Post #157...January 2022
We had a wonderful trip to Boston for 10 days in late December to celebrate the Holidays...with the possible exception of the weather! Got off the plane on 12/19 and the blast of "wind assisted" cold air was far more than refreshing! Seeing all eight grandkids, attending Xmas Boston POPS, etc. etc. made for a great trip, as it always does! That said, getting back to a warmer North Carolina on 12/29 was welcomed!
After a few days playing my last golf of 2021 and finally getting fully caught up with this blog, it became time to get back out there a play some. First course on my plans was one that was recently brought to my attention...Camden Country Club in Camden, SC. I had never played Camden before, so made the drive (about 2:05 mostly through rural South Carolina) on January 5.
Camden is located about 35 miles NE of Columbia SC and 100 miles SW of Pinehurst. It was once a major industrial town with a very large textiles plant built, owned, and operated by DuPont (opened around 1950) and once employed over 2000 people. The facility was purchased by Koch Industries in 2004, but clearly the town's economy has seen healthier days.
Prior to WW II the town was known as a resort with outstanding equestrian facilities (a large practice track still sits just to the right of Camden's 11th hole). According to the Club's website, the Club was "chartered" in 1899 and "founded" in 1903. Its present site was occupied by Kirkwood Links until Walter Travis was hired to build a new 18 hole course in 1923. In 1939, the Club convinced Donald Ross to interrupt his retirement and oversee a renovation which included converting Camden's sand greens to grass. Finally, in 2011 Kris Spence oversaw a restoration project.
This is really a fun track. Smallish greens with tough tough slopes and interior mounding. Hole # 5 is one of the best short par 4's I have ever played...and holes 6-7-8 are almost as good as #5. At 6687 yards (par 70) from the tips, the course is too short by today's standards and too long for my game 😢. Entire "feeling" of the course is very much like what one finds in Pinehurst...with thousands of pine trees dominating...but reasonably wide corridors available on most holes. Further tree trimming and widening would certainly add more angles and options but given the state of Camden's economy, I don't see that coming.
Course was in excellent condition and the club is in the middle of a continuing restoration...right now installing a new sprinkler system. While it has never held a USGA event or been included in a Top XXX listing, this one a worth a visit. I had a 43 - 41 = 84.
The next morning (1/6/2022) I decided I needed to get over and see the renovated Southern Pines Golf Club. Had played Southern Pines once before in November 2013 and only saw a tired property (more on this in a minute). The first time I heard about Southern Pines Golf Club was in late 1997 or early 1998 when it was known around here as The Elks Club. My ex and I were visiting the Pinehurst area scouting out retirement home options. We were being shown "Horse Country" just east of Southern Pines, NC by our broker (an older "Southern Gentleman"). I had told the broker that I was a golfer and that Jessie was a "horsy" and he mention The Elks Club and pointed out the low costs and the quick/easy admission, pointing out that all one needed to join was to be White and Christian. I could feel Jessie tightening in horror as I contemplated asking "what does 50% get me?". But in one of my rare moments of discretion, did not make the ask. I should report that those days are long gone around these (and most) parts.
In 2020, The Elks Club sold the course to the company that owns Mid Pines and Pine Needles (both in Southern Pines) and run by Kelly Miller, a fellow GOLF Magazine Panelist. They now have three courses...all of which were designed by Donald Ross (SP in 1906, Mid Pines in 1921, and Pine Needles in 1928). Southern Pines was renovated by Karl Franz and reopened September 9, 2021.
I was excited to see what has generally been heralded as a superb to do. However, this past Saturday night/Sunday morning (January 1 and 2) this area was hit by the same storm that caused havoc on I-95 in Northern VA. No snow here, but strong winds (gusts to 52mph according to the National Weather Service) and heavy rains for a brief period (about 1.5" overnight). I was playing the course some 4-5 days after the storm came through but the affects of the storm were very very evident. For sure it was not playing firm/fast and a good number of the waste bunkers were still washed out. No question none of this damaged is long term...I would expect the course to be like new within a week.
