THE PINES

     In Absecon, New Jersey, not far from Atlantic City, is
a golf resort named Seaview.  There are two 18-hole courses
-- The Pines and The Bay.  The Bay used to host an LPGA
tournament annually in late summer, but the weather was so
often bad at that time of year that it was moved elsewhere.
The Pines is a much better course.  It has been said that
the pros would not want to have a tournament there because
it's too difficult.
     My mother and father and I used to go and stay for a
few days at the hotel in the summer when I was in high
school and play the courses, and playing The Pines with my
father was the peak experience of my golfing life.
     This was probably closer to 30 than 25 years ago, and
the course that I have designed is based entirely on memory.
The par 3's (except for 16) all blend together in my mind,
and I can't remember #11.  Some of the holes are quite clear
in my mind, right down to the individual sandtraps.  Others
I retain just a general impression of.  In some cases, I
suspect this impression is somewhat of an exaggeration, but
maybe not -- this course has some enormous sandtraps.
     At any rate, the nostalgia and sheer pleasure of
wandering around in my memory has made this the most
enjoyable golf course design experience so far for me, and I
recommend it to any golf course designer, if there is a
course somewhere in your life that you haven't seen for
years that you have a special affection for -- try and see
how much you remember.
     The course is eminently playable, much easier than it
is in reality.  I have not exaggerated its difficulties for
the computer.  The routing, however, is a little whimsical,
for people who notice such things.  This course is deep in
the forest.  There is nothing even resembling a view of the
sea.  You are lost from the moment you step off the first
tee.  The 10th hole is nowhere near anywhere, and it's even
a bit of a walk from the 18th back to the hotel.
     I designed the holes without regard to routing, then
created an impressionistic land plot, set down new routings,
and fed the completed holes into the new routing layout.
They follow each other, but there's no rhyme or reason to
it, other than to create a visual impression of a forest.
     If anyone comes across this course who has actually
played Seaview, it would be interesting to hear from them.
I have consciously altered only two holes -- 10 and 18.  In
fact, #5 was the only water hole on the course.  The rest is
as close to "reality" as I could come.
     If you're wondering where the giant turtle is, don't
give up looking -- it's there, somewhere, courtesy of Ian
Matthews.
     The marshy bushes or bulrushes or whatever they are and
the marshmallows or water lilies or whatever you want to
call them are courtesy of Michael Potter, and are the main
inspiration for my improvisations on #'s 10 and 18.  They
come from his excellent course, Castle Springs, which I
recommend highly.  The trees are from Heather Breeze,
another course of mine.  I had been wanting to do a forest
course for a long time, and in designing the group of three
pine trees for Heather Breeze, where they are really only
used on three or four holes, I felt that there was potential
for creating the foresty feel that up until then I had been
unable to achieve.  They've just been altered a little by
putting in some underbrush.  With luck, the computer golfer
who plays The Pines will not be putting in any underbrush.
     
                                        Revery
                                        1/7/92