122. Drive from Milton, MA to Pinehurst, NC (Part II) and comments regarding short courses
Sunnybrook Country Club, November 2, 2018: I awoke around 6:30 and much to my surprise found a weather forecast that showed clouds all day but no rain expected until around 5pm. I went to Sunnybrook CC first and arrived at 8:00 but the pro shop was locked up tight. A staff member brought me to the GM who explained that this time of the years, the proshop opens at 9am…but he got me going so I was able to tee off by 8:45.
Now for some background on Sunnybrook. In 1913 four members of Philadelphia Cricket Club defected and set out to form a new club. They purchased a farm in Flourtown, secured a charter, and in 2015 their Donald Ross designed course opening, using an old farmhouse as a clubhouse. A new clubhouse was completed 13 years later.
Then in 1954 a search for a new location was started…forced upon the club by the impending new Route 309. A 135-acre site was purchased in December 1954 and 18 months later a new 18 holes course designed by William Gordon and his son David (Saucon Valley CC—Grace and Weyhill courses in PA; Stanwich Club in CT). The clubhouse was finished in February 1956 and the course and clubhouse were renovated and refurbished in 2007. In 1971 Sunnybrook hosted the US Senior Men’s Amateur Championship and in 1978 the US Women’s Amateur Championship. It has never been on a USA Top 100 listing.
The course is very very good, and was in very good condition. About 13 of the 18 holes run along a SSW---NNE axis and run down from the clubhouse area (or up to it) through a valley. Three holes run along an E---W axis to the west of the clubhouse. The course has a very open feel to it, the greens are superbly bunkered and overall the course is beautifully simple in its architecture. Nothing screams very loudly here but the downhill and uphill holes play more uphill and downhill than they look. And the overall slopes of the greens are essentially defined by the slope down to and up from the valley. Very quiet but very tough track…7027 yards (par 72) with a Rating of 74.8 and slope of 144…fairly strong for a relative unknown. But at the same time very playable. I had a 43 – 40 = 83. After the round introduced myself to the head pro, said thanks, and was off to Aronimink.
Aronimink Golf Club, November 2, 2018: Aronimink GC was founded in 1896, and has been at its current (and 3rd) location (designed by Donald Ross) since 1926. It is a big course, playing 7267 yards (par 70) for amateurs (Keegan Bradley’s win this year was at 20 under par!) on a superb piece of land. In its history it has hosted/will host multiple important championships including the following:
--1962 PGA Championship (won by Gary Player)
--1977 US Amateur Championship (John Fought)
--1997 US Junior Amateur Championship (Jason Allred)
--2003 Senior PGA Championship (John Jacobs)
--2010/11 AT&T National Championship Justin Rose and Nick Watney)
--2015 BMW Championship (Keegan Bradley)
--2020 Women’s PGA Championship
--2027 PGA Championship
I had played Aronimink once before in September 2012. It had been renovated by Ron Prichard in 2003, and more recently, Gil Hanse commenced a restoration in 2016. I found it to be vastly improved and far more exciting today compared with my memories of my round in 2012. Best holes…#8, 9, 10, 11, and 18…with #11 being the most memorable. Only 425 yards, but protected by 20 (yup 20!) bunkers uphill to a very difficult green.
 |
| Aronimink Par 4 11th hole with 20 bunkers |
 |
| Aronimink Green #10 in foreground and Green #8 behind it |
Both the 9thand 18thgreens sit on top of a hill and in front of the club’s majestic clubhouse. These are outstanding holes (9 being a par 5 of 605 yards and 18 a par 4 of 463 yards) and the clubhouse reminded me of similar structures at Detroit GC (MI), CC of Detroit (MI), CC of Buffalo (NY), The Park CC (NY), Winged Foot GC (NY), and Mountain Ridge CC (NJ).
I played it less than eight weeks after the 2018 BMW Championship concluded and there remained signed of the huge crowds; additionally, the greens had just been lightly punched and top-dressed. On spite of these factors, the course was in magnificent condition. I had a good round, 40 – 40 = 80. Finished strong with a BTS (OK, I’ll give you a clue…The BT stands for Better Than…now you go figure out the “S”) 3-wood up the hill to about 10 feet on 18, but missed the birdie putt (but did hole out from the front bunker on 13 for a birdie).
In terms of prior Top 100 listings, Aronomink has never appeared in a World Top 100, but has appeared in 54 of the 71 USA Top 100 lists I have on my spreadsheet. Its highest current list is in Golf Digest at #78, and its highest ever was #49 on Golf Digest in 1987. I have a suspicion that it will be moving upwards after more panelists see it post Hanse’s restoration. I did not walk away from Aronimink six years ago with strong positive thoughts…I thought it was a very good course that failed to get one’s juices flowing…that has definitely changed for the better.
