The Sanctum

Ben Shearer's asthetically pleasing course is one of my favorite designs. The course features lots of water and moderate elevation changes. The course is a very scenic course with the water coming into play on a few holes and well placed objects.

There is one obvious mistake on the course. I do not feel the #9 tee shot should be hit over the #8 green. This mistake accompinied by a few other design errors kept it from being one of the best courses available. #9 looks ridiculous and almost ruins the round, however, once you get on to the brillant 18th hole you will forget about the small errors. 18 is a great risk/reward hole and finishes off his fantastic course perfectly. It is a great course but for some reason it just doesn't play perfectly to me.

The Santcum is a great course, scenery wise. The pallette is great and the background is as good. The course has a good mix of holes, playing uphill and downhill. The water is brought into play very well. There are some long par 4's, as well as two drivable ones.

My favourite holes are #1, #10, and #12. #1 is a great way to start off your round with a scenic, yet demanding tee shot. #10 has another great looking approach. #12 is a very scenic hole, playing downhill and over water. I was lucky enough to ace #12 the second time I played it.

There were two things that really kept this course back. I did not like how #9 tee shot was over the 8th green. In real life, this would not happen as it would slow up play. Another thing I didn't like was how the first and 17th holes played to the same green. Once again, this would never happen in real life as it would hold up play tremendously.