[Mike Sweeney]

I'm sorry if I offended people with my view of Mike Strantz' legacy. I hope you all hede your physician's advice and get screened.

My wife is alive today because we caught hers early and acted. I'm guilty of personalizing this. Sorry.

Ian,


Thanks for posting, it is appreciated. With Tiger Bernhardt and Uncle Bill McBride (and others) now on the Italics list of GCA, it seems like a very constructive conversation.

[Mike_Young]

I can only hope that any of you appreciate Mike Young half as much as I do when he is gone as I do today.

I do....

[John Kavanaugh]

I can only hope that any of you appreciate Mike Young half as much as I do when he is gone as I do today.

This is actually a quite complicated math problem. I’d take a shot at it if it was multiple choice.

Loving those who have the choice of loving you back is far more difficult than praising the dead. We need to get past this antiquated focus on the past and embrace those who we still have. Spend $300 on a plane ticket and go see a friend you know won't see 2020 or drop $50 on flowers when he is gone. We have options never before seen in our history. This legacy crap bores me to tears. That is your multiple choice.

[Frank M]

Multiple choice...s made.

[John Kavanaugh]

Any one of us can contact Pete Dye and have lunch with him within the week. Or better yet...if our friend Dick Daley can't make it to a memorial for our friend who has passed take the memorial to him. It all sounds so simple but is is the furthest thing from. No worries, these threads make us feel better and that must be worth something. The Pete Dye threads will be epic. If the internet has taught us anything it has taught us how to care.

[Sean_A]

Strantz's work is bold, creative, and rather original; but whats going to happen to it over time? As unique as his course are and so different from anything else in the golfing landscape why has someone else not picked up his design mantle and kept pushing forward? Are there any specific design elements from Strantz that have trickled into other designers tool boxes? Did he not have anyone on his team to carry on the style and philosophy? Would working in the style of Strantz be a good way for a young designer to establish a foothold in the industry, or was he simply a once in a generation architect?

I think the style of Strantz has carried on.  When I look at what has happened around Pinehurst, there is no doubt in mind that Tobacco Road was the game changer in terms of style, but not so much strategy design.  Remember, that rough and raw look (even though totally manfactured) was only just hitting the streets when Tobacco Road was built.  Where Strantz really excelled was in the details.  He paid attention to those things which golfers don't really notice unless it isn't done right.  Plus, the man wasn't afraid to get in the face of golfers and visually put them on the back foot. 

I will say this, there is no modern course (and very few classics) I have played which has elicited such a happy response as when I first played Tobacco Road. He blew the doors of expectation away.  I think Strantz understood what golf was about.

Ciao

[Ian Andrew]

I think it's influence on other architects.


He’s still not well accepted as an architect - even today – which surprises me but I think he will be better appreciated over time. The people that really like his work actively seek out all his courses and interestingly many are the younger architects. He embodies the idea that the line between genius and madman is razor thin – often stepping on both sides with delightful results. No matter what you think of his work, there is no denying his superior talent, and his guts to push golf course architecture to its very limits.


I have seen few architects combine intimidation and opportunity so masterfully. His architecture is as frustrating as it is exciting but once you finish you can’t wait to play it again. As an architect I admire his audacity to build something so different and so controversial that you knew it couldn’t be embraced by critics or the public at large. He believed that you get a bigger thrill when you make a great shot that seemingly overcomes impossible odds – he does this by making his work look overwhelming at times but in reality is a lot easier than it appears. While most would point to the intentional blindness and very wild greens to say that his work is over the top, they have missed his use of width to create playability and alternative (safer) routes. People seem to be focused on the dangerous short cuts that encourage a risky style of play and often don’t play the course enough to find the safer alternatives of each hole. It’s too easy to condemn his work on first play.


The criticisms come from his architecture being too severe to have any playability with the chief complaint being how tough the courses are for the weaker player. The bunkers are severe; there are massive expanses of sand everywhere, you can putt off greens due the severe shelves, he uses cross hazards, and some shots are all or nothing with no options. The biggest complaint has to be the intentional use of blindness that most feel is not only unfair but dangerous. Some think his architecture is akin to the high school bully who pushes them around and intimidates them until they go home. His work is either loved or hated – and they hate it.


A few quotes:


“It is important to make the golf hole look more difficult than it really is."


“That is almost always the case on our courses, but if your mind convinces you that it really is a difficult shot, you’re beat before you even take the club back.”


My favourite is Monterey Peninsula GC (Shore Course) If fits the space so well with massive horizontal movement in the fairways to help fill the wide open space of the site. The more restrained and subdued architecture at MPCC, with a few little flash points here and there, gives you more time to enjoy the setting.


