Paul:

Agree about the front 9.

One is a puzzling hole - how do you play it?  I've tried banging a long drive - but that usually funnels down in that gully way over to the right, leaving a shorter iron but mostly blind shot.  I've also tried laying back left with a 3 wood, but that leaves a much long iron in, or if you hit it too far, a tough downhill lie.

I like #6.  I tend to fade the ball, so I like the challenge of shaping that shot if you try to drive way down close to the green.  I think it's a good risk/reward short par 4.  You can hit a safe 4/5 iron and have a short iron, but if you try to drive it and don't shape it just right you are in big trouble.  I've made about every mistake on that hole:

- Pulled it left of the bunker down the steep hill into the trees/brush.
- Tried to fade it but hit it straight through the fairway into the gunch.
- Lost it right into the pine trees & tried to thread it back out.
- Hit a good one barely to the right side & wound up mostly blocked by the pine trees - forced to go up and over with a wedge.

It's a seemingly simple hole if you play it really safe all the time, but it just begs me to try and hit the perfect shot.

I like #10 too, but then I'm a sucker for elevated tees.  What I really like though is how subtlely that creek on the right comes into play around the green.

I think you're right about 15.  I do like how it shares the huge bunker/waste area with 14, but unless you really block it off the tee it really doesn't come into play.  I guess this fits some of the criticism I've read about Fazio - looks pretty & challenging but isn't really functional.  I would say this also about the huge bunker down the entire right side of the par 3 11th.  It would make much more sense to have that center bunker way back down the fairway in the landing area, making it a true split fairway instead of a split approach/greenside area.  That is a cool green, though - you do not want to be long!

8 and 9 make a tough finish to the front.  8 is a long and hard par 3 - lots of ways to make a big number, but it has some good options (bail-out area to right; possibility of bouncing it off the right hillside onto the green).  9 makes you really work for it - uphill drive, uphill approach, big false front - makes you really think about club selection on the approach.

Andy

The Frog is easily my favorite of the Fazio courses I've played.  Other than the kind of funky tee shot on #1, I liked it all, and I was very, very pleasantly surprised in that regard.

I've only been there once, so I can't do a great job of hole-by-hole, unfortunately.  I just remember good variety, good use of elevation changes, and a terrific practice area.  As far as the housing, I don't think anything has been done yet.

BTW, when I played the Frog a couple of years ago, I posted on it here, and my recollection is that I got killed.  This came not only from the Fazio detractors, of which I confess to be one, but also from lots of people who had actually played the course, which I found odd.  It may not be a great course, but it isn't a bad one in any case.

How can anyone even take seriously a golf course named The Frog?

PLUS:  it beats "Trembling Treeforks," "Hidden Rivers," "Majestic Mountains" and whatever other tripe the PR parasites are coming up with.

John,

Are any of the rest of us Dave Schreyer?

Anyone out there reach it in two?  

How can anyone even take seriously a golf course named The Frog?

They have a cool logo of a jumping bullfrog - created by a neighbor of mine's graphic arts firm.  The tee markers used to be a welded iron version of the logo, but people kept stealing them.



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Gary,

As to #18.. Just short of the green on 18 in two..Chip and a putt for birdie..

The Frog was meant to be a Resort Course. It looks and plays just like one. A few challenging holes like 8-9(I butchered it)  and 13..A few cake holes 3-4-14 and 18..With the rest being pretty boring, making sure you don't lose a dozen balls or leave really p.o.'d..
 
Jesse

Jesse..

"Resort courses" would be worthy of a thread.  Probably been done.  

John..

I believe it is still Marriott.

I've only gotten bits and pieces of the story, but my understanding is that the project started with the intention of being a resort along the lines of Calloway Gardens, etc. with a Marriot and at least 36 holes.  They have apparently abandoned plans for the hotel and the second 18 and have been cutting in roads and started building houses.  My sense is that it will turn into another exurban housing tract.  The last time I was there (late last summer) the housing plans had most definitely encroached on the golf as one of the roads had been cleared in open view behind the 4th green and 5th tee - which used to feel like one of the more isolated areas on the course.

Andy