Bits and Bobs

Since nobody pays me I'm slow to get things done here, but I have had a few very nice visits this year already.

Ridgewood (Championship)


The Ridgewood Club (already detailed in depth at redanman.com) is now playing the Championship Course and the "Cart Nine" on a regular basis which is a grand idea. Even with the Championship routing the cart nine has marvelous holes. Not a fan generally of 27-hole clubs (What's the course, you know?) this is one of the best if not the best - each nine is rather good and they thus have Four 18-hole courses. I'm a big fan, always have been.

Routing - Very natural despite being an amalgam of three different nines. No glitches except as how the PGATour plays them.
Overall hole quality is superior. There are wonderful holes in all pars, the last few holes are perhaps the least stirring, but at least one of each type is superior.
Cohesion - Again despite being two nines carved out of three it is a consistent feel 1-18.
Green Complexes - much more compelling than average. Highlights are par 4 "5 & Dime" and par 5 third.
Bunkering Schema - Fairway bunkering is not as well done as greenside, but only relatively. Course unique in that there are two Hell's Half Acre par 5 holes each without sand. Straightforward bunker shapes and style - perfect for the property.
Conditioning - As good as one would expect of this course's pedigree, nearly perfect.
Trees - No real agronomic issues, enough shade for a summer day, but hole 18 could use a trim.
Ideality - Good playability for a weaker player despite overall difficulty.
Rest of Club - Posh Clifford Charles Wendehack Clubhouse on redanman.com

The Orchards


A marvelous Ross course, very near the magnificent Longmeadow CC, is not in world-class shape except for the greens. It is not a club with an unlimited budget so it actually is more ideal than most courses. World-Class calibre holes in a couple of instances (4, 7, 11, 15?) a taut, superior routing and what more do you need? This is a marvelous place to play.

Routing - two returning nines - Out, up, around and back each time. An adventurous walk using beautiful ground very well.
Holes - Par threes particularly outstanding. Several excellent fours, varied length, up/down hill, etc. Par 5 third is a wonderful use of rolling land with a turret green - needed near wetlands.
Cohesion - Very much a singular golf course with any transition from woods to clearing, flat to hills naturally done.
Green Complexes - Lots of back to front slopes, well-bunkered.
Bunkering Schema - simple and effective, appropriate appearance.
Conditioning - greens excellent, the rest a little ragged by modern standards, but perfectly fine for quality golf. Clearly not a mega-budget, New England practicality.
Trees - Too much, a work in progress, excellent clearing already done at 3rd green.
Ideality - Ross strongpoint, no different here although woods and wetlands increase lost ball count for the wayward.
Rest of Club - a wonderful no-frills neighborhood gem, nicely done.

Longmeadow



On the other hand, just down the road is an even more spectacular old New England club which is almost Major Championship ready daily. An elegant stately lady of a club it possesses a superior golf course with one nine being excellent and the other even better.

Routing - Two distinct returning nines, easily reversed. Second nine simple affair with multiple changes of direction on mostly flat land, superior terrain last three and entire first nine.
Hole Quality - Fives fairly simple, vast variety of fours, threes excitingly different with two wonderful short ones.
Cohesion - 1, 10-15 flatter and a different feel than the remainder yet a full sense of coherency. A tribute to great design.
Green Complexes - very interesting contours and angles created
Bunkering - well-placed, clean style.
Conditioning - Extremely high quality in all areas
Trees/Ornamentals - Not too heavy on the flowers for such a posh club, great restraint. No agronomic tree issues.
Ideality Few places to lose balls, Ross excellence in balance of playability and challenges.
Rest of Club -"Sign me up" good. Stately, luxurious, functional, teeming with history.

Misquamicut Club

My favorite photo of the year by far

Located on the shore in Rhode Island, 11 holes are built on rolly-polly glacial dump and the remainder on a seaside marsh. WOW! absolutely exceeds expectations unless you are a jaded world traveler and then you must be dying or something. Right from the first fairway where most drives do not yield a view of much more than the flag itself and often not you know you are on very special golf ground - holy in fact. The green complexes on the seaside are superior and while the land is less dramatic the golf is just as compelling. One of my favorites on so many levels.

