Design Notebook: Stiles and Van Kleek’s Hooper Golf Course Scores a Restoration

Bonjour and welcome back to Design Notebook, where we enjoyed the Presidents Cup in Montreal but are excited to move on to the Dunhill Links, which starts in four days. Golf at the Old Course! (And Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns.) A proper palate cleanser after a week of Rees Jones bunkers and greens.

In today’s DN, Garrett Morrison speaks with architect Jeff Stein about his ongoing restoration work at Hooper Golf Course, an outstanding public nine-holer in New Hampshire. Garrett also gives some thoughts on the future (and past) of Presidents Cup venue Royal Montreal.

Hoop Dreams

By Garrett Morrison

Squirreled away in the small town of Walpole, New Hampshire, Hooper Golf Course has long been a favorite among golf architecture enthusiasts. Its dramatic land and strong design by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek have earned plaudits from Tom Doak, who selected Hooper as a “Gourmet’s Choice” in his Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, and the panelists of Golf Magazine, who ranked the course the 13th best nine-holer in the world. While Hooper’s profile has risen in the past decade, its green fee has remained admirably affordable.

In recent years, however, it became obvious that the course could use some TLC. While Hooper had not been significantly altered since opening in 1927, time had done its usual work. The course was in need of tree removal, bunker restorations, fairway widening, and green expansions.

Hooper Golf Course, perhaps the platonic ideal of a "hidden gem"

Earlier this year, Hooper’s green committee hired up-and-coming architect Jeff Stein (a former Tom Doak intern and Gil Hanse shaper) to create and carry out a historically informed master plan. As Stein’s team finished the first phase of this work last week, I sent him some questions to find out how things are going. Here’s our exchange, lightly edited for clarity:

What has been the scope of your work at Hooper so far? And what will the next phases consist of?

My work with Hooper Golf Course is part of a three-year plan to restore their Stiles and Van Kleek design prior to the centennial celebration in 2027. Phase one includes forest management to harvest timber and clear back the tree line on holes 1 and 2. This has made a huge aesthetic impact and improved agronomics on this part of the golf course. This summer we also removed six non-original bunkers and renovated/restored 24 more bunkers in their original locations. In addition, the lower section of the par-3 fourth green was modified to prevent washout into the greenside bunker as well as to restore usable pin locations. Hooper rarely gets green speeds that would be considered unmanageable, but the entire lower half of the green was still mostly unusable for pins (4.5-6.5% slopes). It was a tricky project but one that I believe truly restored the strategy and character of a great par 3.

In this first phase, we also began the process of expanding greens and fairway mowing lines. As part of this effort, we will reinstate the large shared fairway between sections of holes 5 through 8. It’s a unique portion of the routing, where four different landing areas are draped over a bulging hillside that starts up at the Watkins Tavern on top of the hill and ultimately tumbles down to the wood line left of No. 5.

Over the next two seasons, phases two and three will involve additional cleanup of deadwood and invasive buckthorn along the western edge of the golf course and the select removal of trees on the interior of the golf course. After that, we will have only three more original bunkers that can and should be restored. We will continue our work to dial in grass lines and improve native grass areas throughout the perimeter of the golf course.

Jeff Stein's plan for Hooper Golf Course

Although it has been praised by the likes of Tom Doak, Hooper still flies under the radar—a hidden nine-hole gem, to use the clichéd phrase. What makes the course worth seeking out?

Geography probably plays a role in keeping Hooper “under the radar,” but the topography is what makes the course worth seeking out. Once you have gone around it, you will be impressed not only by the varied and dramatic changes of elevation but also with how elegantly Stiles and Van Kleek worked the routing of the golf course. The Hooper nine is arguably one of their best, highlighted by several outstanding holes in a scenic setting. It’s the type of golf course that you will immediately want to play again.

More and more golf course design geeks are getting excited about the work of Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek. What most impresses you about Stiles and Van Kleek’s architecture at Hooper?

I am most impressed with the efficiency of this S&VK design at Hooper. The quality of the greens and timelessness of their routing clearly stand out above all. Many of the greens quite literally lay on the ground, like No. 2 at the end of a long broad ridge; or No. 5, which rests gently on the top crest of a valley and slopes away at about 2-3%; or No. 9, which sits in a natural saddle—just perfect! S&VK most certainly made their cuts and fills to bench the greens on the third and fourth holes, on steeper terrain, but they did so to masterfully connect you back to the upper portion of the golf course, where they found natural green sites that required very little earthwork. Hooper is an example of minimal design/construction at its finest.

Tell me about a few other courses worth visiting on a Hooper trip. (Am I subtly using you as a travel planner right now? I might be.)

Rutland Country Club – Rutland, VT

A rugged and fun S&VK track that flies even further under the radar than Hooper. Tumultuous terrain, great par 3s, and several strategic short par 4s. I would love for more people to see and appreciate this course. (I also consult here.)

