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"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
online golf column
by
Chris Dortch
July 30, 2010
Jack
Nicklaus once said that golf course architect Joe Lee “never built
a bad course.” Last week while on assignment for the Tennessee
Golf Association, I was reminded of why Nicklaus made such a
sweeping statement.
The
Tennessee Women’s Open was played at Lee’s beautiful Stonehenge
Golf Club in Fairfield Glade, and I had ample opportunity to
explore the course, which is celebrating its 25th
anniversary this year.
If you’ve
never played Stonehenge, imagine a cross between Rock City and
Fall Creek Falls, another Lee gem at Fall Creek Falls State Park
in Pikeville, Tenn. Which is to say there are several tree-lined
dogleg holes mixed with other holes carved into mountain stone.
The only
drawback to Stonehenge, and this is a minor quibble, is that there
are several mountainous treks from tee to green. It’s not a great
walking course, but it’s a great course.
Lee was good
because he did his job with a gentle hand. His goal was to simply
uncover a golf course that had been left for him to find by God,
rather than move tons of earth to fabricate one. He called it
“molding the land.”
Given that
philosophy, it’s fair to say Lee courses don’t beat golfers over
the head with tricked-up obstacles. He preferred straightforward
challenges—trees, large-but-fair bunkering, water hazards that
players are aware of but can negotiate, and greens that slope
gently.
“I start
with the premise that golf should be enjoyable, not a chore,” Lee told
Golf Digest architecture editor Ron Whitten for his book,
Gentleman Joe Lee: 50 Years of Golf Design. “Golfers want a
challenge, but they want a fair one. An architect can’t put a foot
on the golfer’s neck and keep it there all day.”
Amen to
that.
For a
time—the 1980s come quickly to mind—those traits in golf course
architecture went unappreciated amid an era of island greens,
railroad ties, severe green contouring and Pacific-sized water
hazards. But before that, Lee, sometimes in collaboration with
Dick Wilson, produced several courses—Bay Hill and Doral (Blue)
among them—that were fixtures on the PGA Tour and well respected
by great players.
In 1962
while wintering in Florida, the great Ben Hogan made a trip to a
new Lee-Wilson course called Pine Tree. After shooting a
1-over-par 73, Hogan wrote in the club’s guest book, “The best
course I have ever seen.”
Nicklaus
called Pine Tree a “truly great course,” and Sam Snead said it was
the “best golf course in the South.”
More
recently, Tiger Woods has championed Cog Hill No. 4, a former site
of the old Western Open near Chicago. “There aren’t too many golf
courses that you come that you absolutely love the layout,” Woods
said.
Lee’s
understated style may have fallen out of favor for a time—Pine
Tree was ranked No. 10 in Golf Digest’s Top 100 in 1969 but by
1993 had dropped out of the ranking—but it’s enjoying a comeback.
And other architects have learned that it’s a lot less expensive
to build a course in the Lee style rather than manufacture
unnatural obstacles.
Golfers in
Tennessee are blessed to be able to play some of Lee’s courses.
Besides Stonehenge and Fall Creek Falls, there’s also the Landmark
Golf Club at Avalon, located about 20 miles outside of Knoxville
in Lenoir City.
“We had
available a large tract of land with the biggest stand of
hardwoods that I have ever worked with and some beautiful valleys
that allowed us to create outstanding natural looking golf holes,”
Lee said in a statement posted on Landmark’s website. … “This
versatile piece of property also contained an area that was
receptive to rather large spring fed lakes, which I worked into
the design of several golf holes."
If all that
sounds familiar, then you’ve had the pleasure of playing a Lee
course.
Lee died in
2003 at 81 after more than 50 years of building golf courses.
Those who knew him say he was easy going and friendly, without the
slightest bit of pretentiousness. You could say the same about his
work.
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