Photo thread - Old Course Changes

[Ally Mcintosh]

This thread is to track changes to the course.

The below photos are taken directly from the "hooked on golf" website posted in the main thread. They are of works around the Road hole bunker and green. If Marty or anyone else can get out to the course in the coming days, we need "before" photos of:

- Back-right green surrounds on holes 2,4,6,7,15
- Back-left of 11th green
- Hollow short of Shell bunker on 7
- Spur to left of 4th fairway
- Green side bunkers to right of 2 & 4

Then any construction or "after" photos should be posted.

[Niall C]

Ally

Thanks for posting. What are they doing to the back of the green behind the bunker ? I must have missed that bit, anyone know ?

Niall

[Carson Pilcher]

Seeing it like this....I think I am going to cry.   

[David Davis]

+1 on the crying...me because I hadn't had the chance yet to play more than a couple times and develop the same love affair as many of you have.

yep I bet this is the fastest work in history, they are probably thinking we have just a few days until the world can organize enough allegiance to respond and by then we will have destroyed it all...."unfortunate, evil laugh, as highway to hell plays in the background!"

As much as I love the song.

Thanks for posting Ally....well, I think. How about just thanks for keeping us up to date. 

[Alex Miller]

+1 on the crying...me because I hadn't had the chance yet to play more than a couple times and develop the same love affair as many of you have.

yep I bet this is the fastest work in history, they are probably thinking we have just a few days until the world can organize enough allegiance to respond and by then we will have destroyed it all...."unfortunate, evil laugh, as highway to hell plays in the background!"

As much as I love the song.

Thanks for posting Ally....well, I think. How about just thanks for keeping us up to date. 

+1 to the crying and the sentiment. When I do make it to TOC one day I will be mighty upset if I have a back left pin on 11.

[Stephen Davis]

I am glad I am not alone here. I saw those pictures and I too want to cry. I am about to enter the 5 stages of grief. Here comes anger!

[Mike Nuzzo]

From @colinjdonaldson via twitter

[Jud_T]

Wait a minute.  Contouring on the 2nd green?!  Is this the first we've heard of that?  Great, now 3 of my favorite greens have been changed.     Oh,  I guess it's to the right of the green.  Small consolation...

[Brett Hochstein]

I know it's aerial, but the right of 2 looks gross.  The way that green drops down from a rumply plateau to a flattish sweeping low is one of my favorite spots in both golf and small scale geology.  Now there will be two geometric bunkers with a rise behind to break it all up.  Furthermore, I'm not even convinced those bunkers would come into play for the pros. 

[William_G]

From @colinjdonaldson via twitter

easier to get equipment on TOC than Mars but still WOW!

[Bryan Izatt]

Here's a blow-up of the two notices that Mike posted to make them easier to read.  "Sorry for the inconvenience." ?!?!?




Seems that they've removed the gorse from in front of the 7th tee.  Hopefully not the clump that is to the left of the 12th green also.  I wonder if the 7th landing area is now all out there in front of you from the tee.  Maybe they'll get rid of the marshall who used to sit on top of the dune and tell you when it is safe to hit. 





Hopefully the bunkers will turn out less obtrusive in reality than in the picture.  The contouring appears to be the two inverted "v" ripples just above the bunkers.  Hopefully they will look better in reality than that.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Here's a blow-up of the two notices that Mike posted to make them easier to read.  "Sorry for the inconvenience." ?!?!?




Seems that they've removed the gorse from in front of the 7th tee.  Hopefully not the clump that is to the left of the 12th green also.  I wonder if the 7th landing area is now all out there in front of you from the tee.  Maybe they'll get rid of the marshall who used to sit on top of the dune and tell you when it is safe to hit. 

I hadn't picked up on this before.  I welcomed the 7th tee shot as it introduced variety, of the butt clenching total blindness over gorse kind!  Gorse has been part of the architecture of TOC from day 1.   This bit was cut back hard about 3 years ago proving it can be managed.  Without, it might just be another blind tee shot on the front 9, worse if you can now see the fairway over the new ‘fescue’.  There is often a log jam of players here but I can't see the point of funnelling them into the loop any quicker.


Ally, Thanks for the thread logging the changes.