After the round, I met my nephew Sam in downtown Philadelphia to catch up on his life, and then headed south around 5pm for Charlottesville, VA. The drive would take almost 5 hours due to blinding thunderstorms about 90 minutes short of Charlottesville. Happily, I was just playing 18 Saturday and my tee time was noon.
Full Cry at Keswick Golf Club, November 3, 2018: Originally designed in 1949 by Fred Findlay (a prolific architect whose works are concentrated in Virginia), Keswick had been renovated by Arnold Palmer in 1991. The golf course sits just below the Keswick Hall Hotel, a historic property that has been undergoing an extensive renovation since late 2017.
In late 2012. Pete Dye started working on a new renovation of Keswick and it was finished by late 2014. The resulting course is fun, and requires thinking and precision. Filled with lots of Dye’s small bunkers (total of 81 bunkers on the course), one often faces bunker shots with awkward stances (one foot in the other out, ball in feet our…o vice versa, etc.). Similar bunker shapes and sizes are found at Brookline. After 10 years dealing with such stances, I have concluded that courses with bunkers with high ratios of bunker perimeters to bunker areas are tougher to play. Think about it…when you can settle into a bunker with a normal stance, it ain’t so hard…not the case when you stance is half in-half out, etc etc.
On most holes, the tee shot offers strategic alternatives…play a safe tee shot and face a difficult approach, or hit a tee shot to an area with trouble nearby and if successful you are rewarded with a generous approach. This requires you to know your game and think through the alternatives. Best holes are:
 |
| Keswick #2 green and hole from behind---see Keswick Hall in distance |
#2 (609 yard uphill par 5 that is gorgeous to look back from—see pic), #5 (471 yard flat par 4 turning left to green angles from front left to back right and well protected on right…and I hit a “BTS” 3 wood into the green!),
#9 (328 yard par 4 that looks simple, until one sees the angle—front right to back left--and shaping of the green),
#11 (203 yard downhill par 3 to angled green well protected on left by bunkers which are to be avoided,
#12 (588 yard par 5 circling left with a bunker 70 yards short of the green smack in the center of the fairway…I love center cut bunkers as they make you think!),
#15 (461 yard par 4 turning right to raised angled green, and
#18 (467 yard dogleg left par 4 downhill off tee and up to raised green with a pond and large bunker on the left waiting for your tee shot.
Course plays to 7134 yards par 72. I had a 43 – 43 = 86.
Interesting how Dye has gone back to his original style of courses at the twilight of his career. And what a career it has been…always at the edge, and the tutor of some of the greatest architects designing today (e.g., Coore, Doak, Urbina, and Whitman). Member of Golf’s Hall of Fame…simply a genius with the guts to try something new. Sadly, today the genius’ mind is crippled by dementia…but what a gift he has been to the game.
Farmington Country Club-Main Course, November 4, 2018: I have been attempting to schedule a trip to Charlottesville to play Keswick and Farmington since last April. It did not work for my trip from Pinehurst to Milton in late April as both courses said they were in questionable condition after the difficult winter. Then I tried to combine these two with my trip to WV in September, but again, there were issues with course conditioning. For this trip, I approached golfers I knew from VA…and they found me members to sponsor or accompany me.
Farmington was my first objective because its Main Course has hosted a US Senior Amateur in 1993 and hence was on one of my secondary bucket lists. Additionally, I had heard superb reports about its new East Course, a short 10-hole track by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
A couple of weeks before my visit my game at Farmington was firmed up with Michael Moore (no…not the commie film producer) who is a business school professor at Northwestern (formerly taught at UVA and lives in Charlottesville). As Mike testified as an expert witness in the Tom Brady Deflategate trial, I knew it would be any interesting day.
The property where the club is located was known as the estate of Farmington as far back as 1735 (the club’s website says the estate was “patented” that year…so how do you patent an estate??...maybe this explains what happened to the British Empire!). In 1780, a house was first constructed on the estate and then in 1803 Thomas Jefferson drew up plans for an addition to the house. That building is now the club’s main clubhouse after painstaking restoration work to bring it back to conform to Jefferson’s plans in stages from 1927 to 1976. The club was formerly founded in 1927.
We were scheduled to play the 18-hole Main Course first but were held up by a frost delay and teed off at 10:30. Mike and I played as a twosome. The property is VERY hilly…there literally is not anything close to a flat hole amongst the 28 holes, and only three of the fourteen par 4’s and 5’s are straight. Best holes are:
#3—uphill then downhill sharp dogleg right par 4 of 443 yards;
#4---downhill par 4 of 375 yards turning left with creek and heavy rough along left side and fairways sloping steeply right to left;
#5---dogleg par 4 of 453 yards, flat off tee and uphill to raided green…fairway slopes to right toward creek along right side
#10—uphill par 3 or 249 yards to green sloping heavily back to front
#11—sharp dogleg left uphill off tee then downhill to green (good poke to the turn)
#16---580 yard par 5 uphill all the way and turning left around trees all the way
The course’s condition was OK but not great. It also has a good number of isolated trees that I would take down…which would open up even more spectacular vista’s of the mountains. Overall, IMO a very good course that is in need of a restoration.
