Peninsula (Marsh & Lakes) - Alabama - USA

Flat as a pancake with dish plate greens and dump truck tees. Course has been built in a housing development that provided little in the way of natural scenery, elevation changes or space to develop a challenging track.

Was in decent condition when we played all three nines in two days there.

The entire 27-holes is located on dead flat land -- as in the ant hills on the property are akin to the Rocky Mountains. Stone attempted to break up the monotony with the inclusion of a series of extended bunkers and on a few of the holes that inclusion works well. The main deficiency rests with the putting surfaces which are simply circular discs with little variation of terms of shape, dimensions and internal contours. When you have land not that significant it's important to provide a compensating inclusion elsewhere.

Water is a big part of the storyline when playing Marsh and Lakes but often times the involvement is really only present when a seriously errant shot is made. Angling holes and having tapered fairways in combination of movement beyond the straight-razor look would have helped matters. In regards to the water penalty areas -- having more of a diagonal presence would have provided a more exciting aspect of just how much to attempt to cut-off. A good example comes with the par-5 9th on the Marsh side. The water can inflict pain on both the tee shot and to those attempting the big carry to the green in two shots.

The 2nd hole on the Lakes is quite challenging -- here the hole turns left and the player has to decide on how much of the corner is worth taking on from the tee.

The facility has a good deal of housing so Stone made room for its involvement. As a result, you get a number of continual dog-legs providing for added space.

The Peninsula provides perfunctory golf -- the real details that would have truly elevated it are simply just missing.

M. James Ward