Part 2 - Winged Foot East
Thank you all for your acknowledgement.
As I consider what i might say of value regarding the East's one-shotters and my opinion of their modest superiority over those of the West, I have to start by crediting many of the principles that - in toto - cause me to also say I think the East is a course I would more often play than the West.
Simply put my opinion is that the East - par 3s and all holes - offers more variety in vista, use of clubs, yardages and types of shots while retaining every bit of the West's resistance to scoring. I further believe that if the USGA were permitted to artificially doctor the East course as they do every 25-30 years on the West - while I could definitely envision a lower winning score - the differential in the exhibition of player skill to the onlooker would be negligible. If they went really wild and significantly moved back or made new par 4 championship tees of #s 5, 9, 10 and 18 - they might get a score as high to par 70/280 as the West.
As is without such interference, these differences are nil to all but national championship contenders, as we Caddies get to see the East both humble fine national and regional amateurs and reward honest bogey-man routinely at different congregations all season long in all conditions of climate and maintenance. So i don't digress; the main introductory point is that the East has every bit the medal or match challenge of the West but it does so in a more sublime, less brutal manner. You always feel like you're refreshing your mental golf screen on the East and that you're playing a drastically different hole than the one before on each tee box. The only stretch that feels remotely homogeneous is #'s 9, 10 & 11 which are three successive short fours with wicked greens. I'm straining to even nick it that much.
One last introductory point I'd like to share is a discovery I've made to refute a long-spun notion that us East-lovers have seemed to repeat regarding the 1929 US Open, the first championship that launched Winged Foot's national reputation. It has long been insinuated that somehow the first Open was to be held on the East course and that rain storms or some last-minute contingency switched it to the West, and thus the West has had the championship legacy. my research isn't but 99% through but I can tell you this is not true - as to a last minute contingency. I can say this because while WF did get rain on the Friday of the tourney, it had been after a heat wave and the course was dry as a bone.
I've read the preliminary lead-up stories in contemporaneous journals and none of them cite the East as the venue or infer that it ever was - as a matter of fact there is a wonderful map of Winged Foot West and course descriptions in the June 25-26 1929 editions of the NY Times right before the tournament began. i have not completed my research to the extent that the change could not have been possibly made at an earlier time in the interim between the 1928 Open and May 1929 before, however the USGA had already taken to announcing the next season's venue at the current season's tourney and there is no mention of the East except for its use as a practice course for the competitors who had just completed big tournaments in the area at the Biltmore and another at...I can't remember.
Whew!
WFE #3 - "Cave"
Tillie wrote, again in some literalism, that it was so-named because it "appears to enter a roofless cavern, a mashie shot, 140 yards away." The rock formations that frame the sharp slop at the front and right of the green, as well as the large smooth rock formation that box the rear of the complex definitely have something of this effect.
VK Again, one of the enhancing strengths of this hole - like the 3rd on the West - is its seeming "correctness" in this portion of the round. Its appearance and demands convince you that this course is not the West, it is like an experienced brother. And continuing with the theme of superiority through variety, you will now play your third different card par within the first the holes. Here the shot is short and slightly downhill and is intended for an aerial play but still cradles and slings a well judged running shot. The first third of the green is the most dangerous on all the East 3s, and this is your first introduction to that aesthetic. But one of the charming and stirring functionalities of the hole in contrast to the short 7th on the West is that while every bit as protected, every miss but pin high right has a good chance for recovery...more's to the point, the recoveries are not only solvable but an amusing array of judgement pitches and sand blasts to this little potato chip of a green that is one of the five hardest to read for one-putt in the entire 36. In short, it's doable and apt hole that offers the thrill to most of a possible 2, satisfaction with any 3 and you won't feel too bad about the 4 you get 6 out of 10 times. You're rarely discouraged by this hole, it insinuates that good things are within your command.
WFE #6 - "Trouble"
Tillie gave it this name for the threatening circumstances surrounding it, "such as the out-of-bounds situation on-the right, the inviting bunkers and a green that brings out the best, and worst of times and men, especially if you land above the pin." True dat' and this hole - as some of you might have known - has ironically caused a lot of trouble and headache for WF involving a property dispute with a neighbor whose backyard is in the direct path of the multitudinous every day slice of the 5 irons and hybrids this hole often requires. Worse, the voluminous Monday outing heathens
often took to retrieving their Pinnacles and Volvik Crystals from that same yard. there was a rumor his dog died from eating a golf ball. Even though the homeowner bought into the situation, he got legal traction with the courts because (I have heard) the club had thinned out and removed some trees from the grove of pines that used to border in a straight line down the four adjacent properties including this owner. Though the effect of dampening slices with the previous growth was negligible (e.g, balls still went there all the time) because the club had "altered what he bought into as neighbor of this property" the club was responsible for damages. while a settlement was worked out the hole was closed to all play for a significant portion of 2009. This is what I heard and if true, is a cautionary tale for those of you with similar situations in your own clubs.
VK: This hole is for me is the weakest of eight, otherwise superb Par 3s on the grounds of WF. I believe this because to me the hole is merely difficult and otherwise plain. And Tillie is right...woe be the men and times above the pin! But that doesn't change that if I want a score of 3 with a near-guarantee of no worse than 4 on this hole the manner in which to play it is rather uninteresting for Winged Foot standards: Play for 30 yards short of the green with a short iron and either run or pitch a bumbler up short and have a chance at an uphill one putt. Though the hole regularly measures 160 W 180B and up to 204 tip to tip, it plays a lot longer than those numbers into a swirling wind broken by the hillside it is benched into. Unless you're a very good player, or playing a casual game it is almost ludicrous to risk the "Trouble" around this green and the recoveries they leave you to a surface where you don't want more than 15 foot putts. The East has plenty of smooth, blazing slopes but this green could be the fastest from front to back there is on the property. It's got teeth and there is the amusement of its putts, but you somehow feel a hopeless scramble for par before you tee off. played from the forward markers - like on monday outings - it is a boring mid-iron.
