Great summary, Lukas! I chatted about this at kore length with Harley as well.

Yea I realized after asking the question that it won’t apply to many people but I’m always curious if certain courses from these designers turn people off. It’s often very difficult for me to find strong critiques of CC and Doak designs so I’m interested in differing opinions.

Riverdale Dunes for sure. I also like Murphy Creek, and I was pleasantly surprised by Spring Valley in Elizabeth. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Wellshire since it is where I learned the game.

Whoa! Thanks for sharing. Must try.

I’m also in atlanta. PDC is a beautiful piece of property. The course whipped me the time I played it. Public golfer here, love going to The Fields, sneaking a round in at Bobby, or finding time to play a new course. The atlanta golf scene is tough since the best courses are private and the public courses largely are forgettable at best.

How did you like it? I keep trying to convince my friends to take a winter trip there without luck.

Is Myrtle Beach suffering a decline? I have never been, but I assumed that with the golf boom that they’d still be enjoying a very robust number of golf trips. The people going on those trips are unlikely to be found on websites like this, but I think they far outnumber us. A heck of a lot more people eat at Applebee’s than French Laundry. It’s very similar to the Pebble Beach question. There are a number of us that would love to see Pebble Beach embrace a restoration. However, the place prints money and there’s no momentum to make it “better” until the people stop showing up with wallet in hand.

My rotation is CommonGround, green valley ranch, plum creek, bear dance, and Riverdale.

Interesting concept, I think it’s difficult to truly answer this question unless you are incredibly well traveled. Doak- I am not a huge fan of Stonewall - Old. I enjoy the North course at Stonewall quite a bit more. I’m not sure if the greens at Old were made so small as a way of keeping maintenance costs down, but I think the course suffers a bit when you get to the putting surfaces. C&C - I suppose Hidden Creek, but that’s not to say it’s bad. I think it has some fun, albeit unmemorable holes. I think maybe its subtle design, while very playable and enjoyable lacks a real crescendo. DMK- Stonebrae. Golf is better than no golf, but I found it a brutal walk through a layout that offered very little charm or quirk. Hanse- I settled on the 9 hole course at Sewanee. I think the two par threes are almost exactly the same hole. This could be rectified by the set up altering the tees, as there are options, but the times I played it they were carbon copies. Fazio and Nicklaus I’ll pass on, unless I could throw both Nicklaus and Doak in for Sebonack. Given the land and location it could be so much better. I think the hiring two architects is insane, but probably yielded far better results than it would have if they’d only hired Mr. Nicklaus.

I ended up talking about this on the podcast a bit but here's a little more on it: - Technically it's an environmental weed outside a km or so from the coast line - Over time (partly because of how quickly it grows) it's become a large part of the vegetation mix of sandbelt golf courses - It can be quite successful and useful as a screening plant to block views of homes, maintenance buildings, etc. or as a safety buffer - At Kingston Heath it is quite influential as a penal hazard - In general it is a poor golf plant as it is very difficult to play from or find a ball within it. It's a bit like gorse in this respect. - A lot of clubs in recent years are removing it and trying to promote indigenous heathland/grass type vegetation instead. At places like Royal Melbourne, the seedbank for this type of vegetation exists underneath the tea tree, and they have had success cutting the tea tree, burning it, and having these other species propagate.