Review: The Architects Golf Club (Part 2)

It's time to take a look at the back nine at Architects, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is a shortish 375-yard par 4 done in the style of George Thomas. Since I am not a southern Californian, my experience with Mr. Thomas's work is second-hand at best, so I can't really say for certain how well this captures his design essence. It is a solid-enough hole, strategically speaking: Challenge and carry the large, sprawling fairway bunker to the upper fairway, and you'll have just a simple pitch into the green. Bail out left, and you'll have a longer second over a second large bunker. The hole's intent would have worked better if it hadn't been playing straight downwind, making the carry over the fairway bunker almost trivial, but I definitely think this hole would work well the majority of the time.

The tenth hole.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a 540-yard par 5 that became a bit of a backbreaker for our round, as it was pointed straight into the teeth of the wind. The hole is an homage to William Flynn and features a sea of bunkers and fescue in the corner of the fairway as it sweeps from left to right up a big hill. The bunkering is a fairly obvious nod to Shinnecock Hills, though it's much more artistically done there, not to mention more coherent, design-wise. The bunkers here kind of stick out. 

If you can carry the bunker sea, the green does come into range with the second shot, and since it's bunkerless, the reward for a bold carry on the drive is great. If you can't or don't carry the sand, the second shot needs to be threaded between three fairway bunkers guarding the lay-up zone; do that and third will be a pretty easy pitch to a small but straightforward green. The Architects website notes that William Flynn wasn't a big fan of wild greens, which does track with the single Flynn course that I've played.

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole, if nothing else, certainly possesses a fine view of the hills lining the Delaware River valley. The hole, a 190-yard par 3, is an ode to Charles Banks, the lesser-known member of the MacRaynor trio, and on the surface appears to be a Redan. It's got the bunker scheme and the green is tilted in the appropriate left-to-right fashion, but the green surface lacks the signature front left to back right tilt that encourages a running draw. The green is more subtly bowl shaped, which acts to catch slightly wayward shots and keep them on the green.

Personally, I think they should have shortened this hole by 30 yards, made the green large and wild, and made it a Short. The land is great for an Eden, but since we've already had one and I'm not sure what sort of template hole would work in that spot, we can keep the Macdonald tribute the same. But I will defend my opinion from last week; the eighth should be the Redan and this should be something else.

The twelfth hole.

I don't think there's an architect out there who's been misrepresented more thoroughly by his most well-known golf course than Alister Mackenzie. Mackenzie is far, far more than Augusta National. But that's what we've got here, an homage to Augusta rather than Mackenzie, and it's a terrible homage at that. For one thing, there's nowhere to hit the drive; with a pond left and a large bunker right, the drive is incredibly tight unless you want to hit a long iron. Mackenzie espoused space more than anything, he wanted every golfer to find a way to play his courses. This is not that.

Anyway, if you do thread the needle on this shortish 525-yard par 5, you can go for the green in two, which is a mishmash of the 12th and 13th greens at Augusta. It's got the twelfth's narrowness and the numerous back bunkers and fronting creek of the thirteenth. Unless you have a shortish iron in hand, hitting this green in two is just not feasible, the target is just too small. So, to summarize, this is a terrible attempt at Mackenzie and easily the worst homage Architects has to offer.

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is a very long, if not particularly complex, par 4, playing over 480 yards from all the way back to a rolling fairway with a single bunker right. This is a ode to Perry Maxwell, who I am completely unfamiliar with beyond knowledge of his greens, so I don't know if a wildly undulating fairway with no flat stances to be found checks out. We'll just go with it and turn our attention to the green, which is what Maxwell was known for. The green favors a running approach from the left, fading around the greenside bunker and taking the downslope in toward the middle of the green. As for the famous Maxwell rolls, there was at least an attempt to get them right. I've never experienced them myself, so I don't know how accurate this attempt was, but the fourteenth green is at least not an easy one to putt.

