"The Highlands Links is attached emotionally and historically to the small community of Ingonish, much as the Old Course is linked to St. Andrews, Scotland."

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Lorne Rubenstein reports the exciting news that Ian Andrew has been commissioned to prepare a plan for the "rambunctious" Cape Breton Highlands. Now it seems that Parks Canada just needs a little nudging to let Andrew properly restore this masterpiece.

Thompson, who died in 1953, when he was 59, elevated the game beyond recreation at the Highlands. Because he was an artist and had a powerful canvas at his feet and all around — ocean, forest, and mountains — he made an important contribution to Canadian culture. As historian and local authority Ken Donovan said, "This is the story of small village life in a Canadian context."
The Highlands Links is attached emotionally and historically to the small community of Ingonish, much as the Old Course is linked to St. Andrews, Scotland. It's far more than a golf landscape. It's a cultural landscape, one reason the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated Thompson a person of national historic significance three years ago. A plaque to this effect was supposed to be unveiled here on Thursday, but the ceremony was cancelled when the federal election was called.

The Making Of The Horse Course, Volume 1

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Now that we have a week off from the playoff excitement, I have posted my first 4-minute "video diary" from the site of a golf course project. In this case, it's Volume 1 from the Prairie Club where Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and I have layed out a par-3 course called "The Horse Course." You can read more on the Prairie Club on the page I've devoted to it (with some early construction images posted), or at the Destination Golf Ventures website.

Volume 1 centers around our trip (Gil, Jimand yours truly) to work with developer Paul Schock and his team on the clubhouse area land plan. You can view a slightly wider angle version here or hit the play button on the embedded version below.

And as you will soon see, I'm no Steven Spielberg in the editing bay and certainly no Morgan Freeman in the voiceover booth. But hopefully you'll enjoy the images and great music, which in this case appears courtesy of Lloyd Cole from his excellent album, Antidepressant.


The Making of the Horse Course Vol. 1 from Geoff Shackelford on Vimeo.

Olympic Club Changing 7th and 8th Holes

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I'm glad I played them when I did and I'm even more pleased to say I witnessed some wonderful tournament moments on both because the new and improved 7th and 8th holes at Olympic Club (Lake) will have a hard time capturing the character of the current.

Here's Ron Kroichick's story on Olympic's decision to rebuild all 18 greens to USGA specs:

"If the greens were fine, we wouldn't be doing this work," said Pat Murphy, chairman of Olympic's green committee. "But since we're doing this work, we think it will be a better course."
No. 18 created lively debate in '98, before Lee Janzen surged past Stewart to win the Open. USGA officials chose such a precarious pin placement for the second round, one of Stewart's putts inched past the hole and slid 20 feet downhill. He was not happy.
Olympic Club officials later flattened the green, but many members thought the new green had become too tame for a short par-4. Murphy said the next version will have more slope than it does now, though it won't be quite as severe as it was for the 1998 Open.
That sounded fine to Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director of rules and competition. Davis expects no problem finding suitable hole locations on No. 18, so he can avoid an encore of the '98 mess.
"Even if they were to move the green back to exactly what it used to be, we could do it," Davis said Wednesday. "I think the USGA just made a mistake in '98, putting the hole there. ... If we meet somewhere in the middle (on the slope), we can have that green the same speed as the others."
Ouch! Oh that ought to bring out the Tom Meeks fan club members.

This is also interesting considering that the USGA structures their contracts to prevent redesign work so close to a U.S. Open.
Davis knew the Olympic Club was contemplating changes, but he said he learned of last week's board approval only when On Golf called. He echoed Murphy's statement that the changes were member-driven, not demanded by the USGA.
Here's the depressing part:
The other striking wrinkle in this project: moving No. 8 to the right of its present location. That will turn a 137-yard par-3 into a much longer hole - with championship tees at 200 to 210 yards - with a different angle. It also allows Olympic officials to push back the green on No. 7.
"One short par-3 is fine," Murphy said, knowing No. 15 measures only 149 yards, "but two short par-3s just doesn't work in this day and age."
How many times have we heard PGA Tour players talk recently about the beauty and difficulty of short par 3s and 4s? You can have more than one, Mr. Murphy. The beauty of Olympic Club is that the Lake course follows no formulas. Well, not anymore.

