Topp's Travels 2012 - Year End Awards

[Jason Topp]

I finished my 2012 golf season by hacking the ball out of a pond.  I was competing with Ben Kodadek in a net four-ball event at Old Corkscrew in Estero Florida.  Ben had spent the hole becoming acquainted with various bushes and gave up the task.  I responded by hitting a bailout shot that somehow wound up in the hazard anyway. If I could have only made par we would have finished 10th the 16 team flight.  We didn’t.

Brian Izatt wrote a wonderful review of Old Corkscrew at the time it opened.   http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,32732.0.html  I agree with the conclusion he reports:   “The (almost) final word to my wife – the archetypal short female golfer – it was too hard.  Too many forced carries or tacking around features.  Too hard to cross bunkers and hit the green.” 

I would give the same review from a high single digit golfer.  After three days of play, I measured success by how many balls I lost.

As the year comes to a close, I will announce the prestigious Topp’s Travel Awards.  Stay tuned.

[Jason Topp]

Destinations:

My goal at the beginning of the year was to play every month of 2012.  I am happy to report that the quest was a success.  I counted 44 courses in 2012 and played at least one round of golf at ten destinations.  Here is my short recap of each destination:
-   Hilton Head (January).  Great weather, May River is a treat.  Zuckerman is an experience.
-   Dominican Republic (February).  Golf is fabulous, driving is an adventure.
-   San Jose (March).  Cold and muddy.
-   Oahu (April).  Great weather, crappy golf courses.
-   Amana Colonies – Iowa (April).  Great value, good course, tough in the wind.
-   Japan (June) – adventure of the year.
-   Brainerd Lakes area (July) – Beautiful area, muggy as possible.
-   Spencer, IA (August) – My “major” of the year.  Missed the cut.
-   Scottsdale (September).  Hot in September. 
-   Fort Myers (December).  Best winter golf weather.  Area is not set up for tourist golf.

Awards:
Best destination – Hilton Head in January   The weather in Hilton Head is a gamble in the winter but it was a terrific destination on a weekend when the weather was nice.  Spanish moss draped from a gnarled old tree is a magic sight for me.  Visiting a resort area in the off season carries off season prices, plenty of room in the hotels and few headaches.  Joel Zuckerman took me to two wonderful golf courses and I ate fabulous food at night. 

Worst Destination – San Jose/San Francisco/Monterrey/Santa Cruz in winter   I have family in this area and have squeezed in golf on many winter visits.  My advice – visit in the summer or fall.  The cold associated with winter in this area is about as bone chilling as I have experienced on a golf course.  Combine that cold with rain, wind and soggy golf courses and you have the trifecta.  Even more troubling in this area, however, is that the public golf options are about as weak as exist anywhere.  Land is too valuable around here so golf courses are either built on severe terrain or squeezed in wherever land is cheapest.  Finally, I find the pace of play in this area to be as slow as anywhere I have experienced.   
Even the high quality courses I have played in this area tend to be mud bogs in winter unless they are sand capped.  Pasatiempo in the winter is a treat.  In the summer it is an experience to be savored.   

[Bill_McBride]

So how many balls did you lose?

[Jason Topp]

So how many balls did you lose?

8 the first round.  6 the second and 1 the third.  I improved!

[Nigel Islam]

So how many balls did you lose?

8 the first round.  6 the second and 1 the third.  I improved!

The funny thing is I don't always remember what I shot, but I always remember how many balls I lost.

[Joel Zuckerman]

Destinations:

My goal at the beginning of the year was to play every month of 2012.  I am happy to report that the quest was a success.  I counted 44 courses in 2012 and played at least one round of golf at ten destinations.  Here is my short recap of each destination:
-   Hilton Head (January).  Great weather, May River is a treat.  Zuckerman is an experience.

Damned with faint praise.  I would have much preferred to read MRGC is an experience, and I am a treat

[Bill_McBride]

So how many balls did you lose?

8 the first round.  6 the second and 1 the third.  I improved!

Was it a lesson in course management, or did your swing improve?   

