BrandonWebb

Mountain Brook Club is a private course, designed by Donald Ross. Therefore, the green complexes are the draw. There are examples of his pushed-up greens throughout, but unlike the turtle-backs that are his signature, Ross relied more on slope here. What makes them really challenging is several have a flat, defined compact shelf that is pinnable, with slopes carrying slightly imprecise approaches maddeningly away from the hole.

The outward nine meanders to the the back of the property and holes 3-9 feature elevation change, while the inward nine is relatively flat, except for the uphill 16th and plays in a parkland fashion.

A sizable canal winds throughout the property, so you have to always be aware of it. It plays prominently into the back nine, particularly the par-5 11th where it crosses the fairway and again short of the green. The 12th is a short par-4 and is one of my favorite holes in Birmingham. The canal divides the fairway lengthwise of the hole with the green resting to the right of it some 240 yards away. A stand of pines prevents a direct route to the green, so you must play a cut, or play a 180-yard shot that will leave a flip wedge for the approach.

The bunkering is very attractive. Greens were pure. Practice area is superb.

McLemore, a Highlands Course emboldened by canyon holes and punctuated by cliff holes, is well on its way to seeking entry into the Top 100 American Public conversation.

The course is actually private, but benefits from a model similar to Old Waverly, Shadow Creek, Bay Hill and Reynolds Plantation that offers public playing privileges for guests staying on property.

The COVID crisis has stalled the full build-out of the resort. Management, however, has set its sights on developing into a destination near Chattanooga that will draw players from Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville and all points in between. Currently, eight properties are available on-site to rent for stay and play, and a hotel is slated to be completed within two years. Plans for a second course (hinted at being walking only) within the next 24 months along the bluffs would further bolster McLemore’s resume and seal it as a must-visit.

That, however, is the vision for the future. The focus of the development is a reimagined layout authored by Rees Jones and Bill Bergin. I never played the original course, known as Canyon Ridge, but I am told the architects softened the course’s bunkering and massaged the greens. The biggest thing they did was create one of the most memorable and breathtaking finishing holes in the United States. More on that in a moment.

What is unique about the course is the genius in the routing. The recipe of Highland holes, canyon holes and cliff holes gives the player variety. Playing billy goat golf on the ridge of a mountain would be exhausting - physically, and perhaps moreso mentally. The opening hole is a benign par 5. Once players reach the green, however, a view off the left side of a seemingly infinity green into the vast valley below offers the promise of what awaits in just over four hours: another otherworldly cliff hole.

As would be expected, there is an abundance of elevation change, dramatic at times like the par-3 third hole and the par-5 sixth. In fact, were it not for the peerless 18th hole, the sixth likely would be the signature hole. I have no evidence of this, but after playing the hole and looking back at the canyon setting for the green site, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps in the course’s genesis this was originally conceived as a par 3, and then maybe someone had an epiphany and said “there are many par 3s that play off a precipice with a parachute-like descent, but how many par 5s exist with an approach like this?” If so, I’m glad this thinking prevailed because it does harken comparisons to the second shot on the eighth at Pebble Beach. It also gives Wolf Creek vibes if there weren’t so many trees around. It is a shorter par-5 that should produce plenty of birdies, but beware, tee shots seem to roll out farther down the fairway than the distances posted on the tee box.

There is tremendous width on most fairways, unusual for a mountain course. This tempts you to pull driver consistently, but it is not necessary. Four-irons and 3-woods are pretty sporty to conducive scoring. What would be considered as vanilla holes - holes that get players from one photogenic hole to the next - are sneaky good. Rock outcroppings in the fairways and pushed-up greens with confounding movement protects par on them.

The conditioning of the course is fantastic. The fairways were lush and the Bentgrass greens really thrive in this elevated climate.

There is a compact range and a putting green and six-hole short course reside to the left of the clubhouse-in-progress on what used to be Canyon Ridge’s finishing hole. That leads to the highlight and culmination of a round at McLemore.

Bergin climbed down the side of the old 18th and discovered amongst the foliage a suitable topography for a mind-blower of a finishing hole. It truly is one of the few holes where it is hard to describe in words, and prompts one to simply give way to letting pictures describe it. Alas, I will try. Sweeping views of the valley floor far below greet you on the tee box. It firmly plants a “don’t-go-left” swing thought in your head that will reside there until you are safely on the green. Aim your tee shot over the rock pilings that appear to be too right of the fairway. It’s not. Everything funnels back left off the surrounding slope. The approach shot is like hitting to a bird’s nest on a cliff shelf. Do not be distracted because trouble abounds. Do take the time though to ingrain that view into your mind. It will stay with you.

Limestone is inching it’s way back to prominence on the Greater Birmingham public golf scene. I can’t say enough about the staff and maintenance crew. If you didn’t see this place a year ago, you wouldn’t understand how much things have improved.

First of all, they have removed a ton of trees. This is going to help the grass grow. Green at No. 6, which has perpetually had bare spots, is arguably better than the fifth green now. Still a few bare spots around the back of #5 green.

