The National Golf Links of America

There can be no really first class golf course without good material to work with. The best material is a sandy loam in gentle undulation, breaking into hillocks in a few places. Securing such land is really more than half the battle. Having such material at hand to work upon, the completion of an ideal course becomes a matter of experience, gardening and mathematics. - C.B. Macdonald

The National Golf Links of America is the crowning achievement of Charles Blair MacDonald, generally acknowledged as the father of American golf architecture, a term he originated.  But while

Macdonald in 1895.

that honorific is non-controversial, I've long believed that Macdonald might be more accurately thought of as the father of American golf, for it is he that set the path the game would take in the New World.

As a young man, Macdonald was fortuitously sent to St. Andrews, where he learned the game from none other than Old Tom Morris.  He quickly developed into a strong player, and tested his skills against the best players of that era, including Young Tom.  

Ran Morrissett, the proprietor of Golf Club Atlas, has this to say about Macdonald from his 2003 review of the golf course:

For some reason Golf Club Atlas precludes copy-and-paste, which will necessarily limit my use of Ran's insightful thoughts about the course and its holes.  But it was to the benefit of American golf that Macdonald was introduced to the game on the most strategic of golf courses, then made trips back to Scotland in 1902 and 1906 to study the great links before beginning work on what he always intended to be a masterpiece.  And that which he learned he put into practice, naming the holes after the source of his inspiration.

There are only four or five good holes in golf. The local scenery supplies the variety. - C.B. Macdonald

The use of what he (and his acolytes Seth Raynor and Charles Banks) called template holes is often misunderstood to be mere replicas or copied holes, a gross distortion.  Macdonald decided for himself what were the great holes and, more importantly, why they were great.  And in laying out a course he would look for natural land forms that would allow him to employ such timeless strategic concepts....

Our day at The National begins with an arrival at approximately 10:30 a.m. and an immediate conundrum as to how to order our day.  The National is famously old school as relates to it's renown luncheon, requiring a jacket, and we're trying to avoid changing into golf clothes to hit some balls and back again into proper attire.  In earshot range of his guest, the friendly locker room attendant informs us that we'll only have to change shoes, as the jacket can be worn over shorts and other golf clothes.  Amusing, that.... but alas, no pictures to share.

We take a quick spin through the clubhouse which is about what one expects, with this mural on the ceiling of the entry hall:

The Founder has pride of place in the impressive library:

Though that table in foreground had an interesting artifact on the day of our visit:

That would be the Walker Cup, whether the original or a replica I can't say, though since it was just contested on the Left Bank I'll guess the latter.  You might be aware that the inaugural Walker Cup match was contested at The National in 1922, with an American team that included Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans, among other luminaries of the day.  

The small range is located down by the water, a nice spot to spend some time, except for the gale force winds.  I exaggerate slightly, the winds were north of 20 mph and I couldn't hazard a guess at the strength of the gusts, but our warm-up is straight into the teeth of it.  The knockdown seems to be working, but doesn't it always on the range....

The clubhouse viewed from the short-game facility near the first tee.

We're the first in for lunch and our anticipation is great, as the waiter greets us in welcoming fashion.  "Our lunch begins with an appetizer of a cold lobster", he informs, and we nod mutely in agreement.  It is a full, unshelled lobster served chilled, with a mustard-mayo sauce to accompany it.  Lobster bibs are not on offer, and suddenly being in my golf clothes seems rather foolish.  But the lunch is an amusing juxtaposition of the staid with comfort food such as creamed corn and macaroni and cheese served ladled onto your plate.  It's a great experience, just perhaps wiser to have the lunch after golf and prior to a well-earned nap.

We sat in the far right corner, watching the flag on the 18th green approach horizontal.

There's a body of thought that The National is more museum piece than modern golf course, an opinion with which I strongly disagree.  We played their middle set of tees at 6,500 yards, but it will play as long as 6,900 yards, long enough for all but the beasts of the PGA Tour, especially in the wind.  The fairways are generously wide, but the prevalence of bunkers, many small and irregularly-shaped, makes control of the ball essential.  

