Newport Country Club (Ross / Tillinghast) - A Photo Tour - Hole 15 Posted!!!

[ChipRoyce]

Michael,

While I'd agree, they, like Maidstone, have a different mindset.

I was very disappointed to see them narrow the fairways for the Women's Open and not return them to their pre-Open width immediately thereafter.

How does their current width compare to the Pre-Open width ?

If I remember correctly, doesn't/didn't  Newport play with little rough due to a lack of irrigation?

[Joe Sponcia]

Mr. Saltzman,

Thanks so much for posting these.  Great job so far.

[Mark Saltzman]

The 10th is a downhill and reachable par-5, but well-placed bunkering in conjunction with the predominant wind, makes placing a tee shot in the fairway a difficult task.  With the wind blowing off the golfer's left shoulder and with the significant left-to-right slope of the fairway, the golfer will need to play a tee shot that flirts with the left fairway bunker to avoid a tee shot that tumbles into the bunker on the right.








The 11th is a clever short par-4.  At 290 yards this hole will be drivable for some, but as the hole often plays with a cross-wind, placement of the shot in the fairway is essential.  The view of the fairway is blocked by a cross-bunker and for those unable to reach the green, this is a hole where the golfer must fight the temptation to play towards the flag.  Only approaches from the left, away from the direct line to the green, will have an unimpeded angle of a approach to this narrow and rolling green.








The 12th must the most forgettable hole on the course, a 475 yard par-5 that plays as a 460 yard par-4 from the championship tee.  The strategy of the hole is simple -- play near the out-of-bounds on the left for the shortest approach and preferred angle, or play safely out to the right and play a lay-up over the cross-bunker for the simpler approach into the slope of the green.

[Rob Curtiss]

would love to play newport country club

[Mark Saltzman]

The firs to back-to-back par-3s, the mid-iron 13th offers little from the tee.  A perfect foreshortening bunker sits 40 yards from the green, giving the appearance of a green that requires an aerial approach, but there is ample room to miss short of the green (and really, this is the only place a golfer can miss.  The green falls sharply from the back and is surrounded by three of the deepest bunkers on the course left, right and long.




Called plateau, but clearly resembling a redan, the 190 yard 14th requires a well-thought tee shot.  The land falls from the right and the fall-off left of the green is far more dramatic than first appears from the tee.  Especially on downwind days, golfers will be looking to play a runner from the right and will be entirely satisfied with any tee shots that ends through the green, leaving an uphill chip.






Continuing in the same direction, the 15th is a stout par-4 where once again the golfer wants to play to the land's high side.  Bunkers protect the short line to the green, but a tremendous advantage is given to golfer's that can play near or over them as tee shots drawing left will likely run all the way to the left rough.  Amplifying the advantage is a series of bunkers protecting the left side of an otherwise open green.

[HarryBrinkerhoffDoyleIV_aka_Barry]

Mark - would love to see the conclusion to this photo thread......

Thanks!

[Jim_Kennedy]

A view of Newport  from '39, sometime after the Great New England hurricane of '38:



A link to the website. Course can be viewed across several eras:

http://mapper.provplan.org/ha/

Bonus: Tailer's Ocean Links is visible right next door.

[MCirba]

Mark,

Nice photo shoot of a terrific course.

Jim,

Great aerials.

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Recent research by Newport failed to find any proof Ross ever worked on the course. The club has uncovered work by HH Barker, but no Ross and now considers its design history to not include Ross.

There is also a invoice showing Seth Raynor was paid for work (an image of the receipt can be found in your copy of To the Nines) at Newport but what he did has not been ascertained.

Anthony

[MCirba]

Hi Tony,

Do you know the year of Barker's work or what was the extent of it?  Thanks!

[Sven Nilsen]

Barker's work was noted in a Sept. 1909 American Golfer article as an improvement.

[MCirba]

Thanks, Sven.

[JNagle]

Undoubtedly, one of my favorites.  Anyone care to take a stab at the origins of the corrugations seen running perpendicular to the 10th, 11th and 12th holes.  This may be an easy one for some historians.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Drains around the tents in a troop encampment.


ed: or a polo field?

[Brad Tufts]

I think the current driving range was the polo field.

Was 10/11/12 a filled-in marsh?  Or former farmland...

[Sean_A]

Mark

Thanks for the tour.  The first thng which jumps out at me is every hole (or damn near) has some configuration of greenside left and reight bunkering.  Do you know the evolution of the bunker scheme?

Ciao

[Josh Stevens]

Add a few million pine trees, some heather, and remove the grotesque clubhouse, and it would remind me of Sunningdale or The  Berkshire. Has that lovely understated heathland look about the bunkering and the way it flows. Very nice.