[Mark Saltzman]

In advance of hosting it's second National Championship this fall, Hollywood Golf Club hired Renaissance Golf Design to complete a bunker restoration.  While the course is credited to Walter Travis, several architects have had their hand in shaping the golf course as it sits today.  The routing belongs to Isaac Mackie who laid out the course prior to Travis' involvement.  Travis is responsible for the green contouring and bunker scheme, as well as the creation of the devilish par-4 13th, which came to being when he combined two shorter holes and found a spot for a new 17th hole.  Further renovations were completed by Dick Wilson in the 1950s and Rees Jones in 1998, which included the alteration of Travis' 17th green, the only green that is not a Travis original.




The opener at Hollywood Golf Club is a stout down and up par-4.  An un-needed fairway bunker down the left side has been sensibly removed to create a wide first fairway thus allowing those golfers that drive down the left to take on the challenge of reaching the green -- in so doing they must avoid the cavernous left bunker, which is set back from the green.  Surely there are more double bogeys made now that the golfer can foolishly play for the green from a poor position.




A brief reprieve in an otherwise difficult opening stretch of holes, the second is a short par-4 of 351 yards.  A foozle bunker has been restored on the left and the fairway bunker on the right pushed 30 yards down the fairway to return it to relevance.  The hole's primary defence is at the green where a false-front and small back tier demand precision.




The 3rd, a par-4 of 460 yards, once demanded a blind tee shot over a rise, but in the name of safety and fairness Rees Jones built-up the tee box to give the golfer a glimpse of the fairway and green beyond.  The drive is to a rare bunkerless fairway that will leave a long approach from a downhill lie.  The steeply back-to-front sloped green will help to stop a ball on the putting surface and, a rarity for Travis, bunkers sit beyond the green's midpoint.

[Richard Hetzel]

Mark,

Awesome pics, keep em coming!

[Scott Warren]

Those frilly bunkers are Rees's?

[Steve Lapper]

Those frilly bunkers aren't Rees. They are the recent work of Renaissance's Brian Schneider and Tom Doak.

[Mike Sweeney]

Those frilly bunkers are Rees's?

See the opener:

In advance of hosting it's second National Championship this fall, Hollywood Golf Club hired Renaissance Golf Design to complete a bunker

I am very interested to see the Doak work on #8 and 9 at the end of the month when I play with a friend and longtime member.

I would love to see some brown in the presentation aka Pinehurst at Hollywood as this grows in. Sitting down on the Jersey Shore, less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, it is the perfect setting for this look, imo.

Everything is green right now around NYC, so take this as hopeful optimism.

Thanks as always for posting Mark.

[Ronald Montesano]

I don't understand the third picture. I see three greens (looks like you're standing on one of them) and have no sense of the hole. Can you be more generous with another photo, so that I might situate myself?

Gracias, compadre.

[Scott Warren]

Haha. It was the first sentence, so it's understandable I missed it . (and my evening has been sponsored by Mr J Beam).

As you were...

[Mark Saltzman]

I don't understand the third picture. I see three greens (looks like you're standing on one of them) and have no sense of the hole. Can you be more generous with another photo, so that I might situate myself?

Gracias, compadre.

Ron, here's one from the line of play, about 180 yards out.  It doesn't, however, have the benefit of the late afternoon light like the other picture.

And FYI, the other pictures is taken from 18 green, looking across the 3rd hole with the 16th in the background.

[Tom_Doak]

I am very interested to see the Doak work on #8 and 9 at the end of the month when I play with a friend and longtime member.

I would love to see some brown in the presentation aka Pinehurst at Hollywood as this grows in. Sitting down on the Jersey Shore, less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, it is the perfect setting for this look, imo.

Mike:

It's really Brian Schneider's work ... he was the one building all the bunkers.  Not so much for me to do, on a real restoration, except to insist on putting back the bunkers where they were.

I would love to see some brown, too, but I doubt this membership will go very far in that direction, no matter what I say.

[Mark Saltzman]

Link to the same three holes not constrained by pixel width.. http://onegolferstravels.blogspot.ca/2014/06/hollywood-golf-club-deal-new-jersey.html

[Patrick_Mucci]

I am very interested to see the Doak work on #8 and 9 at the end of the month when I play with a friend and longtime member.

I would love to see some brown in the presentation aka Pinehurst at Hollywood as this grows in. Sitting down on the Jersey Shore, less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean, it is the perfect setting for this look, imo.

Mike:

It's really Brian Schneider's work ... he was the one building all the bunkers.  Not so much for me to do, on a real restoration, except to insist on putting back the bunkers where they were.

I would love to see some brown, too, but I doubt this membership will go very far in that direction, no matter what I say.

Tom,

After this year's Open I think the membership would listen to you

The photos of the bunkering look great and I'm anxious to play Hollywood this summer.
It's one of my favorite courses.

[Terry Lavin]

In a word, WOW!

