The Town & Country Club, Saint Paul, MN, USA (1888)

[PCCraig]

Seventh hole, 361 yards, “Cinch”;

After the tough sixth, and the wild fifth, the seventh hole at T&C can be considered somewhat of a breather. Laid out over a high ridge that runs along the far eastern property line, the seventh is a par-4 of 361 yards. While out of bounds lurks the entire left side of the hole, most players will hit either a driver or a 3-wood which favors the right side of the hole but must carry a fairway bunker.   

While players electing to hug the property line will find a slightly more open angle to the green, the green slopes hard from back left to front right making approach shots slightly more difficult to get close.

Although most players will have either a short iron or wedge approach, the best angle of attack is from the right side of the fairway where the player can land and run their approach up the primarily slope of the green. The pin in the picture below is located just to the left of a severe internal contour of the green, making putts from above this pin particularly testy.

Eighth hole, 366 yards;

The eighth hole begins what is arguably the best stretch of holes on the course.  Also running along the same property line as the seventh, the ridge that was previously wide narrows considerably, adding strategic interest to the hole.

A player that decides to strategically play away from the out of bounds on the left may elect to bail out right, however their ball will find a steep left to right slope in the fairway with their ball running down the ridge. Their trade off for playing away from the hazard is a largely blind second shot off a side hill lie that must carry two bunkers and remain short and right of a deep bunker that lurks left and behind the green.

However, the player that hits an aggressive drive down the left side of the fairway closer to the hazard, is rewarded with a clear angle to the green off a flat lie.

Like the seventh, the green slopes primarily back to front, and with a slightly less pronounced back left to front right tilt. Either way, long is a poor miss and makes for a difficult up and down. 

Ninth hole, 414 yards, “Toboggan”;

Appropriately named, the ninth hole serves double duty as one of the best sledding hills in the Twin Cities come winter, although that isn’t always clear while standing on the tee.

A player choosing to hit an easy driver or fairway wood off the tee will be faced with a blind downhill shot to the green, approximately 175 yards away. However, due to the severity of the downhill slope, the shot typically plays 10-15 yards shorter than the specified yardage.

Longer hitters hitting a driver are awarded a clear view of the green and a likely mid or short iron approach shot. It is possible with very well hit drives to “toboggan” down much of the slope, leaving a short but tricky approach shot with a wedge. 

Regardless of the length of approach, most players find time to admire the view from the top of the hill toward downtown Minneapolis.

Once the player descends down the slope, they are presented with what appears to be a typical back-to-front sloping green. However, due to an optical illusion the green is nearly flat with the back portion of the green actually sloping away from the player. Many players make the mistake of seeing what appears to be an uphill putt or chip, only to watch the ball race past the hole.

Looking back toward the tee, the player has a better appreciation for the downhill slope.

[Dan Kelly]

Once the player descends down the slope, they are presented with what appears to be a typical back-to-front sloping green. However, due to an optical illusion the green is nearly flat with the back portion of the green actually sloping away from the player. Many players make the mistake of seeing what appears to be an uphill putt or chip, only to watch the ball race past the hole.

Never occurred to me till now, but it seems to me that the 9th green presents the same optical illusion as the 15th green at Northland Country Club in Duluth. (Rick Shefchik -- Agree?) The approach is so steeply downhill that the green appears to be uphill from front to back, though it's not.

Of course, I could be wrong about Northland's 15. As I recall, I haven't gotten it right yet!

Probably pays to pay attention to the Big River (or the Big Lake) in the background. Water flows downhill!

[Jason Topp]

Based on my more limited experiences with them, 7 and 8 are among the dullest on the property.  I think the holes are a bit too short for the strategic choices to be all that significant.  The greens are difficult but usually both holes consist of a relatively straightforward tee shot and a short iron. 

Pat obviously disagrees on 8.  My perceptions could be an example of a sometime visitor missing the nuances that come with regular play.

I really like 9.  It does not really conform to any design principles - it is basically a penal hole with trouble on both sides.  The joy of the approach shot, the view and the deceiving nature of the green provide great fun and overwhelm any concern about design principles.
 

