Washington Golf Alert

Field Notes: Brambleton

Brambleton in Ashburn, Va., is part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, whose two other courses are Algonkian in Sterling and the hilly Pohick Bay down in Lorton. Brambleton is a more interesting version of Algonkian (reviewed here). That means it's fairly level, but not nearly so much as Algonkian and with some long gradual marches uphill that will cut your carry and roll. It's also much more varied and has one of my favorite golf-course features: A scandalously easy first hole that does everything it can to launch golfers quickly on their merry way. Although last week, I scored a 7. Not so merry.

It's the closest thing I have to a home course, so let me reel this off the top of head: 1 is an easy straight par 4; No. 2 is a par 4 that doglegs slightly to the right with what amounts to a forced carry; 3 is a technically modest medium par 3; No. 4 a gentle dogleg par 4; No. 5 a short, quirky right-angle par 4 dogleg that rewards local knowledge and exact placement; No. 6 an open dogleft to the left that usually tempts even slightly long hitters to go straight over water; No. 7 the dreaded evil long and narrow par 5, with a rock-fringed creek preventing long runups; No. 8 another simple par 3; and 9 an open par 5. And so, on the front nine, you have probably experienced more variety than you will all day at Algonkian. Brambleton mixes it up on the back as well. Like Algonkian, its staff is almost always friendly and helpful, if sometimes harried by marauding golfers.

The photo shows No. 12, a short par 3 protected only by a pond in front of the green. It's the easiest hole on the back, at least according to the scorecard, but water has magical power to deflect balls all over the place. The photo doesn't show you the tee shot, which is direct, clear and slightly elevated; my cheap, go-for-the-melodrama photograph is from the cart path as you're walking down to the green.

You'll see a little more development around some of the holes, compared to Algonkian which is better sheltered by its park. The hundreds of McMansions you'll be driving by on your way there--and I do mean hundreds--have replaced what used to be a forest. But you can't see much of that from the course--the most jarring visual is a school to the left of the fourth hole, maybe two drivers away. They've cleared land to the left of the 7th, and eventually that may be depressing but for now it's helped dry the fairway, notorious for years as a wet one.

Speaking of wet, when I played there most recently it was difficult to judge the current quality of the turf, since we'd just emerged from a five-day deluge. But some of the fairways were more beat up than I'm used to this time of year; the 11th in particular needs work, regardless of local weather disasters. The greens were beautiful. Superficially they're among the easiest greens in the region, but the architect must have adopted some deceiving visual cues because they can break when they're not supposed to, and vice-versa.

My last outing was not a bad one, after my ignominious first hole. The back nine especially was almost perfect scrambling bogey golf, and bogey all around puts you right at 90. Soon, my friends, soon. Scorecard from FairwayFiles.com

Talent Demands Its Rights

Michelle Wie has always been honest and clear about where the LPGA fits into her plans. Briefly, whenever she feels like it. From Wie Has No Problems Being a 'Freelancer' by Leonard Shapiro in the Washington Post:

Although she is not eligible for LPGA membership until she is 18, she could petition the commissioner for early admittance. But at the moment, she says she has no intention of doing so.

"I feel like a freelancer," she said. "It almost reminds me of a newspaper, where you have your staff writers and then you have your freelance writers. I'm like the freelance writer. I love this freelancing. I'm playing a lot of tours. I'm playing the Japanese Tour, the Asian Tour, the PGA and LPGA. It's awesome.

Partly because freelancer Wie gets paid a bit more than your standard newspaper freelancer.

Wie doesn't wake up every morning dreaming about Nancy Lopez or even--not most days--Babe Zaharias. The LPGA is something of an afterthought, with women's majors to be fit in between the PGA and whatever king's ransom is available elsewhere from appearance fees. Wie's talent is so outrageous--her 16-yeard-old swing is so terrifying to any sane golfer--that it's hard to think of a reason to throw artificial obstacles in her way, even though there's something grating about an athlete who through circumstance and skill is doubling the opportunities available to her in a way not possible for men. I'm gonna do what I wanna do says Wie, ah, the impudence of youth.

Wie is one of the biggest sports stories of our time. I'll watch her whenever she plays. I can't help wondering what awaits her on the LPGA, when the rain starts falling. Impudence can last forever. Youth and health, never.

Linked at Wizbang's Carnival of Trackbacks

You're Not Doing What You Think You're Doing

As a golfer who currently spends a lot of his time hovering around 100 and fretting about forced carries, I read everything I can not only about lowering my scores but raising my knowledge about how well most hackers truly play. At the public courses I frequent--almost 80 in the greater DC region--not too damn well if you ask me. Also if you ask The Golf Channel's Chief Technical Adviser Frank Thomas, who I see has his own website and an emailed newsletter. In an April New York Times Op-Ed about reigning in length on the PGA tour with a standard golf ball, he mentions the following  in passing:

This idea is wrongheaded in several ways. To begin with, mandating such a ball would affect all players, and the vast majority of golfers don't hit the ball too far. (Nor do we hit the ball nearly as far as we think we do; well-supported data indicates that the average golfer hits a driver 192 yards — while thinking that he hits it  approximately 230.) It's safe to say that for most of us the  great layouts created a century ago still provide plenty of challenge.

I'm often vexed by a buddy of mine who outdrives me by a mile all day long, but if this is true I'll be fine when I'm swinging it well. My longest measured drive is 224 yards, shorter than many guys out there but no reason to hang my head. Either that or Thomas is crazy.