Ross Bridge most certainly fits the mold of an ultra long golf course (ULGC). Topping out at nearly 8,200 yards, it is most certainly one of the longest courses in America, with this writer knowing of only the International (Pines) course in Massachusetts being longer. But one of the major negatives that courses like this face, along with another ULGC in California, Sevillano Links (7,823 on the card with ability to play longer), is the lack of variety in hole lengths.
A quick look at the cards for each course, Ross Bridge and Sevillano Links, both of which this writer has played, shows:
Listed in order Ross Bridge/Sevillano Links
Shortest Par 3: 207/191
Shortest Par 4: 454/386
Shortest Par 5: 571/553
Longest Par 3: 239/262
Longest Par 4: 518/509
Longest Par 5: 698/686 (Should be noted that the longest par 5 at Sevillano Links can play 709 yards)
Compare this to a course like Oakmont, which while coming in roughly 1,000 yards shorter than Ross Bridge, has greatly more variety:
Par 3: 183/288
Par 4: 313/500
Par 5 609/667 (only 2 par 5's on course)
What Ross Bridge and Sevillano Links miss in their quest for yardage is variety, though Sevillano Links has better variety than does Ross Bridge. But what should be studied is the likely reason for this lack of variety. Truth is, all those holes, while being part of ULGC's, all fall inside nice little boxes that most golfers find comfortable. In years past, a 518 yard or 509 yard par 4 would have seemed incredible, but now, we have seen a 525 yard par 4 in 2009 at the US Open and 523 at the 2011 US Open. Same with a 262 yard par 3, shorter than the listed par 3 at Oakmont.
The catch with the par 3 at Oakmont is that it does not fit within the comfort range for holes. It gets to the point that all but the longest of the long hitters must play a driver into the green and that is unsettling for many golfers.
No, as it stands right now, virtually all golfers are comfortable with seeing par 4's up to and beyond 515 to 525 yards; The International (Pines) has a par 4 that plays out to 567 yards, though it is unknown to this writer if that hole plays downhill or not. The truth is, however, that it takes a hole that long in order to prompt the high level golfer to hit a fairway wood into the green. But, same at the 288 yard par 3, a 567 yard par 4 does not fit inside the comfort zone of many golfers.
Par 5's go the same way. This year's US Open championship had a par 5 that was 670 yards from the back markers. However, the fairway had to be mown into such a narrow corridor as to be almost comical. Without such trickery, a 670 yard hole, for elite players on fairways as firm as those, will be nearly reachable in two shots and would rarely be approached with a club less than a short wedge (if we are to figure a 300 yard drive, followed by a 270 yard second shot, the player would be left with 100 yards to the green, hardly a difficult shot in most conditions). The par 5 13th hole at Ross Bridge is 698 yards from the back markers, yet this writer played it, from those markers, using Driver, 3 wood, Gap Wedge, again, hardly difficult. In order for a par 5 to play as a real three shot hole, requiring a 5 iron or higher approach, without some form of trickery, the hole would need to be greater than 770 yards in length, if we are to assume the same first and second shots listed above, followed by a 200 yard 5 iron. Again, though, that length would fall outside of a normal comfort zone for golfers.
However, what could be done, if we break out of those comfort zones, and create an ULGC that is also exceptionally varied? Have par 3's that can be approached with wedges, coupled with one that needs to be approached with a 3 wood. Par 4's reachable from the tee and also out to such a length that also requires a 3 wood approach. And of course par 5's that are reachable, or nearly so, on the second shot, but also one requiring 3 full shots, perhaps even a long iron or fairway wood approach.
Another comfort zone for golfers is the standard course make up of 4 par 3's, 10 par 4's and 4 par 4's. This, of course, limits what the designer can do because he is bound to a certain course make-up. As such, between this standard make-up and individual hole comfort zones, it becomes very difficult for the designer to design an ULGC without significant repetition. But what about breaking that up?
On a given site, were an architect to wish to design an ULGC, this of course assuming he had enough land and a site suited to such, it would be rather easy to create such a course, even using the standard make-up, if you break the conventional hole models.
A solid and varied set of par 3's might have yardages like: 140/190/225/285
Par 5's could go: 585/680/710/825
And Par 4's: 310/355/395/420/465/480/490/515/530/565
That comes to a yardage of 8,165 yards. Other markers could be laid out in front of that in order to get playability for any groups necessary.
