My 2019 in Review - An attempt at "Frank Commentary and Discussion"

[Sven Nilsen]

Lookout Mountain Club - Lookout Mountain, GA

The Biarritz is lacking a maintained front section (precisely as Raynor evidently drew) but his ambitious bunkering couldn't be realized probably due to subsurface rock and ongoing maintainability.   

Curious as to where you get the idea that Raynor thought the Biarritz should have a maintained front section?  His plan for LM clearly delineates the green starts after the swale.

[MCirba]

Sven,


My wording was unclear, my bad.


What I meant to say is that the front of the Biarritz is maintained as fairway exactly as Raynor drew but the ambitious bunkering scheme he also drew was never realized, likely because of excavation difficulties and ongoing maintenance.


Hope that helps to clarify, thanks.

[Sven Nilsen]

Gotcha.  Nice thread you got going here.

[MCirba]

Gotcha.  Nice thread you got going here.

Thanks, Sven...much appreciated.

[Chris_Blakely]

Chris Blakely,

Thanks...I stand corrected and make way for Bishop Reverend Albion Knight's probiscus!

I was hoping you might get the reference as the 8th holes name is Bishop’s Nose!!


Great thread, you had some great golf trips last year!

[MCirba]

Skyline Golf Course - Carbondale, PA

Carl Schmidt 1959, Walter Petrilak 1988

Doak Scale Score - 1


Twelve years ago, I wrote about the short par five 18th at Skyline on this thread.

https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,30707.msg595289.html#msg595289

Sadly, the tree that played so much into the strategy of the hole is now just a large hole in the ground. 

Exhibit #2 proving that adage that sometimes you can't go home again.   

As I've gotten into my 60s, I'm finding some nostalgic joy in going back to play golf courses I played in my youth that I haven't been to in decades.   Never quite sure what to expect, one hopes to find a sense of rediscovery of something contiguous connecting youth and mature years, perhaps.   

Skyline Golf Course was one of the first  courses I ever played and it was where we played our high school matches.   It was a thriving family built, owned, and run operation and it featured an executive (generously par 32) front nine and a regulation (par 34) back nine where we played our matches.   It was no architectural giant but it had some good and interesting holes and certainly provided a nice, affordable place to play for our lower middle-class family.   Mowing was done with gang mowers and the greens were quite slow but always in tip top shape.  Believe it or not, the course used to have a few annual tournaments that would draw the best players in the region and it was always fun to watch them trying to hit the tiny green targets on the front nine and hit long drives that impressed me as a youth on the back.

My wife is starting to play again after some medical issues and I thought I'd take her to where I spent so many days of my youth and thought the front nine would be ideal for her to walk.   


Sadly, what we found was a course in a state of woeful decline with significant infrastructure and upkeep issues.   Fairway lengths were such that we spent inordinate time looking for golf balls and the greens were...in a word...dying.   

I don't want to spend much more time on this except to say I hope that whatever has happened can be somehow corrected.   

[MCirba]

Paramus Golf Course - Paramus, NJ

Willie Tucker/Cyril Walker 1929, Stephen Kay 1991

Doak Scale Score - 4


The 193 yard par three 12th has an old mausoleum in play a few steps right of the green.

When Ridgewood Country Club was being built in the late 1920s, Tillinghast and club officials considered three adjacent properties.  Interestingly, all of them were turned into golf courses within a few short years.   

Paramus was designed by Willie Tucker, who was the constructor of Ridgewood for Tilly, along with former US Open Champion Cyril Walker, who invested a lot of money into the new public course operation at what was originally called Saddle River Country Club and is now a township owned municipal called Paramus.   Somewhat tragically, the course fell on hard times during the depression and Walker lost his fortune and fell into alcoholic despair, dying in a jail cell just over a decade later.

While not long at just over 6300 yards to a par of 71, virtually every hole features sound, interesting architecture and some quite interesting greens.   Tucker's attention to detail is evident in both the land plan and the well-blended features and while there is nothing too visually attention-grabbing, there really isn't a need.   

All of the par threes are very good, and there are enough "half par holes" to keep everyone in the game.   Both nines end with tough holes, the 610 yard par five ninth over rolling terrain and the paralleling 420 yard 18th across similar terrain.   

