Loose Impediments

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.

Tough Finishes

I can't imagine a more nerve-wracking scene in golf than stepping up to the final tee during the final stage of PGA Tour's Qualifying School after playing 107 holes (251 if you started at the first stage), and needing to make par to earn a card for next year—whether you make par or bogey can mean the difference between the potential for millions on the big tour or playing just to get by on the Nationwide Tour.

At this year's Q School, those sitting on that precarious bubble can find themselves one of two final-hole options at the two host layouts: PGA West's Nicklaus Tournament and Stadium courses. Neither finishing hole will give up that final par so easily. The Nicklaus course's 18th is 453 yards, while the Stadium's is 439 yards. Both have water in play, so there will be little free-wheeling on either the drive or approach, and players will be holding their breaths until the ball comes to rest on land.

Making par on either hole will be a tough assignment, and just about the only bright side may be that there are tougher finishes out there. After the jump, 10 of the hardest finishing holes in golf.

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.)

Last-Minute Trip

What are you doing next week? If you have a couple of free days, you may want to go to the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay. Because some rooms just became available.

Just 30 miles south of San Francisco, it's a beautiful place with a hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean and two courses. The Arthur Hills-designed Ocean course just hosted the LPGA Tour's Samsung World Championship, won by Paula Creamer.

And while the Arnold Palmer-designed Old course is mostly inland, in my opinion it has the second most spectacular finishing hole (click on the photo to see a bigger version) on the West Coast after Pebble Beach's 18th. It's a 418-yarder that tumbles downhill from tee to green.

Wild Finish

Last year, the Wild Dunes Resort just north of Charleston, South Carolina, lost half of the 18th hole of its Links course due to erosion. It is quite a memorable hole, a 501-yard dogleg-right par 5 that sweeps along the Atlantic Ocean—as dramatic a finish as there is in golf.

Sadly, this isn't the first time Wild Dunes has been the victim of nature-caused destruction: It had to rebuild the oceanside 17th and 18th holes after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Now as then, the resort didn't go into mourning after it lost part of its course; it went to work.

Big Mac Attack

 

It's a bit unfair, really, for one resort to have three courses like Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails. And now, Tom Doak and Jim Urbina, the masterminds behind Pacific Dunes, the consensus No. 1 at the resort (or pretty much anywhere else), are hard at work on the fourth. It's called Old Macdonald, which seemed a bit gimmicky when I first learned of the name almost two years ago, but I find that the more I see it in print, hear it and say it myself, the more I am getting used to it—not unlike "Barry Bonds, all-time home run leader."

First, a little history: "Old Mac" is a tribute to American golf pioneer Charles Blair Macdonald, who designed the first great American course, Long Island's National Golf Links, a favorite of Bandon owner Mike Keiser. National was an adaptation of some of the best holes found in Great Britain and continental Europe, and Doak and Urbina (Doak's longtime in-house architect who finally is getting his name on the marquee, a long-overdue honor) have used these "template" holes as the basis for Old Madonald's design.

Running Mates

Whether picking a president or choosing a golf resort, the top of the ticket undoubtedly is the most important consideration. Like Barack Obama and John McCain, courses like Pebble Beach and the Blue Monster are the headliners. But just as a vice presidential nominee can sway your vote, the resort's other courses should factor into your decision-making process. After all, you don't go to a resort to play just one layout, and you want all your rounds to be memorable.

After the jump, here are my 10 favorite "second courses" at resorts. Some are so good that they would be the starts at other resorts. And this list is just based on the places I've been, by no means is it meant to be comprehensive. If you know of any others that deserve mention, please make your suggestions.

On the Precipice

Now here's a made-for-TV event that I would tune in for—or at least DVR. It seems that Julian Robertson has lured four young guns to New Zealand with a ludicrously large payday at a 36-hole event he calls the Kiwi Challenge. A former hedge-fund giant, Robertson is the man behind the event and the owner of both courses hosting the event, Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers, a pair of cliffside courses that are among the most spectacular in the world. But while everybody I've talked to who has played them raves about the layouts (Kidnappers by Tom Doak, Kauri by David Harman), the remoteness makes them all but unknown to the average golfer.