But what could be done if we break the mold slightly and go with only 3 par 3's and par 5's?
Par 3's: 140/210/285
Par 5's: 585/680/825
Par 4's: 310/355/395/420/450/465/480/490/500/520/530/565
And this for a yardage of 8205.
Yet both of these courses had incredible variety in the holes. All because of being able to step outside normal comfort zones and designing holes that really do test elite golfers in their ability to hit fairway clubs into holes, while also testing their ability to hit short wedges.
It seems strange to look at elite golf courses and see the variety that exists in them and not attempt to recreate some of that when attempting to design an ULGC. The truth is, both of these, exceptional variety and exceptional length, can coexist and in all likelihood form a magnificent golf course. Someone should attempt this, rather than semi-boring repetition that exists on most ULGC's.
(As a side note, this writer greatly enjoyed his rounds at both Ross Bridge and Sevillano Links, he just thinks courses like this could be better if they had greater variety in the hole lengths)
Showing posts with label Robert Trent Jones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Trent Jones. Show all posts
Sunday
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley (Short)
Holes to Note
Hole 2, 224 yards
Very long hole, the second longest on the course in fact. Played downhill to a generous green built with large fall off areas short, right and long. Certainly a difficult second hole.
Hole 5, 135 yards
Nice short hole coming on the heels of three real beasts. But this hole is no sleeper being played into an undulated green with a large fall off long of the green.
Hole 14, 253 yards
This longest par 3 on the course is also the poorest routed hole on the course. The tee is slightly above the level of the green, but there is a 110 feet deep depression between the tee and green that the player must walk down and back up in order to reach the green. This is an exceptionally poorly routed hole, though the fun in playing a very long par 3 like this can make up for that slightly.
This image not taken from the back markers
This is a fair course overall. Not as much variety as could be done with a par 3 course, but it's nothing terrible either. Could have been routed much better though. 3 of 10
Saturday
Eagleglen Golf Club, Elmendorf AFB, AK
This was a really solid golf course. It was better than I was expecting it to be. Course was #1 in Alaska this year in Golf Digest, #4 in Golf Mag and Golfweek. As of this writing, I have only played Moose Run (River) in Alaska, but I do think this course is better than Moose Run. I hope to play 3 or 4 more courses before I leave Alaska in ten days. This course does have a lot of straight holes and it's routed over some really flat land, but it's rather gently shaped and has a lot of forced perspective. Several times I saw a bunker that looked many yards shorter or longer than it was and at least once it directly affected the club that I played.
There seems to be some confusion as to who designed the course. Worldgolf says RTJ, Jr. as does the course website. But the Robert Trent Jones Society lists Eagleglen on their master list of courses designed by Mr. Jones. Both list the year built at 1972. So, pretty much the only way I can wrap this around my head within saying the Trent Jones Society got it wrong is to say that Jr. designed this course while he was still working with his father's company. Either that or Jr. supervised a major redesign of his father's original and they have just omitted him from the papers. Either way, it's a solid design with some pretty small scale features and *gasp* ground game features, something not seen on some of Trent's work.
But overall, this course is really solid. It was better than I had expected and, while perhaps not as scenic as Moose Run up the street, it certainly made up for that in strategic features on the ground.
Holes of Note:
Hole 2: Par 4, 361 yards
This hole plays blind off the tee, a quality strategic feature missing from too many modern designs. The tee is located in a low spot near the creek with a narrow stream fronting the tee. The rise is probably less than 20 feet high but it works perfectly to obscure the fairway from the tee. The hole is a dogleg right with a fairly dense set of trees down the right side (most all the treed areas here are dense, but the corridors are wide enough so that the dense trees are not a real worry). With the fairway obscured from the tee, the player is left to make his best judgement as to where to hit the tee shot.
Once over the hill, the fairway opens up to the player. The best line is to play close to the tree line but hitting it far enough to clear past the trees. A ball down the left side might run off the side of the fairway into a small depression and playing towards the center will just leave a longer shot to the green. In the picture above, the best line would be towards the tallest trees in the center of the image, though they are on the right-center of the fairway. Anything left of those will roll into the depression. From the fairway, the green is quite open, but there is a single bunker guarding the left side of the green. A low running draw could be played into the hole if the player was comfortable with that shot.
