Review of the Month - October 2022

Architecture Glossary - Valley of Sin

Top 100 Golf Courses of the World 2023

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Magnificent Madrid – not your average golf destination

Central Thailand

Thailand

Jack Nicklaus designed all 27 holes at Springfield Royal at Cha-am. The Mountain (A) and Lake (B) nines make up the premier 18-hole configuration, but the Valley loop is also worth playing at this impressive resort.

The golf facility here at Springfield Royal Country Club was one of several Thai projects undertaken by the Golden Bear during the early 1990s and it remains – along with 

Never a man to under sell his work, Jack says of his design, “it is a championship course with five sets of tees to play from, offering varying degrees of difficulty that accentuate the dramatic lush landscape. Be prepared for some long carries if you are brave enough to play from the back tees. It is one of the best courses you will ever play!”

Springfield Royal (A & B)

Asia

Jack Nicklaus designed all 27 holes at the Springfield Royal Country Club at Cha-am. The Mountain (A) and Lake (B) nines make up the premier 18-hole configuration at this resort.

Springfield ticks a lot of boxes as a resort course. It's well kept obviously, it has various hole lengths and doglegs, three nines, plus a couple of gimmicks - for example the par 5 18th’s island green (on the traditional tourist layout). There is a lot of water but besides 18, it’s normally down one side instead of being long carries. Sandy waste areas frame holes then don’t harm playability much as they’re firm and fairly easy to recover from.Highlights include the 7th which is a par 5 with a centre-line bunker. 13 is a mid-long par 4 with sand all down its right then its own island, albeit with more room than the 18th. Green complexes are interesting though won’t force you to rush back. I haven't got anywhere to compare this to in Thailand but for playable tropical golf this was a fun one-off and easily reached from Hua Hin. Package deals including transfer can be found in town.

Indiana

Officially opened on 1st May 2000, the William K. and Natalie O. Warren Golf Course at Notre Dame came about thanks to the generosity of alumnus William K. Warren Jr. The 18-hole layout is named in honour of Bill’s parents, combining his three great loves – family, golf and Notre Dame – and his magnanimity has also contributed to more recent course improvements.

Designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, the Warren Course nestles among 250 acres of woodlands on the north edge of the campus, within a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Host venue for the 2010 US Women’s Amateur Public Links championship, it was also used for the fortieth edition of the US Senior Open Championship in 2019.

The course is the home to the Notre Dame men’s and women’s golf programs and it has hosted a number of college competitions, such as the 2005 and 2010 NCAA Division I Men’s Regionals and the 2011 and 2015 NCAA Division I Women’s Regionals. In 2010, David Chung led Stanford University to the Central Regional title and a place in the NCAA Championship field. Three months later, Chung was the runner-up in the US Amateur Championship.


Warren

North America

Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore laid out the Warren golf course at Notre Dame in 1999 and it has since hosted a number of high profile competitions, and will host the U.S. Senior Open Championship in 2019.

When the tandem of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are connected to any golf course design the fanfare is certainly at a high level. It's understandable given the array of superior efforts the twosome has brought into being over the years. My brother-in-law attended Notre Dame and actually played football under former head coach Dan Devine. I have visited the Warren Course on a few occasions when traveling through the area and have to say the layout is very playable but it's hardly in the category of what the design duo have done previously. Warren is basically flat terrain.&nbsp;In general terms -- when you have a flat piece of property with little real natural movement the design effort is left with a limited range of options. The first can mean a significant amount of earth moving put into action. This can cause a range of issues -- the most noted being the lack of connection to the pre-existing property with an outcome that screams artificial finished product. Such a disconnect -- while possibly having holes of note -- can appear forced upon the terrain. If there's one thing that lies at the core of C&amp;C -- no pun intended -- is the magnificent manner by which they have fashioned golf architecture in concert with Mother Nature. Warren showcases a golf design using the existing property without resorting to a heavy-handed way in manipulating the property. While not overworking the site with massive earth movement -- the lack of real movement of the property does hold back the overall golf experience. Flat land can prove to be a very difficult chore to overcome. The outward nine is simply acceptable golf -- think of vanilla ice cream. Just basic nuts-and-bolts architecture. The inward half of holes is slightly better as Mark outlined in his review. The 18th&nbsp;is a fine conclusion to the round. C&amp;C tapered the landing area for the tee shot and players have to make sure when seeking max length, they work the ball correctly from right-to-left to find the ideal landing spot. Overall, the putting surfaces are functional but rarely complex. At different times you encounter subtle break points, but the totality of the greens is hardly engrossing. Mark also mentioned how Warren has much in common with another C&amp;C layout -- Hidden Creek -- located just outside of Atlantic City, NJ. The two courses have the same type of style -- both located on properties with little real movement in the land. There's nothing per se wrong with either course but the bar for C&amp;C is set on having been involved with designs rightly viewed as among the finest on the planet. When I think of C&amp;C I view them as Frank Sinatra -- not just your basic cabaret singer. From my golf experiences in the Hoosier State, I don't see Warren among the top ten courses in Indiana. The State has a number of stellar golf options, and the competition is quite keen. Warren benefits from being associated with two known commodities -- Notre Dame University and Coore &amp; Crenshaw.&nbsp;&nbsp; Playability and matter-of-fact design are not a sign of deficiency -- but neither does it signify excellence. For those heading to Warren go with your expectations lowered and you will be certainly entertained. Just don't expect the second coming of the Plantation Course at Kapalua or even Ozarks National in Missouri.

