77. Mini-Update—North Carolina and New Jersey, Late April 2017

Mini-Update—North Carolina and New Jersey, Late April 2017

Sunday April 16 was a much needed chance to catch up on sleep.  I was in bed till about 10am that morning.  Lots of catching up w paperwork etc. to do but on Monday another set of priorities came to town for five days…Pat’s older son Hunter and our two oldest grandchildren, Kingston (7) and Duggan (6) (aka “The Rug Rats” or “The Munchins”).  This was their much-anticipated annual visit to the Sandhills region (third straight year).  They are very specials boys and lots of fun.  We did get to spend some quality time on the driving range working on their games (in 45 minutes I got to hit two shots!).  However, I have deep concerns that both boys are more enthralled with fishing than golf.  Some of my golfing buddies have been telling me for years that I needed to try fishing.  Two reasons I have avoided that trap…(1) seems to me that fishing requires patience…no one in their right mind would say that patience is one of my attributes, and (2) why put myself in the position where I have to make another decision…right now I just go play golf…who at my old age wants to have to decide between two activities…life is simpler/easier with just one.  Additionally, no need to go fishing as God created fish markets…but he did not create golf markets (the latter part of that thought is credited to Saul P., our friend in Houston).

They headed back north on Friday 4/21, and Pat and I spent a day or two recovering from the wonderful whirlwind.  The following week was spent playing some interesting and varied golf and getting prepared for our trip to Boston for the summer.

Scotch Meadows Country Club, April 26, 2017:  One of the wonderful things about the game of golf are the small town clubs that are located throughout the USA (as well as most of the rest of the world).  They are usually very simple and understated…and provide an opportunity for everyday folks to compete.  While people in their younger years have lots of choices for competition…there are not a lot of folks in the physical condition to play football, basketball, etc etc as they enter their 40’s and later decades.  We have very close friends, Richard and Dolly B. who live in Laurinburg, NC, a small town about 30 miles south of Pinehurst where Richard grew up.    When Richard asked me to join a foursome at a charity event at the local track where he grew up playing, I jumped at the chance…had to see how Scotch Meadows compared to Kissena Golf Course, the muni that had to put up with me from the age of 10-17!  We played with two other friends from Toronto and Pinehurst…John Hill (he of “Masters jacket while watching Sunday round on TV” fame), and Bill Pigott (who has been known to be corresponding with the late golf architect Harry Colt…but that is another story).

While it seems safe to conclude that the likes of Cypress Point, Royal Dornoch, Shinnecock Hills, etc. need not fear competition from Scotch Meadows, suffice it to say that compared to the likes of Kissena, Richard was spoiled rotten!!  In any case, it was a fun day on a good golf course with a bunch of friends…even though all of us played like crap!  And it was special fun to hear more stories from Richard (his last name is not being released so that he is not overwhelmed by requests to play Scotch Plains) about his early years growing up and playing this silly game.  And $$ went to an excellent cause.  Ultimately, this is what golf is all about.

Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club, April 28, 2017:  Almost a year ago, Fergal O. introduced me (via email) to Jim G. from the New York area.  Jim is a member of Sunningdale CC and Sleepy Hollow CC.  I have played and love Sleepy…played it several times in 1970’s and 1980’s and then again w Pat in June 2014 (but that was before on this blog started).  Have not played Sunningdale but have heard good things about Mike De Vries’ renovation of this Seth Raynor gem, so it is on “the list” that rules my life.

Jim and I have abused the internet with our golf related back and forths since then, and he was in NC for some meetings at Chapel Hill, so he came down to Pinehurst for some good golf (got that) and good company (questionable).  On Friday afternoon, we went over to Mid Pines, created by Donald Ross in 1921 and more recently (and lovingly) restored by Kyle Franz in 2013.  I am ashamed to say that I did not play Mid Pines until late 2013, after Franz’s handiwork had been completed, hence I cannot comment on the changes, only on what is there now.

Simply put, this is the best course in the Sandhills Region.  Yes, #2 at Pinehurst is a far superior championship track and far more challenging, but it terms of basic fun for golfers with handicaps ranging from scratch to 20 or so, Mid Pines wins hands down.  When you walk off the 18^th green, you always feel like heading directly back to the first tee.  Golfers who finish a round at #2 tend to want to heads straight to the bar…exceptions being those who either have a handicap of +3 of better and those who don’t drink!  In all seriousness, #2 is a fabulous fabulous course (made so so much better by the recent Coore Crenshaw renovation) and I love exploring it for understand its intricacies, but not on a steady diet (and I don’t drink).

