More Eastward Ho with Tom MacWood

[Mike_Sweeney]

This is a very interesting article and Tom and Ran are both mentioned:

http://www.golfoncapecod.com/CourseReviews-Fall06.php

[Lou_Duran]

Mike,

Thanks for the link to a great piece.  It sure whetted my appetite for playing the course.

I am not acquainted with Fowler's work other than through the literature, but I am familiar with Foster's.  Though initially concerned that Foster designed difficult courses just for the sake of being difficult (based primarily on Texas Star GC just south and west of DFW Airport), I have come to respect and enjoy his work.

In addition to Texas Star which has grown on me over the years, his Tradition course at Cypresswood near Houston's Intercontinental Airport is an excellent public course full of strategic options.  His Quarry course in north San Antonio combines two totally different nines, with the back featuring some excellent, beautiful holes in and around a stone quarry.

Foster's renovation/redesign capabilities appear to be substantial.  His extensive redesign of Westwood CC just south of Houston's downtown is outstanding.  The site is pretty bland, but the golf is anything but that.  Foster's work at Colonial CC is much less noticeable, but I am told that the membership is very satisfied (now if they could only find a way to grow bent on small greens built up on bottom land protected by large specimen trees, to accomodate some 50,000 rounds and a Tour event each year).        

[Mike_Cirba]

I am not acquainted with Fowler's work other than through the literature, but I am familiar with Foster's.  Though initially concerned that Foster designed difficult courses just for the sake of being difficult (based primarily on Texas Star GC just south and west of DFW Airport), I have come to respect and enjoy his work.

In addition to Texas Star which has grown on me over the years,

Lou,

Good to hear that you're enjoying TS.  

Back when we had our first discussion about it eons ago, I thought perhaps I was delusional.  

[Lou_Duran]

Mike,

Texas Star is a much different course than when you played it.  Gone are the eye brows and quite a bit of the wild stuff, some which may have appealed to you.  Nature has taken care of that tree in front of the back tee on #9 guarding the fairway, and normal maturation has made it so good shots remain to be found and hit again on the course.  The conditioning, though a tad on the soft side for my taste, is extraordinary, surpassing the level found at some of the top private clubs in the area.  It still has a reputation for being very difficult for the average player and for medal play tournaments.

[Geoffrey Childs]

That is a well written and accurate article on Eastward Ho, the greatest unknown hidden gem in the US.

I wish one Eastward Ho member that I am acquainted with would learn from this success story and use a similar approach to his almamata golf course  

[Mike_Sweeney]

I wish one Eastward Ho member that I am acquainted with would learn from this success story and use a similar approach to his almamata golf course  

Just can't help yourself!!  

In the continuing saga of silly comparisons, I would be interested to hear the groups (Geoffrey) view of Eastward Ho versus Maidstone.

Both are under 6400 yards, one is flatish on the ocean, one is rolling on a bay behind a barrier island beach, Cape Cod National Seashore. Maidstone has smaller greens, I think. In the Sweeney scale of 10 rounds split, I am split 5 and 5, but a GCA lurker has it 8 to 2 in favor of Maidstone. Who is right?

[Geoffrey Childs]

I wish one Eastward Ho member that I am acquainted with would learn from this success story and use a similar approach to his almamata golf course  

Just can't help yourself!!  

Silly question Michael.  Of course not.  Do you disagree with that statement regarding your home course?  

I would play Eastward Ho 6 times and Maidstone 4 given 10 rounds.  EH has more thrills, quirk and fun shots. In addition, the greens have more character for short game options and putting. (In my most humble opinion)

[Walter Bart]

    Having spent my summers as a boy in the adjacent town of Harwich, where I first began this lifelong pursuit on the likes of 9 hole courses such as Chatham Bars Inn and the Harwichport Golf Club (Two courses not to be seen anywhere near Golf Digest's Top 100) I was never able to play Eastwood Ho in its' entirety.

