Public Courses from Macdonald School Designers

Charles Blair Macdonald, Seth Raynor, and Charles Banks designed courses using what came to be called Template holes. Few of these courses exist and even fewer are open to the public. This is a list of all the public courses designed by those three, plus a few other courses designed to be tributes to the work of these designers.

CB Macdonald
Downers Grove Park District Golf Course, Downers Grove, IL (9 holes)
Greenbrier (Old White)

Seth Raynor
Greenbrier (Old White), White Sulphur Springs, WV
Hotchkiss School Golf Course, Lakeville, CT
Thousand Islands Country Club (Old), Wellesley Island, NY

Charles Banks
Francis Byrne Golf Course, West Orange, NJ
Hendricks Field Golf Course, Belleville, NJ
Hotchkiss School Golf Course, Lakeville, CT (9 holes)
Knoll Country Club (West), Parsippany, NJ (Limited Public Accessibility)

Of these, The Old White is by far the best.

Downers Grove is pretty much Macdonald in name only at this point, having most of the classic features stripped away according to reports.

Thousand Islands claims to be Raynor, but this is disputed by the Raynor Society.

Hotchkiss School has degraded over time, but still makes the Top 25 nine holes courses in Anthony Pioppi's book indicating its quality.

Francis Byrne is degraded but still has a number of excellent Template variations. The Road, Biarritz, Bottle, and Raynor Prize Dogleg holes are all stellar. There's also a Cape hole that could be incredible with a relatively inexpensive restoration. This course could be incredible with just an inexpensive restoration of original bunkering.

Bethpage (Black) - Farmingdale, NY

This is a high quality course that deserves all the accolades that it gets. Always maintained in great condition, great variety, not much that hasn't been said about this course.

Variety of Design: Very good. The par 5s have great variety with two being close to reachable and one requiring two excellent shots to put in position to hit to the green. The par 3s also have solid variety, one being a long iron/hybrid, two with mid/long irons, and one short iron. The par 4s, while good holes, lack variety...they're all either long or longer. Directionally, 4 holes dogleg Right, 3 holes dogleg left, and 7 are straight, excluding par 3s. 7 out of 10

Flow of the Course: While no hole on the Black can be called easy, some are easier than others, some offer the opportunity to score, and some require the player to play conservative. The first two holes are relatively easy, 3 is difficult, 4 gives a birdie chance, 5 is extremely difficult, 6 and 7 offer birdie chances if one hits quality shots, the stretch from 8 to 12 are unrelenting, 13 and 14 offer scoring chances, 15-17 are difficult, and 18 offers a decent scoring chance to close out the round. 8 out of 10

Course Conditioning: Excellent. Fairways and greens are near perfect. 9.5 out of 10

Walkability: Course is walking-only. That said, the walk is not easy. There are some substantial hills, but the green-to-tee transitions are usually short. 6.5 out of 10

Atmosphere: Incredible. Everyone going to the tee feels a bit of anxiety and excitement. 9 out of 10.

Total: 79.5 out of 100

The Club at Viniterra - New Kent, VA

This course is quality. I certainly think it's one of best courses designed by Rees Jones. The course has awesome scale, everything is very large. The course is very long, topping out over 7,600 yards from the longest markers (which aren't on the scorecard). This course never goes over the top, which is a criticism I've had of some of the ultra long courses on the RTJ Trail. That said...the lack of an "over-the-top" feature leads to holes very close in yardage. The par 4s range from 400 to 489, but only the lone 400 yard hole is less than 427 yards. The par 5s are also very tight in yardage range, 560, 570, 573, and 612. The par 3s do have decent variety. While I don't know the mandate given to Mr. Jones by the original owners, but it seems to me that greater variety could be obtained by taking two holes that are 489 and 429 and bumping one to 529 and dropping the other to 389; or making 444/427 into 504/367. This way, the total yardage can remain the same but the holes have much more variety in the yardages. Really though, while I have gone on about that for a while, it's not that big a deal. The course still has great feel and atmosphere. Definitely recommend playing here. 6 out of 10.

Holes of Note
Hole #2: Par 4, 489 yards
This hole is a solid dogleg to the right with a cluster of bunkers on the inside of the dogleg. The outside of the dogleg is wide open.

A look from the tee:

Looking from the fairway towards a green that sits nicely into the hill.

Hole 3: Par 4, 429 yards
This hole requires a great tee shot. There is a severe fall-off down the left side that will penalize anyone who misses there. The green also has a significant fall-off for shots going beyond the green. In my play of the hole, I proved both of these to be the case; this is a quality hole, it certainly doesn't forgive poor shots.

Hole 16: Par 3 167 yards
The best par 3 on the course, in my view, is also the shortest. The front is well defended by a huge bunker and there is a fall off beyond the green. Even though it is short, the hole requires a precise shot in order to make a good score.