[Mark Bourgeois]

Topp's Travels (2012) has been so enjoyable to read. My favorite probably is the DR. Now that the winner has been crowned, I'll go back and reread.

Because I am lazy / busy, can someone post a link to the Hilton Head writeup?

[Jason Topp]

Thanks for the compliment Mark.  I lost my mojo for writing these things mid year.  Life intervened.  I have no idea how a newspaper columnist comes up with something to write about daily. 

Here are my prior threads:

October - Windsong Farm  http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,53879.msg1239581.html#msg1239581

August - Dacotah Ridge  http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,53185.msg1221853.html#msg1221853

June – Kawana - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,52352.msg1201935.html#msg1201935

May – The Jewel and Memorial Day thoughts - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,52236.msg1197860.html#msg1197860

April – Royal Hawaiian
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,51931.msg1189714.html#msg1189714

March – Stanford http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,51548.msg1179219.html#msg1179219

February – Casa de Campo
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,51226.msg1169379.html#msg1169379

January – May River
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,50993.msg1162920.html#msg1162920

2011 - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,47337.0.html

[Jason Topp]

Lodging

For me, lodging is a secondary consideration when traveling for golf.  I do not spend much time in the hotel room so my primary considerations are a good location from a logistics perspective, a decent bed and a decent price.  Nonetheless, traveling is usually a collective endeavor.  As is often the case, I experienced extremes in lodging options again this year.

Best Lodging - Kahala

The Kahala is the hotel surrounded by Wailea Country Club on Oahu.  It seems to host five weddings per day.  It has dolphins swimming around next to the pool. The beach is flat and the water is protected.  The property is small which makes the beach a short walk and ensures the sound of the ocean provides a constant background.  I spent the week learning to paddle surf which provides the right mixture of challenge, exercise  and diversion for my tastes.  

I did not take any great pictures of the hotel but this series will give you a feel for the place:





I wonder if they will be contacting me to replace Daniel Craig for the next Bond movie.  I think the golf tan might be ideal for the character:



Worst Lodging - a couch

The Kahala was a pleasure after staying on a friend's couch a few weeks before.  The couch seemed to be from a secondhand store.  The house had no heat which was needed that week.  The refrigerator featured week old pizza and some ketchup.  The stove did not work.  On the positive side the house was strewn with golf equipment, including a chipping net, a full swing net, a putting surface and some swing aids that carried equal the possibility of fixing my swing or causing injury.

[Jason Topp]

In this information age, I rarely visit a course without doing some pretty significant research beforehand.  Thus, it is rare for me to be too surprised with a golf course when I visit.  Nonetheless, these courses stood out to me:

Best pleasant surprise - Greyhawk Raptor

I generally like desert golf, in large part because I love the beauty of the desert and the weather.  I find, however that designs in the desert struggle tend to be a bit off in the challenge they present.  Courses tend to either be so tight that one must play defensively the entire way around or so wide that no thinking is involved in tacking around.  Grehawk did not look like much of a change of pace when I previewed the course, but Fazio's use of gigantic fairway bunkers added a lot of spice to tee shots while allowing additional turf to be used to provide adequate width.  I enjoyed the course much more than I expected.  Here is the tour from their website:

http://grayhawkgolf.com/golf/raptor-course/raptor-course-map/

Biggest unpleasant surprise - Old Corkscrew

I generally have found that I like more recent Nicklaus courses better than those built in the 80's.  Old Corkscrew is a significant exception to this general view.  The course requires high sioft iron shots into the greens that provide no bailout because they are angled to the line of play, narrow and contain enough slope that the middle of the green is often worse than being in a bunker.  The punishing nature of the greens and fairway hazards takes away much if any advantage to aggressive choices.  This course simply asks too muich of me and 95% of the golf population.  

It is a pity because the land is beautiful and the lack of housing makes the experience otherwise unique.  
Other Nicklaus courses of the similar vintage get the balance between challenge and interest right (Cabo del Sol, May River, Desert Mountain - Chiricaua).  I would be really interested in knowing what was different about this project.

[Bryan Izatt]

Jason,

Although Old Corkscrew is a tough track, I kind of liked it as a measure of my game (which generally has come up short).  Certainly you can see Jack's architectural hand in the course - the architecture is in your face.  the course sticks out from the rest of the typical FL courses around here, which is a good thing I think.