Routing - Two separate parcels melded well by the single tee shot across the road. Each parcel utilized in an exciting way.
Hole Quality - Threes a superior set, fours rather varied, par 5's more simple but wind dictates par 5 difficulty.
Cohesion - Each parcel a thrilling, enthusiasm-generating rock-solid part. Marsh holes by necessity about wind and ground control, Morraine terrain creates pleasant blindness and quirk. A compelling dichotomy.
Green Complexes - Each terrain dictates its own excellent style.
Bunkering - No unnecessary, inappropriate frilliness.
Conditioning - Rock-solid and consistent despite differences in the terrain.
Trees - never an issue
Ideal - Some of the severe slopes on the contoured holes very challenging for the handicapper.
Rest of club - Lovely, gracious New England at its most refined. If asked, one should beg for admission. American Golf at its best.

Boston Golf Club
Remaining easily one of America's 100 best courses and as good a modern course as I have seen by a substantial margin, I can only tell you, not show you as BGC is rather private and will remain that way on my sites. Dramatic, compelling, difficult, quirky, playful, respectful to nature and traditions, friendly, extremely well-conditioned. Drop it all when an invite comes.

Routing - Two separate relatively similar plots of land, the second nine containing the clubhouse and formal buildings. Magnificent land present on each, a very interesting walk. I've heard many say the course looks 100 years old.
Hole Quality - Vexing par 4's from massive to nearly drivable although the two shortest can bite you. One of the longest has one of the smallest greens. Extremely good variety. Par threes rather demanding especially the Pine Valley-esque sixth. Eleven a playful roller-coaster of options. One five nearly always reachable, the other two require stringent demands. Nothing resembling a clunker anywhere.
Cohesion - other than ferry across road from nine to ten, seamless.
Bunkering - Very demanding and well-considered. Site appropriate flora enhance rugged nature.
Conditioning - World-Class and consistent.
Trees - Heavily treed property but no conditioning issues or trees limiting options.
Ideal - Too challenging for the high handicapper, an ideal golf club.
Rest of Club - World-Class focus and execution. It's elegant and green using wood harvested from site.

Lehigh CC
Unfortunately, conditioning is a challenge this year as the money is in the clubhouse. It is not the staff's fault by any stretch, hopefully the Members and especially the Board will play around a bit more and be honest and do what must be done. It is a very nice clubhouse and a full membership, nothing to sneeze at these days, I guess ...

Update:
Routing - World-Class
Holes - Great design elements, needs length badly to challenge long players and add variety for those that merely canhit solid shots of reasonable length, not withstanding the talented ball-striker.
Green Complexes - Many variations on a theme, elegantly simple.
Bunkering - Very simple and effective, perhaps a bit too many front left & right.
Conditioning - Just appalling this season. Massive clover fields, bumpy greens, irregular coarse fairways, slow, soggy, stressed greens.
Trees - More out, more in. Baffling planting of five hardwoods between 17 & 18 after removal of the dangerous Schwartzwald. Less planting after cleanup between 9 & 10. Much work yet to be done.
Ideality - Despite sad conditioning, playable for all levels, a bit short for modern moderate length players and longer. Should be an interesting Pennsylvania Mid-Amateur Championship this September. Record low scoring not out of the question once the Western Penna. Champions show up.
Rest of Club - Amazing clubhouse renovation, especially considering recent world-wide economic crisis. Not a hair out of place. Country Club excellence.

Morgan Hill
I'm not playing well at all this year, by body is remaining on strike far more than I can tolerate, so I got to see on a nice day when LCC was jammed far too much for a Wednesday, during a round of cartball just how difficult and demanding this lovely Kelly Blake Moran course really is. When the ball doesn't do what you want it to do, this course will make you look foolish. People love it or hate it, I'm in the former camp - solidly.

Sebonack


The Golf Writers had an outing on a perfect day and I decided to go. Too bad they didn't elect to make a wetland rather than a mirror lake on the eighth, evidence Jack put his foot down. I can't find much else to criticize roundly, so it makes the top tier of modern courses. Some of the writers (I didn't) went to The Atlantic the day before. They have been very generous to the writers, media and rater panels over the years and generously extended a round again this year. New in-house bunker work, removal of ridiculous original design mounding and elimination of any pre-conceived ideas about Rees Jones original works will allow one to realize that in this, perhaps THE toughest American Golf Neighborhood, this golf course is very good, can be rather difficult and is a great club. It just suffers by being neighbors to world-class Shinnecock Hills, NGLA, Maidstone, Friar's Head and the aforementioned Sebonack clubs.