WFE #13 - "Cameo"
The founding members - not Tillie - named this hole with the literal allusion to that of the Cameo Diamond, a gem rising up out of the quiet rolling meadow that is its stirring theater, a location they considered the most beautiful on the course. they were right because -all apologies to #10 West - this is the diamond standard for this GCA as far Winged Foot and most short par 3's I've ever known.
VK: Where do you start; the Redan diagonals presented as 3 D mirrors to that design concept ? The theatrical steeplechase of shooting an attainable short iron from one craggy perch to another across and over a broad sunken lawn? That's the same set up as 10 West but there your boots are shaking in part because you have a 4 iron or hybrid in your grip. Here, that's usually no more than a 7-iron and often a 9-bat...but you're still shaking...why? Because you know you just about to have to hit this green or risk as much as 5 the moment you do not. The members call it the world's easiest/shortest Par 5 and I've seen the most experienced of them, who know it best, get a 6, from on or just off the green. This is caused by the contour, pitch, orientation and tilt of a green that is akin to playing over and around a Volkswagen Beetle. The first 30% of this green is the most false of false fronts, a waterfall ramp that leads a ball thrity yards back down toward the tee. The next 30% in the middle shoulders balls off into the first part, thus the only place you can starteigcally be is in the back right of the green (which requires the bravery to hit more club than the pin calls for and chance pulling over dead) or perhaps in the far right side bunker of three fronting traps, where you might hit it out into a two putt position.
i've may have witnessed or played 400 hundred rounds or more on the East and my best advice is to play for the back right of the green, hope for good fortune in the swirling winds of the meadow amphitheater, and try not to three putt. no matter how hard you ry to instruct on the putt, no one can believe the speed front to back and how it gathers life, not slows, if it is rolling with more than 1 foot weight. it's an amazing piece of architecture, well-conceived by the members and executed by Tillinghast. To my mind there is every bit the drama and all the good GCA principles at work in this model as there are in the other great 3s we know of short or intermediate...7 at Pebble, 12 at Augusta, the 8th postage stamp at Troon, PV's 10th, etc, etc...this is the most unherladed hoel of its type relative to its excellence in both visuals, straegy and challenge of score. A great match or medal hole under any circumstance and most importantly a pleasure to play and encounter unto itself, though it be a wonderful middle note in an 18 hole round.
WFE #17 - "Lightnin'"
Ironically, Tillie's reason for naming this hole - "because it would take a bolt from Jove to move th ball out of this holes traps" is a feature that has been extinct from the hole since the 1930s when there were indeed massive traps left and right of the,abrupt carbuncle of land that comprises the green; allegedly there was even a cross bunkers to catch tops halfway down the hill. As it has been long-morphed into the present configuration - a stoic and small plot of land a great, grassy distance away - it stands out as unique among WF holes for its absence of Tillie-faced pits and stellar among them for its lack of need for those hazards to test and challenge the golfer.
VK: while the members lovingly call the short 13th, the easiest par 5 on the course, you should know they call this the hardest card par on the entire property. That would be a tough call for me to make, but I do see their point as I've probably seen less than 10 birdies in an aggregate 3000 rounds - it's the rarest card birdie for sure. The hole is very cunning with its topographical angles as the entirety of the shot seems to list to the right as the ground tumbles gently downhill, camlouflaging judgement of distance and depth perception. The fact that the hole plays an everyday yardage of 190 W, 210 B and 235 tip to tip brings the longer clubs and their wildness into the hands and this is often compounded by the summer WSW wind quartering from the right. Yet without the bunkers the hole seems pleasing and fair for all these difficulties - in this way it is the complete opposite emotional pitch of #6 East, which fee;ls like a bogey though it demands less distance. The target vista on 17 is wide and liberal, framed in the foreground right by two handsome maples and foreground left a unique, craggy osage orange/breadfruit tree. This breeds the more relaxed swing necessary to hit the longer club the distance requires. As most are likely to not hit this green safely, the only place to miss is right. you have got to be Lucky or tour to get up and down from anywhere along the left grass valleys, there are no bunkers but its an instance where WF's all-too healthy rough comes into play on a Par 3. This is all because the green in a massive wave with a bulging left shoulder and list to the rigth worthy of a dragging Quasimodo. It's unlikely to remain up in the portion of the green without poor luck, but if you are unfortunate enough the putts are blazing from that side to the right where 90% of the pins are placed. it's a memorable farewell to the East's unique par 3s and a hole every bit as challenging for crack players as middlin bogey man.
Whew!
I may post some kind of summary depending on what if anything has been said in resposne to these two posts but for now I rate the WF par 3s as follows:
1. 13 EAST
2. 10 WEST
3. 17 EAST
4. 13 WEST
5. 3 WEST
6. 3 EAST
7. 7 WEST
8. 6 EAST
If i've made any point in these two blasts of hot air, its probably that I love both these courses and their array of one shot holes, the best collection in a small space anywhere - if we include 9 and 10 at Quaker 600 yards away - it's a no brainer that the border between Mamoroneck and Scarsdale has the goods.
As for East or West what;s better, I've said EAST but you can barely put a scorecard between the difference.
cheers
vk