I teed off at 11:30 with a young (approx 35 year old) and from Raleigh who is a very good player. After a par-birdie start, my game returned to normal, but this course kept getting better and better. It is build on a truly outstanding piece of land with lots of interesting natural movement and, with the removal of lots and lots of trees during the renovation, some absolutely stunning vistas of the course. And the greens are pure Ross. Overall, I can think of very few courses without views of mountains and/or large bodies of water that compare to the overall "feel" of this place as a wonderful, fun golf course. And trust me, with this design and these Ross greens, it can bit and bite hard if one is not careful. Ask a guy named Rudo about how the 11th hole can bite hard. Best hole on the tract at 315 yards from the tips. I played from 242 yards and hit an 8 iron into the green...not realizing the entire green slopes to the back (where there is a steep fall off and very deep bunker). On second thought, don't ask. I ended up with a reasonable 41 - 41 = 82...could not get used to the slow green speeds (most likely result of grounds crew busy repairing storm damage). Had birdies on two par 5's: #2 and #15.
The morning of Wednesday January 12 I headed south to play three courses in South Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday. Stop #1 was to return to Yeamans Hall Club located just west of Charleston, SC. This was my 5th visit to the Club and my 8th round. Deep descriptions may be found on Post #104 from my last visit in December 2017...the three prior visits occurred in 2009, 2012, and 2014 and all were in the "pre-Blog era". Given the info on Post #104, I shall be brief...but this place is still one of the great places in this wonderful game. Fun and charming (probably an unusual word to describe a golf club but it fits perfectly here), Seth Raynor made sure all who followed him here would have to think there way around the course, or pay the price. The course was in wonderful condition...which was great to see as in 2017 it was good but not quite up to snuff. Hit the ball fairly well and had a 42 - 40 = 82.
Certainly hope I get the chance to revisit this place at least one more time! By the way, was pleased to see Yeamans return to the GOLF Magazine World 100 last month at #89.
Next stop was Beaufort SC, where I was having dinner with Richard B. (whose bride was babysitting grandkids in Jacksonville, FL). Have known Richard and Dolly for about a dozen years from when they lived about 25 miles south of Pinehurst. They continue to belong to CCNC but headed to SC two years ago in search of slightly warmer weather so we get together far less frequently, which is unfortunate. We did see them this past August during our visit to Yellowstone Club in MT (Post #153). Always special to catch up with Richard, and was wonderful to stay in their beautiful new home.
Early Thursday morning I arrived at Berkeley Hall Club in Bluffton, SC (right next to Hilton Head Island) to play its North course. Some 6 years ago, CCNC's then Head Pro, Adam Kushner, moved to take the position of Director of Golf at Berkeley Hall. Pat and I would often see Adam during our annual visits to Chechessee Creek...and we have watched him grow and succeed here, getting promoted to General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of the Club. Always great to see a first first class person doing well, and that is true big time in this case.
Berkeley Hall opened in 2000 and boasts two Tom Fazio courses (North and South). I was playing North because it hosted last year's US Women's Mid Amateur. I played with Randy S., who is a long time member of Berkeley Hall and is a good friend of another GOLF panelist I know, Robert R. (who was the "former" greenskeeper at Atlantic GC before his recent retirement). Adam was able to join us for the back nine.
This was one of those rounds where Randy and I on the front and then the three of us on the back nine were constantly trading stories and discovering how many common friends we had...that I almost totally lost focus regarding the golf course itself. It was in excellent condition and flowed well. On the negative side, it had more water hazards than I generally like to see and several involved long carries over the water...which can make it difficult or impossible for a shorter player to finish a hole. But no question that this is a first class club and the course is a very good test of golf with a very good set of greens. Never did mark a score on my scorecard...so nothing to report there.
I finished the round at 12:45 and I had to hustle east some 6 miles to just short of HHI for the last round of this day and a half trip...at Moss Creek's South Course. Like Berkeley Hall. Moss Creek boasts two Fazio tracks...but it can also boast two Fazio's. The South Course was built first and was designed by George Fazio, with the help of his nephew Tom Fazio. Then a couple of years later the North Course was designed and built under the guidance of Tom Fazio. In 1979 the South Course hosted the US Junior Amateur Championship. George Fazio had a successful career on the PGA Tour and among his better known designs are Jupiter Hills' (FL) two courses (Hills and Villages) (also where he was a founder along with Bob Hope and William Ford), Butler National-IL, Champions Golf Clubs' Jack Rabbit Course (TX), The National Golf Club of Canada near Toronto, and Wollaston GC in Milton, MA! I arrived around 1:10 and was able to get off right way by starting on #2 (played hole #1 after finishing the front nine). Two groups were kind enough to wave me thru and then I had clear sailing the rest of the way...finishing all 18 2:05.
Overall, this is a good course but cannot complete with the great tracks being built (and renovated or restored) these days. This brought me to 1390 courses lifetime, and left me with 39.5 courses to finish my USGA Championship bucket list (out of 428 courses...net of "no longer exists").