Plainfield and Mountain Ridge Comparison

As one who has played both above-mentioned courses in the very recent past I want to comment. (Will be expanded)

Plainfield became what it has because of the land that was there. The rolls of the land is often mirrored in the rolls of the green, the character and scale all line up beautifully, that's one reason the so-called tunnel holes are so distinctly different. In fact hole #15 being closer to the rest of the course is a testament to renovation architect Hanse. It is however a Hanse hole in its present form as much as a Ross hole. #14 is less so, almost a progressive transitional hole from 12 to 16 and actually works well for me. #13 is just an outlier and following the sublimely magnificent hole #12, it is jarring in its differences as an outlier - flat land, flat green, water hazard, just so different in so many ways. A very good hole on many another course, but not at Plainfield, it's "stinker" if you will, the winner of the proverbial "weak hole" on a truly great course. I have heard some call it an eyesore, I can't begin to go there.

Ironically the now defunct Golf Journal magazine of the USGA picked #13 as its first A GREAT HOLE from Plainfield (they showcased about 4 before they were done with the 'field). Plainfield is stunning tee-to-green AND on the putting surfaces and in the green complexes themselves.

Mountain Ridge on the other hand is in my fairly wide Ross experience unique. It is not as good a piece of land as Plainfield but has some small movement to it in spots. Tee-to-green it is one of his most Plain Jane and somewhat devoid of strategic flexibility save by the putting surfaces themselves. It is also very unique as the greens were constructed in a way that I have seen nowhere else by Ross. They are even larger surfaces than Plainfield's largest ones and perhaps are Ross's largest overall. They are a myriad of slopes and ridges, some very interesting some not so - by fighting against local contours (and there is one that does not fit at all [#7] - almost as though Ross was doing something experimental). Dr. Klein in the wonderful Discovering Donald Ross describes several periods of Ross's design career including a mature phase as well as an experimental one. I have not yet had a chance to discuss MR's greens with him in person but will in 2 weeks or so.

Being brutally honest Mountain Ridge stands out as a remarkable set of putting surfaces slightly disconnected from other landforms in places, but overall a magnificent test of golf. It holds the hearts of good players as it is very fair while Plainfield is more whimsical and quirky as well as challenging. Stern and sober vs. quirky and having more of a sense of humour about sums it up. I would think different players would favor one or the other. I think Plainfield is a bigger version of some of the smallish courses Ross built and Mountain Ridge stands alone until I see another like it. It remains different yet a bit more similar to Aronimink and less so to Oakland Hills CC (awesome despite its horrid monolithic bunkering) certainly one of Ross's most remarkable courses and absolutely one of the most difficult on which to score, yet the unique greens define it.

Mountain Ridge
•Routing - simple pair of returning nines although second nine flatter, more back and forth and wetter. Easy to medium walk.
•Overall quality of individual holes - Threes extremely demanding. Some of the pin positions on several require restraint in length of play on a given day. Fours mostly long and relatively straight, one carry bunker elbow hole stands out as the most interesting drive on the course. Fives ask demands on greens.
•Cohesion of the course - Par3 7th doesn't fit, seems more AWT to me, a simple punchbowl pinnable in an area the size of a stately parlor in a Manor House. Overall very much the same golf course hole to hole.
•Green Complexes - among the most complex and complicated in golf, yet never really tedious as some heavily contoured putting surfaces can be
•Bunkering schema - very little in the way of fairway bunkering determining strategy. Putting surfaces hardly need bunkers.
•Conditioning - amazingly good and very fast greens
•Use of trees - much improved to a near-ideal state by Ron Prichard's recent renovation.
•Ideal - very challenging for the unskilled, very unforgiving, not for all, perfect for the accomplished stroke play type. A Player's Course.
•Rest of Club - solid, superior food!

Old Macdonald will do what Charles Blair Macdonald hoped that NGLA would do – expose American golfers to the great holes of the U.K.

