[Ron Farris]

Will Hawktree be a let down after.........having spent time at Ballyneal, playing the Sand Hills and Sutton Bay, and touring the Dismal River Club under construction?

I saw the Hawktree site late in its construction stage and I had great anticipation of returning to play someday. I have plans to go to Bismarck in the next couple of days and hope to visit the golf course and possibly play, if time permits.

I am curious to hear opinions from people who have played all or most of these courses.

(I have played only one Engh golf course - Pradera.)  

[Jay Flemma]

You'll enjoy Hawktree, but its certainly much more artificial than Ballyneal.  Ballyneal is a step above all the courses you mentioned save SH.

[Matt_Ward]

Ron:

Hawktree is a fine course and clearly at the very top of the charts for North Dakota. I like the openess of the layout and much of what Engh has done with other courses he has designed is front and center at Hawktree. The par-3 3rd is one of his best holes there.

The sweeping nature of the property is also well done.

In regards to a comparion with the other courses you mentioned -- Hawktree is a clear few steps behind. If you get an opportunity you need to see what Engh did at Pradera in Parker, CO -- it takes what is at Hawktree and goes a full few steps ahead.

[mark chalfant]

Ron,
I have not played Hawktree but I echo Matts view of Pradera, the latter is splendid treat that clearly shows Mr Engh's fine imagination

[Brian Cenci]

Hawktree is a pretty good course and overall a good Engh design.  Has a lot of the typical Engh qualities in the course and there are many elevated tee boxes, bowl greens, etc.  Overall as far as N.D. goes your not going to get much better in the public ranks.  Links of N.D. I think is about two hours northwest but it's no better than Hawktree.  both are soliud public courses that are top 100 public in U.S. overall, in the 50-75 range.  I've heard decent things about Bully Pulpit (but only in reference to the back nine).

[Matt_Ward]

Brian C:

With all due respect -- I like Hawktree and to a lesser extent Links of ND at Red Mike Resort. However, based on the sheer range of bonafide public courses I have played throughout the USA neither would touch the top 100 in such a category.

What's the best for ND is one thing -- the bar for the USA, IMHO, is a good bit higher. Why do I say that? Simple. The range of public courses is much deeper than many might surmise and although certain areas of the country have made vast strides forward -- there are other areas that are even better and which receive little attention or thorough digging of what is there beyond the very top tier of layouts.

Credit to Hawktree and Links of ND for being well above the standard ND public courses - ditto Bully Pulpit -- although I see the Medora layout a bit less of the other two simpyl because the terrain for the first 12-13 holes is really ho-hum type design stuff.

[Brian Cenci]

Matt,
     Good points, but as far as public courses go you could probably throw Links of ND and Hawktree into a pile of about 250 courses that could compete for the top 50 to 100 public in the U.S.  I've certainly played courses that were ranked better that aren't as good or that are ranked worse and are much better.

-Brian

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