During much of 2020 I could not travel easily (due to COVID), and then as restrictions eased in 2021, courses became very crowded (due to the safety associated with being outdoors, and the fact that many were working from home...being close to one's favorite golf course makes the "siren-call" of the game that much louder). In both 2020 and 2021 I made numerous attempts to play two courses in Charlotte, NC (about 100 miles away from our home) which had hosted USGA Championships, Myers Park CC and Carmel CC. I finally was a able to play Myers Park on December 17, 2021 (see Post #156) and now I was able to play Carmel CC-South on February 2, 2022 with Neil M., a fellow member of CCNC who also is a member of Carmel.
Located on in the suburbs south of the city of Charlotte, Carmel its blessed with 36 holes and a wonderful like-new facility. The club was founded in 1947 and its first course (North), designed by George Cobb (ANGC Par 3 course, Quail Hollow, the original Sea Marsh at Sea Pines Plantation, Timuquana, Linville Ridge, etc.) opened in 1950. Some 17 years later Ellis Maples was retained to sculpt Carmel's South Course which opened for play in 1969. Rees Jones was brought in to update tees, bunkers and greens the 1980's and then between 2009 and 2011 led a total renovation of the South which removed hundreds of trees thereby adding width, vistas, angles and optional ways to play most holes...and also stretched the South to over 7500 yards (I played from 5265 yards!). As most readers of this blog are probably aware, I am not a big fan of Rees Jones' work...but must admit that I liked this course quite a bit. My game was fairly ugly this day (fired a smooth 90) but I thought the course was very very good. It does have a bit too much water for my tastes but I was impressed by the width and options available. It also was in excellent condition and played very firm and fast. In 2006 Carmel hosted the US Girl's Junior Championship.
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The following week was spent primarily along Florida's Golf Coast and interior. I left home around 2:30pm on Sunday 2/6 and drove to Jacksonville. After a night of rest I drove onward to Ocala to play Ocala National, which formerly was known as Golden Hills Golf & Tennis Club. Shortly after arriving I was met by Terry I., a Golf Digest Panelist from Ocala whom I first met in 2011 playing his home course (Black Diamond). In terms of number of courses played, Terry puts me to shame...having played over 3100 courses (as of 2/7 I was at 1402). He is over 80 years old and still can move the ball, and is a joy to be with. We had a lot of catching up to do and traded the usual golf tales. We played fairly quickly and both of us played very well on the front (Terry shot a 34 and I had a 38), but both of us gave a bunch back on the second nine (I had a 45).
The course clearly has seen much better days and hosted the US Women's Mid Amateur in 2009. My guess is that due to the financial crisis, the club was starting downhill when that event was held . Today it is in very poor condition and is a daily fee course with not many players. It originally opened in 1964 and was designed by Rees Jones.
Walking around the clubhouse, I saw the plaque dedicated to the sponsors of the 2009 Women's Mid-Am which featured Bernadette Castro. She was the Parks Commissioner in New York State who helped arrange for the restoration of the Black course at Bethpage for the US Open won by Tiger Woods in 2002. Additionally she was the daughter of the founder of Castro Convertible and was seen in Castro ads as the kid opening a Castro sofa/bed. Pat was a friend of hers while they both grew up in Fort Lauderdale.
By the way, do not confuse Ocala National with Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club. The latter is a very high end private club designed by Ron Garl with a series or "replica" holes. They are similar in names and geographically close, but the similarities stop there.
After the round I drove down to Orlando and readied myself for two straight days of 36 holes.
Early on the morning of 2/8 I drove over to Country Club of Orlando. Joe A., a friend from our Global Golf Centurions Club who lives in Orlando had arranged for me to play CC of Orlando with Chris W., who is a long term member and former club pro (who later returned to amateur status). Interestingly, Chris had played with Brendan Walsh (Director of Golf at Brookline) at CC Orlando the previous week (during Golf Merchandise show).
The club was founded in 1911 and has been at its present location ever since. The original 9 holes were designed by Tom Bendelow and the Club believes Donald Ross expanded it to 18 some 7 years later. However, not surprisingly, records documenting this are not available and some think Bendelow designed the 2nd nine. At this point it is doubtful anyone will ever know for sure...but what is for sure is that today the course is wonderfully fun, challenges the player without beating him/her up, and is just a joy to see and play. The course underwent renovations in 1960, 1976, 1990, and 2017. The 2017 renovation was extensive and under the direction of Ron Forse, who was working to highlight Ross features, even though he was working without the benefit of original Ross drawings or plans. To be honest, I thought a saw a fair number of Raynor features in some holes, in addition to Ross features, but who knows and to some degree who cares. My only regret is that I did not have the time to play it twice.