The condition of the greens overall are good. The Bentgrass is not shaggy and pockmarked like before. The fairways are showing good thatch. By mid-summer I suspect they will be excellent.

Maintenance crews were evident on the course working on some drainage problem areas.

Bunkers have sand now, and though there are still a few places where the liner is showing through, they are kempt and don’t have weeds growing all over the brows.

Tee boxes have been improved.

Good value for a great layout. Conditioning will continue to get better. Some great things happening at LS.

This course, or more specifically the Dunes nine, really surprised me.

Located less than 15 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, there was a lot of dirt moved to make the mounding that defines the Dunes course. I found the hole designs to be extremely challenging and well thought-out. Doglegs dare you to cut more off the corner. Risk/reward is a theme throughout the outward nine, particularly the par-5 seventh hole.

The green complexes were decidedly small - another excellent defense. I really liked some of the stair-stepping grassy contours around several of the greens. It was a nice contrast to just plunking a bunker down green-side.

The Vista nine falls a bit short after the character demonstrated by the opening Dunes nine. It isn’t bad, just more of your typical Florida resort golf.

There are two reasons to keep playing, however. One is the short par-5 15th hole. It continues the fabulous risk/reward theme that the Dunes yielded. A bunker awaits in the middle of the fairway in the typical landing area. From there, a mere 175 yards awaits to the pin that sits on a thimble-sized green that is pushed up emphatically on three sides. Good birdie opportunity coming down the stretch.

The second is the shoe tree adjacent to the 12th tee. A plaque declares that local legend has it that a player who hits his tee shot in the water and accepts the challenge, must re-tee and if the second shot finds the hazard, must remove their shoes, toss them in the branches of the tree and play the rest of the round barefoot. In all of my travels I have seen nothing like it.

GlenLakes is a tremendous value in the Gulf Shores area. You will drive a little farther past courses like Gulf Shores, Craft Farms and Peninsula, but what you will find is an excellent layout and perfect conditioning at half the price of the other courses.

GSGC is a solid choice when staying on the beach at Gulf Shores. It is a couple of miles from the condo-lined main drag, allowing you to get back to the family by noon if you tee off early.

I would recommend taking advantage of the 7:50am Hot Deal to 1. Beat the crowd 2. Beat the heat 3. Reserve the afternoon for beach, etc.

The conditioning of the course is excellent. It is not a long course, according to the card, but I can attest that it plays longer. It is most certainly not a wedge fest. Overhanging trees that exacerbate dogleg holes can make this a difficult second-shot course.

The greens fee is a tad high for the course, but they can get it because of the excellent location and proximity to the beach.

Nice practice area, with range (though not sure why they are using the mats on the weekend in the summer), putting green and short game area.

Furman is a charming, walk-in-the-park course that is not tricked up, and allows for good scoring opportunities.

The front nine is spacious. Drives must be epically wayward not to be playable. The course embodies classic architecture, so shallow cross bunkers pinch in the fairways at select points. Otherwise, the rough is lighter than it looks, and though greens are on the smaller side, they are not difficult to hit. Green-side bunkers aren’t overdone, but are claustrophobic and deeper than the fairway bunkers. If short-sided, they are to be dealt with.

The greens are pushed up and subtle, relying more on slope than contour. They are extremely grainy and you should err on being firmer with efforts than you think.

The back nine exercises more cant in the fairways, so pay attention. The tree line also constricts those fairways, penalizing loose drives with obstructed approach shots.

The par 3s are pretty blah, except for the 16th. A ridge that divides the green makes putting interesting.

The course plays longer than the stated yardage on the scorecard. Greenville also received heavy rain overnight. Those two factors caused us to play the white tees. From those tees, the par 5s are seemingly gettable. The yardage for the group on the card is as follows: 477, 464, 495 and 448. As a 6-handicap, my eyes lit up and I’m thinking birdies. I played them collectively at +3! Miss in the wrong place and bogey and double bogey are in play.

Arcadia Bluffs is billed in the yardage guide as a true Irish links on American soil. I have never played golf in Ireland, but I have played in Scotland. The Bluffs course, and the similarities, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up merely three holes in. Why? A constant 25-30 mph wind. Blustery conditions. Cavernous bunkers that will not only swallow your ball, but you just the same. All that was missing were sheep.

The reality of bucket list golf is that more often than not, the expectation rarely lives up to the realization. There are a myriad of reasons: greens fee is too expensive, conditioning was underwhelming, 5 1/2-hour round, played horribly, Course was too hard or unfair. But not Arcadia Bluffs.

Golf Digest ranks it the 13th best public course in America, and I could argue that is too low. It is a crime that Golf.com has it No. 36.

The prevailing wind comes from the west off of Lake Michigan. Today, however, I encountered the direct opposite. It blew toward the lake, making some of the par 4s - like nos. 7, 14 and 18 - more like par 5s. The trade off was that normally tough holes, like the par-5 11th played downwind and was reached in two with 4-iron off the tee, followed by a 247-yard 5-iron that scooted the final 50 or so yards onto the green. Wind can make layup shots dicey and it will absolutely affect putts on these exposed greens, particularly the third.