[Adam Lawrence]

More incredibly depressing photos here http://livingasalinksgolfer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/st-andrews-old-course-to-see-changes.html

[Ally Mcintosh]

More incredibly depressing photos here http://livingasalinksgolfer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/st-andrews-old-course-to-see-changes.html

Thanks Adam... Here they are, posted courtesy of Graylyn Loomis at the above Blog:

2nd green surrounds stripped and ready for recontouring & bunkering:


7th hole hollow filled in:


Back left of 11th green flattened and shaped 1:


Back left of 11th green flattened and shaped 2:


Road hole bunker and surrounds reshaped 1:


Road hole bunker and surrounds reshaped 2:

[Steve Strasheim]

Well, I'll be damned if I don't find myself saddened by these pics.

Guess I've been lurking around this site too much these last few years.

[Neil White]

They seem to be working at a fair rate of knots. 

I guess(?) it doesn't take long to smooth out micro undulations with a 'dozer.

Any sign of Hawtree et al?

[Jeff Spittel]

Outrageous. Getting the mustache ready for the Mona Lisa. 

[Mike Nuzzo]

Full size

[Bruce Katona]

To take the contrarian view, the posts to date have bemoaned the tweaks to the course.  However, when the treehouse of GCA determined, fast & firm or other deign/maintenance meld be agreed upon at XYZ Club, and the membership a said club declines to implement said changes, these club members are "stuck back in the Dark Ages".

As a gentle reminder, most links courses are continually ever-changing due to the site conditions indigenous to linksland. 

Just my humble $0.02.  BK 

[Jim Colton]

Full size

Does anyone have a comparable 'before' picture from a similar angle?

[Ally Mcintosh]

As a gentle reminder, most links courses are continually ever-changing due to the site conditions indigenous to linksland. 

 

Bruce, my own opinion is that whilst I expect links courses to evolve through nature - in fact I'd like to see more courses do even more in this direction sometimes - it's entirely different to force man-made changes for reasons that aren't clear or rational.... Besides that, it's the old course and it should have its own set of rules in my world...  Jim, the changes to 11 green at least look sympathetic from those two photos... I've googled some original shots from that angle and you can see the dip a little more now - but really we can't comment until we get there... Mostly we (let alone everyone else) won't notice too much... But still - it's the old course... and it's one of the most iconic greens in the game....

[Will Lozier]

To take the contrarian view, the posts to date have bemoaned the tweaks to the course.  However, when the treehouse of GCA determined, fast & firm or other deign/maintenance meld be agreed upon at XYZ Club, and the membership a said club declines to implement said changes, these club members are "stuck back in the Dark Ages".

As a gentle reminder, most links courses are continually ever-changing due to the site conditions indigenous to linksland. 

Just my humble $0.02.  BK 

Bruce,

The Old Course does not fall under the category of "most links courses".  It is THE links course - THE course - that has had hundreds of years to evolve.  Furthermore, the changes being carried out are unapologetically solely for The Open.  I can't think of a good reason to rush through fairly major changes to the main characteristics of historic holes for ONE WEEK EVERY FIVE YEARS TO PRESUMABLY MAKE THE WINNING SCORE A FEW SHOTS HIGHER!  In my opinion, the burden of proof that these tweaks are necessary is very high! 

Cheers

[Mike Nuzzo]

Bruce
I don't recall anyone ever saying that a golf course that over waters and strives for pimped out maintenance as being in the Dark ages.
Either way you are describing two different preferences of the treehouse.

We're talking about changing the freaking greens at The Old Course

Jim
To some people the before and afters will look the same, especially from photographs.
That isn't the point - as Tom so eloquently put it somewhere else around here.
#savetheoldcourse
#jimcandunk

Cheers

[Clyde Johnson]

Jim,

This angle isn't too far off, taken in 2011:



A better look at what it is they are 'softening':



I presume, but may be wrong, that they are shaving the 'rise' and tying it back in somewhere around where the golfer is walking-off the green...Whatever happens, it isn't going to be too pretty!

[Adam Clayman]

I love how they've tried to spread the risk by saying the changes have been approved by several groups (committees). According to Uncle Boab, this is a lie.

Will the core principles of golf be altered, too?