Taconic Golf Club – Williamstown, MA

One of the best college golf courses in the country, and the most highly recognized of all of S&VK’s work. This club has a championship pedigree and has been working with Gil Hanse for many years.

Brattleboro Country Club – Brattleboro, VT

This was originally a nine-hole S&VK, and nine more were added by Steve Durkee in the 90s. The original holes (9-12, 15-18) still stand up and are highly regarded, although the routing intermingles them with the new holes.

Granliden on Sunapee – Sunapee, NH

A Walter Travis nine-holer, also a well-preserved relic from the past. Lots of bold greens, as you would expect.

What’s Next for Royal Montreal?

By Garrett Morrison

At this past week’s Presidents Cup, hardly anyone could muster enthusiasm about the venue. Asked for his take on the Blue Course at Royal Montreal Golf Club, Team USA star Scottie Scheffler deadpanned, “It’s a pretty simple golf course, for the most part.” Scheffler’s teammate Sahith Theegala was more direct: “The front nine I would say, I wouldn’t call it forgettable but a little more in front of you and almost boring.” Sounds like Theegala would call it forgettable, actually. Just not into a microphone.

And he’d be right. Royal Montreal Blue is nearly indistinguishable from the many other parkland championship courses renovated by Rees Jones. While its bones date back to the mid-20th century—the heyday of its original architect, Dick Wilson—its current character is dominated by the work Jones has done since 2004. Narrow fairways. Heavy rough. Pushed-up, heart-shaped greens with sharply defined tiers. Smooth-edged bunkers with simple cape-and-bay structures. Hazards meant to punish misses rather than provoke strategic tacking. A pond-crossing par 3 late in the round. It’s cookie-cutter stuff from the first hole to the last, and I’ve long since tired of tip-toeing around calling it what it is: lazy design. Lazy and increasingly outdated.

So what could Royal Montreal do to stay architecturally relevant?

Unlike many Canadian golf clubs of its stature, Royal Montreal doesn’t have Golden Age roots. Its 18-hole Blue and Red courses, along with its nine-hole Dixie loop, were laid out by Dick Wilson in the 1950s. This makes issues of course stewardship more complicated than they are for, say, St. George’s Golf and Country Club, a 1920s Stanley Thompson design in Toronto. Whereas St. George’s blueprint for success is obviously to bring back as many of Thompson’s ideas as possible, Royal Montreal’s path forward may involve some combination of restoration and redesign. The architecture of Wilson and his contemporaries is not, generally speaking, as worthy of pure recovery as that of the previous generation of golf architects.

Yet these images of a youthful Royal Montreal from the Noer/Milorganite image collection do make a compelling argument for restoration:

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The lacy-edged bunkers seen here are typical of Wilson’s early work, and their artful molding is a testament to his pre-World War II training under William Flynn, the architect behind Shinnecock Hills and Cherry Hills.

What really catches my eye, though, is the elegant construction of the greens. Unlike today’s manufactured-looking versions, Wilson’s originals appear to have been subtly tied into the natural terrain, starting at grade and rising gracefully into additional pinnable sections. The bunkering schemes seem to have been somewhat uncreative (front-right, front-left, rinse, repeat), but the shaping of every feature looks impeccable. Perhaps it could serve as a model for the club’s future projects.

Chocolate Drops

By Garrett Morrison

Augusta National assesses hurricane damage. After Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast U.S. last week, photos from Augusta, Georgia, circulated on social media, showing many stripped and downed trees. Naturally, some in the golf community wondered about the effects of the storm on Augusta National Golf Club. In a statement released on Saturday morning, ANGC chairman Fred Ridley said, “Our Augusta community has suffered catastrophic and historic impact from Hurricane Helene. We currently are assessing the effects at Augusta National Golf Club. In the meantime, our focus and efforts are foremost with our staff, neighbors, and business owners in Augusta. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as well as everyone throughout Georgia and the Southeast who have been affected.”

A Timber Point restoration? The “Golf on Long Island” website, an active and well-written regional golf blog, reported last Friday that a restoration of Long Island’s Timber Point Golf Course may be on the horizon. Now operated by Suffolk County as a 27-hole public facility, Timber Point began in 1927 as a spectacular 18-hole design by Charles Hugh Alison. Twelve of Alison’s holes remain in their original footprints on the Blue and Red courses, including the much-photographed “Gibraltar” par 3. Suffolk County executives envision an ambitious, privately funded restoration that would reinstate Timber Point’s 18-hole layout and revitalize wetlands that were filled in decades ago. A tantalizing possibility!

A Course We Photographed Recently

Pines Course at the Prairie Club (Valentine, NE)—designed by Graham Marsh, opened in 2010

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Quotable

“I don’t think people could really understand his nuances. His bunkering doesn’t look as intricate as it really is. He was very subtle. The golfer didn’t even recognize why he was being challenged that way. Wilson always made sure it was a golf course you wanted to play over and over again…. He’s never really gotten the credit he’s due.” –Rees Jones on Dick Wilson