The Los Angeles Country Club has a terrific pdf with descriptions of their restoration of Captain George Thomas’ design for the North Course. It’s full of before and after photos, and descriptions of the work.

Golfweek has its list of top college golf courses. Two of them are the University of Michigan Golf Course (number 12) and the University of Michigan’s Radrick Farms golf course (number 16). I’m surprised that Michigan State’s Forest Akers didn’t make the cut—it’s every bit as nice as Radrick Farms, although much more heavily played. Radrick is a semi-private course for University staff and alumni only, while Forest Akers is open just about everyone (as near as I can tell ... I just walked on one day with no tee time or credentials). Forest Akers is a bit more beaten up at any time than Radrick.

I’ve played four Big Ten courses—the two Michigan Courses, Forest Akers and Indiana University’s home course. The Ohio State University’s Scarlet is next on my list. What I’d really like to do is to play it on October 10 of this year on my way back from a football game in Morgantown, WV. I wonder if anyone out there can hook me up ...

The Wall Street Journal has one of those sky-is-falling articles on how the weather this summer is ruining the greens.

The sustained record-breaking heat across much of the U.S. this summer, combined with high humidity and occasional heavy rain, is killing the greens on many golf courses. A handful of high-profile courses have already had to close, and if the heat continues, others are likely to follow. Golfers themselves deserve part of the blame for insisting that putting surfaces be mown short and fast even in weather conditions in which such practices are almost certain to ruin them.

A proposed golf complex in Omaha, Nebraska would pay homage to St. Andrews while doing something very unusual: It would be designed to accommodate players with vintage clubs.

What would further set apart a riverfront course as a potential tourist destination in Omaha is that (Golf Architect Tom) Doak would design it in a retro style that allows play with pre-1900 hickory-shaft clubs and replica, limited-flight golf balls — and with the golfer wearing replica garb — while still being a modern, championship-length course.

Multiple tees would be built so the course could play as short as 4,500 yards to accommodate use of the limited-flight balls.

“Imagine,’’ (Gary) Wiren said, “you walk into the clubhouse and you get asked, ‘How do you like to play your golf today? Modern, classical (1920s equipment) or antiquarian (pre-1900s)? This would be something nobody in the world has.”

Doak said the land he has seen would lend itself to a course that is “low-profile,” or subtle, in design because the ground is relatively flat. Like St. Andrews, the course could be just two holes wide, with an outward nine and an inward nine.
Distances from greens to the next tee would be short, to promote walking and possible use of caddies.

“I’d hope you could make this a no-(riding) cart course,’’ Doak said.

The facility also would contain a museum that would hold Gary Wiren’s golf collection, a multi-million dollar accumulation of rare clubs and balls, golf related books, postcards and sheet music, photographs and other collectables.

What a great idea!!

“All Great Golf Holes Involve A Contest of Wit and Risk”
-John Laing Low

It was a good sports day yesterday. The Whatever They’re Calling It Now at the Riviera is a favorite tournament of mine, and the Super Bowl is always a big event.

The Riviera’s Tournament doesn’t always attract the biggest names, but I love to watch because I love the course. It looks terrific on television, and the camera shots of the finishing hole, in particular have left a great impression on me. You also can’t beat that clubhouse.

Looks aside, the Riviera attracts my attention because of the strategic thinking it requires. The announcers never tire of pointing out how architect George Thomas created a course with lots of strategic options, and opportunities for risk and reward. And they’re right. Thomas himself once wrote:

The spirit of golf is to dare a hazard, and by negotiating it, reap a reward.

The 315 yard par 4 tenth at Riviera is a great example. It’s drivable by many—if not most—tour players, and an Eagle is a real possibility. But so is a double bogey. Put the ball on the wrong side, and you’re toast. Rocco Mediate said:

“If you miss anywhere to the right, you can’t put the ball anywhere on the green from 50 yards. If you hit it in the right greenside bunker, it’s hard to keep it on the green. Even with a sand wedge in your hand you are going, ‘Man, where do I hit this?’ And if you hit it off line, it’s over. Remember, the green is maybe six to eight steps deep.”

Nicklaus has called this one of the best par fours in golf.

