When the Old Is New Again

Last weekend I had the pleasure of playing Seaview's (Marriott) Bay Course, an old Donald Ross course that plays along Reed's Bay near Atlantic City, NJ. The only other time I had played there was about twenty years ago when I was around eleven years old. My grandfather, who was a member of Seaview prior to the purchase by Marriott (he never got over it), took my brother and I out for a memorable round.

Twenty years later, I actually remembered a few of the holes, even though an extensive renovation was completed several years ago to restore the course to something resembling what Ross had envisioned many years ago. The difference between how the course looked and played twenty years ago and today are significant. I really enjoyed my round even though I didn't play very well. The cross bunkering, mounding, and small greens (not to mention the wind)make Seaview Bay a challenging course, even though it is short by today's standards. The par 3s are especially solid and challenging. My favorite hole might be the 16th, a shortish par 5 with strategically placed cross bunkers that create yardage issues on your second and third shots. Ross used some design tricks to mess with your eyes - a feature that I always like.

The new has retained what was old at Seaview, but no matter how many times I play it in the future, it can never go back to the way it was when I could play it with my grandfather.