Lives
Orlando, FL
Handicap
5-9
Age
45-54
Gender
Male
Skill
Advanced
Plays
Once a week

About

My dad introduced me to the game and to this day I can't be on a golf course without feeling a sense of awe and gratitude. My dad taught me that golf (and life) do not owe you a thing and that happiness and success come to those who work hard and follow their heart. Just like you, I'm in love with the game and so appreciative that we have this forum to share a common passion. See you on the course!

Review Statistics

Average Rating

4.8
4.8
Total 26 Reviews

Rating Breakdown

26 Reviews
5 Stars
21
4 Stars
4
3 Stars
1
2 Stars
0
1 Stars
0
Recommended Courses
26
Not Recommended Courses
0
Helpful Votes Count
14
Not Helpful Votes Count
7
First Review
02/27/2014
Last Review
07/10/2017

Reviews Map

Reviews

4.8
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First time playing this course
Recommended
Review has
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
First Time Playing
Walked

Favorite hole: Par 3, 11th hole (longest par 3 on the Red at 222 yards). Slightly downhill to a narrow green. Bunkered and protected on the front right with a sharp ridge running into the middle of the putting surface to complicate your putt. In general the hole plays shorter than it's yardage, but given it's length that advantage is offset by a relatively small target. I hit the green with my tee shot, but three putted over the ridge for bogey.

Overall the experience was fun and fascinating. I think the mark of a great course makes you want to immediately play it again and I wanted to do that both counter-clockwise (Red) and clockwise (Black). The Red had a gentle start and a very hard four-hole finish.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Layout Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent

Dundonald Links

Played On 07/01/2015
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Walked

Maturing into a very enjoyable modern links experience

A golf course is a living, growing and changing entity. Such was the case when I played the Dundonald Links almost ten years ago compared to a round last year. Located in proximity to great and historic links Kilmarnock Barassie, Glasgow and one of my favorites, Western Gailes, I came into my first round with lower expectations and they were met. At that time, Dundonald Links (originally known as Southern Gailes) was part of a recently failed golf and housing project that was bought by nearby Loch Lomond with the thought of giving it’s members a links experience to augment their brilliant and lush Tom Weiskopf design that embraces the shores of the ethereal and mysterious Loch.

My first impressions of the work of Kyle Phillips upon the sprawling property were simply that it was a dish not fully baked. Architects (and course operators) are aware that the majority of those who play their courses, particularly in the early days of significant work, will not notice what is not if you can focus their attention on what is. I sensed work awaited in drainage engineering and run off areas in particular. While these are not things of glamour, if left unchecked they can provide for a maddening array of inconsistency in ground conditions, causing some drives to bound and run (as they should on a course with the name “links” in it) or to plunge inexplicably. Given the weather of Scotland, drainage issues and run offs too severe for the common winds are troubling signs.

However, through the passage of time (and even more drama in ownership over the last few years), Dundonald Links has emerged as a highly enjoyable experience with former areas of concern corrected. From just over 6,400 yards to tipped out at 7,300 yards, Phillips has embraced a Kingsbarns design philosophy that provides for generous and creative landing areas, saving the greatest challenges for the green complexes which still fairly reward a well planned shot. Due to the aforementioned winds, the course can play much longer than the card. The par 4’s play deceptively long and I would say that the par 3’s are the true standouts of the course. The elevated par 3, 6th Hole is brilliant at 170 yards with a valley left and a pot bunker lurking amongst the seemingly safe haven of dunes behind the green.

Dundonald Links is as challenging as you choose to make it and it’s sweeping and equitable design provides for a very enjoyable modern links experience.

