Park Mammoth Golf Club

Favorite Hole

No. 3, par 5, 564 yards

Deception off the tee makes for hesitant swings on the third hole. While the first two holes allow you to swing away with driver, the third presents a strong pinch point right in the landing zone. There are bunkers short right and long left of the fairway, plus penalizing native areas just off the shortgrass. If you conquer this challenge you can either go for the green in two or set yourself up for an optimal wedge shot by hugging the right half of the fairway. This is especially hard to set up from a poor position due to the strong fairway tilt–which is present on most holes.

The green is the most undulating on the course, with planes tilting in nearly every direction. There are four distinctive sections: a front portion that tilts towards the line of play, a back-left portion that tilts away, a back-right portion with multiple rumples and rolls, and a tiny back-middle tier that houses an especially challenging hole location. I love the way the green allows you to swing balls across the surface to reach the back left pins that are guarded by a bunker.

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Overall Thoughts

Many golf courses that undergo renovations of the modern era have enormous budgets, a myriad of flashed sand bunkers, and steep greens fees upon opening. This is likely a result of overzealous owners seeking recognition from magazine rankings or trying to produce visually stunning golf holes otherwise known as “clickbait architecture,” as Bruce Hepner proclaimed on the Fried Egg Golf Podcast. It feels like golf courses and clubs are in an arms race to see who can renovate their golf course for the most amount of money possible. All too often we see $15-25 million dollar renovations show up in headlines even though massive amounts of money aren’t always necessary to produce an architecturally interesting golf course. The renovation of Park Mammoth Golf Club, on the other hand, is a perfect example of exhibiting restraint while creating an impossibly affordable public golf course on a modest budget that still leaves you wanting to play it again as soon as you finish 18 holes.

The construction work began in February 2020 as a small renovation project in hopes of revitalizing the tired mid-century golf course. Tree removal was the first step in the renovation, but by mid-March the scope of the project accelerated into a full-blown overhaul of the existing golf course, including rebuilding all 18 greens. The owners gave Ross and Craig full reign to create whatever they wanted, as long as it was both fun and able to elicit demand for repeat play–both of which they nailed. They fully maximized all 6,200 yards of the golf course, doing so in a way that shows masterful restraint and attention to detail without compromising the thoughtfulness of the design.

The one thing that the original course did quite well was take players on a wonderful journey up, down, and around the steep valley, which boasts over 150 feet of elevation change. The variety of uphill, downhill, and ridge-to-ridge style golf holes keeps your attention and takes you to every nook and cranny of the property. While many of the new holes play within the same footprint of the original course, most of the sightlines and grass lines were altered to add a more dynamic feel to a layout that once resembled a bowling alley.

The variety and pacing of holes on the front nine is terrific, as the course climbs, drops, and tilts over the land in a different way with each hole played. The constantly fresh feeling begins to fade on the back nine, where six holes play along roughly the same north-south axis and arguably the three weakest holes (12-13-14) laid out in succession. The bunkerless 14th is a big question mark, presenting a basic green style with just a raised knob on the left edge of the putting surface. It’s the least-interesting land on the property; utilizing a bold feature or stand-out green here to make up for that would have been wise. But overall, the attractive routing was a good base for Ross and Craig to build from, allowing the addition of strategic bunkers and creation of interesting green contours that have elevated the course into a new stratosphere.

While the original course had no bunkers, the new design features 25 well-placed and thought-provoking sand hazards. Some large, some small, and some incredibly penal, like the 12-foot deep greenside bunker on the 15th hole. These grass-faced flat bottom bunkers require minimal maintenance from the grounds crew and allow below-average golfers to get around the course without serious struggle. Throughout the round, players will often be staring down a bunker that forces a consideration as to whether or not it can be carried. The frequency with which this occurs deserves high praise, considering they only built 25 of them.

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The small fronting bunker on the par-3 16th hole is a prime example of how well executed every bunker is. Deciding between two clubs, I opted for the longer one to avoid the central bunker. But this was in fact an illusion, as the hazard was 25 yards short of the green. The strategically placed bunker tricked me into over-clubbing myself. The bunkering at Park Mammoth should be added to any Golf Architecture 101 textbook as a perfect example of how to use these hazards effectively and efficiently.

It’s very hard to make an interesting golf course without interesting greens. Outliers to this theory often involve wild land movement and/or a spectacular setting. Park Mammoth is a unique case that blends all three of these aspects. The land movement is bold in many places, the setting is quiet yet captivating, and the greens are engaging. The contouring is subtly intricate on many greens, and then very bold on others. The attention to detail with the green shaping is readily apparent. No two greens feel alike, yet the multifaceted surfaces fit together like a puzzle to create a cohesive set.

The length of the course is certainly a constraint, but the architects squeezed a lot out of what they were given. Several of the par fours are driver-wedge holes that, when compared to each other, don’t present much variety. The lack of sharp doglegs is also very evident. The slightly turning mow lines, though, help keep any holes from feeling too repetitive. Collectively, the course capitalizes on the great aspects of the property and hides the negatives well. When you factor in the peak greens fee of $85, Park Mammoth is a terrific public option, and one that’s very accessible to two large metro areas lacking in courses like this one.

1 Egg

Course Tour

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