[Nick Ribeiro]

What don't you like about Torrey Pines? Personally I think it's terrible to make someone feel like a special golf moment wasn't real just because you don't like the course it happened on.

Nick, what, architecturally, do you like about Torrey Pines?

Erik,

Thanks for reporting to duty. Most people love Torrey Pines for its amazing coast line views and great conditions for a muni. It puts people in a mesmerizing state of joy, something many courses can't ever do. This along with the full tee sheet and never ending celebrity demand prove the greatness Torrey has to offer.

I think its a great piece of land routed as good as the land allows. The course is a championship design at 7700+ yards and provides extraordinary variety. You can use almost every club in your bag on the first 9 alone. The course does have narrow fairways (like Bethpage and Crooked Stick) putting a premium on accuracy and club selection off the tee, a part of the game not many good / average course provide anymore. Strategically placed bunkers, as opposed to doglegs, force players to think off the tee and play draws and fades. The course demands just about every shot you have providing endless variety. The green side bunkers are also challenging as they are designed for the ball to roll back to the middle. I am not sure what kind of grass the rough is but I found myself being punished by flier lies at Torrey Pines. I assume the city just doesn't put whats required into the rough to make it hard to get out of but its okay for me as I really haven't found to many courses where the penalty seems to be so many fliers. What's not to love about variety and uniqueness in challenge? The greens have some undulation and are a bit more predictable than the subtle break you would see at bethpage.

All in all I still like Bethpage better but 2 great courses and have their place in golf.

[Bill Charles]

What don't you like about Torrey Pines? Personally I think it's terrible to make someone feel like a special golf moment wasn't real just because you don't like the course it happened on.

Nick, what, architecturally, do you like about Torrey Pines?

Erik,

Thanks for reporting to duty. Most people love Torrey Pines for its amazing coast line views and great conditions for a muni. It puts people in a mesmerizing state of joy, something many courses can't ever do. This along with the full tee sheet and never ending celebrity demand prove the greatness Torrey has to offer.

I think its a great piece of land routed as good as the land allows. The course is a championship design at 7700+ yards and provides extraordinary variety. You can use almost every club in your bag on the first 9 alone. The course does have narrow fairways (like Bethpage and Crooked Stick) putting a premium on accuracy and club selection off the tee, a part of the game not many good / average course provide anymore. Strategically placed bunkers, as opposed to doglegs, force players to think off the tee and play draws and fades. The course demands just about every shot you have providing endless variety. The green side bunkers are also challenging as they are designed for the ball to roll back to the middle. I am not sure what kind of grass the rough is but I found myself being punished by flier lies at Torrey Pines. I assume the city just doesn't put whats required into the rough to make it hard to get out of but its okay for me as I really haven't found to many courses where the penalty seems to be so many fliers. What's not to love about variety and uniqueness in challenge? The greens have some undulation and are a bit more predictable than the subtle break you would see at bethpage.

All in all I still like Bethpage better but 2 great courses and have their place in golf.

Torrey Pines South is terrible. The tourists get it right, they show up and take pictures and never even step foot on the course.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Most people love Torrey Pines for its amazing coast line views and great conditions for a muni. It puts people in a mesmerizing state of joy, something many courses can't ever do. This along with the full tee sheet and never ending celebrity demand prove the greatness Torrey has to offer.

None of that is architectural.

I think its a great piece of land routed as good as the land allows. The course is a championship design at 7700+ yards and provides extraordinary variety. You can use almost every club in your bag on the first 9 alone. The course does have narrow fairways (like Bethpage and Crooked Stick) putting a premium on accuracy and club selection off the tee, a part of the game not many good / average course provide anymore. Strategically placed bunkers, as opposed to doglegs, force players to think off the tee and play draws and fades. The course demands just about every shot you have providing endless variety. The green side bunkers are also challenging as they are designed for the ball to roll back to the middle. I am not sure what kind of grass the rough is but I found myself being punished by flier lies at Torrey Pines. I assume the city just doesn't put whats required into the rough to make it hard to get out of but its okay for me as I really haven't found to many courses where the penalty seems to be so many fliers. What's not to love about variety and uniqueness in challenge? The greens have some undulation and are a bit more predictable than the subtle break you would see at bethpage.

I highlighted the few words there that try to speak to the architecture of the course (sadly, flier lies do not), but they're used so generically along with generic stuff like "use every club in your bag" that it ends up demonstrating quite a bit about how little you truly know about architecture.

And trust me, I'm not saying I know much of anything about architecture, but that's one of the reasons I'm here: to learn about it from those who know it inside and out.

