"Cape" Golf Course Print by Thad Layton

By definition, a cape is “a point of land projecting into water”, an accurate description of the original 14th green at National Golf Links. Measuring just 305 yards, Macdonald feared his “Cape” hole was becoming obsolete and would soon be driven by the long hitters of his day. In 1924, Macdonald had a new green constructed some 50 yards beyond the old, replacing the absent water hazard with a flurry of bunkers encircling the putting surface and a pond on the inside of the dogleg. This is the version that survives today, setting up golf architecture’s most notable case of mistaken identity. Now “Cape” has evolved to describe any hole that features a risk-reward strategy set up by a diagonal carry from the tee. 

Textbook examples of this “evolved” template can be found at Macdonald’s work at Yale (#2) and the 5th at Mid Ocean Club. Other prime examples of “Cape” include the 18th at Pebble Beach, the 6th at Bay Hill, and the 18th at TPC Sawgrass. It may be of interest to the reader that 18th green at Congressional CC is a fine and perhaps the only example of a Cape green, but it falls short of the original due to its lack of a diagonal hazard off the tee.

Size: 20" wide x 16" tall

About the Artist:

Over the past 3 decades, Thad Layton has traveled the planet plying his trade as a Golf Course Architect for Arnold Palmer Design Company. He is a lifelong student of the game and has studied scores of golf’s greatest courses. Along the way, he’s catalogued the journey, filling up piles of sketchbooks with doodles and descriptions that have informed and inspired his work as an architect. Of these, Thad has illustrated a selection of his favorite design studies to share with fellow golf enthusiasts in a vivid series of original giclee watercolor prints.