THE SIXTEENTH AT MACH DUNES

In this third and final part of my interview with David McLay Kidd about Mach Dunes (part 1 and part 2, here), the architect refutes one of my and others’ main criticisms of the course- an unwieldy routing with lots of blind shots and long transitions between greens and tees. It was my thought that if David and his team had compacted the routing at Mach Dunes and created a shorter course (7,200 yards was about the yardage from the tips) that wandered over less of the site, than maybe the environmentalists would have been more willing to make a few concessions and allow slightly more grading in the affected areas, resulting in a more playable and walkable course.

David refutes this by saying that he believed that they would look at it in the complete opposite way, that making the affected areas more compact would increase the overall degradation of the natural environment of the site. He also defends the length by saying that Tom Doak has made building shorter courses “half trendy”  and he was trying to build something that would still be a challenge 100 years from now and was different from its 6,400 yard neighbor. If only David was accurate in saying that a trend was developing around shorter courses golf would be in a much better and more sustainable place. (Video after the jump).

Our conversation shifted to the cost of building an extreme minimalist course like Mach Dunes. David shared that the construction cost of the course was half of what Bandon Dunes  cost a decade earlier. This was partly because of the restrictions and also because it was a project without significant backing.

David is very frank in saying that the course may not meet people expectations if they are hoping for a modern, polished golf course- “it could be that people’s expectations are far higher than what the course is not capable of delivering today.” He goes on to say that Mach Dunes is “a step way the hell back in time,” but the fundamentals are there and it will take time for the course to evolve in to greatness.

We also talk about his design at the Gleneagles West development which may open in 2012 and then we talk about an amazing site on the Washington coast that is permitted and was once under construction. Unfortunately the environmental restrictions are such, that in my opinion, a good course could not be built. David poses the question about how far we as golf guys would be willing to go to be able to build a course on sand next to the ocean. And that ultimately is the question. At Mach Dunes, David gives his answer. It is my sincere hope for David and the game of golf, that the course is given the time to evolve and change into the great course that it could be.

There is a very attractive texture to the black-and-white original images taken by Fairchild Aerial Survey Company. The large film format produced a richness image than any of the subsequent surveys during the next 60/70-plus years. Aside from using these images as archival blue-prints, the aerial perspective renders the delineation of fairways and greens as a form of land art. Some courses do this better than others, but the holes on Blind Brook, Wee Burn and Shennecossett in particular, appear like a school of wales, or paramecium in a petri dish, or sometimes I see submarines. Check them out before you think I’m crazy or hallucinating.

The 1934 images also show a Connecticut prior to a suburban sprawl. Other than Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury and Hartford, the state was positively rural, linked by small villages along the Sound and rural farming communities up north. There were no major highways of any kind and the courses along the coast, like Longshore, Shorehaven, Madison, Shennecossett and CC of Fairfield pre-date any development of density.

I was also able to find other aerials of the Yale course over the years from the same perspective: 1951, ‘65, ‘70, ‘86, ‘91, ‘95, ‘04 and ‘08. (Note to viewers, I did not re-label the Yale prints with any titles other than credit to the photographers. There’s also a second image of New Haven CC from 1965 that immediately follows it in the queue. That second one doesn’t have name, city either.)

This past December I downloaded another dozen Macdonald and Raynor courses–the two who designed the Yale course–from the US Geological Survey’s website, where they exist as part of the public domain. I was able to get very clear images of National Golf Links, Fishers Island, Westhampton, Creek, Piping Rock, Shoreacres, Chicago Golf Club, Mountain Lake, Yeamans Hall, CC of Charleston, Camargo, Fox Chapel, etc. About 36 of the 45 have been printed and are being framed in time for an exhibit in a small gallery in Silliman College in New Haven called Maya’s Room. (Silliman is one of the 12 residential colleges at Yale.) It will run for one week beginning this Friday evening. Some of the items have been sold and others have been purchased and donated to the clubhouse at the Yale course (and indoor golf team room on campus) where they will hang permanently. I know it’s unlikely many of you can make it to New Haven next week, so here’s the link to all 45 aerials on Picasa. These proofs have been downsized so they don’t really do the final, high res prints justice. Anyway, they make for an interesting set, and the Yale course through the years helps us track all the changes and recent restoration work by Scott Ramsay.

http://picasaweb.google.com/colinsheehan/GolfCourseAerials?feat=directlink

If you have any interest in purchasing any of these posters please email me at colinsheehan@gmail.com.

Great news for all that like strategic architecture and golf courses with a sense of place. Can’t wait to see what they do.

