"THE OLD SCHOOL" at YALE

The MHS held its final tournament of the year yesterday, "The Old School" at Yale Golf Course in New Haven, CT. The event was a two man team best ball tournament held under sunny skies on a great CB MacDonald golf course.

The tournament included a full field of 8 two man teams with participants from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Vermont.

The tournament was won by Frank Flood and Jeremy Barth who rode stellar play on the difficult Yale Par 3's to a net 57.  The dynamic duo brought The Biarritz 9th hole, the tough uphill 10th hole and The Redan 13th hole to their knees.  Here they are below.

This concludes the MHS 2013 tournament series.  

Please stay tuned as we will now be updating this blog on a regular basis.

The MHS Year Two

This golf season was the second year of hickory tournaments sponsored by The Metropolitan Hickory Society. We have one more tournament left, The Old School to be held at The Yale University Golf Course on October 15. It is a two man team event.

The previous tournaments held this year were:

The Screen Test II at Paramount CC
The Nickel & Dime at Ridgewood CC
The Charles Banks at Hackensack CC
The Stableford at Hamilton Farm GC

HICKORIES AT THE VALLEY CLUB

This week I was invited to bring my hickories to The Valley Club of Montecito in Southern California, next door to Santa Barbara.

The Valley Club was designed by Allister MacKenzie and his engineer, Robert Hunter, author of the fine architectural manifest, The Links.  The course opened in 1929 just at the end of the hickory period.  The course is set above the Pacific Ocean on a beautiful property for throwing a bag of hickories on your shoulder and setting off for a walk around the course.

The Club began a restoration process with Tom Doak and Jim Urbina several years ago which is being continued by Todd Eckenrode.  The process has resulted in rough being replaced by short grass and in the greenside bunkering being well tied into the greensites.  The ball rolls out pretty well.  As a result, even the 6350 white tees are a pleasure to play with hickories.

The routing is very good.  There are a few loops of several holes one can play.  Below is a view of the 14th green in the foreground leading to the par 5 15th which climbs up to the classic clubhouse.

The Valley Club has excellent canted greens.  The golfer who is unaware will find one's ball in the fairway with no way to get the ball close to the hole if the angle is wrong.  This is a classic hickory course that requires strategy and cunning. And the one shotter par 3's are strong at this course.  Check out the short 4th below requiring a well struck niblick below the hole to have a good birdie try.

The 11th at 165 yards from the whites requires a solid mid-iron or strong mashie to a green well canted from the left to the right.  The creek crossing well in front of the green is not in play unless the shot is hit fat as the author hit his.  Would you believe I was between clubs?  Another good Valley Club hole.

The Valley Club has a great walking culture.  Carry your own or throw the hickories on a push cart.  The walks from green to tee are generally just a putt away. What a wonderful course for hickories.

Pictures  courtesy of Golf Club Atlas and Max's.

For more info, check out the write up on www.golfclubatlas.com

BRIAN'S FLORIDA HICKORY SWING

Check out Hugh Menzies' wonderful write-up on Brian's Clambake which was posted on the Society of Hickory Golfers website.

GOLF WRX ARTICLE

There is a good article in Golf Wrx on hickories.  Check it out.

Hickories at Streamsong, Modern Classic

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky to be able to play hickories at Streamsong in Polk County, Florida.  Streamsong opened up last month with two new courses the Red by Coore & Crenshaw and the Blue by Tom Doak and Renaissance Design Group.

Generally speaking, the courses are very good for hickories because the fairways are pretty firm and the green sites for the par 4's and par 5's generally provide wide openings to run the ball up onto the green. And from the right tees, there are no real carries except on a couple of par 3's.

For hickories, I played the Red at 2561 yards on the front from the Gold forward tees 1, 2, 3, 7 and the Silver tees on 4, 5, 6, 8, 9.  On the back, I played 2774 yards all from the Gold tees except for the 160 yard Biarritz par 3 over water.  The Gold tee was only 103 but from a poor angle for approaching a Biarritz green.  Fortunately, I hit my 25 degree Louisville Baffy to the middle of the 74 yard long green and two putted for a rare par on the back nine on the Red.

Even at 160, this Biarritz pales in length to the ninth at Yale which was built in 1926 toward the end of the hickory period.  Yale is one tough course for hickories.

The Red is quite playable from 5335 yards with hickories.  Because of the length on the back nine, there are not too many opportunities to mix and match tees like there is on the front nine.

The Blue provides more tee variety than the Red for hickories.

I played 2 Black tees, 1 & 5, One Silver tee, 6 and the rest, Gold tees for a front nine yardage of 2728.

On the back, I played Silver tees on 10, 13, 15 and Gold on the rest.  The back nine I played was 2867 yards for a total yardage of 5595.

Although, the Blue is longer that the Red, the opportunity to play various sets of tees makes it fun.

In summary, Streamsong provides two very good modern classics to play hickories.

The first hole on the Blue

A ranger moving slow groups

The Par 3 7th on the Blue. Just a smooth niblick from 98 yards.

Two walkers approaching 18 on the Blue.

The short 285 yard Blue 6th.

The gorgeous long uphill opener on the Red.

The drivable par 4 4th on the Red.

The Biarritz 16th on the Red from the tee.

The Biarritz from the back of the green.

The beautiful one shotter at the 6th on the Red.

The views, vistas and holes are quite stunning at Streamsong.  If someone wants to send you there as a present, jump on it!

Pictures courtesy of Joe Bausch, Mark Saltzman, True Links.  

Brian's South Florida Clambake kicks off tomorrow with a noon visit to The Cornell Museum in Delray Beach, FL which currently houses the Gary Wiren Hickory Golf Exhibit.

After the exhibit and a nine hole trip around the Granada Golf Club, the festivities begin with drinks and dinner at The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

On Wednesday at 10 am the golf begins at the Donald Ross course at The Biltmore. Stay tuned for more.