6243 Yds, Par 71, Slope 126, by A.W.Tillinghast, re-fit by John Colligan,
http://www.sanantoniogolf.com/courses/brackenridge/
They say:
"Brackenridge Park Golf Course, which is the oldest public golf course in Texas, was the first ever host to the Texas Open Golf Tournament in 1922. This historic golf course has the honor of being the first inductee into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame."
It's hard for me to say how the original Tillinghast design has been changed . . . and whether it could be considered an improvement, except in this way: I have also played Memorial Park in Houston, a contemporaneous effort by Braedemus, Gus Wortham in Houston, another Tillinghast, the Blackhawk CC in Madison, WI, by Tillinghast, and "The Horrible Horseshoe" hole at Tour 18, from Colonial CC, another Tillinghast design. From those courses I have inferred certain design principles that I see are kept or not kept in the modern redesign by Colligan:
he has dropped / added holes . . . a former par 3 was pointed out to me . . . it looked like a really interesting hole, all carry and trouble all around that looked like a net loss to me, in that the terrain is sorta flat as a whole, and any trouble is an adornment
he has artificially elevated some greens, this is a net gain, imvho, much more challenging and interesting, shot-value-wise and visually.
he has left well enough alone (imvho) in many cases, so that the original routings, layouts, green complexes, bunker shaping, remains. There are some straightline fairway edges and squarish greens that look old fashioned to me, but not necessarily in the Tillinghast mold, so I don't know whether Brackinridge got an "economy" job way-back-when, or if it was done for modern greenskeeping reasons.
an entirely competent, desirable, effective re-fitting.
the course condition was forgiveable: playable, but damaged, from winter conditions and The Drought.
c.f. Top 10 Tillinghast courses http://www.golf.com/golf/gallery/article/0,28242,1682923,00.html
#1 you can see from here what you will see all day . . . tight fairways crowded by large live-oak trees, elevated greens well protected by large bunkers . . . it's perplexing, I had no sense of proportion/distance visually, so I just whaled away . . it's so tight in places I'm not sure that experience would oftne give you abetter idea, unless you had complete driving control, no wind, and radar-irons . . . 8^D . . . sliced my drive safely over those big trees on the right, chunked my approach, bogey.
#2 seemed sorta unfair, 210 yds to an elevated green one can't quite see -- sorta like a Rees Jones design -- which I solved by popping my 7wood up, and chunking a few approaches till I took a mercy-killing gimme (of morethan 10 ft) . . .one of those holes you just wanna go back and get a good start on to see if that helps . . .
#3 - number 1 handicap hole -- I don't remember how I wound up on the edge of the left woods, but I hit a sparkling 7iron from there to reach in regulation. . . two putt par.
#4 a medium length par 4 where I hit a not so solid drive, then another sparkling 7iron above the hole . . .19 ft hooking downhill that I managed to bounce gently off the pin . . . we were sorta casual about pulling the pin, playing with the grandson and S-I-L, just to expedite play, if you see how I mean . . . our playing partner agreed I could count it as a birdie . . . 8^) . .
#5 in PBFU mode I hooked into the left woods . . . got my distance, but I looked to be in jail over there. I hit some shortiron out of the woods thru a window in the trees -- another sparkling shot that made me question "who needs practice?" It helped that the green orients that way (opened up to the left side). . . 2putt par.
#6 again fills the mind with doubts, at least for the first timer . . .I used those two big trees in the middle as a target, but sure enough they were in the way of my 2nd shot . . .I tried a knockdown hook, but just came up short and couldn't get up-and-down. bogey
#7 is just more of the same, keep it straight and on the short grass and you'd be fine, but I hooked again into the woods . . . full of hubris from my iron play I tried drive a 7 iron thru a tiny hole in the canopy up high and nicked a branch . . . my 3rd was my patented 3iron scuttle off hardpan under the trees, but it rolled over the green into a bunker . . .triple bogey.
#8 is a kinda fearsome par 3. our pin was in the far back corner. . . I just hit a half 7wood and hoped for the best . . .I tho't it might be high enough, but the green wasn't receptive enough, and it rolled over the back end slope. made a presentable links-style bump-and-run to a makeable par putt, but missed.
#9 is a long goddam dogleg to be the #17 handicap hole, IMVHO. I didn't notice the length, and i did wonder why it took me 3 to reach the green. Bogey.
#10 is a gorgeous hole. I was warned by our playing partner that it played longer than the yardage, but I didn't see why that would bother me, but yes indeed, my 4iron came up short on the front fringe. I actually made par with a good two-putt up the side-sloping hill, which sort of surprised me.
