What could have been...

[Chip Gaskins]

With so little great land (or opportunities) left, what are some of the biggest missed opportunities to build a great course on a world class piece of land..With so very little sandy soil dunes land out there (I know half of the state of Nebraska is sandy dunes land) makes me say sometimes "What could have been done with that land"

My nomination is The Currituck Club (http://www.kittyhawklandcompany.com/CurrituckClub/index.html).  This site was a fantastic piece of dunes land with tall ridges, dunes, wind, and pure sand.  I realize the course was built to sell real estate and developer has probably extracted the maximum economic return for his investment but was could have been...

Property: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=duck,+nc&ie=UTF8&ll=36.305823,-75.805235&spn=0.028566,0.081711&t=h&z=15

[David Stamm]

Cross Creek in Temecula, Ca. A fantastic property with coastal oaks, rolling terrian, creeks and will never have a house built along it. Arthur Hills built a few good holes there, but oh what it could've been. A great setting that does not come very often in So Cal.

[Michael Dugger]

I don't think you guys are aware how threads of this sort can spiral out of control.

As the great Pat Mucci says, "you cannot design a golf course in a vacuum."

Great land is one thing.....but what about the developer and their wishes?  What about budget?  How about environmental constraints?

All of these are legitimate factors when it comes to the final product.

In my book the poster child for this is Sandpines, but that fight has already been fought.

[mike_beene]

I would nominate Samoset in Maine simply because they gave so much ocean frontage to the course.