[David_Elvins]

I had the great fortune to tour some of America’s best courses last month and meet up with a fabulous collection of GCA members (many of which  I am indepted to for their incredibly generous hospitality).

This was my first trip to the States and it was fantastic to see the work of so many American architects including:
Coore and Crenshaw (Hidden Creek);
Fazio (Galloway National);
Travis (Garden City);
Flynn (Rolling Green and Philadelphia CC);
MacDonald (Merion) sorry Wayne, just joking;
Hanse (Rustic Canyon);
Nicklaus (Angeles National);
Strantz (MPCC);
MacKenzie (Pasatiempo) and
Nevvile/Grant (Pebble Beach).

However the real highlight of the trip was getting to meet so many of the characters that I had been reading on Golf Club Atlas over the last 8 years.

The trip started in LA, within 1 hour of getting off the plane I was on the practice fairway at Angeles National. 



Close to downtown LA and at $70 I thought the course was reasonably good.  The condition was great and the location spectacular.  I thought quite highly of the design of the course too…until the next day I met up with David Moriarty and David Stamm for a game at Rustic Canyon and found out what could be done on such a site.  Despite the hype I had been reading on here for so long, I was blown away by Rustic Canyon.  I was expecting a clever course, I wasn’t expecting something so spectacular.  Too many standout holes to mention, but needless to say, Gil Hanse is the architect that I am most looking forward to seeing more work of. 

Next stop was Philadelphia where I was very kindly picked up at the train station by Wayne Morrison.  I survived a brief interrogation as to what exactly I was doing in LA with David Moriarty and upon surviving the interrogation allowed to tour of some of the cool stuff in Philadelphia. 

First stop was Merion.  This was a course that had particularly intrigued me as we have no very high quality courses built on clay in Australia.  And it didn’t disappoint.  A very special place.  A particular highlight was meeting up with Tom Paul out on the course.  After the round he was excited that I had got to meet local legend and Walker Cup captain Buddy Marucci.  To be honest I was just excited to meet Tom Paul. 

What I loved about Merion:
-The simple yet brilliant strategic use of the land on the 5th hole.
-The contours of the 7th green (below)



The par 3 3rd and 17th holes.
-The proshop.  A warning to anyone visiting Merion for the first time.  You will need a minimum of $500 to $1000 for the pro shop.  Everything in it is first class –shirts, beer mugs, wine racks, travel bags.
-The green contours in general. 
-Hearing Matt Shaffer’s stories about working at Augusta National.


What I didn’t love:
-I found the par 5 holes slightly disappointing.  Both have blind second shots and the 4th in particular doesn’t allow for much variety in play.  The shot from the top of the hill looks thrilling but one would rarely play form there.  Hard to criticize the routing though as the holes around it are routed beautifully.
-The tenth hole. A good hole but didn’t really have the great risk reward element that great short 4s such as Royal Melbourne’s tenth hole.
-The bunkers in the quarry.
-The fact the course interested me so much that I have read 112 pages of Merion threads over the last 2 months.

Next stop was Philadelphia County Club. Driving down the driveway, this was a course I thought I would not like, lots of rough and lots of big white bunkers.  I must say I really didn’t like the bunkering here at all. To me it looked out of scale and the shapes were unattractive.



However the internal green contours were some of the best I have ever seen and a real highlight of the trip.  I think it just goes to show that if you have a good routing and green complexes, then you are a long way towards having a good or great course. 

Rolling Green was next on the tour and a great chance to meet with Mayday Malone.  This is a man who knows his golf course.  I had a great tour of the course and great to see the course seemed to be heading in the right direction.  The par 3s were a real highlight, with a great mix a strong long and short par 3s.

Next stop Atlantic City,  New York, and dinner with Tom Paul and Pat Mucci…..

[James Bennett]

Good report Dave.  I'm sure it was beyond expectations in many ways.

Looking forward to the next chapter.

James B

[Tom Jefferson]

Cool reporting!  Thanks.
Looking forward to your reports.
Nest time make sure you get to Bandon!

Tom

[David Stamm]

David, I had a great time playing with you and was glad to see you again at the KP. I hope David and I's non stop needling of each other didn't put you off your game too much at Rustic! It is a very special course that I am very fond of and I'm glad you found it to your liking. I agree with your take on Gil, I've grown to really admire his abilities and try to seek any of his work when the opportunity presents itself.

[Mark_F]

Nice report David.

Given that Merion is on clay, how do its green complexes differ from the Sandbelt, and does the course have anything different to deal with around the greens because of its base?

[Dave_Miller]

David
Great job on describing your trip and reporting on the courses.  It was great to meet you and to play with you at Pasatiempo.  Look forward to your making it to Boston.
Best
Dave

[Tim Bert]

I get the feeling there is a lot more detail coming based on the way his ended his first post.  For two weeks and all those courses, there better be!

Nice start, David.  When do we get part 2?

