Someday we’ll be able to talk about Ballyneal in the northeastern corner of Colorado without referencing Sand Hills, as I’ve already just done. It’s kind of like how it took about 15 years for every new violent, ironic crime movie not to be viewed through the lens of Pulp Fiction. Such is the advantage of being first—you get to…
Critics are typically charged with making judgments based on first or preliminary impressions. Movie critics don’t typically have the luxury of watching films over and over to absorb their intricacies. Wine critics can render reviews after rifling through dozens of glasses in one sitting. Book reviewers have to process enormous amounts of material on deadline.…
[Note: This course is permanently closed. The review was originally written in 2011] Sugarloaf Mountain should be the model for future golf course designs in Central Florida, particularly those built in the scrub, orchard and sand hills regions west and north of Orlando. That is if there are any future golf courses. Unfortunately the course and development…
LPGA International provides a good lesson why resorts and clubs should hire different architects when building more than one course. First, why not offer variety? Second, it’s insurance against the one of the courses falling out of style, or out of favor, as it did here. It isn’t often in a golf lineup that an Arthur…
The Champions Course at LPGA International is Rees Jones in all his stereotypical glory with repeated perimeter bubble humps and cartoonish bunkers. The uniformly round and oval greens look like they were designed by computers programmed to calculate perfectly spaced 1 through 5 pin positions separated by linear shelves and tiers. The entire site is flat and rotten with…
Walking Stick features one of the most distinctive natural features in Colorado golf, a gaping, rocky arroyo, yawning wide in anticipation of errant shots. Too bad it’s an almost irrelevant golf feature. Maybe architect Arthur Hills was shy about having public players hit over the chasm, or there was no affordable way to get golfers…
Julington Creek Golf Club is the kind of course that’s hard to say much of anything about, good, bad or indifferent. Well, maybe indifferent. It’s basic, competent Jacksonville golf, which is to say it’s flat, roams enormously through a development, features a good bit of water and a few wetland crossings, and has little unique character.…
Harbour Town (part of the Sea Pines Resort) is one of the few good golf courses I know where you can find your drive in the fairway and still not have a clear shot to the green. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun but it’s definitely integral to the challenge and originality of this course because…
It doesn’t surprise me when I hear people say their favorite course at Pinehurst is No. 8. The brilliance of No. 2 — its subtlety and contour — is a hard sell for resort golfers and can seem dramatically over-hyped next to the outrageous green fee. And as good as the other six courses are, none match…
Many people, and many rankings, consider the Lake Course at Grand National the best stop on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Trail. I’m not sure I agree (Ross Bridge) but I wouldn’t waste time arguing with them. Other locations have their strong points, but if you want to know what the Trail is all about visit here…