Opening October - Juliette Falls Golf Community

Okay, so it's for the privileged few but the combination of nice website flybys and the equally splendid site of architects Sanford Golf Design, means I'm giving Juliette Falls Golf Community, Ocala Florida a mention anyway.

Besides, you never know which part of Florida your Aunt Maud may retire to, right?

Observations:

• 4th, par 3: first bunker on right. I know perspective can get a little squashed in graphical representations of holes but when you've hit your tee shot that wide, aren't you punished enough without finding a bunker there too?
• 7th, par 3: sole bunker. Not sure who this is meant to catch out. Why not put it by the green?
• 11th, par 5. I'm guessing a little because the flyby moves so fast but there seem to be some good options available as to how much sand you want to carry with your first two shots.
• 15th, par 5. Tough start to a tough finish. Tee shot over water and then your second or third shot to an elevated green, with its attendant problems in judging distance. I hate elevated greens but I understand why they're there.
• 16th, par 3. Lovely little 'tongue' of green jutting out into the pond suggests that you can alter the whole character of this hole, length-wise and defence-wise, depending on whether the flag is at the back of the green or the front. Stick the flag on that peninsula and brief those frogmen...
• 18th, par 5?. More of the same here, on what is either the easiest 5 in America or else there's a typo on the website. The green juts out into the water at the rear this time. Even if you're just hitting a pitching wedge, a flag back there gives you something to think about.

Overall verdict? Damn, I wish I was wealthy and 60...

Do have a look and let me know what you think of the course. We may never get the chance to play it but we can still chew the fat over how it shapes up. And don't miss the architect's site. Golf Digest's Ron Whitten has written an appraisal of Sanford's work here.

We interrupt this fine sport to bring you another one

Even if you've never held a fly rod in your life, I trust you'll forgive this golfing angler brief pause to acknowledge one of the highlights of the sporting year.

Yup, the Women in Waders 2008 Calendar is out. Insert your own 'contouring' joke here...

God comes cheaper than Nicklaus

Excuse me while I wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes.

"10 Jack Nicklaus designed golf courses open for public golf" - read the headline on my newsreader. Clicking on it brought me to a Golf.com listing of courses where Joe Public can metaphorically touch the great man's hem.

Look down the green fees involved, however, and you realise that these courses are open to the public like the Hamptons are open to housebuyers. Three hundred bucks for a round of golf? They should call it 'Everyman Country Club' and complete the irony.

Hats off to Old Works GC ($29-$59) and Grand Bear ($65) then, for keepin' it real. I've mentioned Old Works before, thanks to its black bunkers, so today it's the turn of Grand Bear. You'll find Jack's view here and two golfer reviews here. Regarding the green fee beef in the latter, I believe the course lowered its green fees after this review because people were staying away post-Hurricane Katrina, under the impression that the area had been blown off the map.

Scroll down here and see here for more detailed reviews.

Now consider this, a Golf.com listing of courses likely to show off North America's autumnal splendour averages out at $117 a round. Nicklaus' "public" top 10 at $224.

It's official: God's Creation comes cheaper than Jack's...

Seve's first UK golf course: brown trousers preferred

Friday saw my publishing company's awards night at London's Grosvenor House Hotel. The hour was late, the music loud and the booze flowed fast and free.

So when I caught up with a colleague who writes for one of the company's golf titles and she told me how her team had made a day of it by first playing golf at Severiano Ballesteros' debut design project on British soil, I made a mental note to double-check what I was hearing.

Twenty-four hours later and I discovered that my ears had not, in fact, deceived me. Not only has Seve decided to start The Shire's 18-hole Masters course with a par three, he has made it a par three that culminates - as near as damn it - in an island green. That's 'island' as in 'surrounded by water'. A brown-trouser moment par excellence and you've barely warmed up.

And how does it sit with one of the earliest lessons I ever absorbed in golf course design; that a key function of the first hole is to prevent, or at least ease, logjams on the tee?

"The paramount requirement for an opening hole is that it should enable play to flow from the outset - that golfers should not be delayed waiting for a green to clear..." - from The World Atlas of Golf

The book 1001 Golf Holes You Must Play Before You Die adds another facet to this first-hole philosophy:

"[It] sets the tone early for exactly what kind of day lies ahead...architects understand this and many make the first a trifle more forgiving than the following 17."

But then this is Seve. His playing legend began with a shot from a car park, so maybe we shouldn't be too surprised if his design philosophy starts from somewhere outside the text books.

The Shire's management company tell me that Seve's thinking was for the course to challenge players from the outset and that tee bookings are made at nine-minute intervals, which should at least allow you to tackle the first without an unwelcome audience crowded round the tee. They also argue that the lay-out allows golfers to put one clear hole between themselves and following groups.

Even so, on a bad day the nine hole Challenge course Ballesteros has designed for The Shire could turn out to be a masterstroke. At least golfers will have somewhere to play while they're waiting to tee off at its 18-hole neighbour...