[PCCraig]

Tenth hole, 377 yards, “Terrace”;

The tenth, while less than 380 yards, packs a significant punch. Playing along the northwest corner of the property, the fairway slopes hard right-to-left.

While the player might assume that a drive finding the center of the fairway to be ideal, the reality is that it is anything but. The approach would naturally call for a left to right ball flight, however the slope of the fairway makes that type of shot nearly impossible. Given the trees short right and trouble left, any approach to the tenth green from anywhere right of the center of the fairway is very difficult.

A drive down the left portion of the fairway sets up a better angle to the green, even if the putting surface is uphill and completely blind to the player.

The below image better illustrates the hazards surrounding the green. The putting surface is flanked by high “no-mow” grass on the right, while a steep drop off looms on the left.

The benched green at the tenth is highly unique. Players hitting their approach shots left will find an up and down to be a difficult task.

The view from behind the putting surface better shows the dramatic tilt of the fairway. 

The walk to the eleventh tee.

Eleventh hole, 186 yards, “Oaks”;

The eleventh hole might be the most difficult par three in the State of Minnesota. At nearly 190 yards, a player must hit a long iron to a green flanked by a deep bunker left, a steep 25 foot drop off right, out of bounds less than ten paces from the putting surface, and one of the most severe greens on the course. Whew!   

While the left greenside bunker may not look like fun…

…The steep drop off right of the green makes for very challenging recoveries.

From this angle, the player is further hindered by a green that is sloping away and to the left.

The view looking back toward the tee.

[Cory Lewis]

I thought the par 3's at Town & Country were the strength of the golf course.  It's rare to see such variety both in difficulty and length.  I enjoyed the challenge of the 11th hole.  It's rare that a par brings me this much satisfaction on a hole.

[Tyler Kearns]

On 3 -  I recommend a Christmas Tree sale!
 

Pat,

I agree with Jason on this one, even though I didn't notice them looking through your pictures the first time!!

TK

[Tyler Kearns]

Pat,

No. 10 has always stood out from my experience at T & CC, from the need to be positioned correctly off the tee to the exacting approach.  Maybe that is because I remember trying to attack the green from the right hand side and not having a reliable fade in my arsenal.  Do misses right of the green have a chance to bounce back onto the green?

I certainly don't remember No. 11 as being such a daunting hole, but it appears to be another gem!!  Not surprisingly, it is those holes along the perimeter (No. 7, 8 & 12) which I don't recall very vividly, perhaps owing to the relatively tamer nature of the terrain, and the near identical bunker scheme on the back-to-back par 4's.

Great photos, look forward to seeing the rest of the tour.

TK

[PCCraig]

Do misses right of the green have a chance to bounce back onto the green?

Tyler,

Typically, the hillside right of the tenth green typically bounces a ball left toward the putting surface. It's not a bounce I would count on, but for example this time of year the ground is firm and the grass less thick the ball is more likely to bounce/roll down. It certainly creates an extra element of chance, and a bit of excitement, when you overcompensate when playing away from the drop off left.

[Dan Kelly]

I would like No. 10 a lot better if the hillsides were cut shorter, like the hillside to the right of No. 11.

As it is, left is death, and right can be death (or, as Pat notes, might not be, depending on which clump of long grass the ball first encounters -- a bit of Total Luck or Total Unluck). I think that every shot to the green, and every shot from either left or right of the green, would be more interesting with shorter grass.

For once, I'm not suggesting changes based on my own experience. No. 10 is one of the few holes I have played consistently well at T&C. I've experienced neither Death Left nor Death Right.

As I said before, No. 11 is my favorite hole on the course. What a brute! It has treated me brutally, and I love it all the more for doing so.

P.S. Looking once again at your picture from the left of No. 10, I see that the grass there now (recently) is considerably less impossible-looking than it has been most of the times I've been to T&C and watched my playing partners flailing away on that hillside. Even so, I think I'd like to see even shorter grass on that hillside. Is it too steep to cut it short, so that balls hit there would find their way to the bottom -- leaving multiple options for recovery?