Back to Mid Pines.  The best thing about the location is the Sandhills…so reminiscent of Surrey SW of London and Melbourne’s Sand Belt.  Next, it is built on a fabulous piece of land and located in a “bowl” with its land sloping down from Midland Road to the north and Pee Dee Road to the west.  These slopes can really fool you around and on the greens.  Franz’s renovation brought back the wonderful sand waste areas, eliminated “rough”, and happily made it feel like 50+ years ago in the Sandhills…just as Coore and Crenshaw did on #2.

The holes all are different from one another yet fit together “hand in glove”, with the best ones being #2, #4, #6, #12, #13, and #15-17.  My only questions in terms of design are #3…where there is a long carry off the tee over a large pond, and #18, a great hole that I think is started to be encroached by tree growth and some minor trimming may be in order.  Total yardage from tips is 6723 and the course plays firm and fast.  Had a 42-40 = 82 which wasn’t too bad given dumb double bogies on #1 and #18.

If you haven’t played it…put it on your list.  It is all about fun, angles and options achieved through wide fairways and superb bunkering, mounding, and use of slopes.  Should have taken a bunch of pictures and failed in that regard.  Jim loved it as much or more than I did.  BTW, in terms of Top 100’s Mid Pines has never been on a World or USA Top 100, but did make the 2014 and 2015 GW Modern Top 100 (#77 and #85 respectively).  The fabulous Palmetto GC of Aiken, SC is in a similar boat…two very strong pieces of evidence to support those who condemn course raters.

We rushed to finish, took quick and cold (!!) showers, then went down the road to meet Pat , Ran Morrissett (GolfClubAtlas.com), and Ran’s new bride, Fritz for dinner at Ironwood.  Wonderful time…just couldn’t get people to stop talking about golf!! 

Jim stayed in out guest room and the next morning it was up early for 18 holes at Tobacco Road.

Tobacco Road Golf Club, April 29, 2017: In 1998, some 20-25 miles north of Pinehurst and just off of US-1, the late and brilliant Mike Strantz crafted the highly unusual and “deceptively fair” (that will require explaining) Tobacco Road on a site that had previously been a tobacco farm and a mining site (predecessor to Streamsong??).  I have played it about 6-7 times, and my greatest compliment is that each time I play it, I like and appreciate it more than the last time.  BTW…same is true for Mid Pines. 

TR makes wonderful use of a wonderful piece of property.  With a little bit of a “Pine Valley” feel, it is visually extremely intimidating.  And, if the player is aggressive, he/she had better bring their best game as the “risk” side of the risk/reward equation here is pretty damn strong.  But also with generous fairways and landing areas, if one does not attack the course and plays the shots they are given, it is very “scorable”…hence the phrase “deceptively fair”.  Nothing wrong with a golf course architect playing with your mind…that is the #1 “weapon” of the great ones.

There are no bad holes here…and my favorites are:

#3--a wild Biarritz par 3 190 yards;

#4--short par 5 at 535 yards…teeing off from a shoot similar in feel to #4 at Bethpage Black…and doglegging sharply left around a huge right bunker extending about 160 yards to the green;

#5—short 333 yard par 4 doglegging slightly left to a raised green with a nasty false front---drivable but you better be careful with this risk/reward trade-off;

#7—401 down hill par 4 with fairway ending at 325 yards and a huge 46 yard deep (and probably wider) two tiered green with humongous mounding…so much fun until I 3 putted;

#9—427 yard par 4 steeply uphill on second to deep but narrow green…you can be left on your approach (will kick onto green unless you are too far left, in which case you are dead) but right is another form of death in bunkers from which you may never extract yourself;

#11--531 yard very uphill par 5 with enormous deep deep bunker right and in front of green to be avoided at all costs…another risk/reward trade-off;

#12—best designed holes here…a 419 yard par 4 doglegging left between big bunkers left and right (bunker left must be 175 yards long) protecting a very tight landing area, unless you wish to leave yourself 190 yards in, or can carry your drive 310 yards…to deep but narrow green with sharp drop off right to lower level; mounding/shaping of this hole is magnificent and reminds me of Cruden Bay in Scotland; I butchered this great hole;

#13—573 yard par 5 with Cape Hole tee shot (bite off as much as you can chew) and a wide but shallow raised green that is surrounded by mounds; and

#15—365 yard down hill par 4 with split fairway (divided by impossible rough) to wide but narrow green well protected by bunkers.

In essence…the course fun from #1-8 but really gets going on #9.  Only negative is a trek of about 300 yards from 14th green to 15^th tee…breaks up a wonderful “flow” just a bit.

Again I failed…no pictures.  But the golf was great…hit is as well as I could and had nine makeable birdie putts of 20’ or closer (made 1 or 9).  Hit 12 of 13 fairways (badly missed #12 on left), 12 of 18 greens and using the ASC double on #12, had a 37-39 =76…good as I can play!

