The Creek Club golf course at Reynolds Plantation

The Creek Club golf course at Reynolds Plantation in Georgia can be played as a sort of three-dimensional pinball machine. You can play normal golf and still have a ball here, but why not be Phil Mickelson imaginative and use all the contours, humps and bumps, swales, dips and slope - not to mention the wild undulation - to achieve the goal of getting the ball in the hole?

This is a strange course, in more ways than one. It can look very intimidating off the tee. The Creek has a plethora of deep, nasty pot bunkers which can seem prohibitive with your driver in hand.

Creeks that splinter off Lake Oconee come into play on 14 holes with forced carries on eight of them, either off the tee or from the fairway.

The course has some terrific elevation changes, with elevated tees and greens, and it winds through some of the best natural golf terrain in this part of the country. It plays through and around steep wooded hills with great views from the higher places of the surrounding countryside. With the hills, nearly every hole has an isolated feel, like you're the only one on the golf course.