THE BEAUTIFUL SETTING AT MACH DUNES

This is the second part of my lengthy discussion with David McLay Kidd about his new course Mach Dunes in Scotland (Part One, here). One aspect of Kidd’s perspective on the course that I really respect is his bravery to put a product out there that he and the rest of the team knows has flaws. As he tells me, he wants the course to be judged on what it will become in fifty years when it has had a chance to evolve through grow in, management and environmentally sensitive alterations and not in one snap shot on opening day. You don’t hear an architect say this very often because it is sign of his lack of control. It is also show of humility that is often wanting in today’s top architects. (Video and Interview after the jump)

As Kidd says, getting the course in the ground was only the first step of many which may be tough story for many golfers to understand after making the trek out to the Mull of Kintyre. I am looking forward to seeing how the course changes over the decades, and I do think that is time frame we are looking at without a major change in environmental regulation.

Mach Dunes is a rarity in modern golf, a throwback to the 19th century where man did not have the ability to move large amounts of earth. Of course many of these course have been altered over the past century to make them more playable. At Mach Dunes, Kidd and team certainly had the technological ability to move dirt, but they were simply not allowed to. The restrictions seemed draconian and it seems like every minor grassing line, bunker, and tee site were endlessly argued over. The question is whether enough golfers will enjoy this rugged and different form of golf to make Mach Dunes a regular stop on their tour of Scotland.

One element that I did not get to experience is the grazing of sheep to control the rough. When I was there the rough was very thick as there had been very little play to thin it out. Kidd points out that the sheep had always been part of the ecology of the site and in fact the construction period was the only time that they not been on the site for as long as he can remember which has led to a denser native rough at opening. “The sheep are not a tourist attraction,” says Kidd. The black faced sheep were chosen because of they type of vegetation that they do or do not eat. As Kidd points out, Mach Dunes is breaking ground when it comes to looking at a site’s ecology and how it functions before and after the construction of the golf course. Golf will only benefit from this holistic approach.

Sagebrush was on my short list of places I wanted to get to this year, but after seeing this video, it has jumped to the top of my list. I spoke with Richard Zokol this afternoon and he let me know that USGA is going to conduct a case study on Sagebrush’s firm and fast conditions. As another storm rolls into DC, it’s stuff like this that really feeds the day dreams.

AN ERODED BUNKER AT MACH DUNES

Mach Dunes opened in July of this past year at roughly the same time as Castle Stuart to the north. Neither is in the heart of Scottish golf touring area and so few if any have played them both. I did make it out to the Mull of Kintyre a few weeks before it opened and I had been warned in an email from architect David McLay Kidd, to, “just remember it’s a work in progress not a Fazio-esque insta-course!” I took this to heart and did not worry about conditioning as I played my way around. (Video and Interview with DMK after the jump)

There were some aspects of Mach Dunes that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought the bunker work was excellent. The hazards look very natural and the chunks and clods of the faces that had fallen away and eroded really gave the course a rustic and ancient feel. Much has been made of the wild contours on the greens at the Kidd’s Castle course on the East coast, and similar contours can be found here. I did not find them overwhelming and if kept at the right speed, they will be enjoyable.

There were other elements of the course that I did not like nearly as much, such as its playability and routing. I knew that Kidd had been under very tight environmental restrictions on this project, and when I left the course, I leaned toward believing that if this was the best that could be produced than maybe the land even though it consisted of beautiful dunes should not have been converted into a golf course. Others who have made the trek out to Mach Dunes have had mixed things to say. This site’s co-creator Colin Sheehan who played the course just after its opening went further by writing a negative post on golfclubatlas.com, which immediately met with criticism from a number of sources.

I decided to go directly to David McLay Kidd and get the whole story. The result was a very interesting conversation that I recorded and have edited into a series of videos. In this first video, David explains in detail the background of the project. You can clearly hear his passion for this project. While each of the videos are long, I do believe that they shed some light on how Mach Dunes came to be, why the course is the way it is and where golf course design and development is heading in the face of stricter and stricter environmental restrictions.

The second video will cover the decision to build Mach Dunes, the expectations of the golfing public, and a discussion of using sheep to manage the roughs.

The third video will cover the routing and the future of environmentally sensitive golf projects.

Tom Lehman at the Prairie Club: This video was shot in the Spring of 2008 on the day before construction began. I look forward to getting back to Valentine, NE to see how the course has grown in and see if the course plays as well as I thought it would.

Ballyneal: This is the first of three videos that feature Tom Doak’s prairie masterpiece (Front Nine, Back Nine) that I ran on the site. I had the pleasure to be part of this project and it was one of the more enjoyable of my career.

