My wife and I are going thru Colorado, playing alot of mountain courses on a trip that we were supposed to do last summer before she was attached and bitten by a neighbor's dog. She got fitted for a heavy duty brace in Vail from Dr. Stegman and we are in the middle of our trip.
We had the opportunity to play Sanctuary this week, which is the second Engh course we have played, with Black Rock being the first.
I can unequaifically, this guy is no one horse pony.
For those of you who have not played Sanctuary, Engh presents a visually stunning course, hole after hole. Some of the holes look like the pictures you see from a fantasy golf calendar, but they are immenitely playable.
It's like being on a roller coaster ride, what's next?
#1 starts with a tee shot 200 feet up to a fairway that winds around like a snake, yet he creates landing areas that are receptive to and act like launching pads if you hit the ball correctly.
There is tremendous variety thru out the course, short par 4's that require drivers off the tees, and then delicates wedges into greens that are multiple teered.
Once on the greens, putting becomes a whole new game with 7 pin placements per hole, many holes having 3+ greens within greens.
For all you minialistists out there, and I respect the great minialist architects, Engh is able to give us courses that in my humble opinion are great (no, they are not walkable, and those of you who demand walking, should not play his courses), but those of you who can appreciate his artistic hand, should go out of your way to play Sanctuary and Black Rock.
The great architects of the golden era, could not do by hand what can be done today with the bulldoser, and in my opinion, some of the revered old courses, don't hold their own with some of todays.