Stone Ridge Golf Club (Bowling Green, OH)

Stone Ridge was designed in 1998 by Arthur Hills. It was the same year he did Red Hawk Run in Findlay.  Since I’m a huge fan of RHR, I’ve always been curious if Stone Ridge was just as good. I finally got a chance to play it on a beautiful 50 degree December day. 

(The 453 yard par four eighteenth is an excellent ending hole. A par here will win most carry overs or matches.) 

Upon arriving at Stone Ridge, I quickly realized the course is the classic definition of housing community golf. I’m generally not a fan of such tracks because the visuals are bland and boring. This fact isn’t any different here, however, the course itself is challenging and offers several interesting holes to keep ones curiosity piqued. 

(The par five fourth is 608 yards from the tips!)

The par fives are not your normal easy birdie holes. The greens are well defended, and the long hitter will often find more trouble than what he’d like. The small greens need to be attacked at good angles and with short irons. Hills puts a premium on being able to find these good spots. 

(The 542 yard twelfth is nicely protected by water and sand. The par three thirteenth is in the background.) 

(The 520 yard fourteenth is reachable in two shots.) 

Stone Ridge has a solid collection of par threes. Two of them play over water however the sixteenth captured my enthusiasm the most! It’s not often one sees a great volcano green, and Hills did a very good one here! 

(Compare the par three sixteenth volcano green to the foursome in the background. It’s definitely a target you don’t want to miss!)

(The 198 yard par three fifth green slopes towards the water so bailing out long or right is a tricky proposition.)

I felt disappointed towards the par fours. Usually Hills has a good mixture of long and short holes that require a lot of thought and strategy, but at Stone Ridge, the focus is primarily on picking a good line off the tee and challenging the trouble. If one is driving it good, then the two shotters offer a good chance at making birdie. The best par four is easily the eighteenth with its fairway hugging the water all the way to the green. The ninth is another fine one but this time the green is built up with a deep bunker guarding. 

(The 423 yard ninth) 

There are several par fours that are awkward with the tenth and eleventh being the biggest offenders. Eleven actually challenges the player to take on the homes if one is trying to cut off yardage! Mounds block the view into several greens. They are simply not up to the standard I’ve seen on other Arthur Hills courses. 

Stone Ridge is reputed to be one of the best conditioned courses in NW Ohio, and that is the strongest reason why golfers rate this course so highly. In my opinion, it’s not worth the two hour drive from Cleveland, but should one happen to find himself out this way, it’s worth a visit. I give Stone Ridge a 5 (good)(worth driving an hour). 

Oglebay Resort - Palmer Course (Wheeling, WV)

I’ve been to Oglebay several times but never played the Palmer Course until this past October. What it put it my radar was my friend Pizza saying it was in his personal top fifteen. My interest piqued, I finally made a concerted effort to see it. 

(The downhill 183 yard par three seventeenth offers great views and a chance at birdie if one can properly judge the elevation change.) 

Oglebay Palmer plays on opposite sides of a huge hill. 1-3 17-18 are on one side, while 4-16 play on the other. There’s no walking here, and the cart ride from 3-4 and 16-17 takes a few minutes. 

(The 480 yard first hole is a long downhill par four. The green has an upper front and rear tier while the middle is sunken. It’s one of the best holes on the course.)

With terrain this severe, the architect must come up with a good routing that takes advantage of the nuances and subtleties of such a large tract of land. Palmer’s group decided to tackle this challenge by designing a course with six par threes, five par fives, and seven par fours. 

(The par three third plays over the corner of the hill. The green is somewhat hidden by the elevation change, and slopes away from the player.) 

(The downhill par three thirteenth looks similar to the par three on the Jones Course next door. The player must calculate several factors when determining the proper club selection. It was three clubs shorter the day I played it.) 

Palmer also designed the course with wide fairways and large greens, and even though the property is severe, the course is very playable. That’s a testament to the Palmer group. It would have been very easy to have a couple holes shoehorned into the routing. 

(The 334 yard tenth is a driveable par four. There’s plenty of room to layup left or short of the fairway traps for those who choose to play it conservatively off the tee. The green is surrounded by a lot of short grass, so the player who can carry over the valley will have plenty of options to get his ball close for a birdie.)

(The uphill 560 yard eleventh has a two tier geeen that will require an excellent shot for those trying to shave a stroke from their score.) 

The superintendent keeps the course in excellent shape. In fact, I’d say, along with Peek n Peak Upper, it was one of the best conditioned I played all year. I agree Pizza that it’s on the short list of courses worth driving a couple hours. I give Palmer a 6 (very good)(worth driving two hours). 

(The 273 yard fifteenth is one of the longest par threes you’ll play!) 

