Darwin 1910 - Golf Courses of the British Isles

[Mark Pearce]

GANTON (p.131): "Most noteworthy of all, the hole of which the visitor to Ganton formerly carried away the most vivid impression, has been altered out of all recognition. This is the present twelfth hole, where in the old days the tee-shot consisted of a mashie pitch, played mountains high into the air in order to clear the tops of a row of tall trees. Now the trees have been ruthlessly cut down, and we have a one-shot hole, demanding not a mashie but a brassey shot, very good and very orthodox. No doubt the old hole was a bad one, and the new one is good; nevertheless there must have been some bitter regrets over the felling of the trees"


This book has so many insights in to the day and the man... One of the most enjoyable is his take on what is now "Safety, Safety, Safety"... There are a few riotous descriptions where he seems to take a sort of devilish pleasure in the possibility that he might hit some one and cause murder on the golf course... this in the days when many more holes crossed and you took your life in your own hands...

Isn't there still a hole at Ganton where the proper tee shot is over a row of trees?  I haven't been there but seem to recall that from stories of the Walker Cup brought back from a couple of our members....

"Golf Courses of the British Isles" was my first or second golf architecture book, purchased at Golf House years ago.  I still like to get it out every now and then just to read Darwin's great reviews and relish his descriptions of what happens to the "foozler."

The 12th is a dog leg left where many (most) players will play a wood (or even a long iron) over the trees on the inside of the dog-leg but you don't have to.  I'd imagine every player in the Walker Cup would have done, though.

[Mike_Cirba]

Mike Cirba, if you happen to stumble into this thread--didn't Mountain Manor have a hole with trees all the way across the fairway?

Wow...winter must be setting in if this thread is already on page 3.   

Andy,

Mountain Manor in the Poconos has a lot of things, if memory serves, and it wasn't the hallucinogens.

For one, it's one of the only 45 hole resort complexes in the world that absolutely no-one knows about.

It also has some of the most wildly strange architecture ever built, anywhere.

The original nines, built in the 40s, and known as the blue and yellow nines, are relatively sedate, although the blue nine features a quite cool volcano hole par three that is quite memorable and as you mentioned, the 7th hole of the Yellow nine features a "tree crossing" about 260 yards out that acts as a picket fence..

However, in the 70s/80s, first the Orange, and then the Silver nines were built, and they traversed land that God himself never would have attempted to build golf holes on.   

The first hole of the orange is 370 yards and almost unreachable in two, as it must climb over 100 feet from tee to green.

Later on the orange, the 529 yard 8th hole climbs probably another 80 feet, only this time the hole feature a completely blind pond across the entire expanse of the fairway beginning about 180 and requiring a carry of about 230 dead uphill.

All that being said, it doesn't begin to get weird until the Silver nine which sadly now seems to have been abandoned as I look at their website.

The second hole of that nine was a 745 yard par six, 90 degree dogleg right featuring a final shot over water.

I say all this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but if one wants to truly examine the limits of architecture in a fun, family oriented atmosphere, they absolutely MUST make a trip to Mountain Manor.

...and you know what I'm talking about Andy! 

[Andy Hughes]

the 7th hole of the Yellow nine features a "tree crossing" about 260 yards out that acts as a picket fence..

Knew I could count on you Mike! 
It was a tricky hole for a kid back then..no chance of getting over the trees, especially at that distance.

and you know what I'm talking about Andy

I do, though I have to confess I only played MM two or three times.