The tee shot:

Rating
Variety of Design: Fair. I detailed this above. The par 4s are limited in distance variety with only 89 yards of difference between them. Par 5s are also limited with just 52 yards; also 3 of the 4 dogleg to the right. The par 3s have good variety since two of them have a large number of tee boxes, but for total yardage, only 43 yards difference. For direction, 5 holes dogleg right, 2 dogleg left, and 7 are straight, excluding par 3s. 6 out of 10

Flow of the Course: Very good. The course starts with a relatively easy par 5, goes to a hard par 4, a par 4 that requires a great tee shot, some ups and downs in the middle before a closing 3 hole stretch that can allow for a great finish. 7 out of 10

Course Conditions: Fairways were very, very good. Greens were as good as could be expected given the terrible weather that Virginia experienced during the summer. 7 out of 10

Walkability: Not very good. The course is routed on hill tops with some lowlands in between and would be extremely difficult to walk. 3 out of 10

Atmosphere: The course has a great feel. The overall atmosphere will improve once the new clubhouse is finished. 6 out of 10.

62 out of 100; certainly an elite public course.

Royal New Kent Restoration Recap #2 - Interview with Superintendent Mathieu LeCompte

After my tour of Royal New Kent, the Superintendent, Mathieu LeCompte was very gracious with his time and participated in an email interview. I'll add some notes on some questions, anything I write will be noted with [Brackets].

1. How much Green space do you have?

 We currently have just over 4 acres of greens which includes a small nursery green that was built at the golf maintenance facility during the greens renovation.

[The new greens are fantastic. In general, the greens here are very large. Some are 70 yards deep, others 60 yards wide. One green is roughly 13,000 square feet by my rough calculations. These are a truly impressive set of greens.]

2. How much Fairway space do you have?

We have roughly 50 acres of fairway.

[Same with the greens, Mike Strantz was known for scale. Some fairways are close to 100 yards wide in certain points.]

3. How many irrigation heads?

There are roughly 1500 irrigation heads on property. (Some of which have not run in quite some time)

4. What was the condition of the irrigation system when you took over in June? How much work has been done since then?

My first day on the job was spent replacing 20’ of a 12” main irrigation line with Willie [Downs, the site foreman] and a fellow Superintendent from down the road.  Things could only go up from there I suppose.  We have seen the typical pipe breaks and control issues of a 20 year old system but the club is scheduled to upgrade our central irrigation computer, satellite controllers, and several irrigation heads this fall.  That will greatly reduce many of the issues that we have encountered this summer.

5. What was the most difficult part of growing in the new Champion greens?

Time was certainly the biggest challenge.  When I began mid-June we had no grass on the greens, no equipment to prepare a surface onto which we could sprig, no control of a few of our greens’ irrigation heads, and no employees to help get us where we needed to be by mid-July.  

[I was stunned by the quality of the greens in early October 2018. They were in absolutely fantastic condition. Mat and the staff did an incredible job with this.]

Thanks to several kind hearted superintendents, one of the best mechanics that I know who somehow pieced together what was left of the equipment left behind by previous owners, and a handful of individuals that had no golf experience but were up for a few 14+ hour days while restoring this property, we managed to have greens somewhat put together when the sprigs rolled into town.

6. Aside from being 10-12 inches tall, how healthy was the fairway turf when you took over?

The turf itself was relatively healthy.  There was a fair amount of spring dead spot and a good amount of weeds but the grass plants that were here were tall, green, and happy.

7. Willie Downs told me that the drainage system was damaged. How much work is required for that to be fully functional?

The drainage system is certainly one of our big issues and sadly one that many recent golfers will remember.  We are in the process of correcting 100+ drain breaks that have caused sink holes throughout our fairways and rough.

[In the previous video, large patches of high weeds, 3-4 feet tall in some cases, could be seen in the fairways. These weeds were growing in/around the malfunctioning drainage pipes. I saw one of the pipes that had been partially unearthed, one of the reasons for the malfunctions was that originally the pipes were laid down and simply bent upwards to the drain grate. This caused failures in the pipes over the years. As I was told, when they're rebuilt, it will be done with elbow joints in the ground rather than bending the pipe.]

8. I noticed some patches of zoysia encroachment in the fairways. What are your plans for that?

Both zoysia and bermudagrass have proven to provide outstanding playing surfaces for some of golf’s biggest events.  At this point, we plan to maintain both grasses in our fairways, understanding that in any given microclimate one grass will prove itself better suited for healthy growth.  Achieving full coverage of quality playing surfaces is our top priority.

9. Where would you like to see the course, in terms of turf health and maintenance, in one year?

I see the course in great playing condition by the time that we open in the spring of 2019 and continuously improving.  If the guys of this maintenance team continue to put forth the effort and excitement that they have shown, this place will truly be something special.

Thanks for participating Mat. When I played the course 8 years ago, I found it to be an incredible place even then. That was with some already degraded conditions. With the money being spent to improve the course and the fantastic staff in place, I think this course will take a place among the elite courses in Virginia.

Royal New Kent Restoration Recap #1

Trip to Vermont and New Hampshire

Back a couple weeks ago, I finally worked out a time that Tony Pioppi and I could play. The capstone course of the day trip was Hooper, ranked the seventh best nine hole course in North America in Tony's book The Finest Nines, available here. From there, I found three other nine hole courses in close proximity to Hooper. One of them was discarded because of time constraints. On the day, we played Bellows Falls, Hooper, and Pine Grove Springs.

