Rolling Green

[Steve Curry]

Wow.  Played yesterday, absolutely awesome.

Regards,
Steve

[JDoyle]

Steve,

I played RG earlier this fall and couldn't agree more.  Has to be one of the most underated in the north-east.

JD

[wsmorrison]

Steve,
Sorry I didn't get out there to watch play yesterday.  When was the last time you were out to RGGC or was this the first time?  Warren is doing a wonderful job.  Foliage must have been nice.
Regards,
Wayne Morrison  

[mike_malone]

  We were playing Sunday afternoon and noticed all the employees scurrying all over --working on bunkers,sucking up leaves.We asked one"What's going on?This cannot be for the members." "A bunch of superintentants are coming tomorrow."
  Stephen
       Glad you enjoyed your day. Did you notice those trees on.......

[Allen_Rebstock]

Stephen, well tell us more!  What was your favorite holes or stretch of holes. My favorite is the short uphill dogleg right 12th. Then the 13th, 14th, 15th provide some dramatic approaches and tee shots.  Also the par 5 7th with the downhill tee shot and church steeple target in distance is quite interesting and the uphill par 4 8th and uphill/side hill par 5 9th may be the toughest back to back holes I've ever played.  

[mike_malone]

 Allen

   The holes you mentioned along with #10 get most of the "pub" ,but i have recently been enamored of some of our supporting holes.#5 has such a fun approach shot,#17 has a deceptive rise from 150 yards up to the green.When you look back from the green you can see it.A friend of mine says he can't believe #11 is in Delaware County--it must be in the mountains  he says.
    There was a thread in the past year that quoted some modern architect saying something like"if the classic architects had today's equipment they could make 18 great holes."

   I prefer the variety that Flynn designed.The flow of good to stunning and back helps the overall appreciation and the memorability.


    Now if i could only convince the membership to UNCOVER more of what was designed,built, and maintained for forty+ years,everyone would be more amazed.

[Dan Herrmann]

Makes you wonder why RG isn't more widely recognized.  I thought it was one of the best/most beautiful courses I've ever played.

[TEPaul]

Steve Curry at Rolling Green!? My My! Well I expect a report any minute now from Steve Curry himself on that point of "maximum reasonableness" of greenspeed for Rolling Green, even for the best players in the world, utilizing the one and only "Steve Curry Greenspeed Barometer."

In this case, Steve, there's no reason at all not to report that speed as a stimp number although you obviously didn't stimp the greens. I fully expect your "eye" and your "feel" to be that good and that accurate!  

[BCrosby]

I played Rolling Green two weekends ago and had meant to post something sooner.

It is a terrific golf course. RG has a set of par 3's that are as good as anywhere. No. 10 is world class. Nos. 12 through 15 are varied, fascinating par 4's.

Why RG isn't more widely recognized as one of the best courses in the US can only be due to the proximity of Merion and Pine Valley.  

It's a must play.

Bob

[DPL11]

Steve,

I also played in the MET Championship at RG on Monday. I have had that date circled on the calender for quite some time, and I haven't played since the re-grassing a few years ago. I love the tee shot on #2, the (a** pucker) approach of #12, and the one shot #14, but then again, I love the whole package. Not a weak hole on the course, and superb conditions.
One of the best in Philly.

DPL11

[Steve Curry]

I just typed a long reveiw/response and had my computer freeze , junk.

I ahve to go meet my new wife for dinner, but quickly there are no, no bad or boring holes.  There is as with great courses a mounting anticipation to see the next great hole.  The elevation and contour are utilized to the nth degree.  It was awesome.

Tom, I regret not inviting myself over to see you but I drove down late Sunday night and left immediatly after the dinner.

The greens were at excellent speed.  Can't really say how they are typically.

I played with Warren and he is a great guy and an excellent Superintendent.  The course is in phenominal shape.

More later, got to go....

[Dan Herrmann]

You're right  -  I knew I was in for a great day when I saw how beautiful #1 was - with its nice chipping area in front of the green and the super contours.

Yep - I three putted, but it was a lot of fun...

You know you're at a special place with great members who are proud of their course without being stuffy.  Seemed to me to be a prototype of what a golf club should be - great course, friendly, and fun.

[wsmorrison]

Bob,

Don't forget that 14 is the reverse redan par 3 across the same valley in the opposite direction from the great 13th with the blind tee shot, steep drop off, creek, landing area, and plateau green benched into the hillside.  It just seems that a 4 feels like a good score on 14  !  That was a fun weekend, I look forward to your next visit to Philly.  At least we like to spend time with you, your daughter is busy at Penn with her new friends and frenetic college life.  Tell Betsy I'm sorry the better team won, must have been a long ride home for the Yale team!  Look forward to visiting you down in Atlanta.

Dan,

Don't feel bad, #1 green baffles the best of us.  Walking off #1 shaking your head after more putts than you imagined makes the tee shot on #2 that much more difficult!  And it is demanding to start with, as DPL11 noted.

