South Carolina (and 2 in North Carolina) continued

Tiger's Eye (NC) - 11/09 - #73
Simple, don't play it. How this course got included into the Top 100 Public Access courses behooves me. While the greens were well kept and at times very hard to read the fairways were a mess and except for a few holes I wouldn't say there is anything spectacular about this course. If this is how the remaining course play out this is going to be a very disappointing week. And it didn't help having to drag and lady who'd maybe played five times in her whole life in my group. Ouch!



Barefoot Resort & Spa (SC) - Fazio Course - 11/10 - #92
What a difference! Whew! I was really worried after I'd played Tiger's Eye. Barefoot, keeping mind that I haven't played the Love course yet, is very much a top notch resort and Fazio is both beautiful and immaculately manicured. And even though I played a short course (under 6000) it was in drizzling rain and the course still played long. Enjoy the pics:





River's Edge (NC) - 11/12 - #62
What an absolutely beautiful course! I arrived just in time to be sent off to the course. No other golfers were there so was left to play alone. I hate playing alone but that I suppose has to happen on occasion. I was paired up with a two-some on the back nine. Its been raining here of late so the fairways were very, very soggy. In fact all of the people at the clubhouse were laughing and talking about what my brand new shoes would look like after I finished my round. I'm happy to say I played very well so my shoes survived.

What surprised me was the greens. Generally when its been raining a lot the greens will be soft; well not here. Seems they had replaced all of there greens within the last year. New fangled stuff that drains really well. Dang it! The greens were as hard as nails and I bet were still as fast as some dry greens I've been on. And on most greens were my ball would stop, not here. Unbelievable! The good thing - I'm finally getting the handle on my new irons. And know no one will believe this (I should have had the pair sign my card) I hit 12 out of 14 fairways. Wow! Have never done that. But the course with wet fairways proved to be too long for my short play.

If you ever get to the Mrytle Beach area this is one course you have to play.





Tidewater Golf Club & Plantation (SC) - 11/13 - #41
I have to be honest, Tidewater doesn't leave up to its billing itself the Pebble Beach of the East Coast. I mean its a nice course an all, probably not worth the high price they are asking but there is no comparison between this course and Pebble Beach. Now to be fair, I haven't played Pebble Beach but I have been on the course. Pebble Beach has several holes right on the ocean; Tidewater isn't even on the ocean and has few holes on the actual inlet. My expectations certainly played apart in marking this course down a notch although I again want to say is was a fair and well-designed course. But The East Coast Pebble Beach it is NOT!



Barefoot Resort & Spa (SC) - Love Course - 11/14 - #53
The Love Course at Barefoot gets my second highest rating from all of the courses I've played in this posting (including The Dunes) with the River;s Edge still coming out as the most exciting and beautiful course.

That being said if I were to ever come back to the Mrytle Beach area I would want to stay at the Barefoot Resort. Both the Love and Fazio courses were immaculately well cared for. And I might even have rated the Love course above River's Edge except for one thing, Love's design hides all its beauty (and danger). Seriously! You look at the card or the picture of the whole on the cart monitor and think WOW! Then look down the whole and you can't see anything. All the hazards and spots you don't want your ball to end up seem to always be "just over that ridge". Makes you either want to laugh or cry when you find your ball. I kid you not, I think ever fairway was built on a plateau and every green on a mesa. You miss either and your balls just rolls and rolls and rolls. Reminds me of couple of Mickleson flop shots that didn't quite make the green. Back to his feet it rolled. Yeah, I know the feeling. lol

Definitely come to play the Barefoot courses - Love, Fazio, Norman and Dye.





Dunes Golf & Beach Club (SC) - 11/15 - #28
What a let down. I think they just bought their way into the top 100. I'm serious. Maybe I'm just spoiled but this course was touted as the best and had the price tag for it. What a disappointment. Save your money and play the Barefoot Resort courses or River's Edge. Now if you want to play this course just to have access to the clubhouse and the beach, well, that might be worth it. The beach is of course, private and beautiful. But the course was just an above average resort course, nothing near worth the money.

