I was chatting with a friend today when the topic of St. Enodoc came up.. In the Confidential Guide Tom Doak lamented not returning there as he had a magical day and I believe his low career round.
When I first went to St. Enodoc it was with Russell Talley during the summer solstice. We had played Westward Ho! where I was nearly trampled by the ponies and rushed to Rock/Padstow to see St. Enodoc in the gloaming of the summer sun. Upon arriving, I found everything I find endearing about golf. Here is a course with maximum chaos. Heaving sand hills, no straight lines or uniformity, no stability, just a twisting, contorted landscape. Throughout the journey of playing the course the whole display is stirring.. The view over the brow of the first hole's sandhill displaying the merging of the Camel River into the Atlantic, the Himalayas, Bray Hill and its half moon shape, the church of St. Enodoc. To me, St. Enodoc was a walk back into a timeless era and even at 6300 yards a pure pleasure in every step. If ever I felt a course had a sense of permanence, it was here. But as I've learned in life, everything is relative, even what we think eternal. A few years ago I returned to St. Enodoc and played horribly with Paul Turner in tow. That said, I was very exited to play the 16th, one of the best natural par 5s I've seen in the world, with nary a bunker. I learned soon after that the club had hired Peter McEvoy to push the green back 40 yards and add bunkering in the name of length and to turn a 490 yard par 5 (par 4.5 they thought) into a "true" par 5. Well with Mr. Turner as my witness I had a magical eagle on the hole. Which brought me to this picture below taken during one of my visits. Can you think of a more natural greensite? Why would you change this hole? This past week I saw some amendments to Royal Wimbledon which is little known here but had great potential to be a sleeping gem of a Harry Colt course. It was recently re-bunkered by an architect I won't name but I found the style anything but Colt. I really wonder sometimes why old, venerable clubs which will hold no major events find the need to change the character of their courses. Maybe I'm a luddite.. But like Tom Doak, I don't think I can return to St. Enodoc now. Too much to miss.
my putt for eagle that I sunk
another pic of the old green
finally the view to a kill
