Islesworth Remodel & Tavistock Cup

[Bill_McBride]

Watching the Tavistock Cup on Golf Channel tonight.

(Yes, this is a comment on the quality of TV on Monday nights.)

I played there a couple of years ago and thought the place was pretty good looking but bland.  Sort of Fazio-like but I believe a Palmer design.  The greens in particular were very blah, large and flattish.

I'm looking at a different Islesworth tonight.  The greens have dramatic slopes, false fronts.......very difficult for the world's best, very few putts made.

Anybody have any details on the remodel?  I'm going to assume Palmer's design team is responsible but don't know for sure.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Steve Smyers did the remodel of the Palmer original.

[Paul Carey]

I believe there was a discussion of the remodel last year after teh Tavistock Cup here.  

Smyers did it and with great reviews by the pros that live there.  It is truly a "big boys" course.  I would hope that would be a model on how to challenge those guys rather than 20 yard wide fairways and six inch rough.

It looks like fun.

[Bill_McBride]

The greens were certainly challenging!  Nobody made anything.....

[jeffwarne]

Nice quote from Ernie Els on CNBC on a course he's designing for Tavistock.
"I've been to the property"
Who says these player architects aren't hands on

[Steve_ Shaffer]

By the way, Els has sold his house at Lake Nona. Will he be switching sides next year?

Here are some quotes from Steve Elling's column in the Orlando Sentinel:

Tavistock officials hiked the tees all the way back and played the state's toughest track at around 7,500 yards, making it every bit as brutal as many PGA Tour courses.

"It is good enough," Sergio Garcia said after his first round. "The way we played it, there are a lot of long-iron shots, the greens have a lot of slope to them, so it is definitely a pretty good test."

An Augusta National-type test, in fact, so it's a timely tuneup for the season's first major next week. So says Howell, an Augusta native.

Said Lake Nona's Mark McNulty, 52, a Champions Tour star who shot a stellar 68 Tuesday: "When you hit the greens here, it's only the beginning."

[Jerry Kluger]

 I know this may sound like blasphemy on this site but from TV, Mirasol looked far more interesting than Isleworth.

[Matt_Cohn]

Are Isleworth and Mirasol what Augusta National should be? Very long, but fairly open and still challening because of the greens?