Wakonda Club

[Jim_H]

I have written on different threads about a course that few people have ever heard about--Wakonda Club in Des Moines, Iowa.  It is generally ranked as the best course in Iowa, but most people would say, "so what."  Wakonda is a great, old style course built before 1920--rolling hills, big,old trees, and the best topsoil for growing anything in the US.
Wakonda had the 1963 US Amateur--and yesterday it was announced that the 2008 Trans Miss Amateur will be there.  Not a big deal, but nice for a great--but overlooked--course.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Please share some of your favorite aspects of the course.
Cheers

[Brad Swanson]

Jim,
   Wakonda was one of Scott B.'s Aerial of the Day (AOTD) posts last year, and the course has been mentioned here from time to time.  I fondly recall staying glued to the window of the family wagon when we would drive to Des Moines to pick up a visitor at the airport, as the road went right by Wakonda CC's 3rd hole.  I was fortunate to play it for a US Junior Am qualifier in the late 1980s, and it is a treat (that would be improved a bit by some tree removal).  Des Moines Golf and CC probably gets more press in Iowa since hosting the US Sr. Open a few years ago, but having played all 36 holes there as well, I'd take Wakonda over DMG&CC any day.  It will be interesting to see how low the good amateurs go there in 5 years.

Cheers,
Brad Swanson

[Brad Swanson]

Mike,
   You beat me to it! (and I forgot you were the guest host for AOTD that day, sorry bout that).  

Cheers,
Brad S.

[Jim_H]

Mike--
I once read that the first requirement for a great golf course was to begin with a piece of gently, rolling land--and that describes Wakonda perfectly.  Many of the tee shots are caught by these small hills, which makes it play longer than it might appear.  The trees--growing in that good Iowa soil--are spectacular, although I agree that there could be some prudent tree trimming--as there probably should be at many old courses.  (As an aside, the worst/best example of great trees overrunning an course that I have seen would be Kansas City CC.)
The Wakonda greens are good--fair, but with gentle slopes that make them difficult when fast.  The green sizes have good variety--and seem appropriate to the holes.  There are many terrific architectural features, such as the hog-back fairway on #18, that creates a good match-play finishing hole.
The best part of the course is the turf--again from the Iowa topsoil.  Taking a divot from the black soil is a great feeling--much like the good Chicago courses.  And the rough when grown up is incredibly tough and thick.  Anything can grow in Iowa.
The negative to the course would be its lack of space.  Like with many old-style courses, it's nice to walk off a green on to the next tee, but it makes lengthening the course tough.  For example, the good #18 is probably too short for the modern game and it can't be lengthened.
All in all, a wonderful old course--that I'm sure the amateurs in 2008 will enjoy.  
.

[Dan Grossman]

I played it 5 times during an AJGA tournament 10 years ago.  Unfortunately, I didn't know much about GCA then, so I don't remember the aspects of the course that I would like.  I do remember several pretty severe two-tier greens.  

Cool course.  I definitely want to play it again if I can find my way to Iowa.

[T_MacWood]

J. Brauer used to have photos of Wakonda on his website that showed the drama of the course and also many features that had been lost. I wish I knew how to get to his website--the course looks very good.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Tom,

jeffreydbrauer.com

Link to classic courses.

Some more info on Wakonda -

Roger Rulewhich was doing some remodeling a few years ago.  I visited one day when the bunkers on 7 green were done.  The fairway bunker on 11 was done the year before by Roger.  The 11th is one of my favorites, with a reverse and cross slope green set below fairway level.

Dick Nugent did the ninth green, which is out of character.  You can see the original ninth green, now used as a short game area.  It was deemed too unsafe for the swimming pool, at least once they took out the trees to allow sun into the pool area and old green.

The 18th is a neat hogback fairway.  18 green and a few others were redone by Dave Gill, I think, in the 60's.  

That fairway bunker on 8 is a classic of that style era.  Where there is one fairway bunker left of 7FW, the shaping and master plan for the course show a cluster of four stacked bunkers, which was way cool, and would be a good candidate for rebuilding as was.