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Seed #2
NGLA 3rd
Tale of the tape: Par 4, 426 yards
Why: From Ran – “Macdonald’s homage to the Alps at Prestwick is an improvement on the original as the drive holds more interest. The approach over the top of a fescue covered hill is one where it is difficult for the golfer not to look up and sneek a peek before he has completed the downswing. The35 yardwide (!) green has some twenty yards of fairway in front of it, just enough room and margin of error for a long approach. The vast green is fiercely contoured and four putts can occur. The author considers the approach the game’s finest blind shot.”
Seed #15
Blue Mound 4th
Tale of the tape: Par 4, 388 yards
Why: From McDade - The Alps at Blue Mound, in suburban Milwaukee, an original Raynor. Certainly not as dramatic as others depicted here, but faithful to Raynor's design intent. Here’s George Bahto...describing a Raynor Alps, which fits perfectly with what the golfer encounters at Blue Mound: “Seth Raynor built an Alps on most courses, but they were generally identified as having ‘Alps bunkering’ – meaning some cross-bunkering in front of the green. Instead of a blind approach over a ‘mountain,’ Raynor customarily positioned his Alps renditions just over the crest of a rising fairway – then cross-bunkering the green complex. Sadly, many clubs covered in the cross bunker because they did not understand the origin and concept. Alps greens usually had a spine of sorts running through the green to compound putting problems.
The Alps plays over dead-level ground. Golfers need to be conscious of two bunkers cutting into the fairway at an angle midway down the fairway right, but again they are easily cleared for most players, and the fairway offers plenty of width to avoid them.
Only an aerial approach will do here.
Another terrific green awaits the golfer on the 4th, a large oval with several horizontal folds.
Note the geometric symmetry to the mowing patterns of the green – a common feature at Blue Mound.