I'm curious about which tees you played from, although there's lots of trouble even if you move up.  Did you lose balls in the water generally, or the palmettos?  I've probably lost just as many in the palmettos as the water.  Which holes were your nemesis holes or were the losses spread out all over?

If you're still in the neighbourhood and have time,  my wife and I have a tee time tomorrow, Sunday, at Bonita Bay East, a much more user friendly Tom Fazio track.

[Keith Doleshel]

Jason,
Where did you play in Northern California, besides Pasatiempo?

[Jason Topp]

Jason,
Where did you play in Northern California, besides Pasatiempo?

This year I played Stanford, Callipe Preserve, Lake Chabot par 3 and Metropolitan. I have on other trips played Harding, Pasatiempo, MPCC Dunes, Pebble, Spyglass, San Juan Oaks and Tilden.  I have hit balls but not played at Delavagua and Presidio.  I also played at Silverado many years ago but do not lump that area in with this one because the climate is so different.

[Jason Topp]

Jason,

Although Old Corkscrew is a tough track, I kind of liked it as a measure of my game (which generally has come up short).  Certainly you can see Jack's architectural hand in the course - the architecture is in your face.  the course sticks out from the rest of the typical FL courses around here, which is a good thing I think.

I'm curious about which tees you played from, although there's lots of trouble even if you move up.  Did you lose balls in the water generally, or the palmettos?  I've probably lost just as many in the palmettos as the water.  Which holes were your nemesis holes or were the losses spread out all over?

If you're still in the neighbourhood and have time,  my wife and I have a tee time tomorrow, Sunday, at Bonita Bay East, a much more user friendly Tom Fazio track.

Thanks for the offer Bryan.  I visited for a quick weekend and am back in the frozen North. 

The tees were not the problem.  We mainly played the blues with a few of them moved up.  I think they had the card at 6500.

The greens were the biggest problem from my perspective.   Fiddlesticks Long Mean is a very difficult course I find it great fun to play and I think the difference has to do with the greens.

I doubt I would have lost so many balls in mid season form but lost more in the palmettos than the water.  A ball in the palmettos meant hitting a provisional so that added to the count.

[Jason Topp]

Best adventure - Kawana

I knew I had insuffiecient money to get to the resort  (about $7) and my train was about to arrive.  What to do? I got on the train?

 

[Jason Topp]

Course of the year

I was twelve years old when I first stepped foot on a private club - the Wakonda Club in Des Moines, Iowa.  More than the thrill of seeing Lee Trevino and Jan Stephenson play golf, I remember the magic of the setting and dreamed that one day I too would be able to join a club like that.  A picture hangs in my library from Aiden Bradley.  It captures my feelings about Wakonda - it is taken peering out from a grove of trees towards the 17th hole.  It reminds me of my usual view of Wakonda - peering through the fence and trees in order to catch a glimpse of the magic beyond.

In 2005, I was able to join my own club - Oak Ridge Country Club in Hopkins, Minnesota.  Oak Ridge is not the best known club in town.  Many avid golfers have not heard of the club and more are not sure where it is.  The course is in the middle of the city but it feels like you are in a secluded spot far away from the rest of the world. 

I often played Oak Ridge in the evening after work, sometimes alone, more often with portions of the small group of members and club professionals that snuck out in the evening, played fast and beat the sunset.  Not many members play in the evening, making a three hour round a regular occurrence and the appearance of another group on the course a bit of a surprise.  The light was low and the setting more magical at that hour.

There is magic in Oak Ridge's design as well.  The fairways tumble wildly and the greens can be nasty - with plenty of slope and a tilt from one corner to another.  The course has too many trees, but in my role on the green committee I helped to bring about the removal of some of the worst offenders.  The course has other warts, including some changes to outstanding holes that I opposed without success and bunkers that function well but look as if they were built in the 1980s.  Nonetheless, the course plays much the same as it did when it opened in 1921.  To my biased mind there is not a better course in the Twin Cities.  If Oak Ridge had hosted a US Open where Bobby Jones or Chick Evans had won the title, I believe it would be held in as high a regard as Interlachen or Minikahda. If it were not primarily a Jewish club, I also believe more people would know and appreciate the course.

