The course has two lops of nine. The first holes start docile and gets harder further on. General for the whole course is lack of high rough. Every spot of the course is maintained. Even the banks of the ponds were maintained which I think is unusual. It is only necessary to maintain the line of play.

We met the pro of the club and we had a small discussion with him and his caddiemaster about the course and its history. The budget when they build the course was tight and that explains why the course looks like it does. Push-up greens and flat fairways and lack of action at the greencomplexes were something I noticed. I also noticed that the pond banks were clean of vegetation which makes the course lack of live and more difficult to see the border between ground and water.

This was my first contact with Bermuda grass and that was a strange feeling comparing what I am used to in Europe. In Europe we play mostly on fescue/bent grass. The Bermuda grass gives you the feeling of playing on a sponge.

The course has two lops of nine. The first holes start docile and gets harder further on. The last five holes are really tough ones. The main features of these holes are that they have a lot of water in play from the tee boxes and from the approaches.

There are estates around the tour course and they are fitted well in the landscape. The major reason why they do is that they are light coloured, which make them more invisible from the course. You find most of the estates on the left hand side because there are more left-handed than right-handed golfers. I was speaking to one family on the 5th hole who had an estate on the right-hand side. They have balls coming into the garden and sometimes the balls hit their house but so far nothing serious had happened!

There are many trees planted on the course and especially the boundaries between the course and the estates. The shaping of the course is a small rolling landscape, which gives the course live and action. The mounds in the boundary towards the estates have been planted with most of the trees on top of the mound which is completely right. The landscape integration is very good at this course.

The car paths are incredible well invisible in the landscape and especially from the tee boxes. The course has a good system of bathrooms out on the course. You find one always after 4 holes with fresh water and ice.

The greencomplexes is really good because there is a lot of action and things can happen with the ball if you do not strike it right. The green size is also small, so you must really place your ball where you would like to have it otherwise you will have a tricky putt or chip.

The bunkering of the course is strategic, which makes this course fun to play. There are interesting waste bunkers on the course with vegetation on some spot inside the bunker which makes the landscape integration good. I can say the same about the ponds of the course. They are also a good evidence of good landscape integration because they let the vegetation on the pond banks be there instead of moving it away which they do on many of the other courses we visited during this trip.

Another interesting thing is that the bunkers are up-lifted from the ground level because the water table is so low in Florida so you must build them up from the ground level.

The architecture of the bridges on the course is lovely because they curve back and force and have a smooth approach.

I am a fan of force carries from the tee boxes and on this course you have that at some of the holes which enrich the hole diversity of the course.

Two lops of nine. The first hole is a docile hole where you tee off from the top of the hill. Two holes, which I still remember are no. 3 and 9,both par tree holes. Number 9 is really a hole I would like to play because it looks so tough so I would like to beat the hole.

Hole 15 is another good hole, dogleg left quite sharp one. The last 4 finishing holes are a real test of golf.

Interesting feature on the course is the pond banks. They have the intention to look like the banks you find in the nature.

The course had many waste bunkers on both sides of the fairway in these bunkers you are not allowed to ground the club. Between some of the holes there are waste areas. In these waste areas you are able to ground your club and these areas consist of white sand. The areas consist most of pine trees which make the recovery even harder than from a lie in rough.

There is different sand in the bunkers on the course because they had a rebuilding program ongoing. They hadn’t yet decided which sand colour they are going to use.

There were bathrooms after every 4 holes like it was at Weston Hills.

I most say I got surprised what I saw. I had not expected that this course should be as good as it was. That I saw I liked a lot. I am a fan of links courses on the British Isles and it looks like Mr. Nicklaus has tried to take some of that design ideas to Florida. He has managed well in many ways, especially with the force carries from the tee boxes which is a gorgeous way to stress golfer from the tee boxes. He has also moved the greencomplex low, which enrich the traditional links game pitch and run around the greens. .

