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Mike Cirba

Re: What makes Pinehurst 2 great?
« Reply #25 on: February 18, 2010, 03:02:57 PM »
So simple and classic in presentation, I left Pinehurst #2 wondering why golf course architecture needed to be any "louder" to be heard.
 
Pinehurst #2 is a transcendent course, where the sum of the parts are so less than the whole.   One can quibble that some detail features should probably be less defined and stylistically distinct, and my understanding is that the resort is having Coore & Crenshaw in to add some of the rough-hewn look back to the place, and one can quibble that this hole or that might not rise to a certain level of greatness or distinctiveness.
 
However, aside from some ill-advised home building along some of the interior perimeters of the course, one is left with the sense of being in a special place of worship and repose...a cathedral or church or synagogue if you will, and a course that is as close to perfection for me as my sometimes critical, jaded eyes have seen.
 
Playable by anyone, it is a course one could never tire of, and that inspires deeper understanding of the game through the application of simple truths repeated variously and vigorously throughout with the dogmatic persistence of an enlightened zealot, and if that isn't a "10", then it probably should be.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2010, 03:15:52 PM by Mike Cirba »

Jim_Kennedy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes Pinehurst 2 great?
« Reply #26 on: February 18, 2010, 03:07:52 PM »
Mike,
Make that last sentence readable and you've got a brochure.  ;)
"I never beat a well man in my life" - Harry Vardon

Mike Cirba

Re: What makes Pinehurst 2 great?
« Reply #27 on: February 18, 2010, 03:11:26 PM »
Mike,
Make that last sentence readable and you've got a brochure.  ;)

Jim,

Too funny!!!  ;D

Yes, the grammar does get garbled at that juncture, but you all know what i mean, don't you.  ;)

Jim_Kennedy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes Pinehurst 2 great?
« Reply #28 on: February 18, 2010, 03:29:44 PM »
You're getting there.  ;D
"I never beat a well man in my life" - Harry Vardon

jim_lewis

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: What makes Pinehurst 2 great?
« Reply #29 on: February 18, 2010, 03:33:01 PM »
Craig:

There seems to be several "expert" opinions on how much the greens have changed since Mr. Ross's death, and they don't all agree. I am inclined to trust Richard Mandell's report because it seems to be the best researched. I know this much. Ross died in 1948, not 1936. In order to know how much he would, or would not, recognize today's greens, it would be helpful to see photos or descriptions of the greens in 1948, not 1936. In any case, even if they have changed a lot and even if he would not recognize them, that does not prove that they were better then or that they would be better if restored. It is a good question for the historians (I used to be one myself). However, I am tireing of the history questions. All I know is that the current  greens are very special and probably unique today. I see no need to change them, and I really wonder if Ross would. Obviously, there is no way to know, and I, for one. don't care. Of course, it will be an improvement to widen the fairways in order to resore some of the strategy off the tee. Like ANGC, in order to score well on #2, you must hit a well struck iron from the property spot on the fairway. Unfortunately some of those spots are now in the rough.

BTW, I never but much credence in comments made about #2 by people who played poorly on their first visit. If #2 is eating your lunch, as it often does to a first-timer, most players loose their composure, their brains are fried after the sixth hole, and they are convinced the course is unfair. If you can keep your wits about you through the front nine, the back nine actually plays easier. It almost always requires multiple plays to figure out and appreciate the course. I like to say that #2 usually beats me up, but their is no better feeling than on the rare day that I score well there.
"Crusty"  Jim
Freelance Curmudgeon