Golf Club Atlas
GolfClubAtlas.com => Golf Course Architecture Discussion Group => Topic started by: Jason Thurman on December 20, 2017, 03:00:23 PM
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Hole-for-hole, it's easily one of the two or three best courses I've ever played. In the hole-by-hole match play comparison game, it might beat Pebble Beach and Augusta.
I also had no interest in playing it again after one round on a recent trip. Nobody loves tacos and margaritas more than I do, but I'd rather procure them at another timeshare presentation than at the Ocean Course.
It's obviously not very walkable, but there has to be more to it than that, right? I mean, the holes are FANTASTIC. So why does it feel like less than the sum of its parts?
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I'm not with you on the golf holes beating Pebble Beach, or 50 other courses I've played, but I agree completely that when one does a hole-by-hole comparison, Cabo del Sol comes out well ahead of where you feel about it.
Why? I think that most courses that are laid out with a housing development in mind, lack a soul. [Pardon the pun!]
There are just too many times when the routing turns a certain direction, and you can feel instinctively that it does so to make room for a cul de sac of homes, even if they're not there yet. Any time that happens, you get yanked out of the flow of the golf experience, and that's a hard hole to dig out of, no matter how good the individual holes are.
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I have played the course approximately 15 times with 13 of those rounds coming in two visits. Obviously, I found it a course I wanted to play again and again. I plot a theoretical return once a month.
The only test it fails in my book is being an easy walk - but I rarely walk multiple times per day. While there is some housing on the course, I did not find it intrusive like many other courses.
What the course does have are some unique and strategic holes in an incredible location. I would put the 3rd, the 5th, the 11th, the 14th and the stretch from 16-18 against any course. I would put the setting from 5-7 and 16-18 up against any location. I made my only hole in one using the feeder slope on 7. The worst weather I have experienced is a 15 mile per hour wind on a 75 degree day.
I will take that anytime.
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Routing and great turf. Otherwise, it's really quite excellent.
Bart
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I hope Clyde Johnson chimes in here, as he's seen the course fairly recently and may offer some input. Sorry to put you on the spot, Chief!
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It's obviously not very walkable, but there has to be more to it than that, right?
Nnnnnnnnnnope.