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Winged Foot Golf Club- My Promotion

• oppy 286 Posts

  Tue, Jan 26 2010 6:14 PM

  As a bit of an encouragement to WGT to one day get Winged Foot on this site. I have uploaded some photos to show everyone how great a course it is, for those who may not know ;)

  All of the "untitled" photos are mostly of Winged Foot West and maybe two or three of the east course. Enjoy: http://www.panoramio.com/user/4029923

• SweetiePie 4,925 Posts

  Tue, Jan 26 2010 7:31 PM

  Without question, one of America's finest, best maintained, most difficult and private tracks. I vote yes.

• Showtime29 70 Posts

  Tue, Feb 2 2010 5:52 PM

  Great call...I grew up in this area and although I have never had the chance to play it,  I have heard some great stories from those who have.  The rough even in non-Open conditions can be BRUTAL to say the least.

  Winged Foot was also another AW Tillinghast creation...I saw in another thread someone called BB "gimmicky", which is pretty funny considering how ahead of his time he was with some of his course designs.  His courses played tough then, and they play tough now despite the advances in club and ball technology.  I think that is the best compliment you can give.

• oppy 286 Posts

  Tue, Feb 2 2010 7:25 PM

  I am sorry you never had the chance to play it, it was really only by mere luck that I got my chance. And yes the rough was nasty, although it may have been even worse if it had been in the summer months when the grass get lush and thick. AW Tillinghast is my favorite course designer, anybody who calls his courses "gimmicky" has no knowledge whatsoever about his courses or if just not very smart. I would call most of Pete Dye's courses gimmicky. Tillie certainly does deserve alot of credit for how he has so many great courses that withstood the test of time, and even with modern technology, are still challenged for the world's best golfers.

• chipshotcharlie 538 Posts

  Tue, Feb 2 2010 10:43 PM

  No offence guys and gals but enough of the US courses its WGT not USGT or is it like most of your world series where your the only country to compete.There are beautiful courses all around the world,but i guess this is asking a little too much as StAndrews seems to be a pipe dream.

  thx chippy

   

• danohi50 1,020 Posts

  Wed, Feb 3 2010 1:28 AM

  Wingfoot West is a wonderful design from the classic era of American golf course design.

  I had the pleasure of working with Steve Gazis on this course for accolades Golden Bear 6

  or JN6 as it was called in other circles. (still a fine game).

  It would make a fantastic addition to WGT.

  Because of its similarities to Beth Page, I would rather see a totally different style of design.

  Avenel, though not considered a great design in the real golf world, (and I don't know why)makes for a very interesting golf simulation. A rare combination of strategic design, with elements of risk and reward scattered threw-out this beautiful parkland style course. It has one of those scenic pebble edged streams meandering threw out the course.

  Another fine design is Jack Nicklaus's excellent Muirfield village. Although I like Shoal Creek better.

  Yes Chipshot, I understand your point..But I mostly know US courses so that's what I think about.

  How about sending pictures of some of the courses you would like to see?

• ChristopherRouss 133 Posts

  Wed, Feb 3 2010 4:47 AM

  I'm an american and I bet Winged foot would be a fun course to play here. I also agree with our foreign compatriots here that we need more courses from the rest of theworld too.... and don't tell me... you got St. Andrews, which is cool when we do finally get to play the whole course... I've suggested a few courses including more from England, the U.S, the Philippines, so why don't you foreigners suggest more courses? And maybe find out what WGT needs to be able to get the courses. I am sure there are many legal fees and they need thousands of photos for every hole. When I'm old and gray we'll probably have a wide variety of courses available here to play.....

• oppy 286 Posts

  Wed, Feb 3 2010 5:12 AM

  Well yes I would say there is going to need to be more foreign courses, but remember, the USA does have the most of the top courses in the world. This is just a fact, So it is only makes sense that WGT will have more USA courses. But danohi, I wouldn't say that Winged Foot is too similar to Bethpage, I would actually say they are pretty different. The only real similarities they have are that they were designed by the same architect, the greens are relatively the same size, and they are both in New York. For one thing, Bethpage certainly requires more of a power game, being a good 300-400 yards longer than Winged Foot. In addition, the massive bunkers on Bethpage dwarf the smaller bunker on Winged Foot. BP is also a much more open layout, while WF is tightly treelined on just about every hole. Also, BP features dramatic changed in elevation, while the only hole that has any real elevation change on WF is 15. There is also no scrub/waste/fescue area on Winged Foot. So I really don't think BP is also that similar to WF.

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Wed, Feb 3 2010 7:12 AM

  oppy:

  Well yes I would say there is going to need to be more foreign courses, but remember, the USA does have the most of the top courses in the world. This is just a fact, So it is only makes sense that WGT will have more USA courses. .......

  oppy, here's an eye opener for you..

  Golf magazine does, in their words, "the most thorough and respected rankings(of golf courses) in golf.  In their 2009 rankings of the World's Top 100 Courses, the US has 51 and the World has 49.  Not an overwhelming majority, barely the most.  Break it down by population and the US has 1 top 100 course per 6 million people.  The small corner of the globe I'll call the British Isles (UK + Ireland) including England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland has 1 top 100 per 2.4 million people.  That's 2 and a half times more top 100 courses per person than the US.

  Looking at top 100 courses per million golfers.  The U.S. also lags behind the World.

  The U.S. has 1.4 top courses/ million golfers, the World has 2.0 top courses/million golfers.

  (source of number of golfers:

  http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=244889)

  Here's the Top 100 list:

  Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses in the World

  What do we have now?

  -Pete Dye, KI Ocean course, ranked 47th

  -A.W. Tillinghast, Bethpage Black, ranked 35th

  and 'coming soon'

  -Designed by nature, St. Andrews, ranked 4th

  My opinion now, what course would I want to see next?  It should be a top 50 in the world, but it doesn't matter to me who designed it, or what country it is in.  It should get my adrenaline flowing, it should be the one course I would play if it was the last course I could ever play.

  Winged Foot ain't it.

  Augusta would be it, but that ain't gonna happen.

  Pebble Beach is next on my list.

  Then Cypress Point or Spyglass.

  Yeah, its probably true the reason is I've seen them so much on TV.  But so what?

  Here's some photos to drool over.  That Cape Kidnappers in N.Z really caught my eye.

  Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses Photo Gallery

   

   

• Showtime29 70 Posts

  Wed, Feb 3 2010 8:14 AM

  I couldnt agree more...Quaker Ridge, Winged Foot and Bethpage Black all have Tilly qualities, but play VERY different from one another. 

  I wouldnt mind seeing a new course from the Far East.  As far as golf course design, they are doing some very interesting stuff with respect to the layouts and appearance/contrast.  I dont remember the course off hand, but the Golf Channel broadcasted a tourney last year from there, and the course had this awesome contrast of colors from Tee to Fairway to Rough to Green.