And as much as I'm not a fan of Robert Trent Jones architecture or three tiered greens, his 7th green at Olympic works beautifully. I watched it trip up players last year at the U.S. Amateur, and even recall Davis telling me he had to move the tees up a couple of days to make it more driveable (dispelling any notion that the hole was too short for today's game). But it's getting moved in the redo by Bill Love:
There will be other tweaks to the Lake Course, including lengthening a few holes and re-contouring the greens on Nos. 7 and 15. The work will begin Nov. 4 and last until approximately June 1, 2009.

"Because if you need two gos to get it to that stage, well, I think my kids could come up with a better design than that in one afternoon."

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Things are going well at Gleneagles! But not to worry, Monty is on the case. Thanks to reader Nick for this Mike Aitken story on Lee Westwood blasting the 2014 Ryder Cup venue:

"You can't bring the Ryder Cup on to greens like this," rued Westwood after taking 31 putts in an opening round of 72, one under par. "They have a bit of rain and the best professionals in Europe can't hit the hole from two feet."

Asked what could be done to improve the sodden greens in Perthshire, Westwood replied: "They could rip them up and redo them. That's my fear for the Ryder Cup coming here. That they're just going to keep patching them up over the years. Hopefully they redo them.

"You build a course between two valleys in Scotland and you have to expect rain. So rain is not an excuse for having bad greens this week, I'm afraid. I've put down a green at home which is like concrete and we've had almost as much rain as they've had here.

"They need to dig them up and put the right construction underneath them."
Colin Montgomerie, the chairman of the championship committee, who missed himself from two feet on the 15th, didn't rule out future changes. "There's been an awful lot of rain and the greens are soft. I was practising here last week and they had to close the range a couple of times because of the rain. The weather has been awful and the greens have suffered. I think some greens drain better than these, there's no doubt about that. So we'll have to look into that in the future."

Westwood also took a swipe at golf course architect David McLay Kidd, the Scottish designer of Bandon Dunes in Oregon and the Castle Course near St Andrews, who is in charge of the redesign on the PGA Centenary, including the controversial seventh hole. "I hope they don't use the designer who has had two gos at doing the seventh green," the Englishman cautioned. "Because if you need two gos to get it to that stage, well, I think my kids could come up with a better design than that in one afternoon."
Whoa Nellie!

Al Ruwaya Achieves Its Goals!

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Tiger's press release writers need to understand that it's one thing to declare you design work a success, it's another to do it while the bulldozers are still flying around.

“When I set out to design Al Ruwaya, I wanted the course to reflect what I truly love about golf – a stern mental and physical test that rewards smart thinking. I believe we’ve achieved that goal with a course that will be fun and rewarding for all skill levels to play.”
Currently, shaping is in progress on the 18 hole, 7,800 yard, par 72 championship-quality course, which includes dramatic elevations, stunning water features and an overall design that will challenge and entertain golfers of all skill levels.

"Play those courses today and you appreciate the craft and talent involved.”

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Very nice story today by Bill Pennington on the impact of Van Kleek and Stiles in northeast U.S. golf architecture.

Some of the names that dominate this era are Ross, Alister MacKenzie and A. W. Tillinghast. You will rarely hear the names of their contemporaries Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek.
But the Boston-based Stiles was prolific, designing more than 140 courses from Maine to New Mexico. More than 70 remain, including many memorable layouts throughout New England. Van Kleek, his partner for several years, designed courses all over the world and in the mid-1930s was the supervising architect for a renovation of the New York City Park Department’s golf offerings.
Van Kleek put his stamp on golf courses throughout the city, from Split Rock in the Bronx to the Clearview layout in Queens — with Dyker Beach and Van Cortlandt Park in between.
“Stiles and Van Kleek weren’t splashy, self-promoting guys,” said Bob Labbance, who along with Kevin Mendik wrote “The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles” (Notown Communications), a book published earlier this year.
“They didn’t do many big, expensive projects,” Labbance said. “They pleased their clients and their communities with relatively low-cost golf. But play those courses today and you appreciate the craft and talent involved.”

