I thought fans of the course might enjoy this quick flyover. When I was there in July, the place was very firm and fast and just about the most fun you could have on a golf course this side of Scotland.

Tom Lehman at the Prairie Club: This video was shot in the Spring of 2008 on the day before construction began. I look forward to getting back to Valentine, NE to see how the course has grown in and see if the course plays as well as I thought it would.

Ballyneal: This is the first of three videos that feature Tom Doak’s prairie masterpiece (Front Nine, Back Nine) that I ran on the site. I had the pleasure to be part of this project and it was one of the more enjoyable of my career.

Cypress Point- Back Nine: One of the more magical places on earth is only enhanced by Mackenzie’s amazing course (Front Nine, here).

Common Ground: From the rarefied private playground of the masters of the universe, to the a public course on mundane land. Common Ground is an affordable course that is filled with strategy and architectural subtleties. (For a discussion of holes three and four, see here).

The Old Course: While I did not have the best weather on my trip around the Old Course, I tried to capture the communal nature of the course and what fun it to simply be out on the links.

THE FOURTEENTH AT BALLYNEAL

The back nine at Ballyneal is every bit as good as the front, if not better. While it may not have any holes as good as the seventh, I believe that top to bottom it is one of the best nines in golf. To me the tenth is a great par four that rewards the bold drive over the bunker on the right. A safer drive to the left will most likely leave a blind approach. This is a feature often seen at Ballyneal, where the fairways are extremely wide. This strategy puts a higher premium on driving than first appears. (Video after the jump)

Ballyneal is a course that reveals itself over multiple plays. One can not help be blown away by the scale and beauty of the place on the first time around, but playing it in a variety of wind conditions and pin positions shows off the subtlety and detail of the design. The closer is a clever dog leg left that unlike many holes on the course only has a dune on one side of the hole rather than both. The safe play is out to the right which is the correct play if the pin is on the right. If the pin is left the player is faced with an approach over a pair of cavernous bunkers. He can try to fly them and hold the green or he can use the contour to swing a running approach around them. Some of have criticized the hole as being a let down as a closer. To me this criticism falls flat. The people who say this have not been playing close enough attention to the course itself, but instead have been paying too much to the surroundings.

What’s your favorite hole on the back?

THE SUBLIME SECOND AT BALLYNEAL

Kye Goalby and I snuck out to Ballyneal for two rounds of golf recently. It was the first time out there in over a year and we were anxious to see the how things were evolving out in the Colorado Sand Hills.

Every time I visit Ballyneal,  I am reminded about what a great place it was to work and now to visit. Rupert O’Neal has shown a deft touch when it comes to adding buildings, creating a very cozy and intimate feel with the lodges. The new bar with its panoramic view of the chop hills and the golf course is awesome. And all of that is just a lead in to the Tom Doak designed golf course. (Video of the front nine after the jump)

This video focuses on the front nine. You know you are in for a different experience when you open the scorecard and see that there are not individual tee yardages, but rather a range of yardage. This seemingly small difference really sets the tone. It signifies that you are not going out on the course with the idea of posting a score for your handicap, but rather you are heading out to have FUN and hit creative golf shots. And that’s exactly what the course was designed for.

The second is a great example. After climbing up to one of the highest points on the course, the player is invited to let rip with a driver. Downwind a well struck drive can be propelled way down the hill. Into the wind, one would be lucky if they were hitting less than a long iron into this green. Either way, the green is open on the right so that players can run the ball in. The green itself is one of the tamer on the course, which means that it is still rather wild. There are a ton of cool shots around the green- most but not all ask the player to play along the ground and use the contours to get the ball close to the hole.

The seventh is another great example. This short, drivable par-four plays around the corner of a chop hill to a green that is nestled between two large slopes. What makes this hole so distinctive and fun is that the area to the left of the green is all mowed tightly. This leads to a myriad of options on both the approach and on putts. The massive contour allows players to swing the ball into pin positions that are tucked between the bunkers that eat into the right side of the  green. The seventh is just a fabulous hole.

These are two of my favorites, but the rest of the nine is equally enjoyable. For those who have been there, what’s your favorite hole on the front?

A BUNKER AT THE PRAIRIE CLUB

I have worked with Kyle Franz on a number of projects, most recently at the Prairie Club for Tom Lehman and Chris Brands. Kyle is an immensely talented person, who is almost singularly obsessed with golf course architecture. He has worked on some of the best courses built in the past ten years including Pacific Dunes, Stone Eagle, and Barnbougle Dunes, as well as Kyle Phillips’s renovation of the Cal Club in San Francisco.

Out in Valentine, one of his greatest contributions was introducing the idea of using fence posts to shore up parts of both the natural, blow out bunkers and bunkers that we created. In the video, he refers to them as Snowdonian bunkers after the region in Wales that is home to Porthmadog Golf Club. While traveling in the UK, Kyle visited this obscure course and saw a bunker where a few pieces of wood had been used to prevent a bunker from eroding, triggering the idea of using them here in the U.S. (HD video after jump).

When Kyle expressed this idea to Tom and Chris, they readily got behind it. It was a way to distinguish their course from Sand Hills and Ballyneal. As you can see in the video, Tom was integral to developing the process of creating these bunkers, as well as the look. Kyle and I were a little shocked to see Tom wailing away on these fence posts, trying to break them so that they were a more manageable size, especially considering he was playing in a tournament in four days.

We used the Snowdonian Bunkers (this was our working name in the field, but who knows what other people will call them) sparingly. They are located in a few key spots on the golf course and add another layer of texture to the course. I think they turned out pretty well and am interested to see how they weatherd the winter.

Looking down the eighth

The video in this film (after the jump) was shot early one morning in late April. It shows the holes that go away from and come back to the clubhouse. Ballyneal is a truly special place and this is just a quick little video to give you a taste.

Rupert O’Neal (founder/owner) and Dave Hensley (superintendent) have done a great job of getting this place really humming. The clustering of buildings form a small village and add to the experience. The course played firm and fast when I returned there in June. The fescue has matured and the greens are now up to speed.

The music is for Rupert