Mid Ocean Club: Hole 5
Alex Elias
CGI image of Hole 5 (Cape) at Mid Ocean Club, Bermuda
While C.B. Macdonald spent summers at his spiritual home, National Golf Links of America, he owned a home and cottage overlooking the 5th hole at Mid Ocean Club, where he wintered every year until his death in 1939.
In his 1928 autobiography, Macdonald wrote, “There are no more beautiful golfing vistas in the world than those from The National Golf Club, unless it be those from The Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda.”
As Gil Hanse called the Par-4 5th “one of the greatest holes in golf,” he continued, “It’s the most audacious and interesting version of the Cape hole, where the theory is to take off as much as you can chew to gain an advantage. It starts off at this elevated tee looking down over Mangrove Lake. When you look at the original design and the scale of it, and without the mangroves lining the lake, you were able to take in the breadth of the hole and really understand what Macdonald was asking you to do.”
“And so it’s about the restoration of the lake edge and restoring the dramatic nature of the golf hole and connecting golf back to Mangrove Lake which, over time and evolution, it had become separated from. I think, ultimately, we're looking at that restoration as being the high point, not only from a visual standpoint, but also from a design standpoint and restoring the tee shot.”
