Regular readers may have noticed a slowdown in posts on The Golf Course as Art of late. This is down to the fact that I am planning a change of direction.
While I don't want to let these pages go, I have begun to wonder if the market for blogs that are of an observational or commentary nature may be diminishing.
From my own experience, I know that pressure of time provides decreasing opportunity to set time aside for reading. I snapped up a year's subscription to the digital version of that fine publication The Sporting News earlier this year for a ridiculously cheap price , yet just as I feared, I've hardly had time to read a single issue.
I sense that the blogs that tend to work best in this climate are those that provide specific information, designed not merely to enlighten readers or engage debate, but to offer practical assistance. This is a hard criterion to meet where golf architecture is concerned but I've hit on an idea that I am hoping to put into practice in the near future.
Because I want to start with a clean sheet, it will appear on a different platform that may, in time, take over completely from where The Golf Course as Art left off.
Much as I hate cliche, watch this space...
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Change of direction
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
No medals yet for Olympic Club overhaul
I may not have played the Olympic Club as Geoff Shackelford has but I share his concern at the proposed course alterations.
The San Francisco course is to have all its greens changed from poa annua turf to a bentgrass strain, to stave off worm damage and the club has decided to take advantage of the upheaval by tweaking the course layout at the same time.
The 7th, 15th and 18th greens will be re-contoured, while the line of the 8th hole, a par 3, is to be pushed to the right of its current location, allowing the 7th green to be pushed further back.
As a consequence of these alterations, the 8th will change from a 137-yard tiddler to something around the 200-yard mark. Matt Cohn offers his visual interpretation of the proposed changes over at GolfClubAtlas, where you'll also find a nice little spat-ette over the people behind the changes ("It's absurd you would make that statement" is sooo GolfClubAtlas where abuse is concerned).
The World Atlas of Golf says the 8th "would be a rather easy par-three were it not for the branches overhanging the green on the right", while TSN's Phil Sokol calls it "the easiest hole on the course", so I'm prepared to stay open-minded on the proposed change. If Matt Cohn's diagram reflects the alteration correctly, it would at least seem to toughen the hole by presenting a shallower target.
Where I have reservations, however, is with supporting arguments such as this, from the chairman of the club's green committee, Pat Murphy:
Olympic, by all accounts, plays long at the best of times, because of the moist local climate. Top 100 Golfer, whom I assume from his epic travels is no slouch with a club in his hands, calls it "near-impossible to play for a non-scratch player". What better counterpoint could there be on such a course than two dinky par threes, briefly calling for finesse over power?
"How many times have we heard PGA Tour players talk recently about the beauty and difficulty of short par 3s and 4s?" Geoff Shackelford observes. "You can have more than one, Mr. Murphy. The beauty of Olympic Club is that the Lake course follows no formulas. Well, not anymore."
One must pray that the re-design team treads even more softly at the previous hole. The drivable, uphill, 288-yard par 4 seventh is one of Jeff Barr's 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die, which describes it as "spectacular, memorable and very difficult" and assesses the three-tiered green as one of the toughest on the planet. Already, I'm perspiring at the thought that Pat Murphy might feel a 288-yard par 4 just doesn't work in this day and age...
But then I've never played Olympic. If you have, please leave a comment and let me know your views. If you haven't, study the front-nine video below and see what you think:
The San Francisco course is to have all its greens changed from poa annua turf to a bentgrass strain, to stave off worm damage and the club has decided to take advantage of the upheaval by tweaking the course layout at the same time.
The 7th, 15th and 18th greens will be re-contoured, while the line of the 8th hole, a par 3, is to be pushed to the right of its current location, allowing the 7th green to be pushed further back.
As a consequence of these alterations, the 8th will change from a 137-yard tiddler to something around the 200-yard mark. Matt Cohn offers his visual interpretation of the proposed changes over at GolfClubAtlas, where you'll also find a nice little spat-ette over the people behind the changes ("It's absurd you would make that statement" is sooo GolfClubAtlas where abuse is concerned).
The World Atlas of Golf says the 8th "would be a rather easy par-three were it not for the branches overhanging the green on the right", while TSN's Phil Sokol calls it "the easiest hole on the course", so I'm prepared to stay open-minded on the proposed change. If Matt Cohn's diagram reflects the alteration correctly, it would at least seem to toughen the hole by presenting a shallower target.
Where I have reservations, however, is with supporting arguments such as this, from the chairman of the club's green committee, Pat Murphy:
"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."The corporate world's obsession with homogeneity has made me particularly sensitive on this count, I acknowledge, but I find Murphy's statement so depressingly formulaic, as if all courses have to bend to some universal architectural template.
Olympic, by all accounts, plays long at the best of times, because of the moist local climate. Top 100 Golfer, whom I assume from his epic travels is no slouch with a club in his hands, calls it "near-impossible to play for a non-scratch player". What better counterpoint could there be on such a course than two dinky par threes, briefly calling for finesse over power?
"How many times have we heard PGA Tour players talk recently about the beauty and difficulty of short par 3s and 4s?" Geoff Shackelford observes. "You can have more than one, Mr. Murphy. The beauty of Olympic Club is that the Lake course follows no formulas. Well, not anymore."
One must pray that the re-design team treads even more softly at the previous hole. The drivable, uphill, 288-yard par 4 seventh is one of Jeff Barr's 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die, which describes it as "spectacular, memorable and very difficult" and assesses the three-tiered green as one of the toughest on the planet. Already, I'm perspiring at the thought that Pat Murphy might feel a 288-yard par 4 just doesn't work in this day and age...
But then I've never played Olympic. If you have, please leave a comment and let me know your views. If you haven't, study the front-nine video below and see what you think:
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