Before I get to Nebraska golf…let’s go back to Bandon. As you may recall, I ended the last edition
(and me first blog) with the following deeply intellectual question:
“Just
think about it...two men have made a fortune building businesses and having fun
doing it...fun that most men would love...and both are from Chicago. One
obviously is Mike Keiser who conceived of and developed Bandon Dunes. Who
is the other??”
To date, I have
received only two responses. First, that
would indicate that many of you have not been reading these emails and this
blog carefully. As my 8th
grade English teacher used to say “how the mighty have fallen”. The two responses were not correct…they cited
Charles Blair Macdonald and Phil Friedman (dreamer of Sheep Ranch). OK…I’ll give all of you a hint. The hint is that the other guy (who, like
Keiser is an entrepreneur) had nothing to do with golf. Now come on...this is easy.
***************************************************
OK…so after a few
putts at The Punchbowl, I caught a shuttle back to my room, finished packing, and
was off to the airport. Was great doing
Bandon Dunes without a car…their shuttle service is very very well run (like
the rest of the place) and highly dependable.
Flights from North Bend to SFO and SFO to DEN were on time. By 6:45pm or do, I was in my rental car and
off to North Platte, NE which is about 60 miles south of Sand Hills Golf Club
and where I was spending Saturday night.
Drive was about 255 miles or 3 hours 30 minutes…fairly straight shot,
and arrived at hotel around 11:15pm Central time…and very tired.
The big complication
for the next three days were times zones.
DEN is of course in the Mountain Zone.
I am flying out of Omaha on Tuesday evening back to Boston….and Omaha is
of course in the Central Zone. But, when
you get to central Nebraska it gets complicated. My hotel in North Platte is Central, Sand
Hills GC, almost directly north in Mountain, as is Dismal River Club (which is
8 miles west of SHGC, and where I spent Sunday night). But then, The Prairie Club, directly north
another 60 miles (and where I spent Monday night) is Central. Anyhow, I was able to keep it all straight...with intense concentration (and some hand written notes).
Up early Sunday
morning, and after breakfast at hotel (of course, including my ever present
Fiber One) left for the drive to SHGC at about 7am (Central) and arrived at
SHGC at 7:15am (Mountain). Was met there
by my host, Dave (again…no last names to keep him form being inundated with
requests). Pat and I had the privilege
of playing 36 holes at SHGC (yup…Pat decided to play 36 after about 12 holes in
the morning round) in June 2010. We both
loved it and everything about it totally.
We were unaccompanied guests of SHGC’s visonary founder, Richard
Youngscap. Youngscap has a very simple
rule regarding unaccompanied guests…you can be one only once in your
lifetime. No matter who your host
is. So having played SHGC in 2010, I
could not be an unaccompanied guest again.
Does this rule seem arbitrary?
Perhaps, but then again, it does control the use of unaccompanied guests
and give more folks the chance to play this magnificent course. Fortunately, I had a guest at Brookline in
mid-June (another Golf Digest rater) who had a client who is a member (and
frequent visitor to SHGC)…and the connection was made…and I was getting another
chance to play it July 13.
Youngscap was raised
in NE and for years dreamed about creating a course in the NE Sand Hills…the
largest contiguous area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere (15-20,000
square miles…or something like 130 miles x 130 miles), which sits on top of the
Ogallala aquifer.
The are a number of
fascinating things about how the layout at SHGC was “discovered” and the entire
Sand Hills region. Here is the history
and some of these interesting things (much of the following is courtesy of GolfClubAtlas.com
(“GCA”), an outstanding website:
1. ----Youngscap
took an option on 8,000 acres in August 1990….the parcel had insufficient
vegetation to economically raise cattle;
2. ----Bill Coore
and Ben Crenshaw first visited the site in September 1990 and were retained as
architects shortly thereafter;
3. ----After
numerous visits in the following 30 months, C&C had identified about 130 golf
holes…which crisscrossed each other…and then picked the best ”routing” of 18
holes (picking the “best individual18 holes” does not work, as the holes could
crisscross each other, be too far from other holes, etc etc etc.);
4. ----During the
above process, C&C were having issues with potential routings. Then to quote GCA:
Ben Crenshaw
stepped over the then boundary fence (roughly where 11 green and 16 tee are
today) and reported back to Coore to come see this next door parcel of land.
