Post by Richie3Jack on May 20, 2010 11:44:07 GMT -5
Laurel Canyon is a Rocky Rocquemore designed golf club that plays about 6,600 yards from the back tees and with a 144 slope. Yes, you read that right...6,600 yards and a 144 slope. And in reality, it should be even higher of a slope than that.
I'm slightly familiar with the Rocquemore designs because he's designed other Canongate courses and I believe he's responsible for the re-design of Cog Hill. I'd probably put him on level with Arthur Hills or slightly below that.
Laurel Canyon was supposed to be a course on a new, wealthy housing development in Canton, but the development never really came thru. Sure, the economy had a lot to do with it, but also being located in Canton, which is far away from the city probably didn't help. But I'd like to think the bigger problem is that it's about the hilliest, most mountainess place that somebody can live in. And it's really a case of a place never meant for a golf course.
For starters, it's very tight. Why? Because there are cliffs everywhere and if you miss slightly left or slightly right, your ball is gone into a small canyon. To top it off, Rocquemore designed practically all but 3-4 greens with major tiers in them ranging from 2-6 feet high. The par-3 17th is a great example. It's about 165 yards, straight up hill. I hit a 5-iron there and hit a good shot right in the middle of the green. But the green has 3 major tiers to it and the cup was cut on the bottom tier. The only reason why I 2-putted was my first putt hit the back of the middle of the cup and popped out and went 3-feet by.
Almost every green is like that.
Holes #4 thru #12 is probably the most difficult stretch of 9 holes I've ever played...and I've played Oak Hill CC, Bethpage Black and Kiawah Island Ocean Course before.
Getting pars on 4 and 12 are purely luck and will happen once in a lifetime, even if you're a PGA Tour caliber golfer. Then it lightens up on the golfer on holes 13 (a good hole) thru 16. Only to become a terror again on 17 and 18.
I've only played Laurel Canyon once and at the time I kept thinking of how one would go about making the course playable, but simply couldn't think of a feasible way to do it given the terrain. It would pretty much have to be redesigned and somebody would have to figure out a way to make a good course as easy to play as they could because in the end, it will likely always be tough.
I'm not even sure if the course is open anymore as Canongate has decided to stop managing it.
3JACK