Name That Course

Thanks to reader Scott for this story about an interesting conversion of a lousy piece of ground into an affordable muni.

And also the weird online naming contest that was held, resulting in, well, a weird name.

Classic Club Blues

Larry Bohannan thinks the desert's much despised Classic Club was validated by the unplayability of Harbour Town.  Thanks to reader Scott for this.

The criticisms ranged from just complaining that the host course of the Hope tournament, Classic Club was built in a wind tunnel to more-whispered talk that Classic Club might have to be dropped from the tournament altogether, even though the Hope tournament owns the golf course on the north side of Interstate 10 near Cook Street.

Of course it would be silly to think that Harbour Town would be dropped as a tour course because a bad year of wind canceled play for a day and had flagsticks whipping at a 45-degree angle.

No one is going to say a bad word about Augusta National. It was just a bad year of wind, the pundits will say.

Yet at the Hope this year, with Classic Club in its second year in the tournament, people were questioning everything. They ignored the solid design of the Classic Course, ignored the fact that it was windy and rainy at the other three Hope courses and ignored the fact that the week before and the week after the Hope this year, conditions at Classic Club were calm and near-ideal.

Wind can impact play anywhere anytime, whether it's the desert of California, the pines of Georgia or the seacoast of South Carolina. But the Hope has taken more than its share of grief over the same weather conditions that hit the Masters and the Heritage.

Uh, but the course still stinks! 

"The mandated conformity of play on certain holes defies everything that Jones and MacKenzie strived to achieve"

The Augusta Chronicle's Scott Michaux says the trees and rough need to go and recommends that Billy Payne look to a group of former champions to undo Tom Fazio's changes.

It's the trees and the rough, however, that seem to fly in the face of the original design and strategic intent that the club, players and patrons so passionately embrace. The constriction of options and the mandated conformity of play on certain holes defies everything that Jones and MacKenzie strived to achieve with Augusta National.

And...

The Big Three doesn't include perhaps the finest traditionalist architect today - and he happens to have a pair of green jackets as well in his locker. Ben Crenshaw understands the architectural genius that made Augusta National so great, but he's too gracious to publicly criticize the course.

These gentlemen and Payne might be able to restore whatever it is that makes Augusta National and the Masters so exceptional. The club has fixed flawed changes before - from the tributary of Rae's Creek in front of the 13th green to the mounding that abuts and defends the eighth green. Not every change proves to be in the best interests of the course.

We can only speculate as to how Bobby Jones might have reacted to combat the equipment issues that have forced some of the world's greatest courses to change with time.

But's it's unlikely he would have seen the need for a tree - or a whole grove of them - to interfere with the playability and drama of his tournament.

Bamberger On Palmetto

SI's Michael Bamberger writes about Palmetto Golf Club, one of golf's best kept secrets and talks to Rees Jones, whose changes to the place had to be fixed by Tom Doak.

Rees Jones, who gets to Palmetto once a year, during Masters week, first played the course at the invitation of an old friend, Bobby Goodyear, one of the few Palmetto golfers who is also a member at Augusta National. Jones suggested some changes to the course, mostly in the area of bunker restoration, and oversaw the project. "I did the work for free because I love the place, and they have no money," Jones says. One of the things he likes best about Palmetto is that the members have no airs.

One year during Masters week old Tom Moore squeezed in the Jones foursome in front of a group of members.

"Who the hell are you guys?" one of the aggrieved golfers asked Jones.

"Well, that's Michael Bonallack, who runs the R&A," Jones said. "That's David Fay, who runs the USGA. That's David Eger, who runs the USGA competitions."

"Yeah — and who the hell are you?"

The piece does not mention that the greens will be reconstructed and restored to their original dimensions under Gil Hanse's supervision starting in a few weeks.

The Reviews Are In...

...and the criticism of Augusta National's setup far exceeds the number of defenders, which in itself is monumental since ust few years ago it was rare for a writer to dare question the direction of the course changes.

For starters, it's clear that all of the bickering I've done with Doug Ferguson over the changes will have to continue, because after hearing for years from our great AP writer that we must reserve judgement until a firm and fast week to evaluate the horrid tree planting, shabby looking rough and lack of tee flexibility, apparently we now need to provide a multi-year window before returning a verdict.

