... under Courses by Country and Architecture Timeline.
Television shapes perceptions, especially of private clubs when 1,000 people might see it on television per individual that visits the grounds of that course. Augusta National in the spring is a riot of colors against a backdrop of swaying pines yet the only time I played, it was a dreary, gray time in February and the course was monochromatic. You couldn’t compare it to the color fest that unfolds each spring on television. Conversely, every time I’ve seen telecasts of Southern Hills it has been June or August with wilting heat and flat lighting. Another misleading impression! This place is gorgeous, as in off the charts. Go check the 35 plus photographs from an early October visit. For sure, television flattens the intricate land movement (same can be said for the Masters telecast) and I enlisted the help of a golfer to capture the EXQUISITE landforms that this course possesses. I only wish I could get back there in a week or two when the maple trees start turning - a fall event like the President's Cup would be wonderful there.
Being involved with GolfClubAtlas.com, I get to talk to lots of architects. Uniformly, they all show a deep appreciation, almost a reverence, for Perry Maxwell and his work. He could get more out of one well-placed bunker than many modern architects achieve with three expensive sprawling ones. Living through the Depression and the Dust Bowl surely had many lasting effects on Oklahomans and one can safely conjecture that efficiency became a prized virtue. Yet, that’s how Maxwell always worked. Not one for superfluous features, his work at Southern Hills in the mid-1930s is a thing of sublime beauty. For me, Maxwell + topography + creek on 7 holes + pond on two others + steep/deep bunkers + thinned out, limbed up healthy specimen trees = parkland nirvana.
Maxwell worked on Augusta National (moving the 10th green, etc.) after Southern Hills but MacKenzie built Augusta National after his partnership with Maxwell. Is it a coincidence that Augusta National is MacKenzie’s most streamlined design? I think not as I believe Maxwell and MacKenzie learned from each other. Chris Clouser and his book The Midwest Associate were a big help in putting together this profile and here is a great quote found on page 45 by MacKenzie in a letter to Maxwell after they completed Melrose CC, PA in 1928:
When I originally asked you to come into partnership with me, I did so because I thought your work more closely harmonized with nature than any other American Golf Course Architect. The design and construction of the Melrose Golf Course has confirmed my previous impression. I feel that I cannot leave America without expressing my admiration for the excellence of your work and the extremely low cost compared with the results obtained. As I stated to you verbally, the work is so good that you may not get the credit you deserve. Few if any golfers will realize that Melrose has been constructed by the hand of man and not by nature. This is the greatest tribute that can be paid to the work of a Golf Course Architect.
There you have it from one Master Architect to another – high praise indeed! Those kind, insightful words characterized Maxwell’s entire design career.
Don Padgett, now head of the Pinehurst Resort near my home, fared very well here and was tied for third heading into the final round of the 1977 US Open. I asked him for his impression from an ace player’s perspective and he said, ‘Isn’t Southern Hills marvelous? It is my favorite kind of course because it never goes out of style. Its challenge isn’t about length, which is a good thing because such courses become outdated. You never have to worry about Southern Hills as the intrinsic qualities of its design are such that it will stand the test of time.’
Please have a read of the profile and see if you don't agree! And don’t be too distracted by the beauty of the place.
Best,