A Difficult Par Honored by USGA

One of my all-time favorite golf books has just been honored by the USGA. Here's the text of the announcement:

In recognition of its high standard of achievement in golf literature, James R. Hansen’s A Difficult Par: Robert Trent Jones Sr. and the Making of Modern Golf has earned the United States Golf Association’s Herbert Warren Wind Book Award for 2014.

Hansen’s profile of renowned golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. is an expertly researched and written reflection on the life and career of one of the most prolific, well-respected and transformational figures in the history of golf.

“Robert Trent Jones was a colossus of the game and his contributions to golf course architecture undoubtedly influenced the way championship golf has been played over the past 65 years,” said Michael Trostel, senior historian for the USGA Museum. “In A Difficult Par, James Hansen uses exhaustive research methods to deliver a comprehensive depiction of the man who shaped the landscape of modern golf, skillfully weaving together the story of family and business to break new ground on one of the game’s most celebrated and significant designers.”

“To have the USGA and Herbert Warren Wind associated with a book that I wrote is a huge honor,” said Hansen. “There is no name in golf writing more respected or more prestigious than Wind. As a writer, it is the ultimate distinction in my career.”

With the help and cooperation of Jones’ sons, Robert Jr. and Rees, who shared letters, documents and personal stories of their father, Hansen pieced together the life events and struggles that the British-born Jones encountered on the way to creating his legacy.

A gifted and passionate golfer, Jones served as the first golf professional at Sodus Bay Heights Golf Club in Sodus Point, N.Y. During his tenure, he caught the eye of club president James D. Bashford, who sponsored Jones and encouraged him to enroll in Cornell University’s architecture program.
At Cornell, Jones tailored his curriculum in landscape architecture and agronomy to create a degree in golf course design and management.

Upon graduation, Jones struggled to find work in a U.S. economy that was mired in the Great Depression. His patience, timing and relentless pursuit of his dreams eventually paid off, as he passionately and successfully promoted the construction of new golf courses as a wise use of public money and labor that had become available under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), part of the New Deal initiative.

A Difficult Par focuses not only on Jones’ achievements in design and architecture, but also on the personal and financial challenges that he faced throughout his career. Hansen carefully details the family dynamics and professional rivalries that occurred during the latter part of his career.

“Of all the architects, I think Robert Trent Jones was the most significant in the development of American golf courses,” said Hansen. “It wasn’t just the longevity of his career, but also how his courses came to be the dominant venues for championship golf.”

Jones designed or redesigned nearly 450 courses in 42 states and 28 countries, including 11 courses that have hosted a combined 34 U.S. Opens. His design philosophy of challenging the best golfers while making the game enjoyable for players of all abilities became essential in making the game attractive to casual players and made him an archetype for future designers.

The Herbert Warren Wind Book Award was established in 1987. The award recognizes and honors outstanding contributions to golf literature while attempting to broaden the public’s interest in, and knowledge of, the game of golf. Wind, who died in 2005, was a famed writer for The New Yorker and Sports Illustrated who coined the phrase “Amen Corner” at Augusta National Golf Club. He is the only writer to win the Bob Jones Award, the USGA’s highest honor.

Hansen, a professor of history in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University since 1986, has written 10 books about the history of aerospace, including First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, as well as numerous articles for golf publications. The Herbert Warren Wind Book Award will be presented to Hansen on Feb. 7 at the USGA’s Annual Meeting in New York City.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Spanish Bay Shines Among the Stars

Links at Spanish Bay #17

The Links at Spanish Bay is the "bargain" course among those operated by the Pebble Beach Resorts (not counting Del Monte), but there's nothing cut-rate about the golf to be played there. It's long enough (6,821 yards from the tips), tough enough (74.0 rating and 140 slope), and scenic enough to warrant a trip for its own sake. Spanish Bay is like the youngest sibling in a family whose two older brothers were star athletes before him in school. If they hadn't been born, he'd have all the raves to himself.

Spanish Bay has a links look with wind-swept fairways, tough waste areas and dunes to punish wayward drives, and greens that often invite a bump and run approach, although the turf is a little lush to rely on a ground game the way you would on a real links course.  Surf and sand are the dominant themes of the front nine, where you can practically walk in the water when playing the delightful par 3 eighth hole.

