Since the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula is probably pretty close to being blacklisted, I thought I'd try to start discussion about the Dunes Course.
I was fortunate enough to get to play it a couple of weeks ago (thanks Bob). I found it to be a very enjoyable course and was caught in thinking about some of the similarities in routing with Cypress Point, especially in the light of Raynor's designing it and doing a routing of CPCC at the same time. I also read The Match over Christmas. In the Appendix Frost talks about Mackenzie routing CPCC and deciding to use the all the different areas present (forest, dune and beach) and how unusual that was in those days. It seems to be that he had an example of that right down the street at the Dunes course.
I know that the Dunes has been redone by Rees Jones and I really don't know how much is still Raynor, but here are a couple of things I noticed.
Both the Dunes and CPCC start off by taking the player away from the ocean and into the forest. The Dunes doesn't give the player a taste of what is to come like CPCC does on the first and second holes, starting with three straight par 4s that take you to the back of the property.
After the Biarittz style 4th hole, the course turns back for a straight run to the ocean, which really doesn't come into view until the 9th tee. #9 is the first of the par 5s. While Cypress gets all 4 par 5s in the first 10 holes, the Dunes gets them all in the last 10 including 3 in the last 6 holes. From a competitive point of view, this is more interesting as the opportunties to stage big comebacks are there (not that I was able to do so in the Wolf game that day.
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The holes down by the sea are good solid holes, but they definitely don't have the beauty of the holes that Strantz did at the Shore or of Cypress. Only the par 3 14th comes in contact with the ocean, but the rest are good holes with 11 and 12 being a couple of the best par 4s on the course and 15 being a long par 5 that would be hell to play into the wind. I particularly liked the par 5 18th with a green set at the bottom of the hill below the clubhouse. The shot to the green for someone going for it in two is very demanding, although I would think a ball can be bounced down the hill on the right to the green so that the front bunker wouldn't have to be challanged so directly.
I enjoyed the Dunes a lot. I know that some people like it more than the Shore course. It has been a couple of years since I played the Shore so I'll hold my judgment for now.
All things considered, I think that MPCC should be considered in any discussion of the best 36-hole complexes around. Certainly not the best as Winged Foot probably takes that, but I'd think it could be in the top 10.