So imbued are we in this 21st century with Nicklaus-designed courses, giant-headed metal woods and a bewildering assortment of golf balls that we forget where it all started. In 1893, the Members, not bulldozers, cleared the rocks from fairways and many stuffed their own “feathery” golf balls. A player might have three or four clubs only; not the fourteen we all carry today. To create even one hole was a mammoth undertaking. Why should we look askance if the terrain yielded four consecutive holes rated at par 3?
Biggerstaff Wilson’s scorecard of 1910, besides telling us that he went round the 18 holes in par, reveals that holes 7 through 10 were all rated par-3s. This continued at least until 1923 when the new Pro, Phil Taylor, shot a 61 (7 under par). Reconfiguration of the course turned Hole #10 into a par-4, but holes 7,8 and 9 remained par-3s until 1976 when the first of the consecutive par-3s was extended to become a par-4.
“There were at least two good reasons for the change: ... Players tended to bunch up on the 7th tee and lengthy waits were not unusual; the course was less than 6000 yards long, which meant that it was ineligible for any kind of record whatever... Alex Kazai, the course superintendent, supported the change for other reasons. The area in question had become something of a dumping ground for all the residue of course maintenance – grass clippings, branches broken off by the wind and other debris – and it had become not only a waste of valuable space but an unsightly mess. At the time Laurie Wiggins was chairman of the Green Committee and he had a tip about a large quantity of clay fill the Victoria Municipality was trying to get rid of from the excavation for the extension to the downtown library.
Alex welcomed it, and gradually the waste land was covered to a depth of ten feet. While many members still mourn the loss of the superlative view from the old 7th tee, most agree that the new hole is an improvement.”