I had been told that the CDA Resort Course was nothing special architecturally. Nevertheless, there was no way I was going to be in the area and not play the famous floating green.
General thoughts:
1) There is a definite focus on beauty over brains. The golf course was as green as any golf course I have every played, and as a result, was as soft as any course I have ever played. Despite recent dry weather, balls regularly backed up in the fairways and plugged in their pitch-marks on the green. But heck, it looks good.
2) There are way too many trees, but see point 1. On many holes trees encroached on playing corridors and made for worse golf holes. But, I think most resort golfers don't mind. Standing on the 2nd tee I said to the three guys I was playing with that the trees on the right really encroached on the fairway and I thought the hole would be better if a few were removed. They all looked at me like I was crazy and one told me, "but the trees look really good."
3) A few of the holes are poorly conceived. For example, the fairway on hole 4 is, at its widest, 19 yards wide and it narrows to 10 yards in places. And, only half of that width allows you to see the green. Another example is a back pin placement on hole 5. There the green is a total of 6 yards wide.
4) Green contours are all but nonexistent
5) The island green is pretty cool and darned intimidating.
On to the pictures...
All yardages from the 6900 yard gold (back) tees.
Hole 1: Par 5, 540 YardsA gentle, simple opener. In no way does it prepare you for the narrowness that is holes 2-7.
Massive bunker right of green
Hole 2, Par 4, 481 YardsNowhere was the need for tree removal more apparent than on this hole. From the back tees, half of the narrow fairway is blocked by trees less than 100 yards from the tee (just ask 2 of my playing partners if they're in play!).
View from gold tee
From the middle tees, the fairway is narrow but not blocked-out by trees
If you do manage to find the fairway, it better be on the left side. If you think you've hit a perfectly shaped fade around the trees to the right side of the fairway and you're sitting pretty, think again. Shots in the right side of the fairway are blocked out by trees short of the green:
The left side is more inviting:
Short of green
From behind
Hole 3: Par 3, 155 YardsThe set of three trees to the right block a good portion of the green. Half of our group nicked those trees and were left 70 yards short of this 155 yard hole.