High Point (Willow Creek)

Willard Byrd accomplishes a rare feat with his Willow Creek course at High Point Country Club: His 18 holes at the club are typically more celebrated than Donald Ross’s earlier, nine-hole contribution (the Emerywood course).

Ross wrote in 'Golf Has Never Failed Me' that golf courses should be afforded just a few water hazards but, perhaps by ignoring this stricture, Byrd emerges the victor. He wasn’t brazenly attempting to defy one of golf’s finest designers, of course. As the title suggests, the waterway imposes itself upon many parts of the property.

Consider No. 12, where players must drive over the creek’s bend before heading back over the creek to complete a dogleg. Now the pond that sits on the left side of the green on that same hole...that may have been Byrd’s doing. Players will need to play to the inside of the dogleg to get the safest angle to the green but a centerline bunker guards that position off the tee. The hole can play as a par 4.5, even at just 427 yards!

Ross was certainly not a “heroic” architect per se, but it’s reasonable that he would approve of such tactics when employed in a strategic manner, such as what Byrd has done at Willow Creek.