JasonDeeganGA

I thoroughly enjoyed a quick buzz around this fun and interesting 12-hole, par-3 course. My only regret is I didn't play at night, which would have been a hoot.
The variety of shot-making is excellent. I hit a tee shot with every club from a 6 iron to sand wedge at least once. The mix of hazards makes the course so unique. The shortest hole, the 91-yard 4th, plays downhill to maybe the tiniest green in golf. The island green at 10 and the bunker in the middle of the green at 11 are a nice climax. Well worth your time and money on a Vegas buddies trip.

The more I play the Lake, the more I've come to embrace, not bemoan, its challenges. The course was rounding into championship form at the media day for the U.S. Women's Open one month before the event. With the bunkers deeper than ever, and most surrounding elevated greens, the Lake is the epitome of a second-shot golf course. There are some bunkers out there where double bogey is automatic for amateurs and bogey nearly guaranteed for the pros. The course plays long, thanks to the rough and San Francisco's heavy air. I don't think you ever conquer the Lake. You're just happy to survive. As one-ball golf courses go, this might be the hardest.

Golfers who look down see signs that Lake Powell National is a muni with bald spots in fairways and slow, patchy greens. Golfers who keep their heads up, however, are treated to scenery that competes with Wolf Creek in Nevada and Sand Hollow in Utah for the most beautiful inland course in the American Southwest. I'll take these views over a cookie-cutter course design with better conditioning every time.
The back nine climbs to higher heights with panoramic views of the Glen Canyon Dam where the Colorado River becomes Lake Powell. The 15th hole, a 191-yard par 3, plummets off an elevated tee with a stirring drop to the green. With all the red rocks, bunkers, some water and elevation changes, it's a stiff test of golf, but one well worth experiencing.

Sand Hollow is quickly rocketing up my favorite courses to play. It's fair, fun and scenic with a variety of strong holes. Those four characteristics are the ones I seek every time I'm reviewing a course (along with value). I played with three long hitters who dragged me back to the 6,893-yard blues, creating perhaps the longest course I've ever played. The wide fairways and firm and fast conditions still allowed me to keep up with my more talented partners and have a good time while shooting a decent score. Kudos to the design team for the playability and the maintenance crew for the excellent conditions.
Obviously, the back nine is where Sand Hollow rises up the national rankings. The eye candy of holes 11-15 ranks among the most beautiful stretch of golf anywhere. One player made it through at even par for the first time ever, which earned him a performance bonus in the bet with his buddy. Memorable stuff.
With another nine (the Links) that's also quite good, a short course, a good restaurant, spacious accommodations with multiple pools and Mad Moose rentals for desert ATV/UTV rides right on site, Sand Hollow is one special place.

My fourth time was the charm at TPC Harding Park.
I still got my butt kicked score-wise, but the experience was absolutely perfect. It was the ideal San Francisco day. My foursome enjoyed some sun in the afternoon until things got progressively colder, windier and tougher to play. The sunset and playing 18 in the semi-dark made the walk worth it.
The rough was demanding but fair. The greens were a tad slow but again fair. The new driving range opened in February as a nice upgrade post-2020 PGA Championship.
The event has raised the profile of the whole facility. There's now a handful of must-do selfie spots - the statues out front, the PGA Championship murals in the clubhouse entry way, the lakeside 16th tee where Collin Morikawa drove the green for eagle and the scenic 18th green above Lake Merced.
Insider tip: Play the Fleming Course, too. You won't be disappointed.

I had never considered playing the Fleming in past visits to TPC Harding Park. That will change moving forward now that I've seen it.
It's unlike any "short" course you'll play. This isn't a pitch and putt or afterthought like most executive courses. It's the "major championship" of short courses. Every hole could easily bump up into the playing rotation on the big course that hosted the 2020 PGA Championship. The two shortest par 3s are "only" 140 yards. The longest is a 235-yard driver for most of us. Two of the par 4s are monsters, the 405-yard first and 425-yard 7th. The fun one is the 260-yard 8th. Rough almost as thick as the main course, a few tiny saucier-like greens and bunkers provide all the challenge you'll ever need.

