Noel,
Glad to hear you made it out to Trump National and I am interested in hearing more details from your evaluation.
On the face of it, I agree with you that the par threes are the weakest link on the course, especially since all four of them move in the same direction and at least three really require a forced carry.
However, I did think the green on #4 was splendid and the elimination of the water hazard would be an improvement. Unlike Steve, I also enjoyed the diagonal orientation of the green on #7, where one could use the front left slope to get back to a right hand hole location without trying to do the full-on water carry. In that case, I think the use of the water hazard on both 6 and 7 is superb, and accentuates the options on both holes.
10 is sort of a 16 at Augusta type hole, except that a front right hole location has to flirt more with the water than the back left, where the bunker must be challenged. Again, a pretty good hole.
I'm not a fan of 17 and believe it to be the weakest hole on the course, even from the way back tee which requires a long carry to a large green.
I think this hole was one of those the architect had to throw in at this point in the round for "challenge", and to cross the narrow wetland, but it's hardly a highlight.
If you want a Doak Scale Number from me, I'll stand by the "8", I gave it last summer. I think it's as good as WW Pine Barrens (which Doak gave an
and better than Galloway National.
My comments from last year are below;
It was impossible to anticipate a day at Trump National without preconceived notions.
Here was The Donald, Mr. Trump, building a course on the former estate of the late automotive kingpin and convicted felon John DeLorean, and asking Tom Fazio to build a course that could someday host the US Open or other major event. Money would be no object and I imagined a course filled with bloated excess, conspicuous consumption, and showy, gaudy features focused more on the look than the golf. The fact that I knew the course was tipped out at 7560 yards with a course rating of 77.3 and a slope of 147 did little but add to my sense of overkill.
Certainly, Mr. Trump’s preceding ventures into golf seemed to uphold that vision. The course in Westchester county with the largest man-made waterfall in golf, the fields of bunkers at his course in Florida, the on the cliffs reclamation project in California, all of which were more conversation pieces than great golf courses.
So it was with a sense of bemusement that I drove through horse country of central New Jersey, and turned up the gate and onto the one mile long drive to the manor house which serves as the clubhouse.
What I found was stunning and surprising. Instead of some paean to modern golf, Trump National is a sedate, low-keyed, understated, restrained golf course that lays light on the lovely land. Even more surprising is that hole after hole I found myself captivated, inspired, challenged and reminded of what is much of the best things we appreciate in classic golf course architecture.
Most of the fairways offered fairly broad expanses, and plenty of room to maneuver for position. The greensites, splendidly selected, offered amazing variety and interest. It was Tillinghast who believed that a great course should stringently test the approach shot and this is truly a “second shot” course, with greens perched in all sort of interesting angles and surroundings that demanded the best from the player attacking the pin, but generally offered bailouts and easier plays for the less accomplished golfer. In some ways, the course reminded me of a mixture of both Augusta National and Winged Foot, and instead of a lot of concave, containing features, Trump National instead was filled with convex, edge of trouble, rolling features that would collect a slightly mishit ball into trouble if one took too aggressive a line.
The property itself is splendid, with lots of rolling countryside and some mature woodlands, and unlike many Tom Fazio courses I’ve played, the routing was superb and took full advantage of many of the natural landforms. I learned that Tom Fazio spent a great deal of time onsite, eventually working through 22 different versions of the routing to arrive at the final product. Earthmoving was generally kept to a minimum, with some fairways needing to be ledged into a steeper slope, but for the most part, the hand of man was well hidden and only some needless rolls to the sides of a few of the holes on the more bland part of the property, as well as some equally useless tree planting detracted from the natural views.
The greens themselves were wondrous and placed demands on both the approach shot and putting, as well as positioning of the drive. Unlike many Tom Fazio courses I’ve seen, true classic strategy was employed, where a drive or approach successfully challenging a hazard were rewarded with optimum positioning or an easier putt. They contained rolls both subtle and overt, and contained false fronts, back and side fadeaways, treacherous borrows, and lovely integration with their surrounds. They ranged from precipitous top of the horizon, perched up greens to others that flowed right out of the fairway at grade, to others tucked into little hollows. Their shapes ranged from Mackenzian boomerangs and kidneys to Rossian upturned bowls, to Flynn type greens flowing from the fairway, each with an original twist by the designer that made them both derivative and original and to me at least, evidence of time and attention spent during the building process.
Bunkering was similarly restrained, only 67 of them in total (although some were massive), but with each serving a purpose that contributed to the golf at hand. Many of them had the look of a Tillinghast, but some of the holes built on more undulating land could have been lifted from Prairie Dunes, not so much in surrounds, but in playability. There were bunkers that plunged 15 or more feet below green surface, with sharp ledging, that would have made Raynor or Banks proud.
The club itself is much more low-key and tasteful than I would have expected, with perhaps the only questionable features being the fountains that sit in front of and behind the clubhouse, the latter backing the 10th tee, flowing just off the patio in the fashion of a Merion.
Water comes into play more than I mostly prefer, but those hazards are very natural looking and are well utilized, once again adding to the hole than being there as a showpiece, and almost always offering a way to navigate around them. There are also some forced carries from the tee over native, broken ground, and wetlands, but the five sets of tees (we played the middle at 6770 yards) make this more of a challenge than a burden.
All in all, I was wowed. I will try to give a hole by hole breakout over the weekend, but for now, I would summarize by saying that I believe Trump National is a superb golf course that is one of the top five golf courses in the state of New Jersey. The word great comes to mind.