Looking back down the fairway, the depression can be seen to start at the white tree in the center of the picture and work to the right of the image. As with all greens here, they are of limited interest due to growing and weather conditions.
Hole 5: Par 5, 520 yards
This hole plays straight off the tee but has a large knob in the fairway on the right side that certainly adds to the interest. A ball clearing the knob and hitting on the downslope will take a major bounce forward while a ball hitting short on the face of the knob will be stopped. The knob also keeps the player from simply bailing to the right side of the fairway away from the bunker on the left. And though it does not show well in the image below, there also seems to be a bunker in the distance, just a few yards beyond the knob on the centerline of the fairway.
However, once getting farther down the fairway, the bunker that looked mere yards beyond the knob is seen to be a greenside bunker. By designing the hole to look like this, Mr. Jones (whichever one of them) let the player's eyes trick him into possibly playing a shot off the tee that might not have been most ideal. From the fairway, the player is left to decide whether to lay-up or go to the green in two shots.
If the player hit his tee shot far enough such that he might be able to fly his ball all the way to the green, then ground features do not mean very much. However, given the typically cool temperatures up here (your writer lost 1 1/2 clubs in yardage having traveled from Alabama where the temps are 90 degrees opposed to 55 degrees) a 520 yard hole is rather substantial. So, the player is given the option to run the ball onto the green if he so chooses. However, this will require that he start his ball up the right side of the fairway, a hit a draw that lands short of the green, but beyond a bunker that covers from 45 to 60 yards short of the green.
For the player who can pull off that shot, an open green awaits. As can be seen from this image, the player choosing to lay-up should favor the right hand side, short of the bunker, in order to open the green up as best possible given the bunker short left and long right.
Hole 9: Par 4, 366 yards
Top quality short par 4. This hole has a significant dogleg off the tee and tempts the player to hit down the right hand side near the trees. Given the view of the hole, the player can tell that the fairway stops at a distance off the tee and may be forced to decide if the driver is the proper play from the tee.
But for the player who may have hit less than driver off the tee and played down the right side, the designer put a little surprise in for them, blind from the tee. A set of three bunkers guard the inside of the dogleg, standing ready to catch any balls that were hit short of the required yardage, but, given the yardage of the hole, probably the precise yardage a player not familiar with the course would have thought to be perfect.
From the fairway short of the green, but over the bunkers, the heavily defended green can be seen. There is the option to run a ball onto this green, but the opening is rather narrow. Given the length of approach shot for a person playing the correct tees, this writer has no problem with a hole requiring the player to fly the ball onto the putting surface. (Note: even though there is water standing in the fairway, this is a well draining course. It had been raining for 8-10 hours prior to my teeing off)
Hole 12: Par 4, 341 yards
This hole, the shortest par 4 on the course, also makes use of forced perspective, making the player think a bunker is much closer than it really is. From the tee, the player is given a generous fairway to look upon. But he is also given a bunker, that while obviously not on the preferred line of approach to the green, that being on the left side of the fairway, certainly does appear to be in play off the tee for any shot played right of center.
But, as before, once the player gets a ways off the tee, the bunker clearly shows itself to be a greenside bunker. Very good use of bunkering and deception to make the hole appear to be something that it is not and making it better because of that.
Hole 18: Par 5, 521 yards
This solid par 5 has likely not suffered from technology advances as some have. The hole plays as a hard dogleg right. The creek must be carried from the back tees (about a 40 yard carry), but not from the forward tees, which is always a plus. The creek also runs the entire length of the hole down the right side. The hole was built so to reward the player who takes a risky play off the tee and flirts with the creek. From the right side, the player will be left with a flat lie from which to play his second shot.
From the fairway, the contouring can be seen. The fairway is rather flat for the player who took no risk and played far left, however, from there the green is likely not within reach; at least it shouldn't be, any player who either hit a shot that poorly or that safe off the tee has no business trying to reach the green from 260+ yards with a carry over a creek.
If a player hits up the right side without enough distance, he will be looking at this.
But with proper distance and angle, this shot from a nice flat lie awaits. Note the large tree on the right side of the fairway. The player will be forced to decide if he wants to risk going directly over the tree or if he wants to work the ball one way or the other around the tree.
The player who chooses to lay-up must contend with the tree and steer clear of it, otherwise his approach might be blocked out.
