My 2019 in Review - An attempt at "Frank Commentary and Discussion"

[Joe Bausch]

Mountain Laurel Golf Course - White Haven, PA

Geoffrey Cornish/William Robinson 1970

Doak Scale Score - 3


Although it's largely a forgiving course, the par five 9th at Mountain Laurel requires a drive that splits the lane between two lakes before swinging uphill.

The late Geoffrey Cornish built any number of courses during this era in the northeast and they all seemed to provide reasonably interesting and sound golf with a twist or two thrown in and Mountain Laurel is no exception.   

Like 1970s bell bottoms, some of the features like his elevated bunkers, built into mounds for draining (I'm assuming) with floors often higher than the greens surface and their cloverleaf shaping are still a bit cringe-worthy.   The greens are almost all comfortably large, reliant on some tiering and softer, subtle slopes than anything wildly undulating, yet sometimes they can be more difficult to read than more severe greens.

Generally generous fairways and fairway bunkers only in the landing zone are the order of the day.   At Mountain Laurel, as at nearby Wilkes Barre Municipal, Cornish conjoins his first green with the green of a later hole (in this case the 7th) to create a double green that is surely a nod to his love of The Old Course.

But Cornish also seemed to enjoy a bit of novelty, and at Mountain Laurel the short par four downhill 10th requires an approach to an island green.   It may be an interesting trivia question to determine the first island green built post WWII but I wouldn't be surprised if this one is in the running.

The mostly open and gently rolling front nine becomes a bit tighter on the back nine as more severe, wooded terrain is navigated, but swaths are cut wide enough through the woods to be very playable.   Cornish saved the best for last as the uphill par five 16th plays Alps-like to a green down in a dell behind a steep rise, the 17th stretches out of the woods back into a lovely open plain, and the 230 yard par three 18th is another novel finish. 

Forgiving and playable throughout, I think the course belies Cornish's generous nature.   In the case of Mountain Laurel, the Doak Scale of 3 being about an average golf course shows that by and large, that's a pretty high standard overall.

More photos of Mountain Laurel from a July 2018 visit:

http://www80.homepage.villanova.edu/joseph.bausch/images/albums/MountainLaurel/index.html

[Greg Smith]

Short, downhill, par-4 10th to an island green?   Sounds to me like an ode to the original 10th at Baltusrol's Old Course (which Tilly plowed under to build the Upper/Lower).  That hole was pretty famous in its day (it was probably the first ever island green), and there are even extant photos.

Sure enough, when I look at Joe's pic of the 10th, it could even look a little like that hole.   I would not be surprised....

[MCirba]

Short, downhill, par-4 10th to an island green?   Sounds to me like an ode to the original 10th at Baltusrol's Old Course (which Tilly plowed under to build the Upper/Lower).  That hole was pretty famous in its day (it was probably the first ever island green), and there are even extant photos.

Sure enough, when I look at Joe's pic of the 10th, it could even look a little like that hole.   I would not be surprised....

Greg,


That's an interesting observation.


The island hole concept seems to have been pretty popular in the first few decades of the 20th century but I struggle to think of any others built after WWII and before TPC Sawgrass, which may explain why so many thought the concept entirely novel.  This one of Geoff Cornish did precede Dye in modern times, though.

[MCirba]

Community Golf Course (Hills Course) - Dayton, OH

Joe Nicoll 1914,1918,1922, Earl Shock/Donald Ross 1923, Alex Campbell 1927

Doak Scale Score - 4


The winding 3rd hole features a steeply uphill approach to a green that runs from front to back.

Back in 1924, a true Rocky story happened in Philadelphia only it didn't involve boxing, but rather golf.   Italian immigrant Joe Coble came to the United States with his brothers at age 11, landed in New Jersey and soon was caddying at Baltusrol.  Incredibly, he caddied for Jerry Travers when the latter won the 1915 US Open there.

Coble went off to Europe to fight in World War I and when he returned moved to Philadelphia.   Learning there was a public golf course available to him a Cobb's Creek, Coble took a job just down the street near 69th street station working as a waiter in an all-night restaurant.   Enamored (obsessed?) with golf, Coble would leave his job in the middle of the night, sleep 3 hours, walk in the dark to the golf course where he would practice and play and practice and play virtually every day.   Somehow he also had time to fall in love and get married to one of waitresses who was several years older than him, and they had two daughters.

