[Emile Bonfiglio]

From Matt Ginella in tweet.

"Streamsong's exciting; Pinehurst No. 2 was important. RT @bule1101: is Streamsong most exciting & important golf resort since Bandon?"

What say you?

[Anthony Gray]

  Dismal

[Tom_Doak]

Anthony:

Dismal River is not a resort.

To the topic of the thread, I don't see how anything can be deemed Important before it even opens.  Important is a result.  Declaring it in advance is even sillier than saying a particular routing is the best of all time. 

[Mike_Clayton]

In America maybe, but Barnbougle was important in Australia because it was the first course in the world top 100 that anybody could play.
America and Britain always had great courses that were accessible.
Does that make it more important?
It depends where you come from.

[Simon Holt]

As a non-American its hard for me to comment on resort golf but the Blue course is certainly the most interesting I played in a month of Florida golf this past Jan/Feb.  (EDIT: the reason being it is absolutely not Florida golf!)

I think it has every chance to be the most successful since Bandon as there seems to be a good number of winter golfers in the Tampa, Orlando and Naples area which isn't too far to drive for golf of that quality.  

It really opened my eyes.  All I knew at the time was that it was really fun and nothing like anything I have played anywhere- let alone Florida!  Now I have time to digest my whole trip it really was the standout experience for the golf, let alone the great company.

[Tom_Doak]

As a non-American its hard for me to comment on resort golf but the Blue course is certainly the most interesting I played in a month of Florida golf this past Jan/Feb.  (EDIT: the reason being it is absolutely not Florida golf!)

I think it has every chance to be the most successful since Bandon as there seems to be a good number of winter golfers in the Tampa, Orlando and Naples area which isn't too far to drive for golf of that quality.  

It really opened my eyes.  All I knew at the time was that it was really fun and nothing like anything I have played anywhere- let alone Florida!  Now I have time to digest my whole trip it really was the standout experience for the golf, let alone the great company.

Wow!  For God's sake don't tell them where else you played on your trip, or we'll have to revise the Sacred Cow thread.

[Simon Holt]

Pray silence.  I havent told anyone!!!  And FYI, I meant in Florida   Although 7 could grace anywhere.

[Tom_Doak]

And FYI, I meant in Florida  

Oh, then I take it back.  Florida is a pretty low bar, especially if you didn't get to Seminole.  Then again, I can remember years ago when I wrote that Oregon had a low standard for great courses.  It's nice to be able to change things.

[Simon Holt]

I walked Seminole and it looked great.  I am probably not experienced to make that call- and the nice add on to the trip would obviously be considered an outlier in any sampling. 

To say it is the most interesting course in Florida certainly does not just make it the smartest kid in a dumb class.  The kid can hold its own in a smart class.

I liked it more than Sebonack if that gives people a reference, mainly due to the greens.  Its hard to pigeon hole it into a grouping of courses I like as it is so different to anything I have played before.

[Mac Plumart]

it is so different to anything I have played before.

Well, we can't let that one go.  Why/how is it different?  Do tell.

[Simon Holt]

Oh man!  I knew I should have gone to bed ages ago.

I sent a big list to Tom with my rambling thoughts but essentially the landforms are unique.  The dunes are dunes but dont look like dunes, and yet they dont look manmade when they clearly are....but not for the purpose of golf.  Now I'm confused again.

Maybe thats it!  The dunes are manmade but because they aren't manmade for the purpose of golf, Tom has fit the golf around them in a way that makes them feel natural.  Well, not made the dunes feel natural but the movement of the course feels natural.

It is different because the landscape is so ...weird, for want of a better word.  One of the guys said that if he was dropped in a helicopter and asked where he was he might not even say America.  If asked which state he said Florida would have been about 45 on the list, maybe not even that high!

The mixture of lakes formed by the gauging of the machinery, the dunes created by the waste piles, the contrast of the native and the fairway...the HUGE alligators (dont get them in North Berwick), the surprising amount of wind.....it really is unique.  It is recycling on a huge scale at the end of the day, truly innovative in golf course development/mining redevelopment.

Right 317am.  Bed.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Well lets hope it enjoys success. I think it is silly or worse to declare anything something big in this market. Bandon became what it is not just because of the golf courses. Mike Kaiser kept his vision in place when others including his operations company would have taken a different approach. It is a combination of great golf courses and an incredibly well run operation that plays to the desires of golfers.

[Bill_McBride]

Pray silence.  I havent told anyone!!!  And FYI, I meant in Florida   Although 7 could grace anywhere.

I guess you didn't mean the BLUE Monster at Doral!    I was gob smacked there for a moment!

[Sam Morrow]

What makes a resort important?

