It is a great course. Having installed internal greens drainage on those greens over the past few years, and seen the late afternoon shadows creep over the bunker banks, very serene.
They were talking of rebuilding those beautiful old greens a few years back, but thankfully they opted to install XGD and consider a regrassing effort. Keeping poa alive and fast in that region is tough.
Superintendent Tom Schemmel and staff do a great job there, as play is ridiculousy heavy nearly year round. Tom also is kept busy taking care of the Naval Academy football field as well. Very cool job.
Mark-do you agree that the greens don't have a great deal of movement in them? I thought the routing and the tiered bunker placement was very, very good, but that the greens were generally fairly flat. Do you agree with that assessment?
I am hoping to get back there tomorrow and take a load of pictures, more than I usually take. I may or may not get them posted before I leave Baltimore.
For those others who have played or seen the course, what further commentary do you have? I thought the course was very, very well laid out, not just the routing, but the combination of holes.
Among the 2 par 5's, the 3rd is semi-reachable but quite narrow and also it is quite likely that you will be playing off a side-hill lie from the fairway. The other par 5, the 14th, is somewhat more reachable, plays very much downhill off the tee, but them the same amount uphill to the green. Add to that the green has a fairly deep bunker fronting the center of the green, forcing the player who wants to go for the green in two to hit a high, long shot exactly over it.
The par 3's also have great variety. The 4th is a long par 3, 215~ yards and plays somewhat uphill. The 7th is mid-length, playing roughly 185 yards (I don't have my scorecard handy). And the 17th is a great short/drop shot hole, playing about 155 yards from the back tee but downhill. Add to that the 17th has a fantastic green complex being a Volcano style with steep slopes on all sides; the fall off on the right side (fair to the slicers or not) is about 10 feet from the green surface to the ground.
And the par 4's vary from roughly 310 yards up to about 460 yards. Hole 6 plays 335 downhill, the 8th plays around 455 flat to the fairway and uphill to the green. The first is 425~ yards steeply uphill to the green. The 12th is a fantastic hole playing downhill off the tee to a fairway that runs off into rough and a valley that allows water to run down into the lowland area that flanks the hole to the right. From there, it plays greatly uphill to the green.
Sorry for all you who think running the ball onto the green aught to always be necessary, on a fair number of holes here at USNA, its just not possible, 7, 12, 14 and 17 come to mind as holes where a run-up is basically impossible and the uphill nature of many others makes a run-up shot very difficult.
One other thing I noticed, somewhat of a disappointment. I was quite surprised to see they had bermuda fairways, and what seemed to be old common bermuda at that. I had hoped to play a course with different fairways than I was used to, perhaps zoysia or even a cool season grass. Oh well, I don't hold that against the course here.