For me own personal takeaway, he created a superior playing experience is not only brought through the freedom to choose, but also through the joy of overcoming difficulty.His influence on me. A superior playing experience is not only brought through the freedom to choose, but also through the joy of overcoming difficulty. Mike taught me to take risks with my architecture and to say to hell with convention and criticism – it’s all about great holes.

[Jim Nugent]

Strantz hard, Fazio, easier.

That surprises me, because while I've never played a Strantz, I've read here on GCA that his courses look hard but play quite a bit easier. 

[Mike Sweeney]

Thanks Ian Andrew for that thoughtful response.

Strantz hard, Fazio, easier.

That surprises me, because while I've never played a Strantz, I've read here on GCA that his courses look hard but play quite a bit easier.

I would be in the look hard play easier camp. However, my only round at True Blue and my last on a Stranz course, was at a softened True Blue as outlined in the Mike Whitaker link above.


The thing I found with Stranz course is to play them up a tee. It looks short on the card, but it is much easier to attack with a wedge into his greens. If I ever go back to any for a second visit, I would probably go back a tee and then maybe Jeff is correct. To date, I am a "hit and runner" on Stranz courses played - 4 to date.

[A.G._Crockett]

I'll say the same thing I said to my son when I found his tin of Skoll:


Chewing tobacco can give you cancer and kill you.

That’s his legacy?    #Poorform

Relax.


If someone's death from oral cancer can lead to awareness for others, and it saves lives, then that would be an incredible legacy I would want.

Can you think of anything MORE important?

MPCC? Is that the easy answer?

The guy died at age 50 because he did not go to the doctor when his tongue ached. He should be alive today.

I would bet his family would be thrilled if his death created oral cancer screening awareness for others.

#falseassumptions
#moretoitthangolf
#ignoranceisadisease
#hashtagnonsenseisacrutch

And there are plenty of people, including my daughter, who go to the doctor immediately and die of cancer anyway.  Knowing that Mike Strantz died of cancer does not equal knowing what caused it, or whether or not it was curable.  Every case is different, and the survival odds you read in google search mean absolutely nothing for any individual case.

As to the Strantz family, they continue to do great work for cancer research and for the families of patients undergoing cancer treatment at the Hollings Cancer Center in South Carolina.  In addition to selling high quality prints of Mike's unique hole drawings, they have had a benefit golf tournament at one of his courses for a number of years.  I have played in the tournament, and was able to meet Heidi Strantz Mortimer, Mike's widow, as well as his two daughters.  They are lovely people who have tried to find a way to make something good come out of something tragic, which seems to be a near-universal drive in such cases.

As to the GOLF legacy of Mike Strantz, I simply say this:  If I was given one final round to play, I'd go to one of Mike's courses.  Not the Old Course, not NGLA, not ANGC, not Pebble, or anywhere else I can think of.  I find his courses to be nothing but the purest fun and great art, even on the days when I'm hitting it crooked and worry that I didn't bring enough golf balls to finish. 

My favorite golf day of the year each year comes the last week in July when I play True Blue in the morning and Caledonia in the afternoon; playing the 18th at Caledonia with the clubhouse behind the 18th green and the sun setting over the marsh is as good as this game we love gets for me.  No other GCA's work moves like that, and that's a helluva legacy in my eyes.

[Michael Whitaker]

Guys - please kill the sniping over Mike’s cancer and just focus on the golf courses.

There is enough debate “in the dirt” to keep you occupied.

Thanks!

[George Pazin]

I sometimes think I must be the only golfer in the world who prefers looks easy, plays hard to looks hard, plays easy.


-----


Nice post, AG.

[Kalen Braley]

I've only played one of his courses...MPCC shore and it was an absolute delight.  I don't know how it compares to his other works, but I didn't find it difficult as a High Capper.  Sure there were a few butt tightening shots, but what course doesn't have these?


TR still remains very high on my wish list.


P.S.  John, all these years we've been best buds and all, and you've never once come to visit me.  I'm hurt! 

[Carl Rogers]

Strantz's routings tend to be a bit convoluted and thus too dependent on the cart....my only critique of his work.  Played True Blue & Caledonia & Stonehouse once.... TR & RNK multiple plays.

[Ronald Montesano]

Aperitif: I love this quote from Mike Young, and am happy that I will meet him (fingers crossed) at The Fields in March

"And IMHO it is rare to find courses that stand the test of time unless their intended personality  can be maintained  over the years."

Palate Cleanser: I like John Kavanaugh more in this thread than I have in any others. Probably my fault, more than his.