Norman Already Plotting To Undo Dawson's Turnberry Design Work!

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Seems the new owners of Turnberry may realize that their course needs fixing post-Peter Dawson's R&A branded redo in advance of the 2009 Open Championship.

John Huggan writes for Golfobserver.com:

Still, for Norman as for everyone else who has endured a sporting loss, life goes on. Only a couple of hours after completing his opening 75 at Troon, he was at Turnberry, scene of his first Open victory back in 1986. Accompanied by David Spencer, the chief executive of Leisurecorp, Norman toured the back-nine on the Ailsa course with a view to recommending changes that will be implemented immediately after the Open Championship returns to the famous links for a fourth time next year.
And...
While he was too diplomatic to say as much, one got the feeling that Norman was less than impressed with the work already done on the Ailsa’s closing three holes. Under the direction of the R&A’s chief executive, Peter Dawson, the 16th fairway has been moved 50 yards left of its previous location and new tees have been built at each of the last two holes. Brown had apparently wanted to leave the 17th alone and call it a par-4, but the man from St. Andrews would have none of it.
Then again, maybe Brown had a point. Although Dawson was understandably quick to hail the changes “a great success” in the immediate aftermath of the recent British Amateur Championship, it would perhaps have been more professional of the press pack in attendance to ask some of the players what they thought. Especially those unfortunate individuals who, unable to reach the fairway into an admittedly strong wind at the long 17th, took ten or more shots to eventually hole out.
Oops. So I'm not the only one thinking a few too many writers have R&A memberships in their eyes!
“The R&A have obviously recognized that some adjustments to the course are required if it is to stand up to the technology available to the players nowadays,” said Norman, ever the diplomat. “It’s interesting how, when you look at it from a player’s perspective, you see things differently than you might do on a plan. Some of what they have done I might have done a bit differently. But that is what my eye sees; I see it from a player’s perspective as well as an architect’s.”
Welcome to the backstabbing world of golf course architecture, Mr. Dawson.

Wednesday Open Clippings: 17th Green Edition

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openlogo.jpgIt's only Tuesday and Mt. St. 17th-Green-At-Birkdale is about to erupt. Just imagine the possibilities when the tournament starts and the wind blows!

Before we get to the articles and after a lengthy search (because Lord knows we need more photos of guys hitting out a bunker), I finally found a shot of the 17th green in Golfweek's roster of images from Tuesday (the volume lowering tool is in the lower right). 230136-1730868-thumbnail.jpg
No. 17 at Birkdale, courtesy of Golfweek (click to enlarge)

....we have several fine stories full of all sorts of rich, compelling and incriminating detail.  Here's John Huggan quoting Geoff Ogilvy:

"If Birkdale were a one-hole course this green would be out of character with the rest of the course. It's out of character with the land; it's out of character with the hole.

"You can see from 250 yards away that something has gone wrong. Sadly, it could be a decisive factor in who wins the championship. You could get some really crazy putts going on there. Funky bounces, too. A guy could hit a great shot in and see his ball take a really weird kick left or right. It's fine to have a tough green, but it has to look right. It just doesn't fit the spot that it is in, or the hole that it is on, or the rest of the course."
But other than that...Huggan also shares this from Robert Allenby:
"The problem is that whenever they try to change these great courses, they always stuff it up by doing something like that. You can argue they do these things because of how far the ball goes these days, but this has nothing to do with that. It's a mess that has obviously been made by someone who doesn't know how to design golf courses. He's built a green that isn't even close to the other 17. It's just stupid. If they revisit it after the championship I hope they use someone else."

So Huggan went to the vision behind the green and well, Martin Hawtree probably didn't help matters with either the players or his architectural Godfather Peter Dawson:

"In previous Birkdale Opens the 17th had been the easiest or one of the easiest holes," said Hawtree, who will lay out Donald Trump's proposed new course near Aberdeen should the present public inquiry into the project give the go-ahead. "So it needed stiffening.

