Show me 18 good to great greens with no "stragglers" and I'll show you a great golf course. Tom said it correctly in regards to great courses without great greens. In fact that topic might deserve its own thread.
I was astonished--without even reading the responses before pondering--at how fast my mind screamed, Oakmont, Crystal, Yale, Pasatiempo! It was as natural as breathing to regurgitate those four without even blinking.
How did you think Ballyneal stacked up against those legends, Corky?
Bill,
My mind isn't very sharp right now at the end of an 18 hour driving day from Atlanta to Del Rio, TX. I'll be quick.
Ballyneal's greens are sort of like the first 4 months of the Afghanistan war in 2001. I can just see Tom and his associates in digitized desert camo, playing in those dunes looking for green sites. Now imagine this small special forces team of golf architects and shapers, with a laser designator and a radio. They hop over a Yucca, low crawl around a small rise and then you hear Tom in a whisper, "Schlitz 21, this is Mackenzie niner, kill box delta oscar alpha kilo four two, cleared in hot....." Nervous silence, a knowing grin from the team leader and
BOOM!! That's how I imagine greens like the third and seventh and fourteenth--among others--being created at Ballyneal. I think Tom and his crew found and--possibly--created 18 of the best green
sites in the history of golf. As to whether the greens themselves stack up against those classical horses, I would need more than a few minutes and few beers to chime in further. Let's just say this, I think they compare VERY favorably. But the real kicker is this IMHO. How do Ballyneal's greens stack up against other modern "green complex titans" like Friar's Head, Wolf Point, and Old Mac?