The fourteenth hole.

Approaching the fourteenth green.

The fourteenth green.

So prolific was Donald Ross as a designer that Architects deigned to give him a second homage. It's an odd choice to give him a second long par 4, but honestly, I think this hole does the best job of capturing the essence of any architects. The tee shot plays uphill to a plateau fairway where the landing area is blind. From there, the second shot plays down to a medium-size green with a small ridge running in from the back. There are two bunkers short, though they're not actually greenside and thus not too in play if you've hit a solid drive. Ross loved the up-down-up or down-up-down par 4, so this tracks pretty well. It's simple, fun, and more interesting that you'd think. There's a reason Ross got so much work.

The fifteenth hole.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

As the round comes to a close, we actually leave the Golden Age with an homage to Dick Wilson, one of the most prolific architects of the post-WWII era. The sixteenth hole suits his style well, being a long and tough par 4. The hole is a slight dogleg left, with a cluster of bunkers guarding the straight line to the green. From there, the second shot is to a green slightly built up and elevated, and surrounded by six bunkers. It's tough and demanding, which is exactly the sort of hole that became popular in the late 40s and 50s. 

The sixteenth hole.

Approaching the sixteenth green.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole jumps back to the 20s for an homage to Stanley Thompson, Canada's most well-known golf course designer. Since this is New Jersey, not the Canadian Rockies, this par 3 lacks a certain wow factor that Thompson's most well-known work possesses in spades. No walls of spruce lining the fairway or skyscraping granite peaks in the background here. Still, Thompson was known for his sprawling, complex bunkers, and this 200-yard par 3 certainly has plenty of those. The green here is narrow and angled, making it a tough target in amongst all the sand; it's even tougher considering how open to the wind the hole is. The green itself is not complicated, but I do still think this is a decent hole.

The seventeenth hole.

The seventeenth green.

The eighteenth hole, of course, represents the most well-known golf course architect of them all: Robert Trent Jones. I don't think even Donald Ross can quite compare. Oddly enough, for a man whose work could be notoriously challenging, the eighteenth hole at Architects isn't a back-breaker. The tee shot is tough, with four bunkers pinching in the fairway right at the landing area, but this hole is only 400 yards. You don't need to hit driver. The green is quite large but very undulating, and is protected on all sides by sand. All in all, I actually really like this as a finishing hole; it's tough and demands precision, but since the hole isn't ridiculously long it feels manageable. At least it isn't a 480-yard par 4 with water in play.

The eighteenth hole.

The eighteenth green.

If nothing else, Architects is set upon some very attractive land. This isn't quite the realm of the Delaware Water Gap, which is a bit further north, but still, the front nine in particular has some amazing mountain views.

But of course, Architects came in with an ambition, to provide tribute to the great golf course designers of the Golden Age. Does it do that? Uh, sort of. I can see the intent on a few holes, particularly toward the end of the round, but sometimes the intent and execution are very far apart. The eighth is nothing like a Raynor hole, and while Alister Mackenzie is already rolling in his grave over what's happened to Augusta, the godawful tribute here is surely not easing his pain. Also, and this was a problem with the other tribute course in New Jersey, the greens lacked ambition. This should be a fun concept, and the greens should be wild and wacky to go along with that. The Golden Age architects were almost never ones to shy away from wild greens, Architects shouldn't either.

Also, while conditions were solid, the round definitely cost more than it should; Architects may be physically kind of close to New York City, but the shining center of the universe this is not. The course is fine and fun in places, and I'd definitely call it above average, but it isn't worth the steep price of entry. Also, they make you take carts, which is an immediate red flag. The course is plenty walkable and the cart paths are poorly designed, I promise you my brothers and I spent more time driving our carts out of the way and walking back to our golf balls than we would have if we'd been able to just walk to our shots in the first place. Cut the price in half and let us walk, and maybe I'd think about coming back. But for a hundred dollars plus, absolutely not.