Scorewise, I had a 42 – 42 = 84. AND…course count wise this brought me to a even 1100, about one year and two weeks after hitting #1000.
Comments Regarding Short Courses: Before I delve into the East course, I would like to make some observations regarding par3/short/executive courses today.
Thinking back 30-40 years or so, there were very few short courses in existence. Without really researching, I can think of only three: Augusta National’s par 3, Turnberry’s Pitch ‘n Putt (located at the bottom of the hill leading up to the hotel), and North Berwick’s Children’s Course (adults allowed…but only when accompanied by a child). ANGC’s is certainly the best know especially since the Par 3 event that precedes the Masters started being televised. North Berwick’s is certainly the oldest, having been established in 1888 (no typo there) as a Ladies Links.
The recent proliferation is amazing. I can think of the following that have opened in the last 20-30 years:
Pine Valley Short Course (NJ)-10 holes
Hamilton Farms Hickory (NJ)-18 holes
Bandon Dunes- Preserve (OR)-13 holes
Sand Valley-Sandbox (WI)-17 holes
Farmington-East (VA)-10 holes
Treetops-Threetops (MI)-9 holes*
Big Cedar Lodge-Top of the Rock (MO)-9 holes*
Big Cedar Lodge-Mountain Top (MO)-13 holes*
Pinehurst Resort-The Cradle (NC)-9 holes
Bluejack National-The Playgrounds (TX)-10 holes*
Streamsong Resort-The Roundabout (FL)-9 holes*
Whispering Pines-Needler (TX)-9 holes*
* I have not played this short course.
You may note that Sweetens Cove in TN and Royal Worlington in England are not included above. Both are brilliant 9 holers…but both are “standard length” 9 holers…so they are not included above. Same of course holds for Honesdale Golf Club (PA), the first course I ever played (in 1955) and a none holer.
In the “old days” par three courses were always exclusively par 3’s, and the courses were always 9 holes. Now, there are no rules and there is no single model. Note the following:
Pine Valley’s is not only 10 holes, but only two of the ten are original holes (not adaptations of big course holes). Of the eight adaptations, three are from par 3’s, 4 from par 4’s and one from the par 5 15th. On the five adaptations of approaches on par 4’s and 5’s you are not supposed to “tee it up” on these…any more than you would use a tee on an approach shot on the main course. Very different and brilliant concept!
Hamilton Farm’s Hickory is a full 18 holes…all par 3’s.
Of the 12 courses listed above, only 5 are 9 holes
The longest hole at Bluejack National’s Playground is about 95 yards.
Farmington’s East incorporates six par 3’s, three short par 4’s, and a short par 5.
As I said…no rules and no single model. But in today’s hurried world, perhaps a short course option is what is needed to expand the game. One thing is consistent about these short courses…they are FUN!!!
Finally, the following may be heretical to put in writing, but IMO Augusta’s par 3 is beginning to feel a little bit out of date and in need to some freshening.
Farmington Country Club-East Course, November 4, 2018: Over the years, the members at Farmington lost interest in playing their third nine (East). Someone at the club knew Bill Coore and asked him to look at the East (Coore was in Charlottesville developing plans for a new course on the Kluge estate for the Trump Organization). Coore concluded the property couldn’t work for a standard 9 holes, but then realized it could work well for a “short” or “executive” nine. I am guessing that the issue was the hilly terrain, which made it difficult to find long enough corridors for standard par 4’s and 5’s…but might work very well for shorter holes. So back to Farmington he went with a proposal not for a third nine…but a “short” course…and that short course today is simply brilliant and so much fun…I smile just thinking about it.
Due to the recent rains (about 56 inches ytd), no carts were allowed, so we walked and this course is hillier than the main course. There are 10 holes…one of which was “inserted” by Coore to fill a gap of about 90 yards between the 3rdgreen and 5thtee. The other nine holes (1-3 and 5-10) are considered to be the nine hole course, with a par of 32…including the 4thmakes it a ten hole course with a par of 35.
The course is fun and fair, challenging but very playable. And, since you did ask, I had an even par 32 for the nine hole course and a one over 35 for the 10 hole course. Hit it very well and did it without sinking a putt of over 6 feet. None nice way to end the trip! Thinking about all the short courses listed above, my number one would is Pine Valley and #2 would have to be Farnington-East.
Thanked the staff in the pro shop for a wonderful day and gave big thanks to Bill for hosting me. Hope to have him at Brookline in 2019.
