Cypress Point Club
This video is a quick tour of the front nine at Cypress Point. The images and video were taken in the fall of 2007, shortly after the greens had been punched. They show the recently restored bunkers, which were a little too cleaned up for my taste.
Looking at old pictures of Cypress Point, it is clear that MacKenzie tried very hard to tie the bunkers into the natural dunescape. Now there is often a strip of turf between the edge of the bunker and the dunes. Royal Melbourne is probably the best example of bunkers that go from a clean, maintained edge and flow into the natural vegetation. Hopefully over time Cypress will once again regain this look.
Overall, I was blown away by the scale and beauty of the place. As sublime as the place is, I may have been even more impressed with MacKenzie’s routing and strategic placement of bunkers. Working at Pasatiempo and then touring Cypress really gave me an appreciation of the level of detail that MacKenzie put into his courses. It is clear that he thought about every contour, every angle, and every bunker. While tree plantings have eliminated a lot of these angles, it is still amazing to study his thought process.
Click here for the back nine.
N.B. For more on Cypress Point, don’t miss Geoff Shackelford’s great book Alister MacKenzie’s Cypress Point Club.
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Probably as close to CP as I’ll ever get. Got plans to post video of the incoming nine? Also, great music track!
Thanks Mike. Incoming nine will happen. Keep checking back. The music is by the band Galactic. They are from New Orleans, but a few members are from the DC area, so you can hear the go-go sound.- Will
Check back for the back nine. The music is by John Scofield, the great jazz guitarist. The track is called “Boozer” from the A Go Go album, which is great start to finish. He is backed up on the album by the legendary Modeski, Martin, & Wood.- Will
The Monterey Peninsula offers the most spectacular golfing I have ever experienced. I was pinching myself the whole time I was there just to make sure I was not dreaming. The Monterey region offers the best golf courses in the world! I just got back from the golf wonderland and must say this was the best golf vacation i have ever had! See the courses for yourself: Map of Monterey Peninsula Golf Courses
Great tour! Thanks for sharing!
What’s the music? Great jazz. And what software do you use for your video production?
Thanks Dan.
See above comment for music info. I normally use Final Cut Express for video production, but this video was done using imovie after creating slideshows in iphoto. The new imovie has HD, and I think is probably easier to learn than FCE- Will
Is that Roger Downing on the backhoe?
Earth Scuptures did about 40 bunkers for us (Orinda CC, 1924 Willie Watson, 2006-2008 John Harbottle) and he is genius in MHO.
If you are referring to the banner picture than no. That’s me. I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Roger Downing.I do believed he helped at Cypress. I could be mistaken – Will
Will,
You are not mistaken. Add Pasatiempo to the list. Roger has done some fine work with Doak/Urbina as well as with Harbottle.
Bob
Hey,
Seems something is missing in the photos….
Is it a golf course if there are no golfers???
Wait for your cameo on the back nine.
Traffic at the Dayton Air Show is a total mess.