[Patrick_Mucci]

David,

Don't leave out the part where TE stated that he wasn't hungry, and then he proceeded to devour the food off of everyone else's plate, leaving a few scraps for the table, despite my having ordered a fifth main course for us to share.

Don't they feed those guys from Philadelphia anything except a steady diet of Merion, Wilson and Flynn ?

[David_Elvins]

Next up was Atlantic City.  After winning $5 on the poker tables I headed out to Hidden Creek.  Unfortunately I didn’t have time to play the course but managed to tour the course with a couple of wedges and a putter.  Although I am not sure if I would have had more fun playing a round.  They are some very interesting greens, very firm for early in the season with some incredible contouring.  The second (viewed from back left below) was a particular favorite.


I felt that some in the past had undersold the land a bit, it looked like extremely good land for golf IMO and nowhere near as low profile as I had imagined.  The stretch of 2-4 was a highlight for me, as was the short Par 4 8th with the contouring of the land taking shots hit safely left away from the green.

Given what I perceived to be the quality of the land, I was interested to see how much artificial mounding Coore and Crenshaw had employed at the site.  I had no idea that it was part of their repertoire.  I am not sure what to think of the mounding –I assume that with the limited grass growth early in the season they would look a lot different to how they look in the middle of summer but they were everywhere – next to tees, in the rough, next to greens, in the trees, between tees and greens.  The 7th hole below shows some good strategic mounding but also note the less obvious mounding hiding the path on the left of the photo.



The other noticeable feature at Hidden Creek was the number of greens that had front to back slopes in them.  The redanish par 3 4th was great fun to a back pin position but I failed to see how the extreme front to back slope would make for interesting golf to other pin positions.  The two back nine par 3s had greens that largely sloped to the back, as did sections of a few other greens, and I thought, like Doak’s St Andrews Beach, that the feature was overdone on a firm course that could encourage the ground game.

One part of my trip that I was most looking forward to was checking out the work of Tom Fazio.  There is nothing really close to his style of work in Australia and after reading the criticism on here over the years I was looking forward to seeing one for myself.   After a morning at Hidden Creek it was off to Fazio’s Galloway National in the afternoon.  The course was very interesting (and very good).  Whilst many of the common Fazio criticisms could possibly be seen here – an under use of clever strategy, and a few examples of style being prioritized over substance – the clever routing and small heavily contoured greens provided plenty of exciting shots from the tee, from the fairway and around the greens.  The small contoured greens on the Par 5 6th and 16th (below) greens were particular highlights, as was the postage stamp 2nd hole (second photo). 



The 17th hole (below) where a view of Atlantic City seemed to hold preference over playing characteristics was one of the few lowlights. 



From Atlantic City it was up to New York and a visit to Garden City Golf Club. 

The day before my round I was lucky enough to share dinner with Pat Mucci and Tom Paul (and Pat’s lovely wife who made sure the conversation never strayed to much into the depths of architecture).   I am still not sure what was more of  highlight, the company or the food.  Actually the highlight was listening to the waiter spend 5 minutes telling us the menu in intricate detail and then Mr Mucci simply asking for the “Chicken Mucci”. 

Despite the exclusivity of the Garden City, one of the things I liked about the course was the way it sat in the neighbourhood.  A large unpretentious paddock in the middle of suburbia.  The many semi-blind tee shots that required aim at objects outside the playing field increased the connection with the neighbourhood.   Given the age of the course, the amount of strategy surprised me.  The dual fairways on the first were a great use of 330 yards of flat land.  After reading Ran’s revue of the course I had been prepared for the low profile greens at Garden City that flow on from the fairway however I had no idea how much variety there would be in these greens and how much the tilt of the greens would be incorporated into the strategy of the hole.  The tenth hole with its green following the natural slope of the land from front right to back left was a particular highlight, but like a few holes there, it was a pity that the strategic fairway bunkers cutting diagonally into the left side of the fairway were no longer in play for most.  Not all greens tilted and greens like the 4th incorporated lovely contours that fitted in with the tilted greens.  All in all a great set of greens and a fascinating golf course that I would imagine would hold the interest of its members for a long time. 

Next up the west coast…

[David_Elvins]

Despite the exclusivity of the Garden City, one of the things I liked about the course was the way it sat in the neighbourhood.  A large unpretentious paddock in the middle of suburbia.  The many semi-blind tee shots that required aim at objects outside the playing field increased the connection with the neighbourhood. 

What a great observation about the aim at objects outside the playing field and how this connects a course to the neighborhood.  I have never thought about this connection outside the obvious courses where this occurs like TOC.  I will be more observant of this on other courses in the future.  Thanks David.

It is something that I really liked at Merion as well.  I loved the bench in someone's backyard overlooking the 11th green.  Obviously they are both very exclusive clubs but they had a more communal feel as originated at St Andrews, as compared to those clubs that go for an atmosphere of privacy and isolation. 

Although I suspect when the trees at both courses grow leaves, my theory goes somewhat out the window.

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