The par 3's on the course, while rather varied are much better as a set than they are individually, only lacking a very short hole. While they may not be as scenic as some, the set is certainly solid. As with any course in Alaska, the turf conditions suffer when compared to courses in the Continental US due to the extremely short growing season up here. But architecturally, this course is solid. Not much boredom to be found here as players are expected to think on every shot. On more normal days, dryer days, the course should play much firmer, allowing for ground play, if desired (according to local weather, the first half of July was the coldest on record and had 20% above average rainfall, not the best combination for firm and fast golf courses). But overall, this course is very good, perhaps the best in the state, perhaps not, that remains to be seen. 6 out of 10.
Thursday
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley (Valley)
The Valley course at Oxmoor Valley starts off with a hole that plays greatly downhill, moves on to a stretch of holes that are dead flat, goes to a set of gently rolling holes, and ends with two significantly uphill holes. The course is more easily walked than it's Ridge neighbor due to being flatter, but some places still have significant distances from one hole to the next. Overall, this is a rather nice course and most certainly one to be enjoyed.
Holes to Note
Hole #1: Par 4, 440 yards
The player who hits towards the right bunker will be left with a longer shot, obviously, but will be rewarded with a flat lie. The player who takes his shot over the left bunkers may get a flat lie, but may get quite a bad lie because the fairway beyond the bunkers is quite narrow with significant fall-offs on either side.
The green, like most at the facility, is rather nondescript, sadly.
Hole 11: Par 4, 361 yards
This hole gives the player a couple of options as well. The fairway is flanked with two bunkers (a feature this writer dislikes, for what it's worth). Playing towards the one on the left will leave the player with a flat lie, playing towards the one on the right might leave the player with an odd stance, and or course the player might try to hit driver over all the trouble and be left with a short shot to the green.
From the fairway, the green is significantly elevated, preventing the player from seeing the entire flagstick.
It occurs to this writer just now as he's writing that the terrain for this hole reminds him quite a bit of what he saw for the 2nd hole at Pine Valley. Which actually makes the quality of this hole seem rather poor...One has to wonder if Rulewich saw the similarity and somehow thought this hole was a nice homage to the 2nd at Pine Valley? In this writer's opinion, it's not. But that notwithstanding, the hole is not bad.
Hole 12: Par 5, 506 yards
This may be the most strategic hole on the course. The tee shot is a Cape style allowing the player to be as aggressive as his heart, mind and ego will allow.
While it would seem that the bunker on the left might be overkill, it's nothing to get worked up over. From the fairway, the player will have to navigate a minefield of bunkers to get to the green. If the player doesn't believe he can reach the green in two shots, he must decide whether to play short, long, or even with the set of fairway bunkers.
For the player who attempts to go for the green in two or is hitting his third shot from the lay-up area, he will be forced to contend with a large bunker fronting the green.
This is likely the best hole on the property and makes as good a use of natural features as this writer has seen in a Rulewich designed course.
Overall, this course is solid. While there aren't a great many special holes, they are all rather solid. The only real issues one might take with the routing come on the stretch of 12 through 17. Each of these holes have rather significant green to tee distances and while being decent holes, the routing takes away any flow the course may have had. Add in a few crossings of public streets and that goes away even more. Sad, really. Could have been much better. 4 of 10.
Wednesday
Hundred Hole Hike Recap
The long awaited, for me anyway, start of my Hundred Hole Hike came at 5:53am on Monday. This after two months of asking pretty much anyone I saw if they would be willing to donate to my cause, walking 36, sometimes 54, holes in a day to see how fast I could play, and generally working outside to get used to the high temps and humidity again after our cool season.
The Hike was done at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail site in Mobile, Magnolia Grove. Trying to walk a Trail course once, even one of the Short Courses, is tough enough, it's tough to imagine the difficulty in trying to walk the courses six times. Overall, I ended up walking about 23 miles in order to complete the Hike. My feet and legs were hurting in multiple places, as I suspect was the case for all Hikers. Magnolia Grove has three courses on site, the Short course, a handy little par 3 course, the Falls course, a nice out and back loop design, and the Crossings course, a very open course that hosts the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic. My route took me to the Short course first, then to the Crossings, Falls, and then back to short for the remainder of the day.