[MCirba]

Orchard Hills Golf Course - Paramus, NJ

Herbert Strong 1931, Robert McNeill 2011

Doak Scale Score - 3


Orchard Hills occupies some nice, rolling terrain in Bergen County, NJ.

Another course adjacent to Ridgewood Country Club, I really wish I had the opportunity to see this course before the early 60s when half of the property was given up to create Bergen County Community College.   I've found almost invariably that Herbert Strong courses are worthwhile affairs, and there is still evidence at Orchard Hills of his talents.

The original course was around 6,600 yards but today's has been truncated to just over 2800 yards, par 35, and serves a a county park facility.   Still there are some decent holes still in play, such as the steep approach on the second and the rolling third that's a reachable par five.   The greens that are original (7 by my count) are invariably interesting, but if you're looking for a hidden Strong gem, this isn't the place.

[MCirba]

Galen Hall Golf Club - Wernersville, PA

Alex Findlay/Henry Williams 1907, A.W. Tillinghast 1917, William Gordon/David Gordon 1955

Doak Scale Score - 6


The 193 yard long "Moat Hole" to an island green asks a lot of tough questions to the golfer.

If you are a lover of quirk, Galen Hall Golf Club in the hills of east-central Pennsylvania not far from Reading is your cup of tea. 

Built originally as part of a hotel resort that offered a summer getaway and winter skiing, nine original holes were built by Alex Findlay with the property owner, and a decade later A. W. Tillinghast expanded the course to a full eighteen holes. 

After a drive and pitch par four opener along the property boundary/entrance road to a shelf of an elevated green tilted sharply left to right,  you are quickly served notice that this will not be standard fare golf on the 2nd hole, an up-and-over par five on steroids featuring a road crossing and then a reverse NASCAR banked turn to the left off a mountaintop to an elevated green far below.


Counter-intuitively, a drive well over into the right rough provides both a look at the distant green in the valley and the proverbial snowball's chance in hell of going for the green in two.  But from this vantage point, who could resist trying?


Conversely, here is the view everyone who takes that silly straight path up the middle of the fairway sees for their second shot, photo from the Bausch Archives.

The third continues with a lovely dogleg left, again along a road left with an approach over a public road sunken just below the green in a "ha-ha".   Time for Funk & Wagnalls; "A ha-ha is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond. The design includes a turfed incline that slopes downward to a sharply vertical face."

Four is a par six hole...actually a par three hole that should be a par six.   It is 195 yards, slightly downhill, with a diagonal creek in front wrapping around the right side with another road and OB a few paces left and a hillside with broken ground behind and right.   You know the proper shot is a layup, it's the #2 handicap hole on the course, yet once again who could resist attempting to hit such a simultaneously inviting and fearsome target?  (photo courtesy of the Bausch Collection)


Temptation gets the best of almost everyone on the fourth hole at Galen Hall.

And so it goes.   Some of the course is a slightly more standard, particularly those at the end of the property added by the Gordons in the 50s, but given the terrain the course does indeed keep you on your toes and never grows in any way tiresome or routine.

So it really is no big surprise when one finishes playing the long, 453 yard, number one handicap 14th hole with two creek crossings to come to the next hole and find a 193 yard par three to an island green propped up about 8 feet around, the famous "Moat Hole".

Consider that at this point you're still in the lower part of the property and need to get back up to the hilltop clubhouse and you'll get a sense of the final three holes, the 350 yard 16th, the 184 yard 17th steeply uphill across a ravine, and the uphill but reachable, bunkerless 480 yard par five finisher with a lovely, large green in full view of those dining on the clubhouse deck as you complete your round.   

What's even cooler is with all of the challenging terrain, Galen Hall is routed so thoughtfully that it really is a great walk over 100 years later.   What more could you want?

[Joe Bausch]

Galen Hall Golf Club - Wernersville, PA

Alex Findlay/Henry Williams 1907, A.W. Tillinghast 1917, William Gordon/David Gordon 1955

More photos of Galen Hall from a summer 2015 visit:

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/GalenHall/index.html

[MCirba]

Brigantine Golf Links -  Brigantine, NJ

Wayne Stiles/John Van Kleek 1927, Garrett Renn 1958, Garrett Gill 1986

Doak Scale Score - 5


There is something universally primal and endlessly appealing about open, wind-swept golf near the sea on sandy terrain.