Old Macdonald is truly the completion of Charles Blair Macdonald’s dream. It brings to life for the everyman golfer his Gift : Golf. National Golf Links of America on the remote east end of Long Island was intended to show Americans what a proper golf course was – but in its first 100 years only a privileged few were able to do so. Access to America’s finest golf courses is so much more restricted than it is in Scotland, golf’s birthplace as we know the game today. Old Macdonald change all that. The exposure is now available – what the golfer makes of it is yet to be determined. One approaches Old Macdonald with an open mind, hopefully a completely blank slate as it will be for most, unlike anything they have ever seen.
Old Macdonald is the newest course at the arguably best destination golf resort in America. It is best because it is openly available and Bandon is all about the celebration of golf. It is the last piece of the puzzle in so many ways. Unless something extraordinary happens, it is the final course in the collection at Bandon Dunes – a revolutionary resort in America. More importantly it finally makes whole Charles Blair Macdonald’s original intent. Charlie Macdonald was from Chicago, was sent to St. Andrews to receive a proper education at St. Andrews University and became infected by golf in the process. Charlie called his years after St. Andrews the dark years as he was so removed from his beloved golf. In 1911 he opened his gift to America – The National Golf Links of America commonly known by cognoscenti simply as NGLA. It is truly THE National.
With the opening of Old Macdonald this upcoming Tuesday June 1, 2010, Old Macdonald will do for the American player what Charlie originally hoped NGLA would do for American golf – introduce the concepts, the features, the interpretive ideals of the great holes of the British Isles. NGLA managed to expose the wealthy, privileged, country club golfer to these strategies and replica holes – Old Macdonald will now expose to anyone willing to make the somewhat arduous trek to the remote coast of Southern Oregon to what NGLA intended to do 100 years ago.
Old Macdonald will make available to the everyman golfer in America the wonderful nature of strategic and truly classic golf as NGLA was meant to do. Due to its exclusivity this unfortunately never happened. NGLA even today with a new appreciation for its magnificent architecture recognized by American Magazine’s Top 100 lists, it remains a name mostly unfamiliar to the retail golfer (as Owner Mike Keiser has labeled the daily player) not fortunate enough to have received a coveted invitation to NGLA.

Old Macdonald is a true collaboration of many minds. Tom Doak and his assistant Jim Urbina are the official architects of record but an even more unfamiliar name – George Bahto – plays a pertinent part. He is Charlie Macdonald's biographer in The Evangelist of Golf. After a successful career as an owner of a dry cleaning business, George Bahto has become a sought after consultant by courses designed by Macdonald and his protégées Seth Raynor and Charles Banks. Noted author Bradley S. Klein has also had a significant consultant’s role, but George Bahto is the real go-to guy anyone could want for encyclopedic knowledge of Macdonald. The definitive tome on NGLA and Charles Blair Macdonald’s so-called template holes, George’s basement is a candyland for the golf course architecture student. He has hand drawn nearly all of their routings and holes and has archived materials unlike anything outside the Tufts Collection at Pinehurst and the USGA Museum itself. George is a modest man who has greatly played down his role; however he has been on site for much of two years and will continue to be there for the first month of opening.
A lot of site wandering and conversation has gone on in the process of giving birth to Old Macdonald. Jim Urbina, a warm and friendly bear of a man who admits that he never really intended to become an architect has spent so much time and effort on the project meeting with Tom Doak and processing the suggestions and implementing them on an ongoing process that has been non-stop. The large original plain bisected by a tall ridge situated north of Pacific Dunes and south of the legendary Sheep Ranch that was to become Old Macdonald was originally deeply covered in gorse. Routing or the laying of the footprints that are to become golf holes was the first step in creation. A routing map was finalized and drawn. Then the final details took place in the proverbial dirt constantly shaping and arranging features to yield the course you will find today. Mr. Keiser is to be given so much credit first for creating Bandon Dunes and having it exceed all expectations. The, especially for the freedom allowed at Old Macdonald. Every step of the way everyone involved has nothing but praise for his foresight and the opportunity given.
Those familiar with Scottish and English will recognize the names of the holes. Eden, Redan, Biarritz and Short comprise the par 3’s. Long, Littlestone (perhaps better known as its Lido iteration), Westward Ho! and Hogback are the fives. Double Plateau as the opening hole introduces wild features, perhaps unlike any ever seen by many a golfer new to Macdonald and the links inspiration. In fact, the holes rather than being based upon the NGLA or other American templates are inspired by the original holes themselves, George Bahto having been dispatched to the U.K. by owner Mike Keiser to see the originals for himself, otherwise having seen virtually every version Macdonald and partners ever constructed. Sahara, the third hole, is an inspiration and is most unlike its namesake at NGLA. It has a very wild fairway and a very large green with even more intense contours and slopes. I think it is fair to say that at Old Macdonald one generally finds more undulations, dips and hollows on one green than one usually encounters at any complete American Golf Course.
Familiar hole names Cape, Road, Punchbowl, Alps, Maiden, perhaps less so Leven and Bottle coupled with the unique hole (a la CBM’s original the “Cape”) “Ocean” are there to relentlessly engage you. The scale, the massive nature of this project is overwhelming. First seen when one crosses the spine on the Sahara hole, there are at least four other spots where one can see nearly three hundred acres of golf ground in a single sweeping view – something nearly unparalleled in golf – and it does not encompass the entire course. Even Pacific Dunes fourteenth hole affords such a view giving one a tantalizing preview or recollection depending on whether or not one has yet to play Old Macdonald.
On the one hand if you are completely unfamiliar with the strategies, concepts and features of these iconic holes, I won’t spoil the discovery for you, but will comment on architectural specifics elsewhere. Suffice it to say, educated or not, you are likely unprepared for the assault on your perception of golf by Old Macdonald. I think Charlie would wholeheartedly approve.