We were lucky as the forecast rain held off until we finished the round. Chris introduced me to his bride who was working away at the club's practice range (she has been playing in USGA National Championships for about 4 decades!). All in all a great morning and I thank those who strongly suggested that I play this semi-hidden gem.
It had not started raining yet so I quickly headed over to Rio Pinar Country Club on the other side of Orlando to try to get as much of my round in as possible in dry conditions. Rio Pinar was founded in 1957 and hosted the Florida Citrus Open on the PGA Tour from 1966-78. It was first designed by Mark Mahannah along with Lloyd Clifton. In 1979 the Florida Citrus Open moved to Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Lodge and had stayed there for the last 43 years...but it started at Rio Pinar. From 1979-82 Rio Pinar hosted the LPGA's Ladies Citrus Open.
Regarding the course today, I will just say that it obviously has seen better days. It rained for about 3-4 holes and drizzled for another 8-9 holes, but not too badly. I played in about 2:15 and then met Joe A. for a quick dinner before heading southwest for Fort Myers along I-4 (which reminded me of another parking lot known as the Long Island Expressway).
Early on the morning of 2/9 I headed over to Fiddlesticks Country Club's Long Mean Course. I played with the wife of one of Joe A's friends, Dr. Phil F. who practices Radiology near Syracuse, NY and commutes weekend down to FL to join his bride, Kelley. Joe had said that Kelley played quickly and that was an huge understatement. We played in about 2:30 and I hope I have a chance to reciprocate in Boston or Pinehurst.
The course was designed by Ron Garl who I met in 1981 on a one week tour of courses in Scotland and England that have been on the Open Championship Rotation. Fiddlesticks now has 36 holes but Garl's 18 was their first course and opened in 1982, the year after our Tour. Long Mean hosted the US Women's Senior Amateur in 2010 and this year will host the US Women's Mid Amateur Championship.
That afternoon I played Cypress Lake Golf Club, which sits about 2 miles west of Fiddlesticks. It took a number of phone calls to secure a time here but I finally reached Director of Golf Jon Pazdera, who advised I could play the afternoon of 2/9 and that an old friend from CC of North Carolina, Charlie J. was back at Cypress Lake and would be at the course that day. Charlie is a very good player and his wife Missey is even better (she is also a teaching pro). I arrived around noon, and learned that I could play at 1:00pm, then headed out to the course to catch up with Charlie who had lived in Pinehurst for a few years before moving back to Florida.
Cypress Lake is a tough tough track with a penal design. By my count water is in play on some 16 of 18 holes and the bunkers are very well located! The fairways are tight but fair. Generally I am not a fan of penal designs but I respected this one (note that respected is not the same as liked). I played with two Canadians from Toronto and had a 42 - 48 = 90 (got tired on the back...this trip was loaded with long drives). Course opened in 1959 and was on Golf Digest's 1966 and 1967 list of America's 200 Toughest...and I have to agree with that designation. Was designed by Dick Wilson and then renovated by Ron Forse in 2017.
Had drive of some 55 miles (and almost 90 minutes) to my next course so stayed half way north in a fine hotel in Punta Gorda. Finished the drive the next morning and arrived at Coral Creek Club shortly after noon. Coral Creek is not very well known and for sure wants to keep it that way. I was the guest of Charlie W., a fellow member of Brookline, excellent player, and very good guy.
Coral Creek opened in 2000 and was designed by Tom Fazio. It is fun, interesting and challenging, with optional routes to play on most holes. The course was in perfect condition and the clubhouse is simply exquisite. One could play many rounds here before getting bored...especially since the course changes so much as the wind strengthens, weakens, and/or shifts direction.
We finished play about an hour before sunset and I then had to drive to Port St, Lucie, just south of Vero Beach, requiring a drive of some 155 miles that took just short of 3 hours. I was a tired puppy when I arrived at my hotel, and had to play 36 on Friday 2/11 and then drive about 640 miles (9:30) to home (or stop part of the way home and finish the drive Saturday morning). I was playing there because Port St Lucie CC hosted the Senior PGA Championship in 1963 and 1974 and this was the last course I needed to play to complete playing host courses for Senior Majors (I completed the Men's Majors and Women's Majors earlier...with one footnote regarding Mens Majors I plan to clear up this July). Back then the club had two courses...named Saints and Sinners...but I found no documentation or person who could definitely say which course was used for these two events. Some time after the 1974 Senior PGA the club went under and the Saints course was taken over by the city of Pt St Lucie and remains a municipal course there. Sinners was purchased and is still owned by the local Club Med and is now branded as Trident Golf Club, which is currently undergoing a complete renovation (but remains open for play).
