Great news for all that like strategic architecture and golf courses with a sense of place. Can’t wait to see what they do.

LOOKING BACK DOWN THE FOURTEENTH

Colorado Golf Club has been awarded a Senior PGA in 2010 and there has been some speculation that it will one day host a major on the big tour. Because of the altitude some additional length may be required, but this could readily be accomplished. The property is expansive and could easily handle spectators. Denver is a major city that loves golf and has not had a tour stop since 2005. Colorado Golf Club would be a welcome break from the long list of parkland courses that have recently hosted the PGA. The landscape and look of CGC is unique, quite different from the faux links of Whistling Straights and it is a course with great strategic holes. Here is hoping the PGA is smart enough to bring the PGA championship here. (Back nine video and review after the jump).

The back nine at Colorado Golf Club is just as solid as the front and features a few of my favorite holes on the course. (For front nine click here.) The tenth is a bunkerless dog leg left that plays back down into the valley. The par three eleventh features one of the wildest greens on the course and to me it looks the most manufactured. It is a fun green and a fun hole but the large ridge at the back does not tie in to natural land form particularly well.

The twelfth plays out through the valley is a monster at 531 yards. A good drive will skirt the left side and the native rough that guards it. A flared drive will leave a very long second. The thirteenth plays back uphill. It is fairly steep and to me is the other weak hole on the course. Building a good hole that plays significantly uphill is a tough task. The fifth at Cuscowilla is a great uphill hole that I have long admired a s a great way to gain elevation in a routing. It is a drivable par four with lots of options. Coore/Crenshaw have been less successful on the two uphill holes at CGC, the eighth and thirteenth (and a few uphill holes at Sugarloaf in Florida). While the details, green and bunkering, are as usual great, the hole just does not come together. Luckily the following hole is very good.

The fourteenth is a short four with a downhill tee shot into a valley. The green is one of Coore/Crenshaw’s patented horseshoes and really work well. The left side is significantly higher than the right side. The front of the green is at grade making an approach shot along the ground ideal The bunker in the middle is narrow and nasty- not a place you want to end up. The concept of this hole has been used by Bill and Ben on almost all their courses but I love it.

The fifteenth is the first two back to back par fives. A tee shot up and over a ridge leaves a decision on weather to lay up short of a stream or rip it at the green. This hole features great bunkering. The sixteenth is bout as modern a hole as I have ever seen from Coore/Crenshaw. An artificial creek runs through the middle of the hole and splits the fairway. What makes the smaller fairway more appealing, besides the shorter route,  is that an approach from this angle can be played into a slope that will then kick the ball onto the green. The longer route will have leave a shot angled back at the creek and with less f an opportunity to stop the ball. This is a different type of hole and it works very well.

As you can see from the video, a large storm rolled up on us at the end of the round so I will be brief in my analysis. The seventeenth is a par three that plays to a green that is on a peninsula that is created by the creek in the front and a wash in the back. The eighteenth is an uphill hole with bunkers all along the left. The slope of the hole is gradual and is a solid finisher.

The one thing that could take away from the experience is the surrounding real estate which is obviously progressing slowly. The few houses that have been built are on the enormous side and sit high up on the ridges. They are very visible from the holes that play along the valley floor. The newly constructed clubhouse is also huge and it will be interesting if this adds to the club or becomes a financial drag. In any event, Colorado Golf Club is a hell of a golf course.

