Post by tightdraw on Jan 15, 2012 9:13:54 GMT -5
I've had a number of unhappy reversals of fortune in the past few months and looking to decompress. Happily I was invited to spend three months in Miami at the University and hoping that this time away will do me good. Arrived last monday and have kept the clubs in the car until Friday when I hit some balls at Crandon Park in Biscayne Bay. The fee to play is outrageous for out of towners -- 190/round. it's a public course! I didn't play, but I did leave my 7-iron on the range. Good start to the season and in keeping with my current state of good fortune :-(
I practiced because I was invited to play yesterday at Trump International. I was told that it is the number 1 rated course in Florida and even though I was playing with friends who weren't good golfers, I still did not want to embarrass myself. At least not in terms of how I played. The rest is unavoidable at this stage.
The course has 27 holes; the last nine more recent and out of character of the original 18. the layout is not natural and involved an enormous amount of earth movement. Surrounded by tall trees planted at the property edges, there is a real sense of a contained environment and one would never know that the terrain immediately outside the gates is as flat as a pancake. That was a remarkable architectural feat and the plantings to provide a closed environment while probably driven by a desire for privacy had the more interesting effect of making the obviously artificial hilliness of the course seem like it was part of the natural terrain. Whether planned or an unintentional consequence, this was convincing and important to the design.
The clubhouse is monumental, inappropriate but not garrish. Some might think a bit understated for what one normally associates with Trump. It is what denizens of palm beach would expect, but no tasteless features really. I drove up in my rental car -- a Ford Focus -- and was not immediately turned away though the car itself could have fit into the trunk of many of the other cars nestled in teh barely viewable parking lot.
The membership is not restrictive in the classic sense; just in the class sense. I ran into several people I know as University Trustees and many others I know only from magazine covers and the Wall street Journal. It could have been a fund raiser for Mitt Romney. It may well ahve been. My best friend there swears he is the only Democrat and people excuse this failing of his on the grounds that his son Jason is economic advisor to Obama. They see it as family loyalty and not good judgment.
The men's locker room is great and has wooden lockers which I love. It is old school modernized. The Grill room has expansive views and a good view of the course. The main dining hall holds a goodly number and I did not see the women's locker room as I was able to resist several invitations and found myself otherwise without temptation. Given the average age of people in Palm Beach, I am a young stud. I felt totally objectified:-)
The pro shop is not stocked with clubs, just clothes. It's like Pebble Beach in that regard. The staff was incredibly well organized and the place ran unbelievably well. The caddie shack area was appropriate to the task. The rules are you can walk with a caddy or you can drive, but there must be a caddy for every foursome. we had one caddy for our foursome who was a mini tour player named Mike who was helpful in all the usual ways, finding balls, lining up putts, giving directions, etc. He was a good guy, no idea of the overall quality of the caddies. I do know that my friend Jay has a terrible reputation as a driver of carts since he enjoys high speeds and is a danger to everyone. After a few holes I could see why.
We started out on the new nine which was not lavish. It was as is usually the case, a long drive from the clubhouse. I'm surprised we did not have to pay a toll to get there. The holes were largely unspectacular and predictible for Florida golf. gentle doglegs around water, very firm greens, bunkering, etc. The fairways were narrower than I expected. We played from the whites, and I do believe that played from further back it would have been a very challenging 9, but it felt young to me; not an afterthought, but obviously not integrated yet.
We then played from 1-18 and this was a very fine golf course. I took note when I could of what the holes looked like from other sets of tees; and the look was often beautiful and commanding. The course would be a real challenge for me from the blues and impossible from the black. Since it was my firts time out since October, the whites at 6200 yds was enough. I am heading towards 65 and I fear I will all too soon find 6200 yards challenge enough.
The course was designed by other Fazio and that is a welcome relief for me. It has a variety of different holes and for a course of the new school there is a surprising amount of attention in creating architectural flow between holes. I thought the stretch of holes from 14 - 18 was very strong; the green on 18 being the weak link. There were more dogleg rights than lefts and more attention could have been paid to the architectural principles governing the directions of par 5s. Maybe the nature of Florida winds makes that less relevant, but I was taught that par 5s should be set up so that they run counter to one another or should be in any case very sensitive to the wind directions so that they can play completely differently from one another and themselves depending on wind.
I am going back up next weekend or the one thereafter to play again and will pay more attention and revisit this report. I am not the best judge since I don't really have a feel for Florida courses overall. It's not a terrain I know well or have played on a lot.