Oakmont Country Club

Played On 06/14/2015
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Walked

An unyielding test

Oakmont is one of the select few courses that is both an enigma as a fiercely private country club as well as being something of a public asset, owned in the hearts and memories of fans of the game that have watched the game’s history defined by it’s legends.
Oakmont is the hardest course in America in the minds of many. What is remarkable is that while that is very well true, the course is not unfair. How a course can challenge every aspect of a player’s game, yet reward a well thought out and executed shot at the same time is part of the magic of Oakmont. So Oakmont is not about indifference to good shots as it is about severely punishing a bad one. What’s more, Oakmont is not a one-trick pony. Oakmont’s greens are legendary, routinely rolling upwards to 14 on the stimpmeter, mandating that you must keep the ball under the hole at all costs. However, once you are at Oakmont you realize that the elevation changes and variety, look and length of the holes, brutal bunkering and lush rough are guaranteed to keep you fully engaged.
In keeping with the above attributes, my favorite hole was the par-4 3rd, stretched to just under 430 yards from the tips. This is the hole that plays host to the famed and iconic “Church pews” bunkers. These Church pews are more of the Puritan variety for if you are wayward they will not send you softly on your way with a few Hail Marys. Rather, you’ll pay a heavy price for your sins. Tiger double-bogeyed this hole at the 2007 U.S. Open and ended up losing to Angel Cabrera by one shot! Your work is not done even if you do avoid the Church pews for the approach shot is uphill to a well bunkered semi-blind green with a false front and a steep fall off if you go long.
Oakmont is not pretentious, it is simply a look-you-straight-in-the-eye unyielding test.

Conditions Excellent
Layout Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played

The best golfers in the world adore this Northern Irish links

There are many ways to measure a great golf course. To some, it begins and ends solely based upon how they played upon it. Others will judge based upon more esoteric criteria such as routing, green complexes, shot values and views. Regardless of what combination of these approaches one cares to employ regarding Northern Ireland’s Royal County Down, I would humbly suggest another for consideration: Think of the best golfers you know who have played the course? For that matter, think of the best golfers in the world and universally they will all sing the praises of Royal County Down with many declaring it the “best in the land” and still others convinced it numbers among the Top 10 in all the world! High praise, indeed.

Built in the shadow of the peak of Slieve Donard, the fairways at Royal County Down dart and hide behind ancient and rugged, rolling dunes. While it’s beauty is nearly distracting, the course does not try to court your favor. Simply put, the course might be the most difficult you will ever play (this is directly influenced by the mighty winds it is subject to off the Bay of Dundrum and the Irish Sea, but even in the rare occasion of little wind there is no respite). My favorite holes are the 9th and 4th. Rory McIlroy has said the view from the tee on the 4th are his favorite in all the world and the yellow-brick-road-like meandering and backdrop that define the 9th are equaling draw dropping. Royal County Down is special both for those who are not faint of heart and those who possess one.

Valhalla Golf Club

Played On 05/01/2014
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
First Time Playing
Used cart

Playground of mortal champions

In Nordic mythology, Valhalla is the great hall where the souls of Viking heroes celebrate with the gods. In the earthly realms, Valhalla Golf Club just outside of Louisville, Kentucky is the playground of mortal champions.

In keeping with it’s namesake, Valhalla is a golf course that plays big. At the 2014 PGA Championship, the course played just a hair under 7,500 yards (it can play even longer), but it’s effective length is considerably more because of the sharply rolling landscape. I was surprised at how big the hills were when I saw them the first time. In addition to this, the raised green complexes and false fronts make for a challenging combination. Add in the natural lush growing conditions and a fair amount water (particularly on the font) and you have a course that will give you as much of a challenge as you want.

The front nine is built on the lowest part of the property where thousands of cubic yards of fill were used to insure proper drainage in the case of big storms, so it is fairly open, almost links-like and significantly shaped. The back nine climbs back up the hills and is marked by more trees that have an impact on the ideal lines from the tee and on approach shots. My favorite two holes, by side, are the par 5, 7th a quintessential risk/reward split-fairway beauty of 597 yards and the par 4, 13th that is the shortest par 4 on the course at 350 yards. The fairway is well protected with multiple bunkers and the green is nearly surrounded by water and built up some twenty feet on huge boulders.

If there are golfing gods, then certainly course designer Jack Nicklaus is welcomed among their company. Fitting then, that this Valhalla gives you a chance to revel in the glory of the history and the challenges that define this championship golf experience.

I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Walked

Pinehurst No. 2 is a national treasure

Pinehurst No. 2 is a national treasure. While the Donald Ross’ gem always retained it dignity and challenge, as evidenced by it’s hosting a historic and a compelling U.S. Open championships in 1999 and 2005 (plus many, many other important tournaments, including the 2014 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in 2014), discussions of individual holes were always predicated with, “…when it was originally designed, it was…”. Well, after the Coore & Crenshaw restoration what was, once again, is. Their efforts brilliantly allowed the course to bloom anew. The rough is defined by vast sandy areas and wire grasses, allowing fortune it’s fancy, but it the revelation of the Ross’ ingenious original shaping and tee to green artistry will be the restoration’s lasting legacy. While the par 3, 17th hole and difficult par 4, 18th hole will garner most of the attention at the 2014 U.S. Open, my favorite stretch of holes are 389 yard, par 4, 3rd hole, 569 yard, par 5, 4th hole and 476 yard, par 4, 5th hole. Each stands alone in it’s design merits and challenges utilizing the natural slopes of the land in perfect harmony with green contours and bunkering.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Fair
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Used cart

“Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” Yea, you probably know where I’m going. Pinehurst’s No. 4 would easily be the crown jewel of any other collection of cours

“Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” Yea, you probably know where I’m going. Pinehurst’s No. 4 would easily be the crown jewel of any other collection of courses, if it were not for it’s famed sibling, the brilliant Pinehurst No. 2. Tom Fazio renovated No. 4 in 2000 and the results are excellent. The 170 yard, par 3, 4th hole is a downhill beauty that requires a precise tee shot over a lake and equally as challenging (and risk-and-reward thought provoking) is the par 5, 13th hole that is a sharp dogleg to the left around a lake. A decent drive leaves you close enough to hear the sirens sweetly singing, begging you to go for the green in two, a carry of upwards to 200 yards over water. Both holes represent the quality and variety of the holes on No. 4 and how great golf comes in many varieties at Pinehurst.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Walked

Newport National is perennially voted the “#1 Course You Can Play in New England,” and was named by PGA.com as #8 in it’s listing of the Best American

Newport National sits upon the highest point of Aquidneck Island, surrounded by the Sakonnet Passage, Narraganset Bay and the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean, providing for beautiful views. The Arthur Hills and associate Drew Rogers designed course was not built to play like a links course, but sometimes golf courses have a way of writing their own story. Pristine seaside creeping bent from tee to green, the shale base and gentle slope of the land, augmented by fescue that dances in the ocean breezes like a horse’s mane, combine to confound your senses, having you believe you are on the far side of the Atlantic water hazard, perhaps someplace on the coast of Ireland? The downside is the course’s lack of a clubhouse (construction trailers serve the part) and practice facilities, however, as Newport National is perennially voted the “#1 Course You Can Play in New England,” and was named by PGA.com as #8 in it’s listing of the Best American Links, it is clear why golfers love it.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

Lahinch Golf Club - Old Course

Played On 08/24/2013
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Good weather
Walked

Could be the finest links in all of Ireland and keeps getting better

Lahinch Golf Club is considered the "St. Andrews of Ireland." The moniker is an apt one as the town of Lahinch, hard on the Atlantic Ocean and in the shadows of the Cliffs of Moher (a must see) and the golf course are synonymous in many ways. St Andrews’ favorite son, Old Tom Morris, was the first to shape these links (followed by Dr. Alister MacKenzie and more recently by Martin Hawtree) and two of the course’s most iconic holes, the par 5, Klondyke and the par 3, Dell, are Old Tom originals! 

As well know and respected as Lahinch is, I don’t think the course gets the credit it deserves.  A strong argument can be made that Lahinch is the finest links course in all of Ireland.  The front nine requires finesse while the back nine is about pure brawn. The result is a pure joy.

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

Royal Portrush Golf Club - Dunluce

Played On 08/22/2013
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Good weather
Walked

Royal Portrush’s Dunluce course is the only course in all of Ireland to have hosted the Open Championship

Its one thing to declare a course as distinctive based solely upon conviction, it is quite another thing when a course has the weight of history on it’s side.  Royal Portrush’s Dunluce course is the only course in all of Ireland to have hosted the Open Championship and in 2012 it played host to the Irish Open, becoming the first regular European Tour event to sell out!  Royal Portrush still retains the look and feel of a classic Harry Colt design and perhaps the greatest compliment one could make about the course is that it is a world-class competitive challenge, but always indisputably fair.  In short, Royal Portrush is a brilliant links golf course.

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

Ardglass Golf Club

Played On 08/20/2013
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Good weather
Walked

One of my favorite golf experiences in all of the Emerald Isle

Ardglass is one of my favorite golf experiences in all of the Emerald Isle.  It starts upon pulling into the car park, after weaving through winding medieval streets and between multiple castle ruins and tower houses, one gazes upon perhaps the most unique 1st tees in all of golf!  The 1st tee is built in the courtyard of an 800 year-old castle that has been adopted as Ardglass’s clubhouse (having a pint between the turrets is a post-round must-do).  The course retains this same unique character in that it is both charming and rugged.  Despite benefitting from it’s proximity to Royal County Down, Ardglass is still a hidden gem to many an international golf tourist.