I was able to get an early tee time for the Muni and got off the first tee around 7:05...finishing play around 10:30am. This is not a bad muni and I certainly have seen/played worse but was glad it was done. I then drove next door to Trident and was able to get right off (around 10:45)...and played it very quickly by hopping around the few groups on the course. This place needs a lot of work and I have my doubts about how (and if!!) it turns out. If a recession hits it will be a goner...but until then I had to play it to claim this bucket list! I played well at Trident (38 - 41 = 79) and was off the course by 2:00pm and got to my car and headed wherever GPS said to go.
Trust me it was a long drive home. Of the 640 miles some 575 were on I-95, but I stayed awake throughout (consumed lots of Diet Pepsi's) and arrived home just past 11:30pm. Pat was fast asleep and it did not take me long to get there myself. Got out of bed around 10am Saturday morning!
This trip brought me to 1410 courses played and plans for my next trip...to Florida's East coast looked like I could finish my Florida "need to play" on my next trip down there...scheduled in another 5 days or so! This trip covered 8 courses, took about 5 1/2 days and required some 1680 miles of driving!
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Florida trip #2 proved somewhat difficult to schedule but it happened very well thanks to the help of some friends in FL...especially one friend, Richard L. who set up three courses for me (thank you again, Richard). Pat was joining me for part of the trip and things became easier when we realized it would be easier for both of us if she flew and I drove.
My schedule commenced on Wednesday February 15...at about 2:30am (had gone to sleep around 8:30 Tuesday night). This would be a long tiring day, but a good one. I had a 310 mile drive from home to Athens GA to start it off...and this was to be followed by a drive back into South Carolina to Lake Keowee near Greenville for a second 18 holes, followed by drive west to Atlanta. What sort of crazed nut figured out this itinerary??
Anyhow, I arrived at Athens Country Club around 7:45am . Situated near the University of Georgia campus, Athens CC was founded in 1926 and retained Donald Ross to build their 18 hole course. In the 1980's George Cobb was hired to add another 9 holes ("North") but I was here to play the Ross which hosted the 1970 US Junior Amateur. After a routine bogey on the first hole, I hit a superb 5 iron that ran to the back of the 2nd green, leaving me a sharply downhill putt of some 70' breaking some 10' right. Canned the sucker for my birdie...and after 8 holes I stood one under (birdied par 4 7th sinking a six-footer). Hole 9 goes uphill seemingly forever and turns right, with a large tree overhanging the right side of the fairway. I neglected to double check my alignment, my drive struck the tree and disappeared. Reload time and ended up withe a triple bogey 7 for a 2-over 38 on the front. Was time to talk with myself (golfers do that all the time). I said to myself...one small mistake but you are sitting well at 2 over...go back to basics. The amazing thing was that I listened to myself (Pat would say that I am the only person I listen to). Played well on the back and was a total of 5 over through 16...needing two pars to shoot my age. Stuck a 9-iron to 10' on #17 and made the birdie putt...followed by a bogey secured with a 5-footer on the uphill 18th and I had my 38 - 39 = 77. This was my 4th time...two of which I beat my age my a shot...and this one felt great as I persevered after a triple on #9.
Very much liked the course. Greens are tough (expected on any good Ross track) and there is lots of land movement. Course is never boring and yet does not beat your brains in. A superb "play every day" track.
By 10:30 I was back on the road heading toward Greenville...100 miles that took 2 hours. In the mountains of NC and SC is a group of 7 courses under common ownership and marketed under the name "Cliffs". Back in 2018 I played Cliff at Mountain Park, a Gary Player design (Post #106). Cliffs at Keowee Vineyards was on GolfWeek's USA Top 200 Modern fairly consistently from 2014-'21 and when I had called to play it these last two years it was not available due to "COVID demand". It opened in 1999 and was designed by Tom Fazio. I correctly assumed that with a good forecast it might be available this day as this was not "in season" climate-wise. That assumption turned out to be correct and I wanted to take advantage of it now. Otherwise I would possibly be left with this course sitting away from any others I wanted to play and difficult to get to and on to play.
I arrived around 12:30 and by 1:00 was on the course with a young intern working at the club. This is a very good Fazio course...although I think the "signature Hole", a 250 yard (from tips) downhill par 3 mostly over water to the green is a bit much. It was in excellent condition and my round was quite strange...a very ugly 47 on the front (remember that was after shooting my age in the morning) followed by an even par 35 on the back..."A Tale of Two Cities" as they say.
