Westchester CC and why golf is good on so many levels

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With new business for golf architects at a premium right now, there's a case to be made for a 'before and after' approach to their promotional strategy.

Admittedly, amidst all those high-resolution pictures of emerald fairways at sunset, a shot of ragged pasture with a cow on it might jar somewhat but then anyone with a clue who skims the brochure will appreciate that the latter image says as much, if not more, than the former.

For we can be easily seduced by an impressive finished product into underestimating the vision that saw it first, amid all the cattle and brambles and scrub. Were a picture of the finished hole accompanied by one of the blank canvas that met the designer on his first tour of the property, I think it would only enhance our appreciation of how he earns his crust.

You and I might gaze out across such virgin terrain and wonder "where do I start?" but he already knows. Having tackled Westchester Country Club's West Course (pictured) courtesy of Links 2003 this week, mind you, I'm a little more clued up as to what my own starting point would be.

I wasn't expecting great things of this Walter Travis design, to be honest. I think my spontaneous affection for whisky after a mere 48 years has been mirrored by a similarly out-of-the-blue appreciation of links golf over the manicured parkland courses I had previously preferred. Between its coasts, I've decided, America has a lot of inland country club layouts that are a little samey.

Then I came to the drive into the valley at the 3rd, the downhill run at the 5th and 12th and the 7th's adverse camber and in having my curiosity piqued, began to realise what I'd be looking for in virgin land before anything else.

Different elevations.

Slopes, ledges, drop-offs: playing down from the brink of a small escarpment or up to a green perched in a hillside. Anything that breaks a plane and departs from the flat and predictable. Give me that and we're in business.

Although you'll need to lose the cow.
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Pic of the Day - Scotland's Mar Hall Golf Course