HOLE No. 15par 4 428 yards
THE ORIGINAL TEE ON 15 was just steps away from the 14th green, where the drink-ing water is now. This would make for a ninety-degree dogleg today, but the corner was gentler before the tree-planting binge of the late 1960s. “It was an iron shot, a 1-iron, 2-iron,” Ned Steiner said. “It was hard for women, because there was only one tee and they couldn’t get around the dogleg.” Aerial photos from 1931 show two bunkers at the inner corner of the dogleg, even though none appear on Ross’s sketches.

For 2012, the left-hand bunker was moved twenty-five yards farther from the tee. The tall pin oak that stood on the corner of the dogleg was taken down, offering longer hitters a chance to carry the left bunker and leave themselves a much shorter approach shot.

The wide green is raised three feet in the front and five and a half feet at the rear. “Ross draped the collars right over the edge of the fill pad [the full area raised so the putting surface will drain]—that’s beautiful,” said Prichard. “Nothing’s going to hold the ball; if it’s still got momentum after climbing and it wants to get over the back of the green, it’s released.”

Golf_15
Ross_15Field Sketch by Donald Ross