Harvester G.C. (pics)

[Brian Cenci]

I'm slowly trying to post pictures of some nice courses that haven't been highlighted on the site.  Well, the Harvester G.C. is located in Iowa and is a very nice course.  Different style of bunkering and some nice risk/reward holes.  A very nice setting and some cool finishing holes on the water.

So, here's a few pictures of the course.  If anybody else has played there I'd love to hear their thoughts.  I played it 3 years ago on a golfing driving trip from Lansing, MI to Bandon, OR and back.

[Jason Topp]

Nice pictures of a course I really like.  It is about a 3-1/2 hour drive from my house and I have made 5-6 weekend trips there.  It is a great shoulder season destination from Minnesota.  I've always been glad I made the trip.

[Adam Clayman]

I was there recently and very much enjoyed the front nine. The back nine I had some issues with, mostly due to the repetitious benching of greens. The 18th was a bit of an odd hole. Double water carry with a weird fairway cut out long left off the tee.  I liked the 16th, a long par four with a second blind landing area only accessible by challenging the bunker on the inside leg. I thought it an interesting choice and somewhat unique golf hole.

Since I have not seen any other Iowa courses, I'd say it's worth stopping in to see if anywhere near the I-80. (I-80 is 20 miles south)

[Matt_Ward]

Brian:

Played it a few years back -- a must play for anyone traveling through the area. Keith Foster did a fine job here. The facility gets little notice because of location.

[Jason Topp]

I was there recently and very much enjoyed the front nine. The back nine I had some issues with, mostly due to the repetitious benching of greens. The 18th was a bit of an odd hole. Double water carry with a weird fairway cut out long left off the tee.  I liked the 16th, a long par four with a second blind landing area only accessible by challenging the bunker on the inside leg. I thought it an interesting choice and somewhat unique golf hole.

Since I have not seen any other Iowa courses, I'd say it's worth stopping in to see if anywhere near the I-80. (I-80 is 20 miles south)

Adam:

You and I defintely have some differences of opinion.  

For me the 16th is the only bad hole on the back nine.  My problem with the hole is that after 25 plays, I think the agressive tee shot is a complete sucker play.  I have found it entirely random whether the tee shot winds up perfect, on the downslope or in the creek.  I find that a shame because that hole has a terrific green - front to back, right to left slope with a good front right bunker.

I think the 18th is a terrific hole although definitely different than the norm and different from others on the course.  The reason I like the hole so much is that it is a reachable par five that is reachable not because one can bomb it off the tee, but instead because one has the guts to place the tee shot close to the water on the right.  Even if one is not going for the green, there are intersting decisions to be made on the layup - whether to hit it to the football field sized island or whether to be more agressive.

I never really thought about benching of the greens on the back nine and am not sure I agree it is either repetitive or a weakness.  10, 11, 13, 16 and 18 have no benches as I recall.  Of the rest, 14, has a cool back bench that is lower than the front.  

The one weak hole on the front in my opinion is 5.  I just think the the green is too big to provide much interest or much of an advantage for an agressive tee shot.  It is a perfect time for a shorter hole, but I would prefer a driveable hole and/or a more challenging green.

[Shane Wright]

Brian - you actually beat me to the punch.  I was getting ready to post a hole by hole summary of Harvester.  I live in Minneapolis but do a lot of business in the Ames area and get down to play it 5-8 times a year.  I think it is an awesome layout and such a beautiful piece of property.  I would agree with Jason - #16 is just ok but 18 is wonderful finishing hole with about 5 different options off the tee.  If there were enough people familiar with the course, you could probably start a new thread, "How should you play #18 at the Harvester?"

They have a layout planned for a 2nd course, to be built on the land behind #6 tee box.  They plan to have it as a caddy only course and they told me the property is actually superior to the Harvester property.  Every time I get to #6 I always want to walk out there and take a look....and then decide just to do it next time.  I may try and get some pics of it to post on GCA.

[Adam Clayman]

Jason, You have the advantage of repeated plays. I trust your observations rather than my own from a one timer.
 Re Benching, there needn't be many on the back nine to make the use repetitive. The feeling carries over from the front.

I sensed a real change in the ruggedness starting on 10 but it quickly went by by.
 
The course is kept in immaculate shape albeit over watered over fert for my personal tastes.

The ground was so good there and the area remote, I didn't see the need to make the presentation so commercial.  

[Rick Shefchik]

Terrific course, but a tough one for us Minnesota guys who drive down there to get in our first round of the year (yes, Iowa is temperate, compared to us.)

I thought 16, 17 and 18 were a particularly tough finishing combo on the day we played it, all three holes playing into a strong headwind. I'm not wild about  fairways bisected by drop-offs, with heavy rough on the downslope of the drop-off. Like Jason, I thought the drive was kind of a crap shoot, at least on our first go-round. If you played it enough times in all conditions, you'd have a better idea what to hit off the tee to either lay up or go for the lower part of the fairway.

No. 17 is just a skinny sliver of a green with a hillside and bunkers left, and water up the right side as the green angles away from you left-to-right. It was a very difficult target into the wind.

How best to play 18? Hard to say, given the wind we had that day.



That bunker that cuts into the fairway from the left almost forced a layup, since the wind was into us. There's room left of the bunker, but that's rough and cartpath territory, and doesn't give you much margin of error to hit that  island fairway on your second shot. Going for the green in two was out of the question the day we were there.

I guess I need to be a better ballstriker in the wind to handle The Harvester. Still, I enjoyed the course very much.

[Richard Boult]

Brian, thanks for adding the 1st Iowa course photo tour...

http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas/Iowa

[Buck Wolter]

Anybody play the new Rees Jones course south of Iowa City in Riverside? The few photos I have seen look interesting.

[Matt_Ward]

Rick S:

I salute your drive to get to Iowa after tough weather times in your home state of Minnesota. It's a helluva course and proves the point that such time here on GCA is devoted to the same narrow band of usual private club suspects. Nothing per se wrong with that but it shows the limitations of people who may not be up to speed on what else is out there in the good ole USA.

Regarding the 18th hole -- I believe one has to challenge the hole from the get-go at the tee. If the wind is with the player then a direct challenge to the space between the bunker on the left and the H20 on the right must be the play. If the wind is against then hitting directly at the bunker makes the most sense. The following shot from that position would be to lay-up to the first area and then pitch onto the green.

I only wish some of the holes I have seen in Florida could be as captivating and challenging as the closer at Harvester.

[Jeff Shelman]

I am a fan of The Harvester. I think it is a very good course and am of the belief that Keith Foster is a bit underrated.

That said, I don't love No. 16. From the 6,800 yard tees it is a 440 yard hole, but I don't feel comfortable hitting driver there. I don't think the lower fairway is big enough to try that play. So you basically have to lay up and then leave yourself with 220 or more into the green. Yes it's downhill, but that's still a lot of work.

Other than that, I really like the course as it has several very good holes and really has a nice pace to it.

[Doug Siebert]

Anybody play the new Rees Jones course south of Iowa City in Riverside? The few photos I have seen look interesting.

The flooding in Iowa earlier this summer destroyed several holes on the front nine (the ones right by the Iowa River)  They were going to bring him back later this year to redesign the front nine with those holes relocated on higher ground.  In the meantime it has been playing as a 14 hole (I believe) course at a discount rate.