Golf Club Atlas
GolfClubAtlas.com => Golf Course Architecture Discussion Group => Topic started by: Jason Thurman on July 21, 2020, 10:16:51 AM
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Every once in a while, I come across a really cool hole on a course that’s almost completely unheralded, and throw together a thread profiling it. In this installment, I want to take a closer look at the 13th hole at The Mill Course, a municipal course in Cincinnati managed by Hamilton County.
The Mill Course is, if I understand correctly, a Jack Kidwell design that was updated by Michael Hurdzan. As far as I can tell, it’s only received about two sentences worth of discussion on this forum before, and one of those sentences categorizes it as a surefire Doak 3. I agree with this rating, but it deserves some credit for being quirky and fun. For an average course, this place has a lot of compelling shots, a fair amount of risk/reward, a whole collection of excellent greensites with some pretty wild putting surfaces here and there, and a nice ebb-and-flow of scoreable vs difficult holes without relying much on length. It gets downright weird in spots and it’s certainly overtreed, but I think it’s a fun play. It’s also an amazing place to watch wild birds in action – after playing there for three straight days in the Club Championship, I’m just shocked by the amount of turkey, heron, and hawk action we witnessed. I could talk about that for a while, but I digress.
I like a lot of holes at The Mill Course, but I think I’d give 13 my vote for the best of the bunch. It’s a short par 4: 330 yards or so on the card, but the back tee is only 300 yards from the middle of the green. The hole’s playing corridor creates a right-to-left dogleg as seen in the aerial below:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50136558848_9660119ed3_c.jpg)
The conventional tee shot plays slightly uphill to a fairway that runs out around the 230 yard mark from the tee. The photo below is taken a little up the hill from the tee – the landing zone is really blind from the tee, though the location of the fairway is pretty clear.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50137109556_356dc4606b_c.jpg)
The approach, then, is played to a beautifully sited green, recessed down into a bowl some 15 or 20 feet below the landing area, surrounded by trees and a marshy hazard. As the photo below shows, it’s important to position the tee ball for a clear shot into the green, most easily achieved by playing to the outside of the dogleg, although the bowl surrounding has funneling slopes (perhaps unfortunately maintained as rough) that can be used to bounce a ball in.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50136567013_9ec2e37b84_c.jpg)
The green itself sits on a little peninsula jutting down into the marshy area surrounding, narrowing at the back, and somewhat crowned on the edges. The photo below was taken from the end of the fairway, some 15 feet of elevation above the green – it’s a pronouncedly downhill approach.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50136567233_80f41dcb49_c.jpg)
It’s a fairly simple hole really, but it creates a number of give-and-take situations for almost any level of player that make it remarkably interesting. Consider:
Played conventionally, this hole calls for an ideal tee shot of about 200-230 yards. There’s plenty of room, but finding the correct angle is tricky. The tee shot plays just uphill enough to be semi-blind in the landing zone. A ball hit a little left risks getting blocked out by the trees that surround the green, while the angle opens up from the right. But if you go too far right, even in the fairway, the approach becomes blind because the fairway plateau will block the view of the recessed green. Miss the fairway right, and you’re coming in off a downslope that will make it hard to control the approach. And that’s assuming you stay inside the treeline right – the trees aren’t so thick as to leave no shot of recovery, but they can certainly complicate things.
- [size=78%] The green complex doesn’t leave easy recoveries for poorly played shots. On one hand, the green sits in a bit of a bowl and even though that bowl is lined with rough, you can still bounce a shot down onto the putting surface and find creative recoveries when out of position. But nobody wants to pitch from a downhill lie to this green, especially with a front pin, so the run-up shot poses some risk. Obviously long, right, or left risk going into the hazard. Even if you keep it in play, though, missing the green means a tough recovery. Perhaps ironically, this is in part due to the green’s being located in this wooded bowl, where the surrounding vegetation creates some iffy turf. You’ll find hardpan, clumpy rough, and all manner of lies around and just inside the hazard where you may be chopping out of some really gnarly stuff trying to hit a small green with knobby slopes that make it hard to make putts.[/size]
- [size=78%] Because the green sits in a bowl, and because the corridor turns right-to-left, and because it’s only 270 yards or so to the front edge even from the tips, it’s an awfully tempting tee shot for a longer hitter. Even without taking a big, intentional rip at the green, it’s hard to resist the temptation of playing a swinging draw out toward the end of the fairway and at least hoping for the sequence of bounces that sends the ball trundling down the fronting bowl and onto the putting surface. The smart play is probably to keep it in the fairway and accept an 80-100 yard approach. But, at least for me, there’s a lot of allure to get a little closer. I’ve been in the bowl, facing a very ticklish 30ish yard pitch. I’ve been through the fairway and under the last tree, punching down the bowl and hoping for the bounces that let me reach the green without running through. I’ve hooked tee shots that get in behind the trees left of the green, requiring a high and precise wedge shot or a creative trundle down the bowl to try and reach in regulation. It’s a hole that tends to throw something new at you on the approach each time if you don’t execute the simple layup off the tee.[/size]
- [size=78%] Finally, let’s talk about this greensite. It’s a beautiful little pear-shaped knoll down by the marsh, and one of the most attractive spots on any golf course in Cincinnati. Sure, the trees probably compromise airflow and sunlight a little bit. But they’re really not as thick as they look – you can walk into the woods in any direction and be out of them within 20 feet or so, and it’s open to morning sun. So the green still tends to stay in decent shape (at least comparable to the rest of the course – The Mill Course isn’t known for fast and smooth greens, really), and it’s a unique little wooded corner on a course that, for all its trees, usually doesn’t feel wooded.[/size]
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The Mill Course is probably the public course I play most often – maybe 5 or 6 times a year for the last 8 years or so. In something like 40 plays, I’ve never hit a shot on 13 that didn’t make me think. I always feel a little excited about the potential outcome of each swing on this hole, and a little anxious. There’s risk everywhere, but it’s short enough that there’s opportunity to score too, and there’s enough going on that the possibility for a truly memorable shot always exists. The result is a hole with very few “right” answers. I think there’s a whole lot to like here, and probably some opportunity to improve too. What do you think?[/size]
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Slightly OT, but in my first ASGCA meeting, in Scotland, had the pleasure of playing Gleneagles with Mr. Kidwell. A great gentleman, and knowing I was a young architect, took to explaining the Scottish architecture to me. I do recall he was very fond of the (then?) 17th at the Kings, a short dogleg left of similar design. Actually, that one had a small bunker on the corner, rather than the 2 trees in Cincy. He mentioned that at one time, it was considered the best placed bunker in Scotland, which of course, I can't verify, but he did say it.
My first thought seeing this hole was perhaps he was thinking of that hole in Scotland during design. Who knows. I will check it out next time I am in Cincy, which will be soon, since my son lives there, and they are having their first child as I type, so I will be anxious to get up there!