Four Days in Louisiana/Mississippi/Alabama:
This trip was originally scheduled for five days with a very arduous and complicated first day designed to allow me to play Indian Hills CC in Tuscaloosa, AL, which I was unable to play as scheduled in December. Then winter storm Izzy (who the hell thought of this idea of naming storms other than Hurricanes?) reared its ugly head and arduous became literally impossible (weather forecast for my round at Indian Hills was a high of 42 degrees, rain, and 15-20mph winds) but the rest of the trip seemed survivable so off I went a little less than one day late.
Given the roads in NC were likely to be very dangerous during the wee small hours of Monday January 17, Pat suggested that I leave late Sunday afternoon and stay overnight near RDU airport before catching a flight to Atlanta (where I would connect to a flight to Monroe, LA) at 7:00am on Monday. That was a superb suggestion and eased the front end of the trip considerably. Also I somehow was able to rent a car with a drop off location that was different from pick up location...with a reasonable up charge (in this case, pick up would be Monroe, LA and drop off was New Orleans). That saved me a couple of hundred miles of driving at the start of the trip. The RDU-->ATL-->Monroe flights went off without a hitch and after a 30 mile drive westward I pulled into Squire Creek Country Club around 12:30pm.
Squire Creek is a Tom Fazio design that opened in 2003 with an 18 hole golf course and a good number of large homesites spread across over 1000 acres. In 2015, it hosted the US Women's Mid Amateur Championship. The course was in excellent condition and happily did not overseed with ryegrass (which usually makes courses soft and slow). Biggest greens (by far I think) that I have ever seen on a Fazio course. Holes on front somewhat repetitive but back nine is really good. Had a 43 - 44 = 87.
After the round I was headed east towards Jackson, MS and Country Club of Jackson, which I was scheduled to play the morning of January 18. Had never been to Jackson before and my only memory of it was Bernie Ebbers and World Com. Ebbers was the founder and Chairman of this high flying telecom (long distance) company (headquartered in Jackson, MS) in the 1990's until fictitious accounting transactions (used to artificially pump up reported earnings) were discovered in 2002. He died in jail in 2020.
Was scheduled to play at 8:00 and arrived around 7:45...but frost delay pushed my start back to around 9:15. Had the opportunity to chat with HP Jason Prendergast, a very good guy who was raised in northern Vermont (somehow I was more than a little surprised to find a HP from VT at a club in MS...but turns out this is a fine club with a superb HP). Course was designed by Dick Wilson in 1963 and later renovated first by Joe Lee and then in 2006 by John Fought. It was included in Golf Digest's 1966 and 1967 USA 200 Toughest lists.
Each fall since 2014 Jackson has hosted the Sanderson Farm Classic on the PGA Tour. The event started as the Magnolia Classic in 1968 and had six different names during these 44 years. From 1968 through 1993 it was held at Hattiesburg CC (which I would play later this day and tomorrow morning), then moved to Annandale GC (post #62) in Madison, MS from 1994-2013 before coming here. The course is stretched to 7400-7500 yards for the event. Club has 27 holes and I played the Dogwood and Azalea 9's, which are also used for the Tour event.
I liked the course but thought it would be better if it did not host a PGA TOUR event. Its fairways are fairly narrow due to the event, limiting options and angles that would require a player to really focus, evaluate, and make a risk/reward decision. Obviously hosting a PGA TOUR event brings important funding to the club, and is a major tool for recruiting new members. I played well on the front and poorly on the back...shooting a 41 - 44 = 85.
Next stop was in Laurel, MS about 100 miles to the southeast where I was scheduled to play Laurel Country Club, another course that was on the 1966 and 1967 200 Toughest lists. Laurel CC was founded in 1917 and the club quickly hired Mr. Seymour Dunn from New York's Lake Placid Club to build its golf course and serve as the club's head professional. The front nine was completed first, followed by the back nine across the road, creating Mississippi's first 18 hole course by 1920.
I was the guest of Chris W., who I was introduced to by our mutual friend, John C. of Melbourne, Australia. Chris' ties to the club go back a long way, as his grandfather was a founding member and deeply involved in the construction of the course. Playing the course is like stepping back 100 years, as many of its original design features are present today. This became obvious from the first hole, a long par 4 with a green sitting on top of a rise from a creek...and just past a large front bunker that demands an approach shot that carries to the green. My favorite hole was the short (164 yard) par 3 16th hole. Net, net this place is a living museum and Chris W. is a wonderful museum tour guide!