Around 4:15 I was back on the road heading to I-85 for a 145 mile 2:30 drive to the suburbs just north of Atlanta. I actually had a good night's sleep...which was a good thing given what I did on Wednesday and given that Thursday would include 18 holes in the morning and then a long drive down to Port St. Lucie.
Back in October 2018 I read an article in Golf Digest about one of their Panelists (named Jimmie James) who played the complete Golf Digest USA Top 100 in 365 days. I contacted a person I know at Digest and got Jimmie's contact info. We had a few interesting conversations but never were able to find a time when both of us were not traveling someplace. Cherokee Town & Country Club's North Course had hosted the 1999 US Women's Mid-Amateur and I knew Jimmie was a member and he immediately offered to host me and set something up. Cherokee was founded in 1955 and by 1957 wad secured land and built an 18 hole course designed by David Gil and Willard Byrd. A third nine was added in 1966, and a fourth nine designed by Joe Lee and William Byrd was completed in 1985. An all new clubhouse was completed in 1994 and then in 1998/99 Tom Fazio totally rebuild the original 36 holes and designed two 18 hole tracks (North and South) on the same footprint (but all new routing etc.).
North is a big golf course (almost 7200 yards from the tips) that meanders across wonderful rolling terrain. The greens here are very good and difficult to read (at least for me playing it for the first time). My only criticism is that 3 of the par 3's are downhill and feel similar to one another.
After the torture of the prior day's itinerary I was fairly tired and had a poor 45 - 45 = 90. Some day in a more relaxed frame of mind I would like to replay this one. In any case, I piled into my chariot and headed south for another 570 miles (8:30) of driving and arrived at my hotel at 10:15pm.
Three years after its opening in 2019, Michael Jordan's Grove XXIII may have become the toughest ticket in Florida. Note that I wrote "toughest ticket" which is different from "toughest course" or "best course". I had not planned to try to get on XXIII but friend Richard L. (who is not a member) insisted that it was doable and wanted me to see and play it. So at 10:00 the morning of Friday, February 17 I was trying to figure out how to get through the electronic gate at The Grove...and finally succeeded. About 1.5 miles away was the clubhouse...a spectacular one story (plus basement/lower level) building. After changing shoes, first stop was at the practice range...all reports I had heard to date was that the practice facility was without question the best anywhere.
However, me thinks we should step back for a minute and think about the "importance" of practice facilities in evaluating a course/club. First some history that is highly relevant. Herb Wind told me some 40 years ago that courses built before 1920 rarely had quality practice ranges...simply because before Bobby Jones, golfers did not practice by "beating balls". Hence, if an architect presented plans including a 5-15 acre space labeled "practice area", the club most likely would have x'd it out of the plans and might have fired the architect. As a result, the number of highly rated World Top 100 courses with "poor or none" to"OK/adequate" practice facilities is daunting. Think of the following incomplete list:
Cypress Point/Pebble Beach/Riviera/Brookline/Winged Foot/Quaker Ridge/NGLA/Chicago GC/Yale/Fishers Island/Old Town Club/Baltusrol/Somerset Hills
All of the above are "regulars" on World Top 100 lists...yet their practice facilities are at best adequate. Alternatively, think of places like Kinloch (Richmond, VA), The Medalist (Hobe Sound, FL), Dallas National (TX), Whisper Rock (AZ), ...all renowned for their practice facilities but never reaching the upper tiers of Top 100 lists. The above evidence seems to say that the way to recognition as a great club/course does not include the practice facility.
To be fair, in today's game, "beating balls" is far far more important than 100, 80, 60, 40 or 20 years ago...so who knows if this will change in the coming decades.
Back to Grove XXIII. At the range you are supplied with the top tier balls from any brand you may favor (although I did not see any Top Flites 😄). And if you want to work on your putting, they have a practice green for every highly used grass surface. They have a "Masters" green with the surrounding drop offs mowed in only the "away" direction (to conform with Augusta's mowing practices for several weeks prior to the Masters), as well as a "US Open" green surrounded by thick, long rough. And there are areas where one can hit from about any unusual stance imaginable. Simply heaven for a premier player.
I had heard several people say they were disappointed in the golf course itself, saying it was very flat and not interesting. After the first two holes I was beginning to wonder if they were right, but then I saw #3, an ingenious par 3, with a tee built on the right side of a canal that parallels that side of the property and a green on the left side of the canal. From the tips the course stretches to over 7600 yards, but I played it from about 70% of that number and it was challenging and fun from those tees as well. Architect Bobby Weed moved a fair amount of dirt in building the course so while it is still a very flat piece of land overall, it does not play flat...and the golf world has a good number of outstanding courses built on flat land...starting with a place known as The Old Course across the pond in St. Andrews, Scotland. And Pete Dye spend a career building lots of superb tracks on flat land and flat swamps.