Before long Coble was setting scoring records at the course and some folks entered him in tournaments at nearby private courses where he performed exceptionally well.   In 1923 he went to the US Public Links tournament losing in the semi-final but the following year when the tournament was held in Dayton, Ohio at the Hills course of Community Golf Club he managed to win despite the crowd openly rooting against him largely because of his silent, stoic nature.   

There's much more to the story but that will have to wait for the book. 


Joe Coble driving from the first tee at Community Golf Course during the 1924 U.S. Public Links tournament.

In any case, once I learned that not only did Community Golf Course still exist, but that it was virtually unchanged from the course Coble played, I made it a personal mission to get there.   People at the clubhouse seemed surprised by my zeal when I arrived Coble-like at the crack of dawn but sometimes I think it's a case of not fully appreciating what you have.   For indeed, despite less than manicured conditioning, the golf course itself was quite good, and in places, thrilling.   

The course(s) were a gift to the city from John D. Patterson, who started the National Cash Register Company.   Set on a parkland property that climbs into some rather hilly terrain, two courses (the Hills and Dales) were fashioned here. (the full story can be found here https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,63914.msg1606286.html#msg1606286 )

The Hills course essentially plays around the perimeter of the property which is by far the most interesting and challenging terrain while the shorter Dales course sits mostly in the flattish plain in the middle.   There's a lot to like here, and I found myself very impressed by the ability of Coble and his opponent Henry Decker playing a 36 hole finale on foot, with the Coble winning 2&1.   These guys were made of sterner stuff.

So if you find yourself in Dayton with a few hours to spare, take a walk in their footsteps, or maybe even ride, and see if you don't find the same charm in the low-key setting surrounded by history and some rather good golf.
 

 

[Tom_Doak]

Short, downhill, par-4 10th to an island green?   Sounds to me like an ode to the original 10th at Baltusrol's Old Course (which Tilly plowed under to build the Upper/Lower).  That hole was pretty famous in its day (it was probably the first ever island green), and there are even extant photos.

Sure enough, when I look at Joe's pic of the 10th, it could even look a little like that hole.   I would not be surprised....

Greg,


That's an interesting observation.


The island hole concept seems to have been pretty popular in the first few decades of the 20th century but I struggle to think of any others built after WWII and before TPC Sawgrass, which may explain why so many thought the concept entirely novel.  This one of Geoff Cornish did precede Dye in modern times, though.

I doubt Mr. Cornish was thinking of Baltusrol or any other older course in particular.  His research into who did what (along with Ron Whitten) led him to be considered an historian on the subject of architecture, but most of the courses he built bore little resemblance to Golden Age designs.


Interestingly, though, his design of Sterling Farms in CT [where I learned to play] includes a par-4 14th hole where you drove between two ponds, much like your picture of the 9th at Mountain Laurel, Mike.  That was a right-to-left tee shot, but it does play from enough of an elevated tee that you can see the two ponds okay.

[MCirba]

Interestingly, though, his design of Sterling Farms in CT [where I learned to play] includes a par-4 14th hole where you drove between two ponds, much like your picture of the 9th at Mountain Laurel, Mike.  That was a right-to-left tee shot, but it does play from enough of an elevated tee that you can see the two ponds okay.

Tom,
Yes, same with the tees at Mountain Laurel.   You can clearly see the edges of both ponds, as well as the 50% odds of watching the splash. 

Interestingly, where I grew up playing public golf courses in northeastern PA, those Cornish designs were the cream of the crop.   I still remember the day my dad took us for a ride and we saw a sign for Wilkes Barre Municipal Golf Course.   Excitedly we got out of the car and walked around and OMG, this course had nice playing conditions and multiple cloverleaf bunkers on each hole.  Most of the courses we played had either no bunkers at all or a few ratty ones, but certainly nothing impressive.  In fact, there were (are?) 72 bunkers out there, and a number of ponds in play on a course cut through the woods.   

Not sure if my dad had this planned all along but then we drove further south and ended up at "Le Chateau Golf Resort", aka today's Mountain Laurel, and from our little walk around the clubhouse we could see the island 10th green and my brothers and I were almost pre-orgasmic.   We thought we'd found a slice of heaven, and within the next year or so we managed to play both courses.   They were as good as we thought they would be.

Cornish designed a number of other courses in our region (i.e. Mill Race, Sugarloaf) and you're correct, Tom...they certainly weren't throwback to Golden Age in any respect except perhaps the double greens.   

