I was very fortunate last week to play a tremendous course that has been profiled (both aerially and by Ran) on this site. It was designed by a revered duo, but gets comparatively little buzz. It is a brutal part of the country to get consistent conditions, but the grounds staff seems to have a good handle on "maintenance meld". Albeit based on a few brief conversations and one visit, the membership, administration and professional staff seem to "get it", with respect to the history and pedigree of the club. There is a significant history of major championship golf, including a tight and controverisal finish, although not recently...
This view greets those who successfull navigate a blind tee shot on a fairly short par-4
As one who "hits the ball to all fields", I appreciated the chances to hit around, under, and occasionally over the trees, and the other "corridors of excape"...
The course has many, many familiar features--with all the contours to work the ball that most players could want, enticing angles of play and lines of charm, a few carries to deal with, and green complexes with both dramatic statements and subtle contours, making two-putts not automatic.
Happiness is...
...a hole location in the swale of a Biarritz!
What does the course lack? Well, that's why I qualified my subject line--for some, the course lacks sufficient length, with only a few par-4's over 400 yds and minimal, if any, elbow room to expand. There appear to be a few corridors where lots of trees have been dropped in to protect the parallel holes, but these do not seem to significantly affect play, as they seem mostly in the vicinity of one or two teeing grounds...
The double plateau, with the hole location in the middle depression
The location the next day was on the small back wing, which (yikes!) backs up to a narrow road, that used to be in play, but is now out-of-bounds
It is not next to an ocean, or in a region blessed with many top-notch courses for comparison, and the surrounding views (if you can see through the humidity) are not much in the summer, but I bet the colors are awfully nice in a month or two!
In some ways, the club and course are like a living, breathing museum of golf architecture, and I can't imagine ever getting bored of playing this course.
Where is it? Let's just say I forget how humid it gets here, between my visits back to my old hometown...
I'll post more pictures and some hole thoughts, if interested.