I have not and I would like too...I have heard mixed reviews on the course but mainly just b/c it is so new. No too far from there is Sewanee TN (University of the South) and the same people (Gil Hanse I think) who did Sweeten's Cove also re-did their 9 hole course and I heard it is pretty good too! I have family in Chattanooga so I should get there some day! There is another course way out the back of lookout moutain in Rising Fawn, GA called Canyon Ridge...that course has some of the best views in Tennessee...awesome track but kind of out of the way!
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What is your favorite golf course you had the pleasure to tee off on?
- Thread starter FeatheredCock
- Start date
I have played Woodside...I remember being blown away by one of the courses and the other was just ok...It was almost like day and night difference. I played them during Master's week. I would play there again in a heart beast...have you ever played the Palmetto?
awesome stuff! We have reservations to do the 17 mile drive on bikes with a guide...we have a free day and were going to go out and explore so I will definitely hit that stretch you are talking about. We were also hoping to hit a vineyard or two lol
Back when I played regular I wanted to but never found any one to give me a chance. I hear it is really nice. One day I would love a shot at Sage Valley too. Aiken is blessed with some really nice courses. They even got new owners at Aiken Golf Club downtown trying to make it a whole lot better for a public course. And Cedar Creek is a very nice public course. Houndslake and Midland Valley are still cow pasture golf.
dreammachine
Member
I have worked the Masters Golf Tournament for about ten years with the CBS Camera Crews. I have been just about everywhere you can go on the course/clubhouse/Butler Cabins and all the "behind the scene stuff that the public never gets to see". I have seen so many amazing golf shots/putts/drives/fairway shots - that I knew after my first day on the job the real reason they called it "The Masters" as these golfers were the best of the best!!! Over the years I got to meet some of my all time favorite golfers and of course at the "Masters" you don't speak to them - unless they speak to you first. I had the pleasure of sitting on the log bench on the 12th tee box - with Mr. Arnold Palmer - who after seeing me and my working partner sitting down on the ground - look over at us and said; "you boys want to sit up here with me"? You know what our answer was. That was Mr Arnold Palmer's last year as a competitive golfer. Such a class act and great ambassador of golf around the world. He was what Elvis Presley was to rock & roll - as Mr. Arnold Palmer did not invent or start the game of golf - but he was the first one to put it on the map world wide and became a household legend for doing it.
I never got to play the Augusta National as we were paid by CBS and therefore were not invited to play like so many of the people that work there for free. That being said, I would never trade all the memories that I have from covering just about every hole - fairway - tee box and green and also many times got to work with the camera man who would cover the Master's Winner on the 18th Hole several times. Just a great memory and very enjoyable time.
I have played some mighty fine golf courses throughout SC and GA. I got to play the "True Blue Golf Course" in Pawley's Island, SC and it was wonderful. I also got to play Dataw Golf Club in Beaufort, SC and that course was amazing. Played at some of the nice ones down around Lake Oconee, but don't remember the names of them. Never played Sage Valley, but I did get to walk it with a friend of mine one day and it is a beautiful golf course. My step-son just joined the Augusta Country Club and he wants me to play a round of golf with him one day soon. I have seen this course several times as it backs right up to the Augusta National and is an older golf club, but I will look forward to playing it soon.
I never got to play the Augusta National as we were paid by CBS and therefore were not invited to play like so many of the people that work there for free. That being said, I would never trade all the memories that I have from covering just about every hole - fairway - tee box and green and also many times got to work with the camera man who would cover the Master's Winner on the 18th Hole several times. Just a great memory and very enjoyable time.
I have played some mighty fine golf courses throughout SC and GA. I got to play the "True Blue Golf Course" in Pawley's Island, SC and it was wonderful. I also got to play Dataw Golf Club in Beaufort, SC and that course was amazing. Played at some of the nice ones down around Lake Oconee, but don't remember the names of them. Never played Sage Valley, but I did get to walk it with a friend of mine one day and it is a beautiful golf course. My step-son just joined the Augusta Country Club and he wants me to play a round of golf with him one day soon. I have seen this course several times as it backs right up to the Augusta National and is an older golf club, but I will look forward to playing it soon.
