Course Review: Yeamans Hall Club

Yeamans Hall Club
Hanahan, South Carolina
Seth Raynor - 1925

I love Charleston!  Seriously, living here has a lot of advantages.  Sure, the summers can be hotter than two goats in a pepper patch and it is ALWAYS humid, but it more than makes up for that from December-March.  I mean, where else can you find the combination of Lowcountry charm, good people, fresh seafood, classic architecture, four centuries of history, a good climate, the ocean, and TWO Seth Raynor golf courses??

Yeamans Hall Club, located nearby in the small town of Hanahan, is the epitome of Lowcountry South Carolina.  Founded as a winter retreat for wealthy northerners, the club is situated on a 900 acre peninsula that protrudes out into a marsh and stream system that eventually feeds into the Cooper River.  The original intention was for two 18-hole golf courses to be built here, along with 250 homes, but the stock market crash of 1929 put an end to that dream.  Today, there exists one 18 hole golf course, the impressive clubhouse facilities, and 35 privately owned homes.  The course is highly regarded as one of the best in the state and has spent time ranked in the Top 100 in the World. 

As it is, driving into this place is like taking a step back in time.  After turning off of N. Rhett Avenue, one is greeted by a "No Outlet" sign, followed shortly by a set of railroad tracks and then a guard gate.  After crossing through the gate, the feeling that you might have driven back into colonial South Carolina sweeps over you as you travel down the gravel entrance road.  

This picture hardly does justice.

The golf course was designed by Seth Raynor and opened for play in 1925.  Raynor was an engineer by trade, but was hired by Charles Blair MacDonald in 1908 to survey the land that would eventually become the National Golf Links of America on Long Island.  MacDonald was impressed and kept Raynor around to help in the construction.  Eventually, Raynor struck out on his own.  MacDonald was known for his use of "template holes" in his golf courses.  These were a collection of what he believed to be the best types of holes that golf had to offer, based on his time studying the great links courses of the British Isles.

Raynor followed suit in his own practice, and each of Yeamans Hall's eighteen holes has an adaptation of these principles.  Between its opening in 1925 and the 1980's, the course lost many of its original features, thanks to overzealous greens chairmen and maintenance practices.  In 1998, Tom Doak and his Renaissance Design crew came to the rescue, restoring many of the features that had been lost. 

Front of the Scorecard

Back of the Scorecard with Hole Names

In June, I had the great honor to be able to tee it up at this fantastic course.  After two false starts where my round was halted by Mother Nature, I was able to finally see the golf course in its entirety.

The routing

The golf course starts off with a bang thanks to the diabolical 427 yard, par 4 1st hole.  Many courses tend to give you a breather to start the round.  Not here!  While the fairways here are plenty wide, the first starts out with an uphill tee shot, over water, to a fairway that doglegs off to the right.

The tee shot on Hole 1

You find out that you are in for a real treat, when you get to your tee ball though.  The approach shot is played over the entrance road, to one of the wildest greens I have ever seen.

The approach shot on Hole 1

The diabolical green

Another view

The majority of Raynor's greens that I have seen tend to have a false front.  That is certainly the case at Yeamans Hall.  Also, each green here has one corner that is cut square.  I am not exactly sure why, but I assume this was done to make cutting the greens easier.

Square-edged corner of the first green

The course continues to head out to the marsh, prominently displayed behind the par 3 third green, the first of a great set of par 3's here.

The par 3 third hole, aptly named "Short" with the marsh in the background

Typical Raynor bunkering, deep and simple in their design.  No frilly edges here!

This green was built with what resembles a thumb print depression in the middle

The par 4 5th hole, Raynor's "Alps" hole.  Tricky tee shot

The mounds on the left aren't bunkers after all!  Sneaky!

The par 3 6th is Raynor's "Redan" hole.  Not a great example, but still a great hole

Deep bunker fronting the 6th green.  Not the place to be.  I know...from experience!

The seventh hole here, a rendition of the "Road" hole at the Old Course at Saint Andrews, acts as a connector between the land where the first six holes are located and the rest of the course.  It was a smart decision because the 8th hole is just fantastic, in my opinion. 

The tee shot on the 8th as it heads back towards the water

Another look.  Awesome!

The tee box on #9.  I could've hung out here all day!

The tee shot on #9, back up the hill toward the clubhouse

The back nine heads off toward the south with the short, par 4 10th hole, nicknamed "Cape."

The 10th green.  You do not want to miss this one left, right, or long!

The "Maiden" green at the par 4 11th.  Use your imagination!

The par 3 13th, nicknamed "Eden"

I really enjoyed the 14th hole, nicknamed "Knoll."  The tee shot is pretty unassuming as the hole looks fairly straightforward.  In reality, though, it is quite visually deceiving.  