[Matthew Sander]

For once, I'm not suggesting changes based on my own experience. No. 10 is one of the few holes I have played consistently well at T&C. I've experienced neither Death Left nor Death Right.

Dan,

Now you've done it. You realize the impending doom that awaits you at the tenth next time you visit, right? 

Pat,

Thanks for the tour, I'm really enjoying it. I've heard a fair bit about T&C and its quirky nature, but creating a picture in my mind's eye had been difficult until now.

[Dan Kelly]

For once, I'm not suggesting changes based on my own experience. No. 10 is one of the few holes I have played consistently well at T&C. I've experienced neither Death Left nor Death Right.

Dan,

Now you've done it. You realize the impending doom that awaits you at the tenth next time you visit, right? 

Matt --

I'm picturing a drive through the V-shaped tree in the right rough that JUST catches enough of a branch to drop into a treeside lie from which I can merely chop it out to the fairway.

Then I'll yank one left, into the longest, thickest tangle ever seen west (or east) of Carnoustie.

From there, my explosion shot will come out like a bat out of Hell (as my mother would have said) and end up high in the deep grass right of the green, on about a 40-degree slope.

As I attempt to pop it out of there and somehow keep it from scampering across the green into the left gunch (again!), I will trip, fall, break an arm and a leg ... and consider myself lucky to have got off with so light a punishment by the Golf Gods.

Dan

[Neil Davis]

For once, I'm not suggesting changes based on my own experience. No. 10 is one of the few holes I have played consistently well at T&C. I've experienced neither Death Left nor Death Right.

Dan,

Now you've done it. You realize the impending doom that awaits you at the tenth next time you visit, right? 

Matt --

I'm picturing a drive through the V-shaped tree in the right rough that JUST catches enough of a branch to drop into a treeside lie from which I can merely chop it out to the fairway.

Then I'll yank one left, into the longest, thickest tangle ever seen west (or east) of Carnoustie.

From there, my explosion shot will come out like a bat out of Hell (as my mother would have said) and end up high in the deep grass right of the green, on about a 40-degree slope.

As I attempt to pop it out of there and somehow keep it from scampering across the green into the left gunch (again!), I will trip, fall, break an arm and a leg ... and consider myself lucky to have got off with so light a punishment by the Golf Gods.

Dan

That's how I usually play 10.

[Jason Topp]

Tenth hole, 377 yards, “Terrace”;
The tenth, while less than 380 yards, packs a significant punch. Playing along the northwest corner of the property, the fairway slopes hard right-to-left.

I am a big fan of the 10th, but the ideal tee shot is a low hook below the tree on the left.  I doubt anyone would list that as an ideal challenge but it is pretty fun to try.  Right is extremely difficult - you have to fade it around the trees from a lie with the ball above your feet. 

[Dan Kelly]

the ideal tee shot is a low hook below the tree on the left. 

Can't agree with you there, Jason. Seems to me the ideal shot is a fade. How are you going to keep a hook on that fairway, if you don't start it just inside the V tree?

[PCCraig]

the ideal tee shot is a low hook below the tree on the left. 

Can't agree with you there, Jason. Seems to me the ideal shot is a fade. How are you going to keep a hook on that fairway, if you don't start it just inside the V tree?

Dan,

I typically hit a 3-wood with a right-to-left ball flight, aimed at the left branch of the V tree. Once it lands the ball naturally moves toward the far left portion of the fairway or first cut of rough. I tend to agree with Jason that you're much better off with a hooked shot of the 10th than a fade, primarily because far left is much better than the center cut of the fairway. 

[Shane Wright]

#10 is one of my favorite holes in the Twin Cities.  It always has been.  I love that it's 380 yards and keeps you a little on edge on the tee ball requiring a certain level of focus.  But if you hit a straight drive, and a semi-precise 2nd shot, birdie is very achievable.  If you are slightly off on the tee ball, there is still enough room to tease you on the approach but disaster looms.  

Mishits to the hill on the right would be fun to watch bounce down.  But I suspect they need to keep the vegetation in place to soak up water runoff before it affects the green.

[Dan Kelly]

you're much better off with a hooked shot of the 10th than a fade, primarily because far left is much better than the center cut of the fairway. 