Main Course: If you gave me the opportunity to play Cypress Point, or both the MPCC Shore course and Bulls Bay, I would elect the later. What I know of Strantz (having played True Blue, Caledonia, RNK, Stonehouse, Tobacco Road and Tot Hill Farm) I adore. I loved losing golf balls while trying to play the shots he asked me to play. I wore out my memory card taking photos of his canvases. Even as I was playing Stonehouse, I knew that it was not being kept to the standard that Mike Young outlines in the aperitif. And thus, we come full circle in this post.

[Dan Herrmann]

The legacy of Mike Strantz?   For me it's "Happiness".


I was able to play four of his courses and enjoyed them all.   Tobacco Road still makes me smile because I thought it was like art - it was all "in your face" type design and overwhelming and tremendously fun.


And then there is Bulls Bay.   Yeah, it's artificial and quirky.  But who cares!   The course is fun, fun, fun and very playable.

[Conley Hurst]

Strantz's routings tend to be a bit convoluted and thus too dependent on the cart....my only critique of his work.  Played True Blue & Caledonia & Stonehouse once.... TR & RNK multiple plays.

The convoluted routing was the one problem I had with Tobacco Road, the only Stranz course I've played. I was with a few fraternity friends and took a cart, but it appeared to be a tough walk given the substantial distance between a few of the greens and tees.


Other than that, I thought it was one of the most fun and imaginative courses I've played. Hole after hole, you are presented with visuals that are unlike anything you've seen. You're asked to hit a lot of funky shots (i.e. the approaches into 11, 13, 15), but I found the green sites to be quite receptive despite the odd angles and flashy bunkering. Several punchbowl greens if I remember correctly. I played well and had one of the lowest scores in my life. Pure, absolute, unadulterated fun.

[Tim Gavrich]

I think Mike Strantz is one of the most important architects of all time because of the way in which his courses push the envelope of what's possible in golf course design. A large part of the mythology of Arnold Palmer revolves around his aggressive, swashbuckling style of play. I would accord Mike Strantz a similar legacy with respect to the relatively niche field of golf course design.


Let's also keep in mind that there are more than a dozen courses that Strantz worked on, mostly for Fazio before striking out on his own, including...


Callawassie Island Club
Lake Nona
Black Diamond Ranch (Quarry)
Wade Hampton


Strantz is also responsible for the bunkering and green complexes at Heritage Club, which is practically adjacent to Caledonia and True Blue. Heritage is a little downmarket from Cal/TB but is a whole bunch of fun to play, and I think its green contours are tremendous. The 12th green at Heritage is one of my favorites anywhere.


I think Tobacco Road and True Blue are phenomenal mental tests for the handicap golfer. There is some extreme danger, but in many cases, there is ample room for a prudent player to tack around in order to make a par or bogey. On a hole like 4 at True Blue, you can make a bogey at worst almost every time by simply avoiding carrying any of the lake. But ego makes a lot of golfers play foolishly, and these courses simply do not suffer fools. When golfers whine about these courses being "tricked up," I'm betting it's because the course held up a mirror to that golfer's particular style of play, and what the golfer saw was not pretty.


"Width and angles" is a leading architecture buzzphrase on social media these days, and I don't know if many architects will ever nail that concept better than Strantz did at his best.

[Conley Hurst]

I think Tobacco Road and True Blue are phenomenal mental tests for the handicap golfer. There is some extreme danger, but in many cases, there is ample room for a prudent player to tack around in order to make a par or bogey. On a hole like 4 at True Blue, you can make a bogey at worst almost every time by simply avoiding carrying any of the lake. But ego makes a lot of golfers play foolishly, and these courses simply do not suffer fools. When golfers whine about these courses being "tricked up," I'm betting it's because the course held up a mirror to that golfer's particular style of play, and what the golfer saw was not pretty.


"Width and angles" is a leading architecture buzzphrase on social media these days, and I don't know if many architects will ever nail that concept better than Strantz did at his best.

Completely agreed, Tim. There are probably few better ways to teach someone about the strategic value of width and playing angles than taking them to a Strantz course. He pushes everything to the extreme on his courses, and this particularly includes the relative value of different angles of attack. To me, the strategic choices he offers the golfer are more obvious than they are on a more subtle or "traditional" course.

[Morgan Stephenson]

Thanks to all that have participated in this thread. I knew Mike well and considered him a friend. He left a lasting impact on me as I would not have the life I have today having not met him. I think of Mike just about everyday and we strive to present the golf course as he intended. He was a true artist that put everything he had into each project. His passion for his work was contagious and filtered down through the entire team. Sure miss him and so I enjoy reading these discussions as it makes me feel like he's still around.

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