Anybody who says there's no decent golf on the Gulf Coast needs to get down to Mobile AL and play at the recently remodeled Mobile Country Club. I played there for the first time today and had a really enjoyable round hosted by a member of the club who served on the committee which worked with Ron Forse on the project.
First let me say the club's terrain is interesting unlike a lot of the Gulf Coast which tends to be dead flat (like my Pensacola Country Club). The clubhouse is on the far east side of the property, which slopes fairly steeply to the west down to a large pond and concrete lined creek. A few holes then go uphill farther west. I remarked to my host that it would have been interesting to have one or more of the downhill holes culminate in front to back sloping greens a la Oakmont (similar slope), but the downhill holes had back to front slopes with high rear banks more a la East Lake. The outstanding feature of the course, which stretches to 6900 yds from the tips but plays somewhat shorter due to a number of downhill holes, is the wildly contoured, interesting greens. Most of the greens have strong interior contours with several levels and plateaus. The greens were pretty slow due to recent aeration and would be much more difficult if faster. I still managed to eake out a few three putts.
The course was originally built by a Scottish pro around the turn of the century. In the mid 1920's, Donald Ross was hired to improve the course. How much time he spent on site is not known for sure. In the 1970's, Hurricane Frederick wiped out most of the back nine trees and Willard Byrd was brought in primarily to redo the back nine. The resulting dichotomy of Ross-like front nine and Byrd back nine eventually resulted in the hiring of Ron Forse to restore the course to a classical style. Return to the original Donald Ross layout and contours etc was not a mandate, but Forse was requested to create a layout which represented classical design elements. Ron Forse has done this, as there are good chipping areas around most greens, and outstanding deep fairway bunkers which are really in play on most every hole. There are also classic design features which are as much Raynor as Ross. # 3 is a lengthy downhill par 4 which has a double plateau green of sorts, with a steep ridge in the middle of the green running front to back which creates a plateau on each side. # 6 is probably my favorite hole, a 360 yd uphill dogleg right around a stern pair of diagonally placed, rather deep fairway bunkers with a creek on the left which is quite reachable with a "safe" bailout left which is overcooked. Good hole! #7 is a 510 yd par 5 down hill with a very deep (60 yd) Biarritz green. # 8 is an excellent Redan with a beautiful deep front bunker. #9 is a lengthy par 4 back uphjill to the clubhouse with a new very deep bunker on the left side of the green and a trough down the center of the front of the large green. With the pin up on the narrow left side of the trough and the deep bunker left, this was an intimidating approach! The illusion makes it look tougher than it is, however, as the trough didn't extend back as far as the pin. A long iron to the right side of the green would have yielded a pretty simple two putt.
The back nine was excellent too but not as many classical features. The golf course is challenging and fun and one which I think anyone would enjoy playing all the time. One fun element which came into play several times was steep slopes at the sides of the greens. If you were able to play away from the pins to those slopes, interesting bounces and rolls off the slopes resulted in close approaches! For example my host played a short iron 15' behind the 18th pin, set in the center of three tiers, and the ball backed up to gimme range.
The downside of those steep slopes is the only element of the Forse design work which may be adjusted: some slopes at green edges are so steep that the Tifeagle turf is very weak. Possible adjustments including grading to less slope and regrassing, or allowing the green cut to grow to "froghair" length.
All in all a really fun course. There are about as many Ross elements left here as at East Lake in Atlanta, and a whole lot of interesting design in classical Ross/Raynor style by Ron Forse. It was great playing with a member of the committee which organized and coordinated this work and getting some insight into the process. I'm looking forward to my next visit in the fall, when maybe it will be cool enough to walk (not today!).