He has also though about other design features as vegetation on the pond banks, which I am fond of. The bridges on the course are also lovely to see. They are fitted very well in the landscape with design and use of material.

The course is maintained in a very high class. The greens, tees, and approaches are moved with single movers. Fairway moves with triplex. The bunkers are hand raked to achieve the best performance. Using a Sand Pro year after year is not so good for small bunkers because they destroy the original form of the bunker and also make the bunker with different sand depths in the bunker.

This course has also a couple of waste areas/bunkers in which you are allowed to ground the club.

Hole number 9 is out of date according to the pro and they have the idea to rebuild it next year. He says that the professionals complain about the hole because it is a dogleg right to left hole. What they complain about is that they think it is to short to the dogleg point. Mr Nicklaus should suggest them to change club so they do not hit to long.

The course looks really interesting especially with these gorgeous greencomplexes, the routing, and the location. The course has similarities with a traditional links course. I saw same old photos of the course and there have been some changes during the years. Especially hole 18th greencomplex. It had a really interesting look comparing today’s shape.

Again another club put a lot of energy to maintain the banks of the ponds. A contractor is coming every fortnight to spray the banks from weeds etc. It is sad to listen to this information. I explained the benefits not to do this operation. He agreed with me but he replayed that the board of the club didn’t like that design feature. I think this course could have more significant features with rough and vegetation at the banks of the ponds. That should give the course more significant element which would raise the course even more than it today. At my point of view the course looks very lush today and if it would be compared as a links course the board should change there mind at some points how the course should looks like. Another thing they could think of is to stress the bunkers with traditional links vegetation.

The most significant at this course is the greencomplexes. They give the golfer so much to think about before they make there approach shots. If the ball hits the wrong spot you will have a nasty shot or putt. Mr. Ross is an excellent architect because he is a brilliant strategy designer. His style is working extremely well even today.

They are mowing the greens, tees, foregreens and approaches with single mowers and the fairway with triplex. Mr. Allen told us that they do everything to make this course as fast as possible. The main reason to this operation is to make the course tougher and faster. The course is just above 6800 yards and to make it more interesting for the professionals they move everything as short as possible and don’t irrigate the course more than necessary to keep the turf alive.

They have a small project which will start this season and will be ongoing for a couple of seasons. They are topdressing the 12th hole on the right-hand side of the fairway to make it firm so the ditch on the left-hand side will be more in play. For me it sounds more penal design than strategic design!

The routing is based on two loops of nine which has a lovely flew. This is a tough course for the normal golfer because you have water everywhere on the course. The course is tough from the very first tee box until you walk up towards the 18th green. The course consists of many waste bunkers and 51 weeks of the year, your are allowed to ground the club in the bunkers but not the week when the course host the championship. To make the course tougher they have a topdressing program. They are going to add 100.000 ton sand on the fairways to get them firmer which will affect the game.

The bunkers are going to be rebuilt during 2005 – 2006 and they are going to change the sand at the same time to a softer quality which will make the bunker tougher. There is a problem today that they are to hard and easy to play from.

During the bunker renovation they are going to rebuild a couple of the greens too with the latest USGA standard. There are problems with the wooded walls in the ponds at some of the holes. That will also be fixed in 2006.

The irrigation system was replaced and extended this year. They were adding fine mist sprays especially around the tee boxes. The greens have head to head system which is a clever investment. With that system you have total control of the irrigation pattern on the greencomplex.

The course had some shadow problems because the trees had grown since the course opened. Some of the shadow problems are related to trees they are not allowed to cut down. The course has a landscape crow of four persons which only work with landscaping. The only club who had that of these 22 courses we visited.

They aerate the greens twice a year and top dress the greens three times a year. They have mowing problems because the course has many steep slopes which can’t be cut by mowers. To do this work they need a huge hand labour crow.

Two loops of nine holes. There is a pond which separates the course in two loops. The opening is docile and then it changes to be tougher and tougher the whole way in. The last nine holes go back and forth which feels a little bit boring. It doesn’t matter because these holes give you a good test of golf.