In many ways, The Grove reminded me of The Old Course and Trinity Forest in Dallas, Texas (see Posts #96 and #151 respectively) in that the greens are wonderful, the angles are wide and varied, the course is loaded with risk/reward options, and the bunkering is outstanding. There also are aspects of the course I might question, but I sense that Grove XXIII is a work in progress. Something like 30 bunkers have been removed, moved, or added in its first three years and the "rough" areas between holes is still growing in with alternative plans being considered for how to "landscape" these parts of the property. My honest sense is that this course will evolve over the next 3-5 years and there is nothing wrong with that. Time will eventually tell how high it rises in the rankings.
By the way, I had a 44 - 42 = 86. Grove XXIII has yet to be listed on a "Top" anything, as most Panelists are scrambling to secure access. Might take quite a while for it to appear on a "Top" list but I sense Michael is not anxious in any shape, way, or form.
On my drive south I received a call from Judy Talbott, whose husband Pete was a very close friend until his passing almost exactly two years earlier. Judy had met a policeman in Greenwich who was the ex son-in-law (this gets complicated) of a couple from Detroit...and the policeman's father-in-law (Phil Meek) was the brother of a women (Marilyn Meek Webster) I was engaged to back in late 1970 and early 1971. Phil had worked at Ford but left Ford shortly before I started there in 1968. I last saw Phil at Crystal Downs GC in northern Michigan back in 2010 (they are members there and Pat and I were guests of another member who is also friends with them). Anyhow, it turned out that Phil and his wife Nancy spend 6+ months/year in Florida at Old Marsh Golf Club, so I called them and arranged to see them on the morning of Saturday 2/19.
Totally unrelated (told you this was complicated) back in September 2017 I was in Scotland and played Muirfield (Post #99). On that day I was paired with a gentleman from São Paulo, Brazil, Mr. Jairo L. Jairo and we have kept in touch over these past 4+ years. A few weeks before this Florida trip I learned that he would be in the West Palm Beach area during March. Jairo has been a member of Old Marsh for many years. I had played Old Marsh in January 2015 (just before I started blogging). It is a wonderful Pete Dye course built on land like the land Grove XXIII sits on...totally flat...but as I said earlier, Pete Dye was a genius at building something superb from seemingly nothing. Jairo and I discussed having lunch or dinner together during my trip but then my schedule changed making the afternoon of Saturday 2/19 free and Jairo asked me to join him at Old Marsh for 18 holes.
So this morning I drove to Phil and Nancy's home (which sits about 300 yards from the Old Marsh clubhouse) for two hours of catching up and telling old stories about common friends...and then went over to the clubhouse at noon for lunch and golf with Jairo. The world of golf is so very small...and very very wonderfully special.
Old Marsh was much better than I remembered. The angles and tricks Pete played are masterful, especially on hole #5...where he hides most of the green behind a high mound he constructed..and the right third of the green sits as a peninsula jutting into a large lake right of the green. When the pin is right one must be stupid to fire at it even though it is almost winking at you. I think the expression is "stupid is a stupid does" and that was me this day! Anyhow had a 46 - 41 = 87. Jairo and I talked extensively about a course owned by a close friend of his that I need to play to re-complete the World Top 100 Ever (all sources) list. Its renovation is almost complete and hopefully I can go down and play it in the next 2 months.
Sunday 2/20 would be a busy day. Pat was flying from NC to Fort Lauderdale where she was catching up with old friends during the day and checking into the hotel we were staying at in Ft. Lauderdale. I was scheduled to play High Ridge Country Club (in Lantana, FL, just south of Palm Beach) in the afternoon, and then I would meet Pat at our hotel before dinner with her friends from Fort Lauderdale. Considering all the balls in the air this day, things went very smoothly. Played High Ridge with Richard L. as guests of Lloyd M., who had built a substantial veterinarian practice in this area before retiring a few years ago. He is a very good player and now works part time as a caddy on the LPGA Tour and loving it. We talked extensively about the quality of play on the LPGA Tour (very high) and how almost all very good young male golfers probably have more to learn from watching these women play than watching the guys on the PGA Tour. High Ridge was included on GW's 2019 USA Top 200 Modern Courses at #108, hence my play here this day. Frankly, not my style of course. First and foremost, way overwatered...green green green everywhere. Second, it is overtreed. Third, the bunkering is unimaginative in both style and placement. Otherwise I liked it! Sorry folks and members, not my style of course. But I played decently...40 - 41 = 81, and got back to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale with enough time for shower and change of clothes before a wonderful dinner.