It would be easy to suggest that Augusta National ruined its major by adding nearly a quarter-mile of length since 2001, but that would be measuring the Masters based only on this year.

Ugh. I look forward to our next debate Doug!

Of course, at least there's hope with the always thoughtful and passionate Ferguson, but I'm not so sure about South Florida Chamber of Commerce groupee and Golf Digest scribe Tim Rosaforte, who always gets into trouble when he writes about course setup and architecture matters. His cheerleading sounds especially lame this week in light of the overwhelmingly negative responses elsewhere.

Surprisingly, there wasn't much whining. Some players felt the water should have been turned on earlier, but Ridley and the Competition Committee did eventually turn on the hoses. "Yesterday we saw the weather and relocated some of the pins to make it fairer," said David Graham sitting at lunch. The two-time major winner has served on the Cup and Tee Marking Committee for 17 years and stated the goal was to make it as difficult as possible without crossing the line, "but this week was more difficult than a British Open."

Ah, taking it right up to the line without crossing it.

Sort of like frat brothers hazing those new pledges. As long as no one dies, it's a successful pledge drive! They all had to go through it. It was tough but fair! Oy...

Sunday, it warmed slightly and so did the mood. The big hitters were reaching the par-5s again, the Cup and Tee Marking Committee gave the field more accessible locations and there were birdie and even eagle roars echoing through the pines.

Right. And oddly, both pointed out that no one complained, but I'm afraid they weren't talking to the right folks. 

Remember that declaration of Sunday joviality when reading the next few pieces, starting with Rosaforte's colleague at Golf World, Bill Fields whose excellent online "letter" was excerpted in this week's Golf World.

Interestingly, the magazine picked his criticism of the course changes for publication.

I found myself in almost complete agreement with Tom Watson’s assessment last week: “They had to do what they did with the length of the course because the equipment mandated it,” Watson said. “The drivers and the balls go so much farther, and the kids are stronger. They had to do that. When Tiger hit two sand wedges and two pitching wedges into No. 5, they said that’s enough. They had to do something. And that was right. Add the length, and let these guys play it the way they did before. But they added the trees. They dressed it up a little too fancy. It used to have a simple elegance to it off the tee.”

And...

But following the second round, Crenshaw was asked when the course, usually so alive with cheers during the tournament, had been so quiet.

“Yeah, [the last] four years,” he said, his answer covering the period of the most extensive changes. “A day like today, this course is real difficult. It’s a combination of the length and the width of the fairways. If you’re just a little bit off-line now, you can be behind a tree or a funny spot, in the little bit of rough, then you just can’t play. It’s the nature of the course now, you try not to get hurt.”

While Crenshaw was talking to reporters he was interrupted by Chris DiMarco, who was making his way from the ninth green to the 10th tee. “How is it out there?” DiMarco said.

“Pulling teeth,” Crenshaw said.

Meanwhile SI's Seth Davis also blasted the lack of excitement that seemed to be a direct result of the changes, and not the weather as some have suggested.

In the past, the competition committee has aimed to get the greens here to dry out as the week goes on. On Sunday morning, the greens were wet and receptive even though it didn't rain here on Saturday night. That's what you call a concession, but by then it was too late. Even though Sunday was a relatively wind-free, balmy day, the average score was 74.33, and the lowest score was a 69 (and only three players shot that).

Don't try to blame all this on the wind and the cold. They've been playing this tournament on this course every year since 1934. You think this is the first time they've had a little inclement weather? Johnson's score of one over par was tied for the highest ever by a winner, and it was the highest since 1956. That's not because of the weather. That's the course.

The saddest part of all this is that we had absolutely no excitement on the back nine on Sunday. The only spine-tingling moment was Woods's brilliant approach at 13, which led to an eagle that moved him to within two of the leader. That leader was Johnson, who had just 216 yards to the green on No. 13 but laid up. You have to give the plucky Johnson credit for making a 10-foot putt for birdie, but when you lay up from that close at 13 on Sunday at Augusta, you should be penalized half a stroke. (Johnson also laid up on every other par-5 this week.)

Goosen was still in the hunt when he got to the 13th tee. He hit an iron off the tee. Guess I picked the wrong week to quit drinking coffee.

