[MCirba]

Kyle,


No Miami Valley sadly.

[MCirba]

Edgewood Country Club - Drums, PA

David Gordon 1980

Doak Scale Score - 2.5


The approach to the dogleg left 17th requires a significant water carry for the last 160 yards.

Exhibit #1 proving that adage that sometimes you can't go home again.   

As I've gotten into my 60s, I'm finding some nostalgic joy in going back to play golf courses I played in my youth that I haven't been to in decades.   Never quite sure what to expect, one hopes to find a sense of rediscovery of something contiguous connecting youth and mature years, perhaps.   

In the case of Edgewood, which was called more lyrically "Edgewood in the Pines Golf  Club" when it first opened around the time I was graduating college, it was a place I played often with my dad in my early 20s, and as the newest professionally designed, very affordable public course it was a pretty classy operation with nice restaurant and banquet facilities, an excellent pro, and a course that provided lovely conditions and quite a few holes of interest.

Time has not been kind over the past forty years.   Ownership has changed and those multiple rows of small white pines planted to provide definition between fairways have become just tall walls of impenetrable nastiness over the past 40 years.   Tree growth overall seems a problem as lines of play are constricted.   Maintenance seems to be running on a shoestring budget and although I'm not a fan of lush maintenance it's tough to argue here that the eroded conditions don't negatively affect general playability.

Hopefully, management can sort out those problems and continue to make a go of it because the course is a decent routing with some good holes in a lovely valley setting, perhaps a bit too reliant on water as a hazard but not overbearing in that regard.

But right now it just serves as a cautionary tale of what not to do when planting trees because the darn things do grow and compete for the same sunlight, water, and nutrients as the turfgrass.

[MCirba]

Columbia Country Club - Chevy Chase, MD

Herbert Barker/Donald  Ross 1911, Walter Travis/William Connellan/Walter Harban 1915, William Travis/William Flynn 1921, William Flynn 1923, George & Tom Fazio 1975, Tom Clark 1999, Bob Walton 2007, Joel Weiman 2018

Doak Scale Score - 5


It's difficult to imagine today that the par three 16th originally featured a green much like the 12th at Garden City, only with a diagonal water carry, sort of approximating 12 at ANGC.

Somewhat shoehorned into a sprawling DC suburb, and separated by a rail line, it's tough to argue that the original architects didn't make the most of the property.   With an elegant routing that proceeds clockwise along the boundary of the property on the front nine, and a back nine that switches back and forth across a long ravine before finally somehow squeezing in the last four holes into a tiny triangle of land, it's a great use of land economy.

There are any number of very good golf holes, as well.   Both the 7th and 9th are stern par fours with surprising complexity, followed by two more solid fours at 10 & 11.   All par threes are well conceived, as well.

However, the two par fives are inscrutable.   The 5th hole, where evidently Bobby Jones made a big number when the hole featured a difficult cross bunker has been turned into a semi-featureless par five with trees down the right and OB tight left.  The 12th is just odd to play with very few valid choices.   

The most controversial hole is the 17th, a very short par four with a green up on a plateau, begging for the long-ball player to have a go at it.   For most of us, it's an iron over a pond into a low-lying valley, and then a steep pitch uphill to the green.   From my perspective, it doesn't matter much if it works or not as there is no room to do much else but I have to admit a fondness for its quirkiness.

However, my biggest knock on Columbia is that I'm betting it was pretty special in its time and a host of architects and internal changes over the years have taken out most of that uniqueness through green flattening, bunker removal and reshaping into visually unappealing ovals, and overdone pine tree planting.   As such, for as intimate as the routing can be the golf course at times feels wildly disconnected as if designed by committee, and the presentation of some very good golf holes is not nearly what it could or should be.   

[Joe Bausch]

More photos from that day at CCC:


http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Columbia/index.html

[MCirba]

Twin Willows Par 3 Golf Course - Lincoln Park, NJ

Nicholas Psiahas 1962

Doak Scale Score - 2


The 100 yard 2nd hole at Twin Willows requires a carry over a brackish pond.

A ten (10) hole par three course with holes ranging from 80 yards to the 180 yard finisher, Twin Willows is slightly different (re: better) than most par three course fare.   Two things set it apart - smallish greens that have significant slope and contour and some rugged forced carry bunkers fronting a few of the greens.   

Really just a nice place to introduce folks to the game or sharpen your wedge play in a  park-like setting.   What's wrong with that?

