Ahh Lawsonia. Did you only play one round? Was Norton's on the menu?
What did you think of the Lee nines?

Everything about NGLA is instantaneous!! It starts at the entrance with the sign instructing vehicles to stop if there are golfers on the 17th or 18th greens! Cool. Up here the signs instuct golfers to watch for cars!! Golf is FIRST at the National.

I like to take Tuckahoe Rd. right through the middle of Shinnecock and then take the little jog left on to Sabonic Inlet rd. driving through Shinnecock first gets you to squirmin' around in the seat like a freshman sitting in the back of the hockey bus with the senior cheerleaders.

Shooter:
Thought I'd lost you there for a second ... I was shocked that you weren't as ga-ga over The dunes as I was.
The Dunes really is just that good. Add in the atmosphere, tee system  and conditioning, and I can think of few places I'd rather play again.
Just send me a cut shot, will ya?

A few courses I didn't really like the first time, that I really
did like on a second trip around:

1. Annandale, in Los Angeles
2. Muirfield in Scotland (respected it, but didn't like it one bit!)
3. Royal Birkdale (similar feeling - it was just OK, but on a
second trip back, I came to understand why it's so universally liked!)

The first time I played the Ocean course at Kiawah, I thought it was a most beautiful piece of land they should let the golf course go back to. By the fourth time I had the pleasure of playing it, I realized it was a damn good golf course that just demanded better shots than I was consistently able to pull off. A hundred and eighty degree shift in opinion.

shooter:  I'm just glad my effect is so powerful it reaches even great players and astute judges of courses like you.  Now if you start chunking wedges, I'll really claim omnipotence.

 

Shooter, you are a beauty for posting about every 2 years!

The courses I have been going over and over in my head and that I only played once to 3-4 times each are the California courses I've been lucky enough to play in the last few years; Rustic Canyon, Valley Club, and Barona Creek.  Yes, there are some week holes on each, but only about 1 or two per course.  The courses as a whole really keep returning in my memory bank.   Since I know how you played Lawsonia having had the pleasure of playing there with you, I must say that you would also go wild for Blue Mound CC in Milwaukee, I think.  But, the last time I played there, it rained hard for a while, and was soft before the rain, which caused the greens and fairways to play like pudding.  As a firm course, I think you'd think of it above Lawsonia, yet in the same style and mind set of why you seem to like Lawsonia.

So, get back to WISC. soon and maybe we can have another go at it.

Harbour Town is starting to grow on me.

At first, too tight/bowling alley fairways with Shaq and Yao Ming Trees encroaching mightily into the fairways, greens the size of card tables, a tale of two golf courses (Condo Alley 1-16.5) and Low Country Boil (16.5-18).

Starting to like it more now that they have cleared some limbs and reconditioned the place.

JWK

Dick, just curious about what holes you felt were weak at the Valley Club!  Really!

Yeah, Dick!  Let's hear it!

Yikes, inquiring minds want to know...

Well Valley Club, despite how I played them (mostly bogey/ double golf, but a couple pars and one birdie) had a few holes that were a bit under stated from some of the best holes there.  1 and 2 as opening par 5s in a row were pretty straight forward (as an after thought having only played the course once) where the strategy after one plays them seems to me to be 3W or less off tee, iron to lay-up and flip to green.  The business was better on the green on 1 than 2, in my recollection.  I can't actually remember what the short par 4, 6th presented as the striking feature that most short 4s have.  I just wasn't wild about the dogleg 9th, or mudslide affected 10th.  16 is rated #2 handicap, but it is just long, not too interesting in LZ or approach.  17 was a bit of a breather before turning home to one of the most wonderful views and inviting fairways up to the club house I have seen (as is 15 similarly situated and challenging) and both are excellent holes IMO.  I loved all of the par 3s there.  The bunker work and placement in relation to greens contours was great.  But, one play isn't enough to pick up nuances and consistent feature challenges that thwart routine pars and confound the player.  So, I don't call this criticism as much as looking back on one play and trying to think of what specific hole design didn't WOW me over.

As for Rustic, a much tougher one to find a weak hole, but there must be one.  I'll pick #2, 4, 11 and 12 as the candidates for weakest on that course.  

But, I had to go shoot my mouth off in my reply to Will and say each course lingers in my memory because they are so great, yet I tried to mitigate adding "yes there are some week holes on the courses, but only about 1 or 2 per course".  I am not going to stand on any soap box and claim these holes are weak by anything other than comparison to the other great holes on these courses.

Finally, Barona 2, 10, 12 and 15 are ~weaker of those on that course.

So now I'll be moseying on over to the woodshed for a good thrashing by Pete and Bill

Dick,
I find it ironic that the four holes yo pick as the weakest happen to be the best, if not more interesting greens on the course! (2,4 11, & 12)

My take on #2 the strongest hole for me on the front nine is that many just don't understand that postioning yourself off of the tee is everything. Just recently while playing with David Moriarty and Slag, David said, "Well Tommy likes to take it to the right side on this hole" and that's when I yelped, "Its only because I'm trying to play the left side everytime and I fail! (to get it over there for the better angle into the green) I have learned how to play it from the right though, even if I end up in the bunkers and usually it results in me having a shot at par. It's not by choice, and it makes it a much harder way to play the hole--a par 4 1/2 if there ever was one. At least for me.  

And it doesn't matter which tee I'm playing from either Blue or Black!

#4, well I have tired of telling people that a low running hook is the way to play the hole, and after proving it everytime, I'll keep on letting everyone try to fly it to the pin....especially if its back center or left!

#11--Whether the wind is at my back or in my face this hole gives me fits. Now if memory serves me right, weren't you in the bunker left on your approach at KPIII? This was after a pretty decent drive? (For a always sneekingly long Dick Daley!) For me the hole is a par 6 everytime! Even if I get a good drive off of the tee. Its just a tough but beautiful hole--at least for me.

#12--After recently expereincing some driving success off of the tee, I have found the 12th that he angle of the approach to that front right pin to be more exciting and fun to play. You just have to be able to have faith in the bump and run shot, even attempted with a 6 or 7 iron from 100 yards or less everytime. Aim it left and the ball will run into the hole perfectly and it will slow before it hits that extreme right and then takes off for the back. I can even do this from the left side of the hole too, and I especially don't get what Ed is talking about in regards to weak--its anything but that! It such a great hole to get a hole back in a match.

I do agree with Ed a bit though on #9. I still think a few (5 or 6) small and hidden and partially hidden bunkers spread throughout the hole ala #12 on the Old Course would be fun there. Make the other shots more to think about instead of just the approach.