Gary Player has been one of the biggest advocates of making the course tougher so today's players use the same clubs on their approach shots that they did in Player's prime. Yet even he said this was the toughest layout he had seen at Augusta in 50 years — and that was before the cold weather rolled in.

So no, things weren't any easier early in the week, when the sun was out and the wind was quiet. After shooting an 83 in the first round, Larry Mize said, "I was out there practicing yesterday afternoon and there were no roars out there. No roars at all. I think they need to get the roars back, because that's part of Augusta."

Not anymore, Larry. This is the new Masters. The tournament ends on the front nine on Thursday.

And finally, just to validate the point that fans did not enjoy the antics, check out the golf.com blog of user comments on the event. This was my favorite of the many comparisons to U.S. Open golf, from Mike Moyle:

When a course is so tough it exceeds the actual skills of the players involved, then you are not "identifying the best player" as the USGA likes to quip. You are identifying the luckiest player! Its disappointing to see the Masters set up this way.

The Future: Relatable Golf?

On the news that ratings were actually up for this hardly satisfying 2007 Masters, I've heard from a number of people that they argued with friends over the weekend about the setup and the joys of watching great players suffer.

There is a sizeable audience of the viewing public that enjoys watching the best players struggle. They like seeing them humiliated and brought down to a lower level of skill.

"They know how I feel now."

This mentality has been around a long time and many of the games lesser-informed writers have celebrated the notion of pro golfers serving as modern day gladiators served up for the people to devour in humiliating spectacles. 

So I'm wondering if championship golf is going to go the way of everything else in our society. Will it have to become "relatable" (as the marketing folks like to say) for big-time golf to succeed? In other words, will professional golfers eventually serve at the pleasure of the people, with major events played to publicly humiliate millionaire golfers on overcooked layouts in order to make the average man feel better about his lousy game?

Personally, I find it to be an incredibly selfish way to view golf. It's a lot more fun to see the talent of these great players exposed, celebrated and savored. But maybe that's old school?  Thoughts?

L.A. Times Public Golf Special Section

Colorization of a historic Griffith Park clubhouse photo by Tom Naccarato (click to enlarge)The L.A. Times has published a meaty special section today on L.A. public golf. It includes my plea for a restoration of George Thomas's Griffith Park restoration and my architectural critique of 10 great values. and five overrrated layouts.

There's also Daniel Wexler's guide to historic courses and his look at desert golf.

There's also Tiger's memories of SoCal golf and Thomas Bonk looks at the renovated Torrey Pines South.

Peter Yoon covers the impact of internet-based tee time reservation systems.

Glenn Bunting talks to Dave Pelz.

And the editors make their picks for the best of SoCal golf.

"The course was certainly as firm as most (British) Open venues"

I don't know what these guys watched, but the last four days, the fairways at Augusta didn't look that firm and fast to me.

The greens did, but not the fairways.

Anyway, Brian Hewitt at TheGolfChannel seems to be reaching with this one:

It’s my contention Jones and MacKenzie gleefully would have told the second-guessers that this 71st Masters played much more like an Open Championship than a U.S. Open.
 
This notion began incubating in my brain early in the week when defending champion Phil Mickelson came off the course and explained the difficulty of the green complexes and their putting surfaces. It’s not so much reading the break that’s hard, Mickelson said. It’s figuring out exactly where the ball is going to stop rolling.
 
This, of course, is exactly what links golf is all about. And the more of this Masters I watched, the more I became transfixed by the troubles the best players in the world were having getting their golf balls to stop where they wanted them to stop on and around the greens.

"The course was certainly as firm as most (British) Open venues," Doak informed me. "Some people think it's impossible to keep it that firm and have it green, too. But it is possible if you have enough money to hand-water the dry spots. And Augusta certainly has the resources to follow through.

Well, I suppose if you think some British Open venues of late have been way too soft and green, yes! 

"This is what we've been looking for," Fazio said.

Ed Hardin looks at Tom Fazio's changes to Augusta National in light of this year's setup and shares two very revealing quotes.

First, from Ben Crenshaw:

"You feel like the course is going to get you somewhere," the two-time champion said. "It doesn't matter who you are."

Translation: way too much chance is involved. The course is playing the players, instead of the players playing the course (with apologies to Walter Hagen).

