How does this sound??

[Dale_McCallon]

Found this quote from Ed Carton on the Spring Creek (Charlottesville, Va) web site...attributed to the thoughts of Sam Snead.  What do you guys think about it.

The result of his collaboration with Sam Snead was the universally praised Poplar Grove, in Amherst.

"We spent time driving back and forth from the Masters, and I'd ask him, 'What do you think of these bunkers?' or 'What do you think of this green?' One of the things Sam liked was creating a green which he thought of as a catcher's mitt - where, if you hit the green, the ball doesn't just trickle off, but instead, you're rewarded with hitting the green. Another thing I took from him was a sense of shot values coming into the green - and, for example, how to make hazards very visible

[jim_lewis]

If that is an accurate quote, it is a good thing that Sam didn't design golf courses. Of course, most pros want bunkers they can see and greens that reward their shots, but the great ones prefer courses and greens that reward only the very best shots. That is, courses that seperate the great from the merely very good. I doubt if Sam was really an exception in spite of this quote. It does not square with a video I have seen of him praising Pinehurst #2 becasue the greens reward only excellent approaches.