Nevertheless, much like a J.C. Penney's I think they served a certain market niche in their time and those courses still represent a certain point in our golf course architectural evolution that I remain fond of, for purely those sentimental reasons.

[Bill Crane]

Mike ~
Thanks, again for taking the time to post the photos and your comments about your 2019 golf course journey.  The only way you could improve upon this would be add more photos ! !
Had a nice golf jaunt to Ohio myself that included Moraine and NCR in Dayton.   Great golf town and area.
Also - looking forward to seeing the Flynn course at the Naval Academy get the loving care it needs and deserves, I will have to make a point to call on my friends in the Annapolis area next year.

[MCirba]

Mike ~
Thanks, again for taking the time to post the photos and your comments about your 2019 golf course journey.  The only way you could improve upon this would be add more photos ! !
Had a nice golf jaunt to Ohio myself that included Moraine and NCR in Dayton.   Great golf town and area.
Also - looking forward to seeing the Flynn course at the Naval Academy get the loving care it needs and deserves, I will have to make a point to call on my friends in the Annapolis area next year.

Bill,


Thanks for the nice segue.  Moraine is next.   

[MCirba]

Moraine Country Club - Dayton, OH

Alex "Nipper" Campbell 1930, Dick Wilson 1955, Keith Foster 2007-2016

Doak Scale Score - 8


The beautiful downhill tee shot on the 7th almost begs for an aggressive tee shot but after the golfer takes that bait is when the real "fun" usually begins.

Since Ran has previously provided his usually stellar review of Moraine here I'll just offer a few additional thoughts...

http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/moraine-country-club/

Moraine is an exquisite golf course on exceptional golf land. Named for the glacial features that shaped this property, the course heaves and rolls and twists along the terrain and Alex Campbell lovingly used the natural features brilliantly.

After a decade of restoration work by Keith Foster, accompanied by considerable removal of trees, the course once again shines by letting the land do it's thing.  My only knock on the Foster re-do is I feel he loses some of the micro-contours of the greens themselves, ending in longer broad slopes.  I have the same criticism of his work at Philly Cricket in my neighborhood.   I suspect this is a combination of an unintended, unavoidable consequence of moving from older, push-up greens to USGA spec greens, and some desire by the club to soften slopes to accommodate faster green speeds.   Either way, I find it regrettable.

The least interesting portion of the course is not surprisingly also the lowest elevation point of the property coming at holes 10-11-12, which all occupy flattish ground intersected by a creek, the only water hazard on the property.    Yet, viewed objectively, each is a very good and testing golf hole, even without the heaving and wild earth-forms that so many of the holes occupy that takes them from sound conceptual golf design to brilliant real world play-ability.   

[Peter Pallotta]

Hmmm.
An 8, you say.
Maybe the trees weren't so bad after all.

[MCirba]

Next up...


Scioto
Muirfield.Village
Double Eagle

[Chris_Blakely]

Community Golf Course (Hills Course) - Dayton, OH

Joe Nicoll 1914,1918,1922, Earl Shock/Donald Ross 1923, Alex Campbell 1927

Doak Scale Score - 4


The winding 3rd hole features a steeply uphill approach to a green that runs


In any case, once I learned that not only did Community Golf Course still exist, but that it was virtually unchanged from the course Coble played, I made it a personal mission to get there.   People at the clubhouse seemed surprised by my zeal when I arrived Coble-like at the crack of dawn but sometimes I think it's a case of not fully appreciating what you have.   For indeed, despite less than manicured conditioning, the golf course itself was quite good, and in places, thrilling.   

The course(s) were a gift to the city from John D. Patterson, who started the National Cash Register Company.   Set on a parkland property that climbs into some rather hilly terrain, two courses (the Hills and Dales) were fashioned here. (the full story can be found here https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,63914.msg1606286.html#msg1606286 )

The Hills course essentially plays around the perimeter of the property which is by far the most interesting and challenging terrain while the shorter Dales course sits mostly in the flattish plain in the middle.   There's a lot to like here, and I found myself very impressed by the ability of Coble and his opponent Henry Decker playing a 36 hole finale on foot, with the Coble winning 2&1.   These guys were made of sterner stuff.

So if you find yourself in Dayton with a few hours to spare, take a walk in their footsteps, or maybe even ride, and see if you don't find the same charm in the low-key setting surrounded by history and some rather good golf.