Tiger might not get a better piece of land or a better owner to work for than his first public effort in the United States. Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops who owns Big Cedar Lodge, gave Woods the budget to create an epic 19-hole experience in the Ozarks. You read that right. This is an experience, not just a round of golf.
The fairways are as wide as humanly possible, allowing golfers to swing away. It's his green complexes and elevation changes that defend par. The water features at the par-5 4th, par-3 10th, par-5 18th and par-3 19th are stunning. They don't feel like gimmicky, Trump-made waterfalls. They at least fit into the natural terrain, falling off of rocks that characterize the region.
The 19th hole, a 137-yard par 3 to an island green, will be the highlight of the round, followed by the wild cart ride along the cliffs back to the hilltop clubhouse.
Famous Dave's does a nice job serving quality food in the clubhouse. All in all, a day you won't forget.

Tom Fazio's redesign of the old Branson Creek course set the golf boom ablaze at Big Cedar Lodge. Visitors are greeted at the clubhouse with sweeping views of the Ozarks. Real buffalo roam along the left side of the first fairway. It's quite the scene.
Buffalo Ridge Springs probably ranks as the hardest and most narrow course at the resort. It's loaded with twisting fairways guarded by scenic water features. It's a glorious cart ride from start to finish. If you can finish with one ball, you've played some stellar golf.

Mountain Top gets the par-3 formula just right. It's fun, fast, interesting, playable, walkable, challenging, scenic and flat-out cool.
It's as good for beginners as it is for buddies looking for more golf before or after a regulation round. There's no water or cross hazards, other than the occasional bunker guarding a front portion of the green but not the entire thing. The stretch from the downhill 7th to the rocky 8th and 9th is simply fantastic. The 13th green is made to funnel shots toward the pin, so take aim for that hole-in-one!
If I had a minor complaint, it would be to ask for a little more variety of yardages. From the tips, there's only two holes playing between 125 to 170 yards. Those are the scoring clubs I need work on (along with many other golfers). Thankfully, your group can likely mix tees up to find the perfect match for your game.
Mountain Top shares a clubhouse with Payne's Valley, so playing both would make for one of the best 1-2 punches in resort golf.

Phil Mickelson's BOMBs made Ozarks National look easy during the win in his PGA TOUR Champions debut. It isn't so simple for amateurs to go low. It's probably the toughest Coore & Crenshaw resort course I've played. With no rough, if you miss the fairway, the ball will bound into impossibly long grasses.
The front nine delivers what you'd expect from this dynamic architectural duo. It's filled with scoring opportunities with three par 3s, three par 5s and a pair of short par 4s. The back nine, however, felt like a penal parade of long par 4s (462, 440, 428, and 425 yards) with less variety. Maybe this issue can be solved with some combo tees. Most golfers will play from the golds (6,510 yards) since the whites (5,903 yards) look too short on the card. I love the inclusion of a comfort station with free ice cream, chips, snacks and hotdogs. Groups pass it several times, so nobody leaves Ozarks National hungry.

Top of the Rock will wow and intimidate you at the same time. It's a demanding test of golf. No matter how short the hole, there's always an obstacle in the way of par, a bunker, water hazard or slope of the green.
I'd recommend you play it twice before worrying about how poorly you scored the first time around. So much elevation change creates a lot of guess work with club selection. Plus, much of the first time you play is spent looking around at the scenery. Maybe the second time you can focus on executing the proper shot.

I got the rare chance to play this course during a trip to Seoul in 2016. It feels like a fantasy land. The massive clubhouse is the creation of an artist. The service and food are special.
The course is as scenic a mountain layout as I've ever played. There's wild elevation changes and fun, interesting holes.
Every player gets a caddie who has a remote that drives a five-person, driver-less golf cart, which stays on the path at all times. This setup allows players to walk the fairways when they want and ride the cart for the longer distances between greens and tees.
What everybody remembers are the tea houses - lavish snack shacks on each nine - and the ornate bridges leading to greens and giant doors on a cart tunnel cut through a mountain. It's an amazing place.

Haesley Nine Bridges is owned by the CG Group, which sponsors a PGA Tour event, the CG Cup @ Nine Bridges, at its more famous sister course, Nine Bridges, on Jeju Island. The layout at Haesley Nine Bridges is still spectacular, despite playing second fiddle to the Tour venue. No expense was spared, considering that subair systems were installed under its greens, ala Augusta National.
Three par 4s -- the long sixth, short 10th and the 16th holes -- finish at greens accented by manmade waterfalls. The dangerous par-4 ninth kicks off a grand stretch that ends with a stop at a tea house overlooking a pond before no. 14, a bunker-blasted par 3 over water.
The day starts and ends at the stunning 16,000-square-foot clubhouse. Three-story glass windows out back showcase the golf course, but it's the wooden pillars that weave into hexagonal shapes near the ceiling that are most mesmerizing.

