The other day, I happened to be reading a blog post at Seneca Golf Course in Rochester, NY. It was about the holes they were putting in this new course. The hole was going to be a par three, and I was pleased to see that it would not be long.
“Is this your first time here?” I asked my son. “No,” he replied. “Have you heard of Seneca Golf Course?” “No,” he said again.
“Well,” I said, “you should check out the blog.” He did and discovered a new hole-with a blog post covering it-a nice feature for Seneca since their website is not well written.
This is a blog post about a hole at Seneca Golf Course in Rochester, New York. The hole has one of those names that you think would be cool to have on a golf course. The Seneca Hole, it turns out.
The hole was part of the Seneca Creek improvements. Seneca Creek was once a significant source of water for the city, but over time its flow has dwindled to almost nothing. The city has spent millions restoring the creek and building a dam and fish ladder. And yet the creek runs dry 95% of the year. At its peak flow, in late spring, it’s usually about as fast as an old lady walking up her front steps with arthritis.
In short: The creek is dying, and so are local fish populations. And although we’re not sure what exactly is happening to them, the strategy for fixing it seems clear: Raise the water level by building a dam and making the creek flow faster during certain months of the year. This will boost local fish populations and make people happy when they go fishing there instead of at other places where they catch more or happier fish.
The dam itself is also part of this plan, so we have some nice photos to share as well. Here’s one from earlier this week
The hole at Seneca is a hole through the Earth. The hole at Seneca is the size of a large house. The hole at Seneca is shaped like a gigantic cube, with sides that are about 100 yards long, and only about 20 feet wide. It’s more than half a mile from the tee box to the green.
The hole at Seneca is located in Seneca County near Buffalo, New York, in the middle of a cornfield. A golf course was built around it. The golf course has older holes as well—ones that go through trees and lakes, ones that go over waterfalls, ones that go over marshes and valleys—but none are quite so big or flat-out weird as this one.
The hole itself is fairly simple. It’s a par four that has been elevated to give a better view of the course and some privacy. A hole in one is an actual reality, and I don’t think anyone would fault me for going after it again. But what they would say if I did is: “He’s just doing it for attention.”
During the day I am a professional writer. But what I write about isn’t golf; it’s other people’s golf experiences, which I am paid for to write about. In the same way, when you’re on Seneca Golf Course your writing is not about golf; it’s about making money from golfers by selling them something (a piece of advertising space) that will help them play better golf.
Like any business, you have to decide how much you want to do to make money. My decision was not to write about golf at all, but instead to write about my own experience out there at Seneca Golf Course, so that when people read my blog they’ll be thinking of me and my writing instead of just the hole in one. And when they buy something from me (a piece of advertising space), they’ll also be thinking of me and my writing instead of just buying the thing advertised.
The Seneca Golf Course is a 9 hole golf course located in the town of West Seneca, New York. The course was designed by award-winning designer David McLay Kidd. The course has been renovated in recent years and features a new par 3 hole called “The Bomb Hole”.
The Bomb Hole is a Par 3 whose hole placement is reminiscent of the iconic hole at the famed St Andrews Links in Scotland, the 17th at St. Andrews Old Course. The hole measures roughly 40 yards from teeing ground to green and is surrounded by tall grass and trees.
Name:If you’re going to write an essay, start it like this
The first golf course in the U.S. to be named after an author of philosophy was in Seneca, Kansas, and it is a beautiful place. This hole, named for Seneca’s play-by-play philosopher, Dr. Wittgenstein (sic), is a par 3 with a green that looks a bit like the many-armed tree from the Rorschach test.
The landscape here is close to the prairie plain, but with a few features that you might see in a good golf course anywhere: fireplaces at each tee box and deep sand traps in front of every green.
I did not play on this hole, but I have shot it many times before, and I can tell you that if you’re playing well, keeping par would be no big deal.
The golfer’s path is defined by the golf course we play, not vice versa. The golf course is our starting point, and it defines how we think about the game.
Golf courses are designed to be fun, and they need to be beautiful. They have to look good so that people want to play them. But they should also look good because they are fun.