Unranked U.S. Open Venues...

« **on:** February 28, 2003, 01:16:46 PM »

I know about Skokie and Torrey Pines....but I was wondering if anyone could name a few others...and why they think they are unranked. It is my feeling that a U.S. Open venue is a special rank in itself..and would go out of my way to play such a course just for the tradition value if anything...but thats the way of a Traditionalist like myself.

« **Reply #1 on:** February 28, 2003, 01:33:29 PM »

Shivas,

What happened to the two you mentioned....are they just too old to be good...and if you might...what is your opinion on why Skokie is left out...the remaining comments were modified due to the rapid onset of staleness...or should I say rust....ic

« **Reply #2 on:** February 28, 2003, 01:37:56 PM »

1976 Atlanta Athletic Club
1933 North Shore (IL)
1932 Fresh Meadow (NY)
1925 Worcester (MA)
1923 Inwood (NY)
1921 Columbia (MD)
1919 Brae Burn (MA)
1912 CC of Buffalo
1910 and 1907 Philadelphia Cricket Club
1909 Englewood GC (NJ)
1906 Onwentsia (IL)
1904 Glen View (IL)

« **Reply #3 on:** February 28, 2003, 01:52:46 PM »

Shivas,

That is also what happened to East Lake in Atlanta until the renovation in the last decade.

What's the neighborhood around Beverly CC like, which is on the south side as well?

« **Reply #4 on:** February 28, 2003, 02:06:13 PM »

It's a Women's US Open Course, but the great old Donald Ross course, The Orchards in South Hadley, MA is also not ranked.

« **Reply #5 on:** February 28, 2003, 02:14:09 PM »

The site of the maybe 1967 US Women's Open, Scenic Hills in Pensacola FL, is DEFINITELY not ranked! It's not even top 10 in NW Florida.

« **Reply #6 on:** February 28, 2003, 02:25:34 PM »

As an out of towner I found Beverly's location to be quite friendly....I found the location to have safe access and actually I saw no hood in the neighborhood.

« **Reply #7 on:** February 28, 2003, 02:42:07 PM »

Where will be (where is?) Torrey South on the new Golfweek rankings? Where will it be when all-encompasing Top 100 US and World lists come out? Any reason to think it will be behind Bethpage? Or ahead of it?

« **Reply #8 on:** February 28, 2003, 02:51:40 PM »

Scott;

Is that off the top of your head?

I'm going to start calling you "Rain Man"!

Seriously, Philly Cricket is ranked, though, so you're not infallible!

« **Reply #9 on:** February 28, 2003, 03:10:46 PM »

Scott:

I agree with most of what Shivas and JakaB said.

Beverly CC is only 11 miles from downtown Chicago, has easy access to the western suburbs, and is a great place to play golf! Many of the newer members actually live downtown or in Lincoln Park as well as in the Beverly neighborhood.

« **Reply #10 on:** February 28, 2003, 03:55:00 PM »

Mike Cirba:

Check your facts, (otherwise) knowledgeable one.

The Phila Cricket Club Course to which Scott referred (1907 and 1910) is most assuredly NOT ranked. It's a 9 holer in St. Martin's (Chestnut Hill) that tops out at around 2800 yards. It's the club's original course before they built the Flourtown golf operation after WWII.

He's still infallible, therefore!

« **Reply #11 on:** February 28, 2003, 08:47:25 PM »

Chip;

Duly noted and you are correct, sir! In the words of Pee Wee Herman, I meant to do that

So, the question remains, does that make Scott the GCA savant??

I'm going to have to go down and meet with him later in March and test him. I'll report back because curious minds want to know!

« **Reply #12 on:** February 28, 2003, 09:30:57 PM »

Northwood,195? Julius Boros

« **Reply #13 on:** February 28, 2003, 10:03:36 PM »

Philly Cricket being included was just a brain fart/laziness to check the list even though I know it's good enough for consideration, despite Chip's technicality correction. Good catch with Northwood, Mike, and it was 1952. I missed it scanning the list.

This is not savant, idiot maybe, definitely fallible, but just an internet search away from any info, really.

Mike,

Will your mollydooker partner-in-crime/travel be able to come, too? Spoke with him on the phone a few times, but never met in person. I realize it's a longer hike for him, though.

« **Reply #14 on:** March 01, 2003, 12:08:44 PM »

We did a lot of renovation work at Onwentsia several years ago. This wasn't "restoration," as in our opinion it was not a particularly great golf course and the turn-of-the-century layout that hosted the U.S. Open wasn't either. (For one thing, the course was about 5400 yards long then.)

For a while as we were planning the work, I kind of felt guilty about making changes to the course (greens contouring and bunkering and tree removal; we couldn't change the routing). But once word got out we were doing something, every friend I had in Chicago called me and they all wanted to know the same thing -- what could we possibly do to make Onwentsia interesting?

The work turned out okay ... nothing to write home about, but it's not the same course it was ten years ago.

Inwood gave us the opportunity to do more of a restoration ... and it was a much more interesting course to begin with.

« **Reply #15 on:** March 01, 2003, 04:31:30 PM »

Tom, At Inwood, did you restore the really hairy look of the greenside bunkers on #18?

« **Reply #16 on:** March 01, 2003, 06:46:24 PM »

Tom Doak:

For years, I've considered Inwood to be the Met area's best "hidden gem" by a long shot and would be pleased to hear more from you about your work there and your opinion of the pre-Doak layout.

Do you have time to contribute a few paragraphs on Inwood?

« **Reply #17 on:** March 01, 2003, 11:34:07 PM »

Chip,

I'm headed overseas tomorrow, and as you can see from the time I'm posting, I'll have to make this brief.

Inwood is a neat golf course, and one of our favorite places that we've worked. The club's superintendent, Pete Ruggieri, is a lifer and one of the nicest people in golf, and you get to see the Concorde land twice every day as the club is right on the glide path across the marsh from JFK.

We pretty much completely rebuilt the bunkering and took out a lot of trees -- there aren't any trees at all now on the peninsula of 13-14-15. The original H. Strong bunkering was almost too wild to reproduce, and they didn't have many good photos of it left ... but what we had, we used as license to do some pretty wild stuff. It's a very quirky routing, with three par-5's in a row on the front nine, followed immediately by back-to-back par-3's.

It's also one of the busiest courses I've ever worked on ... right up there with Pasatiempo.

« **Reply #18 on:** March 02, 2003, 12:00:19 AM »

Have a safe trip Tom.

The first time I ever saw this picture, I said to myself, "I wish I was Bobby Jones!"

« **Reply #19 on:** March 02, 2003, 12:11:53 AM »

I have to agree Mr. Doak's comments on Inwood. Quirky, busy course but quite a lot of fun.

This is the site of what I believe was Bobby Jones first U.S. Open victory.

Jeff F.

« **Reply #20 on:** March 02, 2003, 05:22:12 AM »

Tommy

I think that it was just before that shot that Bobby Jones first uttered the immortal line "Get In The Bunker!!!!!"

« **Reply #21 on:** March 02, 2003, 05:28:14 AM »

I actually played Inwood during the middle of Tom's restoration. I believe that they had completed the front 9, were taking a break and then moved onto the back 9 after I played it. This was a few years ago, and it gave me first hand information on the value of restoring an older course. It was not night and day, but it was dramatic the difference between the two nines.

I did not see (or hear) the Concord that day, but I did see alot of planes take-off and land at JFK, which unfortunately that is my biggest memory of Inwood. Obviously, JFK was not there when it was originally built.

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