Hola amigos and amigas,
I had the distinct pleasure of taking two tours around the Nicklaus course at Pronghorn this past weekend. Stifling heat and thunderstorms made for a challenging day but nobody was struck by lightning thankfully.
Having played the Fazio course about a year and a half ago, I was really looking forward to seeing the efforts of the Nicklaus camp. It's a damn fine course, definately in my personal top ten settling right between Chambers Bay and Aldarra.
STRENGTHS
Of course, like any high-end club, the conditioning was impeccable. Nice and firm, true rolling greens and beautiful tee boxes. I'm not one to put too much weight on conditioning, however, because at the end of the day it's generally a matter of budget. I look deeper into a course than that.
Pronghorn occupies a nice parcel of Central Oregon scrubland. Subtle movement up and down keeps things interesting. I found the corridors ample but of course getting off the beaten path makes for a long day of picking pricklys out from your socks.
The course offers great variety. The 4th, 12th and 13th holes are short par 4s. The one shot holes are all excellent, from the redan like 17th to the peninsula 14th and plateauish 7th and long 3rd. It is the par 3s that really make a golf course to me and Nicklaus came through in spades here.
The greens are subtle, which can be even more aggravating than bold contours. So many putts you thought would break one way actually went the other. I personally found the Fazio greens easier to navigate but maybe I just putted better that day. They certainly thought through the strategy on a lot of holes, there was definate advantages to being positioned correctly such as on holes #4 where a drivable par 4 is defended by a fronting bunker and narrow fall away green. Gotta hit your tee shot out to the left to "crack" this baby open. Similar but different concept with #12 and #13 also short par 4s.
I thought the course built steam through the middle holes starting with #7. #12 through #17 is exceptional offering solid, thought provoking GCA. Back to back par 5's at 15 and 16 really bring your round to a peak
A lot of really neat bunkers tied into the native quite well. I was impressed how it managed to be different from Fazio. The 15th hole especially stuck out; after a good drive into a kinda narrow fairway, the player has to ponder which side of a big angry rock knob with a deeeeeep bunker in the middle of it they wish to play around to get at the green. This is the best hole on the course, IMHO.
WEAKNESSES
Not many. The first few holes are sorta doggy the par 3 3rd notwithstanding. Standard stuff over less than inspiring ground. I felt like there were a couple places where some subtle tweaks would improve the course. #12 is a short par 4 where a blind landing area allows you to almost drive up to an elevated green. However, right on the left hand corner of the green is a Juniper tree forcing you to play a lob shot to an elevated green. I don't know about you but a 40 yd lob shot from a tight lie to an elevated green is hard for me. Smart players probably leave a full shot in but I never claimed to be good at golf and gagged the wedge each time.
I think the juniper tree serves it's role, but what I didn't like is the green was shelved into a hill and was all long grass to the back of the putting surface. It made me think about the 5th at Pacific Dunes and how much more fun it is to play a shot well past the hole and try to bring it back. I would have liked to see the backstop behind the green shaved down, lord knows there are all sorts of shaved chipping areas all over the course, another here would work well, IMHO. It would make a good hole great!
You have some water features and a dreaded waterfall out there, but I don't really have a problem with that. It was quite Trump Nationalish, but at the same time, on a 95 degree day, I was digging the cooler air on that 13th hole for sure. It's mostly cartball, so a deduction based on that for you walkin' types.
We played from the rust tees which measured just over 6500 and found it to be very reasonable for 8-17 handicap players. It's a tough course to be sure, but not over the top as I heard some locals complaining about.
In the end, I'd figure it between a 7 and 8 on the old Doak scale. It's a course which I'm sure takes a number of rounds to figure out, which adds to the appeal. At the same time, you'll never confuse the setting with that of Bandon Dunes, so it's constrained by its' location. There are some epic views of the Three Sisters mountain range, however, like on most Bend courses.
I saw Oregon Duck football coach Mike Belloti out there, his woods adorned with green and gold U of O headcovers! Members of Pronghorn are lucky folk, they have two really cool, but different, courses to choose from. Take away the valet parking, impeccable customer service and new pro V's on the range, it matters not. With a dumpy portable trailer for a clubhouse, I'd be STOKED to play this course everyday.
3rd, par 3, 200 yds
7th, par 3, 160 yds
8th, par 5 over 600
12th par 4 about 300 yds
13th par 4 about 320 yds
14th par 3, 150 yds
15th, par 5 about 530 uphill
16th another par 5 around 530
18th par 4 around 410
