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Benjamin Litman

  • Karma: +0/-0
The September/October 2016 edition of the Yale Alumni Magazine has several of my favorite things on the front cover. A sketch of the Supreme Court at its center, a lavender background, and teasers to three interest pieces: Eugene O'Neill's jewelry box, "Yale's world-class golf course," and New Haven's sushi scene.


But on turning to the second of the three interest pieces (which actually appears first in the magazine), I learned that the adage about a book's cover applies equally to magazines. Andrea DaRif, a 1973 graduate of Yale College who received an MFA in graphic design at the University a year later and who, accordingly to the article, "fell in love with golf while working as the creative director of The Golfer magazine," spends all of six short paragraphs--over an eight-page spread--describing "one of the greats." (For comparison, the only six-page spread on Mr. O'Neill's jewelry box contains 19 much-longer paragraphs of text.) My guess is that the short shrift paid to the course was an editor's doing, not Andrea's--after all, she states in her second sentence that the Course is an "architectural tour de force that almost nobody recognizes as such." If her vision for the article was to remedy that deficiency, I fear that her editors prevented her from fully realizing it.


Those editors clearly believed that pictures were the best way to tell the story, so accompanying the article's six paragraphs are seven large-scale photographs (six from modern times, one from 1925) and a computer-generated aerial image of the Course's layout. The pictures (a full two-page spread looking back down the 2nd hole from the green; a half-page picture of the eighth green from the fairway; a black-and-white quarter-page picture of plus-four-wearing male golfers putting on the 2nd green, with the mostly treeless expanse of the 1st, 7th, and 8th holes in the distance; a full two-page spread of the 9th hole viewed from the tee in early fall; two half-page pictures of the 4th hole, one from the tee, one from the bend in the fairway; and a three-quarter-page picture of the 9th green viewed from behind) are beautiful, but outdated, not reflecting Scott Ramsay's recent tree-removal efforts. And the two pictures of the 4th hole are laid out in reverse order, with the picture from the fairway bend positioned above the picture from the tee. None of the pictures have accreditation, although many were familiar to me, especially the final picture of the 9th green from behind, which appeared in GolfWeek's ranking of the best college courses several years ago.


As for the text, Ms. DaRif, currently an acclaimed author of romance novels, writes well and lucidly (and refreshingly uses the Oxford comma), but spends too much of her limited time on Charles Blair Macdonald. Five of the article's six paragraphs concern him, and only in the sixth do we learn about Seth Raynor and Charles Banks, whom Ms. DaRif describes as "collaborat[ors]." We know that, in the case of Yale, they were much more than that, and Macdonald much less, but so should the Yale Alumni Magazine--after all, the most detailed account of the course's design and construction appeared in their own August 1925 edition (the magazine was known as the Yale Alumni Weekly at the time) and was written by Mr. Banks. Even if the editors didn't have time to look back at their own archives, they could have stopped by the Course's pro shop, where copies of the recently published "Golf at Yale" book lie ready to educate them.


I am obviously thrilled to see the Course receive such billing and exposure, and I recognize that, to an uninformed audience, pictures intrigue more than words. (Then again, the highly informed audience of this site has also in recent years been smitten by high-volume photo tours--which I myself am guilty of propagating, even as to Yale--so the picture focus might just be a sign of the times.) But this is the Yale Alumni Magazine, so I had hoped that its editors would have allowed Ms. DaRif--whose passion for the course and both golf and non-golf architecture is clear--to share more of her words and insights with us, and also that the editors would have taken care to fact-check her words more carefully.


A link to the online version of the article, which presents (higher-resolution versions of) the pictures as a slideshow with the same captions as in the article, is below:


https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/4357-yale-golf-course




"One will perform in large part according to the circumstances."
-Director of Recruitment at Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda on why it selects orphaned children without regard to past academic performance. Refreshing situationism in a country where strict dispositionism might be expected.

MCirba

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2016, 02:06:27 PM »
Thanks for sharing, Benjamin.

Yale is indeed a treasure.
"Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent" - Calvin Coolidge

https://cobbscreek.org/

Jon Cavalier

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2016, 08:08:21 PM »
Things I love: The Course at Yale, Seth Raynor designs and New Haven pizza.

Things I hate: the 3rd green at Yale, sushi and the Oxford comma.
Golf Photos via
Twitter: @linksgems
Instagram: @linksgems

Jim Hoak

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2016, 08:46:30 PM »
In its university rankings today, Yale was named the top US school by USA Today.  Helped by the great golf course?  Probably not.  But having the perennial top college course, doesn't hurt either.

Tim Martin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2016, 07:31:51 AM »
Things I love: The Course at Yale, Seth Raynor designs and New Haven pizza.

Things I hate: the 3rd green at Yale, sushi and the Oxford comma.


Everybody would like to see the 3rd green put back in its original location. That said I can't find anything "hateable" about it. Many first timers and those without knowledge of or interest in the original love the hole with its present green. What do you hate about it beside the fact that it's not original?
« Last Edit: September 09, 2016, 07:55:48 AM by Tim Martin »

Jim Hoak

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2016, 06:17:39 PM »
I haven't played the Yale course much in the past many years, but the thing I noticed when I did play it was the large amount of cross bunkering that had been taken out--especially on several of the middle holes.  I assume this was done to make it friendlier for the average, weekend player, as the University increasingly relied on outside play for revenue.  It seemed to lower the overall quality of the course I remember from 50+ years ago.

Patrick_Mucci

Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2016, 10:29:56 PM »
Yale is a wonderful golf course.
 
As to the restoration of the 3rd hole, how about a restoration of the 2nd green ?
 
Bill Brightly,
 
Scott Ramsey and I agree, the front tier at Yale was putting surface, the charcoal doesn't lie  ;D
 
Yale also moved the 16th green further back.

Jeff Loh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #7 on: September 10, 2016, 08:07:21 AM »
What's wrong with the 2nd green?

Jim Hoak

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2016, 10:40:27 AM »
The Yale course is a wonderful course.  The fact that it remains so despite years of neglect by the University, and a misdirection in strategy for maintaining the course due to the $20-billion-endowment school crying poor, just shows how wonderful the land and initial design are.

Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: 91 Years Later, the Yale Alumni Magazine Profiles the Course Again
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2016, 08:15:45 PM »
Ben,
Write to the editors and tell them of your dissatisfaction with the end result. They need (and sometimes like) to read constructive criticism. I know that I do, and everyone must be like me (in my truncated-syllogism world.)
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

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