#11 seemed a very ordinary hole to me, but then if you hit a good drive and approach, most holes may seem very ordinary, que no? Par.
#12 had me licking my chops, for an eagle opportunity, but I leaked my drive right into the trees and had to hit a trick shot out into the fairway, short of the creek. Easy from thereto lob up onto the very elevated green and 2 putt, even for me.
#13 back-to-back par5s . . . usually interesting . . .both potentially reachable, IMVHO (501 & 498), but I leaked right again, punched 5iron out to the left side, again, and hit 9iron to the middle of the green.2putt par. I will have to conduct an introspective review as to why par 5s seem easier in the US than in Europe for me . . .8^D . . .
#14 is a long par 4, #2 handicap hole. The regular we were playing with hooked his ball into the woods there on the left and was grumbling about it -- the obvious play, length aside, is to steer way right of those trees, but influenced, I tomahawked my drive over there too . . . I was busy with the grandson on the other side of the fairway while he hit, and when I got over there I looked around for my ball unsuccessfully. "Up here!" called the regular. . . I don't think you'd get away with it in summer when the trees are leafed out, but my seeing-eye ball had not only missed the trees but then bounced in the hardpan backout to the edge of the fairway, just short of a fairway bunker. . . by the scorecard, that drive's only 250 or 260, but it felt like the longest drive of the day. I hit not-quite-full 7wood on a rope to the green. . . there was a tree screening the left 2/3 of the green from me, but I tho't I might get a baby draw out of it. . . I tho't it would be over the green when I hit it but the ball plowed into the front slope, popped up to the right front corner, and sat . . . i had a very long putt for birdie 50+ feet, which I got within 4 ft, so I gave the par a 1 handed give-it-to-myself effort that lipped out, cuz I didn't wanna ruin the good feeling of those first two shots with a 3jack. . . not for competition, for sure, but heck, I'm on vacation, and haven't played in two months, and putting is the weak point, anyway.
#15 is a funny little par 3, uphill and short. . . I caught my shortiron a little thin, and tho't it might even be perfekt, but it stuck in the front slope / false front of the green . . . and easy enough up and down, straight up the slope, even for me.
#16 could be one of the most unfair holes i've ever seen. The regular kindly discussed allthe permutation with me for getting over that giant tree in the fairway and still staying in the fairway, out of the creek. . . I didn't have any yardages to go by . . . He hit is shot over the tree into the first tree over creek and sighed with satisfaction . . . so I tried to do the same . . . what I see now is that you have to hit your drive high and about 245 to do what he did. . . its a little down hill, but I don't think he hit another ball that far all day . . . 8^D . . . it looks like 220 to the creek from the tee, so I *could* conceivably hit a fractional 7wood to get over the tree and short of the creek . . . as it was, my ball came down in the middle of the fairway after ticking the tree . . . still about 170 uphill to the hole. . . I chunked a 4iron, then a wedge, then a chip, then a 2putt double bogey. love to do that one again. but it IS a puzzler.
#17 is another puzzler / breather. . . that is, if you can just bunt your drive out into the fairway and then pop a wedge onto the green, nothing can go wrong. . . if OTOH, like me, you slice over into the rough on the right, and can't quite catch the wedge clean out of the tall grass uneven lie, then you too can have a double bogey . . . 8^D . . .
#18 par3 finishing holes are a hallmark of antique designs, now I think it is probably an inviolable rule that this is Not Done. Par3s slow down play, and we don't want that on the last hole, and in competition it lessens the opportunity for scoreboard movement . . . ordinarily . . . in my case, either irritation at 16-17, or my weary legs meant that I came huge over-the-top and splashed down by the far left edge of the green. . . I just held the pin for the others at that point..
That back9 is rather amazing, for a duffer, I guess a good golfer would just tear it up, overpowering the par5s, and ignoring the mental hazards posed in the last 3 holes . . . #10 that plays longer than the card, the back-to-back par5s, followed by the heinously difficult #14, the short par 3, then the unfair #16, the mandatory-birdie-hole #17, and the hit-after-a-long-wait par 3 #18 . . . if you see how I mean . . .
#2 & #8 on the front9 are the only holes that really registered on me . . . just not as interesting as the back . . . a solid 3 on the Scottsdale Scale, I should say, sort of like The 500 Club, or even Sanctuary, in PHX, in the way that the back9 is so much better than the front.