What NGLA was to do -Old Macdonald will do precisely what Charles Blair Macdonald hoped that NGLA would do – expose American golfers to the great holes of the U.K.

It is done by Doak, Urbina, Bahto and others, but it is their doing what Charlie intended for the 21st century retail golfer.

Additionally, some random and directed thoughts all off the top to expand on my original thoughts.

The "Edges of greens" are very indistinct from the surrounds in many places, I like that.

One thing that really stands out again: Ocean strikes me as a wonderful golf hole, perhaps the hole I most look forward to playing at Bandon, at least today. An original hole, no "Template", no "Replica" - a complete original. All of the holes are pretty much originals based on classic holes and features - actually the sort of design I champion. Strategic over "random".

Going off the specifics of Old Macdonald, I feel overall that par 5's are the least interesting, hardest to build, most overall repetitive strategies in golf. Tillinghast died before writing his "Par 5 Treatise" as he did for 3's and 4's. Most of the fives at OM and at Bandon are the least interesting holes of respective hole types. Hog's Back, Long, Westward Ho!, Littlestone they are at Old Macdonald.

Overall opinions of holes at OM (being extremely critical - as not particularly given to throwing around superlatives am I)

1-good starter, interesting (Double Plateau)
2-v.good (Eden)
3-superior (Sahara)
4-OK (Hogback)
5-rather decent, if perhaps over-done (short)
6-fair, decent green, the new fresh Hell (High(in))
7-outstanding for the view alone, a feel-good hole (Ocean)
8-nice take (Biarritz)
9-meh (Cape) didn't translate well to property

10-very! good (Bottle)
11-OK hole. great evocation of green (Road) corner not at all fearsome (Road)
12-nice take (Redan) bunkerless front right pretty cool
13-very good to superior; not very close to orig. hole - doesn't matter, it's just super tee to green! (Leven)
14-very! good (Maiden)
15-left me a bit cold, least interesting hole to me with Cape (Westward Ho!) - inspired by 18 NGLA - little resemblance, should be more engaging
16-quite good with a slight reservation - 2 alternate routes around bunker (Alps)
17-very! good to superior (Littlestone/Lido) easily most vexing five, demanding!
18-nice! take! (Punchbowl [modified]) would love to hang around and play shots into and around THIS green

I put it solidly into the top 10 GolfWeek Modern class.

But ... the fives as a whole aren't the outstanding hole type.
Also Fives at the rest of the resort:
Bandon Dunes #9 & 18 are steps down from #3 and #12 (I love that one)
Bandon Trails #16 love it!, #3 is a real yawn (done x3 (var.) at Pac Dunes!), #9 extremely, sadly just dull.
Pacific Dunes #3, #12, #15 v.similar play tee to green, varied greens from #3 - excellent, #12- kinda blah to blah +, #15 good to rather good. #18 is a loads of fun 3-shotter (never played in North wind ...)

Doing good fives is just tough, I think. But this is everywhere. I'll do a bit on par fives perhaps this summer.







p.s. Keep checking in as these articles on Bandon are works in progress.