Monday morning we teed off at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale. Coral Ridge was designed and owned by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and later renovated by his younger son, Rees Jones in 2020. Pat and I played with a long time member Mike C. who was familiar with much of the club's history. Back in 1966 Coral Ridge was included in GD's 200 Toughest list but has not reappeared on a "Top" list since. It retains some of RTJ Sr.'s trademark features...long runway tees, large sweeping bunkers and large greens. Rees' renovation reshaped many of the fairways and one feature that he added that I liked a lot is that the portion of the fairways near fairway and greenside bunkers generally slope toward the bunkers (and the maintenance practices are proper leaving no "rough" or high grass to stop a ball from rolling into the bunker)...so any shot hit in the vicinity of these bunkers will most likely end up in the bunker. This feature is highly prevalent at courses in Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia but not found enough here in the USA. It makes the bunkers "feel" like vacuum cleaners! I shot a 43 - 42 = 85. At one point Julius Boros was a member here, and note the plaque below near the 16th green...where Boros passed away watching other members play the hole:
Tuesday 2/22 was a day off (I needed it...this age thing gets worse over time). Pat showed me around Fort Lauderdale (where she grew up) and after lunch along the beach we headed to Palm Beach and our hotel (filled with Palm Beach caricatures driving around in Rolls Royce and Bentley convertibles in outrageous colors...referring to both the clothes and the cars). Tuesday evening we went down to Boca to have dinner with old friends from my Citibank and Westchester County days...the Webers.
Wednesday 2/23 Pat spent the day going to museums and shops in Palm Beach while I drove north to Hobe Sound to play Floridian National (commonly referred to by its original name...The Floridian). The Floridian was the private club for Wayne Huizenga (Waste Management Corporation), his wife, and their friends until it was sold it to Houstonian billionaire Jim Crane in 2010. The original design was by Gary Player but Crane brought in Tom Fazio to redo the tees, bunkering and greens (the routing was essentially untouched) and the club reopened for play in 2011. The facility, practice area, clubhouse etc. are as good as I have seen anyplace without being "too far" over the top. More on the course below.
Since 2016 the club has been included on Golf Week's Top 200 USA Modern Course lists. I played with two brothers, Ryan and Luke R. from Buffalo. Good players and good guys...game set up by my friend Richard L. This would be an interesting round.
After a routine bogey on the par 4 first, I had three straight pars and then a 6 on the par 5 fifth. The sixth is a short drivable par 4 (I am keeping the yardage from my tees a state secret) that was playing with the wind. I hit a perfect drive that reached the green about pin high and about 12' right of the pin. Got a great read my my caddie Zach (right edge) and poured it into the front door...eagle 2!! Cannot recall last time I drove a par 4 or the date of my last eagle...but trust me the word recent would not apply. For the front had a 2-over 37. Birdied the par 3 12th from 3' to bring me even par for the back and then had a bad stretch...three straight 6's on one par 4 and two par 5's. Then gave myself another of those "talks" like I gave my self after the triple bogey a week earlier at Athens CC and parred the tough par 3 16th and birdied the short par 4 17th (hitting 9 iron to about 15"). The 18th hole here has water all along the left side and I struck a perfect drive but pushed my 4 utility a little right. Out of the rough from exactly 50 yards to a front pin I got too cute. Ball landed just short and rolled back into a green side bunker. Now I had a tough up and done for my 77 and was ready to kill someone (like moi). Had another conversation with myself and hit a good explosion leaving me about 12' uphill for my 77...again poured it in the front and if you were within 200 miles you must have heard my "yelp". Shot my age again...and for the first time playing with others and have an attested scorecard!! Felt great...especially that last putt after almost blowing it on 18.
I liked the course...but it is not a great strategic design. The hole settings are beautiful, but there is one way to play most holes and not a lot of risk/reward trade-offs that leave the golfer guessing which to choose. That IMO is Tom Fazio and it is tough to argue with his level of success.
After quick drink, I drove south down to our hotel. Pat had a very good day as well and we spend the evening with our "out-laws", Peter and Harriet Harris, who spend most of the winter here.
Early on Thursday we checked out of our hotel and headed down to Boynton Beach to play a track I have wanted to play for quite a while...Country Club of Florida. It opened in 1956 and was designed by Robert Bruce Harris and later renovated by Arthur Hills (1987) and Lester George (2006). Its Director of Golf, Chris Kushner had been at CCNC prior to taking this job about 10-12 years ago. We played with friends from Brookline who are members here, Rob and Sue B. I enjoyed the course a lot...fun to play and certainly not flat...surprisingly hilly (land contains large dune...similar to Seminole's...that creates very good land movement. Walked this 18 which was great. Had a 41 - 39 = 80. Back in 1963 CC of Florida hosted the 2nd US Senior Women's Amateur. Course was in excellent condition.
