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Joe Leenheer

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Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« on: March 17, 2012, 09:31:32 PM »
Inspired by Mr. McKinley's thread (and I'll be sending royalties for borrowing the thread title), I thought we could do a little spinoff and talk about the Architects of the Tour Stop Course. 

This week..

Innisbrook Copperhead Course - Lawrence Packard

I've played three Packards in Ohio...and I have a new found special fondness for Silver Lake Country Club (photo tour to come later this year).

So the question posed is, "What's the best Lawrence Packard course outside of Innisbrook?"
Never let the quality of your game determine the quality of your time spent playing it.

Sam Morrow

Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2012, 12:20:45 AM »
He's got several courses in Egypt, I found that interesting. It looks like I've played one of his courses, Sweetwater outside Houston, it used to be home of the LPGA. There are 36 there so I don't know if he did both courses or not. It's a decent subdivision course, a couple of okay holes and a couple of crap holes. I've got friends who are members, neither are courses I'd go out of my way to see.

Bill McKinley

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Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2012, 05:07:19 PM »
OK, Bay Hill week.  Arnold Palmer has his name on tons of courses, go to his design website sometime and check out the HUGE list of courses.  My vote for best Arnold Palmer course goes to... Tralee Golf Club in Ireland.
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Matthew Petersen

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Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2012, 05:42:54 PM »
I've played a few Palmer courses and not really been a fan of any of them.

The only real one of note that comes to mind is Bear Creek GC in Denver and I always just think of that as the most relentlessly penal golf course I've ever played.

Take the fourth, a 460 yard park 4 that requires a drive over a tree-filled canyon and a second shot over water to a green ringed by three bunkers.  Or the 445 yard 16th, which features a peninsula green in a lake. Or the following 17th which again plays directly over the lake, green set hard against its edge.

It's been years since I played there but it certainly sticks in my mind. Relentless course.

Other Palmer efforts I've played:

Wildfire (Palmer), Phoenix, AZ -- they use the back nine of this course as the front nine for the LPGA Founders Cup just played last week. I love the Faldo course on this property but the Palmer course bored me to death.

Legend at Arrowhead, Glendale, AZ. Residential cartball at its most banal.

Angel Park, Las Vegas. So memorable that I can't remember a single hole (and, no, I wasn't playing it hungover)

Starr Pass, Tucson, AZ. Plamer's group built a third nine at this course a few years back and it's perhaps the most misguided resort golf I've ever played. Virtually unplayable for a high handicapper (long forced carries off the tees to the fairway, forced carries to many greens), but actually very easy for the better player. I guess I had fun since I scored well, but it seemed the absolute antithesis of what a resort course should be.

Mark Saltzman

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Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2012, 05:45:41 PM »
I haven't played it, but the Palmer I would like to visit most is Musgrove Mill.

Howard Riefs

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Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2012, 07:25:27 PM »
OK, Bay Hill week.  Arnold Palmer has his name on tons of courses, go to his design website sometime and check out the HUGE list of courses.  My vote for best Arnold Palmer course goes to... Tralee Golf Club in Ireland.

While Palmer has his name all over Bay Hill, Dick Wilson is the original architect. The course opened in 1961. Palmer purchased the club in 1975 and has handled the renovations the last few decades. The BH website has a page on the history of the club/course: 
http://www.bayhill.com/Club-and-Lodge/The-History-of-Bay-Hill-1896.html

As far as making a stop at another Dick Wilson course, we definitely need to go with Pine Tree in Boynton Beach, Fla., where our very own Tony Nysse is the superintendent. 

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,49146.0.html
"Golf combines two favorite American pastimes: Taking long walks and hitting things with a stick."  ~P.J. O'Rourke

Joe Leenheer

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Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2012, 11:44:19 PM »
Redstone Golf Club - Rees Jones

I am a HUGE fan of La Jolla Country Club and I also enjoyed The Golf Club of the Everglades in Naples although that may have been more the atmosphere and company then the course itself.

Other Jones' I've played include Rio Secco in Vegas and Belle Terra in Myrtle Beach (which is no longer in existence but was a fun track).

What's the best Rees Jones you've played?
Never let the quality of your game determine the quality of your time spent playing it.

K. Krahenbuhl

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Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2012, 08:23:43 AM »
Ocean Forest in Georgia.

Tim Gavrich

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Re: Playing opposite the PGA Tour stop - ARCHITECT EDITION
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2012, 10:01:05 AM »
Haig Point, which I played back in February with a very merry band of GCAers, is quite good.  I also like Duke, but that was RTJ Sr. with later improvements by Rees.  Currituck on the Outer Banks disappointed me.
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