Pine Valley Video

I'm guessing the drone technology helped make this happen. A fun view, IMO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAlbmd5UdzA&feature=youtu.be

Spectacular. Thanks.
Amazing that you broke 70 there, Sr . . . . . . . . .

Then I played the 2nd nine ...

Fantastic course. Just proves a course doesn’t have to be long to be good. Penal to miss fw’s and greens, just the way it should be.


(...but the male only policy )

Great video and thanks for posting.

Pine valley being hailed as the best course in the USA has always puzzled me. It looks like a great experience but if Pete Dye or RTJ had come up with the design there is no way it gets those accolades. It is 18 holes of brutal penal golf with pretty much zero variety, and it maybe wasn't in the original layout but have you ever seen more bunkers behind trees?

So for anyone who has played it, how wrong is that perception and is it really the greatest course in America?

That's a good observation Mac. If constructed today would it be panned for being too penal? Too tricky?

I float between a 9 and 12 index (closer to a 12 these days) so I'm a slightly better than average golfer (statistically). If you are an 18+ it would almost always be a miserable round. If a course is nearly unplayable for so many, should it be ranked so highly?

That said ... I have NEVER been on a course that offered so many risk and reward options. Keep driver out of your bag and you will still be able to hit most any fairway, but be faced with a brutal approach. Hit a driver but miss it left or right and you pay a very different price. The greens, too, are full of complexity. It's very hilly which is sometimes hard for the video to capture.

It's also one of the best conditioned courses I've ever been on. And it's NOT the least bit stuffy or pretentious.

McLaren wrote:Great video and thanks for posting.

Pine valley being hailed as the best course in the USA has always puzzled me. It looks like a great experience but if Pete Dye or RTJ had come up with the design there is no way it gets those accolades.  It is 18 holes of brutal penal golf with pretty much zero variety, and it maybe wasn't in the original layout but have you ever seen more bunkers behind trees?

So for anyone who has played it, how wrong is that perception and is it really the greatest course in America?

Opinion polls are just that Mac, opinion. They are subjective aren't they?

Hilarious you complain about the lack of variety, yet love TOC so much. A course which really doesn't have any variety at all. Every hole plays as a flat, straight drive, no significant dog legs or challenging positional drives, just bash it wherever you want to massive and pretty flat greens. Pine Valley looks a lot better than that. What would be good is if they played an Open at TOC which was played the original way.

TOC would be an awful lot better if it was played the way it was designed to be played, instead of the unchallenging layout it currently is.

150th Open would be a good opportunity would it not?

Roller_Coaster wrote:150th Open would be a good opportunity would it not?

Would be nice, but the R&A are old farts who won't do anything interesting.
They're so sad they are attaching some stupid value to the 150th. It's just a number. The Open is fast becoming the worst major. THey need to do something

super_,
How WAS TOC designed to be played?

Pretty much in the opposite direction Kwini. Take for example the 12th hole, supposed to be played up to the 11th green, hence why all the bunkers are hidden from the 12th tee.

Aah, I'd heard that but didn't know if it was true or not.
Tks,

The Home of Golf...

pedro wrote:The Home of Golf...

? What do you mean?

super_realist wrote:

pedro wrote:The Home of Golf...

? What do you mean?

Isn't that what the TOC labels themselves as being, despite playing the course the wrong way? I just find it mildly ironic.

Here is a thorough analysis of what the reverse course might play like.

http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/jeremy-glenn-the-reverse-old-course/

I think it used to get played that way a couple of days a year, but I've not heard it being done in a very long time.

McLaren wrote:Here is a thorough analysis of what the reverse course might play like.

http://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/jeremy-glenn-the-reverse-old-course/

Did you write that Mac?

super_realist wrote:I think it used to get played that way a couple of days a year, but I've not heard it being done in a very long time.

I played it the other way round over Easter in (I think) 1995. It used to be played round the wrong way in the Spring in years when the Open was to be played in the Summer, to reduce the wear a bit.

I can't remember exactly how it worked but there seemed to be tees that I hadn't noticed before, and sometimes the tee markers were just placed just in front of the previous green, presumably for safety reasons. Quite a few of the bunkers don't work very well played the wrong way round, because the faces have been built up over the years. When you play it the other way round, the backs of the bunkers act as buffers, diverting the ball sideways round the bunkers. What I remember most clearly as I walked back up the 18th was that the local knowledge I'd built up from 25+ rounds on the Old Course was of absolutely no value. It was like playing an entirely different course.

Roller_Coaster wrote:150th Open would be a good opportunity would it not?

Maybe they could just start with the final round of the Dunhill Links Championship? That would in essence be like playing 4 different courses.
No need to invent new formats like super 6, shot clock etc., to generate excitement.

pedro wrote:

Roller_Coaster wrote:150th Open would be a good opportunity would it not?

Maybe they could just start with the final round of the Dunhill Links Championship? That would in essence be like playing 4 different courses.
No need to invent new formats like super 6, shot clock etc., to generate excitement.

What they could do is make a composite course of the Old, New and Jubilee.
Golf is so slow that ferrying players between holes wouldn't make it any worse. At least they'd have a proper course for a change.

super_realist wrote:

pedro wrote:

Roller_Coaster wrote:150th Open would be a good opportunity would it not?

Maybe they could just start with the final round of the Dunhill Links Championship? That would in essence be like playing 4 different courses.
No need to invent new formats like super 6, shot clock etc., to generate excitement.

What they could do is make a composite course of the Old, New and Jubilee.
Golf is so slow that ferrying players between holes wouldn't make it any worse. At least they'd have a proper course for a change.

I think the composite course is a great idea for the Dunhill. I'd make it 24 holes though, and reduce the tournament to 3 rounds.