Great list of courses you have mentioned. Wolf Creek is a must play. I teed off about 545 am during July and it was blazing. Great course and well worth the visit.
I must disagree about the Gailes Course at Lakeshore. I completed the Golf Digest 03-04 Top 100 Courses You Can Play list and thought that was the most over rated course on the list. Just moving a little dirt and growing high grass did not make me feel like I was in Scotland. Disappointing at best.
I played the Dye Course in French Lick and really enjoyed it although I was expecting something different. There are some tough side hill lies and paired with the Ross Course makes for a good day.
As for reversible courses, I just played the Loop and while it is a nice course i was not a fan of the tee areas and am still working out an evaluation for the course in my head. I did, however, love Forest Dunes, an excellent Tom Weiskopf design.
At Boyne, I played the RTJ Sr., Heather course and thought it was an excellent layout and Old School tough.
My recommendations after my summer golf trip are yes to Bedford Omni Springs Resort Pa, Latrobe CC, Warren Course @ND, Forest Dunes, Grand Travers Resort, Lockenheath, Heather, Greywalls, both at Giants Ridge, Wilderness at Fortune Bay, Troy Burne, both at Sand Valley, all at Kohler, Erin Hills, both at French Lick, Old White at Greenbrier, and al three at Turning Stone, Colgate U, Pinehills Nicklaus, Lake of Isles and Bethpage red.

Great insight, thanks for sharing!

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Wolf Creek is a majestic layout, which puts a premium on shot placement. The views are spectacular, so have your camera handy on all 18 holes.

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Renditions in Md is a decent replica and is better than Tour 18 in Houston since it's on some natural rolling farmland.

Royal New Kent is a great Stranz courses that has been rebuilt in the past two years. Much like Tobacco Road it is a visual mind bender. You will end up in spots where you just can't get out. Stonehouse also rebuilt nearby and is a worthy 36 hole day in the Williamsburg, VA area.

Royal Links is a fun track. I love the concept of playing holes that look like the real thing. Especially if the real thing is completely out of reach for 99.9999% of golfers out there (Augusta National) or merely thousands of miles away and would cost thousands of $$$ to travel to/from and play there. (British Open courses).

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I highly recommend Wolf Creek. I played there 4 times and hope to go back next year. Actually played in a sandstorm on the last 3 holes one time. I have their Wolf Headcover. Tobacco Road was also incredible.

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Mr. Tucker, go play Wolf Creek. Bring a camera.

Wolf Creek is fantastic. Its playable,and lots of fun with 360* views,just like Gamble Sands,which also comes as advertised .Both may end up in any players all time list. For extreme mountain golf with "new style" architecture , try the Canadian Rockies at Canmore Alberta with the challenging Silvertip and the playable Stewart Creek.

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Mt Airy Lodge in the Pocono Mountains in Eastern PA was originally supposed to be a "Best Of" course when designed. But it quickly was on the end of numerous lawsuits for trademark infringement. So late in the game they had to redesign the course.

From the website they still make reference to its beginnings - "Designed after Sports Illustrated “Best 18 Holes in Golf”, each hole is modeled after golf’s most legendary holes from Championship course’s in America. Golf Course Architect Hal Purdy reinterpreted famous holes from such dynamic courses as; Pebble Beach, Oakland Hills, Merion, and Augusta National to name a few.

So if you squint really hard, and know the holes that inspired the course you can sort of get the idea. And for 18th you play Pebble Beach backwards in the opposite direction.

Stuart,
I find the objective view you've taken about what happened to Mt. Airy Lodge well articulated and very interesting.

For my part, I would argue against those who brought lawsuits against Mount Airy for several reasons:
A) The so-called "copies" will never be true replicas of the originals, and it's unlikely, given different turf and other factors, that they would ever really play like them.
B) The look of any replica hole I've ever encountered (or seen in these pictures) is hardly convincing, e.g., only Augusta National truly 'looks like' Augusta National.
C) Do those filing the lawsuits really believe that those who are going to play Mount Airy are playing there because they actually think it's a substitute for the real thing(s)?
I can't believe that's possible. The whole spirit of the thing is about fun, not an actual substitution. Copyright infringement seems to me to be based on the concept of getting a substitute item for nearly equal or equal value to the original. So to me, such lawsuits are frivolous and downright silly.

My interpretation is that those bringing suit were just plain greedy and seized an opportunity. What a surprise!

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Wolf Creek was a blast!

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Tobacco Road in Sanford North Carolina is incredibly fun. Architect Mike Strantz designed a visually challenging and beautiful course where you stand on a tee and say “Man, I can’t hit it anywhere on this shot”. Then when you look back at the tee from the fairway you say “Man, I could have hit it anywhere on that shot, there’s tons of room”. It is a fair layout where good shots are rewarded and bad shots get what they deserve.