But this is just sad: 

Above it all, standing near the spreading live oak atop the grand course, Tom Fazio had a gleam in his eye.

"This is what we've been looking for," Fazio said.

And there you have precisely why I have no respect for Tom Fazio as an architect. We have a tournament where the focus is on him, the committee, the setup and the changes, not the players and the joy of the patrons.

It's all about him.

And we know the great architects do not want it to be about them. They want it to be about the players and in the case of Augusta, a celebration of the game. That's what Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie were all about. That's why they're still revered, and why Tom Fazio's place in the game will not looked upon kindly. 

Master Plan

Now posted at thegolfchannel.com of all places is my Links Magazine feature on how some of today's up-and-coming architects would approach and Augusta National master plan. If you don't subscribe to links, you should, because you missed the gatefold spread showing some of the different architect renderings. There's also a version of the story on the Links site.

Trees Have A Habit Of Growing...

I remember walking Augusta in October of 2003 and noticing that not only would the new trees between 15 and 17 look silly and trample all over Jones and MacKenzie's vision, but based on the planting locations, it appeared that no one considered what would happen when the trees actually...grew!

Well, here we are four years and Lord knows how many man-hours spent handwatering them, and the pines have grown.

Imagine what they'll be like in another four years.

 

Above Augusta, No. 11 Then and Now

Reader Andrew suggested on another post that we check out Google Earth's Augusta National images for an eye-opening look at the recent changes. The Google photos appear to have been taken in 2005 before last year's horrific new grove on No. 11 debuted, but after the decision had been made to force tee shots down the left side. (I still say this is the easier side to approach the green since you are hitting over and away from the worst trouble...)

Anyway, here are the now and then views courtesy of Google Earth and Golf Digest's recently posted photos:

 

Huggan, Ogilvy Declare Their Love For Augusta Course Changes

That's the closest you're going to get out of me for an April Fool's Day shtick.

Actually, John Huggan uses his Scotsman On Yet Another Dreary Sunday Scotland On Sunday column for a nice trashing of the dismal course changes, but with so many new fresh insights thanks mostly to guys named Ogilvy/Ogilvie.

In what is nothing less than a direct and disrespectful contravention of Mackenzie's and Jones' original and delightful philosophy, the Augusta National that will this week host the world's best golfers resembles nothing more than just another one-dimensional country club. Aerial photographs published in the April issue of Golf Digest graphically portray the tragedy that is the modern Augusta National. In place of what were once spacious and tightly cut fairways, rough has been grown and trees have been planted. What was once the most democratic of courses - one that allowed every standard of player to figure out his own way of playing each hole - has become a golfing Zimbabwe, a misguided dictatorship that has all but eliminated freedom of thought and expression.

Ah, we're just warming up.

Where once professionals as diverse as, say, Tom Kite and Seve Ballesteros - the scientist and the artist - could compete on equal terms at Augusta by playing almost every hole in ways that had almost nothing in common, today every player stands on almost every tee attempting to answer the same question and, in turn, hit the same shot.

In other words, virtually every semblance of strategy has been removed.

Today, the paucity of the landing areas, rather than the player, decides how each hole will be played. At Augusta, the spirit of St Andrews is no more.

"I couldn't understand why, at the Masters last year, [former chairman] Hootie Johnson said that he wasn't sure that Augusta National should be fun," says US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. "That was a very strange thing to say! He is just not right."

Now now Geoff, you forgot. It was all about Hootie. And fun for Hootie was protecting his pride with a high winning score. It's okay, you were a rookie last year.

"Augusta has a lot to answer for, getting the whole world obsessed with really fast greens," contends Ogilvy, who grew up within walking distance of Royal Melbourne. "They have lost a lot of pin positions with that policy. I bet they used to have a lot more variety.

"I would like to see Augusta's greens - even if only for one year - maybe two feet slower. Then they could use some of the front pins that have basically been eliminated. And you wouldn't need the rough. I think everyone would be comfortable with getting rid of it. It's just not necessary. The course is all about the greens. You don't even need the trees. If you put the pin in the right place there is only one good spot on the fairway.

See, that's just way too much to understand for an architect of T...oh we won't go there. Been there, done that.

