Fishhook Golf Course- Palmer, AK

This course is certainly from a mold formed in times past. The course is routed simply over the land. the  greens and tees are simply closely mown areas rather than expensively maintained and completely manufactured. This course, while not being anything special or unique to the world of golf, is a lot of fun to play and gives the golfer a look into how golf might have been played and courses designed years ago prior to the widespread use of heavy equipment.

Holes to Note

Hole #1: Par 5, 509 yards
This is a very good opening hole. The tee shot plays uphill and into the wind to a blind fairway. The best play off the tee will be for the player to play up the right hand side of the fairway. That will given him a chance to see the green. However, the green is tucked around a sharp corner and is very small, making for a very difficult target to hit with a fairway wood or long iron. This hole sets the pace for the rest of the round with the blind shots, small greens and difficult angles.

 From the tee, the hole spreads out nicely in front of the player. The center of the fairway lies where the high, unmaintained grass intersects  with the standard rough grass in the center of the image. The best line off the tee is slightly right of that point.

 With this hole playing into the prevailing wind, a 260 yard tee shot is a fair blast. From the left side of the fairway (obviously this writer does not possess the skill to execute the shot as directed) the green is still completely obscured.

Now, from around 125 yards, the green is plainly in view and easily accessed. Bunkers flank the green on both sides and the green is somewhat rectangular, giving a bit of a biarritz green set-up...though without the requisite depression.

Hole #3: Par 3, 150 yards

This green site is nicely shelved into the hillside beyond the green. The bunkers add quality framing features to the hole. The only problem on this hole is the routing. The player walks from two green to three tee, then to the green, but from the third green the player must double back the entire length of the hole, walk directly past the teeing ground and over a hill in order to get to the fourth tee. Given the old time, homely nature of the course though, perhaps it deserves a pass.

Hole #7: Par 4, 504 yards

Upon a non-exhaustive review, this appears to be the longest par 4 hole in Alaska. It plays slightly downhill off the tee, generally downwind and to a firm fairway. On a warm day like when this writer played, the hole can be rather easy. But on a day with temps in the mid-50's and lacking a helping wind, this hole must be a real beast. The hole plays with a slight dogleg left, downhill off the tee and slightly back uphill to the green. The bunker that lies on a line just left of the forward tee markers works as a strategic aim point. Left of the bunker is going to be severely penalized, as would going in the bunker. But playing close would cut some of the significant distance off the hole.

 As with Palmer Golf Course, located just a few miles away, the open nature of the course coupled with the mountains in the distance really skew the player's perspective. Those mountains are roughly five miles distant and the red roof marking the clubhouse is about 1,000 yards from this tee.

This green complex is, without doubt, the best on the course. It is guarded by no bunkers and is open in the front, but features significant run-off areas on the other three sides. Any golfer missing this green will be faced with a difficult recovery. 

Overall, this is a fun little golf course. It doesn't compete with the full eighteen hole courses in the area in terms of quality, but it shouldn't. It manages to carve out a niche in the market and promotes itself as such. This is an old style course with an old style feel. It does not try to be something it is not. It is simply a fun course to play. 2 out of 10.

Shell's Wonderful World of Golf @ Pine Valley Golf Club

This is an old, but still outstanding, tour around Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey. Pine Valley is a perennial Top 2 or 3 golf course in the world and has changed surprisingly little since this episode was shot in 1962. Enjoy. 

Lakewood Golf Club (Azalea)-Point Clear, AL

The courses at Lakewood Golf Club are the only courses in the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail family of courses not designed by Mr. Jones and Roger Rulewich. The original course, consisting of holes 1-5 and 15-18 of the Azalea course and holes 10-18 on the Dogwood course, was built in 1947 and designed by Perry Maxwell, one of the great designers of the Golden Age. The other holes have been added on over the years by various designers. It is startling how inferior those additional holes are, on the Azalea course anyway.

However, sadly, based on the rates charged, this course is viewed by many as one of the best courses on the Trail. It simply is not. Based on the eight other Trail courses this writer has seen, Lakewood is no better than any of the original courses and certainly inferior, and significantly, to Ross Bridge. This course simply has no flow. The first five holes flow nicely and six is not a bad par 5, but from there the course weaves through houses that are built tighter than desired to the playing corridors. Hole nine is a sharp dogleg left that plays directly across a public road and under powerlines.

In addition, hole fourteen is one of the worst par 5's this writer has played. While the hole is scenic and photographs well, it is a par 5 played to an island green. Coupled with the fact that it typically plays into the wind and is 545 yards long, there is virtually no risk/reward potential on the hole. Under only the rarest of circumstances would a golfer ever attempt to play to this green in two shots, thus the hole basically becomes a par 3 with two additional shots. The angle of play from the tee does not matter, the ball must merely find the fairway. On the second shot, certainly a lay-up, again, the angle does not matter. No angle into the green changes the situation that the player it hitting to an island. Any shot not played with reasonable precision will find the water, regardless of the approach angle. Simply a poor hole.

This course could have been so much better. Based on the nine original holes, it should be much better. Mr. Maxwell must vomit in his mouth slightly, as he sits watching in the hereafter, every time this course attempts to advertise their Frankenstein course using his good name.

Holes to Note

Hole #2: Par 4, 411 yards

This is quite a nice mid-length par 4. The player is given several options off the tee. The first is to lay back short of the fairway bunker that is around 250 yards off the tee, leaving a shot of over 160 yards to the green. The second option is to play the shot into the fairway even with the bunker, leaving a shorter shot, but having to thread the tee shot into a rather narrow ribbon of fairway. The final option is to play over the bunker, a shot requiring a carry of around 275 yards, into a generous piece of fairway leaving a short wedge into the green. From the fairway, the player will be faced with a shot over a large fronting bunker into a green that falls off away from him. This is no easy hole and certainly fits with much of the work Mr. Maxwell did elsewhere.

From the tee, the options are clearly placed in front of the player. The area right of the bunker is not maintained as fairway and any ball hit there will be stopped and blocked out by the trees.

For the player who tempts fate and plays over the bunker, this open shot is left. Note the opening to the green that would allow the player to play a low running shot into the green, if desired.

Hole #4: Par 3, 203 yards

This is an interesting par 3 that plays over water to one of two separate greens. To the left green, the hole can play up to the 203 yards listed on the card. To the right, it is much shorter, around 170. But both greens are quite small, making a 200 yard shot into the green no bargain.

Sadly, the phone tower takes away from an otherwise picturesque hole.

Hole #17: Par 4, 475 yards

This brute of a par 4 plays roughly straight off the tee, with the prefered play depending on what the player desires for the approach shot. The fairway is not reachable from the back tee, unless the player can hit a ball 325 yards or better. A play away from the bunker will give the player the better angle into the long, but narrow, green. A play directly towards the bunker will leave the player less margin for error in distance control. The key feature of the green, however, is the significant fall off that runs down the entire right side of the green. If a player feels good about distance control, but not direction, the right side of the fairway would be a bit better. The player who has poor distance control should favor the left side.

The bunker nearest the right side of the image is the key point from the tee.

From the angle close to the bunker, the player is given a clear play to the green, the pine on the right is no hazard.

Overall, this course is reasonable. It is not, however, worth the $120 they charge guests. Courses of the same quality can be found on the Trail, and virtually anywhere really, that are of the same quality but charge half as much. This is not a terrible course, but it is in no, way, shape, nor form worth the rate they charge. 4 out of 10.