      However, I have vivid memories of the terrific par 3 pictured at the beginning of the article( hole # ?)where, more than once I would climb the rocks above the beach on a summer evening, 7 iron and putter in hand, to experience the course at its' best. That is about as far as I would go.

       Having seen, but not played, the rest of the course, I can say it is truly a spectacular routing.  I should not have been surprised to learn that Mr Fowler was also the designer of Cruden Bay, one of my all time favorites, which  has some of the same feel as EAstwood Ho.

[James Bennett]

It appears Frank Hancock, the new course supt, has taken the bull by the horns.  It also appears the membership will have put up with a lot that other memberships wouldn't.  Firm and fast doesn't happen easily.  An excerpt from the article

James B



Dramatic Changes

Seizing on golf hole closings and diminished play due to the construction work, Hancock began working his craft of firming up the golf course. The club’s maintenance crew aggressively aerified not only all of the greens, but the final 30 to 40 yards of the green approaches. In a normal year, a typical course aerifies the greens two to three times. Rarely do they aerify the approaches. In the first two years of this aggressive assault on thatch, the EHCC maintenance team has aerified the greens 14 times and the green approaches 26 times. Degrading that barrier layer of thatch enables water to more readily percolate into the sandy soils. With water no longer trapped near the surface (a breeding ground for disease), the plants have no alternative but to grow their roots deeper down to find water.

Hancock also courageously turned down the water. In a break from traditional country club patterns of regularly timed light watering, Hancock and his crew took a page from the USGA playbook and resorted to more specific hand watering “in deep and infrequent cycles.” In his words, the crew now waters the golf course “just enough to keep the grass alive.” Lessening the course’s dependency on surface H2O, the grass is healthier, more resistant to disease and traffic, and can be cut shorter. For the golfers, these firmer and faster playing conditions have opened the door to a greater variety of shotmaking possibilities into and around the greens. Golf at Eastward Ho! can now be played on the ground as well as in the air.

[Mike_Sweeney]

James,

The members I played with did mention that it was not cheap to get the course in its current condition. I did not ask for specifics, but sitting in the heart of New England Yankee (frugal) mentality, it may be a relative term. Any passing concerns of cost was soon outweighed by their pride in the course, the super and its presentation.

It may have been the best conditioned course that I ever played.

[James Bennett]

Mike

the beauty of aeration is that it is relatively cheap.  Much cheaper than returfing and rebuilding greens/approaches.

One of the other courses on my 'tour' that had done an absolutely marvellous job with aerating approaches was Olympic's Lake course in San Francisco.  Perhaps 60 yards from the green in.  The course had just (literally) opened for play following heavy rain.  But the approaches were already playable.

It really is outstanding what can happen with soft grasses once the thatch is managed.  Far less water, and far less turf stress during heat/drought.  And an ability to play the ground game with confidence.  No wet spots.

James B

[T_MacWood]

I love Eastward Ho! I've never understood why it wasn't better known...why it took so long for it catch on. Give the ten round choice with Maidstone...I'd go 5 + 5. Add Yale into the equation I'd go 5 + 5 + 5. I love Maidstone and Yale too...all three are unique.

[cary lichtenstein]

We played Eastward Ho this past summer, and we loved the course and wondered why it flew under the radar.

Great topography and a true "almost hidden gem".

[TEPaul]

If someone asked me what American golf course I've never seen that I would like to see most, I think it would be Eastward Ho!

And to think I may've been near it recently.

I've been on the road for about the last twelve days or so. My trip included Myopia, Salem, Essex County, The Lesley Cup at Hyannisport CC, Oyster Harbors, The Creek, Shinnecock, Maidstone and Oakmont.

You know this thing I call the Ideal Maintenance Meld (IMM)? Well, Oakmont just redefined it.  