The day started off much like all the other rounds I have played on the Short course, rather steady, making some pars and such, it took until the 8th hole to make my first birdie of the day. It was a strange birdie to make. I had told myself prior to the day that I was not going to take too much time lining up putts over 10-12 feet and only then lining up the birdie putts. Anything inside that, I felt like I had a decent chance of making, and I had promised to donate an additional $2 for each birdie I made. So in reality, the only putts that mattered all day were the birdie putts. The putt on 8 was about 30 feet and had a significant break, probably 4 feet. I took a quick look and hit away; I was almost startled to see it go in the hole. Really poor 9th hole, but onto the back nine...I shot 28 on the back nine, one over par, no birdies, for a total score of 60 on the first eighteen holes.
57:26 for the first 18 on the Short Course,
then 1:33 to get to the next tee on the Crossings.
Second eighteen was on the Crossings course. Very steady start, even par through 5 holes, went for the green in 2 on the par 5 6th hole, up and down from the greenside bunker for birdie. Now 2 birdies on the day, $4 extra. Bogey on 7, then two pars....even par on the front, pretty good scoring considering it took me about 52 minutes to play the front nine. As I was finishing up on the 9th hole, the lightning alarm sounded. I walked up to the clubhouse and was told it was a false alert...back to golf. Uneven start on the back, but I made a birdie on #12, 3 total, $6. The next hole is a short par 5, easily reachable in two shots with an iron in hand...I made par and was quite disappointed. But I made it up with birdie on #16, then a bogey and par coming in. Shot two over on the back. But two more birdies, so now $8 total in the birdie pool. Played the round in under two hours, which is quite quick on this course.
Third round started on the Falls course, after a wardrobe change. Played through a group after my 5th hole on this round, asked them if they'd be willing to give a couple bucks to the Ronald McDonald House, all 3 broke out their billfolds, boom, extra $20 raised that I wasn't anticipating. Made two birdies on the front nine en route to shooting even on the front. Six Birdies: $12 in the pool. The back nine was rather troublesome, my back started hurting quite a bit and the worse it hurt, the less I cared about making solid swings, sadly. But I still ended up tooling it around the back nine at 5 over par. I played the same golf ball for the first 52 holes...hit a shot slightly too far right on the 53rd and couldn't find it. I was quite sad. Spent 2-3 minutes looking for the ball and this kept me from playing my third round in under 2 hours.
1:52:04 for 18 on the Crossings course, 12:07 freshening up,
2:02:48 for 18 on the Falls, I REALLY wanted to get this in under 2 hours,
27:25 for a bite to eat, then 31:19 for 7 holes on the short, plus the ride back to the clubhouse because of lightning
After I finished on the Falls, my wife was kind enough to be at the club with a Subway sandwich for lunch and I took a short break prior to going back out. It was getting very hot, so it was a good time to take a break off my feet and just generally rest a moment. Once I was done, it was back out onto the Short course. I was playing decent through 7 holes, but had made no birdies, when the lightning alarm went off again. Had my wife not been out there with me, riding in a cart with my son, I probably wouldn't have walked back in as 7 is a substantial distance from the clubhouse, especially walking. So, 61 holes down and back to the clubhouse in 6:04:45 as you can see above.
I figured this rain delay wouldn't be long and I had some family members and a co-worker coming out to help me in my afternoon rounds. Well, the delay kept going and going. I stuck it out in the clubhouse for the entire time and it ended up being around 4pm before we were able to get back out. My co-worker, TJ, had hung around and he came out with me and caddied for the final rounds. The difference in actually having someone out there walking the course with me, just someone to talk to, was pretty huge. The fifth round was completed very quickly, I did not time it, but I can't see it taking more than 50 minutes...but perhaps the time just passed faster with someone else out there. Nothing special, two birdies, though the birdie on 17 was interesting. My shot from the tee didn't look very close at all from the tee, looked to probably be over 25 feet away. TJ just took off for the 18th tee and I just said I'd take a rap at my putt with my wedge. I get up to the green, ball is about 10 feet away. I was rather irritated I didn't have my putter, but TJ was all ready near the 18th tee, probably 75 yards away, so I didn't call him back. Just bellied a wedge...right in the hole. Birdie, no big deal, we don't need any putters around here. Now 8 birdies, $16 extra. Shot 63 this round.
Played the final 18 of the day on the short course very quickly as well. Knocked in a long putt on the second hole for another birdie, played on quickly. Played very quickly on this side as well, probably finished in under an hour again, to be sure, and birdied 18 for #10 on the day. $20 in the birdie pool.