Surrey

England

Taken together, the New and Old courses at Sunningdale Golf Club represent the finest 36 holes of golf in the whole of the British Isles. The same architect who made modifications to Sunningdale’s Old course, Harry Colt, designed the New course, which opened for play in 1923 to meet the ever-increasing demand for golf.

“Compared with the Old Course, the New has seen many more changes in its short life. In particular, the original holes 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 were much criticised – mainly by older members – for the amount of climbing involved, and this led to major changes in the mid 1930s.

These holes were on the land to the right of the 10th hole on the Old Course, and to the left of 9th hole on the New course; some remnants of them can still be seen. Apart from the 6th hole, now the 9th, the others were all abandoned in 1934.

An Extraordinary Meeting was called to consider alterations to the New Course. A report by Simpson & Company, Golf Architect Ltd., had been commissioned by the Committee, and was discussed at the meeting. The E.G.M passed Mr. Simpson's proposals unanimously. His main recommendations concerned holes 6 to 10... which would overcome the problem of the excessive undulations of the existing holes.

In 1937, J.S.F. Morrison DFC, who had been Captain of the club in 1933, and was now a golf course architect, was asked to review the layout of these new holes which evidently had encountered much criticism. Again, no record of his report, nor the action taken on it, survives, but it is fairly certain that something like the present day layout resulted.

In particular, the 6th hole dogleg was created, the short 7th was scrapped, and the 8th hole was played from the present tee to a green cut into the hill behind the 5th green; the present green, further on and to the right was made in 1961. Simpson's 9th hole and 10th green were scrapped, resulting in the present 9th hole and green. The short 10th hole was revived, but from the present tee, and the 11th hole was again lengthened into the current lefthand dogleg.

All in all, the alterations to these holes, 6 to 11 on the New, were the most radical on either course, and also the most contentious.”

The New is a wonderful driving course for it is more open than the Old; the trees do not encroach quite so much. Having said this, the New demands long carries from its elevated tees over heathery terrain to narrow fairways. The club has been following a programme of regeneration that has involved the felling of a number of trees, thereby allowing the heather to return. In addition, this has cleared the way for long lost views to reappear across to Chobham Common in the south.

Many people will come to Sunningdale hell-bent on playing the Old course, but if it’s a real athletic challenge you are after, you will get severely tested on the rugged 6,700-yard par 70 New, a tougher, more rounded test of golf than the Old. For many years, Jack Nicklaus held the course record with a 67, which was a testament to the technical test of the New course. However, in June 2009, in Open Championship Final Qualifying, England’s Graeme Storm smashed the course record with an amazing eight-under 62 thereby securing his place in the 2009 Open at Turnberry.

There are many excellent and memorable holes on the New, perhaps not as many as there are on the Old but certainly the 5th is worthy of mention, a charming par three. The views across the treetops to the common beyond are superb.

Sunningdale is located on Surrey and Berkshire’s famous, magical sand-belt, home to so many other fine golf courses. There is no better natural inland golfing terrain anywhere in the world and Sunningdale is blessed with two of the world’s very best heathland courses.

Sunningdale (New)

Britain & Ireland

Taken together, the New and Old courses at Sunningdale Golf Club represent the finest 36 holes of golf in the whole of the British Isles.

Now approaching its centenary year, the fact the youngest course at Sunningdale is still named the ‘New’ could be seen as a disorientating title. This course is rich in heritage and architectural layers and has grown and morphed since it was originally laid out by Colt in 1923.There is no doubt it is the harder of the two courses; the primary challenges being the extra length of the golf course and the slightly tougher questions asked from the tee. This is evident from the very first tee shot, where foliage, out of bounds and an in your face fairway bunker await to the left of this slippery slither of short grass. At 460 yards from the tips, this is a 1st hole that shows this younger sibling means business.&nbsp;The middle section of the course is packed with wow moments, some original Colt, some the result of the course alterations in the 30’s. My card had asterisks on 4/5/6/7/9/10/11/13/15. I use an asterisk to highlight a standout hole or feature. I would have been better placing them on holes that were instead mediocre as these are the rarest features on the New.The par 4’s on this golf course are quite possibly some of the most memorable I have seen across one 18 hole layout. Extremely varied, but sharing the common theme of asking many exacting questions, and there a multitude of potential favourites. But pressed to select just one, it would be the blind 9th, a rollercoaster of a golf hole where you drive beyond the marker pole and pray that the ground is kind to you thereafter.The one shotters are no let down either and it would probably depend on the day that you asked me as to whether I preferred hole 5 or 10. Hole 5 possibly just steals it, with its mesmeric floating green and precipitous false front posing a challenge more stringent than it would appear.&nbsp;Finally a note on the par 5 6th. Like the 10th at Hankley Common, it uses a dogleg right with a clear sight of the green from the tee, to lure the greedy golfer in to a subconscious catastrophe. I love the simplicity of the trap that is laid here; see the prize two shots before you should be thinking about it. My advice would be to plot your way down this hole accordingly and treat both the tee shot and the green site with the utmost respect.&nbsp;Clearly these two golf courses share many qualities, but also offer their own unique challenges. The New feels airier and is lined by less trees while the Old feels more regal and intimate. The debate about which is the superior rages in many of the conversations I have about Sunningdale. Rather than becoming tribal in my allegiance to one, and in no way dodging the question, I will instead state that this is close to a dead heat for me. Two quite magnificent golf courses, belonging to one club (possibly the best club in world golf) and offering a lasting insight into some of Colt’s greatest work. A finer 36 hole day I test you to find..

Mpumalanga

South Africa

Leopard Creek

Africa

All Areas

Mauritius

Belle Mare Plage (Legend)

Florida

Tiburón (Black)

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