New Ohio public course is loads of fun
Posted: Tuesday June 03, 2003 1:43 PM
Updated: Wednesday June 04, 2003 5:42 PM

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Columbus, Ohio, certainly should be on anyone's list of America's top 10 golf cities. Muirfield Village, The Golf Club, Scioto Country Club, Double Eagle, and the Scarlet and Gray courses at Ohio State University highlight a lengthy list.

I checked out a new course that's a shoo-in to make my list of this year's coolest rookie courses. It's the Golf Club of Dublin, just up the road from Muirfield Village, which hosted last week's Memorial Tournament. What, you think I was playing hooky while covering the Memorial? Nonsense. It was research. For this column.

I didn't get in a full 18 holes, because approaching storms and a two-group backup on the 11th tee sent me scurrying back to the Memorial press room, but I did manage to play 10, and the GC of Dublin clearly is worth a return visit.

Now, before your eyes glaze over and you start mumbling ... yes, the GC of Dublin is yet another attempt to create a British links course in America. Yeah, I know, as soon as you hear the phrase Scottish links in America you know it's the kiss of death. Well, the GC of Dublin thinks it's a British links ... but it's not. You can't have ponds and lakes and houses and condos 25 feet from the tee boxes and pretend to be a real British links. Also, I didn't notice an ocean nearby. So that was a tipoff that this is not an actual links. With that said, to satisfy my crusty, noses-upturned Euro friends, let me add that the GC of Dublin is a blast, one of the most fun new courses I've played in some time.

MAILBAG
All right, I figured it out. To get my letter in your column, I have to a) identify a correct and minute point that no one else has recognized; or b) make such an outlandishly asinine statement that you feel compelled to respond, rebut or re-whatever. Here goes.
1. Callaway was struggling in the "identifiable public face" category, with Johnny Miller's NBC shtick growing long in the tooth, with Arnie himself growing long in the tooth, with Ty Tryon not growing long in the tooth quickly enough, and with a number of other golfers on staff that just didn't make it. So where to turn? The Anti-Augusta Approach (Triple A). By insinuating that Callaway (and the tour, by association) supports "playing with the boys," the Carlsbadians and the Finchemonians come across the finish line wearing roses and Q-rings.

2. The PGA Tour is the Matrix. All the tour members are Agent Smiths, except Tiger, who is Morpheus (Tigerius?). Tiger "awakened" Annika, who now must compete against the clones of the PGA Tour to save humanity from the PC freaks who want inane equality and the chauvinists who want no equality. Her only choice: Choose the red Callaway ball or the blue Callaway ball. (Now come on, that last line is damned funny.)
-Ron Montesano, Grand Island, N.Y.

Sorry, the Underground Golfer spent last week in the Halfway House, but I think we'd all had enough words about Annika by then. Yes, your red or blue line is all right. I'm sure I'll think the rest of it is much funnier once I catch up with you and watch The Matrix 37 times. Finchemonians? An interesting word that sounds so bad, it's good. Here's one I invented and started using: crapioca. It's like a classier brand of crapola and is an all-purpose word that can be used to describe just about anything. Try it. You'll like it.

I am a huge Tiger Woods fan who is beginning to lose my enthusiasm. It appears as though Tiger has gone elitist on us. While the majority of players are out there every week, or close to it, Tiger plays less and less, opting for only the big ones and majors. Do you think that is affecting his game? His last outings have been abysmal.
-Steven Mather, Tampa, Fla.

What, he gets no slack for taking time off to have a life and, oh, by the way, knee surgery? As you may have noticed (or not), he has won three times this year. Last week at Memorial, he tossed a little last-round 65 in there to bone up the leaderboard. When he finishes the year with eight wins, will that be good enough for you? Less is more, baby. Jack Nicklaus played little more than the minimum for years. That's what Tiger is doing. When someone is playing for history and major championships, can you really expect him to get up for the BC Opens of the world? He's fine. Relax. Better yet, go see The Matrix.


The GC of Dublin looks authentic in places. The clubhouse is fantastic. It really does have the feel of a large, Irish farmhouse. Very cool. There are lots of layered, sod-faced bunkers, expertly done and impressive looking. They're the best facsimiles I've seen in the U.S. (Of course, they're a lot more interesting to look at when one of your playing partners is in the bunker trying to hack up and out, and not you.) The course also has plenty of stringy fescue, some of it deep and formidable; big, square-shaped tee boxes; and greens so St. Andrews-massive as to be unbelievable.

