In praise of the greens at The CC of Scranton

[ian]

I just spent Friday and Saturday at the Country Club of Scranton. I have not seen all of Travis's courses, but have seen about half. To date, ignoring the 3 "flat" rebuilds, the Willows and Pines nines (original Travis 18) would have the best set of Travis greens I have seen. I was impressed with many dramatic greens that were created with a similar style to other greens he created, but more impressed with a couple of truly unique greens. For those not familiar with a Travis green, he creates multiple "compartments" into his greens. He was one of the greatest putters in history and liked to place a premium on putting with his courses. The joy, or pain, is that you can find yourself with an extremely difficult putt just to get from one pinning area to the area the pin is located in. His contouring is often very abrupt between locations, which in turn exagerates the compartments into saucer like bowls. The interior of the bowl is generally gently sloped once you find it. The difficulty is that they are all fairly small, placing a premium on chipping and putting. For preservation, the one difficulty is that many of the bowls do not drain, and this creates a challenge for the superintendent.

The particular greens that blew my mind were the 7th and the 18th. The 7th is the first time I have seen Travis using two swales crossing the green. The approach is downhill all the way to the green and the front pin is an intresting excersise in judgement. The 18th has a very prominant ridge that starts near the front and works its way accross to the right rear. Being on the wrond side of the ridge pretty much ensures a difficult two putt. The superintendent, Greg Armstrong, is currently returning the back right pin location with an expansion. He is returning a number of squeezed pins back to thier original form.

This is a classic case where the difficulty of the greens will always make this club interesting and difficult to play no matter what happens with yardage and playing conditions. It certainly makes me want to see more contour back in the modern greens.

I really enjoyed the course and the people at the club. I just wanted to get comments from other people who have played Scranton, both recently and in the past. What did you think of the course, and particularly what did you think of the greens?

[Eric Pevoto]

Ian,

I've played CC of Scranton countless times over the past 8 or so years, as my father-in-law and brother-in-law are members.    Having never played another Travis course, I always wondered how those greens fit in with the rest of his inventory.  As you said, there are plenty of very bold contours.  I love the wave in the front of the seventh.  The next green with the little pocket left is tough to handle even with the usual short pitch.  Likewise, the 18th has four distinct "compartments" that challenge and add tremendous interest to even a little chip around the green. On the other hand, the fallaway 10th and the next little par 3 are fairly subtle and require some local knowledge to approach and putt well.  

I think the course is just a blast to play.  Given its age, there is a remarkable amount of width and the conditions are usually pretty fast.  The members seem to largely have held the tree planting in check.  Bunkerwise, its interesting to contrast CC of S with a place like Hollywood (I've only seen photos) which has a remarkable variety of shapes, sizes and details.  CC of S has little in the way of "eye candy"; I think the bunkers are even a little bland.

Which three greens are rebuilds?  I would guess hole 2 and 4 maybe, but I'm at a loss for another flat green.

[Mike_Cirba]

Growing up as a public course golfer in the Scranton area, I viewed the CC of Scranton as some other-worldly combination of Augusta National (never had I seen fairways so pristine and greens so contoured) and Heaven.

Each August, after the "Sammy Davis Hartford Open", a group of touring pros would come for a pro-am held at the club, and as excited as I'd be to see my celebrity heroes, I'd be just as thrilled to walk the rolling fairways and see what was the first "classic" golf course of my aquaintance.

The first year I went there to watch was around 1974, when I was 16.  Ben Crenshaw had recently garnered professional status, and was being touted as the "next Nicklaus".  I followed him every hole, and hung around as he talked to the local news people after his somewhat uneventful round of 70.  I can still remembering him saying something like "I love these older, classic courses like Scranton, and it's one of the reasons I enjoy coming to the northeast."  Little could I imagine then exactly what he was talking about, much less that we would go on to design some pretty wonderful classic courses of his own.  He struck me then as a gracious gentleman, and if there was ever someone in sport in my lifetime who always maintained that status, it is surely Gentle Ben.

Anyway, back to the golf course.  Ian, it's great to hear that you played Travis's work there, and I'm happy to hear that you found it as interesting as memory serves.  

I do remember the greens, quite vividly, and the course features a great balance of hole lengths, going from the long dogleg 6th, to the medium 7th, to the short but wild 8th with it's perched green behind a nest of bunkers, to the elusive uphill 9th, with another slippery green.  Still, the parts of the course that stick with me are the lengthy downhill 16th with an elevated approach required off a downhill lie, the brutally long par three 17th, and the gorgeous, uphill par-five 18th, with the daring second needing to carry a diagonal set of cross bunkers mid-fairway, leading to THAT green, set just below the clubhouse.  For some reason, that hole always reminds me of the 9th at Oakmont, although in many ways it's probably more treacherous.  

I'm hoping to be able to arrange to go back and play the Country Club of Scranton this summer, and finally get to test those greens that I watched so many superb players roll their eyes in vexed frustration on over the years.  

Some memories are worth re-kindling.  

[Tom MacWood (Guest)]

Ian
Have you gotten a chance to see Columbia in DC? Travis has got to be one of the more entertaining architects.

[ian]

Eric, the rebuilds are: 4(par5),5(long par3) &11(short par3).
11 used to have a huge shelf. All were changes because they had the largest contours (!?)

Mike, Art Wall (honourary member) seemed to be the reason the players would come to play. The bunkers are altered from their origins and many are missing.

Tom, You made my day, I didn't even know there is a Travis in DC. My list goes back up one, although once Sea Island gets rebuilt this year nine holes are removed again.

[TEPaul]

Funny, I'm thinking I've played Scranton in at least one Pennsylvania amateur and maybe two other times when it must have been a qualifying site for the Pa. Am or another Pa tournament. But that's been maybe 7+ years ago and before I ever thought about architecture for two seconds.

I can remember the course, sure can remember the 1st and 10th, starting some rounds on both, I can remember the way the course progressed and I can sort of remember the holes as images and even the way I played some of them. But I really don't remember the greens as anythng unusual--except maybe one down the hill from the clubhouse that might have had quite a severe putting surface--I know it was a par 3. I don't remember 3 putting anywhere or really having problems on the greens. I sort of remember the greens overall but not any "compartments" or anything.

What I remember most was how beautiful it is on some of the holes at Scranton, the views across the lovely landscape from a few holes, what seemed like for miles.

But what probably shows is how most golfers look at a golf course and its architecture---They just don't!! If they're anything like I was it's pretty much total tunnel vision!

If I went back there now I know I would look at it much differently--completely differently--I would actually see many things!!

But what's interesting about the way I used to look at courses, or not look at courses, is there are a few around here that I will never forget from back in those days--and right from the beginning. Basically a few of them went right into my memory bank very vividly.

Why is that? Even today I'm not really sure, but I think it might have something to do with what I sometimes call an "intensity level".

The ones around here that come to mind now from those tunnel vision days:
1. Pine Valley--all or it
2. Merion--all of it
3. HVGC--almost all of it
4. Torresdale Frankford--most of it
5. Moselem Springs--from about 9 on
6. LuLu--a few holes really well
7. Whitemarsh--a few holes
8. Pittsburgh Field club--a few holes
9. Oakmont--about half of it
10. Lancaster--a few holes
11. Lehigh--most of it--some holes really well!

[ian]

Tom,

I do believe that when you play for score, you focus on your game not your surroundings. When you play to enjoy a piece of architecture, you often let rounds slip away as you make mental notes to be used latter. Or at least that's the excuse I use.

Go back to Scranton, it's not too far from where you live. Oh by the way, the members also told me Whitemarsh is a pretty special golf course too.