[Bill Charles]

Most people love Torrey Pines for its amazing coast line views and great conditions for a muni. It puts people in a mesmerizing state of joy, something many courses can't ever do. This along with the full tee sheet and never ending celebrity demand prove the greatness Torrey has to offer.

None of that is architectural.

I think its a great piece of land routed as good as the land allows. The course is a championship design at 7700+ yards and provides extraordinary variety. You can use almost every club in your bag on the first 9 alone. The course does have narrow fairways (like Bethpage and Crooked Stick) putting a premium on accuracy and club selection off the tee, a part of the game not many good / average course provide anymore. Strategically placed bunkers, as opposed to doglegs, force players to think off the tee and play draws and fades. The course demands just about every shot you have providing endless variety. The green side bunkers are also challenging as they are designed for the ball to roll back to the middle. I am not sure what kind of grass the rough is but I found myself being punished by flier lies at Torrey Pines. I assume the city just doesn't put whats required into the rough to make it hard to get out of but its okay for me as I really haven't found to many courses where the penalty seems to be so many fliers. What's not to love about variety and uniqueness in challenge? The greens have some undulation and are a bit more predictable than the subtle break you would see at bethpage.

I highlighted the few words there that try to speak to the architecture of the course (sadly, flier lies do not), but they're used so generically along with generic stuff like "use every club in your bag" that it ends up demonstrating quite a bit about how little you truly know about architecture.

And trust me, I'm not saying I know much of anything about architecture, but that's one of the reasons I'm here: to learn about it from those who know it inside and out.

Nick associates architecture with ranking. He sees panelists word as scripture which is why he mimics their criteria. Nick is incapable of knowing good architecture which is why he is a fan of terrible golf courses such as but not limited to: Bethpage, Crooked Stick, and Torrey Pines south.


Nick are there any other slogs you love?

[John Emerson]

From an architectural stand point could some tell me why there isn't much love for Torrey Pines South? When I've played it the fairways were not narrow. I've played when it's been wet and the rough has been brutal but I've also played it when the rough was fine. Length isn't an issue. You can't play the pro tees and the others range from 7051 to 6153. Not long for a par 72 course. There are no forced carries. Seems to me that the course can be played and enjoyed by all levels of golfers. Look forward to hearing from the experts. Thanks

There is one forced carry but I can’t remember what hole.  I believe it’s the last par 3 on the back after the par four up the hill to the ocean infinity green.  It’s not a true forced carry though so I guess I’m solitting hairs.  The canyon cuts way in so if the pin is left half of green it’s all carry to the hole.

[Pete Lavallee]

You’re probably thinking of of the left hand alternate tee on #16, which makes the shot all carry over the barranca and the left side bunker. This tee is rarely used for regular play.

[John Emerson]

You’re probably thinking of of the left hand alternate tee on #16, which makes the shot all carry over the barranca and the left side bunker. This tee is rarely used for regular play.

Pete, guess I’m the lucky one...I’ve played it twice and both times the tees have been in this spot . Better hole there imo.

[Matthew Petersen]

Strategically placed bunkers, as opposed to doglegs, force players to think off the tee and play draws and fades. The course demands just about every shot you have providing endless variety. The green side bunkers are also challenging as they are designed for the ball to roll back to the middle. I am not sure what kind of grass the rough is but I found myself being punished by flier lies at Torrey Pines. I assume the city just doesn't put whats required into the rough to make it hard to get out of but its okay for me as I really haven't found to many courses where the penalty seems to be so many fliers. What's not to love about variety and uniqueness in challenge? The greens have some undulation and are a bit more predictable than the subtle break you would see at bethpage.

Though it doesn't really have many doglegs, I agree that other than a few holes (9, 12, 13 and 15) most holes at Torrey kind of twist one way or another in the landing zone for the drive. Often there is a bunker somewhere in that landing zone. My quibble would be that the bunkers are typically 3-5 yards deep in the rough, and if there was no bunker there at all, the fairway cute would still provide the same awkward challenge for driving on the hole. As you say, rough at Torrey Pines is punishing. At both north and south I've found that lies in the rough that don't even look that bad will sometimes produce flyers and sometimes be hard to advance. It's not a course where you want to miss fairways. So they could take all the fairway bunkers out and I'm not sure it would change the driving challenges all that much (or the overall difficulty of the course).


I do think the course would be better if the fairways were widened out to where those bunkers were just so it brought them more into play. As it is now a lot of drives find the rough between the fairway and the bunkers and I don't get the point of that. If the course went to the expense of building and maintaining those fairway bunkers, they ought to get them more in play for more shots.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()