I played quickly but not particularly well (but far better on the back nine). We had to hop around a bit to get in all 18 quickly but it all worked and around 4:10 I was off to Hattiesburg (30 mile 0:33 drive). I pulled into Hattiesburg Country Club and parked my car at 4:43...with sunset coming in 35 minutes. I figured if I could play a few holes this evening, then I would have less to play early the next day. HP Blake Miller was more than helpful. Within about 2 minutes the cart was loaded and I was on the 10th tee, hoping to be able to squeeze in 5 holes. Actually played well and very quickly and after finishing hole #17, it was getting fairly dark but light enough to just see the ball. Hole #18 played 355 yards from my forward tees, turned a little left and was slightly downhill. Hit a perfect drive and faced about 170 yards over a ponding fronting the deep but narrow green from a downhill stance. No way I could hit a 3 wood over the water so just hit a short pitch to just short of the pond, followed by a perfect 6 iron. I could not see it land but also saw there was no "splash" from the pond. Took the cart up to the green site and there was my ball pin high and 8' left. Might have been the best "shot in the dark" since Tiger's at Firestone in 2000 (then again, might not have been!). Anyhow, truth be known, missed the putt. Had played the back nine in 48 minutes and 45 holes this day!
After the round talked w Blake for about 30 minutes about golf courses, golf architecture and GolfClubAtlas.com. Made arrangements to play the front nine first thing the next morning.
At 7:45am I was off on #1 and played the front nine a little slower...55 minutes. Had a 42 there as well for a total of 84 for all 18. All in all a good course but the greens had be renovated recently and were now of very strange shapes...with extensions out of them that looked like appendages. In any case, as I was leaving the club I remembered something important regarding the game of golf had happened in Hattiesburg, but I could not recall it. Then I realized that Hattiesburg was where Tiger went for his sex addition therapy after the fire hydrant crash!!
With no time for such therapy, it was off to southern Alabama...near Mobile and the Gulf Coast...to The Lakewood Club. Lakewood has 36 holes (Dogwood and Azalea courses) and had hosted three US Senior Women's Championships (in 1974, 1986, and 2021). In order to play the holes used for these three Championships, I needed to play all 18 of Dogwood and holes 1-5 and 15-18 of Azalea.
I arrived near the clubhouse to find a large crowd of golfers waiting to tee off on Azalea and thought I would be lucky to play 18 this afternoon. But my host (another friend of John C., Trey F.) had everything set up. DoG Niall Fraser pointed me to the 1st tee of Dogwood which was empty and awaited my presence. I played holes 1-10 with Jack, a member who lives in Nashville and we moved along well. At the tee on #11 we were behind two foursomes who were on #11 and #12, and could see holes #13-15 which looke empty, so I decided to go to #13 (Jack decided to stay and wait out the foursomes). I played 13-18 quickly and then went back to play 12 and 11. Ended with a 42 - 42 = 84.
The Club started with 18 holes that opened in 1947 and designed by Perry Maxwell, one of the great architects of all time. The other 18 holes were in 1967 and 1983 by Joe Lee and Ron Garl respectively. Today's Dogwood consists of a Maxwell front nine and Lee back nine, while today's Azalea's holes 1-5 and 15-18 are by Maxwell and holes 6-14 are Garl's. IMO the Maxwell holes are by far the best and the Garl holes (6-14 on Azalea) are the weakest. Played better on Azalea and ended with a 40 - 40 = 80. Overall this is a very good club with two good tracks. They were both in excellent condition, in part because they were not overseeded, so they played firm and fast. Finished all 36 by about 5pm, making this my second consecutive day of 45 holes. And I was tired! Trey had invited me to stay at their wonderful new house next to the club and his bride Dixie prepared a delicious dinner. I was most appreciative. Both had been raised in MS and they loved spending their retirement years in this area which seemed to be very active and well planned.
Thus far the weather had been very good on the trip...a little cool but good. The weekend coming up was looking to be quite another story. I was scheduled to play 36 on Saturday (at Isle Dauphine in AL and Hickory Hill in MS) on Friday 1/18 and then Lakewood Golf Course in New Orleans Saturday 1/19 before flying back to North Carolina. Friday looked to be rainy and cool, and Saturday was forecast with rain, cold temps and high winds. It was clear that golf was not going to be possible on Saturday so I switched my flights home to earlier in the day, but I figured I would give Friday's two rounds a try as the forecast for Friday was improving.