I konw that around the Masters it is possible to get on the palmetto...that is how I got on to play Woodside
As for Sage Valley...I got on there as kind of a last second surprise. I was going to play at the Honors in Chattanooga some years ago and they lost their greens so the pro there set us up with a tee time and housing at Sage Valley on a Saturday and then East Lake the following day. We played 36 at Sage. It is unbelivable. The course is obviously nice and in great shape but just they way they treat you was amazing. I remember telling my caddie I would like a beer at the turn and he asks me what I like and I told him...two holes later there is a cooler at the tee box with several bottles of my beer. As I drank them, the caddie would throw the bottles to the edge of the woods and then call in its location and someone would come and get the empties...but the best thing there are the chocolate milkshakes at the turn house...crazy good! I played horribly there b/c the greens were so dang slow (we played in the middle of June so of course they had to keep tons of water on them since at the time they were bent grass)...but the kicker was when we finished our last round, a gentleman came by and asked us what we wanted for dinner...we asked for a menu and he said just tell me what you want and we will make it happen...we ordered thinking that we were being kidded...we head to our cabin (which I could live in lol) and by the time we finished our showers and changed, dinner was on the table....it was so nice..unreal
True Blue is a good one...you should play Caledonia across the street...sometimes they run two round specials. The last time I played True Blue we were able to rent those golf boards and it was so much fun. I think my friends and I had more fun trying to wreck each other on the boards as opposed to playing golf. True Blue is a bear though...long and wide open while Caledonia is short and tight. I love Mike Stranz (RIP) and if you have a chance to play Tobacco Road up in Sanford, NC it is great stuff...the only thing that course is missing is a windmill off the first tee!
FurmanCock
Grand Poohbah
+1 on Tobacco Road. I remember hitting out of a lot of sand...probably most sand I've ever seen outside of a beach or desert.
dreammachine
Member
I did play Caledonia back in 2007. The reason I could not remember was because I played in an "International Paper" sponsored tournament and it was late August. Three of my invited guests were all "very big drinkers" and Outback was catering all the food and beer/wine/liqueur a person could want to drink/eat. The golf course would not allow us to "tee off until 2:00PM that day" and by the time we did the heat index was 114F. Everybody was just dropping like flies and nobody would drink the ice cold beer or anything else besides water. Water ran out quickly and by the time my group finished the round - Outback was begging for people to come and eat their hamburgers and grilled chicken, but nobody was having any of it and everybody just wanted to leave and go back home or to their hotels. I was at the Hampton Inn in Pawley's Island and I drove back there and took a cold shower and just laid on my bed for the next three hours before I could move good. That was the hottest day I have ever spent on a golf course in my life and if I had not brought some customers with me that day I would have just turned around and went back to the hotel. From what I remember about the course it was very nice. It was also one of the hottest places on the planet that day. I will never play golf in that kind of heat again. Other than that - it was a great day!!!
Have you ever played Tot Hill Farm? It is in Asheboro, NC. It is another Stranz course. It is an amazing layout but unfortunately the last time I was there it was obvious that it had fallen on tougher times as the course was in marginal shape. If it has returned to being nice it is really fun. It is a lot like his other courses with the exception that it has more of a mountain course feel. I could talk golf 24/7! And livnig where you live, another hidden gem in my view is Mt Mitchell Golf Club over near Burnsville, NC right off the parkway. It is old school but usually in great shape but the scenery is really quite awesome. For being at the base of Mt Mitchell the course is virtually flat
dreammachine
Member
Considering the great quality of my golf game - I conveniently found myself playing at "Jim & Lillie's" in Jackson, SC. It was just outside of the SRS and was only a 9 hole golf course that had many of it's fairways wide open - so that if your shot was wide right or hooked left - you still had a pretty good shot at the green!!! Maybe holes 7 - 8 and 9 were a little different, but overall it was a fun course to play on and of course they just moved the "tee boxes" back on you for the back nine holes. New Ellenton also a long 9 hole golf course and I think it has closed down also. Played there many a Wednesday Evening after working all day at SRS. The course would have been a very good one if they would have ever put water on any of the greens or fairways, but I think the gentleman's name was Woody back then and he just did not have the money or the health/help to do a whole lot of anything out on his golf course.
I wonder if these small 9 hole golf courses are a thing of the past
?
I wonder if these small 9 hole golf courses are a thing of the past
?It is funny that you say this...I actually think much the opposite. I think that we will see more and more 9 hole courses being built. Let's face it, golf is struggling big time and courses are struggling to stay open. IMO the problem is that it takes way too much time and in today's age of instant access and instant gratification there are more things available to fill our time than sitting on a course for 5+ hours.Considering the great quality of my golf game - I conveniently found myself playing at "Jim & Lillie's" in Jackson, SC. It was just outside of the SRS and was only a 9 hole golf course that had many of it's fairways wide open - so that if your shot was wide right or hooked left - you still had a pretty good shot at the green!!! Maybe holes 7 - 8 and 9 were a little different, but overall it was a fun course to play on and of course they just moved the "tee boxes" back on you for the back nine holes. New Ellenton also a long 9 hole golf course and I think it has closed down also. Played there many a Wednesday Evening after working all day at SRS. The course would have been a very good one if they would have ever put water on any of the greens or fairways, but I think the gentleman's name was Woody back then and he just did not have the money or the health/help to do a whole lot of anything out on his golf course.
