The latter stages of the Industrial Revolution granted no favors to the legendary golf course designer Donald Ross. His most famous layouts – Pinehurst #2, Oakland Hills, East Lake -- were the result of horsepower, literally. Horses did the heavy work of moving substantial dirt but “substantial” had a much more modest connotation in the 1920s than it does today. It would be a few decades before golf course architects and their construction partners could use Bobcats and other earth movers that made it much easier -- perhaps too easy -- to revise flat or gently rolling sections of turf into hilly and mogul-infested layouts. Original, unrevised Ross designs are a rarity today, but he retains his reputation for respecting the land masses he inherited.
Yet if the early days of industrial improvements were of little assist, later technology was a curse for Ross layouts. After all, Ross designed his layouts for golfers carrying their own bags or walking with caddies. For years after his death in 1948, the leaders of many of the clubs that were home to his layouts commissioned significant changes to accommodate motorized golf carts and to take advantage of more advanced earth movers. New cart paths were carved out through Ross’ carefully sculpted mounds, and his cross-fairway bunkers were filled in to more easily accommodate near-fairway cart traffic. Holes were lengthened to respond to longer-distance golf balls, titanium drivers and other golf club “improvements.” Cart paths laid out 15 to 20 yards from greens and bunkers forced a serpentine route to the green from the fairway. Any advantage the cart brought of moving players faster from shot to shot was neutralized by the walking distances from golf cart to green. (Last week I was matched up with an unskilled golfer at my local muni who hit consistent groundballs from tee to green, most of them rolling no more than 10 yards. He whiffed at least three times. But what was more irritating was his habit of never taking his putter from the golf cart until he had reached the green. His longest walk to the cart after a short approach shot had to be more than 50 yards.)
Wampanoag Golf Club in West Hartford, CT, just a 15-minute ride from my home in Connecticut, was designed by Ross and opened for play in 1926. Over the years, it was “renovated” multiple times, including a major reinvention in the early 1980s. Members of the club came to hate it so much that they formed the nation’s first Donald Ross Society to support the restoration of Wampanoag and other Ross originals. Yet it wasn’t until a few years ago that members voted to kick in the assessment fueled money that led to an historically faithful redo. I am lucky to have a friend who is a member and invites me to play every couple of months. I had played The Wamp a few times before restoration, and the most obvious changes are the bunkers from Ross’ original designs that are tilted at greenside and cross a few of the fairways. The fairways also seemed more gentle than before, letting the bunkers provide the strategic challenges rather than high mounds.
Wamp is not long, but it is definitely a thinking player’s type of course. I hope the accompanying photos give you a sense of the strategic necessities involved in playing this handsome relic.
The practice green at Wampanoag provides a visual preview of the round ahead.
Time to play golf.
#1 at Wampanoag is innocent looking...until you get to the swirling vintage-Ross green.
Some of Ross' cross (fairway) bunkers help direct blind tee shots...
...while others add to the challenge off the tee.
Miss a Ross green -- in this case overcook your approach -- and the real trouble begins.
On three-shot holes, Ross ensured that the landing area for shot number two would be no pushover.
I've seen many Great Blue Herons on golf courses in the South, but rarely in New England.
The finishing hole at The Wamp is a doozy, with a final approach over a pond and up a steep hill.