I will attest that the first picture, Hole #9 was a beautiful hole with just the slightest view of the shore. Just the slightest!! Ha!





Harbour Town, Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC - #15
I must be really jaded. Spent a whole week on HHI leaving the last day for my trek onto Harbour Town. I think I set myself up for failure. The course was nice and pretty typical of a lot of upper tier courses but nothing I would go back to play, especially at the price they are asking. And I even got a November discounted price!! Yikes!

The real disappointment was there were only two holes on the ocean. In fact, that was my biggest disappointment on all of the courses in South Carolina. I came here expecting to see a little more of the ocean only to learn very few of the courses are even on the ocean. I learned later that the reason for this is that the hotels came to the South Carolina beaches long before the state became a mecca for golf courses. Since the hotels had already take the ocean what was left were the inlets, any rivers leading to the ocean and the occasional resort that squeezed a hole or two onto the ocean for their course. So don't come to South Carolina shores expecting to see anything like Pebble Beach, not going to happen.

Enjoy the pics.


I hit a shot through the 2 and 3 trees onto the
green in the background.

South Carolina (and 2 in North Carolina)

I will be playing quite a few South Carolina courses over the course of several weeks so I am going to write up my thoughts after each round and publish all at once. If anyone knows me well, if I waited until I'd played all that I'm going to play I'd never be able to keep the courses straight.

Look for a post early in December.

North Carolina Golf

Sorry folks that I've been remiss at writing anything of late. I've been either hunkered down in Indiana, which most of my readers already know the courses there or in North Carolina where I still have two courses yet to play - Tiger's Eye and River's Edge, both near the south-eastern part of NC near enough to South Carolina that I'll include them in my trip next week to Myrtle Beach area.

BTW - I have a hotel room for one week near Myrtle Beach some if anyone wishes to join me for some really great golf you know how to get a hold of me. I have tee times for me scheduled six days in a row are the best courses in the area.

Now on to Pinehurst and Pine Needles which are the only two places I've played in North Carolina thus far. Pine needles is ranked #43 by Golf Digest while Pinehurst Nos. 2, 4 & 8 are ranked 3, 48 and 55 respectively.

Let me start off by stating if you like water on your golf courses you probably wouldn't like any of these courses because none have very much water at all. In fact, No.2 has water on only two holes if I remember right. Secondly, unless you like pine tree lined fairways, even though there is much fanfare about how great Pinehurst is this wouldn't end up being your favorite golfing vacation.

And the above are my exact feelings. Having been to many great courses already Pinehurst turned out to be a big disappointment to me for several reasons. I will tell you however that the hotel and the rooms are fabulous. I could live there if I could afford it. And the hotel service was impeccable.

On tot the golf courses:

Pinehurst No.2, 4 & 8:
Except for the greens I didn't see anything to get me excited except for the walk up to the 18th green. I have to admit it is a pretty neat feeling walking where so much golf history has been made. The two biggest disappointments were the fairways and the caddie system they have set up.

When I booked the golf package it was made perfectly clear that I would be paying for a caddie on No. 2. It was mandatory. No problem. This is the same way it is on most PGA tier courses. So when I paid for the package (my son was playing with me) I was all excited about my son having his first experience with a caddie. Well, lo and behold, when we go to the course to meet our caddies only one shows up. Yep, Pinehurst has a 'double caddie' policy. I hadn't even heard of such since no other course I've been on has such a policy. There are either forecaddies (one caddie helping all four players map the course) or caddies (one per golfer).

To say the least I was pissed. No one told me about 'our' caddie carrying both of our bags. Later I find out that if I pay a premium I could have separate caddies. Shouldn't that be included in any package that includes No. 2? So the round didn't start off right.

Then once we start playing the fairways look like that hadn't been groomed in weeks. Trust me guys when I tell you that I've played on better fairways on some of the courses in Indy. Shameful for such a course! The fairways on No. 4 and 8 where much better than No. 2.

