By Chicago standards, Medinah #3 has a spectacular site with four holes playing across an artificial lake formed in a surprisingly deep canyon. The clubhouse, built long ago by the Shriners in an Arabian Nights mode, is staggering. The last time I saw it in 1990, however, the detailing of the course wasn't quite up to classic levels of interest. The course looked more hard than fun. The members have spent a lot of money since then upgrading the course, so it may be much improved.
(By the way, one individual associated with the 2012 Ryder Cub scores significantly higher on the Google Gaydar index than anybody else in the world of golf that I've ever heard gossiped about.)
In contrast to Chicago, the Philadelphia area has better golf land and had better golf architects in the Golden Age before the Depression (e.g., Merion, the 120 acre miniature of the Main Line that the USGA is sacrificing a lot of money to bring the 2013 U.S. Open to).
Golf course architecture is the invisible art form (invisible relative to the colossal investment in golf courses), in part because most of the great courses in America belong to private clubs. The most celebrated course in the history of American golf design is Pine Valley in the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia. Because large galleries would trample down the brush in the sandy rough, Pine Valley never hosts professional tournaments. (Also, it's a men-only club, which haven't been allowed to hold PGA tournaments since 1990, Augusta National of the Masters excepted.) However, the public is invited to walk the course one day per year, the final Sunday of the annual amateur Crump Cup, named after rich guy who built fourteen holes of Pine Valley in 1914-1918.
This Sunday afternoon, Pine Valley is open to spectators to follow the amateurs. It costs $20 per car for parking and a bus ride to the course, then admission is free. Details are here.
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25 comments:
"The course looked more hard than fun."
Och, mun, y're no' here tae hae fun.
Chicago is undoubtedly one of the world's great golf cities, except in terms of quality of golf courses.
Uhh, OK.
So if it doesn't have high quality golf courses (and exactly how is that defined?), why is Chicago "undoubtedly one of the world's great golf cities"?
"So if it doesn't have high quality golf courses (and exactly how is that defined?), why is Chicago "undoubtedly one of the world's great golf cities"?"
Number of golfers, enthusiasm of golfers (especially from about Easter to Fourth of July), wealth of golfers, number of private courses, and, especially, number of public courses (Chicago is much better than NYC for public course players). It's only at the level of world class courses where it comes up short. That's a problem for the USGA, which would love to hold more U.S. Opens in Chicago (ka-ching), but hasn't been able to find a truly suitable course.
I guess the stereotypes about who tends to play golf are true, which explains why minority bigwigs trying to paint on a coat of upper class respectability take up golf.
Pine Valley is 100% white, and virtually free of crime, which is very strange so close to Camden, which is 17% white, and has consistently ranked in the top 5 most dangerous cities in the US for over a decade.
There are aerial photos of the entire state of Illinois from 1939-1940 and I looked at the ones from the Chicago Area and expected to see a lot of farmland where there are now homes and malls. There were farms but on about every other square mile there was a golf course. The entire suburban landscape at that time must have been golf course after golf course! There was even a country club course where the main terminal at O'Hare is today and about 6 others within a few miles of it!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/09/26/facebooks-myspace-moment-why-twitter-is-already-bigger-than-facebook/
What are your thoughts on disc golf, Steve? Ever play it?
http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/163146/florida-jews-breaking-for-obama-poll/?utm
how's it working out for ya?
Keegan Bradley? (I think he got married).
Martin Kaymer? (good looking but has hot girlfriend, gays love him)
Will be fun to watch Bubba Watson.
The Glen Club opened on the old Naval air base in the NW suburbs of Chicago around 2000 and is considered one of the best public courses in the country, and due to all the land movement it is more than likely the hilliest course in the Chicago area. There was some thought at the time it opened that after the tress started growing out that they could host a big PGA event, but the problem is that there's a shopping center not to far off some of the holes which is apparently the biggest drawback.
Jim Nantz? Ha! I knew it!
Uhh, OK
Yeah Steve, doubtful why "the city of big shoulders" would get such an accolade. San Antonio is a better golf city. By the way, for reasons of light alone, I doubt anyone who's played golf in Calfornia would travel to the midwest for golf, no matter how good the course design.
Disc golf?
I've played the old disc golf course in La Canada a couple of times. Mostly JPL and Caltech guys playing, who carry around special bags full of different kinds of frisbees. It's fun and cheap (free), in part because you play on dirt among oak trees. No need for grass, but then that's a downside in appeal to me because I like turf.
Jose Maria Olazaba
One advantage disc golf has for newbies is that the mechanics of throwing a frisbee are a lot simpler than those of hitting a golf ball. Also, even if you've got several discs (though you can probably get by with just a "putter" and a "wood"), they're easier to carry than clubs.
Jose Maria? I thought he was married by now, no?
Well, like lots of Spanish men, both Seve and Jose Maria lived with or on the same grounds as their families for a long while during their playing days.
Steve, after guessing Bradley or Kaymer and then wondering about Jose Maria, I googled golf + gay and got this: http://www.gay.net/lifestyle/2009/07/is-the-pga-ready-for-a-gay-golfer.html
It's really useless except for two great quotes from its gay writer:
1) "Gay men are usually masters of taking the 'boring' and making it fabulous, but this hasn't been the case with golf."
OMG. They really do believe they are "fabulous." They mistake silly for fabulous. A pity. It will always make them the butt of jokes.
2) "Applying the 10 percent rule, there should be at least a few gay men on the PGA Tour, but none of them are out."
Typical gay mischaracterization of their number.
So, this person walks down the street, sits in a coffee shop, goes to work, looks around and assumes that when he makes eye contact with ten men, one of them is gay. That just might lead to an inappropriate approach of some kind. No wonder straight guys get creeped out around gays.
Ialeays figured they were false pings but Davis Love III weakly registers, and back in the day, so did Payment Stewart.
"here are aerial photos of the entire state of Illinois from 1939-1940 "
Is there a link for that?
People say NY has great golf, especially Long Island, but how many people can play those courses. And even people who have connections who aren't members might play once a year.
That's like living on a street with swimsuit models, but if they wouldn't even talk to you, what difference does it make.
It's easier to play the top courses in the UK than here. Most of the top courses anybody can play for a price there.
I thought you were going to write about Benjamin Crump. What ever happened with that case?
"I doubt anyone who's played golf in Calfornia would travel to the midwest for golf, no matter how good the course design."
I know quite a few who do!
Okay, Steve, who's the golfer attached to gay rumors?
I always....
Payne .......
At least one of these was Autocorrect's fault.
has anyone ever designed a golf course for left-handers and, if not, why not?
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