Classic Design's Fresh Vision : The 533-yard, par-5 14th at Black Creek Club, Chattanooga

Golf Digest, March, 2002 by Ron Whitten

Instant oldie

Retro architecture is all the rage in golf today. Flashy Alister Mackenzie-style bunkers and fall-away Donald Ross greens grace many a new layout. There's a tribute to A.W. Tillinghast at a new course in Myrtle Beach, and a course called The Tribute north of Dallas does a noble job of reproducing some of Great Britain's greatest golf holes.

The fellow who started it all was C.B. Macdonald, who with associate Seth Raynor imitated features from favorite British holes when they built the National Golf Links of America on Long Island 90 years ago. The pair repeated their formulaic architecture nationwide, C.B. on 16 other courses and Raynor on more than 100.

In the past 18 months, three new courses capture their spirit: The Harvester in Rhodes, Iowa; Stonebridge Golf Links & Country Club in Hauppauge, N.Y.; and the Black Creek Club in Chattanooga.

Of the three, Black Creek is the best homage to Macdonald and Raynor. Architect Brian Silva has successfully pushed the game back to the 1920s, when both shafts and clubheads were made of wood, not metal; when slope referred to the land, not a handicap system; when fairways were as dry as their 19th holes.

Black Creek has all the Macdonald-Raynor trappings: zigzag fairways, geometric green pads and bunkers that look as if they were carved with a giant butter knife. The course rewards placement over brute strength and bump-and-run approaches over high-flyers. Old C.B. and Seth would be proud to claim Black Creek as their own.

Getting on: Private, but guests can play for $75. Phone 423-822-2582, or visit www.BlackCreekClub.com.