If you saw Michael Bamberger's article about Tom Doak in Sports Ill last week, you're probably dying to know of the cruel and unusual comments the outspoken architect made about Philadelphia area courses in his controversial book The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses.
As it happens, I have a copy of the hard-to-find tome. So, without further ado, here are snippets from a couple of his mini-reviews:
Huntingdon Valley CC
Set in a wooded bowl that bottoms out just a bit too abruptly, the front nine goes around the exterior of the property like it was routed by Richard Petty -- all left turns with high right-to-left banks.
Gulph Mills GC
The premier old-money clulb in Philadelphia...There are some excellent holes -- the short 4th over a deep valley, and the 6th and 11th with their distinctive greens...but some of the supporting cast are fairly dull, and a couple are radically overdone (the 10th in particular)
Philadelphia Cricket
Some observers favor this course as one of Philadelphia's top five, but only to break up William Flynn's monopoly. It wouldn't make a list of Tillinghast's best work...
Stone Harbor
Without a doubt, this is the most ridiculous golf course I have seen to date...
...more to come