Oh yes, and my colleague was also spot-on with her comment that the final green on the Masters course nestles in one loop of an S-shaped lake. 'S' for 'Seve', get it?

They used to say the word 'fear' didn't exist in the Spaniard's vocabulary. It appears the word 'taste' may have suffered a similar fate.

Golf's web of deceit narrower than I thought

I did hope there might be a wider response to my forum request for examples of golf courses that bear little relation to the splendour of their websites. Maybe the hyperbole commonly found in the real estate business doesn't run as deep as I thought.

I'm grateful to Matt Cohn for sparing my blushes with his nomination of The Ranch in San Jose ("An Experience second to none", in the words of the club's homepage) and also for producing the quote that will occupy the 'What I Read' section of this blog (see left hand column) for the next few days:

"Matt's rule of golf course selection: If every advertisement for a golf course shows the same single hole, don't go play that golf course!"

If you have an 'acid test' as good as this one, please click the 'comments' link below this post and let me know. Maybe I can build a collection of those instead...

Augusta's 14th - you are the weakest link...?

A recent typically-restrained debate on the Golf Club Atlas forum ('If you were going to TNT one hole into oblivion...') saw me proffer the 14th at Augusta National:

"I just find it the most 'nothing' hole on the back nine - no trademark like the pond at 16, the mid-fairway bunker at 10 or Ike's tree on 17.

"If we get a say as to where the dynamite actually goes, I'd blast the approach to the green and make a Pine Valley wasteland that's nearly all carry."

Since then, partly down to a blasphemer's penitence and a journo's desire to record both sides of the story, I have tracked down the views of those who would beg to differ.

The Augusta Chronicle maintains that the hole's challenge starts when you reach the dance floor, a view endorsed by the delightfully-named 'Pope of Slope':

"Some holes don't have the glitz of others. The 14th, for example, is to most people a nondescript par 4 that only serves to get the contenders from the crisis at 13 to the crisis at 15. It doesn't even have any bunkers; as Gary McCord once said, "It is a green surrounded by grass." What it does have is a diabolical putting surface that includes the finest Valley of Sin this side of St. Andrews. For that reason the green is considered the toughest on the course, a green from which golfers pray they'll escape with nothing worse than two putts. The most tragic--and embarrassing--failure there came when Tom Watson, then in his championship prime, had a makeable birdie putt and wound up four-putting. Another was Mike Reid's missed three-footer in 1989 when it looked as if he might be a winner."

And apparently, there's gold by them there slopes (see question 13) so it can't be all bad...

Par 3 ending can be a bang as much as a whimper

Oh good: just when I thought a major rant was required in response to 'concerns' that this weekend's PGA Tour Championship ends with - gasp - a par 3 18th, I find that Geoff Shackelford has done much of my talking for me (see the second page of the CBS Sports article linked to above):

"It's just one of those odd phenomena deals where golfers expect a long par 4 or par 5 to finish, and somehow a one-shotter is not a complete 'test' as a finishing hole. Just like when people mysteriously think you need a par-72 course over 7000 yards to be great. But as we know, the great courses usually don't conform to what most golfers expect.

"What's peculiar is that you have to play par 3s somewhere along the way, so why does it matter when you play them? Then again, there is something to be said about the ebb and flow of holes and a dramatic, heroic par 3 does seem better suited in other places in the round.

"East Lake's finisher isn't particularly dramatic or heroic like say, a 17 at Sawgrass or 12 at Augusta, but it is a nice solid hole and frankly is one of the more refreshing elements of originality on an otherwise monotonous back nine."

Sometimes, it's nice to have your thunder stolen, especially when bedtime is approaching and you still have flies to prepare for tomorrow's fishing.

Just to earn my corn, a few extra points to add to Geoff's defence.

Firstly, I covered the annual European Tour event at Warwickshire's Forest of Arden course for several years. It closes with a dramatic par 3 over a sunken lake (see photo accompanying the course link above) and I don't recall anyone there feeling unduly short-changed.

Secondly, when I used to cover the British Basketball League, one of the more naive questions I put to coaches was to ask whether they minded having such a tough opponent on opening day, or in the last game before the Christmas break, or whatever.

The logic of the response I usually received means it's not a question I'm likely to ask again.

"We have to play them all sometime," the older, wiser coaches would shrug. "Why not now?"

Exactly. And by the same token, you know before you tee it up on a golf course that there are so many par 3s ahead of you to be faced, so many 4s and so many 5s. So just shut up and play.

Then there's this gem of logic from Tiger Woods:

"I've never been a big fan of the last hole being a par 3. I think you should have to hit more shots to determine a champion than just one shot."

Er, you do, Tiger: you have to hit something between 259 and 279 more shots in a typical week, to be precise. If you'd like to hit even more shots, maybe you'd like to play more tournaments?

