Pros:
- My 250th Course. I was extremely happy to have this be my 250th course... not only was the course worthy of filling a milestone in my list of courses, but it was the courses opening day! (random luck)
- Completely Complete on Day 1. WOW... having designed and installed a few courses myself, I found it AMAZING that these guys were able to open the course with 2 sets of beautiful concrete tee-pads on every hole, beautiful tee-signs at every tee-pad, benches, trash cans, next-T signs, trails to the next tee, bridges, a mounded pin placement, and more... Wow!!!
- The Par 4's. Most of the Par 4's were very well done and really fun holes. They definitely added to the championship quality of the course. Holes 8 and 17 especially!
Cons:
- Redundancy. A few of the holes seemed redundant in their distances... being placed in the 340-390' range. The designers did this to create a more championship feel for "pro" caliber players, but in my opinion, that doesn't make it quality design. I feel as though the holes will simply yield a lot of Pars and keep scoring spread to a minimum among the top players.
- Wooded Holes. I didn't think any of the wooded holes were very good (Hole 10, 11, 12 and 13). Coming from NC, the wooded holes here were severely lacking. Hole 11 is way too short and goofy; and, Hole 12 is also too short... especially for a course that wants to be on the upper end of championship courses. And, Hole 13 wants to be a great hole but the placement of the blue tee-pad screwed up a good hole (beautiful trees on that Hole though).
Other Thoughts:
- My Apologies. I think I made some of the course designers upset when they asked me what I thought about the course after the round. I didn't mean to sound harsh by calling some of the holes "contrived" (Hole 10); and if I came off like an ass, I am sorry - please accept my apology. It's just that when I play a course, I compare it to the other 249 courses I have played... and thus, when you ask me what I think about the course--especially one that wants to be a championship course--I am comparing it to Iron Hill, Idlewild and WR Jackson.
- Overall. I was really happy to have this be my 250th course. I was in DC for work and drove the 45 minutes down to play... luckily for me it was the courses opening day! The course definitely has some Championship tendencies, with a few holes that seemed contrived (the woods holes). Some of the holes were seemingly repetitive in terms of distances, such that scoring opportunities were hard to come by (especially in the wind). However, with 2 sets of tees, beautiful tee-signs and all the other amenities you could ask for, this course is excellent.
- My Score: an unimpressive 60 from the Blues
Did not offend us after your round. Very constructive comments and we thank you for your honesty. If anything was "incomplete" with the course today, it is hole 11. Currently on 11 there is only one basket because we plan/hope to expand the hole beyone the ravine after exploring options to overcome difficult environmental hurdles to do so.
The grand-openning did not feature a "tournament" prefered basket layout, as we needed to diversify the configuration to cater to players of all skill levels. The redundancies i think will be aleviated when configured for tournament play. Thanks again for making this your 250! Hope to see you back again some time.