Old Macdonald and Bandon Dunes

A sign of things to come. A few of us pre-opening were rather privileged to receive opening day medals.



As with all the courses at Bandon, Phil the town Barber, in keeping with the everyman spirit will be the FIRST official golfer to put the peg in the earth and ball in the air at Old Macdonald.


Sometime in the next few days as play opens June 1st, pre-opening play has already started for select groups. Debate will be "Which course is now the number one at America's number one golf resort?" Some foolishly wonder if Doak has already done his "best work" but I think that Doak would have done differently on this piece of land with an original design, but we'll never know. All I know is that Old Macdonald is worth the trip and hopefully the resort will vary the near infinite variety of pins available for the guests.

1 Double Plateau

2 Eden


3 Sahara



4 Hogback



5 Short



6 Long



7 Ocean




8 Biarritz


9 Cape


10 Bottle



11 Road




12 a Redan

13 Leven


14 Maiden


15 Westward Ho!


16 Alps



17 Littlestone (Lido)



18 Punchbowl

Report from Bandon

Bandon Dunes, America's greatest seaside golf resort? Is it the best overall? Boy oh boy it is a pain in the rear to get to - a long drive from Portland. Connecting from Portland is tough as the return flight from Bandon to Portland is 0600 and that's just way too early. Report of more convenient connectors through SFO are a welcome addition. To be honest, the drive back was way less a bother than I thought it would be, I guess I just enjoy driving.

All the hype about Bandon Trails, never having played it I was able to do so yesterday. I wanted to wait until I played another of the courses before rendering an opinion, but my initial impression of Bandon Dunes (Kidd) was a wrong one as I underestimated just how good it was. It more exceeded my expectations from memory than Bandon trails failed to live up to its considerable hype. It by contrast was better than I remembered and gave it credit for on my last visit. I had had the opinion comparing Bandon Dunes to Pacific Dunes - on my first trip - that BD was perhaps a more ordinary course boosted by an extraordinary setting. That's selling it short in the very least. One major aspect the last few years of travel and exposure to more and more links golf was for my part greater recognition of design styles dictated by environment and weather. Kidd did a wonderful job of finding flexibility in length and bunker placement accommodating these elements. The ability of a player to play the same tees into and down wind does not significantly vary. There is one major and two minor forced carries to deal with on Bandon Dunes and each has reasonable tolerance for wind and interesting choices depending on wind direction.

As for Bandon Trails, one loves it if one loves Coore and Crenshaw and that is no surprise - that seems to be a distinct pattern among architectural aficionados. Whether or not you care for the features independent of style preference otherwise guides your opinion. This seems a better way to me to judge a golf course's merit - answering the questions asked of you.

I found Bandon Trails in far better condition, especially near the greens yet it was less interesting and challenging to play even in more severe weather. I tend to favor difficult golf courses and found that just as at Saguaro We-Ko-Pa, the Talking Sticks as well as other public access C&C courses that the greens while fairly representative of many of their courses were toned down in severity to allow faster pace of play. The bunkering and the wooded terrain tended to slow play more than at the Bandon Dunes course. The varied types of woodlands coupled with the dunes to start and finish diminished the feeling of being on a golf course rather than a collection of holes.

The fourth hole at Trails is the first hole of architectural note with a diagonal spine of great character determining the play of the hole. Playing further right and still carrying the ridge yielded the best angle into the green. The fifth seems a favorite of many with its hystrionic green yet I found it a bit cold and over-done. Coore et.al. seem to take pride in minimalism yet I find they either do too much or too little to a piece of land. On three they did too little other than sprinkling a spate of bunkers on a landing strip while on five the green is grossly over-shaped to yield just a few sport to place a pin.

On six there was far too much effort for such a windy hole to combine slopes, centerline bunkers, blind bunkers and diagonal run-out bunkers which while looking quite attractive just do not deliver. Looks great, plays silly especially since so much happens out of view. It would be far better if one could play the tee shot and see the ball run rather than just hit and wish and find out your fate - especially on a public access course. The uphill seventh has lots of eye candy but comes down to avoiding same and gauging the uphill approach. well ...

Eight is a par 3 1/2 Redan plain and simple. There seems little to no reason not to hit the ball as far as you can because of the fairway contours being such that running into the bunker is a likely option most times - lay-up or going for it.

