Here's some more photo's from my trip up the coast.....

The Par 3 5th


The Good Doctor's final home....

The par 3 8th. One of the toughest, fastest greens I've ever seen....

Looking up the 9th...

From the right side of the FW at the 10th...

Looking up the 11th...

From the tee on 12...

...and from a little over 100yds....

From the right side of the 13 FW...

...and a closer look of the green complex....

The "trench" looking back at the tee on 14...

...and another view...

The par 3 15th...

from below the teeing ground.....

And fianlly, the par 3 18th. Who says you can't finish w/ a great par 3?

David,
   Nice photo of #5. It looks so easy in that shot.

Im playing there in a little more than a week.  Those pics really got me excited.  Great photos!

Sean, I've played there before, so there weren't any surprises. However, it's the first time I've played since Tom Doak had performed his work there and as you can see from the photo's, it's outstanding. The bunkers obviously have alot more eye appeal. The new tees at 6 and 13 are interesting and toughen those holes considerably. I think it's just amazing that that course plays as tough as it does w/ as little of yardage as it has. As Doak has mentioned before, Mack. had such a talent for pulling that off, to make the course play longer than what's indicated on the scorecard. And the greens, oh the greens!! So fast and so tough throughout alot of the course. The course is very special and is a favorite of mine.

Sean:

If links golf is one's be all and end all, Pasa won't be one's cup of tea.  There are trees - lots of them - and though many have been thinned and some removed recently, well... it's still a tree-lined course, and would feel absurdly tight to one used to playing on treeless links.

In Mackenzie's day it wasn't that way... but sadly trees do get planted, and do grow.    In any case, David is correct that 6-7-8 were at one time pretty much one big open field... the story goes that someone was killed on 8 green by a shot from 7 tee, and thus blocking trees started to get planted.  

As for the bunkering, well... that's just Mackenzie's "thing", you know?  One either likes those or doesn't, again. That being said, there are none at Pasa that are superfluous - even the short ones on 3 and 4 give great meaning to the hole for the lesser players.  And keep in mind it's a pretty short golf course, even with the hills.  Take away too many bunkers and a lot of the challenge is gone, if not the thrill.

TH

Jay,pin was all the way back, and I mean all the way back. The hole was cut about 6 or 7 paces off the back edge of the top tier. My approach was on the fringe of the tier below that ledge and I misjudged my chip and passed the hole. Then 2 putted from there. Here's photo from that day, but I'm afraid it's not very good. You can't even see the flag because of the shadows in the back.

David - be thankful and whistful that you got that back pin.

Thankful, because it's the easiest position - all putts are uphill, it's flat up there.

Whistful because a pin on the middle tier is one of the great challenges in this game... although bordering on absurd now given the speed at which they keep that green.

16 is a perfect example of what Pasa can be... what it is.. and what it's not.

This photo taken last April shows the contours of 16 a little better.  It's tough to see, but the pin was middle right that day.  The guys in front of us had a miserable time with this pin placement.  The group waits for the fourth man playing from between the road and left hand bunker.  



Mr. Huckaby is correct, middle is the toughest.  I three jacked as my 2nd didn't quite make it to the middle tier and rolled back off the front.    

The pictures illustrate the course really well and highlight the finer moulding around the greens and bunkers. One can see that Jim Urbina the artist was at work.

Looking at the pictures generally I could imagine that the course would look much more interesting if the grass outside the areas of play weren't so green.
If between the tee and fairway and outside the fairways the grass was a golden brown then it would highlight the perfection of the Ali M. greens and bunkers as well as the moulding in the fairways.

Shouldn't the restoration project have also considered removing "overkill" wall-to-wall irrigation to bring back the diversity of colour and texture?

Or is green the religion of Pasatiempo?

The pictures illustrate the course really well and highlight the finer moulding around the greens and bunkers. One can see that Jim Urbina the artist was at work.

Looking at the pictures generally I could imagine that the course would look much more interesting if the grass outside the areas of play weren't so green.
If between the tee and fairway and outside the fairways the grass was a golden brown then it would highlight the perfection of the Ali M. greens and bunkers as well as the moulding in the fairways.

Shouldn't the restoration project have also considered removing "overkill" wall-to-wall irrigation to bring back the diversity of colour and texture?

Or is green the religion of Pasatiempo?

The original version had very few trees with areas that were grassed in and played as "community" areas, (1/9, 2/3, 6-8). Much in the spirit of AM's favorite course. The trees were added en masse after a stray from #7 killed a person on 8 tee.

Sean - oh, would that we could revert to the 30s and play this course as it was.  But sadly trees were planted, and oh my did they grow.  So it is what it is...  And I can absolutely understand if it wouldn't be your particular cup of tea the way it is now.

The historical photos show an original course without trees and houses.  

Jon - the natural rainfall will keep the course overly green, fairways and not, between November and May, so the brownish turf in the non-fairway areas would come to life during the summer months.  I do agree that this maintenance meld would also produce less hearty rough, firmer and faster conditions and allow the ball to roll offline more often.

Aaron:

Yes indeedy your putt could have gone off the green if you missed it...

Think about a putt also from the top tier down to a middle tier pin... it's damn near impossible at current speeds - it won't stay on the middle tier no matter what you do.

I love that middle tier.  But the green as a whole does also illustrate the common problem with Pasa - they generally don't use the middle tier except on slow and/or wet days.  At the speeds they normally keep the greens, it gets to be absurd... thus the only pin you see is the top level one.

That green would work best at about 7-8 stimp max.  With that, a bottom level pin becomes doable... oh my the possibilities that gives.....

TH

James  - methinks you're correct to divide it into four tiers - cool pics, also!

I have seen a pin placed on the very front tounge - once.  It was rather absurd, not sure why they did it.

I also saw Tiger Woods take five shots to get down from just before the creek, after a monter perfect 3wood around the corner.  Pin was middle left.  He was not pleased.