]]> http://punchbowlgolf.com/2009/10/colorado-golf-club-back-nine/feed/ 1 http://punchbowlgolf.com/2009/09/colorado-golf-club/ http://punchbowlgolf.com/2009/09/colorado-golf-club/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:20:19 +0000 Will Smith http://punchbowlgolf.com/?p=1842 -

THE LONG PAR-THREE SIXTH

I was fortunate to visit Colorado Golf Club during construction/grow-in and I came away thinking that the course had a lot of potential, but of course, the proof is in the playing. After a visit this summer, I can report that the potential was met and surpassed. I was blown away by how good this course was. The course features all off Coore/Crenshaw’s normal tricks- Jeff Bradley bunkers, beautifully contoured greens, and well thought out, strategic holes. What sets Colorado Golf apart is the beautiful setting and the wonderful native rough. (Video after the jump)

The course plays off a high ridge down into a wide valley and then back up the slope. There are spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains on many of the holes, but what really struck me was the texture of the rough and vegetation. The native soil is fairly gravely so that the rough is wispy and playable even after a very wet spring and early summer. There a myriad of wildflowers and grasses. It is quite different than the rough seen at Shinnecock or National, but no less beautiful and much more playable. To me it is an ideal native rough.

The course opens with a long par five that is reachable due to the altitude and solid downhill nature of the hole. It is a good hole that requires solid ball striking. It is quickly followed be a short three to a benched in green that is fairly severe from back to front. The hole is stunning and if the green is not hit in regulation it can do damage to your score. The third is a unique hole. The tee shot is blind to a fairway falls away. The large green sits on the far side of a gnarly wash that is filled with native plants. This hole is the first that lets you know that this is not just another Coore/Crensahw course (not that is a bad thing).

The fourth and fifth are two long par fours that play in the bottom of a wide valley. They are very good holes that require strong shots especially into the wind. The par three sixth, even at altitude, will be a long iron or a hybrid for most and is a nice compliment to the short second. The knob short and right requires the player who bails out to play an interesting and tricky recovery shot. The seventh plays along a wash to a fairway that wraps around two large cross bunkers. A great drive could carry them leaving a long second to a green on the far side of the wash. A lay-up short of the wash will leave a little wedge.

One of the trademarks of a Coore/Crenshaw course are great short-fours and to be honest I was disappointed with the eighth which plays directly up a fairly steep slope. The green is severely sloped from back left to front right. What I did not like is that there is not a lot of strategy to the hole. To access the back pins the best angle would be way out to the right in the native. What is left is basically to just either take a rip ant the green or hit something 200 yards and then hit a very good wedge. It is not a bad hole but just not very interesting or inspiring. It is the one discordant note on the front.

The front finishes with a very good hole which plays up and over a ridge, across a valley to a green that gently lays on the natural slopes. Most architects would have cut through the ridge to improve visibility, but Bill and Ben were content to have the tee shot play over this feature. It is another example of why they are one of the best firms working today.

THE SEVENTH AT COORE & CRENSHAW'S CHECHESSEE CREEK

Those of us who are big fans of Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw have long bemoaned the firm’s lack of a website. No more. http://www.coorecrenshaw.com/ is a the firm’s sophisticated and elegant new home on the interwebs, full of information and pictures on their current and past projects. Matt Varney, developed the site for the duo, and he promises that it will feature updates on their current projects and even better images of some of their past works. There portfolio can be seen here and when all laid out on one page, it is just mind boggling. This website is a very welcome addition for any aficionado of golf course design.

There is also a great video on the new site that I believe was produced by the Colorado Golf Club, a link to which can be found here.

THE DEMANDING GREEN AT TWELVE (Courtesy GCA)

In the second half of my interview with Bill Kennedy, superintendent of Chechessee Creek, he discusses how Chaffin/Light, the club’s developer, went about making environmental stewardship a priority at the club. Bill lays out what measures he undertakes to develop animal habitat, limit water and chemical use and generally make the course as environmentally friendly as possible. (Video after jump)

It is interesting to hear Bill talk about the lessons Chechessee learned from Spring Island, another Chaffin/Light course. It is not simply enough to leave things alone, but it takes a detailed and thoughtful management plan to not only limit the effects of a golf course, but rather to make the golf course a positive environment. Chechessee is very willing to share what they have learned with any parties interested. This environmental ethos is one of the many reasons it is a true pleasure to belong to this understated gem.