Bellows Falls was fantastic. Tony is vigorously researching as I write this to find out who designed the course. Whoever did the design knew what he or she was doing. The first two holes are incredible holes. I'm trying to remember if I've ever played two opening holes as good as these; I can say with certainty that the opening two at Bellows Falls are better than the opening two at Bethpage Black. The course could handle a bit of work, not even something a course architect would be needed for, just an expansion of mowing lines, a little tree thinning, and a good aeration/topdressing of the greens. That said, the course is stellar. Common statements during the round were "whoever designed this knew how to build golf holes" and "how has no one ever told me about this place?" It's not often that a true gem can be found by chance, but it certainly happened here. Full review forthcoming.

Hooper was the capstone course in the trip and did not disappoint. All the holes are good holes and the round works up and down, with easier shots followed by difficult shots. The opening par 5 is a fantastic hole. Well placed shots can give an excellent opportunity for birdie to start off the round. The holes have great variety, very long par 4s and short 54s, a good spread in yardage on the par 3s, and solid variety on the two 5s. This course was just purchased by a new owner, hopefully he can do some good work with the course. This is certainly a nine hole course worth a significant trip to see. Full review forthcoming.

Pine Grove Springs...Hole 1 and hole 9 are good holes with really good greens. The turf on the greens here was the best of the three courses we played. I don't want to write a mean-spirited review, so I'll just leave this one here.

Hooper was the best of the trip, but, in my opinion, not by a wide margin. Bellows Falls was very good. I asked Tony on the 8th tee if Bellows would be an honorable mention for his best 25 if it goes for a second addition or even in the top 25. I have not played all the courses, but I will say that I certainly think Bellows Falls is better than one of the courses on the list that I have played. Fantastic courses and a great trip. Oh, and the BBQ joint in Brattleboro, VT, Top of the Hill Grill, has decent pulled pork, good ribs, good brisket, and stellar scenery. Eat there. Great trip...Bellows Falls, Hooper, and Top of the Hill, I'd do that again.

Bethpage (Yellow) - Farmingdale, NY

Easily the 3rd Best at Bethpage, which is a pretty good compliment give the quality of the Red and Black courses. It's not far behind the Red in terms of quality and far, far superior to the Blue or Green courses. The first hole is very wide off the tee and has a centerline bunker about 200 yards from the tee. I'd almost call this a Bottle hole, but the preferred angle to the green is from the wider side of the fairway rather than the narrow, more difficult side. The 5th hole is also very interesting in that the fairway slopes sharply from right to left at about 200 yards from the tee and then the green is elevated about 20 feet above the fairway. The 11th hole is a very cool short par 3, topping out at just over 300 yards, the fairway pinches in significantly at around the 200 yard point (note the abundance of hazards at 200 yards from the tee...the course was built in the early 20th century and has remained fairly original) and leads to a very good green. The highlight of the course, however, is the set of par 5s. It's not often that a course can be said to be highlighted by par 5s, but certainly that is the case here. Holes 7 and 17 both dogleg to the left, but they are far from the same hole. 7 plays downhill off the tee and level to the green. 17 plays through a valley, but the landing area for the fairway is at the same level as the tee. Both holes are fantastic and both right at the reachable in 2 range. The 10th hole is the other par 5 and is a real 3 shot hole. Both the tee shot and second shot must be played with precision to have a good 3rd shot. The hole is a double dogleg, playing right off the tee and then left back to the green. The green is on the same level as the fairway, but 50 yards short of the green leading up to the front edge, there exists a significant valley that can make the third shot very difficult. This is certainly not a hole where the second shot is just "another" shot to be blasted at. Overall, I'd actually say that this set of par 5s is the best set on all the courses at Bethpage (consider on the Red course, the 5th hole is incredible, but the 16th hole is, quite frankly, just bad. Then, on the Black course, the 4th hole is world class, and could be better, but 7 is very average and 14 is just a mundane slog). I love the Black course, but this course is really, really good.

Variety of Design: Par 5s have good variety in yardage, one is reachable in 2 with a decent drive, one is on the edge even with a good drive, the other is outside the range to be reached in two. Par 4s have relatively good variety, ranging from 429 to 313 in yardage from the back tees. The par 3s have less variety in yardage, only spanning 166 to 188 yards. For variety in direction, 4 holes dogleg right, 4 holes dogleg left, and 7 holes are straight. (That adds to more than 14 because the 10th hole is a double dogleg) Solid. 6 out of 10

Flow of the Course: Course flows well. Difficult holes are generally followed by holes where the player can have a bit of a break. No abrupt changes in the course. 6 out of 10

Course Conditioning: Solid. A few small patches here and there with bare spots. Overall, OK. 5 out of 10

Walkability: Easily walked. Has some small hills but nothing that would make for anything really difficult. 8 out of 10 

Atmosphere: None. In fact, almost a negative number. Bethpage is very unique, but on busy days, the Yellow and Blue courses can be like zoos. 1 out of 10

Total Score: 55 out of 100. Easily the third best course at Bethpage and probably a better value for the money than the Red course for out of state visitors.