If the New Poppy plays firm and fast—and that’s part of the plan—players often will have the option of hitting the ball short of the green and using the ground as their ally.
often will have the option of hitting the ball short of the green and using the ground as their ally. Charlton expects this to
become a popular feature of the redesigned course. It could level the playing field a bit, allowing high- handicap golfers to use their imagination to hit cool recovery shots. “Old Poppy was all about
aerial attack into most of the greens,” Charlton said. “There are still some greens like that. But if you’re a sly, smart fox, and the course plays firm and fast, there are a number of places where you can use the ground.” This is not a concept
Jones and Charlton espouse only at Poppy. They once
belonged to the crowd of ar- chitects prone to surround- ing every green with deep, menacing bunkers. They strayed from this
habit in recent years, discov- ering the joys and effective- ness of variety. “I’d say about eight or
nine years ago, we went away from every green com- plex being so well guarded that you had to attack by air,” Charlton said. “In the past five or six years, we’ve taken the open-entry con- cept—take away some of those bunkers and use short grass as defense. “It seems to frustrate
the heck out of top play- ers. They used to be in a 4-to-6-foot bunker and now they’re 4 to 6 feet below the
green in short grass. Now players have to think.” That’s a guiding prin- ciple of the way Jones and Charlton approach golf course design in 2014. So is water conservation. Water use was top of mind in the redesign, from New Poppy’s sprawling sandy waste areas (no sprin- klers needed) to removing the lake alongside No. 5. In all, the project reduced irrigated land areas by approximately 25%. Nope, we’re not in the
1980s anymore. “It’s a renovation,” Jones
said, “but it’s really a new course.”
RON KROICHICK covers golf for the San Francisco Chronicle.
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PHOTO: JOANN DOST
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