Finally a course I have played (well I’ve played Olde Stonewall, Indian Hills and Mountain Laurel) . . .


Did you play both the Hills and Dales?  I played them both several years ago nd my day started on the Hills and I played the first several holes with a light snow cover!  The Hills is the better of the two courses: it has the better terrain, better green sites and the history as well.


Chris

[MCirba]

Chris,


I only played the Hills course as I arrived when it was still dark trying to squeeze it in before Moraine, where I was supposed to play at 11am.


Thankfully, the local regulars let me out ahead of them as a single at around 7am so I was able to easily get it done but not in time for the Dales.


I'm a Muni rat at heart and I've played municipals in almost every city I've visited over the years and I thought Community in Dayton was exceptional in almost every respect. The regulars still couldn't understand why I would visit such a place but maybe they just don't know how good they have it.

[MCirba]

Scioto Country Club - Columbus, OH

Donald Ross 1916, Marion Packard 1955, Dick Wilson/Joe Lee 1963, Bob Cupp 1983, Michael Hurdzan/Jack Nicklaus 2007

Doak Scale Score - 7


The land on which Scioto sits is primo for golf, but the gussy presentation needs reconsideration to best showcase holes like the all-world long par four 2nd.

Scioto has a long and storied history yet some of the architectural changes made over the years have taken it a long way from the Donald Ross origins.    Dick Wilson made some modernistic changes in the 1960s but the most recent revisions made by Michael Hurdzan and Jack Nicklaus around 2007 are particularly egregious. The bunkers look to be the overly fussy stylistic ones Hurdzan did during his partnership with Dana Fry and on such a classic course are hurtful to the eye and don't lend themselves to much-needed recoverable playability due to their capricious nature. 

It's a muscular golf course and the smallish greens probably explain a lot how Jack Nicklaus developed his incredible long-iron game in his youth.   It is also a course with very little tolerance for poor execution and probably too much golf course for many of the members and their guests, what with elevated target greens very pinched in by bunkers.

The courses is masterfully draped over an appealing landscape with a beautiful routing and such obviously great holes as 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, and 16 deserve better than their current presentation. Thankfully, the club is presently considering a plan by architect Andrew Green to take them back to their Ross roots, with holes inspired by a 1926 drawing of the course Ross originally built.   Hopefully the club will execute successfully because the potential is significant.

[MCirba]

Muirfield Village Golf Club - Dublin, OH

Jack Nicklaus/Desmond Muirhead 1974, Jack Nicklaus 2000-2018 and beyond

Doak Scale Rating - 6.5


I can't imagine many people walking off the 18th green excited to run back out to the 1st tee for another go-round.

The first thing that comes to mind about Muirfield Village is that it's a course built to suit a purpose, and that is to play host to Jack's annual tournament featuring the best players in the world.  Nicklaus always revered Bobby Jones, and admired the legacy Jones originally built with Mackenzie at Augusta with holes that attempted to copy classic features Bobby loved at St. Andrews, and Jack was inspired to do similarly back in his hometown of Columbus.   

Jack also learned to love the links courses of the British Isles, and decided to name his club after the club where he won the 1966 British Open, as well as an earlier Walker Cup.   Muirfield Village opened in 1974 to considerable acclaim and has since hosted a slew of significant tournaments and I had to keep reminding myself of that fact as I progressed through the round.

In fact, it is nearly impossible to objectively divorce Muirfield Village from its tournament history and reputation as "Jack's Place", yet if one is to fairly rate its status simply as a golf course one must try.  From a tournament perspective for the very top echelon of the game, it seems to work and everyone seemingly agrees.   

As a course for the rest of us trying to navigate the golf holes, it requires/demands any number of golf shots well above the capabilities of most mortals.   For a high-handicapper, it's a train wreck waiting to happen. The vast majority of holes introduce water as a hazard, normally on the approach shot with some aqua right up against fully nine greens.   The greens themselves usually present as small, diagonal, shallow or narrow targets requiring utmost in precision.  The course slope rating from the white tees is a measly 147, for crying out loud!

Although the routing is solid, I also found it perplexing that the course Nicklaus chose for his memorial is essentially a real estate development.  Thankfully, the houses are well set back, often on hillsides above the holes, but one wonders what could have been if that element hadn't been a primary focus and limiting element of the routing.  What any of this has to do with an homage to anything in the Home of Golf is beyond me.   

