[Brian Cenci]

I am wondering if anyone has any opinion on or knows of any other designs of Kevin Aldridge.  The only designs I can find of his are Blackheath Golf Club (Rochester Hills, MI) and two courses at the Lakewood Shores Resort (Oscoda, MI), two of which I've played several times and I absolutely love them.  

The Gailes and the Blackshire course at the Lakewood Shores Resort are both great courses.  I think Gailes was last ranked in 2004 by Golf Magazine as #92 (which is an abosulte travesty since it IMO is better than Wolr Woods - Pine Barrons, which they had at #9.....but we won't go into that) and Golf Digest had it last ranked as #47 (which they idiotically ranked Tullymore, Black Lake, Bay Harbor and Shephard's Hollow (All in Michigan) all ahead of it....which none of them even touch The Gailes IMO).

The Gailes is my favorite of the two but Blackshire was designed after the mold of Pine Valley with a lot of waiste areas...it is a good course as well.  

Blackheath in Rochester,MI which Ron Whitten from Golf Digest recently wrote about.  Here's some of what Whitten had to say:

"I once declared Aldridge a genius for the magnificent job he did at the Gailes Course, which I still consider to be the most authentic inland-links course ever "manufactured" in America. He obviously tried to do Blackheath in the same mold, a windswept treeless links of rugged, tumbling fairways, scattered pot bunkers, broad sweeping greens and endless patches of tall native rough."

I'd be interested to see of what else he's done or what everyone else thinks of his limited work.  Anyone know of any future projects he may be working on?  What I've played of his I love.  The Gailes course is serplanted in my top 10 and has been for the last 5 years since I first played it.  

[Tom_Doak]

Brian:

Kevin's father, Stan Aldridge, owns Indianwood G & CC near Detroit. Kevin got into the business when they built the New course there, and then bought Lakewood Shores right after.

Last I heard, Kevin was building a course somewhere near Atlanta.  But I don't know if he's designed anything that his family didn't own.

[Brian Cenci]

Tom,

Now I see where he got his inspiration if his father owned Indianwood (which is a very similar style as The Gailes).    

I found some more info. online regarding a course near Atlanta he did.  Apparently he designed Arbor Springs Golf Club near Atlanta, Georgia and it is now under new owndership and called Pine Ridge National Golf Club.

www.pineridgenational.com

From the pictures the course looks ok.

Any opinion on The Gailes course?


-Brian

[Tom_Doak]

Brian:

Believe it or not, I've never been to The Gailes.  It's about three hours from where I live, and I have Crystal Downs and High Pointe and Black Forest and Lost Dunes to play all I want for the 8-10 rounds I play each year around home.  Several people I know rate it quite highly.

I thought I would play it when we were doing preliminary routings for what is now Red Hawk GC, but after that deal went south, I haven't been back to the area.

Stan Aldridge was a non-golfer who bought Indianwood out of bankruptcy in the late 1970's.  He recognized that the course had a history and an artistic quality to it, and spent a lot of his own money to restore it and to restore its clubhouse.  He was then able to sell memberships at significantly increased prices, and recouped his investment and then some, I believe.

[Brian Cenci]

The Gailes is also a difficult course.  One thing that annoyed me there that I had never encountered on a course (I'm sure I would if I ever make it oversees to the homeland) was that it has a lot of little dinky pot bunkers (maybe 10' in diameter and 8-12" deep) that are blind from the tee on some of the holes (I think 4 holes total) right in the middle of the fairway.  You'll crank a drive 275 down the middle on what looks like a wide open fairway and end up in a little bunker that you can't see until you're right on top.  They'll be 5-6 grouped in one area like this.  

Also, it had the coolest tee box I've ever encountered.  I think the 5th green and 6th tee is where it is at.  The 6th tee is the fringe from the 5th green.  You are litterally 10' from the 6th tee box to the actual green on #5.  I was playing and guys were hitting their approach to the pin on the 5th which on that day the pin to #5 was 25 feet away.  It was a really cool design, but also scary.  Had the largest double green I've ever encountered as well and its own little version of the postage stamp hole also, but at least you could put out of the bunkers on that hole which I love to do.

P.S.....Tom...how is the green @ #7 doing at CD..heard the winter was rough on it.  I used to work there from 94' to 99' in the pro shop and still get up to play it at least once a year.

[Sean_A]

Brian

The Gailes is a very, very good course with it's own funk going on.  
I remember the the green-tee merging.  I didn't think I would ever see that again.  Then I went to Leven, the same setup as the Gailes.  Boys on the tee of a par 3 firing staright at guys on the next tee (can't recall which holes).  The tee is built up about 2.5 feet, but the green flows right to the tee.  In fact, a good line is to hit at the tee and let contours take it toward the pin, which was about 15 yards away.  What is magical about the setup is that from the par 3, the tee of the next hole doesn't seem to be in the firing line.  I only realized when I stood on the next tee.  Very dangerous, but quite fun!

Ciao

Sean

[PThomas]

Brian -- that green was in pretty bad shape  when I was there in mid May

[Brian Cenci]

Paul,
     Hmm....I played the course last Fall and it was in great condition.  The winter this year was hard on a number of courses in northern michigan.  Maybe that had something to do with it.


-Brian

[Chris Burgard]

Brian,

I have to agree with you whole-heartedly. The Gailes is one of my favourite courses.

It has a very nice mix of holes. It eases you in to the course with a couple of fairly easy holes, beats you up for a few holes, lays off for a bit, and then crushes one's spirit at 13 and 14 before granting a reprieve coming home.

I think that the tee box you are referring to is #7, just to the right of 6 green. A nice touch...and with 6 green being quite large and the pin placements usually on the left side being not too dangerous.

10 and 11 are a couple of fine short 4s. 10 with a wide open tee shot and approach to a table-top green and 11's tough tee shot followed by welcoming punchbowl green.

Unfortunately, the conditioning has been a little too lush the last couple of years when I have played it, removing some of the shot options but it is still a terrific course.

Chris

[Jfaspen]

I've played The New Course at Indianwood, The Gailes, Blackheath and Blackshire...

All are very good courses.

The gailes reminds me a bit of what we are seeing on tv during the Open..  Wide expansive fairways, bunkers galore.  Only problem is conditioning.  It is a course designed to play firm and fast, but when I was there, it was lush green and they had the sprinklers on.

Blackshire is billed as Pine Valley meets northern michigan.  Never having been to Pine Valley, I can only say that this was a good course that I enjoyed more than the Gailes.  It has the waste areas similar to pine valley.  The hole that reminded me most of pine valley was actually a par 4 from off the tee you could see a par 3 green with a huge waste area in front of it.

Both courses are worth playing if you are in the area.  They had a good deal this spring mid-week.

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