Cascades - Photo Thread

[Michael George]

Front Nine

Hole 1 - Par 4




Hole 2 Par 4  




Hole 3 - Par 4




Hole 4 - Par 3.  


Hole 5 - Par 5.  




Hole 6 - Par 4.  Only picture is of the green.  See Ran's write-up re: how the resort has ruined what could be a spectacular hole.


Hole 7 - Par 4.




Hole 8 - Par 3.


Hole 9 - Par 4.

[Michael George]

Back Nine

Hole 10 - Par 4


Hole 11 - Par 3


Hole 12 - Par 4.




Hole 13 - Par 4



Hole 14 - Par 4.


Hole 15 - Par 3.    


Hole 16 - Par 5



Hole 17 - Par 5




Hole 18 - Par 3

[Wade Whitehead]

The bones of a truly great golf course still exist.

WW

[Michael George]

Wade:

You are so right.  I enjoyed it, but just kept wondering what could be.

Worst part about it is that the single most important thing that the course could do would cost NOTHING.  The course needs to remove at a minimum 1,000 trees to open up playing angles and incredible views of the gorgeous surroundings.  With the size of those trees, my guess is that a company would do it for free for the timber.  You can see the huge tree overgrowth in my pictures on #2, #3, #7, #8, #12, and #17. 

I really recommend if anyone has interest in the course to purchase Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul's CD on William Flynn.  They have countless pictures of the course when it was built --- where the trees did not limit playing angles and where the course had incredible vistas that were not hid from tree overgrowth.

[Wade Whitehead]

#12 illustrates perfectly the utter lack of vision (and proper maintenance) applied to the course over the past several decades.

WW

[Michael George]

3 worst holes re: tree growth:

#12 - cut down 100 trees, get rid of cart path, bring fairway over to creek, pump water into creek
#6 - cut down 100 trees along right side, pump water into creek
#3 - cut down 50 trees along left and right side and renovate green complex

They also need to totally reconstruct #14 and #15.  They are not fitting of a great golf course and really are disappointing.

I honestly think if they did a proper restoration/renovation, it could be top 50 in the US.  While I loved the architecture and routing, I don't think it is top 200 right now.

[Andy Troeger]

Thanks for posting this. It really does seem that just by getting rid of LOTS of trees the course would become a lot more interesting. It looks like it has the potential to still be fabulous. I'd like to play it even in the current condition, but certainly looks like some thoughtful work could make a big difference.

The cart paths are pretty obvious in some of those photos too...quite a few crossovers that don't seem necessary.

[Wade Whitehead]

Andy: You're right.  The cart paths are awful in spots.  My favorite hole, 12, which I've already lamented, is victim to one of the worst cart path placements anywhere.

The Cascades was such a feat at the time it was constructed.  I hope someone in Homestead ownership will make a mission of restoring its relevance.

WW

[Tim Gavrich]

I don't disagree with much of what's been said above, but even so, Cascades is one of the most peaceful places I know of to play golf.  But because of some of those shortcomings, I prefer Greenbrier--Old White.

[Carl Rogers]

Old White and The Cascades sound like great GCA event sites.  When???  Not many Flynn courses out there available for wider golfing play.

[Mac Plumart]

It looks like we need Brad Klein to go all "Yale" on these guys.

What year did he write that article?