associate Seth Raynor to modernise the design and move holes off the tracks. Macdonald and Raynor remodelled parts of the old Dunn routing and then added a series of holes that extended north towards the neighbouring Na- tional Golf Links of America, installing their favourite concepts like the Biar- ritz, Eden, Cape and Long. But when the state of New York announced in 1927 its intention to run the new Sun- rise Highway through a section of the course, the club began purchasing land to the north and west for a new layout. The club’s architect, Flynn, kept the location of several Macdonald-Raynor holes but expanded the majority of the new design into this more topographi- cally rich terrain.
HOLE 7 PAR 3, 185 YARDS
HOLE 9 PAR 4, 481 YARDS
The par-3 seventh was originally Mac- donald and Raynor’s Redan hole. Fly- nn altered the bunkering but kept the angled, altar-like, front-to-back tilted green. Unlike the original Redan at North Berwick in Scotland or Macdonald’s ver- sion next door at National, tee shots can’t easily be chased on and need to be flown all the way to the front edge of the put- ting surface. The combination of wind, extreme green slope and the fatal bunker short right makes No 7 the most challeng- ing version of the Redan to play. The 3.65 scoring average during the final round of the 2004 US Open confirms it.
Another Macdonald hole that Flynn worked into his design is the mighty ninth, a par 4 that has few peers in terms of difficulty and uniqueness. The blind fairway is a scroll of glacial waves with a modestly level section on the left reachable only by the longest hit- ters. Most drives settle into uneven lies, leaving long, blind, curving approach shots to a wickedly tilted green sitting just steps from the clubhouse veranda and some 25 feet above a bank of fes- cue and bunkers. Coming up short is a common, costly occurrence, but being above the hole is almost as hazardous.
HOLE 9
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 71
JUNE 2026
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