Par 3 of the day (Lebanon CC #12)

[Joe Bausch]

Although I've lived in Philly for 20+ years now somehow I never found myself on Melrose CC, a Maxwell design with I guess some guidance by Mackenzie.  But late in December I called and they are now amenable to public play.  So much has changed there apparently, but I believe the 17th hole is an original still intact.

It plays uphill to smallish green where there just isn't a whole lot of places to miss!  From the tips it is about 215 yards, and left is dead, long is too if you miss the catching bunker, and right leaves a difficult pitch to the green.  Short is no bargain either.

Back tee view:



From short of the green:



From right of the green:



From just over the green:



Just after one visit this par 3 became one of my favorite in the entire Philadelphia area.

[Sven Nilsen]

Joe:

Where near Philly is Melrose?

Sven

[Joe Bausch]

Joe:

Where near Philly is Melrose?

Sven

It is right on the edge of town in Cheltenham, basically north of the city.

[Mark McKeever]

Looks like a stern test late in the round.  Green looks pretty sweet too!  Does it tilt from right to left as much as it looks?

Mark

[Joe Bausch]

Looks like a stern test late in the round.  Green looks pretty sweet too!  Does it tilt from right to left as much as it looks?

Mark

Sort of a two-tiered green, high right and low left.

[Tim Gavrich]

THAT small a green on the business end of a 215 yard par 3?  Awesome; must be a great match play hole.

I know it's maintained as rough, but is it possible to bounce the ball up from short and right?  Would the club do well to maintain that area as fairway?

[Joe Bausch]

THAT small a green on the business end of a 215 yard par 3?  Awesome; must be a great match play hole.

I know it's maintained as rough, but is it possible to bounce the ball up from short and right?  Would the club do well to maintain that area as fairway?

If just the correct amount of short and right, yes, there is a slope to bounce it off of and onto the green.  But once maybe 10 yards short and to pin high, no.

[Garland Bayley]

So Joe, what's the motivation here? You birdied it? Or, are we going to get a Philly area par 3 everyday until you run out of courses and holes?

[Jason Walker]

I sure hope it's a Philly par 3 everyday as there's a lot of great ones 'round here!

[Bob Harris]

Although I've lived in Philly for 20+ years now somehow I never found myself on Melrose CC, a Maxwell design with I guess some guidance by Mackenzie.  But late in December I called and they are now amenable to public play.  So much has changed there apparently, but I believe the 17th hole is an original still intact.

Joe,

#17 is a Maxwell hole.  In the original routing it was hole #11. 

[Joe Bausch]

Ok, talk about #17 at Melrose sort of died quickly, so let's move to another!

#14 at Bensalem Twp CC (Gordon design).  215 yards from the tips.

I visited this course about a month ago with GCAer John Shi$, a course he played a good amount growing up.  The 14th plays across a large gulley, to an almost 90' wide and deep green, sloped pretty severely from back to front.

Google aerial:



Tee view:



From short of the green:



From right of the green:



From just over the green:



Legend has it, and it may just be that, Johnny Miller played this hole and said it was one of the hardest par 3's he has ever played.

[Mark McKeever]

How did you and Shi$ fare on the hole?

Mark

[Mark Saltzman]

Joe,

I'm trying to picture the hole with leaves on the trees.  It looks like, at a minimum, the trees would hide anything left or right of the green (ie the greenside bunkering). 

I have seen holes like this before where you are playing from a chute and most mortals are happy just to miss the trees.  When reaching the greensite (having successfully missed the overhanging limbs) and seeing the green has bunkers left and right, they are not happy.  I expect that would happen here as well.  Not necessarily a good or bad thing, just something I noticed.

Based on the aerial, it looks like the bunkers 'float' a good distance from the green.  I like that on long par-3s.  This is a tough hole to find the green, and shots that miss by just a bit are not penalized by finding a bunker (assuming most players prefer recoveries from grass over sand).  Shots that do find bunkers are shots that missed by a lot. Bunkers that are setback from greens leave a more difficult recovery because of a longer forced carry to reach the green surface -- I don't mind this extra penalty because, as I said, to find the bunker is a pretty bad miss.

That said, the bunker placement seems a bit generic and ultimately uninteresting. Bunkers short-left and right + False-front short + Bunkers left and right + Green sloping from back-to-front = nowhere to miss.  Definitely a very hard hole, but not really an interesting one (IMHO, of course!).

