Pittsburgh Trio: Field Club-Fox Chapel-Chartiers (new Fox Chapel photos posted )

[Ronald Montesano]

From May 31 to June 2, Kevin Lynch and I had the great privilege to visit Pittsburgh and play three wonderful courses at wonderful private clubs. Over the next few weeks, I'll add images from each of the spaces, to give you an idea of what we saw. Feel invited to chime in, beginning now, with your impressions of each club's course. PFC is an Alex Findlay/Keith Foster layout; Fox Chapel is restored to Raynor by Tom Marzolf of Fazio Design, and Chartiers is a Willie Park restored by Steve Forrest of Arthur Hills.

[Tommy Williamsen]

One of the more non-golfing memorable features on one of the courses.

[Tommy Williamsen]

At Fox Chapel number 17 is a great Biarritz, 2 is a wonderful short par five to a punchbowl green. The bunkering is excellent and 18 is a great finishing hole. I think it is top ten in the state.[/font]
PFC has one of the more memorable opening tee shots. Even I get a lot of hang time. The terrain was made for golf and whoever decided to put a golf course there was brilliant or lucky. Eight is probably the most difficult hole on the course. While the front nine generally goes east and west the back nine goes in many different directions and uses the terrain imaginatively. I loved it. I could play either all the time and be very happy.[/font]

[Kevin Lynch]

Tommy -


I can see why you love PFC - you have the game to be challenged repeatedly and can stand up to that test.  When Oakmont held the Amateur, I can fully understand why it was hosted in concert with PFC.  With the rough maintained as it was the day we played, PFC demanded accuracy, and I can imagine it was even more demanding before the vast majority of trees were removed. 


I looked at many photo tours after completing the round, and couldn't believe how different the course looked in just the past 5-10 years.  The removal certainly opened up many more vistas, and found a good balance of accomplishing with one tree the same general effect that was previously enforced with 10 trees.   In a few spots, the rough level and trees felt like a little bit of a "double hazard," but that's probably more a matter of personal preference.  Plus, I recognize that the removal so far was already fairly jarring, so the few spots I would have gone further with tree removal may not have been feasible from a membership standpoint.

I can't argue with the assessment of #8 - that's a stern test and there's no opportunity to run up a fairway wood or hybrid if you don't get the best out of your drive.  But if you do hit the GIR, you know you've done something (I'll have to leave that to my imagination, though). 


Of the 3 courses we played, you can imagine that PFC was the least conducive to my style of play, but I certainly need to place that on me, rather than the design. 

[astavrides]

With the rough maintained as it was the day we played, PFC demanded accuracy, and I can imagine it was even more demanding before the vast majority of trees were removed. 

what year/s were the trees removed?

[Ronald Montesano]

Here are images from the first three holes of each course, beginning with Pittsburgh Field Club



HOLE 1









HOLE 2





HOLE 3

[astavrides]

It is incredible how many trees the Field Club removed.

[Ronald Montesano]

They got the memo. I never saw the previous iteration...literally. I was at Fox Chapel in 2004, but could not see the golf course through the trees, across the road.


I used to think that the first-tee-drop at Lookout Point was steep; then I played this one! I wonder if it is indeed higher at PFC, or if my senses betrayed me.

[Terry Lavin]

Pittsburgh is a great golf destination, even if you can’t get on Oakmont. Great golf, great restaurants, great vibe.

[Ronald Montesano]

Fox Chapel completed a stunning neo-restoration of its Seth Raynor course. There is one green left to come, and lord would it be an intoxicating reclamation. Fingers are crossed! My group began play at the 4th tee, so these images of holes 1-3 came at the end of a wonderful day, with a bit of anticipation for the festivities that would follow. The first is a dogleg right par four; the second is a dogleg left par five; the third is a par three. They are named Away, Punch Bowl, and Eden. The first is not a template hole.


Away





 



PUNCH BOWL

















EDEN

[Tom Bacsanyi]

There was much gnashing of teeth when the Fox Chapel/Fazio announcement came out, but the work looks really good!


I wonder if this was really driven by Fazio, or if it was more of a Marzolf (lead associate) passion project. And since it was Raynor, I wonder why they were selected over Doak's guys or Silva or something. In other words guys that are more familiar with Raynor restorations.


Or perhaps it was a personal connection within the club. Who knows?

[Ronald Montesano]

Ground Control To Major Tom,


Those are great questions, and they are precisely the ones that I asked of Mr. Marzolf at the media day. What a genial, generous man he is! He did an interview with me for BuffaloGolfer.Com about five months ago, and was very free with his time and answers. He did move to Pittsburgh during the pandemic, so that he could be on site every day of the project's conclusion.


Fox Chapel is a 1A to Oakmont's 1, in the Pittsburgh area. That is not meant to denigrate either course. Oakmont is that incredible one-off by an amateur architect (Fownes) while Fox Chapel is a wondrous collection of template holes plus unique ones, and that one green left waiting to be returned. It would be spectacular.