Is Tiger's watertight interview technique starting to crack, I wonder? This non sequitur, after all, follows fairly soon after he put his head on the block so unnecessarily when saying of his first American course design project, "Even an idiot can’t mess this up."

I'll be honest with you, I winced slightly less at his penis gags for GQ...

Who needs sand on a par 3 when you've got this...?

I am delighted to say that my query on naked par 3s produced the perfect response at Golf Club Atlas - plenty of delightful par threes that spurn both sand and water in their defence, yet none so obvious that I felt obliged to kick myself for overlooking it.

My thanks to everyone who contributed.

Gleneagles' Ryder Cup - spoilt for choice?

The good thing about this week's spat-ette over the choice of Gleneagles course that will host the 2014 Ryder Cup? It elicited this excellent post from Ian Andrew, who gives us a welcome respite from the politics of the situation by focusing on the architectural aspect.

I couldn't agree more with his point about great courses bolstering the reputation of great events. While the debate may rumble on about The Players' Major aspirations, you'll notice that it centres far more these days on whether it should be the fifth Major, rather than simply replacing the USPGA Championship as the fourth.

I believe this has more than a little to do with the latter now being played on top-tier courses, rather than on experimental tracks considered ripe for promotion.

As for his assertion that the King's Course's comparative shortness is a plus, not a minus, I have found it very depressing to follow a similar debate via Robert Thompson's blog this week, regarding the selection of Glen Abbey as host course for the Canadian Open in 2008 and '09.

"Too short", "too short", "too short"...tracking discussion of golf courses' tournament potential these days is like sitting in on a police force selection committee. My own comment in response to Robert's column sums up my mood:

"While I’m geographically an ocean away from this issue, it breaks my heart that the country that’s given the world Banff, Capilano and Kananaskis should be scratching around for Open venues.
"I suppose you’re going to tell me that Banff is too isolated. As for Capilano’s shortness, I offer in partial rebuttal this quote from Lee Janzen after he played it: 'I used every club in my bag'.
"Have we really reached the stage where length is the only way we test these guys?"

And the bad thing about the Gleneagles furore? This quote from Gleneagles Hotel managing director Peter Lederer, as he warns local businesses not to profiteer from the Ryder Cup's visit (the words 'peeing' and 'wind' spring to mind):

"I don't know anything that will kill Scotland as a brand faster than the consumer thinking they've [sic] been ripped off."

Scotland? A 'brand'?

Budweiser is a brand, Mr Lederer. Four Seasons is a brand. Scotland is a proud nation of poets, brilliant engineers and scientists, soaring mountains and breath-taking glens.

No wonder it's almost an annual event these days for someone from the Confederation of British Industry to publicly lament the fact that captains of industry never attract the same adulation afforded to stars of soccer and rock music. Peter Lederer's quote should be pinned to every wall at CBI headquarters, in the hope that the penny might finally drop.

Sportsmen and musicians are loved because they momentarily take us away from our world. Businessmen who reduce everything to a brand and a profit motive, on the other hand, merely remind us why we sought such escape in the first place.

It really does take a piece of monumental crassness to get an Englishman seething with indignation in a Scottish cause. Take a bow, Peter Lederer.

Par 3s: the case for the defence

Following on from yesterday's post about the bunkerless, waterless par 3 8th at Rocky Mount Golf Club, the architect David Johnson has kindly replied to my e-mail asking for his thoughts on how to defend the hole in the absence of sand or water:

"...the length (236 yards from the back tee) is the primary defense. Although the green is large (nearly 9,000 square feet) there are some deep spill off areas (closely mown - like Pinehurst)to the right and left. The chips from these areas will provide many options of play; from putter to sand wedge to 5-iron. The hole is quite exposed to the wind for the first 150 yards, but the green is tucked into the trees.
Although #8 at Ford's Colony at Rocky Mount is not on the ocean (and exposed to constant wind) I think the hole is similar to Hole #14 on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, which is also bunkerless and features chipping areas. #8 will provide an excellent contrast to the other par threes - Hole #3 (145 yards) has water and two bunkers, #14 (190 yards) has three bunkers and #16 (205 yards) has water and three bunkers."

I'm grateful to him for mentioning a comparable par 3. If anyone knows of any others, I'm all ears.

Can a man love golf AND this movie clip equally...?

...or is it just me?

Cruelty to par 3s - when does it start?

Normally, skimming through a hole-by-hole guide on a golf course website is something of an exercise in eye-candy but in the case of the new Rocky Mount course in North Carolina, I was struck by the bare essentials of its 8th hole.

No bunkers, no water: just 228 yards of real estate between tee and green.

"...a long, bunker-free hole...with a large green that encourages a run-up shot", is how architect David Johnson describes it.

Now, I'm probably about to display my ignorance here but I'm struggling to think of any of the classic par 3s that go down such a minimalist route when it comes to defending the pin.

So go ahead y'all: comment away and show me up for the fool I am...