slope toward pain. No doubt some players will go home, never quite understanding how they didn’t reach match play. Also, will one or more of the participants have an architectural awakening as Ben Crenshaw did when he played here in the junior a few decades ago?
Fred first wrote about the charm and appeal of TCC's course in the 1999 Ryder Cup program; asked to expand upon the article's fundamental premise, he replied:
We are a problem-solving species; otherwise, there is no explanation for crossword puzzles or jigsaw puzzles or golf. At TCC, it regularly happens that smart players beat superior ball-strikers. TCC is a tactical course, and experience is crucial. It wasn't by chance that Jay Sigel, the winner of the last Amateur at TCC , in 1982, was 40 years old. The members like the course because it is a puzzle to be solved, and because every round of golf is different, the puzzle always changes. You can go to a driving range to see who hits the ball the farthest and is the best ball-striker, but a course that challenges players' shot-making and strategy will reveal the better player. And that goes to the core reason why we all play golf and, on the best courses, look forward to tomorrow's round. It is a pleasure reading words from a professional writer, isn’t it? And what an enticing summation. Recently, I got into an argument with someone over the movies,
There Will be Blood and
Lincoln. Both were fine and DDL was a deserving winner of the Oscar in both instances, BUT I only need to see such movies once. Give me
The Usual Suspects or
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or
Lawrence of Arabia – I will watch those movies time and time again. And TCC falls in that later bloc IMO – you will relish your 100th game there as much as your 10th. Those thoughts have been firmed up through various conversations with Fred. The other thing that our phone chats made obvious is that this is a healthy, vibrant club with lots of interesting activities. Fred was speaking of one such event, a British Golf day in October where a morning round is followed by a big lunch and then alternate shot 8-somes in the afternoon. Fun stuff that brings people together, which after all is one of the greatest purposes for a club in the country. After all the negative sentiments about the state of private clubs over the past five years, it is refreshing to be reminded that country clubs can still work wonderfully well when done properly.
Fred is busily working on the history of another founding club of the U.S.G.A. (Newport) so we really appreciate his taking the time to do this Feature Interview. Between the Feature Interview and the updated course profile, one gains a sense of what the contestants will face this coming week. I know there are guys who can bomb it 350 yards plus and possess a deft touch around the greens. When I think of the test that they will soon face, I can only think that they are bringing a knife to a gun fight. In particular, the stretch of 9 through 15 on the Composite course is unprecedented as a house of horrors, at least to me. We shall see but it should make for fascinating viewing on television.
Best,