I will not stand for the erasure of the 1949 Western Open host, won by Sam Snead: Keller, located just outside St. Paul. (Editor's note -- everyone else will stand for the erasure.) In all seriousness, Keller is an amateur design that was restored about 15 years ago, is an absolute treat and fun course, and is a terrific example of a muni that can be well designed and maintained at reasonable rates. You can even play in four hours easy on a weekend morning. If you're in the Twin Cities area and have room on your calendar, get yourself over there.

Great write up. I think Watson went by the name of William, not Willie. https://scpga.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2021/01/William-Watson-bio-1-5-2021.pdf

edit - should say prevailing wind

The first hole on my home course is a dog leg right 310 yard par 4 playing into the prevailing years. Some people love it because all you need is about 170 yard tee shot to have a relatively short iron into a 2 tied green. Some people hate it because they can't rip driver into a wide fairway but if you can hit a cut about 220 you can put it right in front of the green. There was a movement several years ago to reroute the course to make this the 5th hole but it never got any traction. I like the hole because it makes you think right out of the box - safe shot or aggressive shot you choose!

One major difference is a lot of F1 evolution is in the name of driver safety while club and ball evolution (or at least resistance to not evolving) is in the interest of major manufacturers.

Provocative! Would have been 4 shots for Woosie at The Open though.

I'm in somewhat agreement with your examples, but would come back with the following: #2 at LLB is definitely on the edge of quirky/unfair. I have seen good shots hold that front tier though, it's just a tough shot. Ben in his reply states the strategy you can take on. If memory serves you would have to cut the ball a bit around the tree chute 50 yards off the tee to get to the optimal location, and your next shot wouldn't be too much easier. #2 at Lawsonia I think if they had an aiming rock and a diagram would be a pretty simple blind tee shot. Its bad for pace of play but the area to land your ball isn't too constricted if my memory serves me. #15 at Blackhawk it's been forever since I've played there, so no comment. That does sound dumb, and probably what you get for building your course through playing a game of telephone exchanging letters with Tillinghast (I believe he made just one very brief site visit as a consultant) and having 100 years of tree growth.

I'm with you here -- it's the one course at Bandon I was disappointed in, I think it really pales in comparison to Preserve.

Shortys is a little more gimmicky fun par 3s, Preserve imo is almost entirely legit par 3s that could be on any of the courses

Looking at the developments in Utah, they are very different it seems in what The Tree Farm and I'm guessing what he would want TBC to be. Makes sense maybe why not involved