Nine and ten are just nothing holes so I'll wax poetic about the On Golden Pond setting of number 11. Giving the slope of the green surrounds left of the green, there is little reason to challenge the water more than 15-20% of the time. Eleven through 13 share connecting areas and gives a sense of vastness unlike any other spot on the course. The knob front right on 12 is a real hazard if you hit it on the fly.

14 is very remote requiring a very long walk or a ride on a truck - rather momentum breaking, more than a stop at the halfway house. It's a real deal-breaker for me. The hole as well is controversial, but the green is a problem for the greedy and unsure more than anything else. The elevated tee makes it hard to control distance, but the more blind lower area is less threatening than I had been led to believe as I heard that the area left of the green had been softened a bit.

15 is simple - hit it up the left side and you'll have a direct approach to the green. Sixteen is dramatically uphill and credit is due for building the hole. 17 is very busy visually but plays more often simply than not if you don't go long. Back to the dunes on 18, the hole meanders around a bit to a very amorphous green.

Overall Trails is a lovely walk in the woods but I'll prefer to remain more near to the water and out of the forest.

Bandon Dunes gets it's largest elevation change out of the way straight off. The first and second holes feature uphill shots, a particular favorite of mine. The first is a shorter four with an elevated second shot and plays into the prevalent wind so it gets you recognizing the wind fast.. You need to hit it solid as the wind demands and the first green is mostly blind and rather large. Two is up an escarpment with a false front again demanding solid shot this time into a crosswind. It is a very fine non-ocean par 3 to say the least, often lost in discussion to its more scenic brethren. The first par 5 is the third hole, always in a crosswind and introduces the bunker-littered fairway to the Bandon Golfer.

Many a critic has noted that there are longer walks green to tee at Bandon than Pacific, but it does create a bit of a buffer or separation of the holes fast to the water from the more central portion of the routing, I don't think it was unintentional, the routing selfishly and shamelessly displays the coast on the coastal holes. The Oceanfront holes at Bandon are glorious and varied with the fourth a nearly Z-shaped hole coming out of the gorse onto the shore for a fun of three greens and holes fronting the ocean. Seven and eight away from the coast are magically different sorts of holes seven again playing very sharply uphill on the second and eight another driving examination in a mostly crosswind, just wonderful stuff. Those returning visitors will not remember seeing so much of number nine as near total (and over) removal of gorse and brush leaves one with an almost painless drive, something I hope will be recognized and remedied. It is still a wonderful little two or three shot par five, but nearly all penalty for missing right is now absent.

The routing and incorporation of features is the real strength of the original Bandon Dunes course as it truly ebbs and flows. The character of the front nine routing to have such highlights and return to the original clubhouse (a necessary idea for the first course, but perhaps viewed by some as a weakness) is quite an accomplishment as the original idea for Bandon Dunes was a hopeful 18,000 or so rounds annually which is now a laughable memory as the resort has grown far larger and faster than I think anyone could have originally imagined. On has to thank the success of this first course for building that platform on which the resort has grown to the deserved number one spot (at least in this opinion).

The second nine routing begins right at green nine and plays away towards teh ocean. A short walk is necessary to get food and drink and this was done well. Nine green and ten tee are close to the clubhouse, but more importantly if you just want to play on, it's very easy to do so. Ten has some lovely blindness, eleven compelling bunkering and a 90 degree direction change from 10.Twelve turns back south and is now completely bunkerless and a favorite par 5 of mine. Weaving back and forth, going out to the ocean for a few holes including the very clever and intriguing shortish 16th. Seventeen is manly and 18 takes you home gently without much fanfare and little memorability but it must be played more left, perhaps way more to the left than one might think. It is a little bit of a sleeper with some cleverness, but not a proverbial ball-buster finish that Americans seem to favor.

The original Bandon Dunes by Kidd remains the sleeper and the one that started it all.

Given personal taste and preferences, Old Macdonald will be best for a select number of those who care to order the four courses. Links will perhaps now have to reconsider their comparison of Pebble Beach and Pacific Dunes? Whatever of the four is your favorite is OK with me, they're all way above the average golf course by a mile. I am not personally going to declare a personal favorite. I do have an order and Old Mac is definitely NOT the last of the four. Where its place in American golf is yet to be seen as only insiders and architectural geeks have weighed in so far. Joe Blow and Jane Doe will have to let us know how the "Mike Keiser retail Golfer" perceives things.

