… under Courses by Country and Architecture Timeline. Here is the link:
http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/white-bear-yacht-club/Formulating an opinion on a course happens quickly - as you walk off the 18th green, you invariably have one. When you stood on the first tee a few hours earlier, the deliberation had already begun. Some people don’t seem to need that much time - I recall Tommy N praising Friars Head two years before it opened!
I don't know about you, but a second ‘bite of the apple’ very much helps to confirm and solidify things in my own mind.
I first played White Bear Yacht Club in 2017 on a spectacular fall day, the kind on which only the dreariest soul wouldn't succumb to its charms. The heaving landforms, paucity of outside intrusions, relaxed atmosphere augmented by the yummy 'F Scott approved' bootlegger drink all ticked important boxes. My fondness for ~6,500 yard courses had me especially keen for a return visit. Happily, that occurred at our GCA gathering last August. Despite a bitter loss to Ted 'the Braying Donkey' Sturges, my admiration for the course only grew, despite bland lighting (and hence Jon Cavalier rides to the rescue again with a great crop of pictures - thank you, Jon!).
The question, as always, is why and pondering why certain courses resonate more than others is a life-long passion. Like most things that get 'under your skin', the reason that White Bear Yacht Club shines is because ... it is different. Consulting architect Jim Urbina draws a comparison to another absolute favorite, Eastward Ho!, but I can't think of many clay based courses blessed with such relentless topsy-turvy landforms.
As we state, ad infinitum, in the profile: the land makes the course. Since the land is so unique, so is the course. People go round and round trying to assign credit for who did what with the main protagonists being William Watson and Donald Ross. Personally, I think Watson deserves the lion’s share since the routing seems most likely his. Here, the routing over the exceptional landforms is far more important than well-placed bunkers. The putting surfaces finish off the holes with great aplomb, whether they occupy a high spot (7 and 10), a plateau (3), sit over the crest of a rise (12), benched into the side of a hill (8 ) or snuggle in a fold (5). The location of the greens both mimic and accent the broader land movement. It was this quality and variety of the green sites that especially impressed on my return.
Lots of people these days can build uber attractive bunkers. You see them on every course and I can’t recall a picture in a golf magazine where an impressive bunker wasn’t staring back. And though WBYC has them, that’s not what it is about. It’s the rarest form of golf architecture: ideal golf landforms perfectly encapsulated into the playing strategy by an architect(s) that could also finish off holes with great greens. The abilities to route holes and build great greens are the two most elusive attributes for an architect to possess. The people that worked on WBYC possessed them and thank goodness as the stakes were quite high given how rare it is to find land of such exception. Put another way, the heart breaks at the thought of less talented people squandering such superb land. Plus, give the club credit for recognizing what they possessed and not messing/cluttering it up over the past century. As consulting architect, Jim Urbina’s ‘less is more’ approach dovetails perfectly with the club’s ethos.
Recently, we have profiled three special, inland Golden Age designs in North America - Somerset Hills, Sleepy Hollow and now, White Bear. These clubs have peeled back tree growth to allow the properties and architecture to shine. I don't know what profile will follow but it feels like it will be downhill from here as these three are at the very high end of parkland golf.
Best,