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Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Printable Version

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Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-18-2014

The men's golf team struggled in the third round a bit and Oregon pared Stanford's team lead to one stroke with one round remaining.  Patrick Rogers shot +1 in the third round and Thomas Lind of Oregon closed to within six strokes in the individual championship by going -4 in his third round.  Cameron Wilson also struggled in the third round, shooting +4 to go to +3 for the tournament.  The other Cardinal golfers appear to have struggled more or less through all three rounds.

Is anyone here familiar with the course they are playing?  The Eugene Country Club seems to be fairly challenging for the entire field.  Rogers is the only player under par through three rounds.  We're in a great position at this point and, with appropriate obeisance to the golf gods, it would appear to be a lock for Stanford to finish this regional in the top five and move on.  I've got as many body parts crossed as possible. 

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Spiny_Norman - 05-18-2014

CornFed, Stanford is in great position because the regional tournament is 54 holes, not 72.  The regional tournament is over.  Stanford has won and advanced to the NCAAs at Prairie Dunes in two weeks.  Patrick Rodgers tied Tiger Woods' school record of 11 tournament victories.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-18-2014

Oh man!  I had just assumed four rounds.  That's the trouble with assumptions-they're not always true.  That is great!  I must've made the golf gods snicker.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Hulk01 - 05-18-2014

Eugene is an excellent course with an interesting story.  It’s an old site.  Many years ago, the members asked Robert Trent Jones to make it better., and he chose an approach I’d never heard of before.  He kept the routing but reversed it; he turned the old tees into greens and the old greens into tees.  A major consequences was that instead of elevated tees, he now had elevated greens, and the beginning of some strong green complexes.  The par five 13th really stands out, and the par threes, which Jones seemed to do unusually well everywhere, do, too/

Last time I played, it was one of those courses that inspires your best game because it is so well-kept.  The greens were perfect.

Also spent an afternoon there watching my next-door neighbor against some Cardinal players for the conference championship. Peter Jacobsen developed his game there and at Astoria G & CC, where I spent years as a junior golfer. The man who did the most for Peter’s game, Marlow Quick was the pro there and my pro for a short time. For good reason, Marlow makes a split-second appearance in my new novel, Scaling Gin Ridge.

Re the regional:
Rogers. What a force to have at #1. The best college player now by a stroke. But he’ll have battles once the Cardinal reach match play.

Birwat may be coming on.  The format and stage probably won’t intimidate him.

Wilson is Rogers plus a stroke.  He will be a near lock point if Conrad slots him at #3.

Boote is seasoned and will be good at #4.

Maverick confirmed my worse fears.  They now cannot risk taking him. Liu is in--isn’t he?  Conrad needs to choose someone with the best chance of having one very good round in three. 

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CTcard - 05-18-2014

(05-18-2014, 12:55 PM)Hulk01 link Wrote:Maverick confirmed my worse fears.  They now cannot risk taking him. Liu is in--isn’t he?  Conrad needs to choose someone with the best chance of having one very good round in three.

By the way, I saw that Jim Liu was DQed the first round of the Pac 12 championship. Does anyone know why?

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-18-2014

(05-18-2014, 12:55 PM)Hulk01 link Wrote:Eugene is an excellent course with an interesting story.  It’s an old site.  Many years ago, the members asked Robert Trent Jones to make it better., and he chose an approach I’d never heard of before.  He kept the routing but reversed it; he turned the old tees into greens and the old greens into tees.  A major consequences was that instead of elevated tees, he now had elevated greens, and the beginning of some strong green complexes.  The par five 13th really stands out, and the par threes, which Jones seemed to do unusually well everywhere, do, too/

Last time I played, it was one of those courses that inspires your best game because it is so well-kept.  The greens were perfect.

Also spent an afternoon there watching my next-door neighbor against some Cardinal players for the conference championship. Peter Jacobsen developed his game there and at Astoria G & CC, where I spent years as a junior golfer. The man who did the most for Peter’s game, Marlow Quick was the pro there and my pro for a short time. For good reason, Marlow makes a split-second appearance in my new novel, Scaling Gin Ridge.

Re the regional:
Rogers. What a force to have at #1. The best college player now by a stroke. But he’ll have battles once the Cardinal reach match play.

Birwat may be coming on.  The format and stage probably won’t intimidate him.

Wilson is Rogers plus a stroke.  He will be a near lock point if Conrad slots him at #3.

Boote is seasoned and will be good at #4.

Maverick confirmed my worse fears.  They now cannot risk taking him. Liu is in--isn’t he?  Conrad needs to choose someone with the best chance of having one very good round in three.