More than three blind shots is a defect and they should be at the end of a fine long shot only - C.B. Macdonald

People also take umbrage at the blind shots, ironic given his feelings on the subject.  He also named names, noting that courses such as Prestwick and Royal St. Georges had far too many of them.There's also the issue of whether you consider the tee shot below to be blind:

That's one of my hosts, John Knox, bashing his tee ball over the caddies' heads on No. 2, Sahara.

Note what Macdonald has done in giving us a view of the fairway to the right.  Our mind instinctively extends it so that we're acutely aware of the landing area, though we can't actually see it.  Blind, not blind I say...

The crowned green complex is also pretty special, difficult to hold but appropriate for the short club in:

The third hole is among the most revered, Macdonald's homage to the Alps hole at Prestwick.  Many, including Ran Morrissett and Tom Doak think it far better than the original, if only because the drive is more interesting.  Doak had this to say in describing his Alps hole at Old Macdonald:

"Alps” -- Macdonald's third hole at National Golf Links was not just an homage to the Alps at Prestwick, but an improvement on the hole -- instead of making the approach over a dune completely blind, his arrangement of the hole allowed a long drive down the right to get a peek at the green, while allowing a way around the dune for short hitters trying only to play the hole in three installments.

I don't disagree, though I'm not terribly impressed by the original, in which play is over a huge dune that obscures any view of the green or immense bunker that fronts it.

Here's the view from the tee:

It's a tad wider than it seems in the photo, but it simultaneously feels narrower because of the imperative of finding it.  

Here's the view of the green, with my second shot just through it.  I'll venture that I'm hardly the first to over-club:

I do not believe anyone is qualified to pass on the merits of any one hole, let alone eighteen holes, unless he has played them under all varying conditions possible – varying winds, rain, heat, etc. – C.B. Macdonald

I think this is very true, especially about courses built where the wind tends to blow.  But I also think it's perhaps even a bit truer about holes where the reaction of the ball on the turf is a defining feature, so I'll not opine on the Redan, also regarded as one of the finest examples of the genre.  

My shot was played too conservatively to the right, yet a favorable kick left it on the right fringe.  Nick Frelinghuysen, our hero that arranged access to the club, is seen below dealing with the after-effects of veering too far left with his tee ball.

I did enjoy the Short Hole, No. 6, with it's manic, three-section green.  John was able to get this photo of my tee shot there:

What I like most about this tee is that I noticed what surely must be the Eden Hole, in far right of the frame.

Unfortunately, things then started getting a little ugly for me....  I know, a first world problem for sure, but I caught a fairway bunker on No. 7, called St. Andrews but in reality their Road Hole.  My overly-long approach shot found their road bunker, which wasn't large enough for my golf ball and me at the same time:

With the ball on the downslope and my swing partially impaired by the back face. I managed to get the ball up to the shorter cut of grass, not a bad effort though it inevitably tolled back in.  Is the bunker unfair?  Certainly.....  Is that relevant?  I'll defer to the expert:

The object of a bunker or trap is not only to punish a physical mistake, to punish lack of control, but also to punish pride and egotism – C.B. Macdonald

I've just been taken to the woodshed by none other than Charles Blair Macdonald, so perhaps we should move on?

The other interesting design element of the Road Hole is the use of a large, deep bunker behind the green in lieu of a road and stone wall.  Having experienced their road bunker I would imagine that this back bunker does a fair amount of business, despite the staircase leading into it.  It'll be no easy up-and-in, but the competent player should be able to secure a bogey from its depths.

The routing is largely straight out and back, though Macdonald slightly alters the line of certain holes to accordingly change the effect of the wind.  But we've been warned from the moment we enter the locker room to enjoy the outbound nine, because the trip home will have challenges.

As we make the turn and grab a beverage at the halfway house, the senior caddie takes his best shot at convincing us to move up to the forward tees.  He wasn't wrong, but I just pegged my ball from the middle tees and got on with things.  In this case, three consecutive 420-yard Par-4's back into the teeth of the wind, all played Driver-4-wood.  In two cases that left me short of the green and on No. 11 I managed to dribble my pellet onto the front of the green... But, alas, that's the famous double-plateau green, and all I accomplished was to leave myself a 32-yard putt up to a small tier at the very back of the green.  Can you say 3-putt bogey?