Enjoy the scenery and make your pars and birdies on the front side while you can, though.  The back nine is miles tougher.  Tough, but fun. From the gold tees, the front is par 35 at 3,042 yards whereas the back stretches to 3,379 and plays to par 37. The first three holes are birdie opportunities on the front, as is the 367-yard ninth hole. Even though the back offers three par fives, birdies are much harder to come by. The tenth hole, par five at 477 yards, looks like easy pickings but the relentless bunkers splitting the fairway on the second leg of the double dog leg say otherwise. The eighteenth, 524 yards, challenges you on every single shot. There are forced carries on the first and third and a major risk/reward decision on your second.

Three architects are credited with the design of Spanish Bay. Tom Watson, Sandy Tatum, and Robert Trent Jones, Jr., all are listed, although I suspect the latter did most of the heavy lifting when the course was built in 1987.  Regardless of who gets the lion's share of the credit, the trio designed a fine, worthwhile must-play course for anyone visiting Pebble Beach.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

For Pure Golf, Spyglass Beats Pebble

Spyglass Hill #3

Pebble Beach gets all the headlines, but Spyglass Hill is arguably the better golf course by many standards. It's measurably harder, has more than a few intimidating shots, and can more severely punish a near miss. Spyglass may not have quite as many iconic holes, but it has more than its fair share of fabulous scenery, too.

Sypglass has an interesting history. It was originally built by the Northern California Golf Assocation (NCGA) in 1966, its construction financed by members who put up cash and agreed to dues of $50 per year. There is still a membership, although I'm not sure what happens to them in 2016 when the fiftieth anniversary comes around. The course is owned and operated today by the Pebble Beach Company and the NCGA has moved its headquarters to Poppy Hills, which it owns.

Robert Trent Jones, Sr., designed Spyglass and many of us believe it to be his best work. By the numbers, Spyglass Hill is tougher than Pebble Beach. It's longer from all four tee boxes, measuring 6,960 vs Pebble's 6,828 from the tips. From the gold tees, the Spyglass rating/slope is 73.8/140 vs. Pebble's 72.6/136, a difference that's reflected on the other three tees as well. Jones' pop up greens and the natural elevation changes at Spyglass makes it play even longer than Pebble's relatively flat terrain, too. The extra 100 yards on the scorecard for the gold tees play more like an extra 300 yards when you take that into account.

The opening hole reflects the dual nature of the course--trees, elevation, and the ocean combine to make a classic introduction to the layout. The hole is a long, downhill par five with a tee shot that threads a corridor of pines to reach the dog leg at the bottom of the hill. Once you've cleared the corner, the hole turns left and greets the ocean. The extensive bunkers in front of the green echo the dunes and beach lying beyond it.

Spyglass isn't lacking in visual splendor. The first five holes play along the dunes, often close enough to the waves to see the water dripping from the surfers' eyebrows. The second hole, a 321-yard uphill par four (from the gold tees), plays to a green perched like a crow's nest overlooking the ocean.  It's followed by a truly great par 3. At 150 yards, the third hole plays directly toward the Pacific over a wasteland of scrub, dunes, and bunkers. The fourth hole, which Jones often said was his favorite par four, is short at 358 yards but has one of the most radically skinny greens you'll find anywhere. The last hole you play on the ocean stretch is the 169-yard fifth, where the green sits directly beneath the glass-fronted house made famous by Clint Eastwood in "Play Misty for Me."

The back nine at Spyglass is a pure test of golf, rewarding in equal parts accuracy, distance, and touch around the green. The 13th and 16th holes are long, demanding par fours playing 435 and 454 yards respectively. The two par threes on the side have water in play while the short (312-yard) par four 17th seems to have as many bunkers as trees--and there are a LOT of trees. The finisher plays up a steep, steep hill to a green with brutal contours. It's only 386 yards on the card, but plays like 486 and a bogey feels like a birdie.

Spyglass Hill is not for the faint of heart, but it is a rewarding, memorable golf experience that should have a place on everyone's bucket list.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Bio of Trent Jones, Warts and All

Some of my favorite golf courses were designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., but that's not why I consider the story of his life written by James R. Hansen, A Difficult Par, one of the best biographies I've read in a long, long time. What I really enjoyed about the book was the totally unvarnished view it presents of the man's life and accomplishments, good, bad, and otherwise. Quite frankly, most golf biographies are hagiographies barely worth the effort it takes to turn the pages. This one I couldn't put down.

Robert Trent Jones, Sr., may well have been the most influential golf course architect of the game's flowering in the second half of the twentieth century. He was an English immigrant who arrived in the U.S. just as golf was on the verge of becoming a popular past time. His up-by-the bootstraps early life is a prelude to the ego-driven success he enjoyed as the premier designer of his day. As Hansen presents him, Jones was a brilliant architect and a shameless self-promoter. The interplay between the two sides of the man gives the reader rare insight into his spectacularly successful career.