The highlight of this course is the greens. They are very fast and firm and beautifully manicured. I never got the speed or the read down so I didn't enjoy them as much as I should have. My fault. But they are special in quality though very few had remarkable character.
As my father used to say -- without much impact on his children I add -- rich or poor it's good to have money
I practiced because I was invited to play yesterday at Trump International. I was told that it is the number 1 rated course in Florida and even though I was playing with friends who weren't good golfers, I still did not want to embarrass myself. At least not in terms of how I played. The rest is unavoidable at this stage.
The course has 27 holes; the last nine more recent and out of character of the original 18. the layout is not natural and involved an enormous amount of earth movement. Surrounded by tall trees planted at the property edges, there is a real sense of a contained environment and one would never know that the terrain immediately outside the gates is as flat as a pancake. That was a remarkable architectural feat and the plantings to provide a closed environment while probably driven by a desire for privacy had the more interesting effect of making the obviously artificial hilliness of the course seem like it was part of the natural terrain. Whether planned or an unintentional consequence, this was convincing and important to the design.
The clubhouse is monumental, inappropriate but not garrish. Some might think a bit understated for what one normally associates with Trump. It is what denizens of palm beach would expect, but no tasteless features really. I drove up in my rental car -- a Ford Focus -- and was not immediately turned away though the car itself could have fit into the trunk of many of the other cars nestled in teh barely viewable parking lot.
The membership is not restrictive in the classic sense; just in the class sense. I ran into several people I know as University Trustees and many others I know only from magazine covers and the Wall street Journal. It could have been a fund raiser for Mitt Romney. It may well ahve been. My best friend there swears he is the only Democrat and people excuse this failing of his on the grounds that his son Jason is economic advisor to Obama. They see it as family loyalty and not good judgment.
The men's locker room is great and has wooden lockers which I love. It is old school modernized. The Grill room has expansive views and a good view of the course. The main dining hall holds a goodly number and I did not see the women's locker room as I was able to resist several invitations and found myself otherwise without temptation. Given the average age of people in Palm Beach, I am a young stud. I felt totally objectified:-)
The pro shop is not stocked with clubs, just clothes. It's like Pebble Beach in that regard. The staff was incredibly well organized and the place ran unbelievably well. The caddie shack area was appropriate to the task. The rules are you can walk with a caddy or you can drive, but there must be a caddy for every foursome. we had one caddy for our foursome who was a mini tour player named Mike who was helpful in all the usual ways, finding balls, lining up putts, giving directions, etc. He was a good guy, no idea of the overall quality of the caddies. I do know that my friend Jay has a terrible reputation as a driver of carts since he enjoys high speeds and is a danger to everyone. After a few holes I could see why.
We started out on the new nine which was not lavish. It was as is usually the case, a long drive from the clubhouse. I'm surprised we did not have to pay a toll to get there. The holes were largely unspectacular and predictible for Florida golf. gentle doglegs around water, very firm greens, bunkering, etc. The fairways were narrower than I expected. We played from the whites, and I do believe that played from further back it would have been a very challenging 9, but it felt young to me; not an afterthought, but obviously not integrated yet.
We then played from 1-18 and this was a very fine golf course. I took note when I could of what the holes looked like from other sets of tees; and the look was often beautiful and commanding. The course would be a real challenge for me from the blues and impossible from the black. Since it was my firts time out since October, the whites at 6200 yds was enough. I am heading towards 65 and I fear I will all too soon find 6200 yards challenge enough.
The course was designed by other Fazio and that is a welcome relief for me. It has a variety of different holes and for a course of the new school there is a surprising amount of attention in creating architectural flow between holes. I thought the stretch of holes from 14 - 18 was very strong; the green on 18 being the weak link. There were more dogleg rights than lefts and more attention could have been paid to the architectural principles governing the directions of par 5s. Maybe the nature of Florida winds makes that less relevant, but I was taught that par 5s should be set up so that they run counter to one another or should be in any case very sensitive to the wind directions so that they can play completely differently from one another and themselves depending on wind.
I am going back up next weekend or the one thereafter to play again and will pay more attention and revisit this report. I am not the best judge since I don't really have a feel for Florida courses overall. It's not a terrain I know well or have played on a lot.
The highlight of this course is the greens. They are very fast and firm and beautifully manicured. I never got the speed or the read down so I didn't enjoy them as much as I should have. My fault. But they are special in quality though very few had remarkable character.
As my father used to say -- without much impact on his children I add -- rich or poor it's good to have money
