Ron, I am glad to hear you liked the course. It seems like everyone who has gone to see Rock Creek has been blown away by it. I remember my initial reaction when I first stepped on #1 tee, and it didn't even have a blade of grass on it yet.

It would be interesting to hear which holes you thought had some extreme depth perception. We went out and played the first 13-14 holes every once and a while but I did not notice being that off in my distances any more than a club.

And I have a breathtaking shot of #8 that I would love to post.  

Tom, most of my days were spent in the bunkers. When I got there about half of the holes were already grassed in and we were tweaking and putting the final touches on the last 8 or 9 holes. I also spent some time shaping tee boxes on a few of the holes. It will be interesting to see some of them as the course matures. There are a lot of cool little features around the native tie-ins and then there are tee boxes like #8 and #12 that are pretty far out there and have a ton of movement and features inside the teeing area.

  Any more pictures of Rock Creek?

My pictures were taken at midday and truthfully they are just average.  The course and Tom deserve more than what I have to offer.

But earlier in the week, the pictures were good enough for a humorous ruse ...

Joel:

The course will open next summer -- I don't know exactly what month, as the spring weather in Montana is quite unpredictable.

I am confident it will be worth the wait.

There were a couple of pictures here last fall, but as usual I am holding out on putting out too many at one time.  I really don't think photos are going to do justice to the scale of this place.  If Ryan or Ron wants to post one or two more, that's fine ... but I hope that the first time you go around it there will be some holes you haven't seen before.

Andy:

The course is just west of Deer Lodge, between Butte and Missoula -- about 40 minutes to Old Works, but 4-5 hours to Big Sky, I believe.

Andy:

The course is just west of Deer Lodge, between Butte and Missoula -- about 40 minutes to Old Works, but 4-5 hours to Big Sky, I believe.

My you people from Michigan drive slow. You don't happen to leave the turn signal on the whole way too, do you?

Montanans would easily cut those time estimates in half.

Ryan:

Thanks for those ... and Merry Christmas.

P.S.  Wish I'd had the last one two weeks ago, it would be our Christmas card.

Paul:

The sixteenth is a 465-yard par 4.  The slope in the fairway is indeed similar to the slope on 17 at Olympic -- I hadn't thought of that before.  However we did create a flat spot near the left-hand bunkers and another just above the little right-hand bunker, where a drive should come to rest if it's played properly wide to the left off the tee to wind up there.  And the fairway is VERY wide to the right, so a lot of tee shots may wind up to the right of the bunker ... in the fairway but with a very long uphill approach.

The last fifty yards short of the green are equally as steep from left to right, so you ought to think twice about going for it if you're not sure you'll get there.

And the LAST place you want to be is over the back of this green -- there is a deep drainage area between the green and the base of the rocky pinnacle.  It is a pretty big green, though.

My favorite hole in the early phase of design was the fifth hole, a short par-4 which is in the middle set of photos.  The best line off the tee (if you can make the carry) is WAY to the right, over the last right bunker, which puts you nearly level with the green and gives you a much better look at the flag.  But not many people are going to take that route on their first try ... and if you go half right, the drive will kick left and wind up in those bunkers below the green, leaving a nasty 50-yard bunker shot to a two-tiered green.

Michael:  No more ass-kissing, remember?  Didn't you get the memo?  You'll see more when you get in your car and drive to Montana.

Michael:  No more ass-kissing, remember?  Didn't you get the memo?  You'll see more when you get in your car and drive to Montana.

Tom:

Does 8 play in a right to left wind?

The hole looks weird to me....and it looks like a draw shot hole (for a righty) which I usually like. It's kinda messin' with my head.

The long four par in the last picture looks kinda fun, like I would like hitting that tee shot. Don't know about the 5th hole. Doesn't look like it'd set up well for me.

Yea, now your car has to break down on the way to Montana. Now that is fun.