Shortly thereafter, Youngscap swapped the land owner some land for that parcel
and holes 12 through 15 were allowed to be created.
5. ---- Early on in the process, a well was drilled and a sample of the water from
the aquifer was sent to C&C’s lab…shortly thereafter, the lab called and
asked if C&C was playing a joke…it seems that the water was not only the
best water the lab had ever tested for a grass etc. on a course, but it was
absolutely perfect and could not be improved;
6. ----Next, samples of the sand granules were sent to a lab. The tests came back saying virtually all the
granules were spherical…so no compaction (think of a basket of golf balls…no
matter how much you stomp on the basket, there are always “gaps” between the
golf balls for water to drain through).
As a result, no drainage work was required at all…and the greens were
built for about $300/green instead of $40,000/green…a savings of about $754,000 (19 greens including practice green). Oh, and btw, the sand depth apparently averages 800 feet! It was like
building a golf course on a strainer;
7.
All of the bunkers on SHGC (and there are quite a few) were natural and
located where they are now, except for two that were manmade (on holes 5 and 8).
8. The course opened for play in 1995. It plays a total of 7,073 yards, par 71. In terms of ratings, how about these apples:
--in all 3 magazines both worldwide and USA...for the last 10 years, it has been the highest rated course built since 1960, and, last but not least,
Yes, there were a ton of lucky breaks in its development, but think about the
vision of Dick Youngscap…remember this was before Bandon Dunes…and we are
talking about building a great club and course in the middle of Nebraska. And think about C&C discovery process…seemingly
simple, but what patience to not just find a “good” routing of 18 holes and be
done with the design. And luck…got to
believe that Columbus and Lewis & Clark were lucky as well. And then there is the great Lee Trevino quote
(after being asked about an apparently lucky break during a major
tournament): “Funny thing about this game, the more I practice, the luckier I get.”
**********************************************************
Dave and I played as a
twosome and were the first ones off at 8am (Dave had to catch a flight from
Omaha to home Sunday evening). The day
was perfect…bright blue sky with a few puffy clouds…and temps were cool in the
morning (low 60’s) and would rise to mid 80’s by the mid-afternoon. After the round I was able to take a cart and
do another tour of the course, taking lots of pictures…so here goes…all 18:
#1—Par 5, 549 yards,
turning gently to the left, downhill off tee and then uphill to the green. Both sides of fairway protected by blowout
bunkers on both sides from about 250-285 off back tee, a layup second
influenced by a bunker about 70 yards short of the middle of the green, and a
green protected by a sharp hill just before the green, a false front, a huge blowout bunker right, and surrounding
dunes left and right. This may be the “new”
quintessential opening hole (Merion #1 being the “classic” opener)…gently
greeting you and welcoming you to the new round…but with danger lurking in the
deep deep bunkers and the false front and slope in front of the green. Pics in order are from tee (green on left near horizon), 2nd shot (note large bunker on left 70 yds short of green), 3rd shot from about 120 yards, and green from behind.
#2--par 4 458 yards--uphill and fairly straight...plays longer than its yardage. No bunkers in play until 75 yards short of green. Incredible green complex with a huge false front (which claimed me as a victim) and a couple of mounds on the right above the false front...leaving a difficult to get to ledge on the back and a green that falls off at the back left corner. If memory serves me right, the pin was back left both in June 2010 and two weeks ago. Like #1, and all the par 4's and 5's at SHGC, the fairways are very very wide...but pin placement, wind direction (which apparently can be in any direction), and a players preferred shot flight dictate which side of the fairway one needs to come in from...and these false fronts dictate very different strategies with and against the wind. 1st pic shows approach from about 150 yards (see bunker right which is 75 yds short of green...and note false front. 2nd pic shows false front and swales from up close
#3--par 3 216 yards. slightly downhill to green that is angles and slopes sharply from front left to back right. Wind direction critical here...hole will play totally differently in different winds. Dune to left of green critical in tee shot direction. Pics are from tee and then from just off right side of green:
#4--485 yard par 4...down hill and turning slightly left. Probably toughest par 4 out here. Dangerous bunker on right side of fairway 325-345 yds off tee (remember...wind can blow here, my yardages are from tips, course is firm and fast, and hole is downhill). Real problems start when you get near the oval shaped green (deep but narrow). It is protected by a mammoth blowout bunker short and left...the bottom of which now sits about 15 feet below the green surface (more later on this), and large mound left of the green, and a sharp fall off to the right of the green. You very definitely do not want to visit this bunker...you could end up living there...see pics and videos below (from tee, approach shot...see blowout bunker left, from right side of green, and then two videos of the bunker)
OK, believe it or not, in 2010 the bunker was a good 5' deeper. I know, because I got up and down from it in 2010...Pat is my witness.
