Derek, what is a simpatico?
One of my favorite Strantz holes is the cauldron hole that I found at True Blue and Tobacco Road. Perhaps a neo-Short, it is a Strantz original. A semi-circle of tees and a semi-circle of green combine to form a near sphere. Simply cool.
I just got off the phone with Forrest Fezler, and read Forrest this post. Forrest replied that, "I have no idea what he's talking about. Dude must be on something. There is no such thing as a 'cauldron hole,' and Mike didn't mean to do anything in the shape of a sphere, or with trees." That's an exact quote from Fuzzy.
At 17 at The Road, all Mike tried to do was create a narrow, but wide green with a FAIRWAY that curves. "It's not a short. Mike liked the short at national and put elements of it at 14 at TB, but the thing to remember is mike never built a straight par-3. everything has a curve. Jim Engh saw 4-5 of our courses, and said that," fuzzy said. "Everything has a swing, even the par-3s."
Mike did the Short at 14 at TB, but never did the "pocket" (his words) or horseshoe/thumbprint in the green on a par-3. He did the pocket (his word, we'd say thumbprint), at number 7 at The Road. Fuzzy said Mike loved shinny and national, but most importantly, copied the idea of curving fwys, so that diagonal angles were created so you could cut off as much of the curve as you dared, but also used the doctrine of deception. He also loved width.
The first place to start to learn about Mike is to read Ran's review. Then read my interview. While we're at it - and this is not a swipe at Doak or anyone else - but I need to re-iterate because this false rumor just keeps resurfacing: Mike never set foot on World Woods, ever, and had no input, not even from afar.
I think we need to be careful before we start giving things names without understanding what the man was trying to do. There is no such thing as a "neo-short" and Mike certainly did NOT have the short in mind at 17 at The Road or any par-3 at The Road for that matter. I think it's best to accurately learn what his concepts were, before trying to give something a name without knowing what you're doing. As Hemingway said, learn to make before you learn to break.
One last thing. The same person said, "Hopefully fully esteemed, the traversing of his waste areas and the transgressing of mounds, mountains, vales and hollows (not to mention quarries and cliffs) is so much damned fun!"
From distionary.com
trans⋅gress
/trænsˈgrɛs, trænz-/[trans-gres, tranz-]
–verb (used without object)
1. to violate a law, command, moral code, etc.; offend; sin.
–verb (used with object)
2. to pass over or go beyond (a limit, boundary, etc.): to transgress bounds of prudence.
3. to go beyond the limits imposed by (a law, command, etc.); violate; infringe: to transgress the will of God.