is really, really, really fun to play.
Then I reflected upon what Tom Doak stated in his thread on Yale.
While I agree with his general assessment, I was puzzled by his statement that it might not appeal to the tastes of developers and golfers.
Yet, the course enjoys in excess of 30,000 rounds per year, and that's in New Haven, CT, not a long seasoned location.
First I want to thank Mike Sweeney, Jon Stein and Mark Bourgeois for putting together a GCA.com event at Yale yesterday.
It was very thoughtful of them and everyone had a great time.
We were also fortunate in that Scott Ramsay addressed the group prior to golf.
Well, almost all of the group.
Mike Sweeney was on the range fine tuning his game when Scott spoke and was gracious enough to field our questions.
What strikes most golfers when introduced to Yale is the unique topography and scale of the place.
But, I think that also misleads or misdirects the golfers focus at the same time.
ie. On the first hole, the hole was cut in the midpoint of the upper right side plateau.
The approach to that hole location diverts the golfers attention from the entire left, lower portion of that green.
A portion that requires a more heroic and slightly longer carry into the green.
On the 2nd hole, the hole was cut center/right, but, the visual made it look like the hole was more toward the front of the green.
I won't say it was a benign location, but, it certainly produced a much more comfortable feeling within the golfer, versus a hole cut back left.
A back left hole location would require about 3 more club lengths and a brazen approach over a cavernous bunker.
A really, really deep bunker for those of you morons not familiar with the word cavernous.
So, in the play of the first two holes, I can see how hole location could produce a half a shot to a full shot difference in score.
This theme is repeated, almost universally around the golf course.
What also happens is that golfers tend to focus on the hole location once on the green, with little attention being paid to other hole locations.
With Yale's greens occupying about 5-6 acres, that's alot of greenspace.
Case in point, the 7th hole, the Knoll hole.
Upon close examination, that green, while sloped, has a series of mini-dips/valleys where holes can be located.
And, at Yale, hole locations near the perimeter tend to be ferocious and intimidating.
And yet, while 3 and 4 putts lurk everywhere, along with disaster should the golfer miss the green at an inopportune location, the course is just flat out fun to play..
On the 8th hole, my son had a 153 foot putt, up over about an 8 foot embankment.
Now you could stand there all day and have fun with that putt.
Ditto for the 10th green, the 12th green, the 17th green, the 1st green, the 2nd green, and on and on and on.
The other joy is, you could play 36 a day at Yale, every day, for a year, and probably not have the same hole locations.
The greens are that large and that diverse in character.
So, I have to wonder, why wouldn't you build a course that's challenging, but a real joy to play ?
Is there a more unique par 5 in golf than the 18th hole ?
And, why did CBM/SR wait until the 18th hole to introduce a par 5 ?
If most looked at that terrain today, they'd declare that you couldn't build a golf course on it because it was too dramatic, to unusual, yet, these ODG's in 1925 built one of the great courses in the world. A course that's played and enjoyed by over 30,000 golfers each year, in New Haven, CT. So why wouldn't anyone want to build a similar course today.
If you want to have fun, Yale is a perfect course to have fun on.
The one caveat I'd make is that you have to be a decent striker of the ball to really enjoy Yale, from any tees.
I'll continue and add and edit this thread later.