This club are often host for big events and the course can only let 20.000 persons past the gate daily because the course isn’t build to have a lot of spectators.

Many of the green bunkers have a lovely visual design. Mr Ross manages to cheat your brain a couple of times. When you are looking towards the greencomplex you think there are four bunkers but in reality there is only two. He has build up a small mound in front of the bunkers which makes you to think there are four instead of two.

There where a couple of holes which suffered from wear and tear on the green surfaces because there was bunkers on the main entrances/exists, for example hole 15.

The course consists of two loops of nine. Number nine and ten is a drive from the clubhouse. The course has a lovely routing with a good spread compass direction. There is a lot of life in the landscape which makes this course interesting. The integration of the course in the landscape is a piece of art

The course has over seeding problems at some of the holes with ryegrass. According to Mr. Guinther the problem is related to the amount of seed they are using. They have also shadow problems at some of the tee boxes, but that will soon be a memory when the tree program is completed.

They have push up greens since 1973. They don’t have any plans to rebuild them because they are satisfied. They have head to head system at the greencomplexes. They are going to install new valves this year. They have small problems with washouts in their bunkers

The flow of the course is extremely good. The course has two loops of nine. The strategy is really good. Hole number 5 is a good example. You have two options from the tee box. It is a typical risk and reward hole. They have two fairways which is separated with a waste bunker. The right fairway is the easy way and the left way is the tougher way which gives you an easier approach if your tee shot is good enough. Out there you have more of this strategic design. I can strongly recommend next year’s scholarship to have a trip to this course.

This course has the same system around the green edge as East Lake Golf Club with a green barrier 8mm to protect the green from invasion of Bermuda grass. The person who has the patent of this barrier is a member of Cusowilla Golf Club.

They don’t have high maintenance at the bank of the ponds which give the course life and it is easy to see the edges between water and the playing ground.

The clubs representant was Superintendent Mr. Davis. He had a quick talk with us. He was talking about the maintenance and the history of the club. We were driving around the course and I noticed quickly that this course has many similarities with TPC Sawgrass. For instance the waste bunkers, the small bunker back left-hand side corner, etc.

The course has two loops of nine. Holes 1, 9, 10 and 18 where connected close to the clubhouse. The compass direction of the holes is good. You play in all directions. The best hole on the course is number 5. It has strong similarities with a traditional links hole. Close to the tee box we saw our first alligator. Other holes I liked were hole 13 and 14. The panoramic from the tee boxes is phenomenal.

This day we didn’t have any welcome from the staff of the club but we managed to get a cart to drive around the course. We started with the back nine because there where a lot of golfer on the front nine the starter told us.

This course has a traditional links routing but it is not a traditional links course because there is a lot of water hazard on the course. It has nine seaside holes which is lovely. The back nine is much better than the front nine because they offer more links golf than the front nine.

It is hard to understand the routing around the clubhouse. Why don’t start and finish the two loops close to the clubhouse. Now you can’t see the golfers from the clubhouse which I think is important especially when you have this piece of site without any trees. A traditional links course usually start and finish where the clubhouse are. I can’t understand the benefits to have the driving range in front of the clubhouse. It would be interesting to here the design ideas Mr Dye had.

This was the first links course we walked during our tour. It is something special with this kind of courses for me. The total concept a links course gives me is a lot of emotions and feelings.

Because of lack of talk with the staff I don’t have any further information of the course!

The clubs representant was Superintendent Mr. Snyder. This man was a very nice person. He spent lots of time with us. We where talking about everything on and outside the club. He informed us about the huge restoration program which was finished 2000. Even with this huge program we could find spots on the course which had poor surface drainage and there where also shadow problems at several place on the course.

This was the only club on the tour who actually talked about that they felt that the economy is not like it used to be. They had to take 100 US Dollar off on the normal rate to attract people to play the course.

The course has two loops of nine and they start and end at the clubhouse. It is easy to understand who the architect is. In spite of the course was build 1969 you can see that it has a Pete Dye tough comparing to the other courses I have visited. I can’t understand why the name links is in the name of the clubs name because it is hard to find any similarities to a real links course.

The two most famous holes this course have are number 17 and 18. I must agree with my friend Brian that the best or most spectacular holes are these two without any question. You have the view over the bay and the lighthouse. To play these holes you need to be concentrated otherwise you will easily find problems or lose your ball.

The clubs representant was Superintendent Mr. Hamilton. This person had a lot to do because the hurricane Charley had past two days before we arrived. The course had suffered a lot from the hurricane. At least 150 big trees had been cracked. The wind speed was 77mhp when it hurt Myrtle Beach. He told us that he had a week at least to clean up the main areas of the course and the rest will take at least two months. It was interesting as a study object to see what a hurricane can do with a golf course.

This course, hand moves the greens, tees and approaches. Triplex the fairways. They are going to improve the irrigation system next year. They have an old system. He told us that they have algae blooms in the ponds and have them sprayed monthly. They have also washout problems in some of the bunkers.

Two loops of nine. Starting and finishing hole close to the clubhouse. The course starts quite docile but get harder the closer you come half way in. The toughest holes on the course is hole ten to thirteen. If you can keep your game alive after these holes you will have a good chance to beat your company. Hole eleven have a lovely force carry and the approach will not be easier than the tee shot. One of Robert Trent Jones most famous holes you find here. It is hole thirteen. I most say it looks tougher in the books I have been reading about the hole and in the yardage book. It is only to hit a good tee shot and you will have an easy second shot over the water. I think this hole must be tough for high handicapper but for player like me and Brian it doesn’t seem to be as tough as we thought.

Greencomplex 16 has a lot of bunkers which make this green to a real target green. It is necessary to find the green surface otherwise you will end up in one of the seven bunkers who protect this green. This course has a large diversity of holes and compass directions.

The clubs representant was VP of Ground and Golf Course Management Mr. Brad Kocher. He was a friendly man with many things to take care of. He had eight courses to look after. To his help he had a couple of superintendents and other skilled persons. He informed us about the history of the club and the next coming event the US Open 2005 on course No.2.

Mr. Kocher has been 18 years at Pinehurst and had a big self-confidence about how to run these courses. It was interesting to see how to run a golf club of this scale. There are at least 100 persons only working on the courses and then you has the whole resort with airport shuttle, the pro shop, the restaurant, the hotel etc. It is a big company to run. The owner of Pinehurst Resort is ClubCorp USA, Inc. This is not the only resort they own. They have resorts worldwide.

This course doesn’t have two loops of nine but that doesn’t make this course worse. On the contrary it is a masterpiece. The greencomplexes are amazing. I got goose bumps when I saw them. It was incredible to see links greencomplex in the middle of North Carolina. There are a lot of movements on them and the greensurface is very tricky in combination with being very fast. Mr. Kocher had showed us green drawings of pin locations which are very few. During the time we where there they where coring the greens and top dressed them so we didn’t have a chance to try the real speed and see how the ball will follow the small but tricky undulations. The surroundings are also gorgeous with small depressions, mounds and eskers. Everything is natural and is linked together with the green contours which make the complex incredible interesting to play because you must be able to do all kind of shots otherwise you have problems with your score.

I made an interesting observation. From the tee box of many of the holes you have a quite easy tee shot comparing to many traditional links courses. But I think this must have something to do with the complicated greencomplexes you have to struggle with. What you see here is extremely interesting details which are very important to study closer in the future.

The other courses at Pinehurst are far away from the masterpiece. These courses have a high standard of strategy but are not close to Donald Ross masterpiece

As most of the courses they also have two loops of nine. The front nine is separated with a highway. Hole 2 – 8 is on the other side of the highway. Next year they are going to enlarge the highway with two lines which will not change the course routing at all.

The course has many lovely holes and the condition of the course is phenomenal. It has one of the best finishes I have ever seen. At the time we were there they complained about the standard but I must say I got impressed. Maybe one reason for their complaint was that it had rained a lot this summer. The day before we arrived to Oakmont it was a really nasty weather with lots of rain.

Green no. 9 had an organelle shape it was nearly a big square. The only place I have seen that before is Crail Golf Club in Scotland, no. 2 had an interesting slope back to front. The green had a slope of more than 4% which make the putting nearly impossible. There was only one area they could have the pin located during the tournaments.

The course has not two loops of nine. The course has hole 1, 13 – 18 closest to the clubhouse. The rest of the holes are on the other side of the road with heavy traffic. After ten holes you have a half way in. This course is the shortest of them all we visited never less it is not the easiest one to beat I can guarantee. They let us play some of the holes and we started at hole 13 a par 3. The green is bunkered with four deep bunkers. This is a typical target green. If you don’t find the green you will end up in trouble!

In general this course is a very strategic course with risk and reward strategy at many of the holes. It has also penal design of the 18th hole. If you don’t have a good tee shot, which means high and long you will end up in a huge ravine like Brian did. That didn’t helped me he won the match play with one hole.

This course was also one of my favourites because it has many interesting design ideas and it was really fun to play therefore you must use your mind at every stroke. A good course doesn’t need to be nearly 7700 yards and par 72 to be a real test of golf.

The club representant was Superintendent Mr. Christian. He was more then stressed which led to no guiding at the course or at the shelter. We walked the course and the first thing we said to each other was what a lovely course but they should cut down trees. We had seen pictures in the shelter how the course looked like in the early 1920th. It was hard to understand that we where at the same golf club today. The feeling I got when I was walking the course was that the course was lying in a pine forest. It is hard to see all the lovely features this course has. The first hole is a dogleg left to right. In the right dogleg point you will find 20 – 30 bunkers in the forest. You are not able to see them from the tee box or from the dogleg point so what is the point to have them?

After our walk we had a quick talk with Mr. Christian about the forest situation and he told us that he had been talking over and over again with the board of the club but they are not listening to his arguments. The board say that they follow the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System which they have to follow. According to that system they are not able to take down any tree because they might change the flora and fauna. If this course still would like to be ranked as number one in U.S. they should seriously make some action now. It is a big amount of trees that should been thinned out so we could see the original layout live.

Here is another course which doesn’t have two loops of nine. The routing is lovely and all the force carries are lovely jewelleries. This course is tough like hell. The tee shot most be good otherwise you will be in trouble which will make your second shot even tougher. To your help you have a big target because the greens are quite huge comparing to other courses we have visited.

Out there you have many holes which I will remember because they were so special. Hole 7 is a devil. It is a long par 5 which most of us play over three force carries before you enter the green. It is also HCP number one on the course which I can understand. They have ponds in the way which I like. There was vegetation on the banks of the ponds which gives the course different colours during the year and gives the course visual benefits too. From aesthetic point of view it gives the course harmony.

The course has two loops of nine. The two loops have similarities in lengths and hole characteristics. In many ways it feels as a traditional links layout. One thing I can’t understand is the choice of grass from semi-rough - green. It should be a seedmix which have a lot of fescue seeds. The turf quality is very important so you get the right feeling when you roll your ball on the grass and when you are hitting the ball. With fescue you have a totally different sound/feeling between the clubface and the ball which I love so much.

A really love the connected fairway between hole 2 and 3. That is a lovely links detail. I love the split fairway on hole 4. You are able to hit a tee shot of 300 yards then there is a drop/ravine you must play over. Green 6 has peaceful plateau left to right. A lovely detail is the deep hollow at the 18th fairway. This course has many links details and a peaceful rhythm which makes this course unique on this healthy and wealthy peninsula called Hampton.

Traditional links style with two loops of nine. The course has good compass directions which force you to play in all kind of wind directions. The course has a lovely routing and the ground has an extremely rolling landscape which makes the course fantastic and interesting to play. The fescue frames the course in a gorgeous way.

Interesting to notice is that this course has 180 bunkers and most of them have a design purpose. There are many force carries which a links course must have and the bunkers have fescue grass which make them so natural in the landscape. It has also a fairway which is connected to three holes. Hole 1, 9 and 18. A little minus is the pond on the 6th hole because a links course doesn’t have any pond. The only water they might have is creeks. There is a lot of risk and reward strategy which make you to think extra before you tee up.

The greencomplexes has many mounds and hollows which are mowed like foregreens. It is lovely to see this kind of cutting regime because you are able to use any club in your bag. You are not forced to play floppy shots. You are able to play the original game, pitch and run shots.

This course is absolute one of the courses I would like to play next time I come to America. This course has many design ideas like the legendary courses I have played on the British Isles.

This routing is extremely similar to some of the best links courses I have seen. The traditional loop out and the turn back after nine hole. You have mostly tile wind at the front nine and the wind against you on the back nine. This course is short due to today’s standard but it looks extremely tough. The first couple of holes are a real test of golf. The greens are hard like they should be and the contours are lovely to watch. They have scalping problems but they are using the Toro mowers as most of the clubs seem to do. Without these mowers they had been forced to cut them higher.

The greencomplexes have a great rhythm and flow. If your ball is not hit proper it is easy to end up in problems around the whole course. Your tee shot most be good otherwise your ball can easily find hollows and other kind of problems which will affect your approach a lot. A key word at this course is to play with your brain and use your low irons instead of your driver. With this strategy you might beat the course!

Mr. MacDonald have done a great job here I most say. I hope in my career as a golf course architect would be able to build something similar in Sweden before I get retired.

The course has one loop. The routing has a good compass direction. The wind is an important factor at this course, but this day the wind was not strong at all. It start docile the first three holes then it start to be really hard. Hole 8 is a par three. It is one of the best holes I saw during the month. It was half blind from the tee box. The greencomplex is raised with a couple of bunkers and hollows in the surroundings. The sand dunes have a central position in this gorgeous hole too. Another great hole is 14. It is a par three with a small green which follow the contour of the sand dunes. From the tee box you are playing right towards the Atlantic Ocean. When the wind comes from the Ocean this hole most be a beast to beat. The surrounding is a huge waste bunker with beach vegetation on some spots.

This course was one of the few courses which didn’t go over 6500 yards but for this reason it is not an easy one. There are lot of good holes and tough ones which can destroy a day. We where sitting at tee box 4. It is a par three 171 yards from men’s tee. There where four gentlemen which lost at least two ball each in the pond. It had been interesting to know how many ball they lost together that day!

The clubs representant was the assistant pro Mr. Thompson. He guided us around the course and we had a quick talk with one of the assistant superintendents. This piece of landscape is a lovely piece of land to build a course on. The club is situated on one of the highest spots at Hampton’s. That gives the course a panoramic sight from many of the holes towards other holes on the course. All the fescue which separates the holes from each other is lovely to watch. The wind makes the fescue swaying like waves on the ocean. This is another club which have the fescue as main ideas but not doing it the whole way out. Why didn’t they seed the rest of course with a fescue mix instead of the lush colour the fairway has today.

The car park has lovely vegetation which hides the cars from the clubhouse. It is interesting to see how much you can use grass too.

Two loops of nine. The two first holes are a real test of golf as many of the other too. Hole 2 are the hardest one according to the score card and I most say it looks hard too. The tee shot most be a good one if you should be able with your approach to find the small green on the hill. In front of the green you have also a ravine to pass with thick semi-rough grass. A par on this hole should be worth a birdie.

As I said the landscape goes up and down which make this course dramatic in many ways because you can earn much lengths if you place your tee shot right on the fairways. With right position on the fairways you have an easier approach to these protected greens.