I played 36 holes at Gamble Sands on Friday and loved everything about it despite not playing all that well. For comparison, I have played Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Old MacDonald, Wine Valley, and Chambers Bay (where I belong to the club) many times, as well as Gozzer Ranch, Dismal (Doak), Ballyneal, and other notables. I can say with confidence that Gamble Sands belongs in the same conversation as these courses.
Points of Interest:
I walked all 36 without any difficulty (and this after walking 18 at Wine Valley the day before). While the club permits carts, the course itself is not marred by cart paths criss-crossing fairways.
There’s not nearly as much break on the greens as there is at, say, Chambers Bay, but I well suspect that there will be plenty of subtlety when greens mature and speeds increase.
The greens are large, have many different tiers, and provide a host of different pin locations. In other words, the greens will offer a lot of variety for repeat play. Approach shots hit to the wrong part of a green present significant challenges.
The maintenance for such a young course is very impressive. The fairways and greens are already in better shape than those at Chambers Bay.
The maintenance crew mows well beyond the perimeter of the irrigated portion of the fairways, meaning that — quite unlike my experience at Dismal last year — balls that run through the huge fairway won’t be lost in a thicket of deep grass and weeds. (And I say kudos for recognizing that there is a direct correlation between being able to find one’s golf ball and fun.)
The course features three drivable par 4 holes — #2, #8, and #12. Hole #2 is the easiest of the set, and is just as easily the most photogenic hole on the course.
Holes #7 and #18 are both reachable par 5’s. A poor drive on #7 can lead to a big number (because the waste area running the length of the hole is deep) but it is otherwise relatively short with a slope behind the hole that will help an overly aggressive approach shot. A drive on #18 can easily run out 300 or more yards, possibly leaving a mid-iron into the green to set up a finishing eagle putt.
The tee ball on the third hole is reminiscent of the tee shot at Dismal (Doak) #17, in that it features a carry over a ridge to a blind (but huge) fairway.
Hole #5 is a classic cape hole where a par or better can be extremely difficult. An aggressive line off the tee might lead to a blind approach shot over a huge wall of sand. A less aggressive line, if hit too short, leaves a long approach to a narrow green.
Hole #6 is an interesting take on the Redan. From the “back tee” where I played (which is shorter than the “medal tee”), the yardage on the card is 231 but a tee shot that carries around 190 yards or so (downhill) will likely reach the green.The slope right of the green is so steep that a ball hit with a fade has an excellent chance of trickling down to the hole. Indeed, a nice draw will likely run out past a pin on the right half of the green (where it played Friday) and toward the deepest part of the green.
Hole #16 is a similarly interesting par 3. The green has an upper tier on its right side and a much lower tier on its left. A pin on the right (where it was located when we played) is best reached by taking the tee shot over the “brow” well to the right of the green and using the right to left slope to run the ball on to the green.
I haven't seen the routing posted anywhere on the web so I took a screenshot of a satellite image that was taken, obviously, before the grow in was completed:
