A collegiate "hidden gem" - Duke University

[Robert Adams]

I just returned from playing the golf course at Duke University. What a well kept secret! Rees Jones renovated the course several years ago from his father's orginal 1960s design. The end result is the best course of Rees that I've come across. Who else has played it and what did you think?

[Ran Morrissett]

I agree wholeheartedly. Perhaps because Rees  had less budget, he created less of those annoying mounds that have ruined some of his other works (case in point: Green Course at Golden Horseshoe in Williamsburg, VA).Last winter, my family played two rounds there and had the very best time. There really are so many appealing shots, one after the other, I hope the Duke patrons realise how good they have it.Only the last two holes are a let down - both are long, straight par fours in the same direction, plenty hard, but they lack the charm of the 16 holes that precede them.I look forward to repeat rounds this winter as well.

[astavrides]

Today in the world of golf....

One of the sport's most incredible streaks finally ended. 

Despite all their success over the past 15 or so years (National Champs in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006 & 2007), and all their recruiting success (landing Stephanie Sparks, Jenny Chuasiriporn, Leigh Anne Hardin, Amanda Blumenhurst, Beth Bauer, Candy Hanneman, Virada Nirapathpongporn, Liz Janangelo, Anna Grzebien, Mina Harigae, and many other AJGA All-Americans), no Duke University womens golfer had ever won on the LPGA Tour.

Until today.

Congratulations to Brittany Lang. 

Glad to hear it.  I gave up on her and stopped watching after she hit that awful putt on 18 (missed  5 footer 6 inches to the left) that would have won it for her in regulation.

[Carl Johnson]

I've played the Duke course both before and after Rees' renovation.  It is a very good course.  Any university (with a small number of exceptions) would be happy to trade for it.  My problem is that I'm not sure I'd call it "hidden."  Keep in mind that I'm a Duke grad.  By the way, my current faculty friend tells me there is no truth to the rumor that Duke is planning to change its name to Krzyzewski University, or that in any case the name of the course will be changed to the Krzyzewski Golf Course.

[Jackson C]

I just returned from playing the golf course at Duke University. What a well kept secret! Rees Jones renovated the course several years ago from his father's orginal 1960s design. The end result is the best course of Rees that I've come across. Who else has played it and what did you think?

Robert,

Any particular holes or shots stood out to you?
I played it a couple of times.  My recollection of the course is not strong. (I do recall #9 being a fun second shot.)
This may be due to the many stand out courses in the vicinity, namely Pinehurst, Tabacco Road, and Dormie.

[Ran Morrissett]

Jackson,

The sad truth is ...... back in 1999 (i.e within the first 6 months of GolfClubAtlas.com getting off the ground ala the Hindenburg) I posted under several names (including Robert Adams!  ) in a feeble attempt to give the web site any form of something that might resemble slight traction.

Therefore, to respond to your question, I have have always thought the Duke Course had a series of solid holes with a few ones of great merit sprinkled into the mix (e.g. 1, 2, 11, and 16). Throw in the water hazards on 12 and 13 (and the rolling 9th as you say) and you have a very pleasant course with a nice mix of challenges and no obvious weaknesses.

In my mind, it rivals Raleigh CC as the best course in the Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham area. None are higher than a 6 on the Doak scale but what else what you expect out of clay soil parkland courses?

Cheers,

[A.G._Crockett]

Duke is vastly, vastly better since the Rees renovation.  It was all of the worst of RTJ before (runway tees, blind tee shots, elevated greens over and over and over) and not in very good condition to boot.

I can't find much to distinguish either Duke or Finley(UNC) other than that they are good university courses.  Finley gets the nod from me because I'm a Tar Heel and the price is more reasonable, but Finley was also a great disappointment to me when it opened and I realized that $8m had been spent for a course that I liked far less than the original.  I've warmed to it a bit since then, but I trace my interest in GCA to playing the Ocean Course and the new Finley within a few weeks.

But for my money, Lonnie Poole(NCSU) is the best of the three university courses in the Triangle.  Far more interesting and varied than the other two.  I know Palmer courses are generally viewed with some skepticism here; I've never really shared that feeling, and I think Lonnie Poole is an excellent course.

[John_Conley]

Ran, that's quite a revelation!  Also indicative of how far the site advanced in the first few years.  It wasn't long befor your were a notoriously seldom poster!

As for the course, I liked it when I saw it in the early 1990s.  I wanted to post the OT comment about the remarkable LPGA streak coming to an end and figured I would search for "DUKE" on the site rather than clutter it with a new thread.

[John Shimp]

I'm not much of a fa n of duke.  I graduated there in 87 and from bschool in 96.  I like the property and there are some good holes but i dislike rees artificial flattening of the fairways that lead to sharp bull dozed dropoffs (1, 2, 9 are some bad examples-- you will break a leg on a ball hit thru the left dog legs on those)  -- those used to be naturally graded and went along the hillides.  I also think he has turned his dads more natural greensites (while bland, large, and poorly bunkered) into ones that are monotonous ie fly an approach long by a foot and face a hard repetitive flop from bermuda rough that runs away.   Duke should be much better than it is on that proprty.

[John_Conley]

Ran, what did Robert Adams do to get kicked off the site!?