****************************************
While I did make some progress with the trip from Milton to Pinehurst, I did have an “add back”. My spreadsheet (I am deeply embarrassed to say) included Treetop’s Resort’s R T Jones Masterpiece course in the 1997-2000 Golf Week USA Top 100 Modern list (and given a high rating in 1997, in the 1997 Golf Week Merged Top 100). Another spreadsheet guy (Paul R. formerly of Chicago, now Austin, TX) advised that he thought the Treetops course was the Rick Smith Signature Course. I could not resolve this until we returned to Pinehurst where I have my original copies of Top 100 lists…and when I reviewed the originals I saw that the other Paul was correct. The nutty thing is that this past June I returned to Treetops to play the last 6y holes of the Jones course! Alas, another trip necessary but I probably will to get back to Northern Michigan to play Arcadia Bluffs-South.
Sooo, after my trip south, and after fixing the Treetops issue…here is where I stand today:
TOP 100 EVER Lists
World 100 EVER— Austin GC, Texas
Huntercombe GC, England
USA 100 EVER-- Austin GC, Texas
Bonita Bay-Marsh Course, Florida
Treetops Resort—Rick Smith Signature
GW 100 Classic & 100 Modern EVER—(25 courses, excluding 2 duplicates)
Chenal, Arkansas
Bluffs-Thompson Creek, Louisiana
Austin GC, Texas
Barton Creek-Canyons, Texas
Crown Colony, Texas
Spanish Oaks, Texas
Vaquero, Texas
Orchards, Michigan
Treetops Resort-Rick Smith Signature
Virtues (was Longaberger), Ohio
Ravenna, Colorado
Iron Horse, Wyoming
Powder Horn-Mount/Stag, Montana
Apache Stronghold, Arizona
The Gallery-North, Arizona
Mirabel, Arizona
Seven Canyons, Arizona
Whisper Rock-Lower, Arizona
Granite Bay, California
Madison Club, California
Winchester, California
Astoria, Oregon
Broken Top, Oregon
Oregon GC, Oregon
Pronghorn-Nicklaus, Oregon
San Pines, Oregon
Desert Canyon, Washington
Total (net of duplicates)—29 courses
Current Men’s Majors EVER: DONE
Current Senior Majors EVER: Reserve Vineyards-South (OR)
Superstition Mtn-Prospector (AZ)
Ft Lauderdale CC (FL)
Port St Lucie CC (FL)
Turnberry Isle-Souffer (FL)
Bobby Jones—Sarasota CC (FL)
Dunedin CC—PGA Nat’l (FL)
Ft Myers CC (FL)
Dearborn CC (MI)
TPC of Michigan (MI)
Greystone-Founders (AL)
Current Women’s Majors EVER: Kalispel G&CC—Spokane CC (WA)
Rolling Hills CC (KS)
Muskogee CC (OK)
Forest Lake CC (MI)
Las Vegas Nat’l—Stardust Hotel (NV)
Mission Hills CC (CA)
Evian Resort (France)
Six Cups* EVER: Denver Country Club (CO)
*Walker, Curtis, Ryder, Presidents, Solheim Cups; International Crown.
US Amateur Championship EVER: DONE
Amateur Championship EVER: DONE
US Mid-Amateur Champ. EVER: DONE
All 50 States DONE
*********************************
US Senior Amateur Champ. EVER: Belle Meade CC (TN)
Keane Trace GC—Champions Trace Course (KY)
Tuscon CC (AZ)
Tuscon National GC (AZ)
Lochivar GC (TX)
Big Canyon CC (CA)
Timuquana CC (FL)
Sea Island (9 from Plantation) (GA)
World Golf Championships EVER: Gallery GC-South (AZ)
GC at Dove Mountain-Sag/Tort (AZ)
Austin CC (TX)
Mt. Juliet Conrad (Ireland)
Mission Hills-Shenzhen-Olazabal (China)
Club de Golf Chapultepec (Mexico)
Players Championship EVER: DONE
Federal Express Playoffs EVER: TPC Southwind (TN)
Tour Championship EVER: Oak Hills CC (TX)
My primary bucket lists are the first eight listed above---19 course left
My secondary bucket lists are the next five listed above---16 course left
Summary: USA Mexico GB&I Europe Asia TOTAL
Top 100World/USA 3 1 4
GW 100&100 25 25
Primary Event 18 1 19
Secondary Event 13 1 1 1 16
Total 59 1 2 1 1 64
Total courses played to date: 1101
****************************************.
Next trip is a three-day swing next week through the south. Going to spend two days at the Gil Hanse designed and highly acclaimed Ohoopee Match Club in southeastern GA next week, followed by a day in Birmingham AL playing Greystone G &CC’s Founders Course.
No comments:
Post a Comment