Putting greens are to golf courses what faces are to portraits – C.B. Macdonald

The greens are huge, a combined total of some 170,000 square feet, and always a logical conclusion to the hole involved.  Most are without excessively severe contours, the exceptions being the Alps, Short and Plateau holes.  The latter is to me the most interesting case, because it's found on a long Par-4.  But the green site is in the middle of a featureless field, and one can see the need to mix it up a little just for interest....

When a controversy is hotly contested whether this or that hazard is fair, it is the kind of hazard you want and has real merit - C.B. MacDonald

Does that include your version of Strath Bunker?  I'll try not to be bitter....

The bunkering, as noted earlier, is original as it is maddening, with all sorts of odd contours to create issues for the player.  Occasionally there are land-forms within the bunker, such as these:

In other cases they are oddly-shaped, thereby creating nooks and crannies to torment beleaguered players.  But, despite Macdonalds reverence for all things Scottish, they're not especially linksy....  or perhaps more accurately, there's a wider array of style of bunker than is found on a typical links.

Did I mention the wind?  This from the tee of the Eden Hole (No. 13) might communicate better than my whining:

The only minor disappointment I'll express is with the 14th, the cape hole, the more so as that's a design concept first articulated by Macdonald.  Translating for those that aren't architectural geeks, a cape hole is one where the fairway angles away from the player requiring a decision of how much to chew off.  I'll acknowledge that Ran Morrissett disagrees and finds the hole retains its strategic import, though acknowledging that equipment and ball-driven distance gains have merely moved the aim pint to the right.

To me it's a fine golf hole in isolation, but it's such a short par-4 that there's insufficient reward for taking extra risk.  It's only 393 yards from the tips, and we played it at under 350, so it's a short iron in regardless of club hit and line taken off the tee.  And, in one of the few changes since Macdonald's demise, this green has been pushed back some 35 yards from its original location.

The other interesting aspect of this hole is the water short of the green, seen in this photo looking back towards the tee:

My first thought was wondering how high the stakes would need to be to cause me to wade out to play a ball miraculously landing on terra firma.  But the younger of our two caddies told us that at low tide that area would be sand, and a miss short can be played from there.

The view looking home from the green also doesn't suck, including the iconic windmill:

A better view of the windmill with the 15th green and 16th fairway in the foreground.

The holes coming home, with the exception of the 16th hole Punchbowl, are original but no less captivating.  Here's the view of the punchbowl from back in the fairway, most certainly with a head cover removed:

And from on the green, which is directly under that windmill:

The shortish Par-4 17th is a hoot, though I would have been better served had I waited to get a line off the tee from our caddie.  The second shot is played over a sand bar with a bunker on top, out of which your humble correspondent was required to play.  The proper line was further right for an unobscured view of the green.  I'll know better next time...

The 18th is even more dramatic, a not overly-long three-shotter sweeping along Peconic Bay to finish at an infinity green, though I doubt that term was in use in Macdonald's day.  In fact, no less an authority than Bernard Darwin called it the best finishing hole in all the world:

The 18th green in the late day light.

It's a staggering accomplishment, that a layout from the early 1900's remains, with unbelievably minor alterations over the decades, sufficiently relevant that it can successfully host the Walker Cup in 2013.  Though I should note that Macdonald continued to tweak his baby for the remainder of his life.  The course measured 6,100 yards when it opened in 1909, but by Macdonald's death in 1939 it had grown to 6,700 yards, and each and every hole had been changed to some extent.  

I would speculate that a player unaware of the club's lineage and reputation would, having just played its course, walk off the 18th green exhilarated by the shots presented and challenges taken on, and would find the characterization of this golf course as some kind of museum piece laughable.

I'll conclude with this from the legendary Bernard Darwin on the merits of The National:

How good a course it is I hardly dare trust myself on a short acquaintance; there is too much to learn about it and the temptation to frantic enthusiasm is so great, but this I can say: Those who think it to be the greatest golf course in the world may be right or wrong, but are certainly not to be accused of any intemperance of judgment.

I think Macdonald would be very pleased with that assessment, especially given the authority of the source.  But the thought of giving it the kind of detailed study envisioned by Darwin is a very pleasant one indeed.

EDITOR'S NOTE:  In conjunction with my September 2019 visit to NGLA, this post has been updated to correct typos, as well as replace a couple of photos lost to the ravages of time.  In one case, I couldn't find the photo referenced, so I left the placeholder.