After this, we were to 97 holes. I saw no need to try and play the last three on the Short course when the real courses were available, so we went off on the Falls course since there is a very easy three hole loop playing holes 1, 2, and 18. Made par on the first two, the I tried to go for to go for the green on 18 in two. I wanted to make one of those $20 bonus eagles to close out the round. Didn't work...ended up making bogey to close out the round. Wanted to finish on a high note, but it just didn't happen. So after about 9 total hours on the course, plus a 4+ hour rain delay, I'd finished 100 holes.
There probably was time enough to play a few more holes, but the combination of having been at the course since 5:30 am and being pretty much the last person at the course holding up the staffers (having been in both the outside and inside staff positions, I know I'd have been irritated at someone staying all night playing like I was) I decided to call it a day once I got to 100.
But this has been quite a rewarding experience. I've learned that in many things, I need to stop finding excuses not to do something, and find reasons TO do something. I've learned that some of the people you wouldn't figure to contribute anything, for any number of reasons, often become the ones who find reasons, and that the people you might think would "beat down the doors," so to speak, in order to contribute, wind up being the ones who find excuses. And I've learned that the feeling you get from knowing you've helped people is better than the awards that may come from it.
This was very rewarding and I will certainly do it again next year.
Friday
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Oxmoor Valley- Ridge course
This course, like all on the Trail that I have played finds way to get very picturesque holes while coming up with a very compromised routing and nothing of great interest. It's quite sad, really. This course really amounts to target golf, as most would define target golf that is, (I'll make a post one day about my take on "target" golf) in that the player is basically forced to hit it to specific spots in order to be given a flat lie to the green, most typically this is around the 150 yard marker. Anywhere much closer to the green than that and the player is likely to be faced with a very uneven lie. Another negative here is that the course requires aerial shots into all 18 holes (actually all 54 holes at the club require aerial shots) and that just gets repetitive after about the 6th or 7th hole. But this course isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, it just isn't anything of real goodness.
Holes to note:
Hole #3: Par 5, 539 yards
This hole is noted not because it's good or great, but because it is a photogenic train wreck. This hole plays significantly downhill off the tee to a tongue of a fairway sticking out into a clown's mouth pond. Any shot hit longer than 255 yards will go into the pond if not hit directly down the center. From there the margin of error gets lower and the fairway runs out at 305 off the tee.
From here the player is left with a forced lay-up to roughly the 150 yard post, as is the same for most holes, or to the upper fairway that is visible in the picture below. The forced lay-up is due to the green being perched up about 10 feet above the fairway level on a giant pile of shale stone; it is unknown if this pile was on the site when Jones/Rulewich first saw the site or if they took time to pile it up.
The view from the fairway, near the 250 pole:
The shot to the green is then as boring and one dimensional as the other 18 approaches: know yardage, pick club, hit. No chance for anything else here.
And finally a look at the clown's mouth from the green looking backwards.
Hole #5: Par 3, 179 yards
Fair par 3 hole. Not much going on here, certainly not much going on with the green, but I really like the crater bunker in front of the green. Sadly, given they have done away with some of these crater bunkers at other trail sites, I wonder how long it will remain?
Hole #6: Par 4, 447 yards
Nice cape hole from the tee. The fairway runs parallel to a deep ravine (which is horrible to walk through, by the way) and the player must choose how much of the angle he wants to take off. The carry to the fairway taking a ball right towards the edge of the trees in the ravine is about 290 yards, the carry if one plays to the far right edge of the fairway is about 215 yards.
From the fairway, the player who took the more aggressive line off the tee will be rewarded with the shorter club into the green and this is of major benefit on this hole because the green is significantly elevated and any shot will have to carry the entire distance to the green, a green that is not incredibly deep.
Hole 12: Par 5, 483 yards
This reachable par 5 offers multiple options off the tee and is probably the most strategic hole this writer has played on the Trail thus far. The safe play from the tee, down the righthand fairway will give the player a better angle to the green from a flat lie, but a much longer shot.
But the player who tries a play down the lefthand fairway will be rewarded, IF he can pull off the shot, with a much shorter play into the green, possibly with as little as a wedge.
From the left hand of the fairway, it is apparent that the angle to the green is not as good, having to play over bunkers and possibly around the trees the right, but as you can see by the significant slope of the fairway, shots can run out quite a long way.
