St. Andrew's Wanna-Be Golf Trail
The primordial linksland of the Old Course
Compiled by Fat Guy
I've done 3 other "Wanna-Be" golf trails (Augusta, Pine Valley, and Pebble Beach), but when I started thinking about American public courses that resembled St. Andrew's, I realized this was a different beast. Augusta and Pine Valley are each very distinctive, infinitely American, and one of a kind. When a course designer is trying to emulate one of them, it's obvious. Pebble is the definition of oceanfront golf in America, so any course with a hole or three on a large body of water gets called a "Poor Man's" or "East Coast" Pebble Beach.
Yet, there really is no "other" St. Andrew's, at least in the States--Poor Man's, East Coast, or otherwise. I've played the Old Course, and it's a religious experience. St. Andrew's is so unique, so... random, so inherently Scottish, so much the original golf course on the perkect linksland, and so much designed by Mother Nature, while Old Tom Morris just decided where to put the tee markers and holes. It's nearly impossible for a course designer to channel St. Andrew's specifically or recognizably (other than maybe a straight replica of the Road Hole), rather than just channeling vaguely authentic Americanized links-style golf. You can mimic the style, to a degree; you can stick in a smaller version of Hell bunker, you can copy the Himalayas or the Valley Of Sin. But without the whole fabric of primordial linksland and the hard running sandy turf to work with, it's always going to be a vague wanna-be, at best.
And I'm starting to despise the overused terms "links-style" and "links elements". Basically what those terms convey is a generic American phrase for "treeless golf course," or "flat-ish American course with some bumps and swales and open approaches because the bland landscape didn't lend itself to traditional American parkland." Saying a course is "links-style" or has "links elements" only hints at a wide range of possible features, but with no real inkling of how authentic, pervasive, consistent, successful, or charming those elements are in bringing out the "grin-at-the-good-and-bad-bounces" essence of links golf.
Donald Steele, a well-known modern English architect and author of Classic Golf Links of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, defined "links course" as, "The strip of land which links the sea with more fertile land, often set amongst dunes. The best terrain for golf is sand and that kind of land has minimal agricultural value - which makes such places ideal." Ron Whitten, the course architecture editor for Golf Digest, gives "links" a broader, more American definition to include golf courses built on sandy soil (whether seaside or not) and that are buffeted by winds. Whitten says a links course must play firm and fast, with sometimes crusty fairways and greens that feature many knolls and knobs to create odd bounces and angles. And of course a links course, in Whitten's definition, needs to be relatively treeless, with a native rough that is tall and thick. Linksy courses that are located inland have often been termed "Heathland" courses, though most golfers, golf writers, marketers, and courses don't bother with the distinction when describing an inland links.
One more quick distinction, between Scottish links and Irish links. As a general rule, I think most Scottish links try to emulate St. Andrew's via Old Tom Morris in some form or another: open approaches, with plenty of bumps, swales, stiff sandy turf, massive greens, and stacked sod bunker lips, but overall a lower, running, wind-cheater ground game. Irish-style links have many of the same elements, but they tend to be more severe, mostly because of the native terra forma in Ireland. Heaving terrain, more blind shots, more vertical hazards, more severe elevation changes, quirkier overall, and sometimes requiring a bit more of a sense of humor.
Of course the vast majority of U.S. "links-style" courses wouldn't meet the definition of a true seaside/sand-based links (in the Scottish sense of the word) by any stretch of the imagination. There's probably less than a few handfulls of courses in America that would even come close to fulfilling all the criteria of a true links, and most of the ones that do are private.
But there are an increasing number of American courses that capture the essence and fun of links (or heathland) golf: exposed to prevailing winds, hard and running, atypical mid-fairway bunker placements, blind shots, large buried-elephant greens with open green fronts, unpredictable fairway bumps, and shaved-down greenside swales. We Yanks are long overdue to coin a new term for these types of courses, and I'm claiming it now. Let's call any course in America that largely succeeds at capturing the essence of true links golf... simply, an American links. These "American links" capture that magical extra element of quirky randomness (necessitating shot-making that's more art than science) that makes links golf so damn fun. I've played more than a few good-to-great public ones in the States.
