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The Lido Course Profile Now Live!

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MCirba:
I need to get there soon.

John Challenger:
Played the Lido more times than any other course in 2024 despite the fact that it took me 3+ hours to drive there on weekend visits! Asking for your forgiveness for the superlatives that follow.

For friends playing the course for the first time, I instituted the sacrilegious rule that whenever they landed in the waste areas, they could tee up the ball on a tuft of grass. On the following rounds, we played true to golf's and CB's first principle, "play as it lays". It virtually eliminated the concern that the golf course was too hard. We also played multiple tees and I made sure my shorter hitting friends played from the greens or whites or white/greens (tees). One individual, who has moved up from a 14 to a 9 handicap this year, had the best score of his life with a 78 from the whites on our last round of that particular trip.

Not only is the Lido built for match play, it's a course that plays more fun low. Hickory play is encouraged and a set is easily rented. Playing match play with hickories is a blast and not only because total score no longer matters. With undulations and hazards in abundance, every shot is new. Like St. Andrews, the fairway undulations at the Lido seem as molded and intentional as greens.

Playing hickories, each shot has the complexity of a chip shot because aim and height and where to the land the ball matter. Running a fairway ball on bouncy turf between two hazards or landing it on an angled bank is as much fun as daring to hit it over a hazard. I look for those shots with my regular clubs now.

The greens are double and triple the size of most of the standardized greens of today. It effectively means there are two or three greens on many of the holes, which creates different lines and new hazards to navigate each day. Everyday golfers also hit many more greens, which means more happiness. The lost art of lag putting becomes important again and the lags can be journeys up and down and around.

The hard and fast and springy turf is built on top of 100 feet of sand. In the midwest section of the U.S., the opportunity to hit regularly off of firm turf is a rare joy.

The combined green complex for the Channel and Punchbowl holes just might be the greatest ever built in the history of golf. The Cape hole is a strategic masterpiece. The second shot around the corner or over the Alps to the two-tier green is spectacular.

For a course that really might be considered a 100 courses based on tee position, green position, and wind, CB's decision to finish with what today might be considered by gca aficionados the most famous hole ever designed, MacKenzie's Prize Hole, was an inspired  conclusion. It's the course in a nutshell. There are five different distinct lines to a gigantic, complex green. If the green might be considered to have five pin positions, i.e. one for each corner and the center, then the hole creates 5X5 different lines. Can that be found anywhere else in the world?

CB might have been the first person ever to consider the idea of scrutinizing the grounds at St. Andrews, and at other of the top courses of the British Isles, and then to bring archetypes (and clones?) to new life. Is it possible that CB took templates to the whole course level at the Lido? Later and for months, MacKenzie pored over the fairway undulations at St. Andrews in order to discern their impact. Did he ever make templates or drawings of the fairway features?

If Lido is the magnum opus of the mature CB, it seems prophetic that he chose Alister MacKenzie to design the last hole. Was he anointing or passing the crown to MacKenzie? CB selected someone else's new design, and not a tradition-based template, surprising decisions by someone historians often characterize as a self-absorbed traditionalist. Perhaps, he was pointing the way to the future, a new direction we might pursue today.

Joe Bausch:
I had the distinct pleasure of playing Lido in early May of 2024 w/ John Challenger and it was delight. We played up a set of tees and it was just as much fun as my maiden visit in May of 2023 playing the white tees.

If you enjoy my style of photo albums, you'll likely enjoy this one of Lido from the May 2024 visit:

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Lido_May2024/index.html

Michael Chadwick:

--- Quote from: John Challenger on December 16, 2024, 08:25:59 AM ---
If Lido is the magnum opus of the mature CB, his crowning achievement, it seems prophetic that he chose Alister MacKenzie to design the last hole. Was he anointing him or passing the crown? And he selected a new design, not a tradition-based template, that perhaps pointed the way to a future we might pursue today. A new direction.

--- End quote ---


John, appreciate your commentary. Your enthusiasm for the course is infectious.


This final paragraph is a fascinating idea. Whether or not Macdonald was passing the baton intentionally, it no doubt can serve as a great symbol for the progression of architecture in America.

MCirba:
I need to get to Sand Valley.


For those who've played both, how would you compare Lido to Old Macdonald?   I suspect they share some similar qualities.  I know I'm an outlier but OM is my favorite at Bandon.

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