Now back in Dublin, I will give some quick first impressions which I will flesh out more later:
- To Donal's point, there are other undulating greens in GB&I but the difference here is the space. None of these greens (or very few anyway) are constrained by tight pockets of dunes. They all have large surrounds around them, in keeping with the landscape. There are some quite severe slopes but they all work beautifully, whether with a slope that allows balls to be fed to hard pin positions (5 & 17) or levels that demand to be approached from a preferred side of the fairway. The overarching feeling is of variety. No two greens are the same and they don't repeat patterns (something that I felt was done a little on the front nine of the OTM). I guess there were different lead shapers on the greens and this helped variety but really, they are just a great set that fit the landscape perfectly. Enormous fun.
- To Donal's other point, the waste, natural bunkers here make a mockery of the overused term for many other courses, where cookie-cutter bunkers that are placed in to built up mounds have to have their edges maintained to keep the "look". They are chalk and cheese to the sand scrapes here, so well done that it is often not clear whether they were natural blow-outs, created by livestock or built by man. The really brave decision was to leave or accentuate some of the land that had been torn up by Nicklaus and left to the wind 15 years ago. These man-made areas now fit beautifully. Links land moves with the elements. It is supposed to change. Why do people insist on taming it and trying to keep it formalised?
To Tom's point on the fairway undulations, that was what immediately stood out to me. I don't think there is a course with a better mix through the 18 anywhere. Great macro-movement as some fairways move across mini dune-ridges (the 9th does this excellently at an oblique angle), rollicking mounds right through plenty of fairways, right down to micro-mounds on some and then completely natural fescue fields surrounded by blow-outs such as the 2nd and 7th. Again, why do some architects feel the need to soften fairway undulations beyond the point of being able to get a mower on them? Or even worse, just flatten the lot and then "re-shape" in new undulations that follow an obvious formula. Fairway movement is what we all love. Why do too much to get rid of them?
So to the holes and the routing: It starts with a bang, a magnificent 1st hole (the bones of which were there previously but have now been vastly improved) to the most secluded valley green site on the property. The 2nd also follows an old corridor and makes the most of a chain of blow-outs and the first amazing view of many as you crest the ridge to the tee.
I love the way the first few holes gradually reveal and I love the way Tom takes this loop of six back to connect with the 7th which also followed an old hole routing. When I saw he had routed it this way, I was worried the walk from six green to seven tee was going to be strenuous but having used a few tricks (and because of my faulty memory), this is no problem whatsoever and flows very naturally.
8 was an obvious hole to build it sets up so well but cleverly, the green has been built in such a fashion that allows the ninth tee to be positioned adjacent and up high, in turn setting up for me one of my favourite holes (maybe just because of that oblique angle it plays over a couple of ridges)
The routing very cleverly works round the back of the imposing central hill that may stand proud on the site but doesn't provide the best golfing land or routing options. This allows another huge reveal on the 14th (in some ways a more spectacular version of the 17th at BallyB), a quite quirky short par-3 following (think 14 at BallyB) and some more great views (framed by the huge off-site blow-out) on 16 tee.
17 is one of my favourite holes, a long par-3 to a wide-open green site. Subtle until you reach the heavily sloped green. 18 is a beautifully scaled short par-4 to finish.
Right now, I don't have time to say more and the above was just a stream of consciousness. I'll try and write a longer essay which puts more detail in to my first impressions. Suffice to say, the course exceeded my already very high expectations. Where will it land? Who know? Right now, it doesn't have the weight of history behind it that some of the others do. But it has to challenge the "Big 5" and once it's in that mix, it really just comes down to people's preferences because all of those 5 are world class. As is St. Patrick's