61. Trip to Deep South and Lower Plains, October 30-November 9, 2016

Trip to Deep South and Lower Plains, October 30-November 9, 2016

But before I start...one additional comment regard Essex County Country Club (NJ).  The course has something like 4 greens that slope from front to back...an unusually high number based on my experience...and a real positive tribute.  I wish more greens (not a majority by any means...just more) used this technique.

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Yes, with almost all of my bucket list courses located in the USA, I am going to (at a much reduced pace) try to knock off some more lists…and hope to reach 1000 courses before the legs go (877 as of 10/29/16).  Now playing 1000 would be easy if I simply want to play another 120 or so courses nearby without worrying about the quality of those courses.  But that would be intellectually dishonest…I will try to do it purely by pursuing courses that are on bucket lists consistent with my past lists.

At first I thought this trip would be just for one week, but then Pat decided to go to Yeamans Hall, so it became 10 days long.  Given the climate in various regions of the USA this time of year, the Deep South and Lower Plains seemed to be the most logical place to go.  The one new headache that popped up as I was planning this one was overseeding…this is the time of year for overseeding in the south which closes courses for about a week.  But I was able to work around that problem.  The other issues I faced are ones that pop up on most trips…like Mondays…with most clubs closed, where do you play?

Anyhow, the trip finally took shape and this far is going well…the plan is as follows (note, I am writing this the evening of Tuesday 11/1:

Sun 10/30—Bluejack National (TX…northwest of Houston)

Mon 10/31—Timberlane, New Orleans

Tues 11/1—Fallen Oak, near Biloxi, MS

Wed 11/2—Annandale, near Jackson, MS

Wed 11/2—Old Waverly, near Columbus, MS

Thurs 11/3—Memphis CC, TN

Thurs 11/3—Colonial CC (South), near Memphis

Fri 11/4—Cedar Ridge CC, Tulsa, OK

Fri 11/4—Twin Hills, Oklahoma City

Sat 11/5—Quail Creek, Oklahoma City

Sat 11/5—Oklahoma City G&CC

Sun 11/6—Cedar Crest, Dallas, TX

Sun 11/6—Brook Hollow, Dallas, TX

Mon 11/7—Barton Creek-Fazio Foothills, Austin, TX

Mon 11/7—Briggs Ranch, San Antonio, TX

Tues 11/8—Dallas Athletic Club-Blue

Wed 11/9—GC of Tennessee, Nashville and return home

Hopefully the body will hold together.  I walked Bluejack (more below) but am planning on taking carts from this point forward.

Bluejack National GC, October 30, 2016:  On the morning of 10/30 I was up early to get to Raleigh-Durham airport to catch a 7:55am flight to Houston.  Pat left for Boston around 11am.  Flight was good and a fellow Golf Digest panelist, David W., planned  to play Bluejack with me and met me at Hobby Airport.  It was a long drive out to Bluejack which is located NW of Houston.  David is almost as crazy as I am…so we had a fabulous time telling golf trip stories…all without one ounce of exaggeration.

Bluejack is Tiger Wood’s first design in the USA and his second design worldwide (first being El Cardonal at Daimante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico).  The full 18 holes opened in April 2016, so not on any Top 100 yet.  The property is about 750 acres in size and contains an 18 hole course, a 10 hole par three course (all holes<105 yards…lite at night…great for kids), a wonderful driving range which includes a “bulls eye” target about 180 yards out and 40’ high on a pole, a large lake stocked with a wide variety of fish, and a whole bunch of cabins being constructed.  As Bluejack is a good 1:15-1:30 from Houston without traffic (a rare occurrence there), the cabins are rented (or purchased) by members for weekend stays…and with all the activities, it is a great place for the entire family…the place exudes “fun”.  Interesting concept and got the sense it is working.

David and I played with a friend of his (both belong to Champions GC) Craig W. (pictures herein thanks to Craig), and head professional Rich Barcelo, who is a very strong player (played on PGA Tour and Web.com Tour for 15 years) and great guy.

Put simply, this is a fun course that unabashedly is an effort to capture some of the concepts that made Augusta National great.  From the back tees it is big…7552 yards (I played it at 6178) and par 72.  It reminded me of the “pre-Tiger Proof” ANGC.  Wide wide fairways (strategic design) creating seemingly easy long shots (but the angles define the approach shots), very few bunkers (39 according to my count) but they are all massive, fabulous use of a highly contoured piece of land (shockingly contoured…I always thought of Houston as being very flat), very very tough around the greens, intimate routing (generally short walks from green to tee) on a huge piece of land, scenic beauty very much like ANGC with long leaf pines everywhere, and overall, a true test but really really great fun.  Around the greens the lies are very tight…and the greens have big slopes, with subtle mounds and crests on many.  Also, given how new the greens are, they were firm and fast but receptive to well hit shots.  Rich Barcelo said they were able to get them receptive with a very deep green punching.

Many have tried to capture the “sense” of ANGC through the years (two best examples that immediately come to mind are both Tom Fazio courses…Sage Valley in SC and Alotian in AR.  Sage Valley in particular tries to capture the “look” of ANGC, but to my mind, it does not capture Augusta’s architectural subtleties.  I walked off BJ with the sense that Tiger has captured these subtleties in a very unique and original way.  Golf architecture affectionato’s are very familiar with the MacDonald/Raynor “template” hole concept.  That is…building adaptations (not copies…but adaptations) of great old designs found mostly in GB&I.  The most interesting “adaptation” to my mind is the Biarritz hole (e.g. #9 at Yale, #16 at Yeamans. #5 at Fishers, #11 at The Creek, #8 at Greenbrier White, etc etc etc).  The original (which no longer exists), was located at Biarritz GC in southwestern France and featured a chasm/inlet from the sea in front of the green (like #15 at Cypress Point or #16 at Cabot Cliffs).  As such a feature is available at very few locations, MacDonald and Raynor created an adaptation featuring a grass swale in front of or in the middle of the green.

