Hey Jud...
yep, first course I've played that was designed by Tom Doak.
I'll expound further, but I'll try to be concise.
The feel of the property was ideal. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere with beautiful views and endless horizon in every direction. Also, the clubhouse and proshop, etc at Ballyneal fit the vibe the course was trying to bring to the table perfectly. Private golf club with a higher end feel, but yet no "in your face" extravagance.
The forced carry off the first tee was a bit off putting, but I have a bias for the stereotypical Donald Ross, ease the golfer into the round type of hole. But I made it and got to the green just fine. But I was a bit dumbfounded by the green. I was long on my approach shot (and I later figured out I was hitting the ball about 20 yards further than normal, perhaps due to altitude...I am not sure) and had a long undulating putt for par. With the rough look of the greens and the uphill portion of the undulations, I thought I need to hit the putt really hard. Well, I did hit it hard...but it turns out I didn't need to. I think I had a 10 or 15 yard chip to get back on the green!!
Frankly, the way the fairway blends into the greens was pretty cool. Essentially, it has a seemless transition.
Other holes and/or items of note are as follows...
the par 3 3rd and its bunkering. Cool stuff! Again, I was long off the tee (but this is when I put two and two together concerning how far I was hitting the ball that day) but made a pretty darn good up and down.
hole 7 is one of the best golf holes I've ever played. The member we played with said he could come out to the hole with a case of beer and a few good friends and spend the entire day just hitting putts on that green. I whole heartedly agree with that.
Also I got a lesson in why it is important to travel and play differnt golf courses in different locations. My short game is usually pretty darn good, usually!
But it is an aerial type of short game. Pop the ball up in the air and try to control the roll out and be left with a reasonable putt. Well, at Ballyneal with all those undulating greens this is not the way to play the short game...or the long approach game for that matter either. Watching the member we played with bounce that ball into the greens and riding those slopes was quite frankly amazing and really enlightening. But, perhaps in a testament to my stupidity or stubborness, it wasn't until the 5th day of our trip and our 3rd round at Sand Hills that I finally tried this low bump and run type of short game style when trying to get the ball close to the pins. And you know what, it worked amazingly well. Better late than never, I suppose.
Like I said previously, I had a great time on the course. It was a great deal of fun, but I am unsure if it would be everyone's style of golf. I know the guys I golf with here in Atlanta would be pi$$ed off trying to putt on those greens. I think they would call those greens "unfair" as they tend to be score focused golfers and the greens probably take a few rounds to get used to and, therefore, score to the level a golfer thinks they should.
One final note/question. We've talked about match play and stroke play courses. Would anyone else consider Ballyneal a great match play course? I am thinking it might be as (at least in my experience on 1 and 12) big numbers lurk with many of those greens.
Anyway, perhaps this is not as concise as I had hoped...but there are my quick thoughts on the course.