Steve,

Looking forward to hearing more from your RGGC experience when you have the time.  I agree with you, Warren is doing a wonderful job at the course, especially with restoring the bunkers after their poor reconstruction, tree removal, and overall course conditioning.

Regards,
Wayne

[Dave_Miller]

Rolling Green is clearly among the best.  In 2002 I played it for the first time since 1979.  I had forgotten how good it really is.

But Mayday there just aren't enough trees
Best,
Dave

[mike_malone]

 Dave
   I want to plant some trees on RG....Seriously!!!!
We need to prepare for the eventual demise of some of the old hardwoods.Selective plantings now will be ready to take over in 50 years.


    I got a chance to play Hidden Creek for the first time today.I was thinking about its top 100 ranking.I enjoyed the course,but (excuse my bias)i think it needs to be better than RG to be in the top 100---no way!!!!

[Steve Curry]

I said to Warren as we played, "you know, you could take out half the trees here and not notice the difference".


Regards,
Steve

[TEPaul]

"I said to Warren as we played, "you know, you could take out half the trees here and not notice the difference".

Steve;

You know the irony at Rolling Green is you would notice the difference if they took out about half the trees but the difference would not what most people think. What you'd notice is how beautiful some of those trees over there are that can't be seen well now.

If they'd only take out a ton of trees on that course they could isolate some of those real good looking trees which would just serve the purpose of highlighting them. One of the  ironies of these golf courses that are chocked full of all kinds of trees--a policy of these so-called "tree huggers"---is the  beautiful ones don't show up because they can't be seen. It's a situation of losing the trees for the forest!

[GeoffreyC]

Careful what you say Mayday.

Hidden Creek is one of those untouchable sacred cows on GCA. We can't even think out loud that its not among the Top 100.

I happen to agree with you about the direct comparison between RG and HC.

[JDoyle]

I played both Hidden Creek and Rolling Green this summer.  Both courses are challenging, well designed and fun to play.  However, HC does not have a stretch of holes like 12, 13, 14 & 15 at RG.  

Certainly HC is a new course and deserves time to improve by working through some of the rough spots - as have been previously discussed on other threads - no need to do it again.  But considering both courses as they exist today -  I do not see how anyone who has played both courses recently can rank HC higher than RG, IMHO.

[TEPaul]

"We can't even think out loud that its not among the Top 100."

GeoffreyC;

Maybe you can't but I can. Why? Because the Top 100 means almost nothing at all to me!  

[Dan Herrmann]

I knew RG was a special place when we stopped in at the grill after our round, and other members were busting on Mayday, "Did he hear the trees talking to him again?"

A great course with a what seemed to be great group of members.  You don't always see the two go together, do you?

[GeoffreyC]

Tom

Being an acknowledged troublemaker anyway gives me license to speak my mind even if the Top 100 lists (GW anyway) do mean something to me.  

[TEPaul]

Dan:

You think RG has a great group of members? Try telling that to Rolling Green's members! Or if you really want to get in an argument try telling Philly C.C's members that they have a great group of members!  If you want to get into a world war go on over to....well, never mind. But if you go over to my club and tell any member that GMGC has a great group of members the undeniable response you'd get from any of them would be;

"Is that right, well, then perhaps I should meet them!"  

[mike_malone]

 People do often get upset when one rates one course over another.I just think the land is not dramatic enough for some courses to be great.HC is a nice course.In fact i thought of it as a "member's "course.There were few forced carries,you can run the ball up onto most of the greens,the driving areas are ample.I did find the greens tricky.Again i admit my bias,but parkland courses with elevation changes create an excellent basis for great courses.Flynn wrote that a good piece of land was one of his main ingredients.
  What C/C did with the land there is well done.I must say it does not seem much different than Twisted Dune,just down the road.By this i mean they both did nice things with bland land.
   

      As Tom says we should uncover some of the specimen trees.The massive reduction of evergreens would achieve this.We also need to open up some of the views.
      Based on what i have learned from Flynn's plans and writings and listening to Wayne Morrison ,Tom Paul,Redanman,and Mark Fine the script for trees on RG is obvious.


         Leave those trees that were on the property when it was built and those planted in the 30's which all seem to match Flynn's concepts.Remove or trim these only for agronomic reasons.

     Maintain some of the evergreens between 9-11-12 for safety.

    Get rid of all other evergreens and all the secondary line of trees.


   This seems radical to some.BUT IT IS HOW FLYNN DID IT-HOW IT WAS MAINTAINED FOR FORTY YEARS---AND REITERATED IN GIL HANSE'S EXCELLENT MASTER PLAN.

[TEPaul]

Mayday;

I would think at Rolling Green you'd need to be careful when taking out trees en masse to watch carefully what you might be exposing from almost any angle. In other words you guys really do need to protect your borders from sight-lines and obviously there are some things in the middle of the course that you need trees to block from every single angle too.

I'd think that anyone who really did do a comprehensive tree plan and tree work at RG which would be exposing some truly fine "golf views" and such while at the same time continuing to hide what needs to be hidden with trees would need to view that property from just a ton of angles. And then as the trees were coming down be there to do it again and continuously!