Culver & Langford Definitive Course Listing

[Phil McDade]

Without playing or studying Langford/Moreau i don't know if flash bunkers was one of his trade marks or not.

Lack of play or study has never stopped you from opining and drawing conclusions before. Don't start changing on us Ben.

Flashed bunkers are completely incongruous with Langford and Moreau, but featured on several of their courses today thanks to well-intentioned but misdirected alterations over the years. If you watched any of the Champions Tour at Wakonda this weekend, you saw another example of a Langford course that features a fairly intact routing but a lot of rounded greens and flashed bunkers that don't match his trademark style. There are rumors that Wakonda will soon undergo a restoration, which could be hugely exciting if done correctly as the property is phenomenal.

A few traits that you'll commonly see on Langford courses are:
1. Steep, grass-faced bunkers coupled with pushed-up greenpads, not dissimilar to what you saw at Lookout Mountain. There should be at least a few greenside bunkers that are around 8 feet deep or more. This is the signature element of a Langford and Moreau design.
2. Extremely varied greens, some featuring severe tilt but more featuring substantial and rumbling contours. His greens are generally large relative to other Golden Age designs, though many of his courses now suffer from substantial green creep.
3. An emphasis on par 3s of varied lengths. Most Langford courses with which I'm familiar have 5 par 3s, and they usually range in length from around 140 yards or so to as much as 240 yards.
4. On a similar note, there's a blurring of "par" on a lot of Langford holes, as he was really at his best when building half-par holes of both the easy and difficult variety. Lawsonia features 7 "half-par" holes in an 8 hole stretch from 4-11, by my count. While the bold shaping is probably his most defining aesthetic trademark, it's this prevalence of half-par holes that defines how his courses actually play, at least for me. His courses also generally close on a half-par hole, or at least a hole where big scoring swings are very possible due to a balance of risk and reward. This is true at Wakonda (311 yard closing hole), Lawsonia (reachable par 5 closer), Spring Valley (short par 4 closer), Portage (350 yard closer), and Clovernook (280 yard closer).

Also, plenty of width.

[Ryan Hillenbrand]

I confess to not knowing much about Langford, part of the reason I enjoy taking part in the discussion group. But St Clair was always a course I found different than most, almost quirky, but it a good way and I knew I liked it. Since joining the GCA board I was surprised to see there are many devotees of his.

From what I've read on these posts, St Clair definitely has the "half-par" concept. Number 5 is a 260 yard par 4 with OB left and right.  Number 6 is a very reachable par 5 (assuming you drive the ball 250-260).  Many more examples on the back.

9 and 10 are back to back par 3s. In fact the par 3s do not have a lot of variation in yardage, but they do in elevation, which forces you to use different clubs. Number 13 is a straight up the hill 3, and requires 2 extra clubs. There are several push-up greens on the back, but I wouldn't say that is a prevalent feature on the course. Rolling terrain.

I am due to play it next week and looking forward to seeing it post renovation. Kye Goalby did it who I believe is an associate of Tom Doak. I hope the result was restoring it to its original design.

I'll try and post pictures since it seems this work is relatively unknown to our GCA community. As I've mentioned before this is the home course of Bob Goalby and the Haas boys.