Overall I can recommend Bandon Dunes Resort as worth the trip as it is arguably America's best golf destination resort.

Digressing, most all are expensive. Pebble Beach is a once in a lifetime play for most and deservedly so, otherwise it's a waste of money to spend any time there, you are better off driving around to play a variety of courses in a number of places.

Pinehurst has real problems with cost given the plethora of highly variable quality of courses some great as #2 and awful as #7, #8 and arguably #4 (Once my second choice at the resort) AND requiring many surcharges.

A real sleeper is the Turning Stone resort in Oneida, NY near Syracuse with remarkably fine lodging and three good to excellent courses.

Doral, Broadmoor, We-Ko-Pa and others offer nice variety, but Bandon will continue to be the spot golf lovers will dream about and return again and again.

What is Golf to You?

Well, Tiger's coming back (Finally) and I think I am glad as we have to get over it and get on with our unimportant lives. I've no love for Tiger, but I really thought about it and I really don't have much love for professional golf as a spectator sport as most people see it. IFriday, I was sitting there watching Doral on the Tivo about 45 mins. behind TGC's afternoon broadcast, enjoying watching Els who happened to be leading. More on that in a bit...

Mike and Mike this morning had hard-ons about Tiger returning and how it is good for golf and everyone will forget everything after 9 holes of Tiger golf. One "True Golf Fan" had written in and said some sentiments about how golf is better without Tiger and of course he meant Professional Golf but the ESPN boys were right about the casual golf fan coming back and boosting ratings and making everyone money and all that shit. (I really am curious to see how the women feel a year from now, I think these sports guys are wrong about them and how much women do watch golf and how many hard core "True golf fans" are actually women who don't say much. Dick's catalogue for spring had nary a single TW anywhere on their Nike gear.) Me, I know enough guys who've played pros and won and won majors, so I know what good really is so I don't need to watch pro golf for that reason. There's not much architecture on TV unless you watch the inters and the oddball spots the Euros occasionally play but week-in week-out if Tiger's not around, if you like the team or an announcer in particular, golf is pretty low key and relaxing to watch, especially in Hi-Def.

Pro golf as a business has no relevance for me, but I do enjoy my own tournament golf and the few more years I have left to try and get a little better as I get further away from 55, the last age of relevance in men's golf. Plus I played one day last week near home for the first time in 90 + days, the longest ever not due to injury/surgery/both.

I love my architecture, my books, playing, seeing new courses and I gave a little thought to how I might divvy up 100 points as to "What golf means to me". So much for architecture, playing new courses, just playing, being outdoors, travel, etc. I haven't done it yet, I will. Little will go for watching pro golf save a few tourneys which always for me as a SoFla golfer includes Doral, but I do know I watch pro golf to see the players I want to see because they are my size - like E Els and I use him to visualize when I swing.

So after a few days I get(But ... I may change my mind again):

* Exercise for an old fart 15%
* Zen/Psychiatry 15%
* Play Tournaments (This has increased for me a lot, I play totally differently) 10%
* Play solo or with one or two really special people 10%
* Play with others 1%
* Play New Courses for me*20%
* History 10%
* Literature 4%
* Opportunity/Excuse for Travel 10%
* Pro Tournament Golf 5% - 4.99% to watch a course I like, player I like, <0.01% just watch


For example, because of who I am, where I come from, my basic body type - I watched almost every minute of this past weekend's Doral event. Great course? No, but I learnt in SoFla and can almost smell the grass from the TV. Ernie Els is probably my favorite player to watch of the last 20 years and parenthetically, I like his swing changes this year vs. last couple. That he was on a lot made all the difference in the world. When Kennemer is on later this year, will watch a lot, same for TOC; Pebble, by itself, with none of hte other factors? No, likely not. (Yes, I do know how much of an outlier I am.)

I got to play with really world-class players early in my life so I really am not impressed by Professional Golfers and am not much of a Hero-Worshiper. I was once a good athlete, so I know what physical talent is and Bio-mechanics has been a big part of my professional life.

*Look at/analyse Architecture/Greens & their integration - I really like being outside in a natural setting enhanced by man's cleverness, that's why I like different courses so much.

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