opinions please...did Jack try to do too much with the bunker in the middle of the green and HUGE contours in the green?

would it have been better with just one of these features?

Paul,

Any pictures of that particular green for us to look at?

Scott

Paul,

Any pictures of that particular green for us to look at?

Scott

no Scott  I don't

I'll see if I can get some help doing that

This better work ... #5:

What's interesting to me is the idea that JN would take such risks - it would have been much more conceivable to me had Pete Dye been presented with that piece of property and come up with the overall experience that is Dismal River.  It is very demanding, perhaps overly so if viewed as a course to be played over and over again. The 10th is perhaps the most severe hole on the course and any recovery shot to a front pin requires such precision that it is arguably too severe.

I thought the bunker in the middle was great, but for such a HUGE green, I thought there were maybe 4 spots to put a pin. I thought the entire left side was unpinnable. If the green was softened a bit, I think the green would be awesome. #5 was a good green, but Brad is right that 3, 5, and 10 were all the same severely sloping greens.

How about unplayable?

Gentlemen:  I played the course right after it opened and I thought they had some conditioning issues which were being addressed.  Do you think that conditioning can take care of some of the issues?  Also, if I remember correctly, the par 3s are not extremely long as they are all under 200 yards from the tips - I should mention that I did not play the course from the tips, but it would seem to me that anyone playing from the tips would not be using a long iron.

Ballyneal, on the other hand, had severely sloped greens, but you had at least 9 distinct pin placements on each green. That, in my opinion, is a huge difference compared to DR.

Jim, to the contrary, when I played Ballyneal, one in my group openly questioned whether there would be many playable pins on #7.  

The green speeds at Ballyneal may allow for pins that might not be usable at higher speeds, but I doubt that you can find 9 distinct pin positions on each green as you say.

I absolutely believe the green countours...sometimes as much as three feet or more in places are over done...but you also have to factor in that the greed speeds...call it 9.5-10 and thats being GENEROUS...are just too much for the contour.

I actually like 5 green...the approach to the green is much more severe than the green itself...you just cant miss any where except long and left and then you still likely three-putt.

Also, it is a particularly penal hole because of the severity of the surrounds.  That takes alot of the strategy out of the lions mouth aspect of the hole...which rewards the ground game as well.

Tom D had a few wild greens at Lost Dunes, but I think you are referring to #4 the par 5. That certainly is a better green with a wedge rather than a long iron.

And Scott, #7 may be the only green at Ballyneal that I did not notice 9 pin placements because I had a 6" putt for birdie . I thought it was a pretty cool looking green nonetheless.

Do you think we can get this thread on the 10th at Dismal to go as long as the 10th at Merion thread?

 

oh my God Jim, I hope not!

I think my only post on that monster was :"my fingers get tired jsut thinking about you guys typing all that"!

Back to the original topic, I think the green would be pretty cool with the bunker in the middle with everything softened up a bit. I don't think bunkers in the middle of greens should be the next fad, but every once in a while is pretty cool.

yea, that's what's I was driving at too Jim...probably better to do as you say, or perhaps have no bunker and then wilder slopes