#5--412 yard par 4, slightly uphill and turns right from back tee...and home of one of the two manmade bunkers...right smack in the center of the fairway 235-245 yards from the tips...and this one swallows up a lot of drives. And, if you decide to blow it over this bunker, a real bad one lies at the right corner of the dogleg 280-300 yards from the tips. Picture below is from back 5th tee...drive is actually over the 4th green...you can spot the bunker in the middle of the fairway just left and above the narrow path in the middle left of the photo...and the real bad bunker is visible right over the center of the 4th green:
the following pic is of your approach shot assuming you have cleared the middle bunker:
- #3 216 yds slight downhill;
- #6 198 yds slightly downhill;
- #13 216 yds uphill;
- #17 150 yds uphill (with no run up possibility).
See pics below from tee on 6 and from 50 yards off free...see mound to left and false front in middle of green front.
#7---283 yard par 4...the first of two straight drivable par 4's...sooo, you say...horrors, what is a supposedly great course doing with two straight drivable par 4's? Think #8/9 at Cypress Point (and for that matter, at Cypress there are 2 consecutive par 5's and par 3's (5/6 and 15/16 respectively). And 283 yards with a wide open fairway...how tough can that be?? Slightly down off tee then up to green, and believe it or not, over 283 yards, actually bends a little L to R off tee and R to L for approach (if you don't try to drive it). Green is perched just right of a large sand dune...oh, almost forgot to mention a small bunker (45 yards long, and almost 10' deep) that sits up on the dune and protects the entire left side of the green. Triangular green is all of 20 yds wide at its widest (33 deep, but because of green's shape, front and back of green..on its left side...and much much narrower than 20 yds...trust me, pin positions at the pints of the triangle...back left, front left, and middle right...are harrowing to say the least. Oh, and the green slopes sharply back to front and left to right, and there is a sharp drop off front right. So yes, there is a bail out zone to the right...but that leaves a very very testy pitch up to the raised green. Obviously, best angle into green if you lay up is from the right, but the right side of the fairway is protected by two bunkers about 80-115 yards from the green. The hole simply screams to longer hitters "come at me if you dare". #7 here is a real beauty...just the perfect combination of risk and reward. See two pictures below, first from tee, and second if you happened to lay up along left side, 60 yds short of green:
#8...367 yd par 4 (293 from regular tees). Another great one. Flat and turning L to R. Wide fairway protected by two bunkers on the right (about 245-275 off back tee). Green is horseshoe shaped with "top" of U facing the fairway, and SHGC's second man made bunker inside the U...again perfectly placed. Slope of the green is strongly back to front and R to L...and these slopes can be a good player's friend if the approach is played smartly to take advantage of these slopes...but not without real risks. Green is surrounded by 4 other bunkers and sand dunes on the left, right and in back. An approach (or tee shot for the big hitter) that goes too long or wide and ends up in one of these bunkers will surely test the player on their next shot. Following three pics from tee, approach shot distance and 50 yards short of green
#9--402 yd par 4, uphill on tee shot and doglegs right. Both sides of wide fairway (again...all the fairways are wide) protected by bunkers...on right 215-260 off back tee, and on left 260-275 off back. Circular green has one small bunker in back (not a place to visit) and sits just below Ben's Porch, the starter's hut (which sits about a mile from the clubhouse...more about that later). The juxtaposition of Ben's Porch, the 9th green, and the 18th green (which is just below the 9th green) reminds me so much of the juxtaposition of the clubhouse, 9th green and 18th green at Shinnecock Hills. Fairway offers all sorts of lies, which on average are flat, but individually are anything but flat. While you liberal arts types figure that out, see the following pics (from 9th tee and approach shot distance):
**********************************
So, that is the front side of SHGC....and yes, Virginia, there is a back nine. Time for me to proof read the above, and get ready for the back nine (which may even be better than the front), as well as some details regarding other wonderful things about SHGC, that make it so very very outstanding. And time for you to guess the answer to my question at the front end of this post!! Get cracking!!
No comments:
Post a Comment