Hansen gives excellent descriptions of everything from the design concepts to the political and financial relationships behind most of the top courses Jones created and renovated, which makes for fascinating reading for golfer and non-golfer alike. His renovation work at Augusta National, the National Golf Links, and Winged Foot, for example, may have been lost with the passage of time, but was important in the history of the game. Many of his post-war original designs are atop every aficionado's "best of" list: Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach, Hazeltine, Spyglass, not to mention the Robert Trent Jones Trail of excellent courses across the state of Alabama.

Golfers in my neck of the world are probably aware of the many contributions Jones made to the quality of the game in the Northeast, particularly in New York, but may not realize how much of that came in the form of public, daily fee courses.  Among them are Montauk Downs, Eisenhower Park's White and Blue courses, Marine Park, Bruce Memorial in Greenwich, and Casperkill in Poughkeepsie (originally built for IBM).

Hansen also explores the failures as well as the fabulous successes in Jones's career, many of which illustrated the man's weaknesses as a businessman instead of his strengths as an architect. He pulls no punches when it comes to the less-than-savory history of Jones's relationships with some partners and collaborators both early and late in his career. The complicated relationship between and among Jones and his two sons, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., and Rees Jones, gets full play, too, although in a perfectly respectful manner. The book doesn't drag anybody through the mud, but the author doesn't hesitate to show you the puddles along the way.

In many ways, A Difficult Par resembles Jones's favorite design concept: a good golf hole is an easy bogey but a difficult par. It moves along as an easy read with plenty of drama and entertainment value. If you want to dig deeper, however, the well-researched history Hansen presents is well worth careful, studious consideration.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf

Wiltwyck Lights Up The Catskills

There's almost nothing I like better than "discovering" a new golf course, especially when it's a gem like the Wiltwyck GC in Kingston, NY. With wonderful views of the Catskills and twisting fairways leading to devilish greens, Wiltwyck offers succor for the soul and challenge for golfer at every level.

photo courtesy of Wiltwyck GC

Wiltwyck is a Robert Trent Jones design that opened at its current location in 1954, although the club itself was founded in 1933 and was forced to move by the construction of the NYS Thruway. Stephen Kay updated the course in 2001, giving it a little more length and plenty more challenge around the greens. Kay didn't lose the Jones "feel" for the routing and shot values, though, so you really get the best of both worlds when you take it on.

The course measures 6,877 yards from the tips, with a stout 74.3 rating and 134 slope that seems a little light given how much trouble a bogey golfer can encounter on several holes. I played from the blues, which at 6,578 yards was enough golf course for me given the number of elevation changes and tough greens.  There are two other sets of tees, including a strong set of reds that measure 5,675.

Unlike many courses in the Hudson Valley, Wiltwyck doesn't ease you into the round with an easy opening hole. Instead, you're faced with a 407-yard (from the blues) test with a bunker cutting into the fairway on the left to devil those who draw the ball and a fairway that slopes right for the faders in the group. If you navigate those delights, you have a long uphill approach to a punchbowl green. Make a par here and you're off to the races.

The second hole, a 491-yard par five, has a typically convulted fairway that slopes left to right off the tee then switches to right to left once you get around the right dog leg. This is the shortest of the par fives on the course. All of them except the 553-yard seventh hole are reachable birdie opportunities for the better player. The seventh, the #1 handicap hole, demands extreme accuracy off the tee since the fairway is essentially crowned, punishing drivers hitting either left or right.

The par threes at Wiltwyck are on the short side by today's standards (144 to 190 yards) but require a well-handled putter to capitalize on their lack of length.

If there is a theme to the playing advice on the par fours, it's "drive straight." Unlike many courses in the area, Wiltwyck still has an over-abundance of trees. When you couple those mature green monsters with lateral hazards to the right of several landing areas and greens that require approaches from the correct angle to leave a make-able two-putt, most players will want to hit the straightest club in their bag, not necessarily the longest.

Golf services include a driving range and large practice green, clinics and lessons from Chad Maes, PGA, and his staff, and reciprocal privileges at most of the finest private clubs in the Hudson Valley. As a casual but well-appointed country club, Wiltwyck offers nice family amenities including a pool and tennis, not to mention dining facilities that equal anything in the region and attract functions ranging from intimate dinners to weddings for several hundred guests.

Among many other books, Dave Donelson is the author of Weird Golf: 18 tales of fantastic, horrific, scientifically impossible, and morally reprehensible golf