Over the years, the course has been tinkered with by Nicklaus almost continually, which unfortunately has led to the creation of gawdawful penal holes like the 16th, which seems to be an attempt to emulate 16 at ANGC but gets none of the angles right.   

Muirfield Village is the poster child illustrating that the pursuit of trying to challenge top professionals a week each year eventually makes the course irrelevant for the rest of us.   The fact that the course is closing for yet another round of significant changes confirms my instincts.

[MCirba]

Double Eagle Golf Club - Galena, OH

Jay Morrish/Tom Weiskopf 1991, Tom Weiskopf 2018

Doak Scale Score - 6


Double Eagle features a number of holes the cross a steep ravine on the front nine, most narrowly on the 7th.

Double Eagle is quite the exclusive enclave with limited membership and apparently money to burn.    Conditioning is kept to an impossibly high standard and club management informs guests they'll pay $100 if they can find any poa annua on the greens.  Thankfully, I resisted the urge to respond that I kinda like poa.

Nevertheless, after a woodsy, somewhat constricted front-nine with several approaches requiring full carry gully crossings, things suddenly picked up considerably on the lovely split-fairway 9th with a blind approach followed by the more open back nine with a number of holes (particularly the par fives) of vivid strategic interest and playability.   The 15th was notable as a decent Cape Hole type teeshot, and the 17th was the prototypical Morrish/Weiskopf drivable par four with a green up against water.   

The 18th hole was a standout, and unlike anything I believe I've seen prior.   Driving over a pond to a fairway featuring two centerline bunkers (the second lurking blind behind the first) set in a ridge, a good drive leaves three options for the second shot; 1) make a long water carry to a very tilted green at a very shallow angle, 2) make almost as long a water carry to a stretch of fairway right (protected by a bunker) that provides an optimum angle for a short third shot approach to a very tilted green, or 3) lay up short of the water trying to accomplish option 1 only with a much shorter club.   Even with this kitchen sink approach, somehow it all works and it's an almost ideal match-play hole.

 One big letdown was the fact that with very few exceptions (the 9th, 15th & 18th being the most notable) the greens had very little internal contour or even much slope.  We were told to play about half of what we saw a putt breaking and that was sound advice if a bit tepid in terms of interest. All in all I felt the course suffered by trying too hard to be special, like the prom date who spends half the day in the bathroom getting ready.  It achieved a sort of antiseptic perfection but that ultimately seemed somewhat sterile.

[Joe Bausch]

You need to get out more!   


Keep up the wonderful reviews, Mike.

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike,
thanks, really enjoying this.
An aside:
it just goes to show how matters of taste get involved in rating a course.
Morraine and Scioto serve as a good example:
My earlier post reflects my belief/taste that 'one size does not fit all'.
The tree clearing at Moraine (that you like) is to me 'ill suited' to the site.
The 'de-forestation' at a course like Oakmont worked because it revealed the massive scale and broad sweeps of the original design; and if there was a Raynor course that had been marred over the decades by tree planting, I can imagine a similar culling would bring to the forefront that course's striking and dramatic original features.
But Morraine, from your photos and Ran's, seems originally to have had neither -- ie neither the inherent majesty of the former, nor the (imagined) bold geometric beauty of the latter. What did the tree clearing reveal there, save for maybe the 'tree clearing' itself?
Scioto, on the other hand, strikes me as being still pretty much what it always was, and what it was once meant to be. To me, it looks much more like 'itself' than Morraine now does.
I think, if I was in a rater's shoes, I would probably give bonus points to one and not to the other -- and might even take a few decimal points away from the other.
That neither is, say, Ballyneal I wouldn't hold against either of them; but I might be a little critical of a course that tried to capture a Ballyneal's 'expansive look' when it had no business doing so.
Anyway, just an aside: please carry on.
P       

[Sean_A]

Pietro

I think I know what you mean re Moraine. Although, despite what looks like very constrictive fairway lines, the course looks very good because the terrain seems stellar. That said, just from one photo only, the Scioto fairway line looks to negate the natural flow of the hill and not connect to the trees in any way. If trees are the texture then they must be used as such while leaving plenty of room to incorporate angles.

