There's a strong rumor (OK, it's more than a rumor but I don't know whether it's been made public yet) that SFGC has approved the renovation of the golf course to bring back the original versions of 13, 14, and 15 in the next year or so.

There is an additional rumor that many trees will be taken out during the renovation as well.  

This is really a golf course that grows on you with repeated plays, what a great set of par 4's and, of course, the duel hole.

Interesting - I had heard that the PUC was scheduled to repair/replace watermains through the southeast section of the property which would decommission some holes during the construction.

If the club decides to renovate these holes, that is wonderful.

I wonder if Mr. Doak will be involved with the project, if approved?

Mike - gotcha.  Line-reading-in-between is not one of my specialties.

In any case this is really cool news - the result will be to make a fantastic golf course even that much better, without a doubt.  I'm just hear to reiterate what I said before re #15 - that is one hell of a great green right now, even if Doak didn't want to admit such himself.

Yes, last time this came up he came on here and said he himself didn't think it was all that.

But methinks that's because he REALLY wanted to have a crack at recreating Little Tillie, and wanted nothing said that could ever be construed against that.  But that is just my take.

 

Sean - you and me both in that wonderment.  It is actually sorta funny to me how some in here maintain how those holes now are SO out of place... JARRING to the senses... disjointing in the round... All of such has been said in here.  Jeez I like each of them and I'm with you in that if no one ever told me they were new I'd sure as hell never know.  In any case re this "those holes suck" take, I'm not naming names but the guilty know who they are.

 

"Little Tillie" is a tiny par 3 - 120 or so - that fits in just to the left of the current #12 green.  Diagrams of it show it surrounded by very cool-looking bunkers.  It apparently was one hell of a unique golf hole.  A restoration of it would be really, really cool... if done properly.  Methinks Mr. Doak is up to the task.

TH

I don't know Tom, I was there a couple of weeks ago and I could have sworn I heard in the bar that you were next up on the waiting list for membership...

Quick story, I played behind Sandy Tatum's foursome on the back nine. (For the record ,that day, they were having a little outing between SFGC, Cypress, Seminole and Pine Valley.  It was logo nirvana on the first tee)  He pounds it for an 53 year old, never mind he is 83.  The caddie told me he had shot
73 two days before..

They probably don't care, but the members would see the course ranking climb with a quality restoration.

When I have played the course, after the 12th, I start looking forward to the 18th.  On the front 9 I love playing every hole.

TH,

I guess I missed the goal post feature on 14.  Are you talking about right in front of the tee? I didn't think they were in play at all.  Or the tree in front of the green? That tree is in play depending on the angle from the fairway, but...

Ignorance demonstration time:
 
Is the present 14th green the original Little Tillie / 13th green? It lays as a reverse redan, suggesting it was once approached from the opposite direction.  

Mike

Thanks Kevin.

Aerial link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=san+francisco&ll=37.709814,-122.477818&spn=0.007531,0.019712&t=k&hl=en

Cool aerial - looks even better when one uses Google earth.  Not that I would ever use such a toy.  And of course if I wanted to find my way to SFGC, or anywhere for that matter, and need to know anything else about my destination or anything near it, I'd be sure to use yahoo! maps, which is tied into yahoo! local, two far superior products to anything comparable offered by that search company.

 

Is it correct that the renovation that occured at San Fransisco GC was to accomodate planned changes to the highway that ultimately did not happen?

I believe the freeway did happen ...

SFGC is a great 15 hole golf course.  

I applaud any effort to put back the original three holes and given what was recently posted about TD's work at Pasatiempo I think SFGC will be improved greatly by his hand. The little Tillie par 3 looks to be a dramatic short iron shot.  I think a similar hole was lost at Quaker Ridge as well but that land is now tennis courts.  I'll check Daniel Wexler's book tonight. The two par 4's that will hopefully be removed are not befitting of such a majestic golf couurse.

I believe Kevin is 100% correct.  The freeway was built but it never needed to cut into SFGC's property as originally planned.

Tough crowd, Huck. I agree with you 100%.

Is Little Tillie going to be THAT much better than 15 (as a par 3) as it currently stands.  I don't care if it has the coolest bunkers in the world, its going to need to have tits to be that much better than 15, imo.  And from what I was told, the original 14 and 15 were straight away, unremarkable par 4's.  Maybe they were more than that, but I haven't heard it.

Look, the purists want to have it restored based on what Tillinghast designed, and I appreciate that, and I would probably want that too.  But to say that these three holes are THAT bad or that out of character with the rest of the course is a bit much.