"I think Augusta is paradise, but the whole golf world tries to follow their lead too much. And all the recent changes certainly haven't been improving the place. I mean, for 60 years not a bad word was said about the place and for the last five a lot of very important people have been very critical. Which is a shame. That course isn't a national treasure, it's a world treasure. It needs to be preserved. And I hope it will be from now on; they'll get it right."

That's a great point, so great I'm going to bring it up again in tomorrow. Why interrupt the fun?

"It's like if you have a beautiful woman, but after her 20th or 30th plastic surgery she doesn't look as good," quips American professional Joe Ogilvie, neatly summing up the feelings of many.

Hmmm...that's a keeper!

Oh, now isn't this fun. Yet another post for tomorrow too.

Most damning is the news that Ogilvy, a big strong boy and a major champion to boot, is seriously considering laying up short and left of the par-3 fourth green, so ridiculously penal does he consider the punishment for even the narrowest miss at this much-lengthened hole.

"I think the 4th is going to be a two-shot hole for me this year," he says. "From short left it is a relatively easy up-and-down; the only pin that is hard is the one way back right. The chip to the front is easy as you can use the slope.

"It's just too risky a tee-shot to go for. If they put the tee where they did last year and the wind gets to swirling, you will see guys hitting it on to the 5th tee or into that stuff on the right. Even the front bunker is not great; it is hard to spin it out of that sand. So the lay-up to the front left is a legitimate play. Even if the ball rolls back a bit it isn't too bad. You can get to every pin except that top right one. So there is a case for it."

Hey, Mike Clayton and I had a blast talking about all of the great long par-3's in golf really become far more interesting as short 4s. Somehow, I don't think that's what Jones and MacKenzie had in mind here. But just think, if Ogilvy plays it like that, then he'll actually get to play No. 6 at Winged Foot as it was intended!

"Two important aspects of modern golf have gone in completely the wrong direction," says the Australian. "Most things are fine. Greens are generally better, for example. But the whole point of the game has been lost.

"Ben Hogan said it best. His thing was that you don't measure a good drive by how far it goes; you analyse its quality by its position relative to the next target. That doesn't exist in golf any more.

"The angle of attack and the shape of the shot mean nothing nowadays. It is 'can you hit it through the goalposts' on every hole. And so the game becomes a one-dimensional test of execution, time after time."

Those humming noises you hear in the background? Both Mackenzie and Jones spinning wildly in their graves.

"I played the members' tees. I can't play the back tees anymore"

Does anyone know when Nicklaus made these comments? From an unbylined report from South Africa's Pretoria News:

Nicklaus played a social round at Augusta recently and came off the course disgusted with its new length.

"I played the members' tees. I can't play the back tees anymore," he told reporters. "Every tee I stood on I saw 73 to 91 yards before the back tee.

"The members tees at Augusta used to be 18 or 27 yards in front, which was a normal distance. It's so far now it is ridiculous, but every golf course is that way."

For Sale: A Donald Ross For $1.6 Million

Ray Finger reports on the city of Elmira, New York possibly putting Mark Twain Golf Course up for sale.

Elmira is looking for investors interested in buying and operating the Mark Twain Golf Course if the city decides to sell the facility that is valued at $1.6 million.

The municipal golf course is among several city assets that include a former post office building and vacant parcels on Hudson Street that officials are considering selling to help eliminate a $3 million deficit, City Manager John Burin said.

As of Thursday, six information packages were being mailed to people who have expressed interest in the possible purchase of the golf course, Burin said during Elmira City Council's biweekly workshop. Interest is coming from California, North Carolina and the local area, he said.

When City Council meets Monday, it will amend an earlier resolution that starts the process for officials to explore the possibility of selling the golf course. The meeting is to begin at 7 p.m. at Elmira City Hall.

"This is another step in the process that we have to take to be able to make the decision whether or not we will be selling the golf course," Burin said.

And... 

The 204-acre, 18-hole golf course located in the town of Horseheads was designed by renowned golf course architect Donald Ross. Its potential sale would include equipment storage buildings and the 8,166-square-foot clubhouse that has an apartment, snack bar and men's and ladies' locker rooms.

"That's a steal, $1.6 million," said Councilman John Corsi, R-3rd District, retired manager of the golf course. He asked whether state approval was needed to permit the sale and how long that might take.