Overall, I think the course falls short of what it could have been. The routing, specifically, green to tee distances, is rather substandard. The holes themselves are, as is pretty standard of Roger Rulewich, quite picturesque is many cases, but lacking a lot of substance. And the greens are lacking in the way of both very bold and subtle contouring. And of course, the green surrounds have virtually no features which the player can use to manipulate a shot. But as a whole the course is not bad and is certainly better than much of the public golf in Alabama, and elsewhere, within it's price range. Overall 4 out of 10, above average.
Monday
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Ross Bridge, Hoover, AL
This is a fantastic course. Better than this writer expected, to be honest. While the course plays nearly 8,200 yards from the back tees, it is quite playable for most players due to it's massive size and the fact that most fairway hazards are 300 yards or more off the tee. The only downside of the course is that it gets the massive yardage by keeping all the holes within what some would call an "acceptable" yardage range, with the par 3's ranging from 207 to 239 yards, the par 4's ranging from 454 to 518 yards, and the par 5's ranging from 571 to 698 yards (and the 698 hole plays 125 feet downhill). This writer would personally like to see more variety, perhaps with a par 3 of about 150 yards and also one of around 300. I'd also like to see a driveable par 3, or at least one that can be reached with a partial wedge, perhaps in the 350-360 range; this length could be offset by a par 4 in the 540-550 range. And it would have been nice for the 571 par 5 to be open enough to be attempted in two shots and one par 5 needing a mid to long iron approach would be cool. But these are standard arguments against many modern courses. Overall, this course has better variety for the long player than most, and of course, you can always move up on the tees to get additional variety if so desired.
Pictures and Holes to Note follows (please note, I started on 10, and in the late afternoon, so the sun affects the pictures quite a bit in some cases, sorry) Also of note, no negative comments, yes, I took a cart, it was mandated, Ross Bridge allows no walking, and I took few pictures of greens because in most cases, the contouring was not much of note. There were a few small run-off areas in the front of greens, but these were limited, because, lets just face it, the main defense and draw here is the length.
Holes to note:
Hole #3: Par 4, 470 yards
Long, flat par 4 that plays along the lake and over it off the tee. The bunker in view on the right side is over 315 yards off the tee, so it does not come into play for most golfers, including ones good enough and long enough to play off the back markers.
The best play is to the left of the bunker, but as said before, the bunker is 315 yards from the tee so the player can take aim straight for it and likely take the water out of play.
The problem with aiming for the bunker is that the green is partially obscured, even if the tee shot is hit around 275 yards with a slight draw as this one was.
The look is better for the player who is capable of hitting a shot of about 320 yards off the tee and can thread it between the bunker and the water.
Hole #4: Par 3, 226 yards (note: picture take from 207 yard tees as the shading prevented a good image from the back markers)
This is a very scenic par 3, if not much else. This hole has no doubt been seen any number of other places and probably executed better than here, especially if the designer of a different hole allowed the player a run-up option. But all in all, this is a solid and scenic hole, playing back up towards the resort hotel and the halfway house. Note the run off area in the center of the green, an interesting addition here since the hole is obviously difficult enough without it, but a fair feature.
Hole #7: Par 5, 619 yards
This is a very scenic par 5 and probably the strongest of the 4, which is saying something because the par 5's here are all solid. The hole plays semi-blind off the tee. If the player decides to take his tee shot down the right hand side, he will likely not see where it stops. Up the left gives a clear view of the shot, but given this is a dogleg right, and all ready rather long, the player wouldn't want to go up the left if he could help it.
Of course, if the player could do exactly what he wanted off the tee, he'd likely be playing golf each week on top tier courses while you watched him on your television. The below picture is taken from about 285 yards off the tee, but in the left rough, leaving around 350 yards to the green; the stake you can see perhaps 1/4 the way in from the left side is a 300 yard stake, the first time this writer has ever seen such a yardage marker. Note the flag in the distance and how it would appear there are no hazards between the player and the flag.
Once the player crests over the hill, however, the player is greeted by a minefield of bunkers. The angle of the green prevents the player from knowing how far away from the green the bunkers down the left are (even just now, looking back at the picture I had to look at an aerial view to confirm that these bunkers do, in fact, go all the way to the green) The negative about this hole is that the player really has no chance to go for the green in two shots. The fairway between the bunkers and the rough slopes significantly towards the rough and the trees down below and any shot from 250 +/- yards would likely not be high enough to hold the green, in spite of the green being close to 50 yards deep. If this hole has a weakness, that is the one.