It's a much better angle only if you tend to hit a draw, it seems to me. If you tend to hit a straight ball or a fade, the center of the fairway works fine.

[Rick Shefchik]

the ideal tee shot is a low hook below the tree on the left. 

Can't agree with you there, Jason. Seems to me the ideal shot is a fade. How are you going to keep a hook on that fairway, if you don't start it just inside the V tree?

Dan,

I typically hit a 3-wood with a right-to-left ball flight, aimed at the left branch of the V tree. Once it lands the ball naturally moves toward the far left portion of the fairway or first cut of rough. I tend to agree with Jason that you're much better off with a hooked shot of the 10th than a fade, primarily because far left is much better than the center cut of the fairway. 

I hit a low hook there on Sunday, and though the ball did run through the fairway and end up a few feet into the left rough, it was probably the best position I've ever been in after a tee shot on 10. I hit 9 or PW to pin-high and had a 10-foot birdie putt (that I missed badly.) It might have been the first time I've ever had a birdie putt on that green.

As for the green on 9, it is similar to 15 at Northland; I think both of them slope from back to front, though 9 at T&C also falls off a bit at the back, too.

[Dan Kelly]

Mishits to the hill on the right would be fun to watch bounce down.  But I suspect they need to keep the vegetation in place to soak up water runoff before it affects the green.

Yes, yes, yes to your first statement! And the mishits WAY up on the hill might bounce down all the way across the green and down the hill left of the green! How cool would that be? (I say: If you've got quirk, go quirky!)

And you could PURPOSELY hit it to the bottom of the hillside on the right and play it like a redan.

Not to mention: Shots up to the green from the left could be played PAST the green to the ultimate backstop, and then come back down.

I wonder about your second statement. Seems to me impossible, in that setting, for water to collect on that green. But I'd love to know, from someone who knows.

[Jason Topp]

Where is the V tree?  I assumed it was the big one on the right but I do not see any V in the picture.
Left rough is where you want to be Dan.

Pat - is 11 the green with the most slope?  I know there are other contenders but the last few times I have played the hole the pin has been back right which is very close to a slope that makes the ball roll back to you.

I have heard number 11 compared to the famous par 3 next to a road at Hoylake (7) that they have since changed for safety reasons.  I have never played Hoylake so I do not know if the comparison is valid.

[Dan Kelly]

Where is the V tree?  I assumed it was the big one on the right but I do not see any V in the picture.

The V tree is in the right rough. You can see the left half of the V here, and the bottom of the V, but the right half is hidden here:

[PCCraig]

Twelfth hole, 533 yards, “Beverly”;

Just steps from the back of the eleventh tee, the twelfth tee is located in the far northwest corner of the property. The hole is named after the road that runs along the entire left side of the hole. Most players will hit a driver off the tee, and must decide whether to hug the out of bounds on left side of the fairway or to flirt with the fairway bunker on the right.

A personal favorite of the author’s, the fairway bunker on the 12th plays much larger than its size would indicate as the right portion of the fairway landing area slopes toward the bunker. Located approximately 250 yards from the back tees, a longer hitter is tempted to carry the hazard with his or her drive.  

If the player manages to carry the fairway hazard, they are rewarded with a downhill slope that will net the player additional roll out.

If a drive is hit poorly or a player decides to play conservatively and lay up on their second shot, the approach will be from a bottom of a hill giving the player a partially blind, uphill, shot with only the pin visible.

A closer inspection of the green shows that the approaches to the greenside bunkers are shaved to allow slightly errant approach shots to roll into the hazard more easily.

A look from the left side of the green shows the small target and the subtle internal contours. AW Tillinghast is responsible for redesigning this green as part of his PGA design tour in 1935.

Thirteenth hole, 300 yards, “Down and Up”;

The thirteenth hole is the last par four on the course, and it is of the drivable variety. From the tee, players have the option of either hitting an iron to the lower portion of the fairway leaving a short but uphill and partially blind second shot, hitting a fairway wood to a plateau that is flanked with fairway bunkers that leaves a pitch shot, or hit a driver directly at the green.