[Duncan Cheslett]

What makes a resort important?

Being only a nine hour flight from Manchester...

 

[Kyle Henderson]

Sir Clayton nailed it. For golfers of our ilk, I think Barnbougle has to be the capital of great public GCA in the southern hemisphere, based on my limited experiences.

[William_G]

It is different because the landscape is so ...weird, for want of a better word

I don't think anyone has ever said that in regard to Bandon, LOL.

The Mosaic Co. sure has gone with somewhat of a template that has been successful, again thank you Mike Keiser and Howard McKee.

Keiser has the two big hairy ones that continue to produce great golf around the world and he's not done yet in Bandon.

Looking forward to checking out Streamsong and what the Mosaic Co. has done sometime.

As a "golf resort" Bandon is the best in the world, but its not a resort in the normal sense.

thanks

[Sean_A]

Oh man!  I knew I should have gone to bed ages ago.

I sent a big list to Tom with my rambling thoughts but essentially the landforms are unique.  The dunes are dunes but dont look like dunes, and yet they dont look manmade when they clearly are....but not for the purpose of golf.  Now I'm confused again.

Maybe thats it!  The dunes are manmade but because they aren't manmade for the purpose of golf, Tom has fit the golf around them in a way that makes them feel natural.  Well, not made the dunes feel natural but the movement of the course feels natural.

It is different because the landscape is so ...weird, for want of a better word.  One of the guys said that if he was dropped in a helicopter and asked where he was he might not even say America.  If asked which state he said Florida would have been about 45 on the list, maybe not even that high!

The mixture of lakes formed by the gauging of the machinery, the dunes created by the waste piles, the contrast of the native and the fairway...the HUGE alligators (dont get them in North Berwick), the surprising amount of wind.....it really is unique.  It is recycling on a huge scale at the end of the day, truly innovative in golf course development/mining redevelopment.

Right 317am.  Bed.

This sounds a bit like my long held desire to have land blown to smithereens, let it settle a bit and then see what could be built on top of it.  Why were the dunes not made for golf.  Is the land some sort of reclamation project?

Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

Sean - the site was a phosphate mine for many years. The land was ripped up using these enormous (like 100 yard long) draglines, and when the phosphate had been extracted, the sand that was left was deposited back in place. When the mine was finally exhausted - which only happened early last year, they had just about finished mining when I visited in February 2011 - the normal procedure would have been for the original, flat landscape to be reinstated. But someone thought 'This looks like golf' - and the rest is history.

[Jud_T]

I hope the GCA's have a gentlemen's wager (cherry wine anyone?) on which course gets rated higher by the various rags...

[Michael George]

Barnbougle?  Never played either, but hear great things.

If it added 2 more courses, couldn't it be better than Bandon?  You can certainly argue that Banbougle Dunes and Lost Farms are better than Bandon's best, can't you?

[Steve Lapper]

I agree with Tom that "important is a result" and it's premature to declare it anything other than extremely interesting, exciting and 2nd on my list of publics to see in North America.

#1 on my can't-wait-to-see list would be Cabot Links!!! I am especially anxious to get up there and see that "resort!"

[Gary Slatter]

As a non-American its hard for me to comment on resort golf but the Blue course is certainly the most interesting I played in a month of Florida golf this past Jan/Feb.  (EDIT: the reason being it is absolutely not Florida golf!)

I think it has every chance to be the most successful since Bandon as there seems to be a good number of winter golfers in the Tampa, Orlando and Naples area which isn't too far to drive for golf of that quality.  

It really opened my eyes.  All I knew at the time was that it was really fun and nothing like anything I have played anywhere- let alone Florida!  Now I have time to digest my whole trip it really was the standout experience for the golf, let alone the great company.

I guess you have to be non-american to like the Blue Course.   I still love playing it, in spite of the various improvements over the past 12 years.

[Ronald Montesano]

A) don't know why Bandon isn't a resort in the normal sense...clarification?

B) Is a resort a place where folks go to pass hours of rest and relaxation? If that's the case, forget A, as I get it.

C) Most important golf destination since Bandon...hard to argue with BBDunes...great case put forth by the barristers. Cabot and Dreamy Streamy will certainly be worth following. Can anyone comment on Hainan Island? How will it change things (for better or worse) for golf in Asia? Whether positive or negative, it will certainly be "important."

[Sven Nilsen]

Does it help this discussion to list the top notch golf resorts that are out there?  So far we have:

Streamsong (when finished)
Bandon
Barnbougle
Kohler
Cabot Links
Pinehurst (albeit not a recent addition)

What criteria are the besides from being accessible to the public?  Do you need to have more than one course?

Do places like Kiawah qualify, even though the courses are spread out around the island?

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