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This Week at
TravelGolf.com (July 9-15)
By Douglas
Carey, TravelGolf.com Editor
When you think of Aruba, you probably don't think about golf. Instead, you're thinking about lazy
afternoons at the beach, scuba diving and snorkeling, and much more. But as staff writer John Eckberg points out, there's more to Aruba than meets the eye. Start with his review of the Tierra Del Sol Resort & Country Club, a challenging championship course designed by Robert Trent Jones II. Located along the shoreline of the churning Caribbean Sea, our reviewer says this stretch of 18 holes is often otherworldly.
A lighthouse is an ever-present symbol of the danger of the ocean, and for a golfer, it is a reminder of the sneaky wind that keeps the golf, even on simple holes, challenging and rewarding," Eckberg writes. So while most visitors to this island about 20 miles from the Venezuelan shore come the brilliant green sea
and soft sand beaches, Tierra Del Sol reminds us that there's still much more to be seen in Aruba.
OldDominionGolf.com: Bring the Heavy Armor
PB Dye is known for designing challenging golf courses, and there isn't anything about The Gauntlet that'll dispel the reputation. So says senior writer Jeffrey A. Rendall in this week's featured Virginia review. Located just north of Fredericksburg, the Gauntlet features tight fairways, greens that are tiered and undulated, and plenty of natural barriers to test your golf skills. Be sure to check out Rendall's description of The Gauntlet's signature hole, No. 4, a 375-yard par four. The lake's on the left, and the fairway's a 75 degree dogleg left. Enjoy the challenge.
RockiesGolf.com: Another Arthur Hills Delight
One of the newer courses sprinkled along the new Denver metro eastern beltway, Heritage Eagle
Bend Golf and Country Club is a beauty with rolling fairways that wind through steep ravines on the hillsides south of E-470. Staff writer Diana Rowe Martinez is your guide for this Arthur Hills design, which meanders through the community like it belongs there, drawing on the canyons, valleys, rolling hills and pristine lakes to increase its challenge and beauty. As Martinez writes, "Hills' courses have the reputation of being playable yet challenging, while respecting the environment, and Heritage Eagle Bend continues to add to the architect's stellar list of courses."
MichiganGolf.com: Solid but Uninspiring
According to senior writer Kiel Christianson, Faulkwood Shores Golf Club in Howell is a prime example of the way in which course standards have changed over the last decade or two. While Faulkwood Shores still offers a solid test of players' skills at a fair price, Christianson says the layout suffers from uninspiring surroundings, redundancy of design, and uneven conditions. "To its credit, Faulkwood Shores is a tough layout," he writes, "but as more courses are designed by well-known architects, older courses like Faulkwood have the difficult and unenviable task of competing with these flashy upstarts." Sound like Faulkwood still has some work ahead of them.
GolfFlorida.com: Service With(out) a Smile
Continuing our theme of courses that could use an upgrade, check out senior writer Joe Bruno's review of the Jacaranda West Golf & Country Club, located in Sarasota County in the town of Venice. Bruno says the Mark Mahannah designed 18-hole, par 72 course was a solid layout, but not any better than many of the other area public golf courses. "But truthfully, Heron Creek and Bobcat Trail are two nearby public golf courses that are every bit as luxurious as Jacaranda West," Bruno writes. "They are both also on the Big Summer Card, and the working personnel at these two courses donąt give the impression that they are doing you a favor by permitting you to spend your hard-earned cash at their course."
From the Rough
In case you missed last week's report, be sure to catch senior writer Jeffrey
A. Rendall's four-part series on The
Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. It's always been a
place to come and relax with style and elegance, and Rendall says
that still holds true. "The Homestead boasts luxury and relaxation
in abundance," Rendall writes. "The golf found there is amongst the
finest you'll find anywhere, as noted many times in respected publications
such as Golf Digest and Golf Magazine." The resort's three courses
were all designed by legendary golf architects-Donald Ross for The
Old Course (with additions made by Rees Jones), William S. Flynn
for The
Cascades, and Robert Trent Jones for the Lower
Cascades. And there's much more to The Homestead than just golf,
including tennis, fly fishing, mountain biking, on-site bowling and
even falconry. As Rendall writes, "It's simply a timeless journey
to a fine destination in what seems like another world."
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
GolfBoards.com website,
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.
Until next week….happy golfing!
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