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A Little Philosophy and Commentary before starting Over the course of time I have been fortunate to visit a number of remarkable places. Starting here courses will show up in the collection over time so don't forget to check for previews. I get asked all the time about what my favorite course or courses happen to be and what mine are aren't as important as what yours are. Here you will find places that are above all fun, they might not be the kind of course that you like best or I like best, but golf is supposed to be one thing - fun and it certainly is not meant to be fair. How do those facets two coexist? Figuring that out is part of the journey.You can play alone, you can play with people you like love and even hate (you can try to beat their brains out). You can massage your ego, you can beat yourself up - even at your best. Above all else golf is what you want it to be, but never slow - at least let players through if you are not keeping up with the people ahead of you and are making the ones behind you wait. One thing that you might eventually notice is that I tend personally to prefer harder golf courses. I sometimes don't seem to recognize this until someone points it out to me that a course is hard. I do indeed recognize how hard it can be sometimes. Part of my apparent weakness in recognizing such is that I for many reasons do pretty well know my limitations physically and as a golfer. Know yours and you'll have more fun. Difficulty can be of many different types and the most penal of all is the forced carry. They are quite frankly no fun for all but the skilled player but do yield quite a satisfying feeling to negotiate. When kept to the teeing ground demands it can be a fairly easy thing to manage, just move up a tee or two. Certainly the use of angles to allow incremental degrees of challenge (and to accommodate weather conditions) is most ideal. Many mountain and desert golf courses can and do have to deal with this sort of thing - some well some badly. I played a new private course last year that will never be profiled becaue it used these forced carries so badly that it deserves several holes mentioned as examples in a negative sense. Certainly, some justification might be that the holes occur late in the round and you are likely ready by then. Still no excuse for the one hole. No matter which tee you play the forced carry comes on the second shot and it is just awful. Little reward is really given for a long drive since the necessity to be left is so great that each yard right of the left fairway cut one is it is added directly and wholly to your approach yardage. The drive that stays as far left as possible to the edge of the (let's call it by the Spanish name) Barranca will gain some advantage by added length but the slope of the fairway can accentuate any draw toward the hazard. This yawning 50-100 yard wide chasm must be carried by every skill level and that's just the beginning. It is a nearly unmanageable shot for most. I was able to help my quite competent 14-handicap 82-year old playing companion find one way over the hazard to a deep rough lie. He can carry a tee shot 180 or so but off a tee, not a dodgy lie. It wasn't pretty nor fun. Honestly I can see state Mid-Amateur quality players scare 20 shots on this hole. Golf is supposed to be demanding but as the old saying goes eternal punishment is best left to a Deity. Lack of options is the problem here. Just wait ..... From the very ideal spot the carry to the front of the green is only 140 but it is a good 50 feet uphill from there just to the green front. From the closest direct line of sight from the shorter drive the distance is nearer 200 - again all uphill, all over a 10 foot deep bunker that must be carried or skirted by hitting into said deep rough. The near edge of the bunker to the front of the green is almost 40 yards and all closely mown grass. Oh yeah, it's steep, too. Balls are not likely to hang up on the way to this bunker. Just finding the ball can be a chore on the side of the hill. Few golfers have the skill to negotiate this bunker in one shot - or three. Most should play it out to the side into the deep grass rough where they should have aimed in the first place. Once on the 100+ foot deep green ... (oh well, surely you get the picture by now!) impossible to 3-putt circumstances still await. While it is OK for golf to be hard and unfair, there is not a need to make it stupid in challenge's name. This hole and perhaps even this golf course should never have been built. Perhaps it will be changed, I for one certainly hope so. Add weather and wind and forget it! Holes where multiple lay up shots are frequently necessary and unavoidable are unforgiveable. Another friend of mine thought the following hole was even worse! I'll ask him for a((n) anonymous, if he chooses!) description of that one. I need a drink after just describing that last one. Visits to Paradise, all styles Cascata, Boulder City, Nevada U.S.A. Set south of Las Vegas, Cascata is the side of a hill. It is one of the most memorable places that you will ever visit in golf and surely it was meant to be so. Literally up and down the mountain and over the ridge such a Grandmother's house to go. The course is ridiculously unwalkable, but this is Vegas and you're suposed to drive around in luxury, frequent the lovely cart girls selection of adult beverages and generally have a good time. No one makes you gamble here, but you certainly can if you want. Golf architecture is all about target audience and in a number of ways Cascata one-ups all the other Las Vegas hideouts. The scenery and setting is utterly spectacular, you even have an understated clubhouse with a waterfall and stream running through it. The golf course is very interesting exercise in visuals, it will appeal to most all golfers and it is not the most difficult nor punishing course in town by far, playable by all who keep their egos in check and their wits about them. Sometimes golfers don't know their abilities and honestly, it is OK to play different tees on different holes if you don't have a particular skill. Golf is supposed to be fun. You might need to move around here yet for the better player this course can quite frankly play pretty easy. The greens roll perfectly and are quite fast. Quite frankly once you are used to fast it is easy, it is about managing what you leave yourself. Again as you might want to play a mouintain, desert or water-laden course up a little farther than the usual distance that you play a course putting fast greens is keeping in mind what you do not want to leave yourself. Cascata really helps you there with excellent knowledgeable professional caddies who will guide you if you let them. My caddie was in fact a PGA of America Profesional. I generally don't need a caddie except for toting the bag and any really important local knowledge. For the second here he was invaluable giving me a read of the green from the fairway to help guard against the impossible miss - that's where you exponentially add the strokes. Uphill and downhill are added to the pronounced slope that is the site of the course. I happened to break par on the second nine for one of those rare events of the season, but understanding and recognizing the visual clues allow you to do that. A common use of terrain at Cascata is for a hole that plays uphill to play slightly and progressively more uphill the farher that you go. This helps you keep the ball below the hole in most cases. One can really get a good feel for this place from the Bird's Eye View on maps.live.com a great resource for previews of a course you might be planning to play, it is a level above a straight on aerial photograph. Spectacular conditions, spectacular service and spectacular views are all routine at Cascata. |
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