I have no idea how to rate Brigantine Golf Links as I have a strong sentimental attachment having vacationed there with my family each summer through my teens.   To say the course provided me with "pleasurable excitement" to use Dr. Mackenzie's terms is a vast understatement.   So please take my rating with the proverbial grain of sea salt.

For starters, it is a housing development course, designed as such by Stiles & Van Kleek as one of the first planned recreational communities in the northeast in 1927, and admittedly the number and sizes of houses lining the perimeter has sadly dramatically increased over the past twenty years.
It is also almost dead flat,throughout, with some minor elevation near the newish clubhouse, which sadly replaced the ocean liner style castle backed by the bay I remember from my youth, now sadly replaced by three-story dwellings.

Conditions are never great, and always a bit raw, and in the roughs you're as likely to have a flat lie on hard-packed sand or some type of wiry crab-grass, as in thicker bents.   The greens are kept on the slower side, befitting the windy site largely open to water on three sides (Brigantine itself is a barrier island), and the short flagsticks no higher than shoulder tall are needed for the functional purpose of remaining in the holes.

The course itself was abandoned in the late 1930s during the Depression and lay fallow and overgrown for almost 20 years until local golf course architect (and Cobb's Creek Superintendent) Garrett Renn was given the original Stiles & Van Kleek plans and was asked to resurrect the course to meet the burgeoning post-war demand as the island itself was becoming a vacation destination.

Still and all, the routing through the housing community with a number of road crossings is actually a thing of beauty with two clockwise loops on each side of a dividing entrance road lead to a series of interestingly conceived holes that seem to turn in all the right places.   There are almost no trees, but most holes are lined with the native bayberry bushes and sea rushes.  Forgivingly, playing widths are lovingly generous with some thoughtful bunker placement as well as some unexpected appearances of water filtering in from the bay.

Perhaps the highlight of the course architecturally is the beautiful use of a corner of the property that is a poor man's "Amen Corner", with the 315 yard 11th featuring a drive over a wall of sand and an approach to what used to be an island green (reduced sadly to a peninsula), the mid-length par three 12th with a green obscured by giant bunkers on each diagonal, and the tricky 375 yard par four 13th with a dogleg right around a watery lagoon and bunkers left for those who chicken out.   I'm not sure what the modest total acreage occupied by those three gems is but the wrap around each other elegantly.


The amorphous nature and great width of the hole corridors on the perennially windy site is a big part of the appeal and day-to-day variation in how the holes play  Here on the 13th there are any number of aiming points but the green seen in the gap in the distant right center of the photo always presents an elusive target.

Brigantine ends with a terrific par four to the wildest green on the 16th, the toughest par four on the course at 17, and a very reachable, forgiving par five on 18 and it's the kind of place I've always wanted to go back out after the finisher, but mom and grandmom were waiting back at the beach so my brothers and dad would have to pack our clubs back in the car trunk and wait for another glorious tomorrow.


I always take one last, long, nostalgic look down the expanse of the 18th hole before saying goodbye to Brigantine.

 
 

[Joe Bausch]

Brigantine Golf Links -  Brigantine, NJ

Wayne Stiles/John Van Kleek 1927, Garrett Renn 1958, Garrett Gill 1986

More photos of Brigantine from 2 visits (Dec 2014 and Sept 2015):

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Brigantine/index.html

[MCirba]

Myrtlewood Golf Club (Palmetto) - Myrtle Beach, SC

Edmund Ault 1972, Dan Schlegel 2019

Doak Scale Score - 4


The 18th hole at the Myrtlewood Palmetto course benefits from the scenic journey up the Intracoastal Waterway.

Architect Edmund Ault was a significant player in the post World War expansion of the game during the 1950s through the 1970s and was responsible for many of the courses built in the mid-Atlantic area.   I've played any number of his courses and while they aren't stellar works of art they are highly-functional and generally interesting places to play.