[MCirba]

Rock Spring Golf Club - West Orange, NJ

Seth Raynor/Charles Banks 1926, Hal Purdy 1965, Ken Dye 2001, Kelly Blake Moran 2008

Doak Scale Score - 5.5


The "Steep & Deep" Raynor look as built by Charles Banks after his death is definitely on display at Rock Spring, as seen on the approach to the par four 15th.

Set on a high bluff with a view of Manhattan from the clubhouse, Rock Spring sprung from a Seth Raynor design that was constructed by Charles Banks after the former's untimely death.   A private club until recently, the club's demise is the public golfer's gain, at least in the near term.   No one is quite sure what the future will hold but for the moment the course is owned by the township and managed by Kemper Sports.

During the transition, the club took a financial hit and promising restoration that had begun under Kelly Blake Moran in 2008 was halted.   Attention to details and maintenance seem to have been affected and is only now beginning to reemerge.   

Those efforts are clearly worth it as the course even having weathered the latest storm is a architectural gem.   Unusual in having only 3 par threes (all very good with a difficult Redan 3rd, a cutesy Short 6th, and a lovely downhill Eden 16th) and two par fives, the strength of Rock Spring comes from an excellent variety of par fours strung throughout.   With some loving attention, the course could really shine as nearly every green has lost space over the years, some tree management is needed (particularly on holes like the 2nd where some pruning on the right would invite a more aggressive tee shot), and probably some drainage infrastructure work could accomplish a lot.   

The variety of green types is also enjoyable and exciting to see, from the double plateau of the 4th to the short, Alps-like par four 10th (really one of my favorite holes all year), to whatever is going on at the 17th green, it's a course of continual interest and challenge.

[MCirba]

Coming Next;

Honesdale
Sunningdale (NY)
Manasquan River

[Joe Bausch]

More photos from that day at Rock Spring:


http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/RockSpring/index.html

[MCirba]

Honesdale Golf Club - Honesdale, PA

Augustus Porter Thompson (w Robert D. Pryde?) - 1900, Michael Hurdzan 1990

Doak Scale Rating - 3.5

Despite the obvious overplanting of trees, the terrain is still the star at Honesdale.

Augustus Porter Thompson attended Yale University, graduating in 1896.   During his matriculation, he played on the newly formed golf team on the original New Haven Golf Club which was designed by the professional (and Yale golf coach) Robert D. Pryde.   Pryde went on to design any number of early courses in Connecticut and nearby states including Pennsylvania.

It must have felt a bit like purgatory to Thompson when he returned home to his father's business in Honesdale, PA as the nearest golf course at the Country Club of Scranton was 30 miles away.   Within a few years, Thompson and some friends leased land on "Beers Hill" on the outskirts of town and by 1900 formed a golf club.   The club thrived and by 1905 bought the property outright.  Whether Robert Pryde was involved in the design is pure speculation on my part, but given that he designed Montrose CC not far away around the same time it seems plausible that Thompson would have asked his coach for help.

In any case, the course is a charming nine-holer with several holes no one would build today.   The third is a blind, downhill 270 yard par four to a shallow green tucked behind bunkers with death behind.  The short par three 7th is uphill and completely blind to a green tucked in a little dell.   The greens overall are small targets and other than overplanting of trees in the 50s and 60s and some bunkers added later by Michael Hurdzan the course hasn't changed much over the past century.

To this day Honesdale is still known as the home of formers Masters champion Art Wall, who had over 40 hole in ones during his illustrious career, benefiting somewhat by the three par threes at his hometown club. 

[Tom_Doak]

Why does anyone install fairway bunkers like those in the last photo?

[Tom_Doak]

Columbia Country Club - Chevy Chase, MD

Herbert Barker/Donald  Ross 1911, Walter Travis/William Connellan/Walter Harban 1915, William Travis/William Flynn 1921, William Flynn 1923, George & Tom Fazio 1975, Tom Clark 1999, Bob Walton 2007, Joel Weiman 2018

However, my biggest knock on Columbia is that I'm betting it was pretty special in its time and a host of architects and internal changes over the years have taken out most of that uniqueness through green flattening, bunker removal and reshaping into visually unappealing ovals, and overdone pine tree planting.   As such, for as intimate as the routing can be the golf course at times feels wildly disconnected as if designed by committee, and the presentation of some very good golf holes is not nearly what it could or should be.

Where was this example when I was arguing with Mark Fine about whether every course could be improved?  Columbia is a great example of "death by a thousand cuts".  I can't believe how awful the 16th hole looks now - it has taken three or four separate steps back from the original, each of them worse than the last!

[MCirba]

Why does anyone install fairway bunkers like those in the last photo?

Tom,


Evidently they are there in case your drive somehow manages to avoid the trees (and hard OB left). 

