They say you can see beyond the Valley of a Thousand Peaks and into the northerly fringes of Montana, Idaho and Washington, across the border, several hundred miles away.
This photo hints, albeit hazily, at the sightseeing potential of this Les Furber design, as well as showing how it looks from the back tees or thereabout (a daylight version is found here)
When you've dropped down a club to take account of the 3,800-foot altitude, you then need to drop another to factor in the 80-foot fall to an unusual green, which is tiered from right to left while the green as a whole slopes from back to front.
As with the 12th at California's Crystal Springs, covered here a few weeks ago, a lot will depend on the bloody-mindedness of the guy cutting the fairways but this Trickle Creek gem may have an interesting architectural quirk to it. If there's as much slope in the fairway leading up to the green as it seems, then a heavily-spun tee shot to the right side of the green could conceivably be spat backwards to an alarming degree. At least there's a bunker to stop such a calamity if you aim left.
Maybe the right-side tee shot isn't quite the safe option it appears. Was that the plan or am I trying too hard?
Cheap factor: Monday Night Social (starts 2pm) green fee CDN$50 ($46.46, £28)
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Away from Planet Cheap:
- Out and Back's report on Corey Pavin's assessment of next year's Ryder Cup venue as "not that tricky" made me take my first look at Celtic Manor and its Twenty Ten Course. I have to say that I only wish the naming of the course had been handled with the sensitivity lavished on its creation by European Golf Design. Straight away, I can see what the architect was aiming at with virtually all of the bunkering and the terrain at his disposal and there are plenty of acclaimed courses of which I can't make that claim.
- Certainly, I take Out and Back's point about players being offered clear-cut alternative routes, instead of being challenged to create their own (at least, I think that was the point - you'll see that Mr Binary-Illiterate here has had to check with the author). I also believe that some Brits will quibble any international venue on their own soil that isn't a links course. Nonetheless, Twenty Ten is a long way removed from the Anywhereville Country Club that I was expecting. The ex-player bitchfest that the event has become means that I'm still no fan of the Ryder Cup but I do like its next venue.
- A nice piece by Jay Flemma, looking at how architects are cutting their cloth to make a buck in these straitened times, in particular a favourite of this blogger, Jim Engh:
"Engh believes he will only need to move about 5000-10,000 cubic yards of earth to build the [Awarii Hills] course. Engh’s courses on other sites average between 200,000-300,000 cubic yards of earth moved: a small amount by modern standards"
[pic courtesy of Felixion]
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