[Wade Whitehead]

I think I posted this in another thread at some point, but:

When I played Duke, I got to the second tee and I thought "I think I had this same look 15 minutes ago on the first hole."  The first two tee shots seemed almost exactly the same.

WW

[Sean_A]

Duke & the course on Bald Head Island have to be the two most disappointing courses I have seen in the Carolinas.  Completely uninspired architecture which could have been slapped together by any old slapper.  Both are expensive too - blah.

Ciao 

[Alex Lagowitz]

I have great respect for a few of the holes out there, although I can't quite grasp their respective hole numbers.

Although the course is at times boring, you are asked to hit all different types of shots - high, low, draw, and fade.

[ed_getka]

I work at Duke and have played the course a couple of times. It is an okay course and I'll go along with Ran's rating of 6. I would say the most damning thing I can say about the course is that I practice there fairly regularly and rarely get the itch to get out on the course to play. I felt the same way about Poppy Ridge when I lived in California. Both courses have some good holes, but just not enough to get me excited enough to want to play them. I would give both places a higher rating for their practice areas than I would for their courses as a matter of fact.

[Jon Wiggett]

Wow,

knowing that the first two posts are from the same person makes reading them interesting. I have visions of Ran sitting at a table and saying

"I just returned from playing the golf course at Duke University. What a well kept secret! Rees Jones renovated the course several years ago from his father's orginal 1960s design. The end result is the best course of Rees that I've come across. Who else has played it and what did you think?"

before skipping round to the otherside, sitting down in a chair opposite and proclaiming

"I agree wholeheartedly. Perhaps because Rees  had less budget, he created less of those annoying mounds that have ruined some of his other works (case in point: Green Course at Golden Horseshoe in Williamsburg, VA).Last winter, my family played two rounds there and had the very best time. There really are so many appealing shots, one after the other, I hope the Duke patrons realise how good they have it.Only the last two holes are a let down - both are long, straight par fours in the same direction, plenty hard, but they lack the charm of the 16 holes that precede them.I look forward to repeat rounds this winter as well."

Kind of unnerving form 'Golf's most beloved' 


Ed,

how can it be worth a 6 if you can't be bothered to play it whilst being actually at the place? Surely that is in the 0 or 1 area.

Jon

[Chris Buie]

It is sort of interesting to me because I played the course at the University of New Jersey-Durham Duke maybe 7 or 8 times and I remember liking it well enough. This would be about 20 years ago and the memories are vague. It seemed like a nice place and a solid championship course. I wasn't playing too much at the time but that was one of the two courses I'd usually visit on a nice day and was up for having have a go. That was on the list because I remember it being $18 dollars to play in a sort of upscale environment. And after spending time in the shabby beer parlours of Chapel Hill the occasional upscale thing would be attractive.
It was a much better course than the UNC one (Findlay). My only memory of that goat (at the time anyway) was that if it had rained within the past 3 days you'd come home with orange pants - sloshing around in clay soil. I played Devil's Ridge in the area only once because it had the longest walks I've ever seen between some of the holes. Or at least that's what I recall because my friend called the epic walk between (I think) 9 and 10 the Bataan Death March.
I played a few other courses in the area but the one I visited mainly then was a 9 holer you haven't heard of called Twin Lakes. The "lakes" were about the size of hot tubs and were in front of a shortish par-3. Those hot tubs were the only part I didn't like. We called it Twin Puddles - with some affection. Although it had some nice natural contouring, it was kind of just a big field. I liked that. Not all courses need to be intricately thought out and highly strategic and clever. In fact, I personally find simplistic and uncomplicated - ones that are not tricked up and filled to the brim with all sorts of design elements - appealing. Not what I want to play all the time but certainly part of the personal rota.
Proximity and price were the other reasons I played that course. I suppose those aspects would have to be in place for there to be appeal with such courses.
A golf guy you've probably heard of plays there mainly - even though he lives on one of the upscale courses.

[Mark Johnson]

my 2 cents.


i am a duke alum, played it a bit during school and play at least once per year.  Usually early on a football saturday before the game.

some thoughts in bullet form

- in a lot of ways, it reminds me of a southern version of Dubsdread;  in many ways, it can be way too hard for a 15+ handicapper, while not being that tough for low handicappers, especially someone with distance because they can bomb and gauge it.   I am a slightly above average hitter and don't remember hittting more than a 9-iron into any par-4 with the exception of the 18th hole.   I think this is more because of elevated tee shots and fairways that get a ton of roll. 

- Fairways are much wider than what you would expect for a course in the middle of the carolinas

- no real signature hole which is probably why raters drop it a bunch

- course closes will a tough slightly uphill long par 4 which is probably the hardest hole on the course

- Pars 3 and short par 4 13th are probably the strength of the course

[ed_getka]

Jon,
    I don't remember what a 6 is so I just went with Ran's. The course at Duke certainly wasn't worth me getting up to find out what defines a 6 in my library after a long day at work. On the other hand if it cost $20 to play at Duke I would probably get out on the course a bit more. There is always a value component to the money I choose to spend. Even as an employee of Duke I still end up paying about $50 or so, which is too much for that type of course that doesn't particularly appeal to me.

[John Shimp]

Its a more like a 4 or maybe a 5.  Not a 6.