Post by Richie3Jack on May 21, 2010 11:56:43 GMT -5
Eagle Watch is an Arnold Palmer design and perhaps my favorite of the Canongate golf courses. It was intended to be the next big club in Atlanta, along the lines of The Atlanta Athletic Club, Country Club of the South (which went bankrupt) and The River Club (also bankrupt). But it quickly fell flat given its location and this beautiful design went to hell quickly. Eventually Canongate bought the distressed property and resurrected it from almost being dead.
The big problem they had was with the greens which in the first couple of years with Canongate, were dying each summer and Canongate had to close down the course for a few months in the middle of summer to repair the greens. Finally they found out some of the problems and one of them was some idiot was spraying illegal pesticide in their lawn and it trickled into the pond on the 17th hole where they use to water the greens on the backside. This illegal pesticide was killing all of the fish and habitat in the pond and also killing the greens as the water was being used on the backside.
Last summer they finally installed championship bermuda, which seeing the turnaround in EW's greens, I'm a big supporter of. Just an excellent surface to use. The only problem with it is golfers really need to be careful to pick up their feet and not twist their feet on the green or the spike marks will be everywhere.
I've played a few Arnold Palmer designs, but this one really made me appreciate how good of a designer Palmer is. I'm sure there are some bad Palmer designs out there, but I've yet to play one and Eagle Watch is a unknown and underrated gem.
Palmer understands the sublteties of how to make a course and it's shown here. Lots of holes are not overly complex or aggressive in design, but what he often does is to have the approach shot to the green going slightly downhill. This makes the hole more attractive to play and because the course isn't some exotic design, it's easy to take care of and it won't just appeal to a certain niche of golfers and instead appeals to the masses.
It's about 6,900 yards and a 142 slope from the back tees, but that's mostly because there's a lot of water on the course (10 out of 18 holes have water), but much of the water doesn't really come into play. When the greens are rolling fast, you had better keep the ball below the cup.
Also, I'd say 90% of the time I've played there, be it weekday or weekend, I've finished under 4 hours...and that's with 4-somes.
The best holes are #2, #3, #7, #9, #10 and #14.
The weaker holes are #8, #11 and #15.
Tough for me to pick the best hole because there are so many good ones. #2 is a great hole, a dogleg right where the greedy can try to cut the corner and leave themselves with a PW into a very tough green. But if they don't get there they are pretty much in jail and hoping to make bogey. But again, the green is extremely tough, so 3-putts are easy to come by. Up by the green is a big pond and the green sets down for a beautiful view.
#14 is their signature hole. While it's a beautiful hole, I love par-3's with big greens and big tee boxes so they can force the golfer into hitting different shots with different clubs day-to-day if they want. I've had everything from a 9-iron to a 5-iron on this hole and the green is super tough to putt on as well.
#8, #11 and #15 are certainly not bad holes, but a tad bit on the goofy side. #8 is a straight uphill par-3 that plays about a 140-160 yards depending on the pin position. But if you miss the green you have a very slim chance of making par. #11 is a solid par-5 IMO, but a sharp 90* dogleg left off the tee. #15's issue is that the creek is difficult to see and thus it's difficult to judge whether you should hit a driver or lay up with a 3-wood. Plus, the green doesn't hold very well.
Again, a great job here by Arnie and if the course is in good condition, it's well worth finding the time to play it.
3JACK