Myrtlewood Palmetto was the second eighteen hole course Ault built on the property during the rapid expansion of golf in Myrtle Beach.   Although there is a real estate component, the setbacks are generous and the course is exceptionally playable even if there is minimal elevation change throughout.

The course benefited last year when the owners found Ault's original plans and were struck by how much the course had negatively changed over the years as bunkering became non-descript or disappeared and greens that always had some nice contouring had significantly shrunk.   

Architect Dan Schlegel, formerly of Ault/Clark was brought in to bring the course back to it's original dimensions.   Greens were expanded by 28% on average which really bring both new hole locations and the strategic interest of the greenside bunkering back into play.   Bunkers were re-done as well and the greens re-grassed with a newer strain of Bermuda.   The effect is much like being transported in a time machine back to 1972 as it feels like a new course without being a modern one.

[Peter Pallotta]

I have a soft spot for such courses and such architects, Mike.
The Southern-South Western Ontario equivalent to Mr. Ault was Rene Muylaert.
He started in the golf industry as a 'labourer' at Uplands (a Stanley Thompson design), and moved his way up over the years to being a superintendent.
Then he went into architecture, and he never lost the common touch: dozens of mostly modest/low budget courses and very playable designs followed.   
And, like with Myrtlewood, from what I could tell they were all highly functional -- and in truth they had much more strategic interest than most people recognize/give them credit for: subtle, no doubt, and gentle the choices were, but I'd like to think them 'minimalist' before the term came into use.
Sometimes I find myself thinking that the real/tangible/objective difference between a "4" and an "8" is often very small indeed (and even smaller if we are judging the 'architecture' instead of the 'course').  But I know: few are actually judging the 'architecture' rather than the 'course', and fewer still are judging the 'course' separate from its 'setting'.
And almost no one (myself included) is able now to 'judge' an Ault or a Muylaert with open eyes. 
PS - just realized that made it sound like I thought you couldn't properly review the course, Mike. I meant that it's hard for anyone, now, to tap into the frame of mind to fully appreciate the course's purpose/function, back then.

[MCirba]

Thanks, Peter...that rings very true to me, as well.

[Bernie Bell]

I think you're right Peter, if minimalism means using the fewest and simplest design elements to achieve the greatest desired effect, and fitting the (actual) lay of the land with as little disturbance as possible.  But I'm not sure that's how the term is used now.  I'm still trying to understand what is meant now (lot of threads on this), but it seems like it means different things to different people.

[Peter Pallotta]

Bernie - yes, that's a very good description/definition of what I did mean by that term.
It is so charming to me what could be accomplished on a dull piece of Ontario farmland or a nondescript strip of Myrtle Beach with little more than the one bunker per fairway the budget allowed for and a green that tilted a little back to front and left to right with the land. 

[MCirba]

Country Club of Landfall (The Dye Course) - Wilmington, NC

Pete Dye/P.B. Dye 1987

Doak Scale Score - 6


Pucker up on the 2nd tee on this short par three to a peninsula green where taking the obvious bunker bailout right is often just the start of one's problems.

The 1980s were arguably the most architecturally interesting of the late Pete Dye's career, where he perhaps had his best, most compelling combination of low-profile architecture blended with newer, imaginative, almost avant-garde touches.   This was first seen at Sawgrass, extended at Long Cove, and continued through the rest of the decade at places like PGA West (Stadium), Riverdale Dunes, Loblolly Pines, Old Marsh, and so forth.

Landfall is an enticing mix of lowland architecture with just enough contour built into it for continual interest and variety.   The short par four first with water abutting the green on the right and the wonderful short par four second are a caffeine addicts worst nightmare start, with the 2nd hole featuring a tongue of green back left that is just the height of audaciousness.   

Fairways twist and turn with few dead straight holes so one is always needing to consider position.   The par five 6th is a great example where from the tee you can challenge and attempt to carry a large pond left (the hole turns that way) to get into reasonable position to attack the semi-blind green turning right behind a massive bunker at the top of a rise.

In fact,  almost all of the par fives are beauts, including the 12th that swings left and features a green well atop a steep rise with narrowing fairway in the last 110 yards.   Temptation being what it is, most folks take the bait and end up down in a swale well below with that dreaded 80 yard steep uphill approach to the top of the flagstick view.

