I played a lot of new courses this year - not going to count, but probably 80 or so. This is largely due to moving to a new city and thinking that there had to be a public course I'd want to go back to. As noted elsewhere, Charlotte is not that sort of town (although Mooresville is about the best I found). Anyways, I'll keep it to some of the more interesting ones, and round to sate the Doak score purists.
Harvester - 8 - Somebody, please, talk me off the ledge on Harvester. Tell me a single hole between two and seventeen is not at least very good, and that any less than nine of the holes aren't great (2,3,4,6,7,9,11,14,15,17. There's ten.). I want to round up to 9, but that feels impossible. It could host a major tomorrow if anyone cared to go to Des Moines.
Ozarks National & Payne's Valley - 8 & 8 - For a resort entirely dedicated to fake nature, Big Cedar refreshingly let Bill and Ben do their thing on a ridge that's basically the perfect width to string golf holes along. Excellent views everywhere, and several top class holes. Depressing how poor the pace of play was. Payne's Valley was enormous and Augusta-like. Cart-balling Mr. Marvin enjoyed it very much, but I walked it just fine. The eighteenth is a remarkable hole - something unique in golf by my reckoning. Turn your brain off after the eighteenth green as Johnny Morris' nineteenth hole experience (yes, it's an actual par three) is... garish.
Davenport - 7 - My first Alison experience, and a great one, although I somehow expected more. The par threes are simple but knock it out of the park. Overall, a few too many pedestrian holes for a course that's been making noise in some rankings, but a few excellent ones as well.
Cedar Rapids - 8 - When my uncle went bald, not by choice, I told him it worked for him. When Cedar Rapids went bald, not by choice, it may have become its best iteration yet. I never saw Cedar Rapids with any trees (see Vaughn's posts on last year's derecho), but I wouldn't be surprised if the storm has ultimately done the architecture a favor. It's rare to see so much of an inland course from any point on the property. Don't try to putt on eighteen in the dark.
Vestavia - 7 - Look, CC of B'ham is a fine golf course, but let's talk about what Lester George did on top of the nearest hill. What was a decent but tired Cobb course only needed a couple routing changes, a chainsaw, and some Golden-age style to become a compelling play. The back nine is Birmingham's answer to Lookout Mountain. The green slopes are broad but need to be - the "putting clock" found at Lookout would assist here. Could well be top five in Alabama.
Biltmore Forest - 7 - Donald Ross could build a great course of nothing but par fours. He really tried to here.
High Hampton - 6 - And close to a 7. Tom Fazio on a mild dose of sedatives.
Brights Creek - 6 - Tom Fazio in a Discovery Land Company sort of mood. No sedatives.
Balsam Mountain - 6 - It's either a 0 or a 6. Absolutely spectacular scenery and several holes where all you can do is step up to the tee and chuckle to yourself. Arnold Palmer's design consultant looks at a topographic map and laughs and suddenly, years later, you're standing on the eighth tee, about to hit a ball very, very far.
If anyone wants a thorough rundown of the fifty forgettable Doak 2s I played in Charlotte, I'm more than happy to oblige. It'll be a fun game of "90s housing development or Pretending-to-be-a-Ross."