golfcourseasart

Thank goodness for a kindred spirit at long last. Fazio gets so much flak from the architecture 'purists' that I was beginning to wonder if I was his only fan. I think the knock on him is that he's okay at making land look good but not so good with strategy. Have never played his courses, so I can't give a definitive answer to that but I've read his book Golf Course Designs and saw very little that I didn't like. You played Pelican Hill yet?

If you can get hold of issue three of Golf Illustrated , there's a good article on the origins of Askernish with some nice pics.

That's what I was thinking but it still sounds a pretty good vantage point, nonetheless. I'm rather taken with the layout of the course as a whole. Is it very much the poor relation of the course they're using for the Open or would that be too harsh an assessment?

Just been looking at the Ocean Course at eflyover.com. Is the view from the 5th tee as good as Google Earth suggests?

I think the first sentence of that post is key. I don't mind a bunker in a green, provided it's sparingly done but I think the onus is on the architect who opts for it to then give someone stymied by the bunker a route for putting around it. That way, you're still punished by having a difficult shot ahead of you but instead of stressing over the thought of chunking the green with your lob wedge, you get a stab at what is one of the most thrilling shots in the game when it comes off - the put that starts out going 45 degrees away from the hole before slowly curling round into gimmie range.

This pretty much represents my opinion. I'd have said Picasso rather than Dali but we're both on the same page. He's certainly a mould-breaker and that means that not all of his ideas are going to work out, I suppose. I do wonder, though, why he seems to get a free pass not afforded to other designers when it comes to the old theory that the best courses look like a natural extension of the surrounding terrain. Dye's courses often look like they've dropped in from outer space. I'm disappointed no-one took up the earlier invitation from someone in this thread to compare Dye with Mike Strantz . I don't know enough about Strantz' courses generally but from what I've seen of Tobacco Road and Tot Hill Farm, I think Strantz was funky within reasonable parameters, whereas Dye doesn't have any parameters...

Ah, how good it is to hear that place mentioned. I just never hear it get a squeak whenever people talk about Irish golf. I played it about ten years ago; the only Irish course I've played so this isn't meant to be a comparative comment in any way, but I loved it. No airs or graces, just tee it up and off you go. I can't remember the number but there's one hole that I always think of as the poor man's 8th at Pebble Beach. The guy I played with actually insisted on playing off the sand when he landed his drive on the beach, just so he could say he had... One of my happiest golfing memories, kmarkham. Thanks for giving the place a plug.

Wow. As someone who loves the brief empowerment you feel - no matter how unwarranted - when you face a downhill tee shot, that picture you added is borderline pornography. Bet you felt your ball would never land. As it happens, I've read an article this morning by someone suggesting that elevation in golf course design is a penal feature. The accompanying picture was of a tee location similar to the one you posted. Personally, I can handle that kind of 'penal' all day long...

Referring to my previous post, the 'highway lathe' story is even crazier than I thought.

I'm going to opt for Ky Laffoon, featured in George Plimpton's book, 'The Bogey Man': 1. After a bad shot, used to whack whichever limb he blamed against a tree 2. If he felt his irons needed a tweak between tournaments, he'd get his wife to drive, while he opened the passenger door and used the road as a lathe to shave down his blades I suspect you don't see much of either eccentricity on the Tour these days...

It's about 20 miles SW of Arlington and you may wonder what the hell an Englishman knows about it but I write about good holes on the world's more affordable courses and I was very struck by Laurel Hill Golf Club when I came across its website recently. It seems in very good condition for a muni and you're talking $64 ($54 twilight) during the week ($79/$69 weekends). Obviously, though, if someone more local tries to talk you out of it, I'd take his word over mine...

Fly fishing writer. Truly blessed, even if they have just closed down our staff canteen.

Personally, I'm quite happy to fret over her course management another day. For now, a pleasant young woman who has been threatened for too long with being undermined by those around her, is showing signs of delivering on her talent and I rejoice at that.

Pleased to see some fishermen on here. We have this strange situation in England where fly fishermen love looking down on golfers; they really go out of their way to sneer at the game wherever possible. This may be a class thing: maybe the fly guys would love to have that 'middle class sportsman' niche all to themselves and they hate the fact there are golfers in the way. Odd thing is, I've never heard golfers mocking fly fishermen. I've got a foot in both camps and I find the whole thing quite bizarre. Is it like this anywhere else?

Seeing your eight-year-old's head disappear from view in his seat on a fairground ride THEN having him admit he'd almost slipped out altogether. This, after you'd let him go on by himself because you were too scared. Possibly my all-time low as a father...