The tee was up, in fact, on the second hole, named Walk the Plank, which made it play barely 140 yards. The green was half the size of a football field, absurdly big for a hole so short (it's only 175 from the tips). But that isn't a negative ... unless you're there early in the morning and waiting for the groundskeeper to finish mowing; then it's a big negative. Actually, large greens increase the course's playability. You'd be hard-pressed to miss this green from 140, although one media member in my threesome did. He will remain nameless for purposes of future blackmail attempts.

Honestly, my complaints about this course are small and mostly regard the course's self-perception. On a shotgun start the announcer informed us that this was the only true links in America, blah, blah, blah. Well, that's not true. Royal Links in Las Vegas is pretty well done. A private club outside Chicago, Black Sheep Club, could be mistaken for Kingsbarn or some other St. Andrews-area track. And I know Michigan has at least one. As far as being faithful to British links, they all beat the GC of Dublin, which is overly Americanized with far too many ponds and lakes to even think about being a links. And on the third hole, Wee Burn, there was no sign of the actual burn that the hole is named after. Unless they meant the cart path. Oh, and a real links wouldn't have an asphalt cart path carving up the course and frequently cutting across the middle of fairways. A real links wouldn't have motorized carts, either, but that's another story.

I didn't see most of the back nine, but the ninth and 10th holes traversed some woods. Seen a lot of trees at the Old Course or Royal Troon? I haven't. Still, they're good holes. The biggest flaw was the houses, some of them built way too close for comfort. A row of homes dots the right side of the fourth fairway. I'd say the owners of the fourth and fifth houses down better go heavy on insurance and wear helmets when they're in their backyards; they're right in the line of fire. What were they thinking when they built houses this close to the hole? I also hope future buyers enjoy the roar of fairway mowers at 6 every morning. But, hey, that's their problem.

If the course didn't try to pass itself off as a links, I wouldn't even bring any of this stuff up. I like the slogan on the Web site better: "Come taste the spirit of British golf." This course does, indeed, have spirit. The gaping, deep bunker guarding the humongous first green will get you in the mood for golf across the pond. As will several other pot bunkers dotting the sides of the first fairway. (One other minor drawback: The range is adjacent to the first hole. When we played it, the left rough and part of the fairway was filled with range balls. Good thing my ball didn't have a black stripe on it, or I'd still be looking for it.)

The Golf Club of Dublin, though, is just the kind of public course we need more of. It's very playable. The fairways are remarkably wide. If you can't hit these fairways, you can't play golf. The greens are gigantic. The tee boxes are big and squared off, just like in Britain. And there are nice decorative touches. Right of the first fairway is a collection of elongated, upright stones. "Hey, you don't have to go 3,000 miles to see Stonehenge after all," I told my playing partners, who agreed with you -- I'm an idiot.

I don't think I've ever heard a golfer complain that a course was too easy. That's why GC of Dublin will be a smash hit. It has back-to-back par-5s in the middle of the front nine, Nos. 5 and 6, and they're both easily reachable and fairly wide open. The sixth, known as Shanty, has a stand of trees left of the fairway and is guarded by a long, very un-linksy lake on the right -- which was where I deposited my second shot as I gamely (Stupidly, you're thinking) went for the green in two. Some small rock walls line the rough on this hole, a very nice touch.

My favorite hole of the 10 I played would be The Wall, No. 9. A wall frames the back of the green. It's a 436-yard par-4, pretty straight, flanked by a fair number of trees on either side. The green has a bowl-shaped area in the center, and that's where the pin was this day. On a chip or a putt, you had to play for a big, sweeping curve off the bowl. It was great fun.

Having checked only one fairway on the back, it appears as if that nine is a bit newer. The 10th fairway seemed younger and sported a bumper crop of weeds. It just needs a few months to mature.

The GC of Dublin plays 7,021 yards from the tips, 6,363 from the regular men's tees and 4,969 from the front if you need a morale boost. It reminds me of going to a theme restaurant, like Outback Steakhouse. The atmosphere isn't completely authentic, but the food and the service are great, so who really cares? I'm giving the GC of Dublin, a public course, an A-. It's very good and a lot of fun. It's just not a real links. Hey, this is Columbus, Ohio. Of course it's not a real links. Get over it and go play this thing.