Shaftesbury Glen Golf and Fish Club Opens Minds to Tillinghast's Design Principles
CONWAY, SC (June 25, 2002) - Images of Bethpage's Black Course are still fresh in the minds of golf fans following the wildly (emphasis on wild) successful 2002
U.S. Open. The elevated green complexes, the flashed up bunker faces, and the open green fronts wrought by legendary Scottish-born golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast are now officially part of the American golf conscious.
The eclectic designer's hallmarks have left an indelible impression on even the most casual, recreational golfer.
The Glens Group, purveyors of the newly opened Shaftesbury Glen Golf and Fish Club, are banking on this impression being a good one. Two years ago, they hired Hilton Head-based architect Clyde Johnston to craft a layout with an "inspired by" Tillinghast theme. Rather than Bethpage, however, the model for Shaftesbury Glen was Tillinghast's famed West Course at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY.
"I think the hallmark of Shaftesbury Glen is the greens,
which were modeled after Winged Foot's," Johnston says.
"But I like to say that the design of Shaftesbury Glen
was inspired by Winged Foot and Tillinghast's style, not
copied."
The Glens Group handpicked Johnston to design its Donald Ross inspired course, Glen Dornoch Waterway Golf Links, after a triumphant collaboration with mentor Willard Byrd at Heather Glen Golf Links back in 1987. Johnston has since gone on to design a mess of award winning courses around the southeast, but the North Carolina State alumnus jumped at the chance to put the final design feather in the Glens Group's cap.
"It was a no-brainer for the Glens Group when it came to who would design this course," says Shaftesbury Glen head professional Rich Ballinger. "Clyde is the type of guy and his is with the type of firm that are going to bury themselves in the meaningful details."
Johnston spent many coffee soaked hours pouring over old photographs of the West Course, and read every book and magazine article about the storied club he could get his hands on. He visited Winged Foot twice and developed a chronological progression of the course's evolution from the hands of Tillinghast in 1923 to remodeling jobs by George and Tom Fazio.
More importantly, Johnston gained an idea of what made Tillinghast tick. "Tillie" as he was known by his contemporaries, was the consummate Roaring 20's Renaissance Man - dressed to the nines and quick with a drink, a smile, and a story. As an architect, Tillinghast was given to sitting under the biggest shade tree on the property, drink in hand, while strapping lads and mule sleds carried out his orders. As a businessman he cherished profit margin as much as he relished a glass of whiskey, despite being born into considerable wealth. His classic design at Winged Foot would prove to be one of his many legacies, and Johnston thinks he's captured its essence.
"It is interesting to note that the earliest photos of Winged Foot showed very little sand flashing on the bunkers so that detail emerged somewhat later," Johnston says. "It was also interesting to see Bethpage Black during the Open and how the bunker style there is so similar to Winged Foot, via (the remodeling by) Rees Jones."
"That" detail wastes little time emerging at Shaftesbury, however. The par four opening hole features a laser straight fairway capped by a Tillinghast-esque elevated green with a flashed up bunker on its left front. This style of bunkering is omnipresent up until the par four 18th, which sports no less than five greenside traps.
Conceptually, Johnston and the Glens Group have succeeded where so many have failed - they have created a truly unique golf course amid a sea of obedient clones. But Johnston is the first to admit that Winged Foot's and Shaftesbury Glen are about as similar as biscuits and bagels when it comes to the land they're built on. Missing from Shaftesbury Glen are the rolling hills and towering hardwood trees of rural New York. Pinch-hitting in this case is the daunting landscape of the Waccamaw River basin: stick pine trees, mud bogs and black clouds of mosquitoes.
"Being that the site was quite different in many ways from Winged Foot, I had to design what I felt would have some of the same characteristics and flavor of Winged Foot but work for my client to serve his market in Myrtle Beach," Johnston says.
Johnston's clients, in this case, aren't a bunch of good ole boys out to make a buck or two off touring Yankees. Shaftsbury's owners, Paul and Jack Himelsbach, actually hail from New York and the brothers are committed to developing the course in Winged Foot's spitting image. Later this summer, Johnston will make a return visit to help with planting plans for a crop of new trees and a series of new fairway bunkers that should go a long way towards distinguishing the layout.
If there's one knock on Shaftesbury, it's that some of the holes lack individuality. There are only so many flat fairways and elevated greens one can piece together before monotony comes a calling. But Johnston thinks the course will come into its own five or ten years down the road once the full design concept is implemented.
"Shaftesbury Glen will need many years to mature into a finished product and the client and I are working toward that end," he says. "From the beginning, we realized that the land did not lend much to the design and that we would have to tweak the design as well as add tree plantings over time to get the look we were after. Adding fairway bunkers is an effort to increase both the visual and difficulty of the course."
For now, golfers can count on two things at Shaftesbury Glen: playability and conditioning. Slightly elevated tee boxes provide unobstructed views of behemoth landing areas and the A-1 bentgrass greens are the best thing to hit the Strand since the River Club swiped a few acres of the turf off the truck bound for Augusta National a couple years ago.
"It was important to us to get bentgrass greens out here," says Ballinger. "There's a lot of talk about the Ultra Dwarf grasses and courses around here are having success with them. But bentgrass is still the preferred putting surface for golfers from the north."
Ballinger has enjoyed stints at both Glen Dornoch and Heather Glen, but predictably shies away from any strong assertions as to which of the three courses is cream of the Glens Group crop.
"Shaftesbury Glen isn't as difficult as Glen Dornoch. Glen Dornoch is a tee ball golf course and a placement golf course off the tee and those two are opposites in that regard," Ballinger says. "Shaftesbury Glen is an approach shot golf course. Make sure you are on top of your iron game and hit the greens or you better be pretty handy with your sand wedge."
And pretty handy with directions if you expect to find the course. Like its muse, the enigmatic Tillinghast, Shaftesbury Glenn's location is a mystery to many. The course technically resides in the old river town of Conway off Highway 905, but with the opening of the Conway Bypass, its only ten minutes away from the beach's famous restaurant row. Greens fees, as Ballinger puts it, are on the lower end of the high side, which translates into $100 in the spring and fall peak seasons, and $59 in the summer and winter.
The Vitals
Shaftesbury Glen Golf and Fish Club
681 Caines Landing Road, Conway, SC 29526
For Tee Times: 1-866-409-2177
Where to Stay
The Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in Little River, SC is the ideal homebase to play Shaftesbury and any of the 30-plus golf courses located within a 20-minute drive of the hotel. The Holiday Inn is located off U.S. Highway 17 at Coquina Harbor.
Suites include a spacious living room with television, refrigerator, and coffee maker, and are available in one and two bedroom versions with whirlpool bathtubs. Phones come equipped with two data ports with high-speed Internet access and all local calls are free. For reservations call 1-888-333-2686, or inquire about rates and golf packages when booking through www.myrtlebeachtourism.com.
Where to Eat
The Coquina Clubhouse Grill and Bar at the Holiday Inn is a great place to catch a beer and a burger and watch the boats come in. A full bar menu is available, happy hour runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and an early bird menu features dinner specials for under $7. Umbertos Italian Restaurant is just a sand blast away on the southeast side of the hotel, and the seafood joints and crab shacks of Little River are only five minutes away. Restaurant Row is situated about halfway between Shaftesbury Glen and the Holiday Inn, so take your pick of the all-you-can-eat Calabash style seafood joints.
Shane Sharp is a Contributing Writer with TravelGolf.com. Contact him at sharp@travelgolf.com
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