The tee shot on 14

I got under my drive and was left with this approach shot.  Again, ho hum, right?

The approach shot from my tee ball

I hit a great draw with a 5 iron here that hit in the middle of the green and settled on the right edge.  Once I got to the top of the hill though, I saw how close my shot came to being in really bad shape!

What the area surrounding the green actually looks like!

The flag on #15 with the marsh and river in the background

Despite its appearance from the tee and the fact that I made a pretty routine par, this hole turned out to be very memorable for me.  I think that is the essence of great golf course design.  The 16th is another enjoyable hole.  A "Biarritz" green, this hole was inspired by a hole at the Biarritz Golf Club in France.  This type of hole features a deep depression that bisects the green into front and back and can be found on many MacDonald/Raynor courses.  The green here, however, doesn't begin until after the swale.  I'm not sure if that is typical with Raynor or if the original design was not restored. 

The "Biarritz" green at the par 3 16th.  The pin appears to be on the back of the green

The pin is actually on the front of the green.  The swale proved deceiving!

The punchbowl green at the par 4 17th

The approach on the par 5 18th.  I did NOT want this round to end!

My first experience on a MacDonald/Raynor course was one that I had been looking forward to for some time.  It certainly did not let me down, and I look forward to the opportunity to see the rest of their offerings!  This course quickly moved to the very top of my favorites list.  Someone recently asked, "what course could you play every day for the rest of your life?"  Well, this is the one for me!

Perhaps the concept of playing template holes will get repetitive as I see more MacDonald/Raynor courses.  However, the setting really makes this course unique and I look forward to the opportunity to play it again in the future!  Up next...the other Raynor in the Lowcountry, Country Club of Charleston!

The end!

Course Review: St. George's Golf & Country Club

St. George's Golf & Country Club
Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
Stanley Thompson - 1929

While in Toronto, I was also very fortunate to be able to take a brief, guided tour of St. George's Golf and Country Club, an exclusive private club located in Etobicoke, a municipality of Toronto.  The club was the brainchild of Sir Edward Beatty, then President of the Canadian Pacific Railway.  The club was originally named the Royal York Golf Club, after the Royal York Hotel, a CP-owned hotel in downtown Toronto.

The course is located in a dense, residential area, bounded by large, stately homes and by Islington Avenue to the west and Eglinton Avenue to the north. The course itself is perenially ranked as one of the top 3 golf courses in Canada and has spent much time as the # 1 course in Canada, as well as being ranked as one of the Top 100 courses in the world (it is currently #90 in Golf Magazine's rankings).

The club was designed by Canada's most famous golf course architect, Stanley Thompson, and opened for play in 1929.  Mr. Thompson is responsible for many of the top 10 courses in Canada, including Highland Links in Nova Scotia, and Banff Springs Golf Club and Jasper Park Golf Course in Alberta.  Stanley Thompson grew up caddying at the Toronto Golf Club and no doubt took some of the lessons learned from that Harry Colt great and put them into practice in his own work.

Routing of St. George's Golf & Country Club

The course was built largely in two main valleys, as you can see in the routing above.  The clubhouse is in the bottom of the picture and is actually on the other side of Islington Avenue from the course.  A tunnel runs underneath the road, taking golfers safely from the clubhouse to the golf course.

The beautiful, English-inspired clubhouse

Unlike many courses, Stanley Thompson chose to route many of the holes here through the valleys and swales instead of across them, as was largely done at Toronto Golf Club, for example.  Perhaps the par 5 ninth at TGC, which plays down a long, winding valley, inspired Thompson in this regard. 

Looking back down the winding fairway at the par 4 4th

The fantastic par 5 11th hole

The par 5 holes at St. George's are likely the best set that I have seen.  The 11th, pictured above, and the 15th, pictured below, share a valley and are separated by the triangular shaped driving range.  The holes are basically the antithesis of each other.  The 11th plays from an elevated tee out to the east, while the 15th plays back west toward the clubhouse and rises significantly to the green.

The winding par 5 15th hole

The 5 par 3's here are also good golf holes.  Unlike many of the longer holes, these tend to play across valleys and do a great job of connecting the different valleys on the property.  The third and sixth holes, for example, play parallel to each other across the same valley, allowing for a connection between the core of the course and the 4th and 5th holes.

The par 3 8th hole

Of the par 4's, this author's favorite was the par 4 14th hole.  From an elevated tee, the golfer can easily see the green in the distance, but the majority of the fairway is blind.  A stream runs along the right side of the hole before crossing in front of the green.  This is all unknown to the first-timer from the tee. 

The view from the tee on the par 4 14th...

