Just want to thank everyone for their feedback and suggestions.
The trip was amazing and those courses are truly special.
Reading between the lines I would say you were underwhelmed. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Haha I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not. Oh the perils of internet communication.
To say "The trip was amazing and those courses are truly special." suggests something less than a religious experience. I know after my first trip I was ga ga for go go butts. Where's the passion?
Ha. Okay so not sarcasm... But nothing could be farther from the truth. I held back because I figured there is so much info on here already about Sand Hills/Ballyneal that I probably couldn't add anything new so just wanted to thank people. But here we go!
We had an amazing time.
We went to Ballyneal first and the course was so much fun to play. My dad is an older guy and he's got some game but he doesn't have a ton of distance and so he and I often come away with different opinions on courses. I'm a decent player but I have enough distance off the tee so I don't usually pick up on things that he takes issue with.
Ballyneal had none of that. It was so playable for both of us. Tons of room off the tee and no real forced carries. The greens had much more undulation than we are used too but it didn't feel "circus like". They were just a ton fun to putt on. We had great caddies to boot.
Favorite hole had to be #7, which is probably the cliched choice. The pin was middle back and the first round I was in the right rough about 50-60 yards out. So I pitched it into the slope on the left and watched it run up and back. Second round I drove the green
.
Sand Hills was just fantastic. The place was so cool and the people were incredibly nice. We got three rounds in there over a day and a half. The first round my Dad and I got pretty beat up. Adjusting to the green speed took a little time (although apparently they were not running at their full speed). There were a few tee's at Sand Hills that required a longer carry than is comfortable for my Dad.
The second round was about as good as it gets. We grabbed the infamous burger at Ben's porch and went and changed into shorts. We got back out on the course, just the two of us, and we both played MUCH better. We had a better feel for the course and the wind had pretty much died down so the course was "get-able". My dad mixed and matched tee's so he had a lot more fun. We play most of our golf at home during the twilight hours so playing the last 9 as the sun was setting was, to steal John's term, a religious experience. We both pared the last hole to shoot the numbers we wanted.
We sat out at Ben's Porch for a drink and chatted with a few members and just basked in the beauty of the place.
The third round was a bit rougher but we were the first group on the course and flew. The hangover from the great scores lasted into the start of this round so I tried to play the holes in different ways just to get a better feel for the course.
I think my favorite hole was par 5 #14. Again my Dad and I have different games and he always says to me that he is too focused on not screwing up his next shot to appreciate the architecture of a course. But that hole really peaked his interest. He loved being able to comfortably reach the hole in 3 shots even without a ton of distance but then having to keep his shot short and left of the green to avoid the nasty bunkers. I went for it in 2 twice and laid up once. Just so many interesting options after the tee shot but no easy choices.
Again it was just a really cool example of a hole playing well for all types of games.