At Bluejack, Tiger seems to have adapted “situations” or “features” as opposed to holes.  For example, the 10^th hole felt to me very much like the 10^th at ANGC.  At the green, Tiger added a large swale to the left and behind the green.  To my mind, that swale was adapted from the swale to the left and behind ANGC’s 13^th hole.  Similiarly, the back left corner of the 18^th green at Bluejack reminded me of the front left corner of #4 at ANGC; the 18^th is a totally different hole concept than the ANGC 4^th…but I think Tiger used this feature here.  I think this concept of “template features” or “template situations” is simply brilliant.

Here are some holes worthy of special comment:

--#1…dogleg left par 4, 458 yards (see picture of us below with first hole in background)…only two bunkers, but note their size…and key feature is the slope to the right of the green…hit approach shot right of the green and watch the ball trickle down toward the pin…fun way to start a round and get you loose;

--#7 par 3, 158 yards; no bunkers but water short and left; two tiered green that is wide but shallow on left side (upper tier is on left); 4’ fall off behind left side of green.  Bring your distance control or bail out right

--#8 par 4 of 352 yards…drivable from forward tees (in my case if I manage to hit a few sprinkler heads)…green slopes sharply from back left to front right, and off the right side of the green land tumbles down a good 15-20’ (deceivingly, from tee this slope is not at all obvious)…pitch from down there is no fun at all;  back left bunker slopes up to its back which means it yields mostly downhill lies to a green sloping sharply away from you (and toward that nasty slope to the right of the green).  So you big boys, go at it, there are rewards but real risks

--#12 par 3 of 200 yards…green similar in shape and angle to ANGC #12 (BJ’s is somewhat larger); water (but no bunker) in front and two bunkers behind;  this is some sort of hole from the back (but of course no architect can duplicate the winds at ANGC #12)

--#13 par 5 just 508 yards…four well placed bunkers in fairway keep you thinking about how to play this one; hole is dead straight and #14 is right behind it in same line…so from 13^th tee you look down a corridor that is about 900 yards long (see pic below);

--#17 short par 4 (337 yards) to shallow elevated green protected by massive and very deep bunker in front of green’s right side.

Yes, I liked it a lot! 

If you get the chance to play it, do so!!

After the round, drove back to Houston with David and he dropped me off at our friends Linda and Saul P’s apartment.  We went out for w wonderful Italian dinner and then to bed…early flight Monday.

Timberlane CC, October 31, 2016:  Up very early to get to Hobby Airport and catch flight to New Orleans.  Arrived on time and drove to Timberlane located just a few miles southeast of downtown New Orleans.  Timberlane opened in 1959, was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and was included in the #81-90 bracket on Golf Digest’s 100 “Best Tests” in 1969 after being included in GD’s 200 Toughest in 1966 and 1967.  It plays to 6676 yards today, but was a longer 7100 yards when it opened.

Put simply, it is in very poor condition, is flatter than a pancake, in singularly uninteresting…let me play Kissena (my home min in Queens any day of the week).  Timberlane’s one redeeming feature was that I was able to be the first player off and finished in 2 hours 15 minutes.

As I have written before, if you are to complete a bucket list…rounds like this come with the territory!!

But one important other bucket list was helped this day.  Playing golf in Louisiana brought me to having played in 43 states.  The seven I am missing are Alaska, Iowa*, Maine*, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah* (* signifies 3 states I had been to but had not played golf in…I had not been to the other four at this point).

Left New Orleans as soon as the round was over…didn’t want to get scared by the goblins on Halloween!!

Fallen Oak, November 1, 2016: 

Next stop was Fallen Oak, located in Saucier, Mississippi (about 20 miles north of Biloxi and the Gulf of Mexico), a drive of about 1:45 from N. O. …and playing FO would bring my “unplayed states” down to six.

FO is owned by a large casino on the Gulf Coast, and operated very much like Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.  Averages about 40 players a day in high season and I was the first player off the tee this day.  Opened in 2006, and designed by Tom Fazio, it currently hosts a Championship Tour event and stretches to 7487 yards.  It sits carved out of (or next to) a national forest and is visually beautiful (as one might expect from Tom Fazio).  It was in good condition, but a fair number of areas on fairways had very thin grass…invariably these were areas blocked from sunlight by nearby trees.  I would think some trees need to be removed but could not ascertain if there were restrictions imposed by the National Forest Service.

FO is a very good course and fairly tough…but with just a few exceptions, the holes did not seem to excite my imagination.  Course too much of a penal model (as opposed to strategic) for my taste, but very good as a penal course.  One exception is its best hole is #6, a 548 yard par 5, doglegging right and uphill to an infinity green with some major slopes.  Drive to a very wide fairway is framed by several large oak trees that block out second shot from certain angles.  See picture below.

In terms of Top 100 lists, FO made the “merged” GolfWeek list in 2010 (#92) and 2011 (#98).  It was on GW’s Modern Top 100 from 2009-2015 but dropped off that list in 2016…a very precipitous drop from being #44 in 2015 and being rated somewhere between #41 and #55 during that seven year stretch.

After the round and some lunch, I headed north to Jackson, MS in the center of the state (Jackson MS was headquarters for Worldcom, Inc.  Remember when Worldcom purchased MCI…and then collapsed in the wake of a huge accounting scandal??).  To be fair, Jackson today is a thriving mid sized city and seems to have a thriving economy.