Apparently the few lucky folks who actually manage to hit that fairway have a reunion on the spot each year. 

***EDIT*** - From old aerials, the bunker on the left was there prior to 1990, presumably to protect balls from heading across the road OB.   The right one was added around 1990.

[Joe Bausch]

Honesdale Golf Club - Honesdale, PA

Augustus Porter Thompson (w Robert D. Pryde?) - 1900, Michael Hurdzan 1990

More photos of Honesdale from an August 2019 visit:

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Honesdale/index.html

[MCirba]

Sunningdale Country Club - Scarsdale, NY

Carl A.W. Fox 1913, Seth Raynor/C.B. Macdonald 1918, Walter Travis 1920, Robert White 1922, A.W. Tillinghast 1929, Stephen Kay 1999, Mike DeVries 2016

Doak Scale Rating - 6.5


Width, strategy, and playability are the hallmarks of the newly restored Sunningdale.

It's tough to make a mark in golf-rich Westchester County but recent work by architect Mike DeVries (with Joe Hancock) has brought a new shine and luster to an old, somewhat dated course besot with many of the ailments of classic courses throughout the northeast; over-planting of trees, loss of fairway widths, green shrinkage, bunker revisions, and a host of green chairmen looking to leave a legacy.

Blessed with some terrific landforms and an engaging routing (but always with a disappointing finish), Sunningdale has some great golf holes now brought back to life through the re-introduction of fairway widths and a maintenance meld that permits the ground game.   The short par four 5th is reminiscent of the nearby 15th at Fenway, only with more strategic options.  the 15th is a great long par four with a sharply tilted left to right blind approach, and the 7th a wonderful par five with a roller-coaster wild ride of a green. 

The course used to end with a rather mundane short par four, a downhill redan over a pond, and a very awkward 80-degree dogleg left uphill par five.  That's been changed recently as tree removal discovered a rocky ledge for a good par three 17th allowing the 18th to be turned into a straightaway long par four finisher, a much better hole than it's predecessor.   These changes necessitated turning the 16th into a par five over a ravine and it's a hole that probably needs some more thinking as I'm not sure it works that well given the complicated landforms that are navigated along it's length.

All in all, though, a very satisfying restoration has been accomplished and Sunningdale now stands as a great example of bringing classic principles back to a vintage course that had lost them over the years.

[Joe Bausch]

Sunningdale Country Club - Scarsdale, NY

Carl A.W. Fox 1913, Seth Raynor/C.B. Macdonald 1918, Walter Travis 1920, Robert White 1922, A.W. Tillinghast 1929, Stephen Kay 1999, Mike DeVries 2016

Photos of Sunningdale CC from a handful of years ago:

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Sunningdale/index.html

[David Harshbarger]

Honesdale Golf Club - Honesdale, PA

Augustus Porter Thompson (w Robert D. Pryde?) - 1900, Michael Hurdzan 1990

More photos of Honesdale from an August 2019 visit:

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/Honesdale/index.html

From Honesdale's 4th....does this qualify as "over-the-top"?  I don't recall too many "sentinel" boulders guarding a green on a par 3.  With OB hard left, this feature must create quite a few unpleasant rubs-of-the-green for what would otherwise be relatively decent shots. 


Short/right is the classic "miss" for the right-handed high-handicapper. 


I guess a bonus is you get to see your ball in the air for a little longer when you land one on this hazard.

[MCirba]

David Harshbarger,

Yes, over the top but at only 138 yards it certainly discourages the bailout right. 

Makes me wonder if any of Art Wall's hole in ones came on a carom?   

[David Harshbarger]

That explains where Art (pictured below) learned to play this carom shot when he visited TOC

[MCirba]

Manasquan River Golf Club - Brielle, NJ

Robert White 1923,1926, Ron Prichard 2012, Andrew Green 2018

Doak Scale Score - 8


A round at Manasquan River is filled with one surprising delight after another as seen here on the semi-blind, rumply fairway of the uphill par four 10th.

Easily the most unexpected "hidden gem" course I played in 2019, Manasquan River is superb.   

The front nine is draped across a gorgeous stretch of hilly terrain that is exceptionally unusual for southern New Jersey, and features one delightful hole after another.   After a clever dogleg "gentle handshake" of the first hole, the course turns up the volume to 11 with the amazing 2nd hole, a stunning par four with a green set high above the surrounding terrain.   And so it goes throughout the round.   Each time we thought it couldn't get any better we'd discover the next hole was just as good.   I kept looking at my playing partner wondering if he was equally impressed and discovered he was pinching himself in amazement, as well.   

