(Potentially) Great Places In The Game: Cobbs Creek

Superb as Merion turned out to be as a modern major venue, when the Grey Goose 19th Hole discussion turned to other classics needing to host a major, I couldn't help but nominate Cobbs Creek in Philadelphia.

Sure, the muni has seen better days despite the best efforts of Billy Casper Golf to hold this potential gem together with little budget, but after the (mostly) successful Bethpage and Torrey Pines experiments I think we've seen how important it is to revitalize run-down public gems.

So first off, here's the discussion, which I thought was pretty compelling:

Why did I mention Cobbs Creek? Because nothing has brought better vibes to golf than the resurgence of run-down munis. And if there is an old public course of architectural significance crying out for attention, it's this one. Cobbs Creek is currently a mess architecturally. But the bones are there: grand-scale property, great golf city, strong architectural lineage and a beautiful setting.

All that is needed? $15 million and a governing body willing to deal with some red-tape. The payoff, however, could be Bethpage-esque.

Joe Bausch, a Villanova professor and lover of the classics, toured me around this gem the Monday after Merion and it was impossible not to see the potential for an East Lake/Bethpage/Torrey Pines type revitalization.

If you want to learn more about Cobbs Creek, the Friends of Cobb blog is here.

Golf Digest's David Owen visited and wrote this piece.

Joe Logan filed a MyPhillyGolf update article in May.

Golf Channel's Matt Ginella visited and filed this report.

And Brendan Prunty filed this look at efforts to get a restoration by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner going.

Just a few midday photos by yours truly:

Videos: Norman, Coore Talk Design On Morning Drive

Look, I had some free time today and try as I might, I just couldn't bring myself to transcribe the various ridiculous statements by full-time vinter and part-time golf architect Greg Norman.

If you must, you can watch him talk signature holes, sustainability and his devotion to nature here, here and here, you too can feel the pain.

Or, if you'd like to hear from someone who practices what he preaches, here are the Bill Coore segments here, here and here.

Tuesday's show includes segments with Jim Urbina and Rees Jones.

Golf Digest Best New: Fast And Firm Has Arrived

Ron Whitten unveils Golf Digest's annual Best New, which thanks to the economy remains more of a celebration of the few quality projects that managed to conclude with a new or revitalized course.

There's a slideshow of all the named courses here, but more interesting is Whitten's take that the changing of the guard is complete: "Old golf-course architects never fade away; they just lose their draw."

Citing Tom Doak as his mythical architect of the year and naming Gil Hanse and Coore and Crenshaw as part of the changing guard, he writes:

How did this New Wave upset the Establishment architects? Mainly because of a fundamental shift in how American golfers play the game. For decades, golf in America was an aerial game. Turf conditions were green, lush and uniform, a concession mostly to housing developers who financed most course projects.

Those conditions demanded long carries and afforded little roll. Subsequently, club manufacturers developed equipment meant to get the ball in the air and keep it there for as long as possible. Instructors taught methodology aimed at the same goal.

Then along came the upstarts, led by Doak, who embraced the Scottish/Irish (and early American) standard of drier turf and bounce-and-roll golf. The ideal, Doak has pointed out, would be to have fairway approaches into greens be firmer than the putting surfaces, but across America, just the opposite had been the norm for decades. The Doak formula was not immediately accepted in America; in many climates, firm and fast seemed impossible to achieve.

Update On The Sheep Ranch And Bandon's Punchbowl Course

Thanks to reader John for alerting me to Ron Bellamy's story on Bandon's Sheep Ranch course that is now twelve years old and still offers one of the more amusing processes to get on a golf course. But also, it's just a fantastic story of imagination and cleverness by the developers to create something so mysterious and old school.

It's also a story about creating a course where the golfers make the design, something I wish could be done more often.

You have to know about this place to arrange to play it. You phone Bandon Golf Supply, where they put you in touch with the course superintendent, Greg Harless. Scheduling is generally for weekdays, from November through June; there’s no irrigation on the fairways, so the course closes in the hot summer months. At the appointed date and time, Harless meets you at the course, collects a check for $100 per player, gives you a scorecard with a suggested routing for 18 holes, with a daunting par of 71, and shows you where to begin.

And then, literally, you’re on your own, for as long as you can play. Most days, your group, whether just two of you or 20, is the only group. You can follow the suggested routing to the greens that are lettered, not numbered, or create your own holes. You can bring a cooler, even a grill, and stop back at your car for lunch, and play some more; there’s no group pushing you at the turn, because there is no turn.

Bellamy also files a sidebar on the upcoming Punchbowl course at Bandon, which looks really, really neat and opens in May.

Certainly, you can practice your putting on The Punchbowl, the 3.5-acre putting course designed by Tom Doak, with Jim Urbina, the same duo who created Pacific Dunes and Old Macdonald.

There are mounds and slants, dips and drops, uphills, sidehills, downhills.

“You will find every kind of putt that you can imagine out there,” Doak has said, “and probably a few that you’ve never dreamed of.”

And the vibe already sounds entirely appropriate. If golf courses only had more of these kinds of fun places to hang out.

That’s evidenced by drink-holders by every “tee box” and hole, to hold your beverage of choice while you putt. Unlike the large putting green at the resort’s driving range, where golfers practice in near-silence before rounds — or stubbornly try to fix their strokes after rounds — golfers on The Punchbowl played in groups of two and more, and certainly not quietly.

And so this recent scene is likely to be repeated during the warm months next summer: A golfer, walking from the nearby restaurant at Pacific Dunes, crossing The Punchbowl to rejoin his buddies there, carrying a pitcher of beer to refill their cups.