Played pin 1, black, default.
1 - Love that the whole green is essentially yellow on default speed. Also a clear cant from right to left so you know you need to be on one side of the fairway over the other. I can see that will change for other pin locations as well. Great opening start.
2 - Felt like an easy birdie par 5 on pin 1 default. I do like the view from the tee with the carry tee shot, and also that laying up to the wrong side could shoot you in the foot for the approach in.
3 - Great view off the tee, I clubbed down and still landed short of the pin but rolled all the way off and down into the back rough. Slopes appear to be working as intended, lol. I can tell this course will definitely award use of spin and attack angle when needed.
4 - Internal contours on this green are spectacular. Tee shot is relatively straight forward but looks great. I hit 2 good shots but didn't quite get over the ridge and had a tough sidewinder for birdie which I didn't convert. Even holes that look easy still require execution.
5 - The 295 driver just barely cleared the left bunkers, which was rewarding, but the pitch I left myself was not automatic and the putt coming back from above the hole wasn't either.
6 - First time I've laid back off the tee, but tempo forced me onto the wrong side of the fairway from where I intended. Tried to filet a little wedge into the slope and the wind didn't catch it, rolled off the green and slowly down into the back bunker. Up and down for par that I probably didn't deserve.
7 - Another great looking par 3. I couldn't find the correct shelf of the green on this one and took a bogey.
8 - I tried to go driver, driver on this one to reach in two and got absolutely ejected by the mound fronting the green. Splash coming back missed the tempo and I couldn't convert the up and down. Felt like another easy birdie par 5, but I played it wrong.
9 - As someone who loves a good custom clubhouse, this may be the best one I've ever seen. Concrete pattern designs, a combination of buildings that I can't even tell which ones you used, railing, stairs, overhang that I've never seen before. And I haven't even mentioned the hole I'm on yet. Just a shame the parking lot is empty and no one wants to play this course.
10 - I duck hooked a tee shot way left and was given a perfect view of the green through a clearing in the trees. I still missed the green and didn't convert the up and down so I bogeyed it, but it still felt "not as intended" on that missed tee shot.
11 - I had no confidence that I was hitting this green while standing on the tee, and I didn't. Another bogey and the round feels like the wheels are coming off.
12 - Which means it's the perfect time for an easily reachable 5 to coax me into going for an eagle to get back on track. Let's see how it plays out. Driver, 5-iron in, I like how the tall tree really makes you uneasy on the approach. I very fasted a 5 iron into the left bunker, exactly the angle I don't want for this pin. Lofted the hell out of a splash and managed to save birdie at least.
13 - 3 very fast shots in a row on this 525 yard par 4 is not what I needed. Just missed an 18-footer for par, but unfortunately didn't get to see any of this hole as I played my second shot from the underbrush.
14 - Another great par 3, another missed green. I didn't want to hit the 4-hybrid into it so I clubbed down, but hit a bunker. Up and down for par.
15 - This one felt like an obvious bomb off the tee, but I fumbled the splash again and left myself a twisting 30-footer uphill for birdie. I feel like better players than me will fare a lot better on this back nine, but I love that it feels like every shot matters in order to score well.
16 - Very subtle overhang of the tree right of the tee box makes for an uncomfortable drive if you aim right. It didn't come into play for me, but might with more loft, but I'm assuming it's probably just there to make you think about it. Another short 5, driver, 4-iron into this one, but I misjudged the wind and left it just short of the green. A fairly straightforward chip and a putt for another par 5 birdie.
17 - A textbook "F-U" Ben hole. Force you right off the tee for an approach you need to come in from the left on. My only issue is I'm not quite sure the bunkers on the left are gettable even with a big tailwind, and I'm not sure approaching from right next to them is more advantageous than further out in the middle of the fairway. Maybe it is, I'm not sure. It was tough to tell from the right trees where my very slow drive landed. And then a very fast approach, because this game sucks. Up and down for par.
18 - Love a good tough finale hole. I went bunker-bunker-bad splash to finish on a sour note, but it looked like a really good opportunity to feed a ball into the correct spot for an easy birdie if you hit a good tee shot.
I'll say it. It dethrones Frankston for my top course in the game. Pretty easily, in fact, which is kind of amazing when I think about it. Even before watching the first episodes of the Youtube series you can tell how much effort went into making every aspect of this course perfect, and the clubhouse is just the icing on the cake to prove that. I don't even have any constructive criticism to give for this one.
