Quick Post: Home Sick

Some highlights on the wiki from the last few months

Welp, I was supposed to spend an extra long weekend in beautiful Milwaukee, but instead, I found myself — at the very, very last minute — too sick to travel (and I’m not the only one). So, instead, I’m going to try and do a bit of writing on the couch, at least as long as I can think straight. I apologize for potential typos and the lack of editing, I am quite sick, so I’m not exactly operating on all cylinders.  

Since I’m here anyway, I might as well talk about some of the major content updates to the wiki this year. Obviously anyone can update it (you don’t even need to sign in), but I do a lot of the heavy lifting myself. I’ll talk about some new fully mapped courses, and the work on getting every course in Scotland there. 

New Full Courses

I’ve been lucky enough to visit some cool courses in the last seven months, and I took the time on each to take very copious notes. I really do need to do the full remap of Golden Gate Park… I’ll get to that soon. If you want to see how I make these vectors, checkout my youtube tutorials. 

The Lido

I was lucky enough to visit the Lido at Sand Valley for a hickory-only tournament, and I wouldn’t want to play it any other way. During that trip, I was able to take copious notes. There has been a ton of discussion about the course, but I think it’s a valuable addition to the wiki. 

The fully mapped and annotated course is here: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/the_lido-nekoosa

Some highlights:

The Channel Hole

Really enjoyed this one. Thankfully, I reached the handkerchief fairway (right) on one of the rounds. It was dumb, I’m too high of a handicapper to reach the green in two, but it really felt good.

Full Channel Hole writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/the_lido-nekoosa/holes/4

Cape

Cape was probably the most fun hole on the course for me, which I would not have expected at all. From my research, I’ve always thought of cape holes in the category that is, well, less strategic, distance reward holes. This hole absolutely opens the door to multiple strategies with the huge dune just right of the green. Players can just as easily hit a runner up into the embankment and let it trickle down onto the green. I just thought the options were fantastic, and misjudging the aerial or running shot both ended in quite a penal result. Fun stuff.

Full Cape Hole writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/the_lido-nekoosa/holes/5

Ocean (Biarritz)

Before this tournament, I had never had the opportunity to play a Biarritz. Now I have, but I only got the ball to dip in the swale and run out once. Much like the redan, it’s a template that I doubt I would tire of, only because I’d rather play it the way it’s designed to be played (with a drawing long iron), than try to play it in the fewest strokes possible (by trying to stop a high flighted seven wood). I’m sure many folks will disagree with me on the merits here, but that’s how I see it. 

Full Ocean Hole writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/the_lido-nekoosa/holes/8

Lake Merced

I was able to play Lake Merced multiple times via The Karl event there, and I took a lot of notes through those rounds. What follows are some highlights:

The fully mapped and annotated course is here: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/lake_merced_golf_club-daly_city

Hole No. 13

The 13th is the hole that seems like the restoration everyone wanted. It’s a beautiful par three, and I have been able to tuck one in tight here, which is always fun. 

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/lake_merced_golf_club-daly_city/holes/13

Hole No. 6

The sixth might be the most fun hole of the update. It plays way downhill into an infinitely forgiving valley. This forgiveness is then turned on its head by playing back up to a wildly difficult green that has one of my newest favorite features: a green speed bump. It’s like just a little speed bump, like from a parking lot, but in the middle of the green, that dramatically complicates the speed and angle of a putt.

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/lake_merced_golf_club-daly_city/holes/6

9th green

This has to be one of the most fun greens I’ve played in years. You can putt from one side of the lion’s mouth to the other, in both directions, because of the ridge in the back. That ridge is effectively another speed bump on a green (three in total on the course). 

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/lake_merced_golf_club-daly_city/holes/9

Casserly Par 3 Golf Course

This was my second trip to this little par three course that you can find somewhere between Pasatiempo and Pacific Grove. It’s just a little mom-and-pop course built on farmland, with little to no architectural thought put in, but if you’re driving home from Monterey, and the traffic looks bad in Santa Cruz and San Jose, it’s as good a place as any to knock down a few greens in regulation for an hour or two.

I really just wanted to highlight this course, because you don’t need a fancy course or fancy vectors to contribute to the wiki. Photos are just fine.

The full course writeup is here: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/casserly_par_3_golf_course-watsonville

Hole No. 6: Don’t miss left!

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/casserly_par_3_golf_course-watsonville/holes/6

Hole No. 7: Just a fun punch bowl playing back over the gap.

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/casserly_par_3_golf_course-watsonville/holes/7

Olympic Club: Ocean Course

For me, it felt like Harding Park but with a lot more elevation. You definitely feel the elevation on the back nine. 

The fully mapped and annotated course is here: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/olympic_club_ocean_course-san_francisco

Hole No. 3

This hole features a Biarritz-like swale just short of the green. I tried to run it through the swale, but ended up just hitting it too high and landed on the back of the green. 

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/olympic_club_ocean_course-san_francisco/holes/3

Hole No. 6

This hole was really something wild. Any miss on the false front will roll all the way down below the fairway bunker, and there is no way to run it up.

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/olympic_club_ocean_course-san_francisco/holes/6

Hole No. 15

I played this one poorly, but I found it interesting when I was mapping it. There is effectively no fairway or possible lay up on the second half of the hole… which is wild. It’s definitely a hole that asks you to take a shot you might not want to.

Full writeup: https://golfcourse.wiki/course/olympic_club_ocean_course-san_francisco/holes/15

Scotland… it’s coming along

My goal is to get every Scottish course on the wiki this year, and I’ve added the very basics of every course north of Glasgow & Edinburgh so far. Here are some quirky highlights:

King James VI Golf Club: situated on an island on the River Tay. In fact, almost the entire island is the golf course, and there are no road bridges on or off.

Stonehaven Golf Club: during WW2, a German plane dropped a bomb on this course. They left the crater it created and it’s called “Hitler’s Bunker.”

Iona Golf Course: a minimally maintained golf course that seems like the only course you could really travel back in time with if you play with hickory clubs. 

Whalsay Golf Club: probably the most far away place in Scotland to play golf. This course is on a remote island, in the Shetlands. 

Sanday Golf Club: less remote than Whalsay, but barely. This course is the most remote on the Orkneys, and you’ll have to share the fairways with local sheep.

Dunaverty Golf Club: all the way down at the bottom tip of Argyll is Dunaverty. It’s a favorite of Jim Hartsell in his book When Revelation Comes, which I have recommended. 

The Bruntsfield Links: the free pitch and putt course in Edinburgh that should be on everyone’s list of places to kill time waiting for your flight. 

Old Course at St Andrews: I took the time to find every bunker with a name, and add them to the mapping I did. 

I’ll keep working my way south and will celebrate with a dram when I finally finish the whole country. Why do this when other lists already exist? Because I want to give it away for free. Once the website starts generating revenues, the plan is to institute some type of copyleft license like wikipedia uses. You can help out in your spare time if you like. I think creating an educational resource for golf architecture will do more for the game than anything else I can influence. 

Now I think I might go take a nap.