I understand VJ Singh was out there recently and proclaimed it the most difficult golf course in the world. Well, that might be a dubious distinction to some, and certainly to some on here, but somehow I think it would make the inimitable W.C. Fownes proud. The interesting thing about that man is he definitely had his own unique thoughts about golf architecture and golf.

Also, maybe money talks but I'll tell you what---John Zimmers of Oakmont is right now sitting on the top of the heap because he put the course there.

[JMorgan]

You know this thing I call the Ideal Maintenance Meld (IMM)? Well, Oakmont just redefined it.  

I understand VJ Singh was out there recently and proclaimed it the hardest golf course in the world.  

Tom Paul, please provide your operational definition of IMM so I can prepare myself for any of your future exchanges with Mr. MacWood.  

[TEPaul]

James:

I'll let someone else provide my operational definition of what the IMM is to see if they're close. God knows, I've defined it enough times on here.  

[JMorgan]

I guess I'll add $5 to my check to Ran then so he can add that "Glossary" link I've been asking for.

[Tommy Williamsen]

TEPaul, I'm curious about you impressions of Oyster Harbors.
I have played it a few times and thought it to be good but not great.  The topography wasn't the best but the greens complexes were wonderful.  Do you know how much Ross is left?

[Tommy Williamsen]

As an oversease member of Westward Ho! I can't wait to see The Eastern compatriot.

[TEPaul]

"Do you know how much Ross is left?"

I'm told those are probably the purest Ross greens there are.

[T_MacWood]

Tommy
You are right about the topography at Oyster Harbors...its pretty flat. I think the course also suffers from a general disapointment based on expectations of what the visitor might find after learning the course is built on a small island and then discover it is completely landlocked.

Unfortunately the course is shadow of its former self. The greens are still awesome, but the character of the course is completely different today. In the early years the course featured some very large stately pines - not unlike Pinehurst - but hurricane (in the 30s or 40s I believe) wiped out those pines and the native scrub pine (sort of short and squat) took over.

But the most dramatic difference was the loss of the sandy waste areas that gave the course a special character (the course is now wall to wall grass) - similar to Pinehurst - and the bold sand-splashed bunkering which has been replaced by the prototypical Ross bunkering thanks to Stephen Kay.

It was the Pinehurst of the north (including a very large Inn/lodge that burned down) at one time but many are not blown away by that course either.

[Mike_Sweeney]

OH http://www.golfoncapecod.com/SP04_OysterHarbors.php

[Randy Van Sickle]

I have to agree about the quality of the green complexes at Oyster Harbors.  Just played there on Thursday, and had great fun approaching and putting on the greens.  It is exceedingly "green", and I agree with Joe Keller's assertion at then end of the article linked to above that the course could play faster.  Nonetheless, it is a fun track, and I would love to see some photos of "the way it was".  They have an old aerial in the locker room that definitely shows the sandy nature of the course way back when.

[TEPaul]

RandyVS:

Last Saturday I looked very carefully at that early aerial of Oyster Harbors in the lockerroom.

There most certainly was far more sand area on that golf course but it also appears there was far more sand area all over that general area of Oyster Harbors back then.

First of all, one probably needs to ask if that prevalence of sand area all over that general area (the golf course AND the community) was due to the immaturity of that course and that general area or was it supposed to be something that an architect like Ross wanted to see permanentally maintained.

That is the question because God knows that general area (the community) is certainly no longer massive amounts of sand area as it appears on that aerial. It has ALL changed now and obviously the residential maturity of that area is a large part of that.

In other words, would it seem out of place to try to restore massive amounts of sand area in and around that golf course now seeing as how the entire area of Oyster Harbors has changed so much from the look of that aerial sand-wise?

Joe Keller is an old friend of mine and he's right that golf course could use more speed "through the green" but that's another matter altogether than thinking about restoring massive amounts of sand area at Oyster Harbors G.C.

The good news is it seems Oyster Harbors is in the process of thinking about a Master Plan, perhaps restoratively based in one or a number of areas, and it appears Gil Hanse may be the man on the spot.