So here's the brief update so far:
Cowboys G.C (Brauer) - much better than I expected. I thought I'd be drowning in Cowboys gear, Cowboys fans, Cowboys glitter, Cowboys glam.
No way...it was all tastefully done. Think Tom Landry, not Hollywood Henderson. There were a few bits of memorabilia, but it wasn't the Mel Renfro burger and the Preston Pearson driving range and the fifth hole brought to you by Danny White. The only nose-tweak was the star painted in the middle of the fourth fairway, but that's just there so one guy in your foursome can be T.O., and the other can be George Teague and you can recreate that "not in my house" moment yourselves while waiting for the green to clear.
Really, though, the experience was warm and friendly. Vic Rodanthe, the pro is a super guy, bright, affable, and sincere, a pro's pro. (Ex Coloradan, so that explains it). You can play golf for around $100 straight up, if you want lunch, balls, non-alcoholic drinks, and use of the locker room all day...and we're talking all you can eat here...$165-185. It's high, especially for the recession, but not unfair, you get great golf, good food, and nice digs. You can't play it every day, but it's nice to visit and 10 minutes from the airport.
Brauer delivered an excellent, interesting course. It's an out and back routing. The greens have some good contour. There are plenty of strategic elements, such as diagonal angles. On the par-3s he sometimes tests distance control (3&6) and sometimes tests accuracy (14, 16) Jeff, does three have some elements of a short? Shaping, the depressed right side of the green.
We played the middle tees. All the par-3s played roughly the same distance. But it was good they were short. As a bogey golfer, you get tired of hitting 5-wood all day, maybe if you're lucky a 5-iron or hybrid, so it was also a welcome relief to have a day like that. When I get my handicap down, I can always move back to the tips later.
5 is a great long par four with terrific horizontal sweep to the fairway. 8 is a great reachable par-5 with alternating shot requirements. I'm of two minds about 14. Its a short par-4 with a cool shaped fairway swerving all over and a center line bunker. I guess its a good par 3-1/2, right Jeff? 18 is terrific with its diagonal line of bunkers bi-secting the fwy.
Colonial (Maxwell, resto = Foster)
Does this course look like Southern Hills to you? I know that GD is saying Maxwell didn't have as much to do with the entire course as opposed to the Horrible Horseshoe and that - in some circles - John Bredemus is credited with more of the design than Maxwell, but the two courses look eerily similar, with the exception that Maxwell's greens have been preserved at Southern and the greens at Colonial are more sedate (if just as fast!). The same man did the restorations, and the restoration plan followed similar lines as well - pinch in the bunkers, move some back from the tee, move some dog-legs back. They also sloped some landing areas for the pros back towards the tee to limit how far the drive traveled. I'm still analyzing what I think about this, it may take some time, I need to really consider it...
Wanna know a great feature? When you stand on the greens and look back, you can't see any bunkers. Maxwell learned that from Mackenzie. (I learned it from Tony Nysse:)
The conditioning was outstanding. Biscuit brown! I love biscuit-brown and getting to play a course that you'd ordinarily never see like that was amazing, beautiful, and fun. It was also educational because the shaping is easier to see. So all you from across the pond should come out to Dallas for New Years week and play here. We had an outstanding day. The food was terrific, the conditions terrific, the course looked surreal - like a windspept heath lined with phantasmagoric dead trees. It was a unique round because we played her in conditions no one sees - conditions that brought out her shaping much more than if she was rough covered and the trees were in bloom.
3 approach:
5 approach. Colonial looks ghostly in gold...almost like Halloween:) Cool.
Hidden Gem award: Turtle Hill. It's in Muenster, Texas (Muenster!?) Which means its six miles from anywhere. A pilot named Dick Murphy saw it from the sky, bought it, routed it, and built it and its terrific. Its totally minimalist, all the severe features of the property are still there
It's wonderfully quirky. The par-4 second requires a fade off the tee to avoid an over hanging specimen tree on the second, then you turn right and go two clubs uphill. I don't like it, but with 16 other good holes, and the fact that its what was naturally there, I see why he kept it, it connects him to the rest pf the terrific routing, and its different from every other hole without being too unlike the course's general theme.
Guys, you should go out there and play it and report back. At $27 twilight, $35 high rate, its a steal. I really thoguht it was great, a true hidden gem, outstanding value and really natural, with deep ravines, long ridges, and quarries. Its a great piece of property.
I'll have articles up around the web. Wyatt H, Mike W, Dick daleyt and a few other friends will post them and discuss them.
I' m still out here four more days, so email me to get together, jaymusiclaw@yahoo.com