I read this thread while on the road playing some snowbird golf. I thought I should mention Huntsman Springs in Driggs, Idaho designed by David Kidd. Not sure all of you guys would call it a great course, but it has to be an unbelievable one given that it was built on a dead flat, waterlogged, mountain meadow. It certainly is a marvel of hydrologic engineering. Hit one off into the native surrounds, walk out to hit it again, and when you head back to the course, your footprints have filled with subsurface water. The course has water on 16 of the 18 holes, yet it is still very strategic and playable. More so than any other course I’ve played, it is filled with visual deception. It looks intimidating and difficult when it really isn’t and contours are full of surprises, a lot of them pleasant. I’d call it a Doak 7 or 8 built on an absolutely 0 site.
Recently, speaking of Mr. Doak, I played Stone Eagle in Palm Desert. Standing there looking at the course, I couldn’t believe it was possible to build it on that rock pile, that moonscape. I was awed, astounded, utterly amazed, and my visual circuits were so overloaded that my breakers tripped. Not because of what was created from nothing, but because of what was created from such a hostile, other worldly landscape. There sits this beautifully designed and conditioned golf course, moving elegantly across a rocky and brutal landscape that only a Big Horned Sheep would find comfortable. The contrasts were literally mind boggling. And these staggering views kept coming relentlessly for the entire time I was there. It was a totally unique golf experience for me that I am still unable to describe. I’ve tried and can’t do it. Some things are better experienced than described. I’ve never seen anything like it and don’t think I ever will.
Just for perspective, on this same trip I played other desert courses, including two that I’d call absolute masterpieces: We-Ko-Pa Saguaro and Desert Forest near Phoenix. Desert Forest recently reopened after the brilliant renovation by Dave Zinkand and his talented friends like Jeff Bradley. So now it’s even better than Ran’s lyrical description because now it has great greens and bunkers to compliment its challenging originality. Those are both great desert courses in my book. However, great as they are, I can’t compare them to SE because the landscape of the Sonoran Desert is like the Garden of Eden compared to the landscape around SE. Not that SE’s environment isn’t starkly beautiful in its own way, it is. The views in every direction are certainly more dramatic, which is saying something. It’s just that SE is so unique it probably belongs in a class by itself. How was it “created?” I can’t imagine.