The back nine also features a series of lovely par fours that keep you on your toes and afford the advantage to the bold player who also knows where to miss.   Such it is that the long 14th to a lovely green extending effortlessly from the fairway is the perfect place for a low-running approach, while the short par four 15th requires a drive that boldly attacks the left side (there's a world of room right, seemingly) and a fairway bunker is rewarded with the only visible approach.  Those bailing right from the tee must confront a large built up mound and a blind wedge to a tiny green with water left and behind.

The long par four 17th is simply elegant, and again the play is to avoid temptation on the dogleg right and to simply play towards the bunkers down the left.   From there, a lovely approach to a beautiful greensite benched into a hill is stellar stuff.   

The course is not without its drawbacks, as the long par three 16th at a killer angle over water to a shallow target with a deep bunker behind is more akin to PGA West sadism, and the short par five 18th to a green sitting in what seems to be a moat of sand and a high side/low side fairway option that doesn't quite work as intended are disappointing on a course offering so many fine golf holes.

[Joe Hancock]

Landfall Club.....that takes me back! I was the irrigation tech there in 1986/87! It was in the tail end of construction when I came on board. The super once gave me the job of spending 2 days w/ the photographer that Dye sent along. I was to do whatever he wanted...pin placements, ladder, move things around, etc. That photographer, who is the same age as me, started asking me what I knew about growing Fine Fescue, because he was getting ready to build his first design in Traverse City, MI and needed a super.....I was honest when I told him I knew very little!

Didn’t get the chance to run into him again until I walked The Loop with him the winter before it opened....The kid did well for himself, I’d say![/size][size=78%] [/size]

[Erik J. Barzeski]

@MCirba, I'm enjoying your recaps and photos.

Do you write the entries up throughout the year, or are you writing them all now as you post them? If the latter, wow.

[MCirba]

Hi Erik,

Glad you're enjoying...thanks for the nice comments.

I've always had sort of a photographic memory when it came to golf courses, not sure why except I love looking at them.   Through this process I've just gone back to my scorecards I have arranged chronologically from the past year and maybe refresh the routing looking at aerials and historical data while I gather my thoughts and then just commit pen to paper.   It's been fun!



Joe Hancock,


I think I may know that guy as well.  I believe I played his course in Traverse City, sadly no more.

[MCirba]

Cape Fear National Golf Course - Leland, NC

Tim Cate 2009

Doak Scale Score - 5.5


The proverbial kitchen sink may be the only thing missing on the par four 5th hole at Cape Fear National.

Not to be confused with Cape Fear Country Club, which is the oldest country club in North Carolina, Cape Fear National Golf Course had the unfortunate plight of opening in 2009 during the height of the economic collapse.   As such, ownership changed hands (again?) last year and the course is now being run by a management company.   It remains to be seen if the growth of the surrounding real estate community is enough to keep the golf course viable over time.

Designed by regional architect Tim Cate who has crafted a large handful of well-regarded courses in the coastal NC/SC region, Cape Fear National is certainly eye-catching.   Cate's style, which seems not to vary from site to site is a visually overwhelming, almost Dali-esque form of maximalism that is one part Mike Strantz, one part Desmond Muirhead, and one part Alister Mackenzie or Pete Dye.   Because for all of the optical histrionics, most of it is illusion and purposefully so.   None of the holes play anywhere near as difficult as they appear at first glance and if you don't fall for the intimidation factor and play conservatively they are fairly easy to navigate.

Take the third hole, for instance...please! 






Seriously, from the tee it appears as though this cape-like hole is nothing but a sea of water from tee to green as it turns right to left.   Most assuredly time to reach in the bag for the water ball.  However, taking a line out towards the left fairway bunker requires a carry of maybe 120 yards and there are acres of fairway beyond.   The lake doesn't come within 100 yards of the green. 

And so it goes.   On hole after hole you stand on the tee wondering how you're going to navigate such a ferocious jungle of round-ruining horrors only to arrive at the fairway, or the green, and look back saying to yourself, "oh...is that all there is?"   Turns out it's a comedy, not a tragedy.  The only thing you have to fear is fear itself.

