The Walking Scorer

This is a Donald Ross course on the shores of the Long Island Sound.  It is quintessential Donald Ross, with smallish greens and subtle challenges.  The land is mostly flat, being at the Connecticut shore, but there are two notable uphill par 3's.   It really shows off the skills of the designer to make a challenging course with interesting shots on fairly ordinary ground.  It's a shame that it doesn't show up so well in pictures.  And my opinion is definitely colored by the fact that I shot a good score with three of my old golf buddies on a nice summer day. There is history here, too.  The clubhouse walls are covered with plaques commemorating the winners of the various club championships and other events since 1919, and some of the names are also on plaques in the World Golf Hall of Fame.  Which is another tribute to the designer. More pictures .

They aren't kidding I played the Forward tees, 6220 yards, which is just about at the edge of my ability these days.  I don't know what Meg would do, who likes something around 5000 yards.  The two locals with me played the middle tees at 6704, and couldn't handle it at all.  I shot a higher score than I want to admit to, and they were worse. The rough is the main obstacle.  It wasn't at US Open length, only about 3" deep, which is 1/3" longer than the diameter of a golf ball.  And thick.  If you can hit a wedge 60 yards from the rough, and it goes where you aim it, that is a very good golf shot.  I guess the mild weather on Long Island is quite conducive to grass growing.  Farther out on the island, the following week, I volunteered at the US Open at Shinnecock, on a totally different kind of golf course, sandy, windswept dunes with sparse grass, and a totally different kind of impossible challenge. Some of the holes have a lot of sand traps...

This isn't a top 100 course, but the best in Rhode Island.  I played with two Texans on vacation, and a Boston financier who retired near here and once owned a ranch in Texas.  And I, of course, am a Texan by domicile.  On the first tee, a dogleg left, the local guy told Big Juan (who is not Mexican, but had his golf balls monogrammed with "Big Juan", like mine say "Mr. Science".  We exchanged balls after the round.) to "aim for the cot".  Juan turned around and said "The cot?  I don't see a cot."  "The golf cot, out theyah on the fayaway."  "Oh.  We call that a carrrt ."  And we were off. The course opened in 2002, designed by Arthur Hills, and has been named the best in New England.  The fairways are wide enough, but lined with tall fescue all around. And those are the easy lies, if you're not straight enough.  or long enough It's called a "modern" links course.  The te...

Hawktree, in Bismarck, is the best course in North Dakota.  Not a top 100, but quite good, interesting, and playable. They had recently aerated the greens but they rolled very well. The tee markers were made of barbed wire, Falcon Hawk Eagle and Owl The bunkers had black sand which I managed to stay out of until the 18th hole.  The fairways were generous, and the greens large and very contoured. And some cool elevation changes, that I like The grounds crew was resting when I passed by I apologize for that, it's unfair, but I couldn't resist.  The course is well-maintained for anywhere in the US, and especially so for North Dakota. Even the advertising in the Men's room was interesting More pictures .

" The nickname "DUBSDREAD" is derived from the idea that a "dub" or poor golfer should beware and served as a warning of the challenges forthcoming." This course was the site of the Western Open from 1991-2006, and 4 times a FedEx Cup playoff venue.  The 2008 redesign by Rees Jones removed 40 or so bunkers ("only" 82 remain), but the removed ones must have been quite redundant, because those still around are very much in play, most of the large greens having 2-3 guarding the approach, and most of the fairways having one or both sides bunkered to frame the tee shot. There was a fair amount of water, too, including some subtle ones.  A stream crosses 4 of the front 9 fairways, but is underground in the actual fairway, only surfacing as a small pit in the rough on both sides of the landing area, usually under a bridge carrying the cart path.  Reachable, and in play if your drive isn't straight.  On the back 9 the water hazards w...

This Troon-managed Rees Jones design is the public course at Foxwoods (the South course is private).  It seems like there are lots of lakes, but from the name it must be a lot of islands in a big lake.  The cart path crosses water over lots of wooden bridges, and goes past a lone tombstone in the woods The rough is lush and high, and caused a few very high scores.  The fairways are wide enough, but lined by dense woods.  I had occasion to search for a ball once, and came out with both pockets and both hands full after only seconds of searching, and leaving a lot more behind.  I've never seen so many golf balls except in a golf shop or on the range. There are tee shots with forced carries, even when not over water and the greens are elevated and well-bunkered. A difficult test, with severe penalties for bad shots.  Worth playing again, though. More pictures .

The qualifying tournament for the Web.com Tour, gateway to the PGA Tour, is this week at Whirlwind GC.  I walked Thursday and Friday with Chip Lynn, Bruce Woodall, and Mark Baldwin.  For some reason the walking scorer chairman used the same scheduling algorithm that the tour uses, and I ended up with the same group both days.  We played the Cattail course Thursday in strong winds, and Devil's Claw Friday in calmer conditions.  Mark did well, and was T8 after shooting 69-67.  He has a 2-iron that he hits off the tee most of the time, about 280, only using the driver for reachable par 4's and 5's.  Chip had 71-68.  Bruce struggled, shooting 78-72, with a lot of missed short putts and a few errant drives.  Chip missed some shots, too, and was prone to a sort of primal scream that had vague hints of profanity, but was mainly unintelligible.  After Friday's round he apologized to me for his language, and I forgave him, told him that Suzann Petters...

I worked the PGA Tour Champions Qualifying Tournament last week.  Nothing terribly interesting happened on the fairways, but ... When I was about 33, playing at Glastonbury Hills Country Club, Tim Petrovic, the star of the Glastonbury High School golf team also played there.  I never met him or played with him, but I knew of him.  And followed his golf career from time to time, as he played on the PGA Tour, and got on TV once in a while. He led the tournament after 3 rounds, at 18 under par, and finished in the top 5, got his card for the "senior" tour.

I walked with Tom Lehman today.  Mark Mulder was also in the group, and his wife was caddying for him.  It was her first time doing that, and she enjoyed being inside the ropes. Lehman and John Fought did the redesign of this course in 2002.  I got him to talk about the changes they made.  The plot of land is almost totally flat, varying by only 1 foot from the highest to the lowest point.  It had been irrigated by flooding, which is how they watered our lawn once a week when I lived in Phoenix in 1958.  So the greens were low, and surrounded by mounds, into which they cut the bunkers, so that the bunkers would not flood when the fairways and greens were watered.  So all the bunkers were higher than the greens.  Lehman and Fought elevated the greens, and kept some of the mounds around them, to preserve the original look, but now the bunkers are mostly lower than the greens, like a normal golf course.  That was mostly what he talked abou...