Got up early Friday morning, had a quick breakfast, and hit the road, going to Hickory Hill in MS first. This course was originally built in 1965 (designed by Earl Stone) and was known as Mississippi National Golf Club. At some point, it experienced financial difficulties, changed ownership and became Hickory Hill Country Club & Resort. It also was closed for several years. Last year a new group purchased the property and is actually trying to bring it back to life. A Brit named Kevin McCarty (good guy who was a former shaper for Greg Norman) is leading the efforts to bring the facility back to life...and in the meantime people like me come by to see what is going on. Kevin had played golf for the University of Cambridge so we talked about the "Sacred Nine" at Royal Worlington (posts #50 and #118). Never thought I would be discussing Royal Worlington in rural Mississippi!!
No question that $$ is being spent on the clubhouse and time will tell how things go on the course. I played all 18 holes and will simply say this place has a long long way to go, but I would guess more damaged properties have been brought back to life. It was on the Golf Digest's 1967 200 Toughest list, but that was some 55 years ago. Frankly, at this point if it has any good bones, they certainly were not visible to my eye. In one way I was fortunate...the rain stopped as I played #1 and held off all round. Yes it was cool and windy, but not too bad.
After thanking Kevin and wishing him good luck with this venture, it was off to the 8th course on my itinerary (actually started with 10 but as noted earlier had to drop the first, Indian Hills in AL and the last, Lakewood Golf Club in LA due to bad weather). This was Isle Dauphine. Go find it on Google Maps. It sticks out into the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles south of Mobile, AL on an island (accessible via a bridge) that appears to be about 20 yards wide on any map. The golf course sits exposed to the Gulf, was designed by Charles Maddox, and opened in 1962. Maddox built about 20-25 courses, mostly in the Midwest, and Isle Dauphine appears to be his only effort in the South.
I had been told by several sources (including the club's "website") that nine of the holes had been wiped out by a recent hurricane and only 9 holes were open, so I arrived expecting to play a quick nine. As I arrived, two carts were returning which were occupied by two golfers (one from Rhode Island) and the manager ("JR") of Isle Dauphine. I asked JR how much I needed to pay him to play the 9 open holes and use a cart and he informed me that all 18 holes were "open" but that he had to leave and could not allow me to take a cart in his absence...and my best efforts and "big doggy eyes" (you know, the look you give when you want your opponent to concede your 3 foot putt) did not change his mind. I asked if I could walk it and JR said fine. So I grabbed my 7-iron and three golf balls, as well as all the hats and gloves in my car and started my trek. But first, JR provided me with a scorecard (which had a small course layout map on its back) and a post card with an overhead shot of the course from better days...here is the postcard below:
(across the middle of the card from L to R are holes #9, #1, #10, and #18); Gulf on far right
I then took off on my trek. I figured that if I (1) walked at least part of every hole, and (2) hit at least one shot with a 7 iron (even if it was a 5 yard chip) on each hole, I could count this as 18 holes played. The question was...could I get around the full 18 before the weather turned real ugly. When I was on the furthest part of the course (6th green and 7th tee) I realized that if I fell and hurt myself, I would be in fairly deep trouble.
Well, I got it done. Hit at least one shot per hole, but not long shots. By hole #18 I was getting pretty damn cold. The course needs a ton of work, but probably much less than Hickory Hill. It lies on what seems to be a deep bed of sand and can probably be brought back to life fairly easily...until the next hurricane hits! To get a sense of the course condition on this day, see the following photo with the 3rd green in the foreground and the 4th green (#4 is a par 3) in the background (left of and behind the larger bunker in the background):
Was glad I did it and saw the course, but even happier that I survived it and was back in my rental car.
Then I drove the last leg of this trip back to the airport in New Orleans...flew from New Orleans to Atlanta to Raleigh-Durham and arrived home around 1am Saturday morning January 22. Slept late that day! Had put 1191 miles on my rental car in less than 4 days.
