I thought it might be interesting to re-illustrate those four “replacement” holes for any newly-interested parties (from last year’s thread), which were built in the northern rectangular section of 50-some acres Geist purchased after the hurricane, and which were added about 8 months after the original course was originally routed.
Today the holes are numbered differently, but in the original iteration, they were holes 10-13.
Moving on to Hole #10, another fairly lengthy par four, this unusual one featuring a blind drive over a cross bunker.
The drive across the cross bunker with very little in the way of a line to guide the player.
A solid drive leaves another wind-vulnerable approach to yet another very low-profile green without much in the way of visible cues.
From the left-side bunker, looking across the green out towards the bay.
Looking from behind, the flattish green is very accessible with either an aerial or run-up approach, but falls off quickly behind.
This 1920 aerial shot shows the fairway cross-bunker, and it appears as though this hole has changed very little since that time.
Per Ross's drawing, the only change he recommended here was the building of a new green something like a Biarritz, with a "plateau 18 inches in the front followed by a hollow and then another plateau 2 feet , 6 inches above the surrounding terrain".
If this green was ever built there is little evidence of it and nothing remains today with a very flattish green.
Seaview is unusual as the 11th hole is only the second par three of the round, and it's a very, very good one, albeit compromised over the years.
From just in front of the tee you can see the uphill, lengthy shot required to a perched green with a bunker on the left and a steep falloff into what must have been an awesome bunker to the right.
From short right this picture gives a sense of the elevation change. This cart path is also in an absolutely HORRIBLE position.
What's left of the abandoned right hand bunker....again note the cart path positioning.
Golfers of yore missing this green to the right would have been left looking at something like this only from sand...
The left hand bunker is no picnic either, and please note how tightly the turf is shaved so that a ball just slightly missing the green will filter into it.
Looking back to the tee, one can barely make out the Atlantic City skyline across the bay in the distance through the low, hazy cloudiness of a late December day.
One of the real joys of Seaview is the charming intimacy. Note how well the back edge of the 11th green melds into the 12th tee in the left of this picture.
This 1920 aerial with the green to the left of the picture and the tee to the right clearly shows the glory of the former right hand bunker, which today has been inexplicably left to overgrow into shaggy, stoney wasteland.
What must have been one of the most memorable holes in the region has sadly been compromised with time.
Again on the 11th it doesn't appear that Ross's recommendations to move the lefthand bunker 12 feet to the right into the green internals was followed, nor was his advice to create a depression in the back of the green.
The mid-length par four 12th features one of the most unique hazards anywhere, affectionately known as the "Snake Pit", which is a 50 yard long trench bunker along the right side which is blind to the golfer from the tee on this slight dogleg right.
Once again, the recurring theme at Seaview is that the most direct route to the flag is usually not the prudent play.
From the tee, very little is obvious except that one is drawn to the distant flag down in the right corner. This lack of dictation from the tee across a wide open plain is reminicent of what makes courses like Garden City so special.
Jutting in diagonally from the right however, is a series of bunkers cutting into the "fair green", as well as OB cutting in diagonally, as well.
They just don't seem to build bunker combinations like this any more...
The sadistic beauty of the infamous "Snake Pit"..
The wise golfer takes the longer route away from all of that nastiness out to the left side, (skirting bunkers there as well), leaving this optimum approach angle. Still more surprises await.
Invisible from the fairway, this right side bunker lies in wait for a shot slightly lost to that side.
The green is one of the smallest and most undulating on the course.
The 1920 aerial unfortunately has some of the green cut off on the left, but shows a splendid early view of the Snake Pit.
It is difficult to ascertain whether any of Ross's changes to the 12th were implemented.
Certainly it seems his first recommendation to build a green where the front is raised up 2 foot 6 inches and the back raised 4 feet with backing mounds to provide definition was not done.
Similarly, his dictate to make all the sand in the right hand greenside bunker visible was not followed.
Also, he wanted the tee raised so that a clear view of all of the fairway could be seen, which seems never to have happened.
So who is then responsible for the cool Snake Pit bunker?
It's hard to say. While Ross has a large rightside fairway bunker drawn on his map, and numbered, he does not use language he used on other drawings when he wanted to "add new pit", or "expand existing mound or bunker".
Instead, it just says, "Large Sand Bunker kept entirely below surface". Did he mean to build a new one, or just to keep it hidden while making other features like the greenside bunker and the rest of the "fair green" more visible? Was he drawing an expansion of an existing bunker?
The pre-Ross hole description advised staying left and warned "a slice is expensive", but doesn't detail exactly what that punishment would entail.
The bunker drawn on the diagram starts closer to the tee but ends at exactly the point of today's at about 220 yards. However the bunker drawn on the Ross diagram doesn't look like the bunker combinations that were built down the right side...they are much wider and conventional. And, we know from the 1920 aerial that something that looked like the Snake Pit (with a nearby egg bunker) existed by that time.
We'll likely never know...however it's still a cool feature.
The next two holes at Seaview are two wonderful, back to back par threes, one measuring over double the distance of the other.
When one walked off the 14th green at Seaview with the original hole sequencing, he would have just played 3 par threes in the last 4 holes, a very unusual configuration, but a worthwhile one as all of the holes are quite good.
Beginning with the diminutive 13th, the proverbial short pitch to the well-protected green, made troublesome by ever-present sea breezes just waiting for a ball slightly mis-hit, or hit on too high a trajectory.
From the tee, the challenge of pitching to the table-top green is clear.
The view from just short and right of the green.
From right of the green, one can see how quickly the green falls off on all sides.
Long is definitely wrong..
The backing bunker runs the breadth of the green..
Walking to the 14th tee, the backing mounds are evident.
This 1920 aerial with the tee to the left shows a green and bunkering much like today's, with just some bunker "shrinkage" evident in today's aerial.
Ross's recommendations for the 13th were to essentially almost encircle the green with sand by moving the right front bunker closer to the direct line of play (it appears the back bunker and right side bunker were on long continuous bunker at that time), and create a running depression in the back of the green. He also wanted to add 15 feet to the back of the green which was not done.
None of those proposals seem obviously to have been followed, although it may be that the right front bunker was brought more into the line of play in front and perhaps the back of the green raised a bit, but it's nothing that's easily determined today..
From a look and feel standpoint, these holes do not standout in any way as different from the others. I think it would be accurate to say that no one playing the course would have guessed they were created separately. Whether this is due to continuity of the architect/builder, conscious intent of the architect to blend with the others, the work of later architects, or just the evolution of the course over time creating a uniform sheen across the landscape is something we can only speculate about at this juncture.