My favorite activity, commenting on Camden Country Club on Golf Club Atlas!!
First, Brent and Tim’s comments regarding Camden’s par 3 holes are fairly typical for visitors. These holes are the “guts” of the course and are incredibly varied; ranging from (back tees) 140 yards to 245, on a course of under 6500 yards total. I really can’t choose a favorite among them, each has it’s own trademark. The recently retired Carolinas Golf Association Director of Competitions once described #2 as the hardest par 3 to hit in two he’d ever seen….. Miss left and you’re faced with a bunker shot to a green running away from you, miss right and the bunker shot is generally 6’ to 8’ below the green surface, and long is well and truly dead. #6 is just a brute of a 245 yard shot, difficult even if a hundred or so trees were taken out (needed and gradually being addressed). #8 has a green that makes the hole play completely differently depending on the day’s pin placement. #12 (Camden’s only COMPLETELY original Donald Ross hole) is a challenging approach to a green where you must not be above the hole, and #17 is a simple, but very difficult hole especially with it’s placement in the round. Anyone playing the one shotters close to par will have the opportunity to have a very fine round.
Kris has done an outstanding job (it’s an ongoing process) with the restoration. Generally, the marching orders were:
1) Restore the green complexes, as much as possible, to play as Ross intended when built in 1938. An unfortunate 2000-01 renovation had unintentionally rendered several more severe than was originally the case, making them only marginally playable.
2) Eliminate a significant amount of rough, returning those areas to natural hardpan/sandy waste areas.
3) Eliminate a number of shallow, “clamshell” bunkers that had been added over the years, restoring both Travis and Ross features which had either been eliminated or lost.
As Brent said, most of the changes are fairly subtle and might not be noticed by a casual or very occasional visitor.
#1 Probably the most visually striking change to the course was the elimination of rough on the right the length of the hole, and addition of a number of Travis style bunkers and chocolate drop mounds on the left between the 150’ and 100’ markers. Originally a par 5 shortened to a 4 when the swimming pool was added in the ‘50s, these changes tend to bring back the challenge to the approach, as better players are laying further back to avoid the bunkers.
#2 Left bunker was rebuilt and extended through the front of the green. Largely done to address a drainage problem, this has greatly improved the look and playability of the hole.
#3 Green was significantly recontoured to recapture lost pin positions. This green has a front/back and right/left total elevation change resulting in an average slope of around 8%! Kris creatively crafted pinnable plateaus within this great green.
#4 Rebuilt left front bunker, extending the front across the fairway as Ross had it. A new grass bunker beyond the left edge of this trap is a neat feature. The green was slightly recontoured to recapture a back right pin, and to recapture a spine running into the green from a mound at its rear (a feature Ross incorporated numerous times in his design drawings, and which Kris rebuilt in this renovation).
#5 Reshaped the green so that the entire surface is useable (before, the bottom left HALF of the green was unpinnable). Again, a spine running into the green from a rear mound was recaptured.
#7 This hole was changed (as previously noted) from a brute of a par 4 to a “sporty” (Kris’s description) par 5. The green is the defense of the hole; elite players routinely have short iron approaches.
#8 This green was significantly recontoured, previously the left half of the surface averaged 5-8% slope and was obviously unusable.
#11 As Brent noted, the left side of this green was restored to bunker as designed by Ross. I think this is the best green/bunker complex on the course….. overly aggressive approaches to a back left pin will inevitably feed to the bunker.
#12 This green was recontoured to recapture lost pins, and to reincorporate a spine running into the green from a rear mound.
#14 Changed from a par 5 back to a long 4 as both Ross and Travis designed it. Normally playing abut 470’ from the back tees, this hole can be stretched to 500’ from a tee not used in every day play but which is still maintained (it was used in a college tournament this year for the last round).
#15 Two poorly sited fairway bunkers added in the 2000 renovation were removed, and a large Travis-style “upside down bunker” was restored. The green was reshaped to recapture pinnable area.
#17 A right fairway bunker was repositioned to bring it back into play on the drive, and the green was greatly reshaped (this one was butchered in the 2000 renovation).
#18 A new back tee was added to add 35’ or so to the hole, and the green restored to the original design.
The goal of presenting a challenge to the elite player while maintaining a playable course for the membership has certainly been achieved. Hosting the 2013 Carolinas Senior Amateur, +4 won (Paul Simson, who has won the US, Canadian, and British Senior Ams shot 69, 69, 81!) on a layout playing around 6000 yards. In the 2014 Carolinas Junior +3 won, and in a tournament hosted by the University of South Carolina earlier this year, -9 won the individual title by six shots (that kid was on fire… he actually had it to -14 through 49 holes, but dropped five shots on the last five holes). A new competitive course record of 63 was set during that tournament, but nobody else has bested 67 in tournament play. Camden can be had, but it takes somebody firing on all cylinders. It remains a really fun day to day course at the same time.
Nice to see such an old track (Walter Travis, 1923; Donald Ross 1939) stay relevant to today’s game!