After a wonderful lunch with Rob and Sue, we had to rush up to Vero Beach where we would spend the next two nights. Dinner that night was with John R., who is a very close friend from Brookline, and his brother Jim at our favorite restaurant in the Vero area...Scampi. For the last two years John and his wife Anne Belle has been in Florida year round and it was very special to be able to visit.
Friday 2/25 we were at the Arnold Palmer designed Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club visiting good friends from Pinehurst Gail & Sherri K. Gail and Sherri spent most of their adult life in Minneapolis and I have taken two trips to MN and WI to play some of the great courses in both states with Gail (Posts #94 and #114). They belong to both Orchid Island and Quail Valley in Vero Beach. I had not played either and had heard Quail was the better of the two (Gail strongly agrees with that assessment) but I needed Orchid as it hosted the US Women's Senior Amateur in 2018. We played with Paul N. who used to live at CCNC as well and is also from Minneapolis.
I had heard several stories about Orchid Island being fairly punishing, and soon learned that these stories were highly inaccurate...as they understated the case. Water coming into play on a mere 17 of 18 holes...and this is not water that is far off the fairway...we are talking water in front of and/or on the side of greens, right along side the fairway's edge, or crossing the fairway. Plus these fairways are fairly narrow! Early on I decided not to bother keeping score. Penal is too weak a word for this place and the word "fun" must rarely be uttered here. Glad I got it done...next time hope to see Quail Valley...and Gail and Sherri accepted a bid to sell their house at Orchid that day!
That evening we joined them for dinner at Orchid, which was very well done. It is a wonderful club but the course is just brutal!
Saturday 2/26 would be our last full day in Florida. In the morning we went over to The Windsor Club (sits along the Atlantic just north of Orchid Island) to join Malcolm and Dusty M., good friends from Brookline. They had grandkids visiting but had carved out this afternoon for 9 holes of golf at Windsor. The course opened in 1991 and was designed by R. T. Jones, Jr. I loved the course...it is challenging but fun...there is water but the water only comes into play if you get aggressive with your game. Played solidly and had a 40 for the back nine. This was a fun, relaxing way to conclude the trip.
Finally, that evening we joined Frank and Pam E., also very good friends from Brookline at the apartment they are renting for two months at The Moorings in Vero. After dinner it was back to our hotel. The plan was to leave Vero around 8:15am and head to Orlando's main airport, and drop Pat off for her flight to Raleigh-Durham Airport in North Carolina, which was scheduled to depart around 11:00am. She would then drive from RDU airport to our Pienhust home and get home around 2:30. I would have all the luggage etc. and then drive from the Orlando airport to our Pinehurst home expecting to arrive around 6:30pm.
All went smoothly at the Orlando airport, and then I headed north. About 20 minutes later, Pat called my cell phone to tell me I had left her at the wrong Orlando Airport and there was not enough time for me to get her to the correct airport for her flight. Big trouble, and all my fault. So I headed back to where I had left her and we drove to gather back to Pinehurst. I had entered Orlando International Airport on my GPS and could not imagine that Orlando had two "International" airports. At my fraternity's meetings while I was an undergraduate, we used to award a prize for the "schmuck of the month" (pardon the French). Dropping Pat off at the wrong airport surely would have won me first place for February and perhaps the year...
All in all Florida #2 totaled 2620 miles!
We ended up arriving home around 9:30pm and the next morning I had a car service take me to the garage at RDU airport and then I drove Pat's car back to our house...and had a long long nap.
So at this point, I thought I had played 1420 courses and I thought the 18th hole at Orchid Island was my 25,000th golf hole. But about a week later I was looking up something on my excel spreadsheet listing the courses I had played and found North Shore Golf Club, a course on Long Island, listed twice...in 1991 and 2020! So I had to delete the 2020 entry and this meant that I had not yet hit 25,000 holes, but was at 24,991 after the nine holes at Windsor.
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You may recall from my last Post that my visit to Lubbock, TX to play Tom Doak's Rawls Course at Texas Tech had to be cancelled due to snow. Last week I looked at the weather forecast for Lubbock for March 8 and 9, and it looked good, if a bit windy. I needed Rawls to "re-complete" the USA Top 100 EVER (All Sources) and had 5 overseas courses to re-complete the Worldwide Top 100 EVER (All Sources). Back in 2018 I stood with one foot at the summit of these both mountains...equivalent (at least in my mind) to simultaneously standing on Mt Everest and K-2. Had to do this one course at a time a Rawls was as good a place to start as any.