Hulk- I much appreciate your passage.  This board will never cease to amaze me.  I would never have guessed that such insights would be forthcoming from such an innocuous inquiry.  Thank you, so much.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-18-2014

I have never, ever heard of a course re-design being a total reversal of the course as described.  It is fascinating in the extreme. The additional expense must have been staggering, which suggests that at least some of the decision to approach it that way was just to see if they could.  It speaks volumes about why RTJ was such a revered designer.  I am impressed with his vision to be able to see such an undertaking as viable and worthwhile.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Spiny_Norman - 05-18-2014

The honors for the Stanford golf team keep coming.  Junior Patrick Rodgers was named tonight as the winner of the Ben Hogan Award as the outstanding men's college golfer in the country.

http://www.gostanford.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30600&ATCLID=209498123

http://thebenhoganaward.org/?p=1174

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Stymie - 05-19-2014

(05-18-2014, 05:25 PM)CornFed link Wrote:I have never, ever heard of a course re-design being a total reversal of the course as described.  It is fascinating in the extreme. The additional expense must have been staggering, which suggests that at least some of the decision to approach it that way was just to see if they could.  It speaks volumes about why RTJ was such a revered designer.  I am impressed with his vision to be able to see such an undertaking as viable and worthwhile.

Eugene CC was not the first course in the world to be redesigned in reverse.  The first was The Old Course at St. Andrews, which used to be played "back to front" (as it were) before the R&A decided in the 1850's to clear out the gorse which used to cover holes 2-6 and re-rout the course in a a more welcoming and anti-clockwise manner.

PS--To call RTJ "revered" would provoke alarming choking sounds from many of my fellow golf course architecture wingnuts.....

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-19-2014

Why is that?  I mean, perhaps "revered" was too casual a choice of words, but he designed or re-designed courses like Olympic, Augusta, Baltusrol, Spyglass, Firestone-North, the Broadmoor.  I've never heard him disparaged.  What are the criticisms of his work?  Are we talking about Senior?  I presumed so, although Junior had a hand in the Eugene Country Club when he worked for his father.  Junior's portfolio of course designs is impressive as well. 

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Hulk01 - 05-19-2014

I have to side with the Jones' critics here.  His dad had his day but the students of golf course architecture seemed unanimous in their unpraise of the son.

Actually, the redesign of Eugene G&CC proved to be less expensive than a conventional redesign, and Jones did it largely for economic reasons.  He simply set up temporary tees alongside the original greens. This allowed members and their guests--and it is guest-heavy club---to continue to play while Jones' team created the 18 new greens complexes alongside those new, temporary tees.  Creating new tees from the former greens was fairly easy; a tee doesn't require much  other than a flat and narrow rectangle.

Don't know how many new fairway bunkers he created, if many.  The trees at Eugene tend to be hazards enough. 

It's a first-rate course.  For many years it rated among the top 100 in America and might have cracked the top 80 several times.  When Bandon came along, however, Oregon eventually had at least two and as many as four new courses that could displace all but the top 75 courses in the country. I love Bandon Trails, for example, but am not aware of anyone who puts it above Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes, and Old McDonald--dear God did I campaign against that name, is a helleuva interesting course, too, but way too much for my taste.  And I know several folks near that project who think that the team on Old McDonald best resembled the Keystone Cops.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-19-2014

It's true that Senior tended by and large to be conventional.  Kaanapali, for instance, is not very memorable.  He gets credit from some for having a much lighter touch on the terrain with which he worked.  He certainly had moments of brilliance, however.  Spyglass is one of my favorite courses anywhere.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Stymie - 05-19-2014

Agree with you CF re: Spyglass, but it's a very good rather than great golf course.  People slag it for its inland holes, but just down the street, MacKenzie managed to buiild a mostly inland but surely great course at Cypress Point.  RTJ Sr. didn't design too many clunkers, but he never achieved greatness.

Also agree with Hulk01 vis a vis Bandon Trails and Old Macdonald.  BT is the best (and highly underrated) of a very good bunch of courses on the resort, and OM is very good, but a lost opportunity (too many cooks spoil the broth comes to mind)

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Spiny_Norman - 05-19-2014

Stymie, Hulk - have either of you had a chance to play the Sheep Ranch at Bandon?  A nearly unfindable but (reportedly) exhilarating course.  Like the mythical Burningbush, a spiritual experience.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-19-2014

Prairie Dunes Country Club, the site of the Men's Championship, is only 6,759 yards long, but it is rated 75.5 from the gold tees.  Don't know how they will specifically set up the course, but it looks like a course that tempts you into trying to overpower the course in a number of spots.  You can do a virtual, hole-by-hole, flyover with yardages, etc at the following link:

http://www.prairiedunes.com/virtualtour/

I presume wind will be a big factor.  But I am not familiar with Hutchinson, KS at this time of year.  It is getting to be tornado season, though.

