The Course
Twenty-seven holes, one standard of turf.
Brae's eighteen and Marchant's nine, kept to the same cut since 1968. Play any two nines as your round; the card below reads them hole by hole.
NINE 01 · PAR 35 · 3,208 YDS
The Hollow Nine
Harold Brae, 1924
Short on the card, mean in the wind: blind saddles, pot bunkers and one par three you will talk about at dinner.
Brae found these nine holes in the folds of the old sheep hollow and barely touched them. Nothing measures long, and nothing plays as it measures; the third drops into the hollow itself, a wedge shot that has ruined more cards than the creek ever will.
NINE 02 · PAR 36 · 3,377 YDS
The Westwall Nine
Harold Brae, 1924
The long way home. Everything turns against the evening wind, and the fifth has been the club's hardest hole since 1924.
The ridge line the members call the Westwall gives this nine its weather. Doglegs work into the prevailing breeze, fairways tilt toward trouble, and par here is a score you shake hands on. When the club hosts matchplay, it finishes on the Westwall.
NINE 03 · PAR 36 · 3,290 YDS
The Creekside Nine
Ellis Marchant, 1968
Marchant's water music: the creek crosses five times, and the stone bridge on the fourth is the most photographed yard of the club.
Built forty-four years after the original eighteen and instructed to be invisible, the Creekside walks lower ground along the water. It is the gentlest opening mile at the club and the sternest closing three holes, which is exactly how Marchant described it to the committee.
The scorecard, hole by hole
Now reading
The Hollow Nine
- PAR
- 4
- YARDS
- 401
- INDEX
- 7
Short on the card, mean in the wind: blind saddles, pot bunkers and one par three you will talk about at dinner.
Score card
PAR 35 · 3,208 YDS
| HOLE | PAR | YARDS | INDEX |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 401 | 7 |
| 2 | 4 | 388 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | 156 | 17 |
| 4 | 5 | 522 | 9 |
| 5 | 4 | 366 | 11 |
| 6 | 3 | 189 | 13 |
| 7 | 4 | 429 | 1 |
| 8 | 4 | 344 | 15 |
| 9 | 4 | 413 | 5 |
Course Care
The condition is the product
Nine greenkeepers walk out before first light, every day the club is open. Greens are cut by hand, run true to a posted speed, and rested the moment the weather argues.
Winter works are published to members each May: which bunkers, which drainage lines, which of Brae's contours are being eased back to his drawings. Standards you can read are standards you can hold.
- GREENS CUT DAILY, DAWN
- FESCUE ROUGH LEFT TO THE WIND
- WINTER WORKS PUBLISHED TO MEMBERS
The Card
The card has carried the same four columns since 1931. Members mark it in pencil, return it to the box, and the handicapper does the rest. Some things at the Hollow are not improved, only kept.
Read the card, then come play it.
Numbers only say so much. A guest day with a member is how the Hollow makes its real argument.