After a few days rest and with the weather warming up (somewhat), it looked like a short (3 day) trip might be possible January 26-28. Ran Morrissett had published his 147+2 Custodians list which meant I now had one course to play to recomplete my USA Top 100 EVER list. That course was The Rawls Course at Texas Tech, located in Lubbock, Texas and built almost 20 years ago by Tom Doak. I figured I could use January 26-28 to clean up 3 isolated "left behind" courses. As first planned, trip was to include:
Hills of Lakeway CC--Hills, Austin, Texas
Rawl's Course, Lubbock Texas
Lakewood Golf Club, New Orleans, LA
However, the HP at Rawls advised that they were expecting 3" of snow of Wednesday which they thought would still be on the course Thursday. So I adjusted the schedule to play:
9/26--Hills of Lakeway CC--Hills, Austin, Texas
9/27--Indian Hills CC, Tuscaloosa, AL
9/28--Lakewood Golf Club, New Orleans, LA
I was able to catch a non stop to Austin the morning of Wednesday 1/26 and immediately headed up to The Hills (about a 25 mile drive). This is a Jack Nicklaus Signature Course that opened in 1981. In 1989 it hosted the US Women's Mid Amateur Championship.
The course was restored by Nicklaus over the past two years and on my previous trip I could not gain access because it had just reopened. It is a very good Nicklaus course that was in excellent condition. I thought 4 of the holes were exceptional (par 3 #7--its Signature Hole with an angled green protected by a wide waterfall, par 5 #11, par 3 #14, and par 4 #16). However, I found the course to have the strangest routing I have ever seen on a course. The 6th hole returns to the clubhouse and the walk to the 7th tee is about 250-300 yards. Then after holes 7-14 you have returned to the clubhouse and wind your way past a couple of greens to the 15th tee...looping through 15-18 and returning to the clubhouse. It felt like the course was divided into thirds instead of two nines. On the positive side regarding the routing, at every point on the course I felt like I knew where the clubhouse was located. In any case I had a 42 -43 = 85.
Following the round I drove up to Horseshoe Bay to join old friends from the New York area, Jim & Trudy L. at their home for dinner. Jim and I were raised about 4 miles from each other and met through golf in the 1970's or 1980's (he was at The Stanwich Club while I was at Quaker Ridge) and in the late 1980's we knew each other from the men's clothing industry. Jim could really overpower a golf course even as recently as 2-3 years ago, but he is now recovering from knee replacement surgery. Was very special to catch up at their beautiful home in Hill Country. I headed back to a hotel near the airport after a wonderful dinner...as my flight the next morning departed at 5:45am!
Thursday morning 1/27 I was at the Austin airport around 4:30am and my flights going Austin-ATL-Birmingham went well as did the drive of about 60 miles from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa. I arrived at Indian Hills CC just before 11:30am and was off the first tee by 11:45. The weather was good (if a little cool) and the course was fairly empty. Liked course a lot as there is an interesting creek that meanders through the property. Only negative I saw was holes 3-6 which are 4 straight holes in same direction or 180 degree opposite direction. Indian Hills was on the Golf Digest 200 Toughest list in 1966. It was designed by Harold Williams and Tom Nicol and opened in 1960, then later renovated by John LaFoy in 1997. I had a 42 - 42 = 84.
After finishing round it was back to Birmingham and flight to Atlanta and then New Orleans. Arrived at hotel just past midnight...a very long day that had started at 3:30 am! The real bad news was the forecast for Friday morning...temperature about 42F, rain, and 15-18mpg winds...but I really wanted to get Lakewood Golf Club in my rear view mirror.
Friday morning I was at the course by 8:15am...and the only player there at that time. Had my breakfast there...guy in Proshop asked if my cereal was Fibre One...he has it every day as well. Hit the first tee around 8:45 and decided to stay in the cart, take driver off every tee and hit lots of 4-hybrids the rest of the way. No practice swings, just get each hole done ASAP. Had six layers of clothes on top and wore a pair of golf "wet weather" gloves and a ski cap...and somehow survived and played all 18. Was so so good to get back inside and warm up. This course had also been on the 200 Toughest lists in both 1966 and 1967. It was originally designed by Robert Bruce Harris and opened in 1962. It was renovated completely by Ron Garl several years ago. From 1963 through 1988, it hosted the New Orleans Open.
My flight home went well and I arrive at the house just after 11pm.
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January 2022 Summary: In total, played 16 courses in January 2022...14 of which were for the first time and two were repeats. I ended January with 35.5 USGA Championship host courses left to play and 35 left from the 1966/67 USA 200 Toughest lists. In total and including these 30.5 and 34, for all of my primary bucket lists I have a total of about 90 USA courses left to play, plus some 7 overseas (some located in countries that I currently cannot travel to due to COVID restrictions). Sure would like the finish these in 2022!
Indian Hills was my 1400th course so as of January 31 I stood at 1401 courses played.