Many more conservative players choose to lay up to this position from the tee, which is 100 yards from the green, but uphill and partially blind.

While others will try to sneak a slightly longer club up the hill to reach a flat portion of the fairway and just a pitch to the green.

Very tempting to many of today’s longer players, the thirteenth presents significant challenges to those that go for the green and miss. A miss left leaves a poor approach angle from below the putting surface.  

The “bailout” for those hitting driver is not much better than the left side of the green.

Looking back on the thirteenth.

Fourteenth hole, 235 yards;

After playing a 300 yard par four, the player is presented with a nearly 240 yard par three. Playing slightly downhill over relatively subtle property, most players will hit a long iron or fairway metal from the tee. Typically, a rolling shot landing short of the green is recommended.

The bunkers flanking the green allow for running, but slightly offline, tee shots to find them through closely mown grass feeding into them. In addition to another bunker long and to the left behind, the green slopes hard back-to-front.    

Looking back on the fourteenth.

[Dan Kelly]

Pat --

On 13 Sunday, I hit a knockdown driver (or a hybrid; can't remember for sure) to about 100 yards, right down the middle -- and found myself looking at a *severely uphill* and semi-blind second.

Our two playing partners both hit full drivers, wild right -- considerably right; right of all the bunkers. They found their balls in what I considered much more friendly locations than my careful play. They were in the rough, yes, but not any nasty rough -- and they were looking at the green from relatively flat lies, at an elevation from which the green was fully visible, and there was no serious hazard in their way.

This all struck me as unfortunate. Don't know what can be done about it -- unless you guys decided to plant another field of that gorgeous long grass that you have between Nos. 5 and 6. But I think there should be a serious penalty for whaling away at the hole and missing dramatically right. There is, for doing the same thing to the left.

Dan

[Shane Wright]

Dan, I agree with you 100%. I think letting it get "hairy" like the other area you mentioned at 5/6 is the right approach.

[PCCraig]

Where is the V tree?  I assumed it was the big one on the right but I do not see any V in the picture.
Left rough is where you want to be Dan.

Pat - is 11 the green with the most slope?  I know there are other contenders but the last few times I have played the hole the pin has been back right which is very close to a slope that makes the ball roll back to you.

I have heard number 11 compared to the famous par 3 next to a road at Hoylake (7) that they have since changed for safety reasons.  I have never played Hoylake so I do not know if the comparison is valid.

Jason,

The "V" isn't easily seen in my picture as unfortunately there is a scrubby tree in between the tee and the tree.

The 11th green has a significant amount of slope. I think the 11th and 17th are probably the two greens at T&C with the most slope, with the first green just behind. As you note, other than the back-to-front slope, there is a good amount of internal contouring in the eleventh green. The right and left sides of the green actually seem to slope toward the middle of the surface. There is also a false front, which makes the first quarter of the green nearly unpinnable.

You are correct in that the 11th supposedly closely resembles the now NLE "Dowie" hole at Hoylake. That hole is detailed in a golfcoursearchitecture.net article:

Throughout most of its history, Hoylake’s most famous hole was the seventh, known as the Dowie after the club’s first captain. Well into the twentieth century, the Dowie, which had an out of bounds cop hard against the left edge of the green, to the extent that even well struck shots often fell foul of it, was regarded as one of golf’s greatest one shot holes.

Bernard Darwin, in The Golf Courses of the British Isles (1910) lauded the hole. “Next comes one of the finest short holes in the world, the Dowie,” he wrote. “There is a narrow triangular green, guarded on the right by some straggling rushes and on the left by an out-of-bounds field and cop; there is likewise a pot-bunker in front. To hit quite straight at this hole is the feat of a hero, for let the ball be ever so slightly pulled, and we shall infallibly be left playing our second shot from the tee. Nearly everybody slices at the Dowie out of pure fright, and is left with a tricky little running shot on to the green. The perfect shot starts out of the right, just to show that it has no intention of going out of bounds, and then swings round with a delicious hook, struggles through the little rush hollow, and so home on the green; it is a shot to dream of, but alas! seldom to play.”

The description certainly sounds familiar!!