This Week at TravelGolf.com: August 6, 2009

Bring on the brash, the unusual in golf course design - it's fun

Baseball parks have different dimensions and little quirks, but a baseball field is essentially a baseball field. Tennis, bowling, football basketball are pretty much uniform.

But golf? That's a whole different story. You can do anything you want with a golf course up to a certain point. If you get too ridiculous, then nobody will take you seriously. (I once played a course where the owner put a moat around a green that couldn't hold any shots. He thought it was a great hole because it was difficult; it was impossible.)

Golf course designers sometimes are creative sometimes out of necessity, sometimes just to be different. The Road Hole at St. Andrews is a great old example of the former. Meadows Farms Golf Course in Locust Grove, Va., is an example of the latter.

There, owner Bill "Farmer" Meadows did it his way. He hired architect Bill Ward, who created the longest hole in the United States (841-yard par 6) and a par-3 that actually looks like a baseball diamond, complete with advertising on the fence. He also has one of the coolest waterfall par 3s you'll see anywhere (you drive your cart under the falls on the way to the green).

One of the best-known examples of modern innovation is the 17th at the Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Verde Beach, Fla. The island green is perhaps the most famous par 3 in golf now, but the island green was almost an accident.

As the golf course was being constructed in the late 1970s, the area around the 17th hole was excavated for its sand to use on the rest of the course. Pete Dye's wife, Alice, suggested instead of filling it back up with dirt, they make an island green and the rest is history. How about a course that uses 20 different kinds of grass? For that, you need to travel to Sylacauga, Ala., hometown of Jim Nabors of "Gomer Pyle" fame. FarmLinks is owned by the Pursell Family, which made its fortune in fertilizer.

Somehow, this Michael Hurdzan-Dana Fry design, with its perfect A-1/A-4 bentgrass greens, blends together almost flawlessly despite showcasing paspalum, different Bermuda grasses, zoysia, ryes and several other varieties.

And who knows? You might learn a little about grass while you're out there - turfgrass, that is.

As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.

Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai: China's "secluded little world" of golf

Five years ago, when Sheshan Golf Club opened for business outside Shanghai, China, General Manger Roger Foo asked himself, "Should I leave the course be, or transform it into a challenging destination for the world's best golfers?" Foo decided to go big, and today the course is a championship test.

Also: Spotlight on Mission Hills

Old-time golf courses, with traditional styles, dot the Las Vegas valley

Here are 10 Las Vegas designs that players can count on to give them a traditional golf experience they won't soon forget. There may not be a lot of bells and whistles to distract players from their main goal - great golf - but in most people's eyes, they wouldn't have it any other way.

Also: Vegas golf deals

CommonGround G.C. near Denver: Affordable golf geared to grow the game

What do you get when you take an old Air Force base golf course that has already been renamed once and put it in the hands of one of America's best classical, minimalist architects? What you get is a parkland/links mixture that is walkable and affordable. You get is Tom Doak's CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora, Colo.

Also: Colorado golf packages

GolfTexas.com: For historic San Antonio, there's no time like the present

The Lone Star State knows its golf, and San Antonio can make the case as its golf capital. And that especially goes for the golf traveler looking for both accessible resort golf and off-course attractions, Brandon Tucker writes.

Also: Remember the Alamo City