"Huggan called The Hills picturesque but ultimately desperate. Precisely what he means, I don't know."

Peter Williams protects the home turf and gets a free column courtesy of John Huggan, who penned a column last week that essentially wrote off the New Zealand Open host site and questioned the wisdom of real estate communities built on sensitive land.

Huggan called The Hills picturesque but ultimately desperate. Precisely what he means, I don't know. I'm not saying The Hills is a classic but the players I spoke with seemed genuinely complimentary and looked forward to some fine tuning as the course matures.

I think Williams essentially answers part of the issue that Huggan had in that last sentence (the players loved it and they can't wait to see what happens after the bulldozers fix it!). Darby's comments were also less than inspiring.