Bandon Preserve- Bandon Dunes Resort (Bandon, OR)

One of the best amenities of Bandon Dunes Resort is its thirteen hole par three course, Bandon Preserve. 

Crenshaw and Coore designed it behind the Bandon Trails clubhouse and it has amazing views of the Pacific Ocean and the Bandon Dunes course. The holes range from 70-150 yards, and one can go out with just a handful of clubs to play it. 

The wind is the x-factor at Preserve and the day we played it was blowing 25 mph. The greens have incredible humps and bumps in them with hillocks to the sides to play off, so imagination is as important an attribute as execution. 

Bandon Preserve is some of the most fun one will have at Bandon Dunes. It is a definite must play when you travel to the resort. During the summer, if one plays two rounds, then the third is free. I feel that’s the best time to play Preserve, otherwise the resort charges a hefty price. (It cost me $100) 

(The view of the seventh green with Bandon seventeenth to the right). 

Old MacDonald - Bandon Dunes Resort (Bandon, OR)

       Top 100 Public Golf Course

           Golf Digest 2017-2018

            #10 Old MacDonald

I've only taken a caddy once in my life, and that was a forecaddy at Harbour Town, but when I go back to Bandon, I will definitely get one for Old MacDonald.  The 18k square foot greens have so much variation and nuance that a good caddy will save half dozen strokes, and enhance ones experience! 

(The opening hole is named "Double Plateau". As the name implies, being on the correct level is a must otherwise par becomes a challenge.) 

Old MacDonald is the fourth course at Bandon, and it was designed by Tom Doak to resemble a classic links course with long views stretching across the landscape. Several holes are almost always in view from each tee, and the golfer can either get a glimpse of what is to come, or reflect on what has happened. Doak also incorporated templates from Charles MacDonald and Scotland courses. It's such an authentic experience, and vastly different from Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes. 

(The third requires a strong drive up and over a towering dune.  The long tree acts as a directional guide...

...once over the dune, the hole tumbles all the way to the green. Learning how to hit a approach with dead weight is one reason why I would love to tackle the course again.) 

There are several renditions that are presented excellently by Doak. The  "Hell Bunker" hole has a massive bunker that challenges the player to get by it in two shots. 

And there's the downhill biarritz with a severe swale stretching across the green. 

Or the "Road Hole" with it's penal and ferocious bunker

These are just three examples of the varied holes found at Old MacDonald. 

I found the biggest challenge to be guaging the bounce and roll on the approach shots. In one situation, I overheard my playing partner's caddy say "it's 150 yards but I want you to play it 110 yards". This type of golf is unlike any most Americans have played. It's cool yet at the same time frustrating. 

Balls roll forever, even in the fairway! There are times one must give hazards unusually wide berth, otherwise the ball will catch a slope and scamper into it. 

The bunkering is the showstopper at Old Mac. From the rivet faced pot bunkers to the yawning sleeper bunkers, these hazards will strike fear into your game. 

You'll even have to descend steps to get into some. 

Old MacDonald does has some flaws. I believe the biggest flaw is the beginning of the back nine where some of the holes can be downright unfair. Usually I would never say that, but there are shots that most players cannot pull off. Greens on rolling plateaus with little chance to hold them means a good caddy will probably give you the right club to climb to the putting surface. Like I said in the beginning, I will get a caddy next time I play here. I give Old MacDonald an 8 (excellent)(worth spending a long weekend).

(View from Pacific Dunes overlooking Old MacDonald.) 

Bandon Trails - Bandon Dunes Resort (Bandon, OR)

     Top 100 Public Golf Course

        Golf Digest 2017/2018

           #14 Bandon Trails

What do you do when the first two courses you built are instantly rated top 100, and you decide to build a third? That was a very real question for Mike Keiser and Bandon Dunes Resort. They went with a duo whose work arguably rejuvenated the entire minimalist movement in golf architecture, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. 

(The 408 yard fourth plays over a large diagonal ridge. If you can get over it, then the ball will be above your feet and help hit a draw that will perfectly feed down onto the green.) 

Coore n Crenshaw were just coming off their design at Friar's Head to rave reviews, and Trails had many similar features, namely the transition from one environment to another. The final result was three holes in the dunes (1,2,18), five holes in the forest (9-13), and eleven in the meadows (3-8 14-17). 

(The 133 yard fifth has one of the wildest greens you've seen. The front and rear tiers are separated by a deep swale that forms a "bathtub" feature on the left.) 

(The 395 yard sixth features a drive over a large hill. A sand trap is right where a good drive lands. A poke down the left leaves this view.) 

(The seventh is a 440 yard uphill par four. The meadow holes have been favorably compared to the heathland courses in Great Britain.) 

