It is very rare that you play a course that really works to change your whole perception of other courses. Peachtree was one of those. But how did it make such an impact? This goes beyond the whole club atmosphere and to the heart of the course itself. It showed how good Robert Trent Jones could be at designing golf courses when he handled the work himself rather than letting his associates do the work. The course shows how to test all clubs in the better player's bag while still remaining playable for the lesser player. And the course shows how fairway bunkers are not needed in all spots and huge numbers on order for the course to be challenging.
First, this design shows just how good Mr. Jones could be when he did the work himself. The routing of the course is outstanding. There are a few long walks today due to new tees being built to lengthen the course, but aside from the transition from 16 to 17, the course has no long walks between holes. The course also has an outstanding set of greens. The internal movement is subtle in some places and bold in others. At all times, the contouring fits the shot being played into the green. But the real magic of the course is how it flows through the round. From difficult, to easy, holes to play safe, holes to attack, holes with options to do both, the course takes the player on a fantastic ride from start to finish. Mr. Jones knew how to tell a story on the golf course. Sadly, his later work, especially the course on the RTJ Trail in Alabama, don't reflect much of this. This happened as he began to let his associates take over the day to day design work and lending his name to the courses. Mr. Rulewich, who did all of the courses in Alabama, seems to know how to design holes like Mr. Jones, but what the courses seem to lack is real flow and certainly lack even a serviceable routing. No, Mr. Jones could do fantastic work all around when he did the courses himself. His name has been tarnished over the years due to his associates, however.
Second, the course is a virtual template for how to test every club in the better player's bag while staying playable and fun for the average player. The course does this by using fairway width coupled with green size and contouring. Approach angle is important here due to the size of the greens and the movement within them. This gives the better player something to think about as he plans his shots. But these same things also make it fun for the average player, giving them the chance to find the fairway and green with semi-regularity. Obviously these features make the course more expensive to maintain and that is why many average courses cannot and do not look like this. But overall, size and angling make the course challenging for the better player and playable for the average one.
Finally, the course shows how to be challenging without use of fairway bunkering. Peachtree has five total fairway bunkers, two on the first hole, two on the ninth, and one on the eighteenth; not included are the 4 bunkers that exist within 75 yards of the green on three of the par 5's. Compare this to the best modern course this writer has played (excluding the Bandon courses), Eagle Point. Eagle Point has 37 fairway bunkers. Yet, sadly, at least half of those serve no purpose other than simply being there, and more still do little to enhance the strategy of the course. Even though Mr. Jones began to use more bunkers in some of his later work, he still used fewer than many modern designers. No, with proper width and greens, tying into the second point, fairway bunkers are not always necessary to retain great strategic interest in holes. Mr. Jones figured that out at Peachtree.
So in these ways, Peachtree opened this writers eyes to things relating to golf. However, there is another part to the equation when it comes to these design features is cost. Is it more cost effective in the long run for courses to maintain fairway turf and green turf rather than maintaining bunkers in order to have strategy. The answer to that question is not known to this writer. Logic would suggest, however, that it is more expensive long term to maintain fairway and green space, especially green space. As such, courses wind up having to manufacture strategy with fairway bunkering and giving the players boring greens.
But here, on this course, Mr. Jones did a fantastic job of bring all of his design skills to the table and crafting a great golf course. This course is one of those rare places that may cause a golfer to reevaluate how he views golf courses and their features. Fantastic and thought provoking. What more can a course really be?
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