Those views may not be shared by others.  They may be the product of the magic I felt at playing there and the thrill I got being a member at such a special place. 

I resigned my membership in September of this year.  It was a difficult decision but one that made sense due to a move and a number of other considerations.  Nonetheless, while I played some terrific courses this year (Kawana, Teeth of the Dog and May River being the standouts), there is only one choice for course of the year - Oak Ridge Country Club.

[Ivan Morris]

What a lovely looking hole, Jason. After a 260-yard drive, where would the second shot be played from? 

[Rick Shefchik]

Course of the year

One of my favorite holes in Minnesota -- Oak Ridge #13. I've chopped it up almost every time I play it, but I look forward to the hole each time I'm there. What the photo doesn't show is the narrow tee shot to a fairway that doglegs to the right and drops down a hill. Oak trees left will catch you if you hit it down the left side through the fairway; oak trees and out of bounds right if you try to cut the dogleg. A slight fade, purely and accurately struck, will leave you with a short iron or wedge to the green, but the elevated green will not let you get away with a mediocre approach shot. A great hole, and a great course. (Designed by the unjustly forgotten Bill Clark -- that's a whole story itself.)

[Jason Topp]

What a lovely looking hole, Jason. After a 260-yard drive, where would the second shot be played from? 

in the little dip covered in shade - about 80 yards to the middle.  The tee ball needs to carry a ridge and then it generally funnels to that area.  There are many routes to that spot depending on how far you can fly the ball off the tee and, as Rick suggests, there is plenty of trouble if you do not succeed.

[Ben Kodadek]

What a lovely looking hole, Jason. After a 260-yard drive, where would the second shot be played from? 

Asking Jason what the play would be after hitting a 260 yard drive is a fool's errand.   

[Scott Sander]

Jason-

Amana is a course not often discussed here.  As I remember it from 15 years ago, the lost ball count was usually high there.  (Though that may have been more a reflection on the golfer than the course).  I also recall it being so deeply cut through the woods that the only time you ever saw another soul was the opening tee and closing green of the nines.  I always really enjoyed my time there, but I was very much in my hit-it-hard-and-go-find-it years, so I don't recall the GCA at all.

Would love to hear longer thoughts from you on it!

Happy New Year.

Scott

[Jason Topp]

What a lovely looking hole, Jason. After a 260-yard drive, where would the second shot be played from? 

Asking Jason what the play would be after hitting a 260 yard drive is a fool's errand.   

If Ben is hitting the drive the next shot is a chip out from the trees. 

[Jason Topp]

Jason-

Amana is a course not often discussed here.  ...Would love to hear longer thoughts from you on it!
Scott

Scott:  I really enjoy Amana and play it pretty regularly because my Mother lives about 20 minutes away.  I hesitate to recommend it to this crowd.  The first fairway is basically a bowling alley cut through a hilltop.  The course is designed as a cart course with tee shots and greens on high ground and fairways below.  The first par five is very awkward and I still cannot decide if it is a great or a terrible hole.  The finishing holes on each side are weak.

With those caveats, I think the greens and green complexes are terrific - with significant tilt and enoug internal contour to make things interesting.  The par threes are very good - particularly the 17th.  The setting is very nice, particularly in Iowa where being in dense woods is a change of pace from the farm fields that surround the area. The birds and deer on ther property are memorable.  There are some unique holes that I think work quite well such as the 14th which is a 330 yard uphill hole with a deep valley to the left but a narrow opening on higher ground.  There are also some very good stout par fours on the course.

I generally did not find the course to be that tight, at least for a course cut out of the woods.  There are some hidden creeks along the edge of some fairways that can jump up and catch you.  There are also some nasty slopes - particularly on the par five 15th to the left.

I wonder if they made a mistake with the clubhouse location.  The hills surrounding that spot create awkward opening and finishing holes and I suspect the land could have been put to better use if the green locations were not dictated by the clubhouse.