My head is still spinning from playing Pronghorn Fazio yesterday. For this middle class guy, my 2nd private club experience (1st one was Eugene CC) absolutely blew me away. So this is how the other half lives, I thought!!!!
It was a comfortable 50 degrees, zero wind and slightly overcast skies. Our foursome had the entire golf course to ourselves. We selected the Black tees, which the card stated measures 6841yds, although I am not so sure about that as our scorekeeper notated we played from the tips on 7 holes. Admittedly, the tees were also “up” on a few holes but I still bet we played more like 7000 yds.
Two loops of nine holes, 4 one shot holes, 4 three shot holes, a short par four and a par 3, 4, 5 finishing stretch. 72.7/139 rating and slope from blacks.
--INTRO--
Having followed this project for some time, I came into the round expecting great things. I know that no less an authority than Tom Doak has gone on record as stating he thought Pronghorn Fazio would receive rave reviews, having toured the construction site previously. I had never played a Fazio course before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I saw a few images of the lava tube hole a month or so ago; some of the scruffy bunkering, etc. and thought it looked outstanding. Surely, Fazio is a polarizing figure in golf course design, so I tried to be as objective as possible in critiquing his performance. As expected, the course conditioning was phenomenal, the most immaculate tees, fairways and greens you have ever played. The putting surfaces rolled quick and true. Ample sprinkler heads gave us yardages, in addition to the free yardage book (which was epic, BTW) complete with pencil sketches of each green. Nothing was tricky or gimmicky, very few blind shots asked you to hit towards somewhere you didn’t have an idea about where and where not to be.
--STRENGTHS—
From the images you are going to see what an epic visual feast this course is. I take the “visual feast” part from the Pronghorn propaganda itself, it is their catch-phrase, not mine. But damned if it isn’t spot on.
A pleasant discovery, Fazio left the front of many greens open. If you navigate yourself around the course properly, taking risks in some places, avoiding pitfalls in others, you could hit a running shot into many of the greens. There were “shoots” in some of the fairways, allowing extra yardage to the savvy player if they find these proper places with their tee shots.
The golf course is wide, if you can’t find these fairways you suck with the driver. Everything is pretty much right out in front of you. Very few lost balls, although I did find a lot of sand. Most holes are self- contained, the challenge is laid out in front of you. Our host guided us on half-a-dozen holes, explaining that this green or that funnels or falls away to a particular side, thus encouraging us to “play for it.” He was correct on most occasions--which only enhanced the golf experience—nothing beats watching your ball feed in towards the cup.
The par 3 8th hole (the lava tube hole) is unreal. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Playing into the sun, it was hard to see our balls and judge the distance. I was kinda spooked, and six shots later did not have a great taste in my mouth for it. But it is one of those “one of a kind” type of things that has to be considered a plus, not a negative. It played about 165 yards, yesterday, surely nothing too unreasonable. Our host mentioned they dynamited both it and much of the 7th hole into existence. From the pictures you can see what I am talking about, it reminded me of “adventure land” at Disneyland. You walking into, through, up and out of a veritable maze of rock walls and shelves. It is really cool.
--WEAKNESSES--
Most of this will be nitpicking, but that’s what we are here for! As I played the course I was reminded what Tom Doak said about our Pumpkin Ridge, here in Portland. He said that years later he had difficulty remembering any individual holes and that must be considered a drawback to any “best of” design. Thinking back on Pronghorn, I have a similar thought. The bunkering is amazing, unbelievable, some of the best I have ever seen, but it is so overwhelming and similar that many of the holes begin to meld into one. Ask me about the 2nd or 3rd or 5th and I will have to think hard about what makes them different from one another because they all kinda seem like the same hole. There is little “quirk,” no Devil’s A-hole or something beyond the lava tube hole, which is the stuff legends are made of, right?
The 6th hole is out of place with the rest of the course. An artificial looking pond with two weird little brook/streams/waterfalls meandering down the length of the hole. Maybe in time it will mature and blend in a little better but for now it is by far the weakest, least thrilling hole on the entire course, IMHO.
While the tees will dictate much of this next complaint, I played 9 iron, 6 iron, 6 iron and SW on the par 3’s. The 16th will also be between 150-200 yards when allowed to be played from the proper tee boxes. We played from a temp tee 85 yards out because a smidge of the back nine is still growing in. A lot of hydroseed was still evident. I, personally, could have gone for a brutish one-shotter, up a hill or something. Perhaps a little postage stamp green somewhere. I took a picture of each of the par 3’s, they are a good set, to be sure, so this is a MINOR deduction.
Last but not least, let’s talk about the shaping. A definite strength of the course is the ground game options, however I felt the contours around the green were almost too subtle. Many of the greens had a lot of chipping room around them, some bumps and knolls, little plateauxs where when the pin was located atop them made for some devilish shots. But, I wished for a little bit more. In some places I found myself eyeballing a backstop, or rather it looked like a shot played with some creativity, thought and finesse might funnel towards the hole. It never worked out to my satisfaction, however, a high wedge with a lot of stick-um on it would check and trickle, but never more than five or ten feet. In these cases I wished for contours more like we find at Pacific Dunes (a little steeper) so the ball could pick up some more momentum, move around a bit more.
I opted to walk. Our host took a cart on the back. Some local knowledge would have spared my aching feet. A big course, some of the walks between holes took their toll. I don’t think I would want to walk this course everyday. Is this a plus or minus, I guess it depends on the player. I will say this, the course did not have any severe up hill nor downhill holes. I was thankful not to have to trek up a hill like to the 14th tee at Bandon Trails, but I found myself yearning for a better vantage point to see the awesome “Three Sisters” mountain range which overlooks all of the Bend courses. If I designed the course, I would have “built up” at least one or two tee boxes to allow better views of the mountains and to give the player that fantastic experience of watching their blasted tee ball hanging up amongst the clouds before returning to earth.
--SUMMARY--
If Tom Doak rates Pumpkin Ridge and Eugene CC a 6 on his scale, and his own Pacific Dunes is around a 9 or 10, I would give Pronghorn Fazio an 8. It had one weak hole—a hole that didn’t fit with the rest--and that’s about it. Like I said earlier, this was my first Fazio so I don’t have a Pine Barrens, Black Diamond, Wade Hampton or Dallas Nat’l to compare it to, for example. I came away duly impressed, however, and while I’ve never been anti-Fazio, I tried to “get” this whole “framing” notion that Tommy and some of the others around here consider a negative of Da Faz. In my opinion, the Fazio crew transitioned the golf course into the native landscape as well as anything I’ve seen, including all 3 Bandon courses. I snapped a few pictures where the terrain went from rock out-cropping right into bunker sand right into turf. Some designers get this and do a good job with it, some so do not. For me, personally, it is uber important that the golf course fits harmoniously into the landscape. Pronghorn does this in spades.
Our host said they imported the wicked, crusty old Juniper trees that you can see here and there from some nearby BLM land. I dig these trees, they are ruggedly beautiful. If much of this landscape was “created,” I could hardly tell. It was utterly fantastic and what I consider a soul stirring experience. We drove three hours there and back in one day to play the course and all Chris and I could do on the trip home was blather on about this hole or that.
All in all it was one of the best golfing days of my life; enhanced by the service and country club lifestyle to be sure, but even if this was a municipal course in Springfield (Simpsons reference here!) it would be a phenomenal course.