[Joe Bausch]

How did you and Shi$ fare on the hole?

Mark

Dear Mark,

Foe, foe, (foe, if even you were with us).

Sincerely,
Moses Malone
----------------------

[astavrides]

The title of the thread says #17, but you are talking about #14.  This could be dramatically limiting the number of views of this thread as well as causing mass confusion.

[Joe Bausch]

The title of the thread says #17, but you are talking about #14.  This could be dramatically limiting the number of views of this thread as well as causing mass confusion.

Good pick-up AS. 

Correction made.

[Joe Bausch]

Joe,

I'm trying to picture the hole with leaves on the trees.  It looks like, at a minimum, the trees would hide anything left or right of the green (ie the greenside bunkering). 

I have seen holes like this before where you are playing from a chute and most mortals are happy just to miss the trees.  When reaching the greensite (having successfully missed the overhanging limbs) and seeing the green has bunkers left and right, they are not happy.  I expect that would happen here as well.  Not necessarily a good or bad thing, just something I noticed.

Based on the aerial, it looks like the bunkers 'float' a good distance from the green.  I like that on long par-3s.  This is a tough hole to find the green, and shots that miss by just a bit are not penalized by finding a bunker (assuming most players prefer recoveries from grass over sand).  Shots that do find bunkers are shots that missed by a lot. Bunkers that are setback from greens leave a more difficult recovery because of a longer forced carry to reach the green surface -- I don't mind this extra penalty because, as I said, to find the bunker is a pretty bad miss.

That said, the bunker placement seems a bit generic and ultimately uninteresting. Bunkers short-left and right + False-front short + Bunkers left and right + Green sloping from back-to-front = nowhere to miss.  Definitely a very hard hole, but not really an interesting one (IMHO, of course!).

Mark, I've not played it during the leaved seasons but it must seem like a very narrow shute.  BTCC is in need of a visit in places from a Poulan.

I'm not going to always be posting par 3's here that I feel are necessarily outstanding, in the hopes of getting some dialogue going like you have contributed nicely.  It is a hard uphill par 3, but probably not as interesting as the 17th at Melrose (the first hole in this thread).

[John Shimony]

The day me and Joe played I had to use a three wood to reach the green.  Most shots end up short of the bunkers leaving an awkward up hill pitch.  The green is sloped severely back to front but it is rather large and with plenty of room around the green to miss.  I do not recall the trees being a factor in the summer months.  I don't mind a brute like this once a round.  My father told about the Johnny Miller comment.  I believe Miller married a girl from this area.

[Joe Bausch]

Next up is the 12th from Lebanon CC, the 'what a nice surprise' course for me this past season.  Thanks to Rory C, I was able to play there in October with Mike and Mike (C and T).  The back nine is a blast.  After the wonderful 'Findlay Alps' 11th hole that I did a thread on a few months back, you come do this downhill par 3, playing almost 200 yards.  Unfortunately the subtle contours of the greens at Lebanon aren't adequately shown in pics from my camera.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Joe,
That's an interesting greensite. Other than a Biarritz I can't remember seeing a par 3 where the approach is built upon such a long table and flanked with bunkers.  

[Mike Hendren]

Joe,
That's an interesting greensite. Other than a Biarritz I can't remember seeing a par 3 where the approach is built upon such a long table and flanked with bunkers.  

Jim, totally agree.  There is a hole on the short course at Grandfather Mountain that has a similarly long table with a couple of bunkers cut into the right side.    I commented to Bart Bradley about how much I liked it and he posted this photograph:



Mike

[JNagle]

Below is a 1937 aerial image of the 12th at LCC (photo courtesy of Craig Disher).  Not the best image.
The Lebanon back nine is a sleeper.  We took Ron Whitten out there last summer while also touring/
playing Bedford and Lancaster and he loved the back nine holes (especially 11).  The back nine was
to have been completed my Alexander Findlay and the front was to have been completed by the Club.
There are still some interesting charactersitics on the front nine that can be seen in other Findlay courses,
so his brother may have been involved for all we know.  The right side bunkering on the 12th along with
bunkers on the 16th and 18th helped sell the eventual restoration of Tavistock.

[Joe Bausch]

My entire photo album is really worth a visit, IMO:

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/lebanon/

[Mark McKeever]

Lebanon CC is a reciprocal I need to take advantage of in 2012...

Mark

[Jim_Kennedy]

My entire photo album is really worth a visit, IMO:

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/lebanon/

You were right, thanks.