First of all congratulations to Dave Ryan, 4 time Illinois Sr Am. Champion, for holding on to win his first USGA Sr. Am. today. Extremely well done Mr. Ryan!! Like many of the matches it was a see saw affair. His opponent Matt Sughrie was only 1 over par after 10 holes but was down 4. Ryan had birdied 4 of the first six holes. After several bogey's by Ryan and a Sughrie birdie, the match was all square after 15 holes. Ryan pared the very difficult final three holes to earn a 2 up victory.
http://www.usga.org/championships/2016/u-s--senior-amateur/articles/ryan-rides-roller-coaster-final-to-senior-amateur-title.html Here are some photos and random thoughts on the course. With the Ryder Cup next week at another RT Jones course I thought a closer look at his architecture might be of interest. Unfortunately I don’t have photos of every hole. The USGA Sr. Am. Website also has many wonderful action shots of the tournament and players and a gallery of course photos.
http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2016/u-s--senior-amateur.html Original Robert Trent Jones Course Map. Routing was changed a year or two after the course opened. At that time the short par 4 14
th was added using the original 6
th green and the par 3 17
th was added. The original 5
th hole was eliminated. Course history indicates RTJ agreed with the changes. The nines were also reconfigured.
Using the 1954 hole numbers the course today is routed in the following order. Numbers in parenthesis indicate hole number from 1954 map.
Front Nine: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (14), 6 (15), 7 (16), 8 (17), 9 (18)
Back Nine: 10, 11, 12, 13, new 14 to old 6
th green, 15 (7), 16 (
, new 17
th hole, 18 (9)
Card of the course from the original map
1996 Aerial Note the tree lined fairways.
2016 Aerial Note the significant amount of tree removal compared to 1996.
A scorecard from the 1971 Ryder Cup match featuring Nicklaus Palmer vs Bannerman Townsend. Note the front nine scores of 29 and 30. Eleven birdies between the two teams. And the back nine where only two birdies were scored, both by the US team. The course was listed as 7,272 yards in 1971.
The scorecard as advertised for the Sr. Am.
As noted, it played under 6,800 yards for both stoke play rounds. Of all six days of the tournament it played over 7,000 on only one day-Wednesday for the quarter and semi finals. The tees and hole locations on the par 3’s, par 5’s and 14
th hole were varied quite a bit throughout the tournament.
Here is what it played each day. Yardages for each hole can be seen on the USGA scoring page for the tournament.
Saturday 6,767
Sunday 6,799
Monday 6,899
Tuesday 6,853
Wednesday 7,035
Thursday 6,956
Even at its longest, his was more than 200 yards less than the pros played it in the 1972 Ryder Cup with balata balls.
Impression of the Course.
The main feature of the property is a ridge that separates higher ground on the south side of the course from the lower ground along the creek to the north. The fairway of the 5
th, all of the 6
th and 12
th fairway are all located on the lower ground. The 5
th and 12
th holes feature dramatic downhill drives. The par 3 7
th the 13th and par 4 14
th holes transition from the lower to the higher ground. The first four, middle four and final four holes are all located on the higher ground.
The routing was quite clever in how it split the use of the lower section between both nines and had only one long uphill walk which was from the 12
th green to the 13
th tee. The rest of the uphill transitions were pretty gentle, eg 8 and 14. The 5
th and 12
th holes both featured big downhill drives from elevated tees. The second half of the long 16
th hole also played quite a bit downhill. All three holes played shorter than their number on the card.
The routing traversed through the property as follows. A relatively short and easy start through the first 4 holes (1-4). Three of the four par 4’s that are under 400 yards are found in this beginning section. This was followed by a trek into the lower section of the course for 3 holes (5-7). This was followed by four par 4 holes on the upper section (8-11). Then back down to the lower section for hole 12 followed by a transition back up on holes 13 and 14. The course then finished with a very difficult stretch over the final four holes (15-18) on the upper section.
Viewed more broadly, the course had three main sections; an easy 4 hole start, a varied and interesting ebb and flow through the middle 10 holes, and a very long and hard finish.
An interesting feature of the course is the fact that only 7 of the 14 drive holes had fairway bunkers. One might note the rough surrounding the fairways was very difficult making long iron or hybrid 2
nd shots extremely hard. In contrast the greens were tightly guarded by at least one and in most cases several bunkers. The greens were large and undulating and quite good in my opinion. My only objection to the set-up/design was in the use of long grass surrounding the greens. It was a varied mix of Bermuda and thick bluegrass. I didn’t think this offered much in the way of short game variety.
Arriving at the Club Sunday at 6:15 for my 7:40 tee time.
Practice Area
1
st Hole from side of teeing ground. Hole is fairly straight from tee with a fairway that slopes left to right. At one time this tee must have extended quite a ways back
2
nd hole another shortish par 4 with a slight dogleg to the left.
3
rd Hole from tee. Note bunker fronting the middle of the green.
4
th Hole from Tee Dogleg left down the hill.
5th Hole from below the teeing ground which is high on a ridge above the stream valley. Creek runs along the left and is close to a steep drop-off on the left of the green making the long approach pretty nerve racking.
5
th Hole from Green Teeing area is above the Lombard Street switchbacks high on the hill.
No photos of the 6
th hole other than what you can see above. The main feature was OB left for the entire length of the hole including quite close to the green discouraging going for the green in two. Green set at a nice angle to play with the front left open and tempting for the long 2
nd shot.
The uphill 7
th from behind the green. Hole has a redan look to it due to the right greenside bunker built into the hill which is line with the bridge in this photo.
I don’t have a photo of the 8
th hole but it’s a monster 460 yarder with an uphill drive followed by a sharp dogleg to the right. As long as you stayed near the nest of three bunkers on the inside of the dogleg the hole played quite a bit shorter than the card. In fact due to the sharp angle of the dogleg a 220 yard uphill drive was almost as good as a 260 yard drive.
9
th Hole from tee Narrowest hole on the course.
9
th Green from behind
10
th Hole Fine dogleg right with an uphill approach. Front half of the green was very steep
11
th hole from tee with arch in the background. Green was elevated with a neat little dip and rise in front of the green.
11
th green from fairway
12
th Hole from Tee Big sweeping par 5 with water crossing the fairway on the second shot and in front of the green which was narrow and wide
12
th from behind the green.
13
th Hole from tee (14
th tee to right up the hill)
13
th green viewed from behind with 14
th fairway across the lake.
14
th Hole from left of the lower tee. High tee to a cape like fairway. Carry varied from 215 right to to 245 on the left from the upper tee. They played this from 369 to 270. Champion Dave Taylor aced it for a double eagle.
14
th Hole from behind green. 360 tee in front of fence up the hill. 270 tee at base of hill
No photos of 15 but another very hard 440 yard par 4. The fairway sloped hard from right to left making the fairway hard to hit.
16
th Hole from tee. Very long par 5. Played around 580 the first couple of days then 615 the rest of the time. Water all along the left of the second and third shots. Significant downhill if you could get to the 150 mark in two that would add 50 yards to the shot and take you to a flat lie. Strong hole.
16
th Green with 13
th green in background.
16
th Green in background behind 14
th green
17
th Hole Very narrow front of the green pinched by flanking bunkers.
18
th Green Pretty classic long par 4 finishing hole. Uphill 2
nd to a very undulating green.
18
th Green from behind
Waiting for the Final Stroke Play Scores to be Posted
