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By Design
T
he term ‘championship course’
is used reverently in golf circles,
and most golf clubs aspire to
such a distinction. For more than
four decades, ASGCA Past President
Rees Jones, ASGCA Fellow (known
to many as the ‘Open Doctor’), has
been designing courses that are of the
utmost championship quality. He has
worked on numerous famed courses,
which collectively have hosted 23
major championships, five Ryder Cups,
as well as other premiere events.
This coming year, 13 courses
originally designed or renovated
by Jones will be in the limelight as
venues for: 2016 PGA Championship
(Baltusrol Golf Club—Lower Course);
2016 Ryder Cup (Hazeltine National
Golf Club); and six PGA Tour events
including the annual hosting of
the Tour Championship (East Lake
Golf Club), 2016 Women’s PGA
Championship (Sahalee Country
Club), Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic
(Lake Merced Golf Club) and the
2016 U.S. Amateur (Oakland Hills
Country Club).
“The way we view championship
golf courses is changing,” says Jones.
“It’s no longer just about distance.
True, there are plenty of professionals
who now drive the ball over 300
yards, but there are also still plenty
of tour players who don’t. Making
courses even longer is not the sole
solution, even if it’s desirable for
other reasons.”
Jones believes course designers
today need to be innovative; they
need to figure out ways to make
golf courses challenging but not
overly favoring the longest hitters.
“Even today, when courses tip-out at
7,500-7,600 yards, the entirety of that
length is not really intended to be
used on the same day,” he says. “It’s
to also give flexibility in course setup.
Mixing up the setup with shorter
holes as well as long ones is a good
thing, giving balance between longer
and shorter hitters.”
Jones knows the style of a course is
often dictated by the landform, but
when it comes to designing green
complexes he believes it requires
both a meticulous mind, and one that
is creative, yet in subtle ways.
“In the past, we used to think
that front hole locations were more
difficult when they were protected
by hazards,” he says. “But today,
players hit the ball so high and they
impart so much spin, getting the ball
to those locations is not so difficult
for them unless the green is elevated
with a slope in front like many greens
at Augusta or the Valley of Sin in
front of the eighteenth green at St
Andrews.
“Often, it is hole locations at the
back or the corners of the greens that
are most difficult because players
want to fly the ball, even beyond the
flag, and spin it back. This encourages
the pros to use driver off the tee, even
though this gives the player less of a
chance to hit the fairway from which
they can spin the ball. An errant
shot over the green will be harder to
recover from because most greens
are pitched from back to front. We’ve
seen this often. Tournament setup
folks have recognized it too.”
According to Jones, today’s golf
ball technology also comes into
play. “These days, golf balls are
constructed to allow stopping shots
on a dime, so even when greens
are firm the players can still aim
at flags from the fairway,” he says.
“This makes creatively crafted
green contours more important
for championship play than ever
before. But of course, championship
organizers generally want extremely
fast greens and so you have to have
pinnable areas that are flatter than
in the past. So, in short, we are
concentrating more on the transition
areas in greens.”
Jones reminds us that hazards also
need to be revaluated, and the rough
is more significant now than in years
prior. It is, he notes, significant that
the deep, small revetted pot bunkers
Design debate
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Rees Jones, ASGCA Past President
Testing the best
OPINION
ASGCA Past President Rees Jones, ASGCA Fellow, tells Adam Lawrence
that the future of golf will require a new kind of championship course
Throughout the
game’s history the
approach shot with
a wood or long iron
to a well-protected
green has been
regarded as the
supreme test of the
very best players”