What’s Old is New Again!
Some joker brought a giant thermometer to our game at Old American Golf Club last week. As the needle nosed toward 115, James Monroe began to pant after the exertion of pressing the accelerator pedal on his cart, and Dan Strimple cut back on the twitches and tics in his swing, simply because it was too hot to do anything but just hit the damn ball. Yet the heat had a salubrious effect on Old American pro Matthew Vahalla, who bombed it even farther than usual off the tee, which is saying something.
Monroe, a bigwig in the world of parking your car (Superlative Valet) and Strimple, a notable instructor and the 2000 North Texas PGA Pro of the Year, are normally mostly sane, yet here they were outdoors in the nuclear winter of this Texas summer. Why? It wasn’t just the chance for fellowship with like-minded individuals; that could have done at their familiar haunts, Whataburger and the bar at the Radisson on 183. No, James and Dan risked heat stroke and chafing for the opportunity to play Old American. Everyone’s been talking about it since it opened last year; it was one of only two new courses in Texas in 2010.
It’s quite a success story. Often there’s a disconnect in what the marketers tell you and the product itself, but concept and execution sing the same song at Old American. The idea for this mostly flat acreage by the shore of Lake Lewisville was to create an old-timey course that whispered Gilded Age designers Ross, Raynor, McDonald, and Mackenzie. To get in the mood, designer Tripp Davis and his expert assistant Justin Leonard played several of the best old courses in America, including Long Island stalwarts Shinnecock Hills and National Golf Links. Their old school inspiration is plain in the ragged outlines of bunkers, bunkers that actually punish you for wandering in there, the dirt cart paths, green shapes that shout 1920, and the almost total absence of forced carries. Golf used to be much more a ground game, and it still is at Old American.
The overall effect is subtle, and may not occur to you until you drive away: OAGC looks sculpted rather than bulldozed. Even as we holed out on 18 and removed our hats and shook each other’s hands and murmured something about what a pleasure it had been to watch your magnificent long irons, we knew we had not played the real Old American. The heat had been a trial, sure, but the real deal at Old American is a day with wind. That’s the reason for their short (five foot) flagsticks. We’d thought they were another charming reminder of the classic era, but General Manager Jeff Kindred explained that the breeze off the lake was blowing regulation-sized flagpoles right out of their holes. So the club went with this shorter version. They’re made of wood. Classy.
Old American is located in the Colony, just a half hour drive north of Dallas, but it feels like a half a world away.
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