The bunkering on the course steals the show. They pockmark the hillsides and litter the fairways. The sod-walled bunkers can be intimidating. None more than the one that protects the front-left greenside at No. 10. I swear it is 10-feet deep!

The beginning of the round allows for a quick start with three par 5s among the opening five holes, but it is the inward nine that will leave you longing to play here again.

Finally, I think I prefer Arcadia Bluffs to Whistling Straits. Both are similar. The Straits course has more holes on the water. Arcadia Bluffs, however, benefits from having a view of the lake from most holes, even if they aren’t on the water. I think the holes at AB are better designed and offer the more sensation of elevation change, which presents a sense of adventure.

At $130 through the end of May, I’m not sure I’ve encountered a better value for a top 15 public course.

I summed up a lot of my comments on the reversible Loop in my previous review of the Black routing yesterday.

However, after going in both directions, the Red routing is more fun, but the Black is the tougher test, and probably has more standout holes.

If you pay attention to your surroundings, it is amazing what you will notice about holes that you never saw when playing the other direction. Much like this track’s inspiration - the Old Course - it will take multiple loops to uncover the nuances it offers.

For me, the best single green complex for both courses, in my opinion, lies with the Black’s seventh and Red’s 11th. It plays as a short par-4 on the Black route and a long par 3 on the Red. What is interesting about this hole is that the pronounced slope on the left and back sides surrounding the green from the Red approach can be used to funnel balls to a back right hole location. I didn’t even notice it when playing the Black routing the day before. That is the pleasure of playing The Loop.

The direction of the wind will dictate not only your score, but what type of shots you will be required to play. That is fun to me, but it could beat some golfers up.

So here are my initial thoughts after playing just one half of the routing. This is for the Black course, playing the Red tomorrow:

This is a concept born of the Old Course’s ability to play in reverse, and I think we will see more of these in the near future.

Doak’s design is simplistic, yet intricately thought out. There is not a lot of trouble on the course. The bunkers are the main land mines. The natural areas are extremely playable. The course’s defense however is in its’ contouring around the greens. I didn’t find them so severe that they border on unfair. I think you simply must “think” about the shot you want to play and see if it matches the shot you probably should play. That is essentially the key to scoring here.

The wind was up this afternoon, which kept my attention. But, I could see where you could kind of get lulled into a comfortable stretch in the beginning of the round. When you turn the scorecard over, however, the holes played scary long into the wind and the bogey train is boarding. The par-3 13th played uphill 211 yards into the wind. Do not go long! The finish can be a grind but there are some scoring opportunities in the final holes waiting to right the ship.

Here is another misconception I feel too many golfers have made and will make when playing The Loop: don’t compare it to Forest Dunes across the parking lot. They are two different philosophies. They rely on two different conditioning principles. What may look like bad conditions, brown grass and a barren landscape is just what is necessary to provide the linkslike experience the Loop is seeking.

What makes playing the Loop increasingly difficult is that although a primitive yardage guide is available for purchase, there is no way to tell what portion of the green the pin resides. Therefore, it is golf as it was in the beginning: inexact information, scruffy fairways, penal bunkers, wind-ravaged green complexes, generous teeing areas near the previous greens. Embracing this idea is essential to enjoying your round, no matter the routing that day on The Loop.

I was expecting Forest Dunes to be the appetizer for the main course across the state at Arcadia Bluffs later this weekend, but I was blown away by what Weiskopf created in the scrub pines of Northern Michigan.

In fact, if I didn’t know better I would think I had played in the Southern Pines region of North Carolina. There are elements of Sand Valley, World Woods Pine Barrens, Mid Pines and Ghost Creek at Pumpkin Ridge included in the round. The holes are varied. The natural areas are imminently playable.

When scouting this track online I didn’t think much of the par 3s. They appeared to look alike and I feared redundancy. I couldn’t have been more wrong. They are each unique.

I was very impressed with the early season conditioning. Fairways were superb. Greens have a little further to go, but we’re extremely pure, if a bit on the slow side.

Favorite holes were the sixth with the fairway sunken behind a massive bunker and a tree bisecting it. The 10th gives you options on which way to drive it on a split fairway. The decision will undoubtedly be determined by which side of the green the pin is. A small pot bunker Is the centerpiece of the green complex. The 12th is a textbook par 4 that you will dream about playing long after the round. The par-3 16th demands a long iron approach of roughly 200 yards, but contouring allows for balls to feed to the back and right portions of the green. The short 17th is simply a joy to unlock.

The Bye hole with the bunker in the center of the green a la Riviera and San Antonio is a fun way to close out the day.

Forest Dunes’ practice area is second to none. An expansive range is bolstered by a Himalayas-esque chipping area and a putting green that spans like an amoeba through and around trees and grass knobs. A 10-hole short course is expected to be added later this summer.

In summary, the staff’s hospitality combined with the course’s excellence creates a memorable experience that is deserving of a Top 30 American public course ranking.