Oak Tree GC has been selected as the May 1999, course of the month. This course was just recently released by Joel Johnson as the first version of this real course. The course was a Pete Dye design, and it held a PGA Championship in 1988. It is a solid course that features lots of water, but not to many large elevation changes.
A good feature that Johnson used was small waste bunkers all throughout the course. This not only made the course challenging, but also beautiful. They were well placed, and shaped by the designer as seen in the picture below. Although the course wasn't the most scenic course in the world, it did offer a few great views.
This course's layout was spectacular. Joel clearly did an excellent job testing this course. There were zero unfair shots, yet the course challenged you. The water came into play on so many shots. None of the water was wasted on this course. Almost every time water was on the hole overhead, you had to be careful.
This is number 16's approach.
The hole routings were definitely a plus on this course. I really think it was necessary to do on this course. On a number of tee shots, other holes' greens or fairways were visible. Like on the 18th tee shot, you could see a green just to the right.
I highly recommend playing Oak Tree GC as it is a very realistic rendition of the Pete Dye Design. It plays very fair, and has few, if any designer errors. Joel Johnson not only selected great objects, but he also placed them well. If you would like to get more information on this wonderful course, it has been reviewed by Mike Clark, and Joel Ferchoff in the reviews section at JNSE Central.
By: Michael J. Clark
