http://theduncanlist.com Great Golf and Travel Writing Wed, 16 May 2012 20:48:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It may not win any beauty awards but Sanctuary Cove, one I-95 exit south of Brunswick, manages to be both elegant and stimulating without resorting to the kind of earthwork and artifice that so regularly apears on poor sites. With so little to work with—just a development in a flat forest of pine, palmetto and scrub on the edge of the Little Satilla River coastal marshes—Mark and Davis Love III's design turns tricks with classical elements to ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/southern-players-guide/1948/sanctuary-cove-raynor-with-love The two-shot holes are probably the strength of Grand Haven, a moderately high-end daily fee located in Palm Coast on Florida's Atlantic side. A couple of bruisers measure over 460 yards, and most of the ones in the 340 to 380 range are classically Nicklausian, meaning they're strategically sensible if not particularly creative. One of the tougher ones is the 436-yard third that calls for a big cut drive over a marsh followed with a draw iron ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/southern-players-guide/florida/1937/an-evolving-nicklaus-at-grand-haven Good God, is it that time of year again? The other day while shopping I felt myself compulsively pulled toward an aisle stocked mainly of pink and rosé wines. It was unusually warm outside, mid Southern springtime in full force and things getting sticky, and the thought of a brisk, cold rosé had officially laid its hands on me. For many wine drinkers, the impulse to turn to rosés in the late spring is biological, an annual marker ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/taste/1943/is-it-rose-season-yet Sugarloaf Mountain should be the model for future golf course designs in Central Florida, particularly those built in the scrub, orchard and sand hills regions west and north of Orlando. That is if there are any future golf courses. Unfortunately the course and development (including a dormant housing component) was built just as the global economy—and the real estate economy specifically—began imploding so the entire project has been in jeopardy of collapsing since the day it ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/southern-players-guide/florida/1922/sugarloaf-mountain-a-central-florida-ideal Cambrian Ridge is the best and worst of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail all in one place. It’s on an absolutely brutal site with way too many steep slopes plunging into lakes and gullies and its full of holes that begin on one level, play to another and finish on a third. There’s little connection between fairways and greens—much less one hole to the next—with water, streams, field bunkers and sunken depressions frequently standing ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/southern-players-guide/alabama/1866/playing-hopscotch-at-rtj-golf-trails-cambrian-ridge Hurricane Ivan cleared out most of the trees, and a good amount of ambiance, at Lost Key. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan ravaged Lost Key, located on Perdido Key between Pensacola and Gulf Shores, and the damage necessitated a full renovation. The old incarnation was either feared or hated by most players because it was brutally tight and unforgiving, built as it was atop murky coastal wetlands with holes cut from a claustrophobic forest of sand ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/southern-players-guide/florida/1868/lost-proportions-at-lost-key The Checklist isn't woebegone, and we aren't even particularly nostalgic. We do, however, lament the societal loss of the tie as casual and social wear. We know the tie will never make its way back into sportswear, Ryan Moore's noble efforts to resurrect it in golf notwithstanding (perhaps because pairing it with a billed cap reduces the look to neo-punk skater uniform?). But ties today are almost exclusively relegated to formal occasions and for men in certain ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/the-checklist/1890/the-checklist-ties Harbour Town (part of the Sea Pines Resort) is one of the few good golf courses I know of where you can find your drive in the fairway and still not have a clear shot to the green. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun but it’s definitely integral to the challenge and originality of this course because it works hand-in-glove with the shape and size of the greens (tiny) and positions of the ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/southern-players-guide/94/spg-harbour-town There is no point in trying to "rate" Augusta National. Putting an evaluation or rating on the golf course would be like doing a movie review now of "Star Wars." It doesn't matter. Commenting on Mark Hamill's flat delivery, the anti-intellectualism of the "Force" or the cheapening effect of Han Solo's dues ex machina arrival in the Death Star battle royale will only make people laugh at you. Some things, no matter their flaws, live in critic-proof bubbles. Like Augusta ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/golf/1817/the-myth-of-augusta-national I admire what the architects did with this course. I believe if you’re stuck with a crap property and have to manufacture everything from the ground up, go ahead and turn the design loose. The Atchafalaya at Idlewild is a little severe and anachronistic for when it was built—perimeter mounds, bulkheads lining water hazards, pot bunkers, a double green—but there’s no way to make this place look soft and old and heathery unless you’ve got an ... ]]> http://theduncanlist.com/golf/southern-players-guide/1773/the-atchafalaya-at-idlewild-into-the-heart-of-darkness