This is an old, but still outstanding, tour around Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey. Pine Valley is a perennial Top 2 or 3 golf course in the world and has changed surprisingly little since this episode was shot in 1962. Enjoy.
Saturday
Lakewood Golf Club (Azalea)-Point Clear, AL
The courses at Lakewood Golf Club are the only courses in the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail family of courses not designed by Mr. Jones and Roger Rulewich. The original course, consisting of holes 1-5 and 15-18 of the Azalea course and holes 10-18 on the Dogwood course, was built in 1947 and designed by Perry Maxwell, one of the great designers of the Golden Age. The other holes have been added on over the years by various designers. It is startling how inferior those additional holes are, on the Azalea course anyway.
However, sadly, based on the rates charged, this course is viewed by many as one of the best courses on the Trail. It simply is not. Based on the eight other Trail courses this writer has seen, Lakewood is no better than any of the original courses and certainly inferior, and significantly, to Ross Bridge. This course simply has no flow. The first five holes flow nicely and six is not a bad par 5, but from there the course weaves through houses that are built tighter than desired to the playing corridors. Hole nine is a sharp dogleg left that plays directly across a public road and under powerlines.
In addition, hole fourteen is one of the worst par 5's this writer has played. While the hole is scenic and photographs well, it is a par 5 played to an island green. Coupled with the fact that it typically plays into the wind and is 545 yards long, there is virtually no risk/reward potential on the hole. Under only the rarest of circumstances would a golfer ever attempt to play to this green in two shots, thus the hole basically becomes a par 3 with two additional shots. The angle of play from the tee does not matter, the ball must merely find the fairway. On the second shot, certainly a lay-up, again, the angle does not matter. No angle into the green changes the situation that the player it hitting to an island. Any shot not played with reasonable precision will find the water, regardless of the approach angle. Simply a poor hole.
This course could have been so much better. Based on the nine original holes, it should be much better. Mr. Maxwell must vomit in his mouth slightly, as he sits watching in the hereafter, every time this course attempts to advertise their Frankenstein course using his good name.
Holes to Note
Hole #2: Par 4, 411 yards
This is quite a nice mid-length par 4. The player is given several options off the tee. The first is to lay back short of the fairway bunker that is around 250 yards off the tee, leaving a shot of over 160 yards to the green. The second option is to play the shot into the fairway even with the bunker, leaving a shorter shot, but having to thread the tee shot into a rather narrow ribbon of fairway. The final option is to play over the bunker, a shot requiring a carry of around 275 yards, into a generous piece of fairway leaving a short wedge into the green. From the fairway, the player will be faced with a shot over a large fronting bunker into a green that falls off away from him. This is no easy hole and certainly fits with much of the work Mr. Maxwell did elsewhere.
From the tee, the options are clearly placed in front of the player. The area right of the bunker is not maintained as fairway and any ball hit there will be stopped and blocked out by the trees.
For the player who tempts fate and plays over the bunker, this open shot is left. Note the opening to the green that would allow the player to play a low running shot into the green, if desired.
Hole #4: Par 3, 203 yards
This is an interesting par 3 that plays over water to one of two separate greens. To the left green, the hole can play up to the 203 yards listed on the card. To the right, it is much shorter, around 170. But both greens are quite small, making a 200 yard shot into the green no bargain.
Sadly, the phone tower takes away from an otherwise picturesque hole.
Hole #17: Par 4, 475 yards
This brute of a par 4 plays roughly straight off the tee, with the prefered play depending on what the player desires for the approach shot. The fairway is not reachable from the back tee, unless the player can hit a ball 325 yards or better. A play away from the bunker will give the player the better angle into the long, but narrow, green. A play directly towards the bunker will leave the player less margin for error in distance control. The key feature of the green, however, is the significant fall off that runs down the entire right side of the green. If a player feels good about distance control, but not direction, the right side of the fairway would be a bit better. The player who has poor distance control should favor the left side.
The bunker nearest the right side of the image is the key point from the tee.
From the angle close to the bunker, the player is given a clear play to the green, the pine on the right is no hazard.
Overall, this course is reasonable. It is not, however, worth the $120 they charge guests. Courses of the same quality can be found on the Trail, and virtually anywhere really, that are of the same quality but charge half as much. This is not a terrible course, but it is in no, way, shape, nor form worth the rate they charge. 4 out of 10.
Thursday
The "Next" Tiger Woods
The talk about who can be the next Tiger Woods has started up again this week. This week the LPGA Tour saw it's record for the youngest winner broken by 15 year old Lydia Ko from New Zealand. This is a major accomplishment for the youngster. On top of this, she is also a national champion in both New Zealand and the United States. But she is not the only one to rate such comparison.
Rory McIlroy won the PGA Championship a few weeks back. Immediately that prompted reports to compare him to Tiger and how they won majors. Rory is now one of eight active golfers on the PGA Tour with more than one major championship victory and by far the youngest.