I played Taekwang Country Club in 2016 at night under the lights. What a cool way to play golf. I warmed up on a four-deck driving range that's so popular, my group even saw an LPGA Tour player there practicing.
The whole facility is so busy that most of the 36 holes have double greens sitting side by side to handle the wear and tear and traffic from the golf-mad locals. Plus, the ability to play after dark keeps things hopping day or night.
Taekwang, mostly a private member's club, is walkable, enjoyable and playable, but only 18 of them are open to the public. Female caddies control five-person carts by remote control. They are a staple at high-end clubs, even though it has a sort of muni feel in terms of conditioning and elementary architecture.

The social distancing mandates forcing twosomes have made Harding Park an even more enjoyable walk among the most impressive and imposing trees in golf. It feels like a country club where you can enjoy the beautiful lakeside setting without scores of other golfers invading your space.
The rough is lush and ready for a PGA Championship should the tournament take place in August. If you keep your ball in the fairway, you've got a chance to score. All in all, I gained a new respect for this Bay Area standout.

With no pins due to county "social distancing" mandates and thick rough because of a smaller than normal staff, Silverado's tricky North course played even tougher than ever ... and I enjoyed every minute.
For such a classic design, the North seems to play harder than it looks. Nobody ever makes any putts (except the pros) and the par 4s seem to play long. If your game goes sour, suck down a burger dog. You'll feel better, and maybe even play better.

I've played the North 4-5 times now, including that same morning, so what a pleasant surprise the South turned out to be on a hot 36-hole afternoon.
The land was more inspiring than the North. More hills equals more vistas, more interesting lies and all around more fun. To be honest, it's also a little easier than the North, so that gets a few bonus points in my book.
I wish I had played it prior to Johnny Miller's renovation. Whatever he did, it makes sense. Just like the North course, the burger dogs never disappoint.

What Costa Palmas does best is provide a completely different playing experience than its competition in Cabo. It has similar amenities to the area's best courses - a great hotel (a Four Seasons), incredible comfort stations serving free food and drinks, great conditions - but is more walkable and player friendly, two characteristics I covet. You can play a dozen or more rounds before losing a ball. The trade-off is less scenery.
The obstacles are an endless oasis of sand and the wind. Both my windy-season rounds were spent battling relentless gusts off the water. Because of it, the rounds felt more engaging and fun. I had to make tough decisions on club selection and play SHOTS, not just swing away.
Take full advantage of the comfort stations. They're two of the best in Cabo. Bouchie's (by the first tee) is a really cool hang. It's adjacent to the massive putting green that doubles as a putting course and a driving range that doubles as a short course.
Getting to Costa Palmas isn't easy. It's an hour from the airport in the opposite direction of the tourist zones. But it's well worth the effort.

Rancho San Lucas shoots up near the top - if not TO the top - of my favorite courses in Cabo. Playing six holes with architect Greg Norman at the grand opening has nothing to do with my affinity for Cabo's newest course.
It's such a simple, yet well-thought-out, routing in a spectacular setting. Norman teases golfers with holes 2-3 near the beach and then blows them away with three sand dune holes on the back nine, starting with the spectacular 14th. The island green on the par-3 17th is a nice change-up from all that sand before the par-5 18th takes golfers home.
The only complaint? I wasn't alone in feeling the par-3 11th was the only hole that didn't feel playable, a theme Norman emphasized. I lost my tee shot in desert scrub both times I played the uphill, semi-blind tee shot.
The fairways are very generous in most places, which is necessary for a site that can get windy, especially in the off-season. Norman designed a shorter loop with holes sheltered from the wind for just that reason. Food and drink are free at two high-end comfort stations. Only members and guests at Solmar Hotels and Resorts get access, so choose where you stay in Cabo wisely. You don't want to miss this beauty.

This was my fourth time playing Pasatiempo, so I had a game plan going in. I knew what clubs to hit and how to play certain holes. It paid off with a solid score on a course that is sneaky difficult. There are so many challenging par 4s - 1-7-10-11-16 - that it's hard to beat your handicap. The par 5s are beatable, but the par 3s take back whatever strokes you may have gained. They're mean (in a good way).
It's one of the rare courses that I could see myself playing every day the rest of my life. It's walkable, interesting, confounding, historic. A winning combination, for sure.