Rock and Roll Course, I mean Rawls Course

[Jay Flemma]

What an achievement.  Doak really did make moving between 800,000 cubic yds of earth look like natural erosion.  (Tom, Steve Long said it was more like 1.3 million...do you have an updated figure.  I have pix up on my website and will post more plus a full review and story with quotes form the staff and the building team after I land back "on island."  (Manhattan).  I'll try to post form the airport during layover.

For now, 4o mph wind...(I loved it.  Let it howl) which blew my 6'7" buddy off his feet on 4 tee.  As for the 126 yd 3d, ha ha very funny, Tom.  Your par-3s play tougher for me than any other designer.  My fave holes were 3, 7, great biarritz green, 8s skyline green and 12 with its semi blind green.  I'll post more in a while, with more pix too.  Blaqck Mesa was equally amazing.  I played with owner Ed Peck, a prince of a guy and his three dogs, augie, Roscoe and Yardley. (Two Jack Russells and a chihuahua  (We need more dogs on the golf course).

Ended with dinner at the Inn of the Anasazi.  Best rest. in NM.

Had foie gras for the first time.  I did NOT acquire the taste.  Good...more sushi instead.

[RJ_Daley]

Now there is some excitement and enthusiasm to share...  posting pix of the courses during an airport connections!

Jay, Where is your website?

[Jay Flemma]

website is http://jayflemma.blogspot.com

"It was a roar of dust and diesel.  Now it's a shining Lone Star."

I'll have the review up soon too.

I played Black Mesa while it was snowing!  How awesome!  Remember playing football in the snow as a kid?  It was like that.  

[Tom_Doak]

Jay:

The answer to the earthmoving equation depends on whether you count the topsoil or not.  If you measured what we started with and what's there now, the difference is 770,000 cubic yards.  But we also picked up 250,000 yards of topsoil and then put it back down again, and if you include that, the final figure is 1.3 million.

I don't want to be accused of exaggerating, so I use the lower figure.  Glad it was windy for you, I've played it twice and both times it has been calm, which is about a thousand to one odds in Lubbock.

[Jay Flemma]

Tom, windy was not the word to describe it.  It was howling.  It was so loud we couldn't hear each other on the course walking ip the fairway!  Worst I have ever played in and I loved every second.  Luckily it was warm.  a two layer day.

Yesterday was four layers, (two fleece) and it wasn't enough. Snowed from 6-10 and then the biting cold set in.  It was fun the whole way around, even though it was tough to show it while shivering. Tom, you were right.  Black Mesa is one you have to see.  A little Tobacco Road, a little royal new kent (number 1) and without a doubt one of the most severe sets of green I have ever seem.

You would LOVE 14!  It totally remiinded me of 7 at crystal downs and 6 at riviera.  There are spots on the green where it seems you have to chip from one sector to the other because of the bite taken out...but Spann built in contours and ridges you can SPIN a PUTT (SPIN A PUTT!) and get it to the hole.  My best shot of the day was when I turned to eddie and said watch me spin this close and put it 6 inches away from 80 feet.

Then I four putted 16, but that's CRAZY CONTOURED.  It loks like their trying to convince Jimmy Hoffa is under there.

It was an adventure.  Great stuff eddie peck and baxter.  Great stuff.  A great puzzle of a course.  Cant wait to play it when I have feeling in my torso and on a good night's sleep.  That drive in from Lubbock just killed me. (7 hours plus an hour and a half for breakfast and writing.)

[Bill_McBride]

The only way to possibly two putt #16 Black Mesa is short if the pin's down and over if it's back.  You cannot get close from sideways or from behind the hole!  What an incredible green!

We did see a number of interesting ways to get close to several pins.  Pitching over the green on #7 and spinning back down by the back left pin.  (Adam Clayman)  Hitting SW from the back bunker of #14 off the hillside to the left of the bunker (back right of green), ball rolling out of the rough down by the hole.  (Lou Duran I think).  Hole in the swale on #18, putting well past the hole and rolling back down the slope to the hole.  (Yours truly)  If you'd tried to roll it down the front slope you'd never get it close.

Black Mesa - extremely fun golf!  

[George Pazin]

Thanks for putting a smile on my face this morning, Jay. I was fortunate enough to tee it up with a couple GCAers a few years ago here and it remains one of my favorites.

Someday I'm gonna buy a few hundred flat acres in Ohio and then kidnap one of Tom D's guys.

[Jay Flemma]

What, George, like in Misery by Stephen King?

"You WILL  make it minimalist....or else!"

Urbina!  Run and hide!  Quick run and hide!

[Jay Flemma]

Guys, I just finished revising the article on Rawls, including analyzing the routing, green contours, bunkering and a run down of the best holes.  Hope you like it, its on my website.

Here are some thoights I had that I'd like to see if you find accurate:

Finally, we all know Doak loves contour-rich character filled greens. Well Mackenzie would be proud because these have a lot of both. The greens are quick, but not so fast as to outrun the contours and devolve into unfairness. They compliment the soft fairway undulations and sculpting well, although neither the greens nor the fairways are as severe as at nearby Black Mesa in sante Fe. Many greens are perched precariously on knobs, most notably at 3 and 8.

Lastly, bunkers are deep with sharp, steep faces. The sand is thick and since the bunkers are often set well below the green, recovery shots play even longer and more difficult. They are very similar to the bunkers of his longtime friend Ben Crenshaw at Talking Stick North.

[Matt Kardash]

Everyone raves about the shaping and how natural the course appears. Maybe my tastes are just different, but everytime I see pictures of this course I think it looks ugly.

[mike_beene]

Have you ever been to Lubbock?The most exposed place on earth.To the south is the town of Brownfield.Truth in advertising.To build a course like this must have felt a little like a risk.I am glad it apparently worked out.

[Tom_Doak]

Matt:  You are right in that the course doesn't photograph well ... hopefully that will change in a few years once the trees grow together more.  However, when you're out playing the course it feels entirely different than it photographs, you focus on one hole at a time and the shaping feels pretty good, and most importantly it is fun to play.

I would never claim it looks "natural" although it is modeled on a natural system, and shaped as a total landscape instead of just parallel with the golf holes.

[Kelly Blake Moran]

I was glad to hear from Jay that the course is right on campus.  To me that is a vital element to have such a course in close proximity to a "small town".  Lubbock and Texas Tech have always been very special to me since I spent so much time there as a kid.  I hope someday soon to do a West Texas tour to visit old haunts maybe show the kids what I mean by grwoing up in the middle of no where, and this cousre should definately make the drive worthwhile  to hit the old Lubbock/Shallowater haunts.