[John_McMillan]

I had a chance in June to play Whiskey Creek - a new CCFAD located in Maryland, about 40 miles NW of Washington DC.  With the season over in MI, I have a chance to share some thoughts about the course.

The course has received coverage in Golf Magazine (Dec 2000), as a story on "how two golf buddies overcame the obstacles to build their 'own' course."  The parenthesizing of "own" is appropriate since the buddies neither designed, nor own, the golf course, it's unclear exactly how they were involved.  Steve Goodwin explains in the Golf Mag article, "at this point, Whiskey Creek belongs to many other people as well - to Mike Poellot and Brian Costello, of JMP Golf Design, our architects, to Kemper Sports Management, who came in as majority owners, to Ernie Els, our design consultant; and also to our many investors.  Still the dream was ours."  Goodwin defines the dream as, "Find a magnificent sight and build the best damn daily-fee course in the area. ... The few daily-fee courses within an hour's drive of the city were usually booked solid. ... we didn't need a market study to tell us that the demand for daily-fee golf was much greater than the supply."  So the vision was to build a cash register - not unlike the guy who came up with the idea for pet rocks.  While looking for the land, Goodwin describes his ideal golf course, "The key words were 'big and bold.' Thgere was to be nothing cramped, fussy or confined.  Ours would be a golf course on the grand scale."  With that, they came upon their dream property - "There wasn't a house on the property, only a stone ruin along with the stone foundation of a barn.  A creek formed a natural border on the north and west, and a ridge, covered with tall poplars was the eastern border.  Huge, improbablle boulders sat at the very highest point of the ridge.  From those boulders we could see all the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains, a 30 mile view.  This place was spacious, private, remote, majestic."  It's interesting that in the description there is no mention of the topography of the land - whether there are interesting natural green-sites, or undulations for good fairway routings.  

The course went through a couple phases with different architects - and it's interesting to speculate on those involved (listed by pen-name in the Golf Magazine article). "Big Ray" was the original architect - "the King of the Two Million Dollar Golf Course," "a man whose considerable talent is perfectly matched by his ego."  After lining up funding from Kemper Sports Management, they were urged to dump "Big Ray" for architects with greater name recognition.  "'Ego' turned us down, as far as I can tell, because we didn't grovel enough." "'Egad,' a genius type, turned us down because he didn't want us looking over his shoulder."  It was at this stage they bought Ernie Els name as a consultant to Mike Poellot and JMP Golf Design.  "With KSM on board, with Mike Poellot's routing, and with Ernie Els name on the project, the money came easier."  One of Ernie's major contributions was to bring the eye and experience of a world-class tournament golfer to the design of Whiskey Creek. Els contribution is described on the course's web-site (www.whiskeycreekgolf.com) as "One of Ernie's major contributions was to bring the eye and experience of a world-class tournament golfer to the design of Whiskey Creek. Like most of the tested-and-true championship layouts, Whiskey Creek is an honest golf course, with its challenges and hazards in plain sight. And in keeping with Els' preference for classic courses, the holes at Whiskey Creek have been designed to challenge a player's shot making ability."

[John_McMillan]

I had a chance to play the course during a trip to Washington DC in late June.  My first, and over-riding, impression of the course is that its greens are in the WORST shape I have ever seen for a golf course, particularly one charging a 3-figure greens fee.  DC in the summer-time has a unique climate - thunderstorms occur nearly EVERY afternoon between 4 and 5 pm.  These are not related to fronts moving through the region, but to the mixing of warmer air moving across the US with cooler air from the Atlantic.  During the week I was there, a friend's wedding reception in DC on Saturday was interrupted by thunderstorms at 5 pm, golf on Sunday was preceded by thunderstorms at 3 pm which temporarily closed the golf course (I and two friends had driven out for some twilight play), and we got in 5 holes before the thunderstorms returned.  We received a raincheck to return for play at a later date.  On Monday, my shopping was interrupted by afternoon thunderstorms.  Tuesday was July 4, and I walked around Alexandria VA during the morning and early afternoon.  We had dinner in Georgetown, and the afternoon thunderstorms came at 6 pm, and cancelled our trip to the mall to watch the fireworks.  On Thursday, I planned to drive back to MI, and cash in my raincheck to split the drive into two parts.  I got to the course around 4 pm, and played 8 holes before the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in.  We headed back to the clubhouse, waited a half hour, and two of us decided to complete the round after the showers ended.  This is not an unusual weather pattern for DC in the summer-time.  The pro-shop at Whiskey Creek contains a computer connected to the web which tracks incoming storms - and the staff is unusually adept at reading the radar scans.  The problem is that the thunderstorms beat the hell out of the greens - and what the thunderstorms don't get the golfers seem to add to playing on softened greens.  There are numerous bare patches on the greens, which are otherwise pot-marked with many unrepaired ball and spike marks.  In addition, several of the traps had been washed out, with little gullies of bare earth separating seas of sand.  A recent post on GCA remarked that Whiskey Creeks' tees were in terrible shape.  (It's ironic that the photo of Els and Poellot in the Golf Magazine story shows them under an umbrella on a rainy day).  

