The Old Architects Loved Small Greens, Vol. 281

Mike Dougherty reports the surprising news the Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are consulting on restoration work Wykagyl Country Club, host to the LPGA's Something Classic. This marks a return to work that they have long passed on after their glorious experience with Riviera Country Club's management team, and comes as welcome news to traditionalists.

Anyway, Dougherty writes:

Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Robert Trent Jones and Arthur Hills all had some input at Wykagyl over the last century. The rolling layout has always placed a premium on accuracy and creativity.

"It's funny," said Helen Alfredsson, who's making her 12th appearance here at Wykagyl. "I'm not conservative with many things, just golf courses. But with the way everybody plays much longer now, it's sad to have a course become obsolete, too. For us, I think this is one of the best golf courses. It's so fun to play."

Okay, she gets points for that comment.

However, after learning that the club will be enlarging greens to restore many lost hole locations...

"But that's what makes this course so special, the greens," Alfredsson said. "They made them small in the old days. I'm not a fan of big greens, but that's what the trend is and sometimes I guess you have to go with the trend."

I think the real confusion on the green size issue is due to the scale of large modern green complexes, versus the scale of large classic complexes. The old guys managed to tie in a 6,000 square foot green much better than today's giants. The USGA green does make it more difficult to get the scale and feel right, but still...