Looked at flights and American Airlines could get me to Lubbock late on 3/8 and I could fly Lubbock-->Dallas Ft Worth--> Raleigh Durham the evening of 3/9 and be home by about 2:00am on 3/10. Then called Rawls and they said the 9th looked good. Finally called an old friend from my days manufacturing mens' trousers...Matt M. of Lubbock, whom I had last seen after we had both played Cypress Point on the same day (but not with each other) about 30 years ago...and Matt said he would join me in Lubbock on the 9th.
Then about 10 days ago I realized I might be able to play Sedgefield in Greensboro, NC before my flight. Contacted the pro there and that worked ...and the weather forecast was good.
Soo, on the morning of Tuesday 3/8, I headed up to Greensboro leaving home around 7:15am.
Sedgefield was designed in 1926 by Donald Ross and restored by Kris Spence in 2008. It is built on wonderfully moving land and there are only two contiguous parallel fairways (10 and 18). The greens are among the best I have seen, filled with false fronts, relatively strong slopes in about every direction (L-->R, R-->L, Back-->Front, and Front-->Back). The bunkering is excellent, as is the overall routing. Frankly I do not understand why this club gets so little notice. I played well after a double bogey on #1 and bogey on #2 and ended up with a 41 - 42 = 83. This is a hidden gem worth playing...and I now understand why Webb Simpson plays so well here...he is semi-local and must have played here dozens of times and has great short game.
Sedgefield currently hosts the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship (which was formerly known as the Greater Greensboro Open). The GGO and Wyndham have been held in Greensboro, NC 82 times to date, 35 times at Sedgefield, 12 times at Starmount Forest CC, 31 times at Forest Oaks CC, and 4 times co-hosted by Sedgefield and Starmount Forest. Sam Snead won the GGO 8 times including 4 at Sedgefield and once at a Sedgefield/Starmount co-hosted event. Sedgefield has been included in GolfWeek's USA Top 200 Classic Courses since 2015.
After the round I drove to RDU and flew to Dallas Ft Worth and on to Lubbock. On Wednesday morning I picked up Matt at the Lubbock airport and we went directly to the Rawls Course. Tom Doak designed the course which opened in 2003. The soil is mostly sand which is outstanding but the entire area is dead flat. Doak claims they moved over one million cubic yards of dirt/sand to shape the course and I believe that and love the resulting design. It has tons of width, few level lies, and local knowledge is simply essential. One can be in the middle of a fairway and have no shot into a pin. Plus the wind can blow like the dickens here...and it certainly did on March 9. It blew 15-20mpg steady with gusts sometimes exceeding 30 mph. The one negative here IMO is that the course is not well maintained. It was hard for me to judge if that was because of the season/time of year or a substantive maintenance issue but the greens could use some TLC. Even with the wind the place was great fun...but I was exhausted at the end of 18 even riding a cart...the wind here is simply relentless and wears you down. Matt advised it is much more reasonable starting in mid April thru May, and again September and October...a "shoulder season" environment.
Two last points: (1) I thought the Rawls Course was named after Betsy Rawls, one of the founding members of the LPGA and one of the greatest women golfers ever. Not true...named after an alumnus of Texas Tech University named Rawls; and (2) very special to be in the city that was the birthplace of the late, great Buddy Holly.
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So, through this round at Rawls I stood at 1421 courses and 25,027 different golf holes. My 25,000th golf hole was #9 at Sedgefield, an uphill par 4 that turns right. I "eaked" out a one putt bogey on it.
As noted above, I am back on top of K-2...having played every still existing USA Top 100 course EVER as published by some 7 different sources. A total of 402 different courses have appeared on one or more of the 80 lists and I have played 400...the other two (High Pointe in MI and the original Sutton Bay in SD) no longer exist. This is my second time on top of this summit and to my knowledge no one else ever accomplished this feat (but fact is...who knows?).
I have 34 courses to play to complete the "USA Top 200 course EVER as published by some 7 different sources" list which consists of 82 different lists and a total of 665 courses (of which 12 no longer exist). I am missing 32 of the 248 courses that were on the Golf Digest 200 Toughest lists published in 1966 and 1967, plus two courses (Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe and Shady Canyon...both in CA) that Golf Digest has had on its #101-200 lists published since 2013. I have played every course ever on Golf Week's USA Top 100 Modern and Top 100 Classic Courses since 1997.
Regarding the USGA Championship/Cups host venues, there have been 440 courses, of which 12 no longer exist and I have not played. Of the "net" of 428, I have played all but 27.5 (have a back nine to play in Michigan).
Folks...I am getting "there".
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