So naturally these two golfers might be compared to Tiger Woods and his accomplishments at a young age. But does the world of golf really need another Tiger Woods?
To be sure, Tiger Woods has electrified the sports world for fifteen years now; longer than young Miss Ko has been alive in fact. He has set records and done things few thought possible from one side of the planet to the other. But, of course, there is that other side of Tiger Woods, the one the world found out about in the days and weeks after November 27, 2009 and it is that side that must be considered, along with the golf, that must be considered when we talk about the "next" Tiger Woods.
Tiger's golf records are among the elite of the elite. He will almost certainly break Sam Snead's now forty-seven year old record for most PGA Tour wins. It is also likely that he will break Jack Nicklaus's twenty-six year old major championship record, though not as likely as it was four years ago. He has also made more money than any athlete in history.
But what of the rest? What about the fact that he spun a giant web of lies, feeding the public this image of a wholesome family man when the reality was something vastly different. The reality of the situation is that Eldrick Woods is a habitually unfaithful megalomaniac who surrounds himself with a bunch of bootlicking, glad-handing, yes men. The fact that he is capable of playing high level golf is secondary to all of this.
No, the world of golf needs no more than one Tiger Woods. Certainly one must be enough. Perhaps we should ask who will be the next Tom Watson or Phil Mickelson. Those two, while having some vices and not being quite the same caliber of golfer as Tiger, are certainly better overall people than is Tiger. Perhaps the time has come to stop glorifying Tiger Woods and look at him for what he really has become.
Even after his "transgressions" as he, well, I suppose the truth would be his speech writers, phrased it, he has made no real change. He still, seemingly, surrounds himself with various and numerous ladies. He is still a stand-offish tool with the media. He still employee's a flock of yes-men, bowing at his feet. Indeed, it would seem poor, and almost insulting, to compare young Miss Ko to Tiger Woods.
No, the media obsession with comparing people to Tiger Woods, comparisons that have been going on for ten years now, are poor and inappropriate nowadays. Tiger has long since violated any trust people may have had. Anyone breaking into golf today should hope that they are not the next Tiger Woods. Unless, of course, they want to forever be known as someone who lied to the public for years and, overnight, went from Tiger Woods: Great Golfer to Tiger Woods: Adulterer and Liar.
Rory McIlroy won the PGA Championship a few weeks back. Immediately that prompted reports to compare him to Tiger and how they won majors. Rory is now one of eight active golfers on the PGA Tour with more than one major championship victory and by far the youngest.
So naturally these two golfers might be compared to Tiger Woods and his accomplishments at a young age. But does the world of golf really need another Tiger Woods?
To be sure, Tiger Woods has electrified the sports world for fifteen years now; longer than young Miss Ko has been alive in fact. He has set records and done things few thought possible from one side of the planet to the other. But, of course, there is that other side of Tiger Woods, the one the world found out about in the days and weeks after November 27, 2009 and it is that side that must be considered, along with the golf, that must be considered when we talk about the "next" Tiger Woods.
Tiger's golf records are among the elite of the elite. He will almost certainly break Sam Snead's now forty-seven year old record for most PGA Tour wins. It is also likely that he will break Jack Nicklaus's twenty-six year old major championship record, though not as likely as it was four years ago. He has also made more money than any athlete in history.
But what of the rest? What about the fact that he spun a giant web of lies, feeding the public this image of a wholesome family man when the reality was something vastly different. The reality of the situation is that Eldrick Woods is a habitually unfaithful megalomaniac who surrounds himself with a bunch of bootlicking, glad-handing, yes men. The fact that he is capable of playing high level golf is secondary to all of this.
No, the world of golf needs no more than one Tiger Woods. Certainly one must be enough. Perhaps we should ask who will be the next Tom Watson or Phil Mickelson. Those two, while having some vices and not being quite the same caliber of golfer as Tiger, are certainly better overall people than is Tiger. Perhaps the time has come to stop glorifying Tiger Woods and look at him for what he really has become.
Even after his "transgressions" as he, well, I suppose the truth would be his speech writers, phrased it, he has made no real change. He still, seemingly, surrounds himself with various and numerous ladies. He is still a stand-offish tool with the media. He still employee's a flock of yes-men, bowing at his feet. Indeed, it would seem poor, and almost insulting, to compare young Miss Ko to Tiger Woods.
No, the media obsession with comparing people to Tiger Woods, comparisons that have been going on for ten years now, are poor and inappropriate nowadays. Tiger has long since violated any trust people may have had. Anyone breaking into golf today should hope that they are not the next Tiger Woods. Unless, of course, they want to forever be known as someone who lied to the public for years and, overnight, went from Tiger Woods: Great Golfer to Tiger Woods: Adulterer and Liar.
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