Tobacco Road’s history on Top 100 listings is interesting.  It has never been included on any USA Top 100, but was #50 on the World Top 100 as published by Golf Course Architecture based on a survey of almost 250 architects worldwide (#50 globally equates to #25 in the USA per the name by name listing).

After the round, Jim headed north to RDU airport and I headed south to get home, finish packing, and get to bed early.  On Sunday, we were heading north about 2-3 weeks earlier than normally.  Along with another Brookline member, I put together an evening talk by two executive producers of the recently released movie, Tommy’s Honour, about the making of the film.  So having to be there on May 3^rd, it did not make sense to fly up and back, and then drive back up to Boston two weeks later.  And Pat has bone spurs, which get stiff when she is inactive for a long time (as in a 13 hour drive).  So she flew up to Boston and I drove.  Sunday morning we got up at 3am and pulled out of the garage (car stuffed to the brim with luggage, golf clubs, etc etc) at 4:17am.  I dropped Pat off at Raleigh-Durham airport at 5:25am (new record time from garage to terminal…1:08 for a 76 mile drive) and then headed north.  Naturally, such a long drive would be very tough, so I had arranged to play Metedeconk National Golf Club in central New Jersey on the way.  I figured it would break up the trip (rationalization is a skill I have…not sure if it came naturally or was acquired). 

Metedeconk National Golf Club, April 30, 2017:  Pulled up to Metedeconk clubhouse at 1:05pm…somehow less tired than I thought I would be after 8 hours and 42 minutes of driving and pit stops. 

MNGC is located in the middle of NJ, about half way between the NJ Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway (which runs near the Atlantic coast).  It opened in 1988 with 18 holes designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. (9 more were added in 1998) and at the time was generally acclaimed in the NYC area as setting a new standard in national clubs.   Ernie Ransome (President or Chairman of Pine Valley GC for about 25 years) was involved with the formation of MNGC and believed it could flourish as another small, exclusive national golf club in the Sand Barrens of NJ.

The Tournament Course (played on holes 19-27 followed by 1-9 and which I played) totals 7188 yards (par 72) with a course rating of 76.4 and a slope of 152.  The Founder’s Course (the original 18) totals 7066 yards and comes in at 75.8/144.  In terms of Top 100 listings, it has not made any of the World or USA lists I maintain and track, but it did make the Golf Week Top 100 Modern USA list in 2000 (#89) and 2012 (#85)…not very close to making my GW merged 100.  It is strange to see such a gap (12 years) between listings with no listing in between.

This is a tough, tight slog…but it was built on a fabulous piece of land and I think has great potential.  The course is in excellent condition.  It was also fairly cold (about 60° F) and windy (about 15-20 mph) which made it even tougher.  I played alone which was good as no one else had to witness a sloppy game (43-48 = 91)…in other words my ugly twin played most of the round. 

In its current configuration, this is not a course I would want to play every day…tight, long, and very tough, the word fun does not apply.  It needs to be opened up, adding width to the fairways to give options off the tee and add risk/reward choices.  RTJ’s style of architecture…which MNGC clearly is a great example of, is not exactly “in favor” now.  There are a number of very good holes and the last three on the Tournament course (#7-9 of the 27) and superb.  Pictures follow…

MNGC #21(#3 Tournament)--577 yd par 5 third shot

MNGC #23 (#5 Tournament) 187 yd par 3 (for forward green in pic) 

MNGC #24 (#6 Tournament) 529 yd par 5...tight---hit gap wedge to  4' and birdied

MNGC #25 (#7 Tournament) 175 yd par 3

 

MNGC #6 (#15 Tournament) 190 par 3

MNGC #7 (#16 Tournament)--407 dogleg right par 4--start of great finish

MNGC #8 (#17 Tournament)--436 yd dogleg left par 4--with bunker above in middle of fairway

MNGC #9 (#18 Tournament)--443 yd par 4 dogleg right, uphill to green

MNGC #9 (#18 Tournament) 2nd shot

After the round, I had a chance to talk with the Director of Golf Brent Studer, a very good guy.  Brent said that over the years MNGC has become more of a combination national & local club (similar to CCNC) and that they were starting to discuss renovation options with several architectural firms.

At 5:20pm it was time to take on the last 288 miles of my journey home.  I pulled into our driveway at 10:17pm after 832 miles, 13 hours 39 minutes of driving and pit stops, plus 18 holes (6089 yards from my tees).  Not bad for a days work…averaged 60.6mph including pit stops.  And the real good news is that I was not arrested at two quick emergency pit stops…one on I-95 just north of Providence, RI and the other about one-quarter of a mile short of our home in Milton, MA.  And I am up to 922 courses!!