Streamsong story in Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus Section

[Joel Zuckerman]

Well written story by Michael Bamberger on Streamsong and the Renaissance Cup in the current issue of Sports Illustrated. (the Michael Jordan 50th birthday issue, not the swimsuit issue.)

GCA.com is mentioned, as is Ben Cowan-Dewar, Brad Klein, etc.  I am too low-tech to share a link, but I am sure someone can do it....

[Joe Bausch]

http://www.golf.com/courses-and-travel/streamsong-resort-golf-course-florida-pure-golf

[Jud_T]

Tom Doak live chat at noon...

[jeffwarne]

I love Michael's Books "The Green Road Home", and "To The Linksland"
They both occupy prominent space in my "library" and I refer to them often, and find them easy to read, no matter what page I randomly open to.
Perhaps it's the different editor?

I found that article incredibly hard to read and rambling (has to be a record for name dropping which was no doubt part of his point)
Some interesting observations however, many of which have been noted on GCA.

(edit: just reread it, maybe I'm just a little slow. Some pretty interesting stuff.)

I was amazed by his comment about losing more balls than he made pars.
that sounds like a description of the Ocean Course or TPC, or many other Florida torture chambers. (not Streamsong)
Michael's a pretty good golfer(granted it' winter), and Streamsong's a wide place(with 1-2 exceptions)......particularly from the non wayback tees.

[Sven Nilsen]

Did I miss the thread on the mounds at 7 on the Red?

[Joel Zuckerman]

Jeff,

I thought both the GC's were quite hard, and by that I mean more than the turf conditions.  Although I must say SL Solow made a thought-provoking comment to me when he and John Kirk joined up with me on the 6th or 7th hole of the Red, and completed the round with my partner and I.

He said in essence--when it's a 450+ yard uphil par-4 into the wind (like Red #1) don't think of it as a par 4 at all...for most players it's a par 5.  Play for the "personal par," and you won't be hurt too badly on the scorecard with a harmless bogey.  It's a simple way to look at things and effective, and one I hope to embrace going forward.  Good advice for those of us who don't hit it out of sight from the tee box.

[jeffwarne]

Jeff,

I thought both the GC's were quite hard, and by that I mean more than the turf conditions.  Although I must say SL Solow made a thought-provoking comment to me when he and John Kirk joined up with me on the 6th or 7th hole of the Red, and completed the round with my partner and I.

He said in essence--when it's a 450+ yard uphil par-4 into the wind (like Red #1) don't think of it as a par 4 at all...for most players it's a par 5.  Play for the "personal par," and you won't be hurt too badly on the scorecard with a harmless bogey.  It's a simple way to look at things and effective, and one I hope to embrace going forward.  Good advice for those of us who don't hit it out of sight from the tee box.

Joel,
I managed to bogie Red #1 with 7 iron in (downwind), so we would've been even.
SL's right, particularly when there's a slew of 300 yard par 4's out there.
the wind's not always in your face

I'm not saying the courses are easy (quite the contrary), I just thought the toughest part of driving was not committing to the proper line due to the options presented which bring's out one's inner mediocrity.
Have a bad day driving at the Ocean course and you're done. TPC same.Old Marsh, Medalist, Bear's Club, done.  
Streamsong, not so much (at least you don't think you're done ),but the second hole's a nail biter from the back tees

[Garland Bayley]

Did I miss the thread on the mounds at 7 on the Red?

Wouldn't that be Mucci's "controversial" thread?

[Sven Nilsen]

Did I miss the thread on the mounds at 7 on the Red?

Wouldn't that be Mucci's "controversial" thread?

I think the author of this article is color blind.

[Howard Riefs]

Bamberger should have fact checked the green fees. A same day replay round is $90. Not the full rate.  

Did I miss the thread on the mounds at 7 on the Red?

You don't remember page 3 of Joe's thorough course tour?

The "sandpile" right of the 7th green is one of the best and most practical architectural features I have seen on a modern course.  Love it. Love it. Love it.

Why isn't is used more often?

Bogey

Mostly, because it is very difficult to get the vegetation on the dune "right".  The dune in question had a bunch of weedy grass [cogan grass] on it, to the point that you could have lost a ball.  They left it like that until the very end and then killed off the grass with Roundup.  But, it remains to be seen how it will hold up to heavy traffic.  If balls stay on the mound and people try to play from it, it will get all footprinted up, and then everyone will say it's unfair ... plus it will start to degrade via wind erosion.  Maybe that won't happen here because the mound is so small and steep.

We built a mound (bigger and not as sharp) next to the 17th green at Sebonack at Mr. Nicklaus' direction, but they try to keep "native" grass on it, and it's a crapshoot as to how it plays.  I've tended to avoid features like that because it puts so much pressure on the superintendent to keep the playability just so.  Plus, at a lot of our courses, a feature like that would blow away in a week!

[Sven Nilsen]

My bad, I made the false assumption he was referring to the Mucci-opus.

That sandpile does look awesome.

[Howard Riefs]

Another nice article on the Renaissance Cup via LINKS:

http://www.linksmagazine.com/best_of_golf/renaissance-studies-101

[Carl Johnson]

First, I do not know the man.  But, I am sure that he is a fine gentleman.  That established, I was not impressed by this article, nor by one of the books he's written that I've read, To the Linksland, as I recall . . . sort of fluffy, as was the SI article about Streamsong, I thought.  But, what really turned me off to this guy was his intervention in the Wie "drop incident" a number of years ago.  Not that I should hold this against his writing, but the writing does strike me as more cute than substantive.