While one can't blame the weather on the architects, I get the impression that their design did not give the course the best chance to hold up under the conditions of the DC area in the summer-time.  Larger greens would give more time for recovery without golfers after a thunderstorm - and building the course with an eye towards better drainage would have helped.  

[John_McMillan]

The course is also built on a VERY severe piece of land.  The same ridge which provides the views the developers loved also provides two types of holes - uphill and downhill.  The general routing on the front 9 is to play 3 holes gradually uphill, followed by one large descent.  The fairways have some severe slopes - in particular the 12'th plays downhill and sidehill through the landing area - and the design contains some mounds and gradings which are designed to keep drives on these fairways.  

An alternative design concept I think might have worked better would have been to build an "Oakmont in the mountains" - large greens, fairways surrounded by traps, and some shallower "church pew" bunkers.  While tying into Els US Open victory at the course marketing wise, this might have solved a couple design problems - larger greens would be easier to maintain; the fairways could be graded to more reasonable levels - and surrounded by "containment traps" from surrounding severe areas; and the bunkers would be easier to maintain (Oakmont's bunkers were to originally accomodate a type of sand which would not build large lips on bunkers).  

The signature hole of Whiskey Creek is its eighteenth - a par 5 with stone house ruins located in the middle of the fairway near the landing area for a drive.  To my eye, this feature works much better than the reviews it has sometimes received.  My decision off the tee was to play a hard drive up the right side of the fairway with a draw.  My calculations were that with a straight shot, I'd be able to play an easy lay-up shot to position my 3'rd for the green, and if I got the draw just right, I'd hit the (lower) left side of the fairway and kick around the house to set up a possible try for the green with my second.  I got the draw, and was left with about 230 to the green, with bunkers and a creek short and right.  I caught all of my 3-wood, and landed in a front bunker, just a couple yards short of a carry which would have made the green.  I was left with a "do-it-again" feeling that it would require 2 very good shots from me, but makeable ones, to reach the green in two.  

A common review of Whiskey Creek is that it has 17 good holes of golf, with a goofy finishing hole.  My impression was the reverse - that the finishing hole works, but is not enough to overcome the faults of the preceeding 17 holes.  The lesson to me from Whiskey Creek is the importance of getting the concept right from the beginning, and that too many cooks do not make for a better golf course.  The search for a good public course in the DC area continues.

[John_McMillan]

Sorry about the 3-part post.

I had typed in my original, and received an error that "my post was too long."  So I chopped it into smaller pieces and posted each piece.  Is this another feature of the DG we can get fixed?

[Tom Doak]

I'm one of the designers who passed on that job.  [Not sure if Goodwin was calling me "Ego" or "Egad" or something else.]  Really, we turned it down because they didn't want to pay us as much as they paid Ernie Els, and because a couple of the holes in their routing looked too steep to build.

I'd love to hear from others who have played it.

[Mike_Cirba]

John,

You've described Whiskey Creek quite well.  Given Els' involvement, I'm guess I shouldn't be surprised about the amount of interest and newsprint that the course received, but frankly it's not even the best golf course in the county, as both Brian Ault's Worthington Valley and PB Dye's PB Dye Golf Club are better courses.

Tom Doak,

The course is probably what you imagine.  I found it interesting in one news story that Ernie Els mentioned he's more of a "classicist", while Michael Poellot is more oriented to "target golf".  Nothing like synergy, huh?

Poellot has done a lot of work in the Far East, where the popular theme seems to be something akin to Nicklaus's early work at Grand Cypress.  At Whiskey Creek, there is a lot of style over substance, with Zen Garden bunkering, and quite a number of course features designed to generate wow appeal over interesting golf.  

Subtlety goes completely out the window on the final hole, where the ruins of an old stone barn sit in the middle of the fairway, about 300 yards from the tee.  I swear that someone is going to be killed on that hole from a rebound!  :-/

The green complexes feature lots of "levels", and once again it's fairly straightforward stuff, designed more to "create" interest than really integrated in any way with the natural surrounds or any shot options from the fairways.  

I'm not sure that I'd agree with you that the property was too severe to create a very good course, but John M. is totally correct when he mentions that the routing is 3 slightly uphill holes followed by a visually eye-catching, steeply downhiller over and over and over.

On the Doak scale, it's maybe a 4, despite a contiguous site, a walkable routing, and a naturally appealing mix of open farmland, lovely vistas, and wooded glades.