Hole 13: Par 5, 698 yards
This is the longest par 5 on the course and one of the few par 5's a golfer will see that exceeds the USGA maximum recommended length for a par 5, that being 690 yards; this writer does, however find it interesting that par 4's exceed the 470 maximum all the time and are accepted as normal, yet par 3's and par 5's almost never go over the maximum standard. But this plays significantly downhill so as to make it feel a little shorter. As a side note, any men who like to make the lewd joke about playing partners not hitting their tee shot past the "ladies" tee should go ahead and get over that on this hole as the forward tee requires a shot of 295 yards to reach from the back markers. This hole has no hazards in play off the tee, but it plays a significant dogleg to the left, so the player would be advised to play his shot down the center, to right-center of the fairway to avoid having to his a large hook on his second shot.
For the player finding the center of the fairway off the tee, this is the shot that awaits. The bunker on the left is about a 270 yard carry for the player who his a 290-295 yard tee shot. And, as you will notice in the image that follows this one, the best angle to the putting surface comes from a shot that flirts with the bunker as much as possible; this is quite probably the only time anything about angle of approach will be said here.
This shot taken from just over the bunker, looking down to the green. Note how this angle offers the best shot into any of the pin positions, while a second shot winding up down the right hand side would have to carry the bunker to a relatively narrow green were the pin cut on the right portion of the green.
Hole 14: Par 3, 239 yards (picture taken from 219 markers, by this time in the day I had all ready played 58 holes and had a blister on my left foot, I simply did not have the desire to walk back to the back markers as an aerial view of the hole will show they are nowhere close to the cart path)
This is a straight forward hole, as most par 3's are. That being said, it's rather scenic and could certainly be worse. The 15th tee is up on the highest part of the hill that is visible behind the green.
Hole #18: Par 4, 487 yards
And finally we come to the home hole. While it is probably a bit excessive having water running down the entire right side, having to be carried off the tee and on the approach on a 487 yard hole, it still photographs very well. In this writer's time in Alabama so far, he has discovered that Roger Rulewich, the designer of record here and the "real" designer of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, is very capable of making holes that photograph very well, yet they have less substance than many other "ugly" holes that he has played. This coupled with the fact that the Trail courses are typically poorly routed. But, back to the evaluation of the hole, the bunker down the right side might be in play from the tee given that it is 295 yards off the back blocks; the bunker to the right is 350 yards from the tee and this writer can't figure out any legitimate reason for it being there, other than to look cool in a picture. The obvious play from the tee is to get the ball in the fairway that tops out at 75 yards wide, with the preferred line being down the right side.
The shot to the green is very difficult, having to play over the corner of the water, over a bunker and must guard against going long because there is a stream/waterfall behind the green. This writer will freely admit he made no effort to try and hit a ball on the green from the fairway, choosing to basically play the hole as a par 5, hit his second shot in the bunker to the left and try to get up and down from there.
Overall, while there have been limited positive comments about this course in the hole reviews, it really is a solid, and very good, course. The negatives are the routing which is unwalkable for all but the most physically fit individuals even if walking were allowed (I commented to the Pro in the shop after the round that if they allowed walking in the summertime, I thought someone would die, and I meant it) The course also seems a bit repetitive at times, the par 5's have pretty good variety, but the par 4's all require mid-to-long iron approach shots, with 9 actually requiring 3 metal to reach the green; 9 is the longest par 4 on the course at 518 yards, keep in mind that this writer had played 71 holes in one day by the time he got to #9. Being required to his a 3 metal into a par 4 is not a negative in and of itself, but coupled with several 2 and 3 iron approaches and no approach with less than a 7 iron, it became slightly repetitive. Same goes for the par 3's, tee clubs were 3h, 3h, 2h, 3h. Perhaps a 3 metal shot as well as a 9i-PW shot would have been preferred as well. But all in all, the course was very good. It was very difficult from the back tees, but the width of the course prevented it from becoming a slog. It really is quite playable. This is certainly the best course on the RTJ Golf Trail that I have played so far and probably not to be overtaken.
One other thing I enjoyed, and I know some of my friends will hate it, was the bagpiper who came out at 7pm and played until around 7:30. That was pretty cool, even though I know it's nothing more than a creation of false "atmosphere."
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