I played Astoria GC in Astoria, Oregon today for the first time. I played with Peter Pittock, John "Tiger" Bernhardt, and Sean Leary. Stunning beautiful day on the Oregon coast, 70 degrees with a breath of wind. Clear as a bell too.
I submit the following grades for the course:
Conditioning: B+
Green To Tee Walks: B-
Hole Curvature: D
Quirkability: A-
Green Shape Similarity: A-
Green Slope Detectability From Fairway: D
Ambience: A-
Overall: B
An unusual course and a fine day. Almost every hole is straight, athough there are a few offset tee boxes. Most holes are flat, or very slightly canted, and most green to tee walks take you to the top of a dune for the next tee shot. Almost every green is elliptical, though the 8th hole, a short par 4, has a beautiful crescent green that wraps around the front left bunker. The greens are old school, and the slopes are very difficult to detect. It would take time to master them.
The major topographic feature are parallel dunes, each a good 30-50 feet in height, with a very rounded and uniform appearance. In some cases, like the lovely par 14th, the dunes are 50-70 yards apart; in the case of the ultra narrow par 4 3rd, the dunes leave less than 20 yards for fairway inbetween.
Nobody played particularly well. John Bernhardt was fresh from a Bandon golf marathon. Sean and I were wild and inconsistent. Everybody hit a few good shots. It was Peter's turn to hit the best shots of the day. On the long par 5 11th, Peter cut a driver from 155 yards in the fairway to 6 feet and made the putt. That was his 14th driver shot of the day at that point. On the 275 yard 15th hole, Peter putted in from about 35 yards for par.
We learned new golf nomenclature, courtesy of John B. There are GCA golf courses, and other course that really aren't GCA courses. I'd say Astoria is a GCA course.
Nice group, nice day, nice course. Thanks for having me.