Fact is, there's a pretty good golf course in amidst all the clutter and noise, and with few exceptions like the 10th where housing has been built perilously close to the green, most of the golf holes are well out in serene Mother Nature and fundamentally enjoyable and otherwise architecturally sound.   

The course is unusual in that both nines end with a par three, which seems more a function of the limits of the real estate plan than any quirky intent.   Even within those limitations, the course is eminently walkable and even intimately routed in most stretches.   Just bring your sense of humor.

[MCirba]

Coming next, my final two courses of 2019 aka "Donald Ross comes to Wilmington".

Wilmington Municipal
Cape Fear Country Club

[MCirba]

Wilmington Municipal Golf Course - Wilmington, NC

Donald Ross 1926, Ron Prichard/Clyde Johnston 1998, John Fought 2014

Doak Scale Score - 5.5


The tawny colors of the dormant Bermuda make a lovely contrast on the par three 4th "Volcano Hole". (Did I mention it makes me absolutely crazy when I see young people taking carts, especially on such a wonderfully lovely walking course?)

I first want to link to Ran's typically wonderful review of Wilmington from 2002.   I'm not sure what more I can say except that everything he wrote at that time still generally holds true today, particularly the firm playing conditions.   

http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/wilmington-golf-course-nc-usa/

My wife and I first played there about 10 years ago and this year she insisted we go back.   The fact the ball runs forever is a constant delight to her and she did say I should mention that whoever built the thoughtful, well-positioned "red tees" at 4,723 yards should be knighted.   Most courses are way too long & laborious for the average woman golfer.

It's her favorite course of the 50 or so she's played to date.

[MCirba]

Cape Fear Country Club - Wilmington, NC

Capt. E.W. Van Court Lucas 1902, Arthur Fenn 1905, Isaac Mackie/Burke Bridgers 1915, Donald Ross 1925, 1946, George Cobb/John Lafoy 1985, Willard Byrd 1993, Kris Spence 2006, Andrew Green 2018

Doak Scale Score - 7


Everything is set on the same diagonal as the creek on the stunning short par four 13th. (The tee is back right)

One of my most pleasant surprises of 2019 came on the final course of the year, Cape Fear Country Club.   Formed in 1896, and playing essentially on the same site since the early 1900s, the course began as nine holes, expanded to 18 in 1915, had some significant Ross revisions (and 7 new holes) in 1926 before a cohesive 18-hole Ross plan was drawn in 1946, one of his final courses (with J.B. McGovern). 

I wasn't able to tell how much of what Ross drew (thankfully the club still has his detailed original hole drawings) found it's way into the ground at that time but subsequent revisions to the course and expansion of the clubhouse and parking over the next 60 years that eliminated the Ross 10th hole and much of the 18th hole (replaced with two new Willard Byrd holes in the 1990s) meant that Cape Fear came into the 21st century with a course that was a true RINO (Ross In Name Only).
 
As such, it comes as no surprise to me that when Tom Doak and Ran Morrissett rated Cape Fear based on playing there in 2005 they rated it as a "5" and "4", respectively in the most recent "Confidential Guide", bemoaning the loss of Ross features and holes over time.   Indeed, aerials from that time period show a course missing many of the bunkers that Ross drew, as well.

In recent decades, the club has thankfully taken a new approach.   In 2006 Kris Spence did restoration work to the worn out bunkers so that at least they were much more in tune to what Ross built.   That work was well-received but a combination of continuing drainage issues and problems with the greens led the club to consider a more holistic approach and over the last few years embarked on a complete $5 million dollar restoration effort to rebuild of all the greens, bunkers, as well as considerable tree removal that was led by architect Andrew Green working from the original Ross plans.   The two Byrd holes were abandoned and today's 14th hole looks to be a plan replica of the original 10th, while 18 has been reconstructed (using the original greensite) into a good short par four finisher.


The par three 14th provides much the same challenge as the original abandoned 10th, thanks to the preservation of all the Ross hole drawings.

The results are wonderful.   Always blessed with a lovely, rolling site for golf, with a sense of history amplified by Civil War trenches and embankments across the property, and an open, graceful spaciousness through most of the course that provides a sense of civil gentility, Cape Fear again looks and feels like an authentic Donald Ross course.