[Carlyle Rood]

I've indexed many of my photos from this Monday here:

http://www.golfarch.com/Cypress/

Here's a sampling:









When time permits, I'll post photos from Rustic Canyon and Monterey Peninsula C.C. too.

[Mike Benham]

Fabulous pictures ... I particularily like the fogginess of the photo of 17 ...

And I don't remember that there was mowed fairway between the tree and the cliffs on 17 ... of course, I was last there 10-years ago and my memory may be a bit off ...

[Brad Swanson]

Carlyle,

   Great pics, especially of the not-as-oft-photographed inland holes.  Thanks for taking the time to share them.

Cheers,
Brad Swanson

[Carlyle Rood]

Great pics, especially of the not-as-oft-photographed inland holes.

Unfortunately, a fog moved in about the time we reached the seventh hole.  By the tenth, it was pointless to take photos.  The fog broke shortly before we reached the thirteenth.

The fog was actually a lot of fun to play in.  You could see well enough to watch your ball land; but, you couldn't necessarily see beyond that.  The fog allowed the course to reveal itself shot-by-shot.  It was fascinating to play golf that way.

[James Edwards]

Carlyle,

Thank you for posting the pictures.  I am no photographer. but they are extremely well framed I'd say.  I was there a couple of weeks ago in glorious sunshine which was spectacular, but I think your pictures capture the mystery of the place far better due to the low light and the fog.

Excellent pics

James

[Mike_Sweeney]

Carlyle,

Fat Baldy Drummer may be having some fainting spells when he sees these. Just in case, here is my favorite all time GCA quote via FBD,

WOW!
Now that is quite a picture, Mike....
MAJOR TQ!!!!

I think we should all print off a copy, paste it onto a wee bit of board and make a little shrine on our Computer desks underlined with a suitable MacKenzie quote which we should adopt as a daily incantation. Maybe:

'The chief object of every golf architect or greenkeeper worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from Nature herself'.

Follow this by a spot of self-flagellation with a mashie-niblick and a quick run naked around our home course 15th Green, shouting 'I pity you, my home course 15th Green, for you will never achieve the beauty and grandeur of the 15th Green at Cypress' and maybe then we can actually call ourselves golf course architecture lovers!

Martin. (now where's my mashie-niblick?)

Oh, and PS: Do you think the powers that be at Cypress are aware of the continual stressing of that wee fence?

[paul cowley]

...maybe its the low light /fog but the bunker sand seems quite white .....is CP importing a new white sand ?

good pictures...

[Dan_Callahan]

So that's what all the fuss is about . . . pretty damn impressive.

[Jimmy Muratt]

Carlyle,

Wow!  Thanks so much for posting the pictures.  Those are some great shots.  I really enjoyed the photos of the inland holes and those early on the front 9.  The only pictures I had seen of these holes before now were from Geoff Shackleford's book.  

[ForkaB]

Great pictures, Carlyle

Surely you are not going to sully your obvious artistic talents by entering the down and dirty profession of golf course architecture?

[RJ_Daley]

Wow... Carlyle... your pictures index are the best I've ever seen hole by hole.  The fog conditions were fortuitous adding to the magical aura of the place.  It just reinforces the notion that there is CPC and then all the rest.

[Scott_Burroughs]

At first, I had trouble identifying the first pic (posted above).  
I had to think of what holes had that bunkering and trees
behind.  By process of elimination (and the downhill walk to
the green over rough), I finally figured out it was #3.  The
reason I didn't recognize it is that it was under construction
during my round there about 15 1/2 months ago.  

It's much improved.  

[A_Clay_Man]

Paul Cowley- Yes, they must be importing the white stuff. Four years ago most of the sand was browner in color. Closely resembling the stuff found across the street.

 If the color of the sand, is all one has to do, to make the membership happy, it's a decent compromise.

I also suppose most of the squiggily lines on some of those bunkers, are the resto work? And the clean lines are what? another compromise to those with more $ than sense?
(it is liberating to NOT have to kiss-ass to get on)

The bunkers between 1 and 14, are they newly uncovered? I don't recall them from 2000, but I was right of right and still made par.

[RJ_Daley]

Adam, you bring up a good point.  I think that from what I have seen in pictures, CPC is a course where both the crisp edged bunkers are appropriate in places, while the native lipped grass bunkers are appropriate in others.  Yet, I can understand it both ways.  One can generally edge them all crisp except the ones at the extreme edges of native dune areas as we see in the current pictures by Carlyle.  But, I sense that a combination with a few more native edged ones might look very good.  So what or how do they achieve the look most desired?  How do they decide this in the end?  I have to believe that the membership might be split on the preferred aesthetic.