The back nine moves onto flatter land after the 11th but closer to the water and open to the elements.   The course is less than a mile from the Atlantic Ocean and as you progress through your round the smell of salt is in the air.   A clever stretch of holes somewhat reminiscent of the peninsula holes at Inwood ensues and reaches a crescendo with the lovely par three 15th with its low-profile green tilted precariously towards the water and the wild 16th, where an excellent drive is required to have a realistic approach to a green set out on a lonely point at the water's edge.   After turning inland on the long par four 17th, the course features a short (333 yards) par four 18th finishing in front of the clubhouse, similar to some other great courses where the final hole is eminently birdie-able.   

The greens throughout are thoughtfully varied and consistently interesting.  Andrew Green recently completed a restoration to this Robert White classic and I have no idea if it's always been this good.  Certainly it has escaped notice of those compiling "best of state" lists, but I can think of few more compelling and enjoyable places to play in the mid-Atlantic region.   
 
 

[MCirba]

Scranton Municipal Golf Course - Mount Cobb, PA

James Gilmore Harrison/Fred Garbin 1958

Doak Scale Score Rating - 3


The long, uphill par four 16th at Scranton Muni is the start of a tough three hole finishing stretch that includes only a single sand bunker.

From the "maybe you can go home again" category, I visited another course I used to play often in my teens and early 20s and was delighted to find the course in the best condition I'd ever seen it and it seemed to be thriving.   Designed for the city some 60 odd years ago by Ross disciple Harrison and his son-in-law Fred Garbin, a lot of greenside bunkers were built but most were never filled with sand.   Today there are a total of 15 sand bunkers, which is about 5 more than what I played back in the day, but interestingly for better players the greenside rough grass bunkers are probably more difficult.

It's never been an architectural wonder but the course does have a nice pacing and balance and several opportunities to score before ratcheting up the challenge in the finishing stretch with two lengthy par fours and a 220 yard par three.   The terrain is generally rolling farmland but each nine does get back in the woods for a stretch.

The most revealing item I discovered during my re-visit almost 40 years later is how exactly technology has affected the game over that time.  I found myself driving the ball to places as a 61-year old that I couldn't sniff in my youth, sometimes by 30 or more yards.   Oddly, that made some of the holes such as the par five 4th that narrows in the last 100 yards more strategically interesting, where it had been a definite three shot hole in my youth.

[Tom_Doak]

Manasquan River Golf Club - Brielle, NJ

Robert White 1923,1926, Ron Prichard 2012, Andrew Green 2018

Doak Scale Score - 8

I was looking forward to your report on this, as I have never heard one before.


Glad to hear you are so enthusiastic.  However, you may need a refresher course on the upper reaches of The Doak Scale.  Seeing a lot of 2's and 3's could do that to a guy.

[MCirba]

I was looking forward to your report on this, as I have never heard one before.


Glad to hear you are so enthusiastic.  However, you may need a refresher course on the upper reaches of The Doak Scale.  Seeing a lot of 2's and 3's could do that to a guy.

Tom,

I was looking forward to your response to my report, as I knew it would raise eyebrows.     

Let's see...

8 - One of the very best courses in its region (although there are more 8s in some places and none in others), and worth a special trip to see. Could have some drawbacks, but these will clearly be spelled out, and it will make up for them with something really special in addition to the generally excellent layout.

Yeah, I'll stand by that.  It's really, really good.  It's in my top 5 in the state of NJ...scratch that...top 3.

[MCirba]

Rip Van Winkle Country Club - Palenville, NY

Donald Ross 1920

Doak Scale Rating - 3.5


The lovely valley setting adds to the overall appeal of this low-key nine hole Donald Ross course.

Set in a serene valley in the Catskill Mountains, the aptly named Rip Van Winkle course is a little sleeper.   The modest clubhouse and gravel parking lot fits the scene perfectly and it's a place to just sling your clubs over your shoulder and go for a nice walk.

The terrain of the course is mostly flat, and the interest lies in some of the smallest Donald Ross greens I've seen (yes, they have lost greenspace but even so they were never large to begin with based on the pads) that require accurate approaching.   Most peculiar as a hazard is a large grassy mound popping up in the fairway on the short par four 2nd hole, but it provides a vintage novel appeal nonetheless.

[MCirba]

After tomorrow's year ending round at Cape Fear Country Club, only 18 more reviews to go.    

Next Up:

Dorset Field Club
Palmer House
Ekwanok

[Malcolm Mckinnon]

Mike,


Very entertaining! Love this kind of "Frank Commentary and Discussion".


Don't flag now with only 18 to go!

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