I wonder if these small 9 hole golf courses are a thing of the past
Earlier in this thread we talked about Sweeten's Cove which is a new 9 hole course in southern Tennessee (outside Chattanooga) and it is kind of a test of the 9 hole concept that seems to be doing well. Personally I find myself playing less and less golf these days. My club I play at has 3 full practice holes outside of the 18 hole course. I find myself practing and playing the practice holes more than the big course.
dreammachine
Member
You make a great point here about the struggling financial situation of a lot of golf courses all over the nation. At one time around Augusta, GA and Aiken, SC - it seemed as though a new golf course was going up about one a year to complete against other ones that were barely hanging on
? This seem to start in the mid to late 90's and then taper off in the mid-2000's. More and more of the big courses are dying out and the ones that use to be ultra-private are starting to open up to the public at large - just to stay afloat. I never was much on golf, even though I have taken many a customer to the golf course to discuss business. It's so funny as I have a brother who is 14 months older than me and he is a golf nut and has played the Augusta National a bunch of times and use to shoot in the low 70's all the time. He has put together a "loosely formed group of guys like himself" that did not want to join a country club or could not afford too and my brother has just about all of the larger and nicer golf courses in the 50 mile radius of Augusta, GA allowing him and his small group to play on a (Tuesday) week and then they play on Fridays also. They bring about 16 to 20 with them according to how the weather is doing. I may also state that my brother and I both loved all the traditional sports baseball, football, basketball, etc - but my brother had one friend who was a lot better off than 98% of the rest of the families that we grew up with and this kid's daddy would take my brother and his son to a 9 hole golf course about 3 times a week and drop them off and allow them to play all day long. I was too busy playing baseball, throwing rocks, or swimming if the weather was hot and just doing other things. I guess that is why my golf is in the shape it is in today?The nine hole golf course design does make a lot of sense if you stop and think about all the great points you made. Everybody is in such a hurry now to do something and get their instant gratification. I grew up in SC and for 99% of my life up to I was a teenager and moved out on my on - my parents did not have a telephone in our house nor did we have A/C and my mother went to the laundry mat to wash our clothes and bought them back home to hang on the clothes line if the weather would permit. We actually had great conversations at the kitchen table too!!! Those days like people taking time to "stop and smell the roses" ARE GONE WITH THE WIND!!!
I have been blessed to have played alot of the courses mentioned in this thread. My favorite is a nice 18 hole layout called The Augusta National, played it twice. The first time I played the course I could not play because I wanted to step or line up on every location where all the famous shots were made. LOL . Palmetto is also very cool. If you are fortunate enough to get onto Palmetto, the greens are as close to Augusta Nationals greens as you are gonna get.
Some of my other favorites are The Surf Golf and Beach Club in NMB SC, Pine Needles and Mid Pines in Pinehurst NC, TPC Sawgrass, Doral, Atlanta Athletic Club and East Lake, Orangeburg CC, Plainfield CC in NJ, Charleston CC, The Ocean Course, Harbor Town, Savannah Golf Club, Old South in Bluffton SC, Florence CC, The Dunes Club in MBSC, Philidelphia CC, Merion. I could name more but you get the story.
I will say I have always loved playing the historic old courses but have never got the chance to go to Scotland and play. I am hoping in the next 3 years to get that done. Love the game and the field it is played on. For me it has put food on my table and special moments in my heart and mind.
Some of my other favorites are The Surf Golf and Beach Club in NMB SC, Pine Needles and Mid Pines in Pinehurst NC, TPC Sawgrass, Doral, Atlanta Athletic Club and East Lake, Orangeburg CC, Plainfield CC in NJ, Charleston CC, The Ocean Course, Harbor Town, Savannah Golf Club, Old South in Bluffton SC, Florence CC, The Dunes Club in MBSC, Philidelphia CC, Merion. I could name more but you get the story.
I will say I have always loved playing the historic old courses but have never got the chance to go to Scotland and play. I am hoping in the next 3 years to get that done. Love the game and the field it is played on. For me it has put food on my table and special moments in my heart and mind.
SanAntonioCock
GCF Top Poster
Pecan Valley in San Antonio. They had the 1968 PGA Championship there but it was pretty run down when I played 25 years later.