[Brian_Gracely]

Here's a few more pics:

Carlyle Rood hitting one to about 18" on #3 for his first birdie on CPC!  


One of the finest gentlemen on the GCA site, Mike Hendren.  I wish I had gotten a picture of his 18" kick-in birdie on #1....nice way to start the day!


Mike, Carlyle and David Kelly begin the trek on the first of back-2-back Par5s, #5:



Notice how bright and sunny it was on #6.  It's so difficult to convince yourself that the line off the tee is over (or even right) of the left-hand bunker as the fairway slopes hard from right to left:



Probably 10 minutes later, the fog had begun to roll in and the temperature dropped 10-15 degrees.


The fog compounded the challenge of the already blind tee-shot on #8, over the dunes.  The suggested line of play is over the end of the small trail that begins just right of where the players are now:



And the go or no-go decision on #9 was made a little more difficult by the fog:



The tee-shot on #10.  The line of sight had begun to become slightly clearer at this point:

[Mike Benham]

Just curious - but with Mike's feet and shoulders lined up towards Pacific Grove, where did his shot  end up?

[ForkaB]

Carlyle et. al.

Last time I was there (2002), Gib and I spotted a "turbo boost" area beyond and between those right hand bunkers on #6 that was (at that time) unfortunately cut to primary rough.  Have they cleaned that out now to a fairway cut so that the(really cool) "tight right" option is available?

[Jfaspen]

I know it won't happen, but if the AT&T returned to Cypress, how would the pros handle it?  Would it play tough or easy with the recent leaps in technology?  

I imagine #8 would be a 3 wood for all the pros..  I wonder how tough 16 would be?

jf

[THuckaby2]

Carlyle et. al.

Last time I was there (2002), Gib and I spotted a "turbo boost" area beyond and between those right hand bunkers on #6 that was (at that time) unfortunately cut to primary rough.  Have they cleaned that out now to a fairway cut so that the(really cool) "tight right" option is available?

Rich - that was cut as fairway in 2003 when I was there.  VERY cool shot to try.

TH

[Lou_Duran]

Carlyle,

Re: your pic of #15, how far from the green did you take it?  I don't recall specifically, but it seemed that there was room for a tee right (toward the ocean), but it would have made the hole somewhat longer.  Unfortunately, from the back tee, one doesn't get the perspective depicted by your picture.

How did everyone do on 16?  Did Mr. Hendren make easy pars on both 15 and 16?

What was the concensus on #18?  Is CPC really the best 17 hole golf course anywhere?  Thoughts about #10?  How about the stretch 11 - 14?




 

[Joel_Stewart]

I was at Cypress last Monday as well and the course is over manicured.  The bunkers edges are so perfect they don't look natural to me.   The sand which for 90 years or so was from a quarry by Spanish Bay is now imported from another area in California which I can't remember.

The bunker restoration is complete except for #5 which they plan to work on later this year.  There are no plans to restore the bunkers around the trees on 17 or any of the numerous bunkers on 18.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Joel,

The bunkers around the tree on 17 are less important, IMO, than cutting back the tree itself.  How much bigger today is it than 75 years ago?   (the sand couldn't have been used 90 years ago, since the course is only ~76 years old).

[Joel_Stewart]

The bunkers around the tree on 17 are less important, IMO, than cutting back the tree itself.  How much bigger today is it than 75 years ago?   (the sand couldn't have been used 90 years ago, since the course is only ~76 years old).

Scott:

There where 4 or 5 bunkers surrounding the fairway trees which as you state are probably not that important but they looked really nice.  They wouldn't have to cut back the trees but the super told me they are concerned about the health of the trees if they put the bunkers back.  I'm not sure I understand what you are saying about how much bigger are they now?

75 years or 90 years ago I was guessing but its amazing that they are using some very expensive bunker molding techniques now yet Mackenzies bunkers withstood the test of time.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Joel,

I meant cutting the tree back.  It's got to be bigger than it was 75 years ago.  It's so big, I'm still not exactly where the best spot to leave your tee shot is.  175 yards back?  Hug the coast and prey it doesn't go in the ocean?  Way left of tree?

[Scott_Burroughs]

~1929:



a few weeks ago:

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