[Patrick_Mucci]

Mark,

What's the date of the plan

[Mark Saltzman]

Mark,

What's the date of the plan

Pat, it's May 1916

[Mark Saltzman]

Forgive me for using the term, but the 4th at Hollywood is undoubtedly the club's signature hole.  The uphill 160 yard par-3 is like nothing else in the world of golf with dramatic mounding and volcano bunkering flanking the entrance to the green and creating a mostly blind putting surface.  A bunker fronting the centre of the green has been restored.




As seen from the left, the small green tilts from back-to-front.  Given the slope of the green and sharp false-front, precise distance control is placed at a premium.




While the tee shot at the 400 yard 5th, a dogleg with bunkers guarding the outside of the bend and trees protecting the short line, is not my favourite, yet another unique approach and green make the hole.  What to make of the berm crossing the fairway?  Is it the top line of a bunker? Or just a mound?  How far short of the green does it sit, how much room lay beyond and what is the nature of the land beyond?  Much like the approach to the 10th at The Golf Club, the visual trick is created by nothing more than a small rough step in the fairway.




The 6th is another strong par-4, playing over 420 yards and with deep bunkering lining the right side of the fairway.  Yet again, though, the hole goes from merely good to really great at the green.  An open green front allows a running approach, though a false front makes it more difficult, and a pair of ridges falling seamlessly from the mounding bordering the putting surface make the green among the wildest at Hollywood.

[Patrick_Mucci]

One of the most interesting features that I've seen on a golf course is the neat spine that runs in front of the 5th green from the right side to about the midpoint.

It's deceptive in that there's room behind it, before the green starts.

It thwarts run-up shots and is visually deceiving, it's a neat feature and I'd love to know of it's genesis in design and construction.

[Pat Burke]

I grew up across the street at Deal GC.
Hollywood was always so "different".

Those pictures are as good as I've seen the place look.

Nicely done.

[Ronald Montesano]

Before we get too deep...are greens untouched Travis?

[Tom_Doak]

Before we get too deep...are greens untouched Travis?

All except the 17th, which was moved by Rees Jones +/- 20 years ago.  Also, not sure what happened with the 18th ... either it is a pre-Travis green they asked him to keep, or it must have been torn up at some time afterward.

We can't move the green on 17 back to the original spot [too close to #18 tee and #7 green], but we hope at some point they will let us try to rebuild it with something more like the original contours.  Couldn't do that as part of this project, because they are hosting an event this fall.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom Doak,

While the green can't be moved, a restoration would be a noble pursuit.

It was a fabulous green

[Mike Sweeney]

Tom Doak,

While the green can't be moved, a restoration would be a noble pursuit.

It was a fabulous green

To My Member Friends at HW, Pat, and Steve,

Any pictures of the old 17 green? Original Travis greens kick butt.

Mark - keep posting please, watching Pinehurst now and I have gotten some friendly messages that the sprinklers will be turned down after the course grows in....

[Terry Lavin]

So I can go to Hollywood and Paramount and stay thousands of miles from LA?

[Steve Lapper]

So I can go to Hollywood and Paramount and stay thousands of miles from LA?


Maybe

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom Doak,

While the green can't be moved, a restoration would be a noble pursuit.

It was a fabulous green

To My Member Friends at HW, Pat, and Steve,

Any pictures of the old 17 green? Original Travis greens kick butt.

Mike,

I'll look for some.

It was a wild and fun green.
I was saddened to see it go and lobbied for it's survival.
It was really, really neat.

The other feature lost in addition to the old 17th green was a neat archway through a hedge that led to the 18th tee.

I think Tom MacWood posted pictures of both the 17th green and the archway.
But, that was a while ago and I don't know if the "search feature" can retrieve them, but, I'm 99 % positive he posted both on this site.

Mark - keep posting please, watching Pinehurst now and I have gotten some friendly messages that the sprinklers will be turned down after the course grows in....

[Mark Saltzman]

While it is the 4th that is the most unique hole at Hollywood, it is the 7th that often receives the designation as the 'best' hole on the course, and rightly so.  Bunkers sit staggered at the edge of the fairway, right, left, right, left, and ensure that the golfer must give consideration on each shot on the hole. 




But it is the angled green, when combined with the last two bunkers, right then left, that makes the hole.  The right fairway bunker sits some 90 yards from the putting surface and must be challenged for a reasonable angle into the three-tiered green.  Adding effect to the angle of the green is the tilt, falling hard from the back-left, which emphasizes the importance of approaching from the right.  Even with a wedge in the golfer's hand, a pitch from the left, over the deep fronting bunker, carries the risk of taking the slope of the green and running to its front edge.  Play a pitch from the right and the shot is a simple one.




At the par-4 9th the golfer must deal with a rare carry hazard running across the fairway some 150 yards from the member's tee.  Though it shouldn't be in play, the mounding has the effect of hiding the landing zone.




Perhaps the most fascinating green on the course, and reminiscent of the 9th green at Winged Foot East, the front of the 10th green falls from back-to-front before it falls away into a rear trough.

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