Are we bored with Pete Dye?

[mps]

Mark - IMHO you missed the best one!  In general, I'd agree that Dye builds vs. finds but Dye "found" Teeth of the Dog - it's natural & based on my experience, it's his best work.  Hard to believe the same guy did Oak Tree & the Stadium Course (I like them both but they're too penal - totally different from TOTD).  By the way - they WOULD still be playing the '88 PGA if they made them play Oak Tree at max length.

[Tim_Weiman]

Mark,

I was thinking about the vegetation.  It just made me picture some leaf eating dinosaurs......clearly not the normal thought to pop into your head when playing golf.......

[Mark_Fine]

mps,
That's what I've heard.  There is a group of about 16 guys from Lehigh that go there every other year for a week in the Jan/Feb timeframe.  They all rave about the place.  I believe there are a few other courses Dye did there as well.  

One day I'll get the pass from my wife to join them    
Mark

[you know who]

Mark

It's set up as a trip for couples.

[Mark_Fine]

Every other year it is, but who would take their wife on a golf trip with the boys???  

[redanman (Guest)]

Mark

Remember mrs. redanman played in that same weather we played in yesterday, too.   She's more fun than a lot of the boys.

  

[Mark_Fine]

But can she play 36 holes for four or five days straight with bets flying everywhere after being up till 2:00 am each night playing cards and drinking single malts  

[BillV]

I don't really want or need to play 36 a day. How can you really learn any architectural features or character of courses that way?

I have always had a big question of folks opinions when they play 10 courses in 4 or 5 days.  It takes a very special person to even take in 3 courses in 2 days, and know what they've really seen,IMHO.  Even a very famous critic admits he may have missed the greatness of Royal Aberdeen as a result.

Also, I was glad to visit castles, cairns (like the really cool one south of Brora) and the like on my trips.

Bottom line, Mark

Why the hell haen't you taken the trip to the Dominican Republic yet??????????????

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

Daryl--

That link was to a front of our sports page story in the Post & Courier on the likelihood of The World Cup coming back to The Ocean Course in 2003, steming from the following brief mention in AP:
Kiawah Island, site of the 1991 Ryder Cup and the UBS Warburg Cup in November, might not have to wait 10 years to get team matches. The PGA Tour plans to bring the World Cup to the South Carolina resort in 2003. ...   I don't know what happened to the link...

[Mark_Fine]

Bill,
How many golf trips is one to take during a year?  I get a few in don't I?  

A golf trip with the boys is generally not about studying architecture, its about playing and enjoying the game!  Every once in awhile I like to go out and focus on my golf game and the commoradory that goes with playing and nothing else.  It was like our round on Sunday.  We had a fivesome and were playing Wolf.  We had a blast.  I was out there to have fun, do some trash talking and win some cash (more importantly bragging rights).  I wasn't out there to try to spot some subtle architectural feature I might have missed in the design (although sometimes you spot them anyway).

I'm at the point where I still love to "play the game".  I play enough times during the year like we did at Applebrook where you are primarily focused on the architecture and don't really care to much how you are hitting it.  I find I miss a lot if I try to do both.  A trip with the boys is about playing and not so much about studying!  They are also generally an endurance test but that's part of the fun.  

Mark