For first half of this interview, click here.

THE DEVILISH FOURTEENTH AT BANDON TRAILS (COURETSY OF LARRY LAMBRECHT)

During my February trip to Oregon, I played Bandon Trails for the first time. I am huge admirer of the architecture of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw so I was very much looking forward to see what they had conjured up from the dunes and forests of the Oregon coast. Bandon Trails is yet another excellent Coore/Crenshaw design that I believe is the second best on the property. The light was flat, so the video (after the jump) is not the most dynamic, but it does give a good feel for the course.

Bandon trails is not without its faults. I was not a fan of the seventh or sixteenth holes, which to me were just long slogs uphill, made pretty by Jeff Bradley’s always excellent bunker work. The controversial fourteenth seemed a little severe both in the slope of the landng area and around the green. But the course’s incredible set of par threes and a number of strong par fours more than overcome these few holes’s shortcomings. The fourth hole with its large diagonal ridge running through the fairway, seems like it would be a blast to play over and over again, trying to fugure out the right line off the tee depending on the conditions.

When you go to a Coore/Crenshaw course you normally see something you have not seen before, whether it is a wild green contour or a different way of attacking a land form (like the fourth hole). You also see things that are familiar such as their bunker style, or particular green complexes. It seems that they are aware of this trait, as they tried to mix it up a few times during the round. Veterans of Coore Crenshaw courses will think that they have the third hole figured out, as it appears to be one of their patented horseshoe greens that wraps around a front, central bunker. Instead the central bunker is at least sixty yards short of the green. The Coore/Crenshaw team’s attention to detail is certainly at the top of the field.

The addition of Bandon Trails adds a depth and variety to the golfing experience at Bandon Dunes. The increased traffic has cost the Resort some of its original charm though. When I first traveled there in May of 1999, I felt like I was going to the end of the world in search of a magical place. To me the journey can be an essential part of the experience, and Bandon while still difficult to get to, has lost some of its sense of place. Don’t get me wrong, magic can still be found on the golf courses which are unparralled in the resort golf world, but the overall size of the operation has compromised some of the intimacy of the resort.

THE REDAN AT HIDDEN CREEK (PHOTO COURTESY OF GCA)

Tom Dunne at Out and Back has a good slide show of Coore/Crenshaw’s Hidden Creek near Atlantic City, New Jersey. Created by photos Tom took while touring the course with Bill Coore, the slideshow shows the course in early season form.

I have only been around the course once, but I found it to be yet another great course produced by the duo. More than anyother of their courses, it reminded me of the Heathland courses outside of London. Bill and Ben produce such high quality layouts that something like this course that lacks spectacular views can get lost in the shuffle.

Hidden Creek is well worth playing and even studying.

Chechessee's Tenth

Full Disclosure: I have been a member of this club since 2003 and it is one on my favorite places in the world.

Chechessee Creek is located halfway between Hilton Head and Beaufort, SC and only forty minutes from Savannah. The Coore/Crenshaw low-profile design is an excellent example of how a short course can play much longer than the yardage by combining short par fours with a number of stern, longer ones and adding another par three in lieu of a fourth par five. (Video after jump)

What truly makes the course though, is the level of detail that Bill Coore put into the greens. These push-up greens are filled with both large contours and fine breaks that can be very difficult to read. A good short game is a must in order to score well here. The bunkers are not as jagged as other Coore/Crenshaw courses but have a rustic, linear charm.

This video is the first of two and introduces Bill Kennedy, Chechessee Creek’s superintendent. He discusses working with Bill and Ben and how he tries to maintain the golf course to compliment the design. Bill Kennedy also talks about the decision to use a coastal bermuda grass as the course’s primary rough. While the coastal provides a look and playing characteristics that are quite different from the other courses in the area, it has caused some grumbling from the members because it is both hard to find balls in and is also extremely difficult to play from.