What are Donald Ross's Best SITES?

[Joe Hancock]

I'm dumbfounded.  Or dumb.
 
Mike

You have to be one or the other to not know which one. Or the other.

(Of course you know I'm kidding. You're not THAT dumbfounded!)

[Jason Way]

Jason and Matt,

Is Hyde Park a great site?  Or a great routing on a difficult site?  No doubt there are some awesome holes and the course is one of my favorites.  But there are so many ravines and really steep hills that I would have a hard time calling it great. 

I guess what I'm saying/asking, is that I have no clue what truly makes a great site.  Is it subtle movement and features or is it big and bold?

The reason that I think Hyde Park is a great site is because of the contrast of dramatic sections with the subtler ones.  Obviously, if Ross had crapped the bed on the routing on that site, it would have been really clear, but he didn't.  So, my conclusion on HP is that it is a challenging site, but it is great because it has variety and some really cool features.

[Phil McDade]

Wow, I feel like a moron with respect to Beverly.  Everyone mentions the dramatic ridge on the front, but I focused primarily on the back nine. Perhaps my memory from a dozen years ago fails me.   Help, please:
 
Don't the 11th and 15th fairways have significant wavey movement?
 
Isn't the tee shot at the 13th up and over a blind hillock with the second slightly uphill as well?
 
Aren't the 14th and 16th greens neatly benched into sidehills?  I found it impossible to read putts correctly on the 14th green, where I spend approximately 15 minutes.
 
Isn't the 17th a perfect example of Ross' gradually uphill long one shotter?
 
Isn't there a nifty abrupt rise in the 18th fairway that is a challenge to carry with the second shot if one has found the rough off the tee?
 
I'm dumbfounded.  Or dumb.
 
Mike

Mike:


I think you're correct about most of this (I'll leave others to judge the last sentence ). Yes, the land on 11 and 15 is rolling, and can yield uncertain or problematic lies off the tee. The 14th green (a great green, one of the best there) I'd argue is a built-up Ross green, not necessarily a reflection of the terrain (you are correct about the benched nature of the 16th green). 17's brilliance is the green, I'd argue -- not necessarily the terrain, and I assume Ross had something to do with that green and its severe tilt. 18 is a solid closer, although I've seen other closers back to the clubhouse over better terrain.


It's good, perhaps very good, land for golf. I find the routing -- whomever you want to credit for that -- more interesting than the land. A couple of comparable courses -- by that, I mean parkland, urban-ish settings -- that I've written about here have somewhat better terrain for golf: Ozaukee CC and Milwaukee CC, both in suburban Milwaukee.

[Dunlop_White]

Roaring Gap has to be on the short list here. There are few courses anywhere that readily link golfers with so many unique, historical landmarks around them – both natural and constructed. It’s hard to imagine many other Ross venues that are this rich with character, scenic interest, and compelling architectural features.
The June 27, 1929 issue of the Elkin Tribune proclaimed Roaring Gap as “the highest golf course, save one, east of the Rockies”. The article goes on to say that at an altitude of 3,700 feet, there were “no other courses from which golfers could see stunning panoramas that spread out to the horizon in every direction”. According to the April 5, 1927 issue of the Pinehurst Outlook, “one could see 125 miles south across the Old North State to King's Mountain on the South Carolina state line” from the zenith of the 11th green. Likewise, the 17^th green is perched on the crest of a 2,500-foot bluff with 75-mile views of Mount Pilot, Hanging Rock, and the Winston-Salem skyline.
From the 5^th tee, golfers can see a vast sea of mountain peaks stretching out over Virginia in two directions – north and west – the names of which can still be recited by locals on a clear day.
Demanding your full attention in the backcloth of the 4th hole is Leonard Tuft’s palatial Graystone Inn (today's clubhouse). Named for the color of its Blue Ridge masonry and modeled after George Washington’s Mount Vernon homestead, the Graystone Inn was originally built as a 65-room hotel that served as the summer outpost of the Pinehurst Resort. A true architectural masterpiece by Philadelphia’s Charles Barton Keen is a stone’s throw away from the golf.
Donald Ross’s dramatic volcano-shaped green at Hole 6 has become an iconic landform in golf. Few short holes can rival this 135-yard par-3. In addition, there are unique double-fairways, tiered greens, the punchbowl 16^th, and two bunker-less par 5’s that Tom Doak once listed among the world’s best.  The list goes on and on …..
The land itself is loaded with long stretches of heaving, uneven terrain producing a variety of awkward stances and lies. These humps and bumps also produce a variety of bounces that help make the course so fascinating—and infinitely different from round to round. Though the course receives its fair amount of rain, it drains exceptionally well and still plays firm and fast due to its tableland location bisecting the Eastern Continental Divide.



 

[Jay Mickle]

Dunlop,
Your description is in stark contrast to the "resort courses" Peter Pallotta alludes to in his thread: Are we in the "Resort Course Age"?