Mike:

That looks to be some serious earthwork manufacturing on that hole but the entire thing just looks to play ultra-cool and optional. And to me, despite the dramatic man-made earthwork look of it, it looks great too.

This just shows that the apparent diverse world of man-made engineered architecture vs minimal earthworking and natural looking architecture probably doesn't matter much if it's done in some interesting aesthetic way and most importantly it plays interesting and well too.

From what I've seen of Lanford and Moreau (pictures only), their work intrigues me much more so than Raynor or Banks, even in the templates.  It is because their manufactured features, though easily discerned are tied in better and seem to have less geometry and quite a bit of strategy.

Was the fairway extended further left at some point near the bottleneck?  Given the cant of the fairway, I think that would be a strategic improvement so that the longer hitters can't just bomb it down the fairway, they would have to shape their shot or have a much more difficult angle into the green, which it appears happens the further left one goes.

Wayne:

Although Langford/Moreau's architectural style certainly can be manufactured looking and dramatically so, would you say it's more acceptable looking to you because the basic lines of the manufacturing is quite a bit more curvi-linear than say Raynor's basic man-made lines?

TEPaul -

I have the original design drawn over the existing topography (one foot contour lines).

Very little dirt was moved to create this fairway.

Obviously cut and fills to create the 2 fairway bunkers - but both of those were put into existing slopes.  

Also cuts around to create the greenpad - but for the most part the hole was just sitting there..

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There is no sand on the hole but it shows sand on the original design.
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Obviously cut and fills to create the 2 fairway bunkers - but both of those were put into existing slopes.  
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It would be great if Mike could post the original L/M drawing of WBCC #7.  

A great hole that takes maximum advantage of the natural terrain.  Great because of the variety of options off the tee offering a choice of lay-up distances, uphill downhill or sidehill lies, and differing views of the green and angles of attack.  You really can't ask for more in the way of a short yet not driveable par 4.  Then add to that a great, reasonably sloped, bunkerless green perched on top of the hill.  I was unfortunate to run through the fairway on the left leaving a tricky downhill lie on a very uphill shot.  Even with a wedge no way to stop it and it ran to the back fringe leaving a very tricky downhill chip/putt.  

Langford and Moreau's ability to manufacture natural lines is very much in evidence on this hole.  The bunker form on the left plays off the natural shape of the hill behind it.  The right hand bunker then flows off and away from the shape of the left bunker while at the same time its staggered position vis a vis the left bunker and their relationship to the natural undulations of the landing area define the strategy of the drive.  Great stuff.  

My guess is that L/M were more sucessfull in integrating their manufactured look into the terrain and obtaining a natural look while incorporating strategic ideas of the highest order than Raynor/Banks because they were able to match R/Bs engineering and construction abilities and complement those skills with Langford's more advanced knowledge of the game as a reasonably proficient player.  Thus, while L/M clearly reused a variety of concepts and hole types including several of CBM's templates, they also were able to develop original strategic concepts adapted to specific site as shown by WBCC #7.  

Is this a better look?  A better hole?  

Hey, Mike, can photoshop put subsurface drainage in those bunkers too?

Great pics Adam.

I am surprised that you posted them here instead of TEP's naturalism thread.

TP -

That photo is at Lawsonia.

Not only is that Lawsonia, but it is the famed "Boxcar" hole where legend has it L/M buried a boxcar in dirt to create the green in question.  

This may help discern where the fill came from.  

My favorite hole that I played this year. Along with the 5th at Machrihanish, "Punch Bowl," the best short-to-mid-range par 4 I've ever played (and I've only played West Bend once). If the standard for greatness is, "I want to turn around and play that hole again right now," then the 7th at WBCC meets the criteria.

It's a terrific hole -- visually interesting, full of strategy and options, demanding without being penal.

Wayne/Tom: Several of us played this hole during the Langford/Moreau Wisconsin tour this past fall. After our tour, Ron Forse gave a wonderful and detailed presentation on L/M's design and course engineering work. One interesting insight was that Langford -- a very good golfer and trained civil engineer -- developed incredibly detailed plans for his holes, including the amount of cubic feet of dirt he had to find and move to build his bunkers and esp. his pushed-up green pads. Langford didn't just find a bunch of dirt somewhere and build up greens; he took dirt from the area around the greensite, and used that to build them up. He often had hardly any dirt left over; that is, he took only as much dirt from the surrounds as he needed for the greensite build-up. The theory is that L/M's "look" -- heavily engineered, but perhaps less "manufactured" looking than a typical Banks or Raynor template hole -- appears more natural to the eye because the dirt displaced was in exact (or nearly so) proportion to the amount of dirt used for those signature pushed-up greens. Langford (in another indication of his remarkable skills as an architect) also dug up his dirt to enhance drainage around his greensites (with such pronounced pushed-up greens, you'd think L/M courses would have puddles around the base of those greens. But I've never seen drainage issues at L/M courses).

Tom:

It is truly a mystery where Langford found some of the fill for such pronounced, pushed-up greens. The Forse displacement theory makes sense for many of the L/M holes I've seen, but a few of them -- notably the one pictured here from Lawsonia (the boxcar hole, the par 3 7th, so named because it's rumored the green was built-up with the help of a buried train boxcar) and the 2nd green at West Bend, which I swear has a two-story drop-off on the backside -- defy that theory.

The most amazing thing at the 7th at West Bend, to my mind, is how Langford found the darn thing. It is quite literally cut out entirely from an old-growth hardwood forest. I've always thought it's one thing to visualize a hole that's relatively free of features, and imposing features such as fairways, traps, greensites and whatnot on it. It's another thing entirely to see a golf hole in the middle of a forest.