Old Corkscrew is a new Nicklaus design in Estero, FL (not far from Naples/Ft. Myers) that was recently named 4th best new public over $75. I played it yesterday. According to the Naples Daily News today course management believe this is “an incredible honor”. A slight hyperbole, I think. The honor is also a “demonstration of the commitment of our staff to maintain the course in tournament condition at all times”. Wowser, I wonder if greens that stimp about 6 are their idea of tournament condition.
As a CCFAD type of operation, with no housing component, the first thing that struck me about the operation was the number of greeters and bag handlers (at least 4) receiving people at he bag drop. I guess it goes with the service included in the price. The prices are high, commensurate with the fees of other courses in the general area. This is not an area for fine affordable golf.
The setting of the course in an old growth forest of pines and oaks is very aesthetically pleasing. The routing of the course did not suffer from a lot of housing induced long rides between holes although there are a few. It could be easily walked although I didn’t see anyone trying to walk it. Of course, walking would miss the latest GPS technology on the cart. It provided a really neat virtual fly-by of the coming hole as you approach the tee (great, as long as you don’t drive into a tree as you watch the flyby
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The front nine is more or less an out and back south-north loop with the 9th ending up across the end east-west. The back nine changed directions more frequently and played to all the compass points. The playing corridors were sometimes generous and sometimes tight. Although the property appeared to not have much in the way of ponds or water features to start, there are certainly many water features in the final layout. Personally, I would have preferred less. There were a mix of long and short threes, although oddly the two long threes were both on the front side. There were a couple of short (but not reasonably drivable) par 4’s. The guidebooks suggest that a number of the 5’s are reachable, but in each case the water abutting the green will make the risk too great for most.
The most notable feature of the course for me was the greens. Most have a lot of abrupt internal movement around many small knobs and swales and ridges. You could get seasick of some of the greens trying to visualize the line. They certainly grab your attention. Perhaps that is why they they had them playing so slow. I found the slow speed quite off-putting. At leas tone of the greens also hadn’t grown in and had had large sections resodded and other sections sanded. I’d bet it had a lot to do with its siting in the forest – not enough light or air circulation. The condition of the greens was enough for me to question the full fare they were charging. On the other hand the course was crowded, so people appear willing to pay the freight at least at this point.
One other feature of note was the use of railroad tie bulwarks around some of the water features. It creates very abrupt lines. Three of the par 5’s were sort of repetitive in that going for the green called for a second shot across water to a green with either a very steep sodded bank or a bulwark (see picture below) at the green. Again, a visually abrupt feature. A couple of them, and a couple of other holes being kind of cape greens. There also seemed to me to be a lot of holes with water running down the left side of the hole – seemed a bit repetitive.
The (almost) final word to my wife – the archetypal short female golfer – it was too hard. Too many forced carries or tacking around features. Too hard to cross bunkers and hit the green.
The 6617 yard blue tees were rated at 73.4 and sloped at 140, so I guess it is pretty hard for the men too. Of course, you could punish yourself at 7393 yards and 75.9 and 148. The conditioning was S&S (that’s slow and soggy) if you don’t think these lengths aren’t long enough.
The long par 3 second
The tee shot on the double dogleg par 5 third
An abrupt bank on the the third if you come up short
The short par 4 fourth. Nice crossing bunker.
An intersting forward tee to fairway continuum.
The approach to the bulwarked 8th with a drought stricken water feature.
Don't miss long or right of the 11th.
The short par 4 13th. Unfortunately the green was mostly freshly resodded.
I liked the bunker framing on the long par 4 14th
A tough approach to the 14th green from the wrong angle.