...view of the green from the lower portion of the fairway

While shorter and less informative than my tour of Toronto Golf Club, I still tremendously enjoyed being able to experience this beautifully conditioned, fascinating, Stanley Thompson design.  If I took anything away from my visits to these two Toronto gems, it was that there is more than one way to successfully route a golf course on a hilly property.  I have no doubt that if Colt had designed St. George's, or had Thompson designed Toronto, the courses would have likely turned out dramatically different.  However, given these two architects' penchant for producing outstanding work, both courses would have likely turned out great, nonetheless.  I look forward to the day when I am able to make similar decisions on a piece of property and can only hope to be able to do it as beautifully.  Next up...Yeamans Hall Club!

Course Review: Toronto Golf Club

 The Toronto Golf Club
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Harry S. Colt - 1912

During the last week of May, my wife and I spent a week in the beautiful city of Toronto where she was attending a work-related conference.  In general, I spent my time gorging on steak and exploring Canada's largest city on my first trip north of the border.  I was also fortunate to spend some time touring several of the most historically significant golf courses in and around the city, an opportunity for which I am continually grateful. 

My first stop was at the Toronto Golf Club.  Founded in 1876, the TGC is the third oldest golf club in North America.  The golf course was built on a large, rolling property on the banks of the Etobicoke River, just west of the Toronto city limits in what is now the city of Mississauga.  Perennially ranked as one of the top 10 golf courses in Canada, it was designed by renowned golf course architect Harry S. Colt and opened for play in 1912.  Having the opportunity to tour a course of this magnitude that was in the midst of its centennial birthday celebration was a real treat. 

Later on, I will give a much more detailed profile of Harry S. Colt and his work, but for now let's just put it this way: Mr. Colt was directly responsible for growing the game of golf on all 6 habitable continents during the early 20th century...a feat shared by few, even today!

Toronto Golf Club Routing

As you can see from the above routing, there are 27 holes at the Toronto Golf Club.  The 18 hole Colt Course (blue routing) and the 9 hole Watson course (red routing), built in the 1950's by Howard Watson, a Canadian golf course architect who had previously worked under the great Stanley Thompson.  This review, though, will focus only on Colt's work here.

Original copy of Colt's routing for the club (sorry for the picture quality)

I met club manager Al Schwemler at 6:30 am for what would become the most thorough tour of a golf course that I have received to date.  Mr. Schwemler, the long-time superintendent of the club, had overseen a 2009 renovation of the course by British architect Martin Hawtree and proved to possess a wealth of knowledge on the history of the course. 

The impressive and stately clubhouse

The view from the first tee, a 370-yard, slight dogleg left par 4

The course begins innocently enough, but quickly takes a turn for the difficult.  Following number one comes a difficult four-hole stretch from holes 2-5, highlighted by the 190-yard par 3 4th, a "redan" hole.  For those not familiar, a redan hole is a par 3 hole named after the original "Redan," the 15th hole at North Berwick's West Links in Scotland.  Often replicated, the hole typically incorporates a wide but shallow green that slopes from front right to back left, usually with a hazard playing along the front part of the green.  This requires a blind shot to the green with only the flag visible.

That is a 10-15 foot bank fronting the green! Anything short = a bogey (or worse)!

The 6th green along the entrance road to the club

The difficult tee shot on the par 4 8th hole

The beginning of the back nine traverses the most extreme piece of the property, playing down into a valley (which used to be a stream bed flowing east to the river) and back up several times.

The tee shot on the par 4 10th hole

The par 4 11th, playing parallel to the 10th back toward the clubhouse

The decision-inducing double fairway at the par 4 12th hole

The tee shot on the uphill par 5 13th hole

Originally built as a par 4, the green on the 13th hole was located at the top of the hill in the picture above.  It is believed that Colt's former partner Charles Allison lengthened the hole when he returned as a consultant some years later.  This also significantly changed the direction in which the par 3 14th hole was played.

The short, but well-defended par 3 14th

The par 5 16th.  Where are you supposed to hit your ball??

More room than there appears!

The short, but dangerous par 4 18th with the clubhouse in the background

The approach to the 18th, an impressive bunkerless golf hole

Looking back toward the tee from the green

 I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Toronto Golf Club and can easily see where it gets its lofty ranking.  The routing of the back nine was particularly impressive, given the topographical constraints and construction methods that existed when this course was being built 100 years ago.  Colt's greens were rarely as extreme as those of some of his contemporaries, and this is true here as well.  However, this is still an impressive set of greens on the whole.  Perhaps the most impressive part of the routing here is the locations of the green sites, in fact.  Colt used the falloffs and topographical extremes that existed here to his advantage when siting his greens, creating a variety of green sites that have unique character, but that are tied in via subtle breaks and thoughtful bunkering.

This course is a must see for any golf course architecture junkie that happens to find themselves in the greater Toronto area!  Next up...St. George's Golf and Country Club!