What's the coolest thing you've seen this summer...

[Mark Bourgeois]

Joe

Your collorary questions got me past a simple, egocentric answer. Wouldn't have thought without them.

Cheers
Mark

[Dan Moore]

Due to familiy and work I have been unable to play in over three weeks and was begining to feel sorry for myself until I starting thinking of an answer to this. 

In no particular order. 

Eric Terhorst's birdie on 18 at Inverness.

The squared off green front on the 14th hole at Chicago Golf  (along with about 25 other cool things at CGC).

Mark Chaplin driving the green on the 14th hole (or is it the 5th??) at Black Sheep.

The odd mogul like mounds on the 13th at Old Elm.

The bizarrely placed tree on the 18th at Briarwood and Shelly Solow's defense thereof. 

The back nine at Flossmoor CC. 

The old fashioned punch bowl mounds surrounding the back of
Flynn's 17th green at Glen View Club. 

Terry Lavin on TV. 

And the coolest thing I have seen all summer was Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana Thomas House in Springfield, Illinois. 

[tlavin]

Played Prairie Dunes with Brian Doyle Murray and a couple Chicago buddies.

Took Brian and his brother Brian out to Beverly the day before Bill parachuted out of a plane for the Air & Water Show.  Advised him to sign a pre-jump agreement...got a laugh out of Bill Murray on original material.  Priceless.

Saw myself on TV.  Hit the gym.

[Carl Nichols]

My second set of C&C greens (at Cuscowilla)

[tlavin]

In terms of Prairie Dunes, I should add that I really enjoyed everything about the course except the cottonwood trees.  From tee to green I loved every single hole.  Everybody raves about the 8th hole (and well they ought!) but my particular fave was the short par-5 17th.  It has one of the coolest and least-receptive-to-anything-more-than-a-wedge greens that I've ever seen. 

One of the most interesting things about the place is that the first 9 was laid out in 1937 and it looks like the best new courses designed in the last ten years or so.  It surely is a progenitor of Sand Hills, Ballyneal and Friar's Head, to name a few.  And it's in the middle of Kansas, for chrissakes.  It boggles the mind to think that Maxwell had the vision to build that golf course.

I've played a fair amount of golf in the States and it's probably in my top 5.

[JMorgan]

The 8th green @ Leathersocking. Not sure how much is Emmett & how much is Cupp, but it's the coolest green site I've seen in a while. Moguls, bunkers, swales, hidden pot's, sweeping green, rock wall behind all integrated into a great piece. I could chip at that great for hours and never get tired.

No pics till the next visit.

The 8th green @ Leathersocking. Not sure how much is Emmett & how much is Cupp, but it's the coolest green site I've seen in a while. Moguls, bunkers, swales, hidden pot's, sweeping green, rock wall behind all integrated into a great piece. I could chip at that great for hours and never get tired.

No pics till the next visit.

Here you go John:



Earlier this month I enjoyed seeing the restored Tillie bunkers at Sands Point:



And the Renaissance work down the block:



And some chickens:



And a bunch of other stuff from my trip overseas that I'm just too lazy to post, Joe.

Oh yeah, and Circe:

 

[Mark Bourgeois]

Terry

Actually it was the Careys who had the vision.  They found the land and hired Maxwell. Agree re cottonwood trees and 17, the latter of which puts us in good company (PJ Boatwright).

Does TV add 10 pounds?

Mark

[Brett Crow]

I didn't get out too much this summer, but...

15th at Cottonwood Hills in Hutchinson, KS.

Par 5 which included a blind tee shot, blind lay up, and blind approach to the green.  I still don't know how much I liked it, but I thought it was different at least, and definitely cool.  The dunes that the hole snakes through were cool as well.  Lots of other really unique things at that course as well.

[mike_malone]

 It has to be the photo on my Larry Lambrecht calendar for August. It is of #12, par 3 , at Portmarnock. I loved the hole the first time I played it. The bunkering short and on the sides of the green tells one to get the shot into the green. But there is a dune in back of the multilayered green that swallows up everything long. The hole goes out toward the water so that the wind is a critical factor. The photo is wonderful as well.

   There is much more talk about #15, but #12 is a great complement to that more famous hole.

[Joe Hancock]

Terry Lavin and JMorgan,

Extra credits to both of you for going "outside".........

Double extra credit to you JMorgan, if you flirted with the law, the chickens.....or both.




Maybe the coolest thing for me so far this summer...actually today....I was playing one of those famous sandy, hilly courses somewhere in the middle of the country, and I crested the hill to where I expected to find my drive. Sure enough, there sat my ball....happily perched about 1 1/2 inches above the turf on a wooden tee. The fellows ahead of us thought it would be funny...and they were right. Sometimes you can't take the muni out of some people.....I hammed it up with them of course, and laughed about the fact that I was on one of the best courses in the country, and yet people were still out there just for the fun of it. I proceeded to top my sand wedge shot off the tee.......not!

Anyway, thanks for the great answers.

Joe

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise at The Baptistry in Florence, Italy:





If I ever build a golf course, I would name it Gates of Paradise GC.

[Joe Hancock]

Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise at The Baptistry in Florence, Italy:





If I ever build a golf course, I would name it Gates of Paradise GC.

Would your course be wrought with peril?

Sorry....      ( No, a fence intended)