Alan Shipnuck has been en fuego.... Golf.com gave him a platform called The Knockdown, and he's been turning them out quicker than I can blog them... I'm not sure I know what a "platform: is in this context, but more Shipnuck is a good thing.
You all know what week it is.... it's time for the most painful broadcast in all of golf, Saturday's pucker-fest from Pebble. But the aforementioned Shipnuck has the skinny on the third leg of the Crosby stool, including this fine lede:
America's next great golf course is here: the reimagined and reborn Dunes Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. The name will be familiar to enthusiasts of the old
The Par-3 14th. Crosby Clambake, as from 1947-64 the Dunes was one of the tournament's host venues. In recent years MPCC has developed a national profile as its other course, the Shore, has joined the Pebble Beach Pro-Am rota and become one of the favorite tracks among PGA Tour pros because of its artistic holes and endless views. It was the success of the Shore renovation -- overseen by the late architect-poet Mike Strantz at the turn of the century -- that helped convince MPCC it was time to polish its other jewel.
The Dunes dates to 1925 and has a strong pedigree. The course was drawn up by Seth Raynor but he died in the early phases of construction. Fortuitously, Dr. Alister MacKenzie was working on Cypress Point, just a few bends down 17 Mile Drive, and his collaborator Robert Hunter oversaw the completion of the Dunes, which like Cypress winds its way through the forest and down to the sea. But unlike Cypress Point’s sandy soil, the Dunes was built largely on clay. Back when it used to rain in California, drainage could be a problem. In the late 1990’s MPCC retained Rees Jones to help avoid the winter quagmires.
Only two 'graphs, but lots of architectural name-dropping.... Mike Stranz was truly one of the crazy men of the field, right up there with Desmond Muirhead. Like Desmond he was capable of great work when he was on his meds (I speak figuratively, of course), or perhaps the better analogy is to Tillie when he was hitting the bottle.
Like his namesake Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter's reputation is almost completely obscured by the passage of time. He might be the greatest architect of whom you've never heard, especially when you consider that of Mackenzie's masterpieces, Pasatiempo is the only one he saw through to completion. Shall we let Alan continue?
Jones’s solution was to raise the small, well-protected greens. This aided drainage but made for very demanding approach shots; the deep bunkers severely punished even
The Par-5 ninth. small misses. Strantz’s redone Shore Course was much more user-friendly than its longer, tighter big brother, and in recent years the MPCC membership was playing two-thirds of its rounds on the Shore.
MPCC talked to many top names about the Dunes redo but ultimately settled on Tom Fazio, who couldn’t resist the chance to be part of what is almost surely the last large-scale golf project in Pebble Beach. But Fazio, 71, is easing into retirement. Knowing he wouldn’t often be traveling out West, he entrusted day-to-day operations to two former associates, Tim Jackson and David Kahn, who have now hung up their own shingle, Jackson-Kahn Design. They were omnipresent throughout the project and did such tremendous work that the bronze plaque on the first tee gives Jackson-Kahn Design equal billing with Fazio.
Funny, but if there are two guys that I'd never trust with a restoration of a great architect's work, it would be Rees and Fazio. I don't take back a word of my prior criticism, but it's also gratifying that they can check their egos at the door when appropriate.
Once upon a time the Clambake rota included Cypress Point, and there's no replacing that Sistine Chapel of golf..... But, we can all agree that either course at MPCC is a huge step up from Poppy Hills.... Of course, just about anything would be. According to Shack, the Dunes Course will be used next year in the AT&T, while the Shore course is in play this week.
But this is the bit that's got folks buzzing:
Winged Foot and Baltusrol each have two courses with championship pedigrees but at both properties the tracks look and play pretty much the same. Whisper Rock is a coolscene and enjoys the starpower of various Tour players as members, but the outskirts of Scottsdale can’t compete with the grandeur of Pebble Beach.
No, the best 36-hole club in America is now Monterey Peninsula, with two very different courses that are every bit as good as those that share the same famous coastline.
All righty..... Winged Foot, Baltusrol and... Whisper Rock? Alan, you do realize that one of these things is unlike the other two?
Thin is, despite my credentials as an insufferable purist, I'm prepared to accept that MPCC is a better 36 than the two storied Tillie clubs. Not that i's a fair fight, built as it is on the shores of the Moterey Peninsula.... as opposed to central Jersey. The quality of the land trumps all....
Though, Alan, where does this rate compared to the first two Bandon courses? But let us not fall into the trap of obsessing over rankings, two great courses in a spectacular location have been lovingly and faithfully restored.... feel free to rejoice.
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