CC of Detroit #1 WWDD?

[Bill Hyde]

Ok folks, here is the first crack at "WWDD" as the Renaissance Golf folks prepare to come to the Country Club of Detroit beginning 7/6 to renovate our greens and tees.

Hole 1...par 4, 370, dogleg left, slightly downhill, fairway bunker about 260 right side.

Typical approach is from 110-120. There used to be a huge sliver maple on the left side off the tee that is now, thankfully, gone. You can bomb it down the left side and clear everything at about 270.

Green is fairly large. Bowl in front middle, shelves back left and right with pretty severe ridge creating an "n" at aerial view (as I add holes, remember this RTJ Jr. feature, you will see a pattern develop). Bunkers are not moving. Although we are replacing sand and will be modifying ingress/egress slightly.

So, seeing the pics, what will Doak do?

Tee shot

200 out

[Bill Hyde]

Approach

Middle of green

Right half

Rear view

[Bradley Anderson]

I played the course last week for the first time. So what I offer is first impression stuff.

The best ball position is just left of the fairway bunker, but as a visitor you wouldn't know that from the visual information that you get from standing on the first tee. I like to see the entire first hole from the first tee. And its important that the first hole shows you something of the character of the golf course. So I would cut nearly all the trees down on the left side.

I feel the bunkering of the golf course is so strong that you don't need to block angles or obscure the views the are important to plot your strategy from the tee.

The day I played the pin was in the back and I was surprised how much more slope there was to the green when I got up on it. I had an uphill putt to the pin and left it way short, and then putted past. I am not a good golfer, but I rarely three putt on the opening hole. I think maybe this green could be a little easier than it is?

I am a greenkeeper and I look at greens from the perspective of where would I cut the holes so that I don't ruin everyones day on the golf course. That green felt like a green where I would run out of hole placement spots pretty quick, and I would be returning to the same safe spots with regularity.

[Tom_Doak]

Bill:

I saw your post about this the other day, but now that I've looked at the "before" shots of the first hole, I wonder if this will really be productive.

For sure, you'll be able to tell "after" that a lot of trees on the first hole have come out ... or at least, as many as the club lets me take out.  But, the rest of our assignment is just greens and tees; we are supposed to work within the framework of the bunker project which Keith Foster completed just three years ago.  And if the bunkers around the greens aren't changing, I doubt your photos will be able to discern exactly what we have done to the greens themselves.

Bradley's last paragraph is right on ... many of the current greens at the Country Club are a bit short of hole locations ... they are 4500 square feet on average, and most of them have an unusable slope somewhere in the green.  The other problem is that a lot of them are so flat in the pinnable areas that the water doesn't really get off the edge.  That's the stuff we are supposed to fix, but I don't anticipate that it will really look like much from the camera's perspective.

[Bill Hyde]

I think you're probably right...I ain't exactly Ansel Adams. Green contours do not photograph well when done professionally, let alone with a Canon Power shot. The tree removal to date has been exciting, really opening up the sightlines. Brad, your observations were spot on, many of our greens while fairly large, have 3 spots to put the pin. We look forward to TDs work...guess you'll all have to wait for the afters!

[Chuck Brown]

Bill:

I saw your post about this the other day, but now that I've looked at the "before" shots of the first hole, I wonder if this will really be productive.

For sure, you'll be able to tell "after" that a lot of trees on the first hole have come out ... or at least, as many as the club lets me take out.  But, the rest of our assignment is just greens and tees; we are supposed to work within the framework of the bunker project which Keith Foster completed just three years ago.  And if the bunkers around the greens aren't changing, I doubt your photos will be able to discern exactly what we have done to the greens themselves.

Bradley's last paragraph is right on ... many of the current greens at the Country Club are a bit short of hole locations ... they are 4500 square feet on average, and most of them have an unusable slope somewhere in the green.  The other problem is that a lot of them are so flat in the pinnable areas that the water doesn't really get off the edge.  That's the stuff we are supposed to fix, but I don't anticipate that it will really look like much from the camera's perspective.

Having played there a bit myself, it is a very enjoyable course and Tom's work will no doubt be greatly beneficial.  It is a course that is so flat that all of the subtleties need to be just perfect.  Some tree removal will be good, but it is a course with an awful lot of good specimen trees that don't bother too much.  (I sound like one of the cranky old don't-cut-the-beautiful-trees members!)

I'd be interested in what people thought about the Par 3's; that would be a good photo-project, Bill.  I know from a first-hand account that 25 years ago, Geoffry Cornish visited CCD on a retainer-visit, and said to the host committeemen, "Do you realize, you have a Redan?"  I then mentioned that conversation to Tom at the Lost Dunes outing -- I won't attempt to recite it all; Tom quite naturally said some things that I thought were all true and wise about the Par 3's.  But maybe Bill you could post a series of pictures of just the 3's, which already have some excellent qualities, but which I'll bet that Tom Doak could improve...