I will spare you a Viagra joke here. Continue...

We moved the green back to the point where the front of the new green is where the back of the old one was. Then we added another tier. In my original concept of the hole there was nothing at the back of the green. The two big dunes there create an amphitheatre effect so I felt that the green should run on into a hollow at the rear. I wasn't allowed to do that though; the R&A wanted spectator mounds. So now the green forms too much of a bowl shape.

"I'm taken aback by the depth of the reaction. It was a weak hole and demanded something be done. I have heard that the club want to redo the green complex after the Open. I'd be more than happy to move the mounds at the back and create my original idea."

Just guessing by the comments, the lack of a rear hollow seems to be the least of the problems here.

Mike Aitken in the Scotsman talks to the other culprit behind this mess, R&A Executive Secretary and in-house architect Peter Dawson:

"Well, this has caused a little bit of controversy," he said. "And, as a result of that, I'd like to say a few things about it. It's a par 5, so it's not as if we're expecting the green to be hit at with long irons. It's a green the pros are accustomed to facing on many of the courses they play.

"If you look at Augusta, there are probably 18 more sporty greens than this one."
Lee Westwood echoes some of his fellow competitors' concerns about the 17th green, which is described in the official course guide as a "tiny, two-tier target with extreme undulations".

"I think everybody has accepted that something has gone wrong with it," said Westwood. "It's just out of character with the rest of the course, (let's] basically leave it at that.

"It's not to the standard of the rest of the greens. The rest of them are brilliant."

Bloomberg's Michael Buteau also looked at the 17th green and shares this from Steve Stricker:

"You wish they'd just leave them alone because they're good for a reason,'' said Steve Stricker, the No. 8-ranked player. ``They've withstood the test of time, equipment and everything else.''

Buteau also shares the same excuse reply from Dawson and I thought by printing it again it would make sense, but it still does not.

Dawson said organizers weren't expecting many golfers to attempt to land their second shots on the putting surface.

``It's not as if we're expecting the green to be hit at with long irons,'' he said. ``We're aware that it's a green that could get away from us if we're not careful. We'll have to see how it goes.''

So if the green could be "hit at" with long irons, that would make it better or even worse? I really need Peter's book of design guidelines to help here, because I think he's really onto something.
Competitors such as Stricker said they wish they could roll back the clock.

James Corrigan files an excellent look at the controversy, also ends the piece with his breakdown of the "12 to follow" at Birkdale. But first, his take on the 17th green, using overheard player comments:

One labelled it "a sloping mess of mounds" while another concluded that it looks as if it's "contracted a severe case of mumps". Even those not totally anti the mogul run have agreed that it is not in keeping with the other greens that have help confirmed Birkdale's reputation as the finest and fairest course in England. In Westwood's opinion they should unload the shovels and start again. That is exactly what the members are planning. But perhaps not before next Monday.

Jack Nicklaus played here in April and was aghast. "You've got one of the greatest golf courses in the world, and they changed 16 holes because of a stupid golf ball," said the 18-time major champion. "That is just ridiculous."
Okay, how did I miss one of the best quotes ever? Where did he say this? Please readers, guide me!
Nicklaus was speaking for an ever-growing number who believe that the authorities should have placed limits on how far the modern golf ball travels. They failed to act, however, and now the only defence they appear to have to protect the dignity of old courses is either course lengthening or course toughening. Or in the case of the 17th, both. On occasions, the powers that be have gone overboard like at Shinnecock Hills at the US Open in 2004 when the greens were quick to the point of unplayable. The R&A is blessedly not the United States Golf Association and is not about to let their stubborn mistakes re-occur here. But they have created an eyesore. Slam, bam in the middle of golfing beauty.

I'm not sure about the USGA reference, since they didn't create the 7th green at Shinnecock. It's one thing go blunder a set-up, because with a little bad luck, bad planning and a steep green, anything can happen. But to make a mess of things before you even set the course up takes a special talent that takes things to an entirely different level.

This is yet another reminder as to why governing bodies should not design golf courses, particularly when it's in response to their own (continued) inability to regulate equipment.