Conditions Excellent
Value Excellent
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Good
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging

Medinah #2 at Medinah Country Club

Played On 08/12/2013
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Walked

Medinah No. 3 is one of the best courses in the United States and the drama that has played out there has helped define American golf

History does not make a golf course great, but it is no coincidence that great courses have distinctive history. Medinah No. 3 is one of the best courses in the United States and the drama that has played out there has helped define American golf. Medinah sits outside Chicago and like the city it calls home, Medinah is broad-shouldered and pure beef, but not full of itself. Length off the tee is a prerequisite to playing well at Medinah (the Silver tees are over 7,000 yards, for the 2012 Ryder Cup, the course was set up over 7,500 yards) a stark reality that is underscored by lush conditions. Accuracy with your irons is also an asset (three of the four par 3’s are all carry over water) and the greens are super fast. No shock that my favorite hole is the par 4, 16th, made famous in the 1999 PGA Championship when Sergio Garcia took a miracle swipe from behind a tree and somehow found the putting surface. Finding the putting surface is a challenge even in the best of circumstances as this dog-leg left might be the hardest par 4 in America.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Fair
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

Prestwick Golf Club

Played On 07/23/2013
I Recommend This Course
4.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Average weather
Walked

Authentic, rugged, quirky and blissfully out of touch would all be appropriate accounts of this museum that features multiple blind holes, small and w

People are amazed when they learn that Prestwick is second only to the Old Course in the number of Open Championships it has hosted (24), having hosted it’s last in 1925. So it is important that one approaches the experience with an appreciation for being swept up by things that were. Old Tom Morris was the course’s first “Keeper of the Green,” in 1851, when the course was twelve holes (an additional six were added in 1883). Authentic, rugged, quirky and blissfully out of touch would all be appropriate accounts of this museum that features multiple blind holes, small and well protected greens and wild variety at every turn. Prestwick is a joy and should be on every golfer’s bucket list.

Conditions Good
Value Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Good
Amenities Good
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging

St. Andrews Links - Old Course

Played On 07/17/2013
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Good weather
Walked

Play the fabled Old more than once

The experience of playing the Old Course starts long before you step upon the first tee at the venerable “Home of Golf.”  Propriety saw it’s original 22 holes reduced to 18 and the template was forever more.  Interestingly, if one is not otherwise swept up inexorably in the significance of what the Old Course represents, many depart a maiden tour more bewildered than enraptured.  give it time, as time is one of the Old Course’s greatest assets.  You simply must play the Old Course, but strive for more than once and give it time for it’s nuances to be revealed, as time is one of the Old Course’s greatest assets.

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Somewhat Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Excellent weather
Walked

Beautiful, thick and unyielding native grasses anticipate a careless shot

Americans have a certain affinity for Royal Troon, if judged by their proficiency in Open Championships held there. The Open has been hosted by Royal Troon on eight occasions and won by Americans the last six times (Palmer, Weiskopf, Watson, Calcavecchia, Leonard and Hamilton). Traditional links are designed “out and back,” meaning that the farthest point from the clubhouse is the 9th green, then one battles their way “home.” Due to a predominantly northwesterly wind, never is that more true than at Troon. A manageable series of par 4 holes define your start. The par 3, 123 yard, 8th hole, known as the “postage stamp” is one of golf’s special joys (Gene Sarazen made an ace there in the 1973 Open at age 71, fifty-years after competing in Troon’s first Open in 1923). The back nine will test the resolve of even the most ardent as evidenced by the 490 yard, par 4, 11th hole where the railway on the right side of the hole awaits to derail your efforts. Beautiful, thick and unyielding native grasses anticipate a careless shot. In another interesting piece of trivia, Royal Troon, which was granted Royal patronage in 1978, is the first (and as yet, the only) course to be granted such under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Average
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

The North Berwick Golf Club

Played On 07/10/2013
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Average weather
Walked

North Berwick’s West Links is one of the most authentic links experiences you can have in Scotland

North Berwick’s West Links is one of the most authentic links experiences you can have in Scotland (I am fully aware of the significance of such a statement) and comparable to Brora, which is further north, in it’s ability to carry you back to the very origins of the game. The course is deliciously idiosyncratic with wild humps, swales and stonewalls needing to be negotiated. Because the course is perched above the Firth of Forth, the views of the sea and the Bass Rock are so stunning such as to be distracting, if this tour through golf history was not otherwise so compelling. The par 3, 15th hole, known as the “Redan,” is one of the most significant holes in golf and oft times copied in whole or part. One of the many beauties of North Berwick is that this course is not designed for the occasional appearance of the world’s best, but for those who pay the freight every day, so the pace is fast (the club targets three hours as the mark), it’s not massively long and the rough is manageable. North Berwick is a textbook about golf as it should be.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Good
Pace Excellent
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Good weather
Walked

