[Andy Troeger]

Visually, the course is a 0.  The land is wild, but wherever the archie is involved the features look dull as dishwater.  I am not saying this could be turned into a great course, the land is far too severe for that, but it could be much better looking and playable imo.  Its the sort of land that should probably be a par 3 course wit the odd par 3.5.  If it stuck to this formula I think this could be a very good course.

Ciao

Sean,
Visually I think the course looks like a blast. Its playing it that would be the problem! As Matt posted, I'm actually kind of surprised that it looks like its maintained pretty well too for a $20 course.

[Mike Hendren]

Ace the powerlines and throw in some frilly bunkers and, presto - a Doak 5!

Bogey

[Mike Hendren]

Doak Scale

"0. A course so contrived and unnatural that it may poison your mind, one I cannot recommend under any circumstances. Reserved for courses that wasted ridiculous sums of money in their construction, and probably shouldn’t have been built in the first place. "

Lido?

[PThomas]

Undoubtedly a high number for resistance to scoring. A juice inducing layout if ever I saw one.
I salute the team. Clearly the best course of it's kind in the world.

Adam, you've obviously been influenced by Gary Player

[Phil_the_Author]

Wayne & Tom,

Can you guys give us some background on this one?

[Kalen Braley]

Interesting to see all the responses....

The golf course really is fun to play.  And I think the number 1 reason for this is plain old fashioned guesswork as:

#1 - You can't trust the yardage on the card, its way off...
#2 - With most holes being either severly uphill or downhill, an accurate yardage wouldn't mean much anyways.
#3 - It plays at elevation, about 4800 feet.

So your cruising around on this shortish course thinking you should be dominating it. Outside of #2 pretty much every other hole is driveable by anyone with decent distance off the tee.  But instead your getting your ass handed to because the tempation to go for it is just too much to resist.  Its the perfect match play course.

And to boot, the local rule says if you hit the wires, you get a re-do. 

Matt,

Other than some crooked sloping tee boxes, you would be right as it really is in great shape both fairways and greens.

[Tim Leahy]

Definitely a challenge to "The Ranch" or Mountain House out here in NoCal.

[Ian_L]

Tim, is Mountain House closed permanently?

[Dan Smoot]

Mike C,

Interestly enough, the original 9 couldn't be more different than this 2nd 9.  Its a straight up and back course with only a couple of interesting holes....a 1 on the doak scale at best.  And even though the front is more conventional, I'd much rather play the mountain 9 any day of the week.  Once again, the "its so bad, its good" thing going on.

Adam,

It is indeed as punishing as it looks, while I wasn't playing bad on the day when I took these pics, my mediocre play lead to 7 lost balls on 9 holes.  Thats got to be some kind of record, even for me.  But then again, its so dang short, if one just plays smart, its easy to score well.  So what do you think.... any resemblances to Ballyneal?    

Kalen,

I have driven by this course a number of times, never been tempted to even stop -- my reaction every time I look up on the bench and see it ----- why in the world did they put that up there.  It seems from below to be much more severe than SM. 

It seems to be a course where a par value means nothing.  Your pictures give it a look where it would be a place to have some fun with friends.  Quirky can be fun.

[Garland Bayley]

Would you classify #9 as a tunnel hole? Your pictures are schizoid. On picture make it look like wide open to the green, another looking back looks just like you came through a tunnel.

How about #5? Is it a tunnel also?

[Kalen Braley]

Dan,

It is indeed a quirky friend, and I discovered it almost by accident.  The original 9 is completly forgettable, wouldn't even recognize anyone to play it even once.

Some buddies and I played it last year and that was when I discovered it and thought man this sure is a preposterous course, but I'll be damned if I didn't have fun...the whole when its so bad, its good thing going on.

Garland,

I don't think any of them could be considered "tunnel" holes.  yes they are narrow in between the canyons walls at times, but nothing unplayable.  The shot on #5 looking back doesn't really do justice to it because there is alot more room out to the right.  I mostly just wanted to get the hill on the left in the pic because its pretty much always in play after the tee shot.

#9 is pretty narrow once it gets to the green, but by then a player has a wedge in thier hands so its not an unreasonable shot requirement.  The bigger guessing game is off the tee to try to find the fairway.  The drop is pretty significant and the fairway is angled so you really have to choose wisely or it could be a lost ball.

Kalen

[Tim Leahy]

Tim, is Mountain House closed permanently?

I haven't seen anything written about it, but I played with a guy who lives out that way and he said the course was for sale and housing development associated with the course is dead. Phone #'s are disconnected.

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