Conjuring an Old Master

Unlike most architects, Mr. Doak and his team don't draw up detailed plans for their courses before building. Instead, the routing and individual hole designs emerge from "walking around and talking," (italics DMS) as Mr. Bahto put it. During my visit, the focal point was the 17th hole, a par-five that will have a divided fairway. Over two days in the Oregon rain, I saw crew members in clumps of two or three (except for Mr. Doak, who often wandered alone) roving up and down the would-be hole, pondering its future. A creek to divide the fairways was discussed and rejected as unnatural. The hilly left shoulder of the east fairway was "softened" with a bulldozer to be less penal. After much discussion, the site for a bunker halfway down the hole was finally selected, flagged and dug out. But still parts of the puzzle of the 17th, including the approaches to the green, remained unsolved. 

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