The short par 5 first is another fine example. Starting on a tee that’s 75 feet above the fairway, it seems easy but for an out of bounds left and a gully crossing the fairway. Those design elements are what makes a player think twice before pulling out the driver. As with the fourth, an eagle is possible, but so is a nine.

Both of these punish aggressive play and make recovery difficult. Whereas lesser designers try to protect their courses with additional yardage, Thomas made the space between the ears the most important distance at Riviera.

With a bunker in the middle of the green, the par 3 sixth is as famous as any hole in golf. It’s humorous, but also a great strategic element. Hit to the wrong side, and you’re facing a very difficult putt - or even a chip from the green. In this, it reminds me of the whimsical, but deadly design of the University of Michigan’s Alistair MacKenzie design sixth.

It’s these sort of design elements that makes Riviera such a refreshing change from so many of the PGA Tour venues.

The Riviera Country Club is one of two or three courses on my bucket list. All I need is an invite and I’m there.

Indiana University Golf Course Review

Grade: B
Teacher’s Comments: It’s essentially a municipal course, owned and operated by Indiana University. Nice enough, but it was in very poor condition on the day I played.

This past summer I was able to sneak out of Boy Scout Camp near Bloomington, Indiana to play the Indiana University Golf Course. It’s a nice course, but somewhat short of the standards set by the University of Michigan’s “Blue” and Michigan State University’s Forest Akers, the other Big 10 courses I have played. The word that keeps coming back to me is ordinary.

In fact, overall, the course has the feel of a nice municipal, on a par, perhaps with Ann Arbor’s Leslie Park or Jackson’s Cascades. It’s cheap—the general public pays just $24 to walk—and open to all. I simply walked up, and walked on. The first couple of tees were jammed, so the starter drove me out to the tenth and I started there. Very friendly.

The muni feel was reinforced for me by the old timers with whom I was paired. By their account, there aren’t a lot of courses in the area, and the U’s track is the local favorite. Ahead of us were a guy and his elderly mother hacking their way around; ahead of them were two groups of women who apparently were Wednesday morning regulars. You don’t see that sort of thing at the University of Michigan’s course.

An interesting story I got from the two guys I played with: Apparently a few years ago, Indiana University toyed with the idea of taking some spare acreage and building a semi-private course for the athletes and faculty with a big name designer. The idea was shot down by the conscientious citizens of Indiana. They apparently weren’t going to put up taxpayer dollars for a course that wasn’t open to all.

Good for them.

So the old course remains.

The Indiana University course plays to a par 71, thanks to a par 35 back nine with eight fours and a three. It’s not short, though; from the blues, it’s 6,813 yards. It also has a relatively unusual layout in that the ninth does not return to the clubhouse. That’s because a few years ago, the original clubhouse was abandoned, and a new one built. The new location required a change in the routing so that the tee nearest the new facility was designated as the first.

The eight par fours on the back make it a hard course for The GolfBlogger. I simply don’t have the length to hit driver-short iron into a long four. To score well, I have to take advantage of the threes, and fives (driver, three wood, short iron). But even the threes at Indiana University were tough, measuring 226, 210 and 218 from the back. I had to hit a three wood into all of them.

From start to finish, the course is hilly, tree-lined and demands accuracy. Compounding the difficulty are the numerous dog legs, and several blind shots. But if you hit the ball straight, you won’t find any real trouble. I suspect that once familiar with the course, decent players can really go low on this track.

I heard another interesting story about the building of the course—confirmed by the school’s website. It was constructed on University land in 1954 from a design by former IU golf coach Jim Soutar. Soutar was traditional in the design of his layout, finding the holes as dictated by the land, apparently moving very little dirt or trees. Soutar would walk the land and sketch out his ideas, when then were detailed by University draftsmen. The entire course was built for $175,000, with former coordinator of Indiana University’s athletic facilities, Paul “Pooch” Harrell often manning a bulldozer.

Best of all: not a dime of taxpayer money was used, with all expenses paid by University student fees.

At the height of summer, the course was not in good shape. Terrible is a better description. Grass in the fairways was alternatively dead from too much water in low spots or from a lack of water in the high and rough. Greens were patchy.

Still, I had fun. And it gave me an idea for another GolfBlogger series: Courses of the Big Ten. I’m definitely going to have to get to Columbus next year.

You can see a photo tour of the Indiana University Golf Course here.