I would say this: a club is responsible for its property, and its committees dictate to the retained architect precisely what they want from a project. If they allow any architect to tell them something else, the committee is culpable. In this case, we have Raynor 2.0, in a way that allows the course to challenge elite players in the 21st century AND play as an interesting daily club course for a fortunate membership.

[Ronald Montesano]

With that, let's have a look at the surprise of our brief sojourn to Yinserville. We stumbled onto Chartiers, a Willie Park design under the care of Steve Forrest. I knew what to expect from FC, and I had an idea of what I would find at PFC. I was in no way prepared for the brilliance of Chartiers. The welcome from Bob and Ben made it that much more memorable. Don't sleep on Chartiers, as the Flappers used to say in the Roaring 20s.


Hole The First












Hole The Second












Hole The Third

[Dean DiBerardino]

Fox Chapel completed a stunning neo-restoration of its Seth Raynor course. There is one green left to come, and lord would it be an intoxicating reclamation.

I attended the final round of the Constellation Senior Players Championship at Fox Chapel a few years back and was chatting with the head golf professional, Alex Childs, about the course. He mentioned that the 13th green was originally a Double Plateau. Is this the "one green left to come"?

I'm looking forward to the rest of this thread as it looks like Chartiers has done some renovations as well    Thanks Ron.

[Will Lozier]

Chartiers looks amazing!! Can't wait to see more of this course that I don't believe I've ever heard about!


Cheers

[Tim Martin]

The bunkers look good at Fox Chapel in both scale and shape. Tom Marzolf has done some good work on other Golden Age courses with the occasional deviation of the original bunker shapes/style. A couple of examples where the shapes seem contrary are CC of Scranton and Wee Burn. Finally I know that the marching orders are not always to restore to the letter depending on the client.

[John Kavanaugh]

These are the most honest golf photos I have ever seen. Whoever took them really gets it.

[Ronald Montesano]

Dean: Correct
Will: Chartiers blew my mind
Tim: Consistent geometric shapes at FC
John: Thank you

[Tommy Williamsen]

 don't really like the "eyebrows" around the bunkers. I belonged to two clubs that had it but after a few years it was gone because guys hated losing balls are hitting out of the stuff. The long grass adds insult to injury.

[Dean DiBerardino]

The bunkers look good at Fox Chapel in both scale and shape. Tom Marzolf has done some good work on other Golden Age courses with the occasional deviation of the original bunker shapes/style. A couple of examples where the shapes seem contrary are CC of Scranton and Wee Burn. Finally I know that the marching orders are not always to restore to the letter depending on the client.

It looks as if they've "softened" up the grass faces of the bunkers in making them less steep and easier to maintain. The Evangelist of Golf states that Raynor designed the course and Banks finished it. It makes me wonder if the steeper grass bunker faces were a Banks feature. Maybe the softer slopes are more Raynor-esque and easier to maintain. Just wondering 

[Ronald Montesano]

Tom: Your favorite Scrambler from western New York made the same comment. He is a wilder hitter than I, and is more likely to find those eyebrows. For me, they are an adornment. I love the look. I also love to remind golfers of two things: the unplayable lie penalty and lessons. Take the former and avoid injuries; take the later and avoid the former.


Dean: I'll enquire. That's a heck of a good question. We didn't come across Banks' name during the media event, but I will see what my intel reveals.

[Chris Mavros]

The bunkers look good at Fox Chapel in both scale and shape. Tom Marzolf has done some good work on other Golden Age courses with the occasional deviation of the original bunker shapes/style. A couple of examples where the shapes seem contrary are CC of Scranton and Wee Burn. Finally I know that the marching orders are not always to restore to the letter depending on the client.

It looks as if they've "softened" up the grass faces of the bunkers in making them less steep and easier to maintain. The Evangelist of Golf states that Raynor designed the course and Banks finished it. It makes me wonder if the steeper grass bunker faces were a Banks feature. Maybe the softer slopes are more Raynor-esque and easier to maintain. Just wondering 

Dean, that is correct.  I played FC a couple weeks ago and the members told me the gentler faces are easier to maintain and now vary the shots around the bunkers because the ball could end up staying some where on the slope, instead of everything falling into the bunker.  I believe they also said that was a Raynor feature but am not 100%.  It really stood out during the round. 

[Ronald Montesano]

I'll mix up the order this time, and return us to Chartiers. The movement of this property defies description. I've not punched up any of these images, recasting the overcast day that we experienced. We heard a rumor that Park was not responsible for the greens; that they were the result of the land sinking over the mine shafts that lay beneath. We cannot verify nor discredit this interpretation of the mildly-brilliant surfaces that we encountered.


Here are five photos that depict the topography of Chartiers. I encourage you to contact the shop if you plan to be in the area.

[Ronald Montesano]

Here is a sextet of images from across the first 12 holes at PFC. This was when light was at its highest and brightest; some like that in their photos. Splendid property and enviable routing.

[astavrides]

Still can't get over how different PFC looks. Every hole was tree-lined before.