Happy Hockey

[MCirba]

*

[Adam Clayman]

Sean- I've never considered trees in the context of textures. I'll have to give it some additional thought, but, my initial reaction is that they block more textures than they create. In the context of Peter's comment from the one photo, the trees seem out of place on that section of the site, forced into being by someone wanting to break up the visual and/or scale. But again, that's my opinion from seeing one photo. Since they appear to be inconsequential to the task, I'd let it slide as a mistake, unless it was repeated, too often. There's no question that ground has quirk and character. The question is did the artist utilize it effectively, and/or optimally? And, is it being presented in accordance with it's design features.

[Sean_A]

Adam

Yes, on hilly sites trees can block the views of the terrain and thus texture.  I am not a fan of greenwall lined fairways, however, trees aren't inherently bad.  I object to seeing large swaths of rough between trees and fairways.  It seems like a scam to me... a way to negate the importance of the trees.  I would much rather see the trees thinned out...leaving the pretty specimens and have fairways flow into the trees...leaving a chance of recovery, but in the lap of the gods.  Its almost worse to leave treelined fairways intact and try to minimize their (hopeful) beauty and impact on play by the use of rough.

Happy Hockey

[MCirba]

Fellows,


In the case of Moraine, two things to note;


First, I looked at a 1950s aerial and there were very few trees on the site at the time and Ran's review discusses the removal of many non indigenous and other non-specimen trees.


There are still any number of lovely specimen trees out there.

[Bill Crane]

Moraine Country Club - Dayton, OH

Alex "Nipper" Campbell 1930, Dick Wilson 1955, Keith Foster 2007-2016

Doak Scale Score - 8

Moraine is an exquisite golf course on exceptional golf land. Named for the glacial features that shaped this property, the course heaves and rolls and twists along the terrain and Alex Campbell lovingly used the natural features brilliantly.

After a decade of restoration work by Keith Foster, accompanied by considerable removal of trees, the course once again shines by letting the land do it's thing.  My only knock on the Foster re-do is I feel he loses some of the micro-contours of the greens themselves, ending in longer broad slopes.  I have the same criticism of his work at Philly Cricket in my neighborhood.   I suspect this is a combination of an unintended, unavoidable consequence of moving from older, push-up greens to USGA spec greens, and some desire by the club to soften slopes to accommodate faster green speeds.   Either way, I find it regrettable.

The least interesting portion of the course is not surprisingly also the lowest elevation point of the property coming at holes 10-11-12, which all occupy flattish ground intersected by a creek, the only water hazard on the property.    Yet, viewed objectively, each is a very good and testing golf hole, even without the heaving and wild earth-forms that so many of the holes occupy that takes them from sound conceptual golf design to brilliant real world play-ability.

Mike; I, too, really liked Moraine, it had that full aura about it that just feels special.

Yes, the three flat holes 10 – 12 were a bit plain compared to all the rest, but even the greens on those holes were very interesting.   The crazy nob on the right side of the 10^th green was really a challenge.

For those who don’t know, this course is an out and back affair on both nines that climb a long slope with various nobs along the way.  The three holes just noted are the exception to the out and back.

Climbing the slope you could see that substantial trees would really have the effect of diminishing wind that can really wip on that long somewhat narrow property.   My host told me the club started a fund to plant trees in the past (60s and 70s??) and had surrounded the holes in corridors. You know how they grow over bunkers, cut doglegs and generally corrupt the architecture over time.  Most old golf courses were built on fields or meadows and had few if any trees when designed.

Your comment about micro-contours is spot on although maybe not as pronounced as some courses that had undergone extensive restorations.  I really like Micro undulations, those naturally occurring features on old course, mostly caused by drainage that add a ton of interest to the playing surface especially fairways.  We actually have quite of bit of this at Springdale especially on 10,12,14,15 etc.     I was fortunate to play a well known course this year that just finished a major restoration project - which was wonderful and the only criticism I could identify was that the fairways seemed to be sanitized due to the grading that removed micro undulations.
Someday I will actually start a thread on this topic.

[Kyle Harris]

Moraine has an appropriate amount of trees. The issue with photographing a site like Moraine is that the stark nature of the green sites draw the eye away from the sweeping vistas you get a better of sense of in situ. A photograph, for better AND worse, is designed to focus or draw your eye to one spot and as golfers we naturally will be pulled toward the flag.

If your heart isn't pumping by the time you get to the 4th at Moraine - quit the game.


Mike, please please please tell me you played Miami Valley. I don't remember if you did on this trip.