Funny you should mention Kaanapali - Mick - 05-19-2014

(05-19-2014, 01:55 PM)CornFed link Wrote:It's true that Senior tended by and large to be conventional.  Kaanapali, for instance, is not very memorable.  He gets credit from some for having a much lighter touch on the terrain with which he worked.  He certainly had moments of brilliance, however.  Spyglass is one of my favorite courses anywhere.

My dad plays to a 6, has played as low as a 2.  Outside of Riviera, Kaanapali was his favorite course.  And he was a guy who played Pasatiempo sixty times a year as a shareholder there.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - CornFed - 05-19-2014

IMHO, Pasatiempo is one of the finest courses in the country.  A true gem.  I haven't played there in years, but I remember each hole vividly.  A beautiful walk.  The place has a wonderful scent.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Hulk01 - 05-20-2014

Yes, I got on the Sheep Ranch.  The hole on the bluff beats any of Pebble's hole,

My middle son has played the Ranch often and it's is his favorite course--and he'd played Sand Hills, Prairie Dunes (adores that course), all the Bandon Course, Pasatiempo, and Royal County Down before he hit 25.

I liked Pasatiempo's greens and complexes a lot. But to my eye and sense of the game, nothing rivals Pacific Dunes, and the variety of the now five Bandon courses makes it golf's mecca to me.  I played Trails just once and vividly remember at least six holes. 

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Mick - 05-20-2014

(05-19-2014, 11:47 PM)CornFed link Wrote:IMHO, Pasatiempo is one of the finest courses in the country.  A true gem.  I haven't played there in years, but I remember each hole vividly.  A beautiful walk.  The place has a wonderful scent.

I've probably played 100 rounds at Pasatiempo, most before I was 21.  Three things stick out for me:

1)  The course was designed by Alister MacKenzie, who also designed Augusta National and Cypress Point.  MacKenzie loved Pasatiempo, he had a home off of the par five sixth fairway (the first house you see on the left side of the hole/right side of the street.

2)  First time I broke 100 I was a a freshman playing fifth man on my high school's golf team, shot 96.  We were playing Harbor High, and they had a junior player named Julie Sheehan.  She shot a 75 or so.  Today, her name is Julie Inkster.  Smooth swing, you bet.

3)  I recall playing what had been described to me as Tom Watson's favorite hole in golf, #15, which was a dogleg left par 4 over a canyon to a three-tiered green.  I played one day with my dad and landed the ball between the 2nd and 3rd tiers on the right, the hole was on the first (lowest) tier on the left.  I start lining up the putt, which would have about 12 feet of break, and my dad walks to the right/front tier and says "your only chance of keeping the ball on the green is to hit it here" about 15 feet from the hold.  I barely touched the ball, missed the hole by a few inches and it went fifteen feet off the green.  Later, dad told me that a golf course architect told the membership that a course built in the 1920s cut the grass too short on that hole.  I assume they fixed it.... :P

Regardless, had lots of great experiences there.

Re: Stanford Men's Golf Leads Regional After Three Rounds - Treebound - 05-20-2014

I love the Pasatiempo stories, Mick!  I grew up for a part of my life in Santa Cruz and my father, who wasn't much of a golfer (he is an artist/painter who winters in Mexico) would take me out once or twice a year to play Pasatiempo with his buddies.  It was the nicest course that I knew of at the time!

  Most of my summers with him were spent playing the poor man's Pasa - DeLaveaga.  I haven't played it in 5 or so years, but it was arguably the best muni course in Northern California.  Every summer I would scour the canyon holes and get my supply of golf balls as well as some bad patches of poison oak.  I continued the tradition when I went off to Stanford where each Fall you would find me spending an afternoon or two working my way down San Francisquito creek with a bag of new Titleist balls that I would find.  I would buy my 10 play card for $50 and be set for 4-5 months.  My fraternity brothers all laughed at my golfing habits as they didn't play.  We were all up at Bandon last year and they now regret not joining me as they took up the game later in life and missed the wonderful opportunity we had at Stanford. 

My daughter will now be playing beach volleyball down at Cowell's this summer, so I'm hoping to make it back to Pasatiempo and Delveaga for a round or two!