So rather than snobbishly ticking off how many criteria they don't meet on the true links checklist, let's celebrate their mutt pedigree, their Ugly-American-ness. Sure, most American links are inland (often way inland), technically more heathland than links. Some are located in places that don't always experience winds blowing hard enough to be a factor in club selection. Some have a few parkland holes or a water-carry par-3 mixed in here and there. Some are ringed by ausentatious cookie-cutter professionally-landscaped American monster houses. Some have starters with headsets, and many have tony restaurants in million dollar clubhouses, rather than a threadbare locker room and friendly beer-stenched pub atmosphere. But still, if you're standing over your bag mulling over a short open approach with your right hand your wedge, your left hand on your 5-iron, your mind on your putter, and your eyes scanning the trees for the wind speed and direction, then enjoy it for what it is, I say.
Anyway, enough ranting about semantics. Here's my list of St. Andrew's-style "American links" courses that capture the fun of true links golf:
St. Andrew's Wanna-Be Golf Trail
15. The Tribute At The Colony, Dallas TX (www.thetributegc.com). Architect Tripp Davis' homage to some of the greatest holes in the British Isles, starting with a startlingly accurate depiction of the opening (and adjacent closing) hole at St. Andrews' Old Course. [Golf Magazine]
13. Sharp Park MGC, Pacifica, CA. "When plans for Sharp Park were announced in early 1930, Chandler Egan (Pebble Beach), who directed construction for Alister Mackenzie, told a newspaper: "I have played at St. Andrews, and I frankly believe Sharp Park will be a worthy imitation of the classic course." In the build-up to the course opening, a newspaper called Sharp Park, 'A second St. Andrews.'" There's a definite links feel, with plenty of wind-etched Monterey Cypress trees, and it's right on the Pacific (in fact, 2 of McKenzie's original holes were lost to the ocean). It's not in great shape, but it's a great value. But play it soon; environmentalists are trying to close the place to protect 2 species of frog and snake that long-time locals say they've never seen on the course.
12. Wyncote GC, Oxford PA. One look at the strong layout and conditions, and you'd never guess this "farmland links" an hour south of Philly is family-owned. The design was inspired by the great links courses of Great Britain, and the links influence is pervasive throughout.
11. Legends GR, Myrtle Beach SC. The Moorland Course was named the #37 Toughest Course in America by Golf Digest 2007: "There are more railroad ties than common sense on this jolting, brawny P.B. Dye design. Even some of the cartpaths are railroad ties. Stay away from 'Hell's Half Acre' on the 270-yard, par-4 16th."
Moorland
10. The Legends' Heathland Course by Tom Doak is molded in the image of great British Isles courses with low scrub brush, meandering swales, deep rough, deeper greenside bunkers, and unobstructed winds. Named a Top 10 New Resort Courses by Golf Magazine when it debuted n 1990, and #12 in SC per Golf Magazine 2008.
Heathland
9. Arcadia Bluffs, Arcadia MI. This northern Michigan gem is located hard by the edge of a Great Lake, and looks more Scottish than Scotland, only with the extra added difficulty of elevation changes as it runs out towards the lakeside bluffs. Arcadia's layout style borders on being more Irish than Scottish, but it's close enough to say, 'This is links golf. Who really cares?'
8. Crystal Springs Resort, Ballyowen Course, Hamburg NJ. Sculpted out of 250 sprawling acres atop a plateau by Roger Rulewich, surrounded by rolling farmland and craggy knolls, overlooking the spirited Walkill River. Virtually treeless, a kaleidoscopic array of verdant fairways, and fields of wheat-yellow native rough grasses. Tee shots flow into unique valleys amidst towering mounds.