Cypress Point- Back Nine: One of the more magical places on earth is only enhanced by Mackenzie’s amazing course (Front Nine, here).

Common Ground: From the rarefied private playground of the masters of the universe, to the a public course on mundane land. Common Ground is an affordable course that is filled with strategy and architectural subtleties. (For a discussion of holes three and four, see here).

The Old Course: While I did not have the best weather on my trip around the Old Course, I tried to capture the communal nature of the course and what fun it to simply be out on the links.

The Isle of Man sits dead in the smack of the Irish Sea, almost equidistant from the coastlines of Ireland and the U.K. As I later learned, it is part of the British Isles, but technically not British, or Irish for that matter. It is not under the rule of the Queen, not a member of the EU, and has its own identity entirely – stamps, currency, government, etc. Its low income tax and “relaxed financial regulations” make it a tax-shelter haven. And no joke, the native Manx cats have no tails.

As is often found on the course, golf isn’t just about the drive; sometimes it’s the approach that counts. Castletown’s first impression was one of the most unique I’ve encountered. As our chartered plane approached the island from above, a Y-shaped peninsula came into view. The terrain looked a blend of dirty brown and sage green. It took me only a minute to realize those pastures weren’t fields at all but fairways, our fairways!

Our second approach to the course via the sweeping lane that separates a shallow beach from the golf course reflected the unpretentiousness that often accompanies good links golf. No big fancy signs, no guardhouse to keep out the rif-raf, and no elaborate landscaping either; just the sea on the left and the course on the right. Castletown Golf Links is no slouch of a course by any stretch of the imagination. In its remoteness one may think that no course designer worth his shirt would have ventured this far to layout a championship venue. Wrong. The course was originally designed by Old Tom Morris himself and revamped by Mackenzie Ross, Turnberry’s re-designer, after WWII.

THE DIMINUNITIVE THIRTEENTH

One trip around the links and it is evident why two legendary course designers have put their stamp here. The panoramic views of the Irish Sea are endlessly breathtaking. After all, the course is virtually surrounded by water on all four sides. The Langness Peninsula also lacks the large sand dunes that are commonly found on seaside courses. While it makes for some fantastic views, it also provides no shelter to break the unrelenting wind that will howl for all 18-holes. This is my promise to you.

The teeth that are built into Castletown Golf Links are given even more of an edge since my focus was often led astray. I admit that originally I had a tough time recalling a few of the holes on my singular trek around. One hole which did not suffer from my lapse in memory was the par-3, 13^th. It is a prime example of how a hole need not be long to be difficult. At 133-yards in length, from the back tee no less, looking at the scorecard one may think it is a birdie opportunity. Wrong. I can assure that it is downright impossible to hold a shot on putting surface with the prevailing helping gale.

THE SPECTACULAR SEVENTEENTH

The Prairie Club has released two videos recently. The one above is of Tom Lehman talking about the design of the Dunes course and specifically the sixth hole. Having spent a great deal of time on this hole including shaping the green, I can’t wait to get back out there and see and play it next summer. I have said many times that working with Tom and Chris Brands was an enjoyable and educational experience. I am very proud of the product we produced and I hope that they will get the credit and additional work they deserve.

Video of the Pines course after the jump.

This video features Graham Marsh talking about what a pleasure it was to work in such ideal land for golf. I have heard that the Prairie Club team has been hard at work making this course even better than when I last saw it in the fall of ‘08. The course has a different feel to it thanks to some pine trees and its location near the canyon rim.

I hope the video of the HORSE course is soon to follow (Geoff Shackelford’s video of it can be found here)

An interview with Tom Lehman from the day before construction can be found here.

An interview with fellow shaper Kyle Franz can be found here.

Having just visited this fine peninsula town and not having played its namesake and finest golfing track, I thought best to revisit my archives from mid-decade and relive post facto some of the pleasure that is San Francisco Golf Club. This would be Tillinghast’s most notable ‘best-coast’ effort of course, with a little love from Renaissance Golf over the years to reclaim, renew, and reuse. This particular vantage is up the valley that includes the 7th and 8th holes, and was of course the site for the famous Terry-Broderick bout of ‘59, America’s final pistol duel. Ironically, the short seventh hole calls for what Senator Broderick was apparently lacking–a decisive and accurate shot to a small target. He died, and at the hands of a state Supreme Court Justice no less. I thought Congress was the check/balance to the judiciary, but not in this case. I fortunately had terrific company on my round, although tensions briefly rose as we went in-pocket to repair our pitch marks on the green. The short par-4 8th up the way is no slouch either, I love this place. Recent revisions have brought back the Tarantula bunker, but I have yet to make its acquaintance.