Quite possibly Britain's most difficult links

Carnoustie is not romantic, it does not whisper sweet refrains of the joys of a life lived without constraint. In many ways, it is perfectly fitting that this was the course where Ben Hogan won his one and only Open Championship in which he competed in 1953 (the Scots named him “the wee Ice Man” that week). Like Hogan, Carnoustie is a course that we want to love and to understand it’s mystery; it’s mystic, but it remains emotionally indifferent in guiding us down our pathway to discovery.

Carnoustie is described as the most difficult course in all of Great Britain and it may well be if the winds of fate turn against you. From the par 5, 6th (“Hogan’s Alley”) to the finishing holes that posses the subtlety of a punch in the jaw, Cournoustie could not care less about your sense of inspiration, yet you will depart inspired none-the-less.

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

Loch Lomond Golf Club

Played On 07/09/2013
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
First Time Playing
Excellent weather
Walked

Loch Lomond is not a Scottish links course, yet it is typically Scottish; both tough and welcoming in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get sort of way

Scottish lochs, these massive expanses of water authored during the age when glaciers simply cut off their ancient connection to the sea and their accomplice surrounding mountains, are renowned for their misty beauty and elusive mystery. A visit to the loch will undoubtedly conjure up images of dragons and knights, but ultimately leaves more questions unanswered than revealed, which somehow seems perfect for such a place where one’s imagination is free to soar. So it is against this canvas that Tom Weiskopt (and Jay Morrish) crafted the Loch Lomond Golf Club in 1993. Loch Lomond is not a Scottish links course, yet it is typically Scottish; both tough and welcoming in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get sort of way. Loch Lomond does not attempt to deceive you or riddle you with subtlety. It is a big course with it’s challenges and opportunities set right before your eyes. A particular sight to behold is the final hole. The green is built in the shadow of the ruins of the Rossdhu Castle where Mary Queen of Scots is said to have penned her love letters. It is remarkable to consider that where knights once fought to protect the castle is now a place where you fight to finish off a round of golf that may have you writing your own letters of a newfound love.

Conditions Excellent
Value Good
Friendliness Excellent
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging

Kingsbarns Golf Links

Played On 07/09/2013
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Good weather
Walked

A distant past yields new modern challenge near St. Andrews

Located six miles outside of St Andrews, Kingsbarns is (one of the few) and finest links courses built in the last twenty-five years.  Crafted by Kyle Phillips on the site of an ancient course dating back to the late 1700’s that had been lost to the sands of time, Phillips brilliantly set the course into the natural slope and contours of the land, creating a feel that this course has been here as long as the one that pre-dated it. Discovered ancient stone-lined burn and their own surreptitious 18th hole bridge (this one near the green), linking a distant past with a modern-day challenge.    

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
I Recommend This Course
5.0
Golf Advisor
Previously Played
Good weather
Walked

An eclectic mix of myth and legend

The Turnberry Ailsa Course is an eclectic mix of myth and legend, only it is nearly impossible to discern where one ends the other begins. Stunning views of the Firth of Clyde from the perched hotel are dominated by the Ailsa Craig, a massive “volcanic plug” that sits some ten miles off the mainland that sends one’s mind racing to things ancient. Castle ruins surrounding the oft-photographed lighthouse behind the 10th tee are purported to be the birthplace of Scottish hero Robert the Bruce and the land was used not once, but twice, as an airfield during the two World Wars (parts of the tarmac are still visible to this day). Golfing-knights of a more recent era defined their own exploits of lore, including Tom Watson, famed for slaying Jack Nicklaus in an epic “Duel in the Sun” during the 1977 Open Championship, Greg Norman, Nick Price and again, Tom Watson, during the 2009 Open when a heart-breaking bogey on the 72nd hole doomed his historic endeavor. The course is worthy of it’s place in history yet maintains a very present-day challenge, particularly the finishing stretch, to today’s golfing crusaders.   

Conditions Excellent
Value Average
Friendliness Good
Pace Average
Amenities Excellent
Difficulty Extremely Challenging
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