What does everyone know about Hale Irwin's designs?

[Bill Satterfield]

I plan on playing the reversible routing (Teton Reserve in Driggs, ID about 30 minutes from Jackson Hole, WY) this summer and will report my thoughts. 

Beyond that, the only Hale Irwin design I've played is The Valley Club just outside of Sun Valley, ID.  The course is a solid track.  Nothing mind blowing, nothing terrible.  You can see a course tour at their website, here is a link:  http://www.thevalleyclub.org/thevalleyclub/main.html

Hole 3 presents a difficult challenge off the tee.  Hitting it dead straight up the fairway with a driver generally ends up being too long and in the rocks.  Hitting it directly over the bunkers protecting the inside of the dogleg leaves a sliver of fairway to find.  Hitting it right of the bunkers requires quite the carry and brings the o.b. right into play.  Tough driving hole.

Hole 8 is supposed to be a driveable par 4, but with a pond guarding the entire front of the hole it doesn't provide a legitimate reward for the risk.  The only opening to the green is a smaller strip coming in from the left side.  Since I don't know anyone that can carry the ball 325 yards and then make it turn 90 degrees right once it hits the ground and rolls, this just ends up being a short par 4. 

I haven't played enough Irwin courses to know any "signature" type things he does, but at the Valley Club you'll notice that most of the landing areas for drives are tightened up both with fairway bunkers and a general squeezing down of the fairway period.  It reminded me of the Tournament Course at Redstone where Rees Jones had fairway bunkers placed in that 300 yard range off the tee at every hole trying to catch drives.

As a side note, Steve Wynn is a member of The Valley Club and convinced Tom Fazio to come up and design a new 9 holes that opened up last year.  Fazio never does nine hole courses but was willing to because of Steve and because the plan is for him to add an additional nine before remodeling the current Irwin course.

[Jim Sweeney]

Seems like there is an interesting theme running through this thread- the Irwin shop is producing solid if uninspired designs that provide pretty good value. Is that his niche?

[Doug Sobieski]

Southern Woods, very near World Woods in Brooksville/Homossassa Springs area. The one thing I remember about it is that I was shocked at where some of the cart paths were routed near fairway bunkers.

Typical Florida retirement golf, IIRC.

[Jay Flemma]

How does everyone feel about reversible courses in general?  I think it shows great prowess to pull it off...is there maybe an upward trend to Irwin's design - meaning is he getting better over time?  Staying the same?

What specific features besides "drive it straight" does he seem to like?  The thread seems to say he's a little bland or am I not reading it properly?

[Kirk Gill]

Seems like there is an interesting theme running through this thread- the Irwin shop is producing solid if uninspired designs that provide pretty good value. Is that his niche?

Based on my limited exposure to his designs, I wouldn't argue with you much, other than, as Tim rightly said, Highlands Ranch golf club is on the expensive side.

The reason I asked about his design associates is that the two courses of his I've played just don't feel much alike, and so I wonder if that's the changing hand of Irwin, the changing hand of a long-time design associate, or just different people being involved in the project.

Tim, I can't argue with you on which of the two courses is better. I did play HRGC quite a while back, and perhaps the housing wasn't as intrusive then. I have friends who LOVE Indian Peaks, but it didn't do much for me. I like the Morrish/Bucton design down the road a bit, Vista Ridge, much more. Also a residential course that I managed to play before it too was surrounded by housing !

And I have never played a reversible course, unless you count TOC, which I played in the typical direction.........