Top 3-5 Nicklaus courses

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

Welcome to the GCA Micah! I was wondering about Shanghai Links and tried to get to see it in January, but it was a little too cold. How is the other course in Spring City?

JWL,
Were you a part of the course in Brunei? I thought that was certainly a strong effort, which will undoubtedly attract more attention in the years to come.

[Matt_Ward]

Micah Woods:

I'm glad to see you listed Desert Mountain / Geronimo but I don't know if you played the course before / after the changes that were made to the long slight dog-leg par-4 13th and the short par-4 14th.

The long 13th -- it used to play uphill at roughly 470 yards and the short 14th used to feature a green that was blind and set below in a desert canyon. Both holes were truly unique.

UNFORTUNATELY, they have since been changed. On my last visit to Geronimo the back tee for #13 was eliminated -- ditto the original green at the 14th.

Much of what made Geronimo an interesting course came from these two superb holes. Why they were changed is beyond me.

FYI -- From my last visit there had been talk that the green tee on the par-4 16th was also being contemplated for elimination -- I can only hope that has not happened on that great long par-4.

[Micah Woods]

Matt,

I played Geronimo in 1996. I do not believe the changes had been made yet and those two holes were my primary remembrances of the course.

Ben,

The other course at Spring City resort is a RTJ II design, the Lake Course. While the Nicklaus course is on flatter terrain on top of the mountain, the Lake course is on a series of terraces that lead one all the way down to the lake by #8, along it at #9 and #10, and then stepwise up terraces and back up the mountain. The elevation change on the whole property is significant; I believe about 800 feet from the lake up to the highest part of the Mountain course. There are a couple really good holes on the Lake course. The terraces and lack of trees give the impression of being on a cliff at the lakes edge, especially some of the holes on the back nine, where the previous holes below are no longer visible and the lake sits off to the side.

-Micah Woods

[Big Pete]

Gents
In the land of Oz , Nicklaus has done a redesign at the Australian which is OK , a very nice resort style course at Lakelands on the Gold Coast , but the Heritage in Melbourne is a championship layout which is beautifully maintained and tests every shot in the book . I think it is a really good test of golf . Not sure how it compares to the best in the US though .

Mt Juliet in Ireland is also a good track

[Doug Wright]

Of those I've played (about 10):

Cabo del Sol
Manele Bay
Castle Pines GC
Breckenridge GC

Best,