Saturday, September 30, 2017

Pinehurst #2

Rankings

Golf Digest:  #30
Golfweek:  #14 Classic

How I got on:  While it is public (resort), my friend Preston invited me to a BMW event.  We traveled on his family jet and played 11 holes in Hurricane Matthew (one of two groups on the course) before they told us to get off the course because trees were blowing over!  

Medinah #3

Rankings

Golf Digest:  #48
Golfweek:  #85 Classic

How I got on:  My friend Eric who I met when we were both living in Newport Beach, CA.  We both love experiencing renown courses - glad he's a member at one!

Winged Foot (West)

Rankings

Golf Digest:  #10
Golfweek:  #17 Classic

How I got on:  A coworker's friend from college is a member and he invited me soon after moving to NY.  

Butler National Golf Club

Rankings

Golf Digest:  #45
Golfweek:  #47 Modern

How I got on:  My friend Eric is a member at Medinah and was able to get us set up at Butler.  

My Medinah & Butler weekend was going to be fun, but I can't say I expected to be enamored with the tracks.  Butler, which was redesigned by Tom Fazio (his uncle George was the original architect) has designed more golf courses than I can count. While most are good layouts I am not normally craving a second crack at them.  That was my state of mind when driving to Butler.  

Trying to find the Butler National entrance is odd.  You turn down a road with signs of Oak Brook Golf Club.  As you pass by the parking lot to that course, it feels like you're in the wrong spot.  But once you get near the end of the road, there are a couple white brick walls that welcome to you Butler National.  We had arrived.  

It was pretty busy on that late August day.  We were assigned caddies and headed to the range.  We teed off soon after.  [Rant on Caddie warning]  As is typical of caddies that are assigned visitors to resort or private courses, they "encouraged" us to play the course as short as possible - without actually saying so.  I totally understand that it makes their lives easier and probably makes most guest's lives easier by not biting off too much of a big-boy course.  I would also understand if they made a good-faith effort to understand their players' games before suggesting tees.  But that is rarely the case.  My rant regarding caddie tee suggestion is less directed toward our Butler caddies than a global frustration I have with caddies.  My Butler caddie gripe is an apathy shown on our first nine holes.  No effort was made to determine how far we hit our clubs.  They thrust a driver in my hand on every hole and walked off.  When I asked where to hit the drive or how far to certain obstacles, you have thought I'd asked them to run up and fix a ball mark 200 yards away before I hit an approach.  It was clear our group of unaccompanied guests wasn't worthy of their best effort.  And to help the reader understand better - I'm about the easiest player to caddie for.  All I ask is to carry my clubs, answer some simple questions about where the best line is, and to be friendly.  I even fix my own ball marks and rake most of my own bunkers.  So a primadonna I'm not.

By hole # 10 I'd lost my patience with being left on the tee with a driver only and my clubs halfway down the fairway (on holes where I'd hit a hybrid or 4-wood).  I think my frustration was noted, because on the back nine my caddie became my biggest cheerleader and a chatty Kathy.  Maybe he was sleeping off the night before on the front nine, but it was a tale of two caddies.  Front nine grade:  D+.  Back nine grade:  A-.  I'm glad he eventually woke up so I could know where I was supposed to hit the ball.  

Back to the course...it is a BEAST!  I've played harder courses, but not many.  The front nine beat me up.  I had doubles all over the place.  A couple were lack of course knowledge, but most were just bad shots.  The greens were extremely quick, and the course doesn't lack for yardage - and we were playing the second longest set of tees.  The tips would have been brutal.  

I didn't expect to love a traditional parkland style course, but I thoroughly enjoyed Butler.  The front nine had water come into play a few times - most of which I found.  I wish I had another crack at the front, because some course knowledge would have helped a ton.  For instance, one long par 5 (600+ yds) doglegs big time to the right.  No reason to hit driver, but that's all I had left on the tee box.  My landing zone had a fairway about 15 yards wide with water on the right and no chance of getting home in two.  It was a perfect three iron-shot hole.  A great hole, but needed a little more intel than I had.  

By the 9th hole, I was ready to throw my caddie and clubs into the water (to join all of my golf balls).  But I rolled a nice birdie putt in on 9, a medium-length par 4.  That got me settled in a bit.  The 10th is a slight dogleg left with a lake on the left and the creek that winds around the entire course fronting the green.  So of course I hit a thick wedge into the drink. Another double...awesome!  Luckily my bag was getting lighter for my caddie.  

The 11th is a 200ish yard par 3.  The pin was tucked deep right behind a bunker, and I was so ticked from the double on 10 that I abandoned all swing thoughts and let a little cut fly right at the stick.  My schizophrenic round continued with a kick-in birdie. 

The 12th was a kick in the pants.  If memory serves, it was nearly 500 yards, uphill, and into the wind.  I killed a drive but bailed a bit on a 4-iron into the deep rough pin-high right.  On that topic, the rough at Butler is killer.  The superintendent keeps Butler a stern test all around.  If you miss a green, there are no gimme up and downs.  Pray for a good lie.  So back to my play on the 12th, a so-so pitch and missed putt led to a bogey.  At this point I was wondering what a par felt like.  

On to 13.  Par 3 - about 200 yards again.  Water left and deep.  Slightly downhill.  I hit a great shot to about 10 feet, but barely missed the putt.  I GOT A PAR!!!

The 14th is a short dogleg left around a lake with a bunker at the corner of the dogleg about 230 off the tee.  I hit a pull-draw hybrid that felt like it would be in the bunker or water, but somehow I carried the bunker and only had 110 yards in.  My gap wedge finished 15 feet behind the hole...BIRDIE!!!  I'm warming up.

