you've got one round left: Black Mesa or Tobacco Road?

[Jay Flemma]

...oooooooooooooooooooooooh tough choice...

lessee...stunning natural setting,advantage BM

design...that's like comparing a chateaubriand with a double porterhouse...SLIGHT edge to Tobacco

atmosphere...dead even...both states are tied with oregon for nicest people in the world...

I'd say all thinigs being equal...and they pretty much are...just because its my "last round"  I'd rather remember the sharp knife edged mtns than the sandhills, I'd give the slightest edge to BM...

[cary lichtenstein]

Tobacco Road

[Jay Flemma]

how come, cary?

[Brian Joines]

Black Mesa, mainly because it's the course I haven't yet played

[Mike Nuzzo]

I was at Tobacco Road this past year and really liked it, however unobjectively speaking...

Black Mesa.
Better walking course / routing
Best set of par 5s in either state.
Better wind
Better greens
Better setting
Better conditioning
Better food in Santa Fe

Jay - where is your review of BM on your blog?

Cheers

[Brian_Marion]

Tobacco Road,

because it's only two hours away and I could play it right up to the bitter end...................................................

[Jay Flemma]

I'm working on the BM review...I would have had it up, but left my notes on it back at the house, so I'm finishing Pine Needles instead today.

I also have Lederach and Balt CC this weekend, so bear with me...I wanna do it up right.

As much as I love TR...and I really love it...as in spill some of my ashes in the hills off the first tee after I die love...BM just edges it out of the reasons you said...although TR is strong in routing too.

But aso...do you notice any similarities between the two?

[Steve Lang]

 

Similarities other than the Visual virtual V notches on both #1's...

Having played TR 6x and thoroughly loving it, and BM only 2x during the Land of Enchantment outing, I'd much prefer BM, primarily for the ground game bounces and uncertainty experienced there and the more memorable green complexes

Without question, more to explore at BM, better finishing hole, likely more unfinished business to try to close things out in dramatic style, befoer reality struck..

[Jay Flemma]

Similarities other than the Visual virtual V notches on both #1's...

/quote]

Actually I thought no 1 llooked more like Royal new kent, then the road, but I like the way your thinking!!!

Yeah, that finish is tough...keep a powerbar in the bag for the back nine that's for sure.

[Jordan Wall]

Never played either but Black Mesa.

I want to hit the longest drive of my life at my last round.

At hot weather and high elevation, BM is the place to do so.

Plus I have cousins that live twenty minutes away...

[Michael Whitaker]

Jay - I love Tobacco Road... woke up at night thinking about the course weeks after I played it (how sick is that?)

But, I'd have to give the nod to Black Mesa. There's just more to love at Black Mesa... it's bigger, bolder, more dramatic. And, like Mike Nuzzo says, "better food in Santa Fe."

[Matt_Ward]

The edge to Black Mesa is no less a margin than the whooping that Wichita State put on Seton Hall today.

Give Strantz plenty of credit for TR but the totality of what you find at Black Mesa is a good ways beyond the gem in North Carolina IMHO.

Black Mesa is among my top 20 modern courses I have ever played in the United States. It is thaaaat good and worthy of being in such a supreme destination that is Santa Fe.

[Ian Andrew]

I'm looking forward to playing Tobacco Road twice on this trip. I know I will enjoy what I'm about to see - but I can't for the life of me see why anyone would choose a course that tough as a final round.

[George Pazin]

I'm looking forward to playing Tobacco Road twice on this trip. I know I will enjoy what I'm about to see - but I can't for the life of me see why anyone would choose a course that tough as a final round.

I wouldn't choose either for precisely that reason. I'd want my last round to be played sans reloads.

In many respects, I don't think the courses are all that different. Both present the golfer with very unique experiences, unique holes, the opportunity for some very entertaining shots. I certainly don't think the margin is that great in favor of Black Mesa, though I probably would give it the edge by a hair, in terms of pure design. The slightly more forgiving nature of TR might swing the pendulum back in favor of TR for fun, however.

I look forward to what Ian has to say about TR.

Maybe someone could start a little less mordib thread along the lines of where they'd prefer their next round to be, rather than their last.