KWINIASSKA G.C.: 'Kwinny' has come a long way
|
|
BOB FREDETTE / HERALD STAFF |
Toolbox
By Bob Fredette Herald Staff - Published: July 3, 2009
The Vermont Amateur returns to Kwiniaska next week and while there may not be many players who played in the 1994 championship here that return, those select few will be seeing a golf course that is a lot different.
And "different" means "better."
No longer is Big Kwinny a course that gets burned out due to lack of irrigation, and allows your tee ball to run all day. The course has had wall-to-wall water for several years and boasts excellent, fair conditions. An aggressive program has been implemented to remove weeds and foreign grasses from fairways and rough. And, you might expect, in 15 years the place has done some growing up, which has only a little bit to do with its 6,848 yards from the back tees (other tees are at 6,601, 5,800 and 5,246 yards).
"I think the course is a great test of golf. I think we proved that with the last amateur that we had here where even par won by four shots," head PGA pro Mike Bailey said.
"People look at the length and think it's a long-hitter's golf course and that the long hitters will have the advantage here. But you've got to have a good short game. Here you're hitting the ball pretty good if you're hitting 12 or 13 greens a round. That's pretty good ball striking. So you've got to get it up and down."
Kwiniaska is also fairly diverse.
Some greens bend down to greet the fairway while others, like the tough finishing 18th, are elevated with sticky rough in the front. Some greens are deep and not very wide and other wide and not very deep.
"So there's a bunch of different kinds of shots and that's what makes it a great test," Bailey said.
"The quality of the course now as compared to 1994 … there's no comparison. The fairways are much healthier, with much purer grass."
The rough is also being recovered and is pretty unpredictable stuff; it will grab your wedge around the green if you aren't careful. The rough is typically 2-1/2 inches and the greens, which are putting true, roll a hair under 10 on the Stimpmeter.
But that's not the extent of the differences in the course from 1994 and today.
The growth of trees has changed the character of some holes and puts more chance into the equation when you roll the dice. On dogleg right No. 7, for instance, you could hit into trees trying to take a bite out of the corner from the tee and still have shot to the green most of the time. That was then.
"You can cut some of the dogleg off but if you can't fly it all the way, don't try to take it all. Where you might have hit into a stand of trees on that dogleg and gotten away with it, with a clear shot to the green, now 70 percent of the time you don't," Bailey said.
The par-5s are all birdie holes while the par-3s are good tests at 192, 191, 182 and 202 yards. And you don't want to be above the pin on any of them.
Terry DeLeo of The Quechee Club won the 1994 Am, cashing in after his longtime antagonists, Shawn Baker and Hans Albertsson, left the fold.
The field might be stronger this time around with an infusion of talented collegians and high school players in the last several years, but Bailey would be surprised to see anyone going very low.
"I think if someone (breaks par) they would have played a really good round," he said.
That could mean Kwiniaska has matched the improvement of the Vermont Am field, step for step.