I am aware of the importance of Pete Dye as he brought back strategic golf.

However, his courses that are designed to test the pros are more on the penal side of things. This type of design is great for the pros but not for 98% percent of the people who will play this course. The result of this is a 5+ hour round (mine was 5:35). We weren't slow, although some people went through a sleeve or two each, that was the pace of play for the day. I think that I can best sum this up as not a risk/reward course but a do or good luck recovering course.

As many know these holes from TV, I am not going to go over them. I will say that this course is a demonstration of what Tom Doak calls the "Paradox of Proportionality". Most people would say that, in golf, there should be an ideal line to hit and the further off line you are, the greater the punishment should be. This was at the heart of penal golf in the 50s-90s. Hit the middle of the fairway or middle of the green or suffer the consequences. The problem is that, especially on a course with this level of difficulty, mid to high handicap players are punished and aren't given the chance and/or don't have the skills to recover with their next shot. Instead, they are looking at double bogey at the least. Dye does put sides of the fairway into play here so there is some strategy as opposed to just hit the middle of the fairway all day. Sides of the fairway come into play for best angle of attack. However, miss that optimal line/side of the fairway and due to the water, deep bunkers, sloping greens, etc.-the scores can still rack up and pace of play slows down to a halt. If off the green it is rare that you can do anything but hit a lob/sand wedge. It would be nice if the average golfer saw the slope/rating and thought twice. However, this is one of the most famous courses on Earth so everyone wants to give it a go and that they do.

The course is not without any merits including the strategic elements of ball placement in proper sides of the fairway. It is an engineering marvel-Dye built this out of swampland. There is fun in properly executing shots-whether that is a tee shot, approach or recovery. The greens and surrounds have contours so putting, like everything else here, is a matter of execution. There is variety in the length of the holes and the routing puts wind into play. There are some very good holes here-most notably the par 3s and the three hole finish. Everything is immaculate, as it should be considering the cost, and there isn't a bad shot to be hit that isn't your fault.

By all means, if playing where the pros play is important to you then you will want to play here. I just found it to be too much of a slog to enjoy. I have nothing against Pete Dye-he isn't my favorite architect but my home course is a Pete Dye design. This is a test for the best-not my type of golf (I prefer courses with options for recovery, approaches and something other than a wedge if green side); especially when it leads to rounds that are glacial in pace. This is probably a once in a lifetime experience for most and if conditioning, prestige and tournament hosting determines where you play and what you enjoy then you will probably give this place a 5.5 or 6. I realize that this is a top 100 USA public and most would have it top 100 USA period and world-I just can't rate it that high. I am not against difficulty-THE Royal County Down, Ballybunion Old and Royal Dornoch are three of my favorite courses on Earth and nobody calls those easy. I just find that this course, unlike those, is not one that you would want to come back to. I just really don't feel any amount of joy when playing courses of this nature.