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Mike_Cirba

Re: Which is the Best of the Highly Manufactured "Links" courses and why?
« Reply #50 on: August 03, 2008, 12:25:13 AM »
A lot of good courses mentioned that fit the bill...thanks guys.

From my perspective, the feature that I look for is how the artificial contours (dunes, hollows, etc.) are tied into (or not) the playing areas.

In that regard, one of the biggest disappointments I've seen is Whistling Straits, where conical mounds spring and pop up like a bad case of acne, but without any logical or natural tie-ins to support it.

Fake hollows seem even trickier, and I've seen very few who do this right.

You can tell a bad unnatural hollow, because right at the bottom of it you'll likely find a little drainage grate.    What that tells me is that the larger picture of water runoff wasn't considered effectively in deciding to place the hollow.

As far as dunes, not much looks worse than rows of big mounds just down the sides of each fairway, but very little tieing in to the fairways or greens.   They routed the course at Birkdale between the dunes like that, but that's an exception proving the rule.   

Give me a ballsy fake design that takes a teeshot up and over a dune like some of those Lahinch pictures, and I'll show you an architect at least trying to approximate the adventurous spirit of the linksland, as well as the look.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: Which is the Best of the Highly Manufactured "Links" courses and why?
« Reply #51 on: August 03, 2008, 07:53:40 AM »
Mike C:

In principle, I would agree with your last statement, but in practice, maybe not.  It's very difficult to pull off, because everyone knows the dune is fake and therefore you have CHOSEN to have a blind tee shot, a choice few golfers would agree with.  Whereas, on the real ones, the architect is making that choice as a better alternative than walking further to someplace where the hole is visible.

Can you recall ever seeing a blind tee shot up over a fake dune that you liked?

I agree with you completely about the rows of mounds a la Grand Cypress.

Tim Bert

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Which is the Best of the Highly Manufactured "Links" courses and why?
« Reply #52 on: August 03, 2008, 08:09:04 AM »
Mike C:

Can you recall ever seeing a blind tee shot up over a fake dune that you liked?


#17 Ballyneal tee shot  ;)

cary lichtenstein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Which is the Best of the Highly Manufactured "Links" courses and why?
« Reply #53 on: August 03, 2008, 08:42:13 PM »
Someone please build one here in Jupiter, Florida. We have an unlimited amount of sand.
Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta