Colonial

TravelGolf.com:
A Testament to Pete Dye's Mastery

In this week's Indiana feature, senior writer Kiel Christianson visits Carmel and the Plum Creek Country Club, a playable Pete Dye course. Opened in 1997, Plum Creek is quietly building itself a first-class reputation as a unique course. Featuring country club amenities (tennis, swimming, and more for members and guests) and reasonable green fees, the layout at Plum Creek is fairly flat and quite wide open. And while the course is definitely playable, it's not easy. "Despite the lack of natural splendor, many of the holes are memorable, and not one is the same as the next," Christianson writes. "Course maintenance is outstanding. The pinlinks bent grass fairways and A4 bent grass greens looked like they'd been trimmed with scissors." With a combination of challenging greens and the wonderful bunkering and mounding, the course is sure to meet your highest expectations.

TravelGolf.com: Featured Product Reviews

Related Links • This Week at TravelGolf.com (April 23-30) • Archives: This Week at TravelGolf.com

Like most of us, senior writer Jeffrey A. Rendall is always looking for an extra boost of confidence when he hits the first tee. Thanks to the Strata Tour Ultimate Golf Ball, he found that confidence. He may also be a little longer off the tee, but that's still up for debate. Spalding's getting rave reviews with its new Strata Tour Ultimate (multi-layered) with the Tungsten Energy Core, and it's easy to understand why. Since Rendall started using the ball, he no longer fears forced carries or fairway bunkers as much as before. Credit for some of that has to go to the ball, doesn't it? In Rendall's second product review this week, he takes a look at Titleist's Scotty Cameron Studio Design Putters, blades milled from a solid block of soft carbon steel that not only performs admirably, they look impressive. In fact, Rendall says it's the softest putter he's ever used.

OntarioGolf.com: A Simply Stirring Layout

As staff writer Andrew Penner explains, the best thing about playing the Banff Springs Golf Course is that it's in Banff: "With greens masterfully positioned into spots only a genius could have found and approaches back-dropped by massive granite walls, the test of golf presented at Banff Springs is simply stirring." Be sure to check out Penner's description of the unforgettable experience at the fourth hole, known affectionately as the "Devil's Cauldron," and voted one of the best 18 holes in the world by Golf Magazine in 2000. With a tee perched high on a granite shelf and a crystal clear mountain lake sitting eloquently in the foreground, the setting at the fourth is surreal. Banff Springs was the first course in history to cost more than one million dollars to build, and it's clear that every penny was well spent.

GolfFlorida.com:
Where Golfers Fulfill Their Dreams

If you like to grip it and rip it off the tee, then you will love the Fox Hollow Golf Club in New Port Richey. Beside generous fairways, huge greens provide players with a big target to hit. Getting the ball into the hole on these slippery undulating greens is another story. Staff writer Jay Mankus is your guide at this liberal links style golf course, which features eight waterways, two large forest groves and several exotic shaped sand bunkers. Over its seven-year history, Fox Hollow has been embraced by mini-tour players from the Tommy Armour and Moonlight tours, as well as professional athletes such as Roger Clemens and Andy Petitte. Before your round, be sure to check out the infamous practice green, which includes two steep sand bunkers, a 50-yard pitching fairway and a chipping area.

GolfOhio.com: EagleSticks is Blessed

Ten years ago, a babe was born in eastern Ohio by the name of EagleSticks Golf Course. Last week, we sent staff writer Carl W. Grody to the Zanesville layout for a progress report. Golf Digest named it the best public course in Ohio in 1993, and Grody says its value has only gone up as the course has matured. "As with all of his progeny, golf course architect Michael Hurdzan used the natural lay of the land as much as possible, and the result is a claustrophobic course squeezed into 123 acres. It features more than 130 strategically placed bunkers and hard, quick greens that might keep you up at night," Grody writes. The only problem may be a series of holes that start repeating themselves on the back nine, leaving you feeling a tad cheated. On the other hand, the course is so beautiful and so well-maintained that you might not notice the repetition.

From the Rough

In case you missed last week's report, be sure to catch senior writer Jeffrey A. Rendall's review of the Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Chantilly (Va.), which he first played two years ago. When he returned for another look, he was quite surprised. Since opening in May 1998, the course has endured a roller-coaster of mixed reviews, with some observers critical of management. But now Pleasant Valley is receiving well-deserved kudos for a complete turnaround. "Under new management (Golfmatrix) for about a year now," Rendall writes, "the course is slowly returning to its initial glory, and will one day soon be everything it was laid out to be." Set on a huge, virtually undisturbed tract of land just south of Dulles Airport, the course will surely become golf's paradise island in a sea of new development engulfing the surrounding area. Just as originally planned.

As always, if you disagree with our reviewers on a certain course or just want to sound off about the latest from the PGA Tour, be sure to visit the TravelGolf.com forum, a series of message boards where visitors can write about everything from the Myrtle Beach golf scene to new equipment. There's also a free classifieds section where golfers can advertise that old set of clubs they've been meaning to sell for years. And if you haven't checked it out already, be sure to visit the new TravelGolf.com Pro Shop, a joint venture with The Golf Warehouse. With all of this at TravelGolf.com, there's no need to go anywhere else on the Web.