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 SEVENTEENTH

For everyone on the soggy East Coast:

The back nine at Cypress Point is about as good a nine as there is in golf, but to me it is also the most beautiful landscape that I have ever spent time in. We were blessed to tour the back nine in the evening of a spectacular, early fall day. (Video after the jump)

The sunlight swirled and danced with the Pacific Ocean mist, creating an enchanted aura on the rich and varied coastal flora. The sound of the surf crashing against the rocks, broken by the staccato calls of the sea lions, engages the sense of hearing in away that is extremely rare in the world of golf. Words can not do justice to this experience so I will let the video do the talking.

For the front nine click here.

THE THIRTEENTH AT AUGUSTA (COURTESY OF LARRY LAMBRECHT)

I consider myself very fortunate to have played Augusta National twice. The first time a month prior to Tiger Woods first win in 1997, and more recently, about three weeks ago in mid-March. Like most fans of the tournament, I’ve tracked the changes to the course. Augusta National, being the one constant in major championship golf, has been anything but constant since it opened in 1933. For the first sixty years, the changes weren’t that dramatic: the nines were flipped, bunkers have come and gone, the 16th green was moved to a new location. And as the course maintenance standards evolved–the switch from Bermuda greens to bent, the lush conditioning of the turf, the heavy accents of flowering flora, the sharpening of the bunker edges–the course always maintained a certain charm of the original Mackenzie aesthetic, both in its look and in the principal of how it was supposed to play. Or at least that’s how it looked to me on television. To me, the run of international champions from the late 70s into the early 90s was a vindication of Dr. Mackenzie’s use of width and options. As parkland as the course is, holes like 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 seem to have links-like run-up options and contours that the Good Doctor borrowed from St. Andrews (holes 5 and 14 in particular). Even Larry Mize’s miracle hole-out was a daring pitch and run. I’d imagine Charles Howell, a fellow native Augustan, if faced with that same shot today, would fly it much closer to the hole and expect the ball to release a yard or two.

TIGER ON THE TWELFTH (COURTESY OF pocketwiley)

I’m grateful that in March of 1997, I was able to see the “old” Augusta National. The one I spent watching on television during my youth, from 1986 onward. There wasn’t any rough or “second cut” as its called and there was tremendous width to the fairways and playing corridors. The members tees weren’t very far from the back tees and most importantly, birdies could be grabbed throughout the course. It rewarded both aggression and carefulness, and players could shoot anywhere between 75 and 64. The greens were certainly a defense and players strategically planned their attack on par-four holes like 1, 3, 7, 9, 11 and 14 by working back from the pin locations. It was marvelous strategy, the very strategy Tiger Woods hammered with 320 yard drives. I can only imagine how enraged the old-guard of members felt when Tiger used 9-iron into 15. He did embarrass the course, to a certain extent, yet it was the most thrilling runaway victory I’ve ever seen–more so than his romp at Pebble in 2000. I can’t imagine what would have happened in the coming years if the course was not modified. I can’t blame the club for doing something the USGA should have prevented from happening in the first place. Equipment changed the game and its real benefits seem to apply to an elite category of super-charged tour pros who harness the technology in ways the rest of us cannot.

CRENSHAW LAYING UP (COURTESY OF gte333f)

In the years following Tiger’s first win, the club’s board of governors have regrettably let their course become the Zeitgeist for championship standards. Following their example, lengthening became mandatory amongst the existing and aspirant major venues. At Augusta specifically, they made holes 1, 7 and 18 into brutes. They narrowed the driving options on hole 11 and 15 into tree-lined shoots. Tees were pushed so far back the club had to purchase property from its neighbors and the separation between the tournament tees and the members tees are often more than 100 yards.

These things are all well-documented. The irony is the member tees have remained in the same place. They play a 6,200 yard course that is fun and interesting, though narrower than it once was. The greens still have all their pitch and the bunkers still have some artful shapes, if only inspired by Mackenzie, as opposed to actually placed by him. Interestingly, the “Mackenzie” bunker on 10, which was once in front of the green, has the most artistry of any out there, and that’s the one that has been least touched by the revision committees.

Changes or not, I wish the course and the tournament well. I have tremendous reverence for the tournament and its history, but I will always be nostalgic for those years in the mid-80s to early 90s, beginning with Nicklaus’ improbable win to the years when Mize, Lyle, Norman, Ballesteros, Langer, Olazabal, Floyd, Faldo, Hoch and Couples provided such marvelous drama. To me, that was the era of persimmon, thin blades, balata and master-class shotmaking. Not that Tiger and some of the elite don’t play a similar game today, but it was less super-human. The ball spun more so players could work the ball aggressively, often out of necessity. Their swings weren’t flawless, and the sweet spot on drives was much more exacting. As a consequence, players crashed-and-burned more under pressure. It seems like no one ever misses a drive today. Above all else, they executed shots with more style, with more grace and more imagination. The course was such that it demanded as much. I can’t say that’s the case anymore.

WHERE"S THE SHOUTING AT AMEN CORNER? (COURTESY OF LARRY LAMBRECHT)

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.