Does Harbour Town Prove We are Wrong?

[Matt MacIver]

Re Harbour Town I think this quote from third round leader Charlie Hoffman sums it up...he'll be an early favorite again next year after the education he got on Sunday. 

"I would say I wasn't mature enough to play this golf course," Hoffman said Saturday. "I didn't understand how to play it. I guess I would get frustrated when I hit the fairway and didn't have a shot at the green."

I loved my one round there, saw some pretty interesting stuff  architecturally (love the scar bunker on #17) and played some really fun shots - but won't be running back to pay $$$ to play again anytime soon.  Cut the price to $+ or $ and I'd play it annually. 

[Mark Pritchett]

I like HT a lot and would love to play it again. 

Can anyone here comment on how much the trees affected play early on say in the 1970's-early 1980's? 

[Carl Nichols]

I'm not a big fan of HT simply because the trees don't allow for diversity of shots.  Too many times the recovery is the same - poke out from the trees.  That said, one must play HT on its terms - it will not be overpowered.  There is some good news with that approach, but I fear too much freedom in the game is sacrificed in throttling golfers back.  Interestingly, I liked everything else about the course except for the forest of trees - which to me is HT's chief design element.  Make the corridors 20 yards wider and you have a very interesting course with some cool features that get to take centre stage. 


Ciao

HT is obviously very tight, but compared to some other low-country courses, at least you can usually find and hit your ball from the trees if you miss, rather than either taking a drop from a water hazard or replaying because your ball is lost in native grass.