Coore n Crenshaw have a knack for finding solid golf holes. They understand principles, and more importantly, flow, both emotionally and intrinsically. Bandon Trails starts and ends in the dunes, but the course really takes off when you reach the par five third and play in the meadow. The meadow holes are great! I think the native vegetation along with rolling topography gives the player a much different feel than being on the ocean. In fact, a friend of mine had gone to Bandon in April, and several players in his group liked Trails the best. 

(The forest holes play tween thick stands of firs, pines, and spruces. It's quiet in this part of the course.) 

(The 406 par four fifteenth shows off it's beautiful setting. The bunkering is visually striking, and the green is perfectly set at the base of the hill.) 

(The sixteenth is 530 yards uphill. Anything on the right will basically turn left and come down. It's a slog but the reward will be at seventeen tee.) 

(The gorgeous 182 yard seventeenth is downhill over native scrub to a green placed atop a ridge.) 

Bandon Trails is a great compliment to Pacific Dunes and Bandon Dunes. By going inland, Coore n Crenshaw gives the resort a change of pace and different look, and on windy days, a much needed respite. I feel with subsequent plays, Trails becomes a better course, and reveals itself more. I thought the meadow holes were so good, I wish they would've started and finished there. The dune holes look out of place, and in my opinion, are a bit of a letdown after playing in such beautiful land. I give Bandon Trails a 8 (excellent)(worth spending a long weekend). 

(The uphill approach to the eighteenth.) 

Pacific Dunes - Bandon Dunes Resort (Bandon, OR)

     Top 100 Public Golf Course

         Golf Digest 2017/2018

             #2 Pacific Dunes

Pacific Dunes enjoys a setting that is simply spectacular. Being high atop the bluff with views of the crashing waves and craggy coastline is damn impressive, but it's Tom Doak's ability to match the scenery with a great design and routing that makes this arguably the best course in the United States! 

(The 463/449 yard par four fourth is one of three holes that plays alongside the ocean. Both the drive and approach are challenged by the 105' drop! A four is a great score.) 

(This is the 199/181 yard par three fifth. The green is set in the dunes with a slight tilt to the right.) 

(What a great short par four!! Look at all the fairway to the left! The play however is challenging the dune and sand trap on the right...

...the green is long and slender so the approach must come directly from in front of the green. Otherwise one is pitching the ball over a severely deep trap  to a small target. The terrain falls off right of the green, so one better have practice the hybrid putt/chip. 316/288)

(The 464/436 yard seventh green is tucked in the dunes with a couple fescue topped mounds fronting it. Two strong shots are needed to cover it's length. Par is a well earned score.)

The inland holes at Pacific Dunes are just as compelling as the ocean holes. That is what makes this such a world class golf course. Each one has it's own distinct challenges, and the wind conditions can change them on a moments notice.

 (The drive on nine totally captured my attention! Where do you hit it? What's the line? Damn that dune looks far!..

...after a good drive, this is the view to the lower green. Yes there is an upper green but this is the better of the two. My favorite hole on the course!! 406/379) 

The back nine has a crazy routing but it doesn't hit you until you're adding up the scorecard and then you realize there's 4 par threes, 3 par fives, and only 2 par fours! 

(The back nine begins with back to back par threes. This is the view from the lower tee. It plays 206 yards...

...the upper tee is only 165 yards with a thirty foot drop. Doak said in "Dream Golf" that he wanted the lower tee because he felt the course needed a long par three into the wind.)

(The sweet eleventh follows with a short par three across giant blow out bunkers and a sweeping vista of the coastline. 148/131 yards)

(When you walk through the dunes and arrive at thirteen tee, speechless is the perfect adjective...

...the hole is 444/390 yards, and it can be a big club to reach it in two. The blowout bunker right is super imposing! Like many other holes, par is great score!)

(No bunkers needed to protect the green at the 539/504 yard fifteenth. A big knob and sweeping swale will make any ball not hit perfectly a tough up n down.) 

(The par three seventeenth is Doak's version of a Redan. The line is over the right bunker. There's probably thirty yards of fairway behind it, but the ball will trundle left and bound onto the putting surface.) 

Pacific Dunes made all the travel, time, and money spent worth it! It also illustrates what can be done when an architect lets the natural features dictate the routing. That last point can't be emphasized enough. Keiser could have demanded two "normal" par 36 loops, but he trusted his gut and let the architect he chose design a world class golf course. Pacific Dunes is my first 10 (perfect)(must play in ones lifetime). 

(I finished my first round at Pacific in the dark and the clubhouse stood like a beacon as I made my way down the fairway. It was a surreal experience. I could barely make out the ball by my feet, but when I hit it, I knew where it went by the sound and feel. Life is good!)