Ballyowen (Yes, this is Jersey)
7. Erin Hills, Hartford WI. "This expansive and rough-hewn links in farm country forty miles northwest of Milwaukee has been one of the most talked-about new courses in the nation. The land—rumpled with the eskers, depressions and grassland dunes of Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine—was so ideally suited for golf that the architects wisely approached it with a light hand, moving earth on only four of the holes. There’s a wonderful mix of long and short par fours, and the putting surfaces vary from three thousand to twelve thousand square feet. The greens are perched on knobs, banked into hillsides, set among mounds and, at the par-three seventh—an homage to the Dell hole at Lahinch—nestled in a hollow. 'A lot of holes remind me of Shinnecock,' says PGA Tour pro Steve Stricker, a lifelong Wisconsinite." [T&L Golf]
6. Glen Riddle GC, Man O' War Course, Berlin MD. What would you get if you mixed a sandy linksland, a thoroughbred horse farm, a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, an upscale housing development, and one of the best boardwalk beach towns anywhere? You'd get Glen Riddle GC's Man O' War course. This windy throwback links just outside Ocean City Maryland captures that random-bounce links joy like few others I've played in the States, and was built on the former horse farm where Seabisquit and Man O' War were trained. The routing features a former practice track from the horse farm as a hazard on 2 holes, and the surrounding upscale housing development goes largely unnoticed outside of a few holes (except for the view of the bikini-clad upscale MILFs at the community pool just off the 15th tee), though neither detracts from the largely authentic links experience. Afterwards have drinks at the tony bar and lunch at the Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, both housed in the former horse barn with angled roof lines and horse stall doors still intact as decor. Then it's off to a night of hardshell blue crabs and fun on OCMD's boardwalk.
5. Chambers Bay, Tacoma WA. "The course evokes the best of golf in Scotland. From the ninth tee, I thought of the view from the hotel at Turnberry, over a sweeping course and across the neighboring Puget Sound. Trains roll past, as they do at Prestwick. And just like the local park that is St. Andrews, you'll share Chambers Bay with walkers and joggers, kids and dogs, all using the public footpath that surrounds the 7,585-yard course." [Golf Digest]. It's new and still a little raw, but has already been awarded the 2015 U.S. Open.
4. Royal Links GC, Las Vegas NV. 18 replica holes from 11 British Open rota courses, including Hell Bunker and the Road Hole from St. Andrew's. The other 16 holes channel the best of British Isles links golf. Throw in a legit English-style pub in the clubhouse and hottie Par Mate caddies, and this might be as good as links golf gets in the States.
And now on to the very definition of true links golf in the States: Bandon Golf Resort. Bandon's 3 courses are the purest links golf you'll find in the States: indigenous gorse, sandy hardpan soil, hard by the Pacific, and howling ocean winds, a major factor in club selection.
3. Old Macdonald, Bandon OR. The newest seaside clifftop links at this remote, minimalist Field Of Dreams golf resort was inspired by the works of the granddaddy of American links design, C.B. Macdonald.
2. Bandon Dunes, Bandon OR. The original course drew unprecedented raves right out of the gate, designed by then-unheard-of David McLay Kidd, who grew up the son of the Greenskeeper at Macrahanish. It was herealded as the truest links in the country, before it's younger brother Pacific Dunes muscled in on the title.
1. Pacific Dunes, Bandon OR. "Doak moved far less dirt than Kidd, letting the natural mixture of dunes, valley, cliffs, trees and links dictate the character of the holes. He even left a lot of gorse, which yields incandescent yellow blooms in the spring. No slave to convention, he constructed a layout that includes a couple of drivable par fours and back-to-back par threes to rival the fifteenth and sixteenth at Cypress. The back nine includes four par threes and three par fives, and concludes with a majestic six-hundred-yarder that employs a massive two-acre natural sandy "blowout" as a strategic and visual fulcrum. It's quirkier and riskier than Bandon, and will evoke stronger feelings, good or bad." [T&L Golf]