TWO WEBSITES

I chose country club/golf course websites as my theme for this question.

The first website I would like to showcase is http://www.playrancho.com, for the Rancho Viejo Resort and Country Club in Rancho Viejo, Texas.
I think this site is poorly done and ineffective for several reasons.
1. Everything is centered. While there is ample white space included, there is a very unsophisticated feel to the page in general, due heavily to the fact that nothing is aligned creatively.
2. The focus of the page is a map of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by various images from the club. There is so much going on--too much layering and accessive use of color--that the end product is incredibly busy and cluttered. The text that labels each picture/link is also rather small and swallowed up by the array of images.
3. In The Non-Designer's Design Book, it was suggested that the main page of any website be sized in such a way that a visitor need not scroll down to find links. This homepage, however, is unneccesarily lengthly and does not employ this smart technique.

My second site of choice is that of the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina--http://www.pinehurst.com.
I feel that this website has been constructed in a much more aesthetically pleasing and interesting way (with an added feeling of sophistication). In my opinion, this is most specifically due to the following characteristics:
1. Good alignment. The homepage is very geometric in nature--some may say this is a lack of creativity--but everything is lined up neatly and articulately. I think this reflects the personality of the resort itself.
2. The logo is visible at the top left-hand corner of the page and remains in that spot no matter what link is visited.
3. The font size is not to big, and there is consistancy throughout in terms of font choice for different kinds of text.
4. This site, unlike that of Rancho Viejo's, fits in a clean box that does not require a user to scroll in order to view.