The bright spot (or treacherous) was the greens. I'm pretty sure there weren't any flat spots on any of the greens, and that includes No. 4. My son's first put on No. 4 went right past the hole and off the green and he's a pretty good putter. but, honestly, loved the challenge of 1) getting the balls to stop on the green and then 2) keeping them on once we got them on. lol It was a blast and the history interned at Pinehurst made the golfing overall worthwhile. But I have no interest in going back again for the type of money you have to pay. there are so many other very, very nice courses.

Pinehurst No.2:




Pinehurst No.4





Pinehurst No. 8:




Pine Needles in Southern Pines was a very nice course and I actually enjoyed playing it about as much as I enjoyed playing No. 8 at Pinehurst, my two favorite courses of the four - although the back 9 on No.4 was pretty spectacular. But again, unless you really enjoy pine tree lined fairways and nothing truly extraordinary then the course isn't anything special. The picture below is of No. 2 at Pine Needles, the prettiest hole on the course.



I will share on gem with you. Before playing any of the above courses and on my way into North Carolina I stopped at Reems Creek Golf Club just North of Asheville, North Carolina. Now this course is worth playing. Reems Creek Golf Course, built in 1989, was designed by Frederick William Hawtree of the acclaimed golf course architecture firm of Hawtree & Sons, located in Woodstock, England. Many of the links style courses in Scotland and England are designed by this firm. I absolutely loved this course. Enjoy the pictures:

Wisconsin Golf

This is a tough post for me to make. My plans were to play all three Whistling Strait courses (includes Blackwolf Run) before leaving Wisconsin but today I canceled playing the Straits course, the more famous of the three and also the more expensive, due to the weather conditions.

After playing Blackwolf Run in 50 degree weather, raining most of the round and winds gusting to 40 mph and then next day playing Whistling Straits Irish course in 50 degree weather and winds gusting to 20-30 mph I decided my money would be better spent on a future date. Don't get me wrong in that I don't mind playing in lite rain, or even 50 degree temps or even some gusting winds but all three!! Sheesh! I love golf, but not enough to fork out the kind of money they want for the Straits Course to shoot 100+ in cold, dreary, windy weather. Yuck! I'll wait until I can talk some other of my fool-hearty friends into coming up when the weather is nice.

As it was both Blackwolf Run and the Irish courses are beautiful in the own way. I personally like Blackwolf Run better but just taking a couple glimpses at the Straits Course I'm sure it would have won out of the three. Would have been my new No. 1, I don't think so. TPC Sawgrass and The Quarry and Giant's Ridge, I believe, would have still nudged it out. But that final decision will have to wait for another day. And look at the bright side, I'm about $500 richer! lol

Blackwolf Run
#2


#5


#7


Whistling Straits - Irish Course
#2


#10


#13


#18


On to Illinois if the weather cooperates.

Minnesota

I've got a new favorite golf course. Before it was TPC Sawgrass but now it is The Quarry (Golf Digest #19) at Giant's Ridge. This course as the most interesting layout I've seen thus far. You really have to think through each whole and it's still very fair. Love this course. My only disappointment was I didn't get to play the Legends course at Giant's Ridge. It had just been aerated so the greens wouldn't have been worth putting on.

The Quarry #7















#13














#16














#18















Both of the other two courses were great courses too. And what was neat about those two courses was that the threesome I got paired with on the first course I got to play with also on the second course. What's really horrible though is I took all their money. lol Really, it was completely unintentional too. I generally play horrible when money is on the line but for some reason I played well the second day. It was basically a skins game and a closest to the pin on all par 3s - each worth $1, so the most you could lose was $13. I ended up winning most of the skins and all of the par 3s. Walked away with $17 bucks. Oh yeah, the fourth player had to leave before we teed off. Seems he hurt his back getting his bags out of the car.

Enjoy the picks.

The Classic at Madden's Resort - Golf Digest #42
#3


#11


Deacon's Lodge #12 - Golf Digest #52


#17