Would anyone build Wolf Run today?

[Tommy Williamsen]

On the Lost Rail discussion, someone asked if it were as difficult as Wolf Run. Not many courses are that hard. In fact, I can't think of many (any?) courses built in the last ten years that are that hard.
So, would anyone ask his architect to build a course as difficult as Wolf Run? Has the pendulum swung to the other end of the spectrum?

[Tom_Doak]

Not many courses are that hard and that may be one reason Wolf Run is NLE.  But lots of the rich guys who want to build a course are very good players and want something hard, or else architects like Steve Smywrs and Rob Collins wouldn’t have much work.


It’s just that the developers who build multiple courses and get the most attention aren’t that way, and couldn’t be . . . Pine Valley is a one-off but you couldn’t build a bunch of courses like that at a resort.

[Jason Thurman]

If you can't challenge strong players with angles anymore, and ever-increasing length carries ever-increasing costs to build and maintain, then surely someone someday will again decide to build a difficult course that gets its teeth from its small targets.

[Edward Glidewell]

People have been asking for architects to build hard courses for a long time; I don't see that changing even with the pendulum shifting in the other direction.


They may be fewer than in the past, but I'm sure there are still people out there with the desire to build a course and then point at the difficulty as a selling point.

[Tom_Doak]

People have been asking for architects to build hard courses for a long time; I don't see that changing even with the pendulum shifting in the other direction.

They may be fewer than in the past, but I'm sure there are still people out there with the desire to build a course and then point at the difficulty as a selling point.

We don’t talk here about courses like Maridoe.

[Edward Glidewell]

People have been asking for architects to build hard courses for a long time; I don't see that changing even with the pendulum shifting in the other direction.

They may be fewer than in the past, but I'm sure there are still people out there with the desire to build a course and then point at the difficulty as a selling point.

We don’t talk here about courses like Maridoe.

I'd never even heard of it!

[Joe Zucker]

People have been asking for architects to build hard courses for a long time; I don't see that changing even with the pendulum shifting in the other direction.

They may be fewer than in the past, but I'm sure there are still people out there with the desire to build a course and then point at the difficulty as a selling point.

We don’t talk here about courses like Maridoe.

That's a good comparison.  I've played both and found Wolf Run to be a better course (probably 1 point higher on the Doak scale).  Part of that is probably the aesthetics and feel of the course. I like Midwest forests more than the north Texas landscape.  I also felt that Maridoe was even harder than Wolf Run.  Maridoe has big water hazards come into play a bit more and I felt like it played longer, but that could have just been tee selection. 


Maridoe is decent course for it's stated goal of being a challenging players course.  But it's not that fun and isn't charming. It just beats you up.  Wolf Run had a bit more character and subtlety in my view.