Loose Impediments

Hefty Green Fees

While NBC was all but declaring Cowboys Stadium (left) the eighth wonder of the world last night during the Cowboys-Giants game, I couldn't help but thinking that at $1.15 billion, it's not even the most expensive stadium to open—this year!

Of course, that honor goes to the new Yankee Stadium, which cost $1.5 billion. And that amount was second to the new Wembley Stadium in London, which cost nearly $1.6 billion when it opened two years ago. (That figure should have an asterisk, since the weak dollar had a lot do with the inflation of that amount.)

Since we've crossed the 10-figure threshold for building arenas of play, it seems to me that some of golf's priciest courses seem like bargains in comparison. After the jump, a list of some of the most expensive courses ever built.

Bally of Sin

LINKS Magazine doesn't do golf course rankings. They're hard to get just right, and you invariably wind up having the owners, members, pros, architects, greenskeepers, waiters, etc., of every course except one (No. 1) mad at you. 

But like anyone else, I enjoy looking at the various lists to see how my personal evaluations of these courses compared to these rankings, which a great man once referred to as "a collective guess, an objective average of subject opinions."

That said, I fully expect the 7,294-yard Ballyhack Golf Club outside Roanoke, Virginia, to be on the short list of the best courses of the year. Architect Lester George built some dramatic holes on former farmland. After the jump, some more pics to get the award season started. (Click on the images for full-size versions.) 

Second Shot

In an odd but most welcome scheduling hiccup, I was able to play two of the best courses in Northern Ireland twice last week. I played Portstewart and Royal Portrush (fairway bunker on the 17th hole, pictured) before my conference then got to play both in a single day the day after.

What struck me was how much my opinion of the Strand course at Portstewart changed during my second visit. After my first round, I thought that the course too extreme. The front nine is routed over and between some of the biggest dunes I have ever seen on a golf course—some were 200 feet high. 

The experience wasn't so much links golf as it was mountain golf. The back side was much flatter, and the holes were so different from what had preceded them. After putting out on the 18th hole, I felt disoriented, as if I had just finished riding a roller coaster. Hours later at dinner, even after gathering our wits, my playing partners and I couldn't figure out the layout.

Ranking Augusta's Holes

It's always to fun to stand by the 1st fairway, near where many spectators enter the grounds of Augusta National, and see the awe on their faces as they see the course for the first time. These first-timers are happy just to be among the sea of perfectly manicured turf, tall pines and hills that match the course's epic scale.

As they learn more about the course, they will soon learn that not every verdant fairway is created equal. Here is how the 18 holes rank in one observer's view:

1. Azalea, No. 13
Par 5, 510 yards
The ultimate risk/reward hole. A perfectly sculpted tee shot can leave a mid-iron into the green, protected by a tributary of Rae's Creek. But the hole's excitement comes after an average drive, which leaves the player with a tantalizing second shot that is short enough to be reachable but long enough to put serious doubts in the player's mind.

The King and His Court

OK, now we know that Pat Perez can get just as hot with his golf clubs as with his temper. At the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer*, his rounds of 61 and 63, which set a new PGA Tour record for the first 36 holes, were downright rude to the tournament host, especially considering the 61 came at the PGA West Palmer course.

At any other event, shooting 124 in the first two rounds would give a player a huge lead. But at the Hope, Perez was just two shots ahead and there were NINE players within five shots. Low scoring has always been a tradition at the Hope, where the courses are relatively easy (the Palmer course measures just 6,950 yards), greens are soft and the weather is as perfect as inside a dome.

Waialae Country Club

I was introduced to Seth Raynor in high school, although I had no idea who he was at the time. The occasion was a match at the Creek Club on Long Island. It was a great course, and I enjoyed playing it, but I didn't really appreciate the experience.

Now that I've learned a bit about Raynor and his work, I wish I had paid more attention to the course instead of trying to win my match. (I didn't, but here's my excuse: My opponent, Louis Body, against whom I wound up playing in college as well, was a Creek member so he had a significant advantage.)

Similarly, I imagine players in contention on Sunday will give little thought to the architect as they play Waialae, the only course on tour designed by Raynor, one of the leading lights of the Golden Age. Raynor was an engineer hired by C.B. Macdonald to help build the National Golf Links of America, the country's first great course. They worked together so well that they collaborated on other great courses like Mid Ocean in Bermuda and Long Island's Lido, widely considered to be the best course that no longer exists.

Overlooked Genius

I have found that there is a pretty significant range of knowledge among golfers when it comes to golf courses and architects. While Bill Coore is highly regarded by aficionados, the name usually draws a blank stare from the average golf fan, who may offer a glint of recognition only after the mention of Coore's famous design partner, Ben Crenshaw. (And chances are, they know Crenshaw the player, not as an architect.)

For these casual observers, much of their knowledge of golf course architecture is determined by what they see on TV. American golfers expect to see wall-to-wall green at their courses largely because of the standard set by Augusta National during the Masters, the most widely viewed tournament of the year. There are other examples:

• Pete Dye had built some pretty good courses, but he didn't become famous until Jerry Pate threw him into the lake beside TPC Sawgrass' 18th green after winning the 1982 Players Championship.
• Very few people can name an original course built by Rees Jones, but everybody knows that he is the "Open Doctor" who has renovated numerous U.S. Open (and PGA Championship) courses.
• Gil Hanse is poised to be an A-Lister, but his star didn't begin to rise until he received praise for his renovation of TPC Boston during the telecast of the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship.
• Even with the 0.7 rating of the made-for-TV Kiwi Challenge, far more people were exposed to Tom Doak being interviewed about his New Zealand course Cape Kidnappers than have played his masterpiece, Oregon's Pacific Dunes.

Beauty and Beast

There is no shortage of lists when it comes to golf courses, and the latest entrant into the crowded marketplace is John Deere.

That's right, the famed tractor company has compiled a list: "The 18 Most Beautifully Brutal Golf Holes."

We know the suspense is overwhelming, so we won't keep you waiting.

Design Contest Update

Lead architect Chris Wilczynski sent me an in-progress photo (click to enlarge) of the 13th hole at Westhaven Golf Club in Franklin, Tenn., just outside Nashville. For those who recall, the 13th is the hole by Doug Wright, the Lehigh student who was the winner of our Design Contest.

Chris, a principal at Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates, reports that the hole is almost exactly as Doug drew it up. (Click on the drawing below for a better look.) As you can see from the photo, the tee shot looks to be an exacting one, with the player needing to decide whether to play the safer line to the left of the "island bunker" or to attack the right side of the hole to leave an easier approach to the green.

No doubt, the hole will be one of the highlights when Westhaven opens this summer.

10 To Dye For

Monday will be a huge day for Pete Dye. That's when he will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, along with Bob Charles, Denny Shute, Carol Semple Thompson, Herbert Warren Wind and Craig Wood.

Incredibly, Dye will only be the fifth man inducted into the hall as an architect, joining Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie, Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Charles Blair Macdonald. (I think the Hall is a great concept, and I take the privilege of voting for members quite seriously. But it's really hard for me to give the Hall a lot of credibility when Bing Crosby is a member while A.W. Tillinghast is still waiting his turn.)