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The TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse – I liked the Pyramid better

What can I say? I’m all for Spanish “Hacienda” style architecture, but the new clubhouse at Sawgrass is so huge, it’s reedonkyulous! [Editor’s note: That’s “ridiculous,” but with a donkey thrown in to show how over the top it is…]

Look, call me Egyptian, (or maybe in the case of my deep love for Sawgrass, a “Go, Go, 80s Reaganaut”) but I like pyramids. I like the ones in Egypt, I liked the Science building at Deerfield Academy (pyramid!) and I liked the old clubhouse at Sawgrass better than this new one. It’s just plain too big. As you stand on the 18th teebox, the entire skyline is dominated by not one tower (as shown in this Geoff Shackelford article), but TWO! Geoff asks why it cost 32 million to build? Because it’s the biggest thing ever, that’s why. The picture he has on the website shows the left HALF…maybe third! It’s got to be as rambling at Medinah, but thank goodness nowhere near as ugly. The old pyramid clubhouse was just the right size, sitting up there on the hill
overlooking 18 and the bed of flowers spelling out “The Players Championship.”
The new clubhouse doesn’t just dominate the skyline, it overpowers the whole view. It’s pretty, no question, but it’s enormous. Granted, it has to hold alot more offices than the last clubhouse did, and granted, they chose an architectural style with grace and class. Nevertheless, I still feel a soft spot for the old pyramid. “Diminishing to nothing as it approaches Heaven” was how a pyramid is described by one archaeologist. Maybe I had a soft spot for it because Prunes the Goat used to climb up and stand on top of it.
“Who the hell is ‘Prunes the Goat'” you ask? Well, when I interviewed Pete Dye (it’s coming soon people…and you wouldn’t believe what he had to say!) he told me stories about “well, we used let the goats eat the rough. They were better than a lawn mower! But we hadda get rid of ’em. We had one goat…old Prunes his name was. He head butted a few people, so that was the end of that.”
It’s been a tough month for pyramids. They even tore down the pyramid that was our Science Center at Deerfield for some Frank Geary-looking thing. No, I don’t have a problem with the “Koch Center” or Frank Geary. I just dig pyramids and I had alot of fond memories of that building…more because we’d hide out behind it with our girlfriends on Saturday nights than anything else. I mean Mr. Danielski was a great Biology teacher, but nuzzling with some snicky from Miss Hall’s beats his class hands down anytime. Except on one occasion, though. One day, Mr. Danielski was lecturing when suddenly he bellows like a wounded rhinoceros, “BOBBY VARGAS I CAN TAKE YOU SLEEPING IN CLASS, BUT I WON’T TAKE YOUR SNORING!” He then grabbed a hapless, utterly bewildered, half-drowsy Bobby by the scruff of his jacket and bustled him out the door before any of us had the chance to even realize Bobby was asleep. Well when class ends Fred Park, who sat next to Bobby in class, is on the ground holding his sides laughing. We asked him what got into him and he said “Bobby wasn’t snoring. That was me blowing my nose.”
Anyway, back to pyramids…I’ve had Egypt on the back burner for too long anyway. I guess if I want pyramids, I should go see the real thing. It’ll take a while for that trip. It’s right up there with Morocco on my list of exotic places to see, but well behind St. Andrews. But hey, they’ve been there what? Five thousand years? They can wait for me a little longer. Besides, I can play golf at the course beneath them on the Giza plateau while I’m there.
Here’s an article on Sawgrass. I wrote it prior to the changes to promote firm and fast play.

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