[John_McMillan]

Tom -

Can't Jim Urbina shape speed bumps?  If not, maybe you could have considered sub-contracting a part of the shaping to a local road construction company.  

So I take it from your comments that the course routing was set when they were shopping for their architect (and that their consultant was set while they were shopping for their architect).  Crazy example of putting the cart before the horse.

Mike -

I agree that the property is better than the current course - I'm not sure if my idea would work, or work better, but I know that there is some scheme which would get more out of the land than Polette and Els were able to.  Remember, though, that they chose the land - and the criteria for the ridge was its view, not its golfing interest.  

What's curious is that Whiskey Creek has a "Golden Boy" reputation in DC area golf - perhaps due to Els name and the marketing power of KSM.  If those two factors make it a long-run money maker, in spite of its design shortcomings, that will signal an unfortunate lesson to other public course developments in the DC area.

[Craig Disher]

I went to WC early last summer to look it over and play a round. For the price, the maintenance looked shabby (I visited after a few days of rain) so instead, I went to Little Bennett, a muni nearby, and I'd recommend it to anyone in the area looking for public-access golf. Can't beat the price either. Looking at the holes driving in to WC, I remember thinking that good golfing ground must not have been a priority when the developers bought the property. There is so much available land near WC, it's not clear why they opted for such a severe area. Walking would probably be a real chore.

I wonder how well WC has been doing since the Golf Magazine article was written. The DC area may be getting overbuilt with CCFADs; an Arthur Hills design, Blue Mash, was just completed this year much closer to DC and I've heard that many courses (Worthington Manor, e.g.) are only half-filled on the weekends.

[Rob_Waldron]

Whiskey Creek has been very successful primarily due to its playability and conditioning. I have played the course on several occasions and the greens have always been excellent. The architect was Brian Costello, Sr. Designer for JMP Design. This was Brian's first solo effort. Ernie Els' roll was minimal as can be expected. He made four or five visits to the site and gave Brian and Michael Poelott his input.  The playability of the course is the result of an extensive maintenance program which extends well into the rough and surrounding trees.

Kemper Sports Management is a partner in the course and oversees the day to day operation. The course has multiple sets of tee. Kemper wisely moves many of the tee markers forward making the course play much shorter than the yardage on the card. This results in better scores and happier golfers! The two key competitors in the area P.B. Dye GC and Worthington Manor have lost many rounds to Whiskey Creek. Worthington is a fine course, however it is more difficult than WC, requiring numerous forced carries.  P.B. Dye features blind tee shots on 13 of the 14 driver holes.  The greens at PBD also are extremely severe making putting a nightmare. The owners of PBD are in the process of trying to soften the course and make it more playable, however there is little they can do to the greens without rebuilding them.

Whiskey Creek is fun and builds up your ego. The course has a very comfortable clubhouse and proch to enjoy post round imbibery. The 18th hole serves its purpose. Nobody who plays it can have a neutral opinion. They either love it or hate it. Best of all for the owners, they talk about it!  

[Mike_Cirba]

Rob,

While I would agree that Whiskey Creek is more "playable" than PB Dye or Worthington Manor, I cannot understand your contention that PB Dye features blind drives on "13 of 14 driver holes".  

The owners are probably correct in determining that some of PB's famous "overkill" features need to be softened, and the changes I read about I generally agree with.  However, I don't recall the drives on 1,3,4,5,7,10,13,15, or 16 being blind at all, and a couple of the others you seem to be stretching the point slightly.  

Instead, I found it to be an adventurous, if perhaps overly stringent course, with a couple of over the top features that held it back.  I wish the old topics were still around here, because I wrote a pretty lengthy piece after playing it that I don't have time to repeat at present.  

Let's just say that I'm sure many of the average CCFAD players might not understand that they HAVE to land their ball short and run up on holes like 1 and 5, and might not think that being in a bunker 20 feet below the greens surface is a "fair" thing, or understand that the 10th is Dye's attempt to recreate 10 at Riviera with multiple options, or have an appreciation from a number of greens running front to back, but I believe many in this discussion group would find the course stimulating and intriguing.  I'm also not surprised to learn that Whiskey Creek gets more of the CCFAD market share, and although I don't mean that to sound patronizing, it probably is.

I also think that most of the participants here would find most of Whiskey Creek to be a pretty, placid snooze from an architectural standpoint.  

[Mike_Cirba]

Just as an aside re: to the discussions of the economy and course building, Whiskey Creek and the others will have MUCH more competitive company next year with the opening of Joe Lee's Musket Ridge GC (27 holes), Arthur Hills Maryland National GC, and Rick Jacobsen's Hollow Creek at Glenbrook GC, ALL in rural Frederick county!    

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