Sorry it’s been so long in coming, but this is my report on the Annual Sethfest held June 25-27 at Wanumetonomy Country Club in Middletown, RI.
This was our third annual get-together, the first having been held at Lookout Mountain GC, and last year’s at Mountain Lake Club in FL. With each passing year we have been getting more things right.
The festivities are centered on four competitions: The Superintendents’ Championship, the Raynor Cup (individual gross of two days), the Team Net (4 players from the same Club), and Team Gross (same, but no handicaps). These competitions serve as the framework upon which we experience the course. We believe that playing this variety of formats enables everyone to enjoy their play and the course to the utmost.
The highlight of the gathering this year was the clam bake/ lobster gorging followed by an address from George Bahto. Although I had a copy of George’s book The Evangelist of Golf (now autographed with a nice personal inscription!), George’s slide presentation included dozens of pictures I had never before seen- I can’t imagine how much stuff he has collected. And having George address a group of around 35 people allowed for plenty of question and back and forth- truly an educational experience.
And, there is the golf. Wanumetonomy’s history was unknown to me. I knew it had served as the stroke play co-host for the 100th US Amateur (won by Tiger Woods at Newport CC), but I didn’t know about its unusual beginnings and the role of T. Suffern Tailor in procuring Raynor as the architect. Playing the course was for me like stepping back into some parts of Lookout Mountain’s history… the first thing that caught my eye were the wooden cubes in blue, white, and red that served as the three tee markers. Lookout used to have those before they gave them up in favor of the more trendy raw tree parts cut on a bias. I wonder what the tee markers were back in Raynor’s time? I neglected to ask George, but I am sure he will know!
Wanumetonomy is an unusual par 70 with only three par 3’s and one par 5. As the par 3’s are generally the most recognizable holes on a Raynor course, I was disappointed at first to find only three, and then to find that the short had been lost (although the replacement par 3 has very much the character of a short and might pass as original) and then to find that the 17th, the longest par three at 211 (uphill and with a deep green), was neither a Redan nor a Biarritz, but sort of a combination of the two. It generated a lot of discussion as to what it must have originally been… most of the Club members averred that it had never been touched, and were rightly proud of it as one of the best par threes in the state; George seemed to think that it was a modified Biarritz, and I tend to think it was originally a Redan. It’s a damn fine par 3, but because it’s neither a Redan nor a Biarritz, it elicited all kinds of debate- which is exactly what makes the Society fun!
RJ Daley has already mentioned the Eden 12th. The green complex there was as fine an Eden as you’ll see anywhere, with a deep, rectangular green bisected by a spine, with a lot of pitch from back to front- especially the back left corner. Somewhere along the line, most of us were convinced, the tees were reconfigured to change the angle about 30 degrees, so the hole is approached not through the opening as much as over the right front bunker (is that Hill or Strath? I never can remember.) Among Edens, I cannot think of a more dramatic or memorable green, save perhaps the 11th St. Andrews itself.
Also of remarkable character was the green at the 15th, a par 4 of 415 yards, uphill. The green was of what I call the “maiden� variety, with a low front with considerable pitch back to front (and not a little to the right) backed by two massive rectangular- almost square!- plateaus. The highlight of my first round 70 was the birdie on this hole with the pin back left (I followed this great shot with a triple bogey 8 on the only par 5 on the course ;-( ) George and I had a good bit of discussion about this green and its proper name- George says (and I believe him) that Raynor never used the term “maiden,� but to call this green a double plateau doesn’t make sense to me, since I have an original, penciled drawing of this exact green on Lookout Mountain (it was the 16th, now the 18th), where it follows the more traditional “double plateau� green as found at Fisher’s Island (9th I think) and Chicago (6th?). Would Raynor have designed two double plateaus back to back?
Other holes of note included the 10th and 11th, the 10th with its astounding right to left slope that required a tee shot well left to gain the best angle, and the spectacular view from the 11th tee of the Narragansett Bay and the huge square Raynor green waiting 400 yards away. The green contours and complexes at Wanumetonomy were the strength of the course, in my opinion.
It’s into such questions that we delve at the Annual Seth Raynor Society meetings…never claiming to be able to “channel� Seth, but still offering our arguments and opinions as to what he did or might do if he were still around. What makes it all so much fun is to see Raynor/Macdonald/Banks creations, and to get to play them.
I encourage others who attended to “post up� on the list with additional comments.
Doug Stein