The 15th hole is LONGGGG!  I hit one of my best drives of the day and had 321 yards into the par 5 that goes up a hill and turns 90 degrees toward the green.  I hit a 4-wood to the right and a lob wedge from 70 yards to about 3 feet.  BIRDIE!!!

Now the 16th.  All I remember is it was a short and straight par 4.  Fairway hit, green hit to about 8 feet...BIRDIE!!!

The clouds were looking a bit ominous, but we were almost done.  A couple sprinkles came down on the 16th tee, but no bother.  Fairway hit.  As I walked to my ball the clouds started to open.  I was raining, but not pouring.  I tried to rush an 8-iron, but didn't commit and put it in the trap.  A bad bunker shot left me in the fringe and a so-so chip and putt resulted in a bogey.  So goes the birdie streak.  Rat farts.  

By the 18th tee, it was POURING.  My swing thought was "don't lose the driver and have it fly over the fence onto the road."  That positive image left me in a pond that ran up the right side of half the hole.  My third (after my drop) was behind a tree with 240 yards in the pouring rain with a water hazard running up the left hand side of the fairway and green.  I could barely hold onto the club, the wind was whipping, and I had no idea how to judge yardage in a midwestern downpour.  I wedged it out, chipped my next shot over the green, watched my playing partners head for the clubhouse, and then I finished with a 6 or 7 - it wasn't really golf at that point.  

I was drenched and played quite the amusing round.  I really enjoyed Butler.  The staff was friendly and helpful, and the course was a real test.  I'm realizing I've played so much sand dune and fescue golf over the past couple years that I actually have missed the traditional parkland course.  Butler was immaculate, difficult, had quick greens, and a number of unique holes.  I'd love another crack at it, and am grateful I got the invite.    

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Somerset Hills

Rankings

Golf Digest:  #64
Golfweek:  #27 Classic

How I got on:  My coworker is a member and she set up a round with her daughter, who played D-I college golf.  Another coworker and I joined her on a Saturday morning in July '17.  

Driving into the clubhouse you see a number of the front nine holes in a meadow of fescue (which would be my fairway for the day).  The clubhouse and locker room are OLD SCHOOL.  I appreciate the untouched feeling of the amenities.  But the Tillinghast design is the real treat.  The green complexes are what make the track.  The third hole was especially interesting.  The green sits atop a hill and has an enormous false front with a bunker in the fairway at the bottom.  Both of my playing partners ended up in the bunker at one point, and not in any ordinary fashion.  One flubbed a short approach that didn't quite make the green and rolled into the bunker.  The other chipped from the back of the green and trickled off the front and rolled into the bunker as well.  

The front nine in the meadow feels a bit like Valley Club's finishing holes in Santa Barbara, only with more dramatic greens.  The back nine has more elevation changes and winds through trees.  I'm probably more partial to the front, but both are great.  Some courses are easily appreciated, such as Bethpage Black, but it's not a course I'd want to play daily.  Somerset would be a great experience daily, and I think it'd be tough to imagine all the variations the greens and surrounding complexes could throw at you.  

I played the white tees because my playing partner wanted to.  It's never a good idea for me.  I'm too tempted to hit driver and end up blowing it all over a course because, 1) I hit it 290-300 yards all over the place, and 2) even some good drives end up in the wrong places because my landing areas from the whites can be ill-suited to a driver.  I should have hit hybrid more, but I just can't control myself.  So I got enough stickers in my socks that required me to throw them away post-round.  I was lucky to even find most of my wayward drives, but not enough of them.  The final tally was crap.  I need another crack at this track, and hope it materializes.  

View from 11 green toward the clubhouse

The par 3 12th - short but a wild green

The 17th - this is what the fairway looks like.  I wouldn't know, but I do know that tree very well.  I'll blame it on the blind tee shot.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Blackwolf Run - River

Rankings

Golf Digest:  #91
Golfweek:  #73 Modern

A college-roommate reunion led me to Kohler, WI in late summer of '15.  As a golf destination, Kohler was a great venue for our eight-man trip.  We stayed at the Inn on Woodlake since The American Club (the ritzier venue) was sold out.  The Inn was quaint - kind of a woodsy Residence Inn.  We played three rounds in two days and then headed off to Erin Hills.  Since I'm penning this a year after my trip, it'll be lighter on details and heavier on my big-picture takeaways.

Whistling Straits is a links venue, while Blackwolf Run winds through woods, a river, lakes, etc.  It is apples to oranges, but equally as impressive.  The Blackwolf pro shop is understated and doesn't feel like a big resort.  Perhaps our week was less crowded than others, but we did not feel like we were a bunch of sheep being herded through the turnstiles (Whistling felt a bit like this gearing up to tee of on #1).  

Blackwolf has 36 holes, the River and the Meadow.  We played the River course, but had to skip the Meadow for scheduling reasons.  After deciding to play the tips, we quickly found that driving it straight is more important at Blackwolf than at Whistling.  While both courses give you trouble if you're off the beaten path, a wayward drive on the River course can be in such dense trees that you can't attempt to find it.  Hence, my score reflected the countless Pro V1s I donated.  

The River was in amazing condition, and the greens were quick.  We took carts, which is not preferable on top golf courses, but there are a number of long drives in between holes that necessitate a cart.  The River's holes didn't feel redundant, and at 7,400 yards from the tips, there wasn't an opportunity to leave the driver in the bag to focus on hitting fairways.  Second shots were brutal on many holes, even with great drives.  

The course offers some tee shots that are not intuitive, and with caddies that are unfamiliar with your game, it can lead to confusion when picking your lines.  Playing the course a second time would be optimal to feel comfortable over the ball.  Even some lay-up shots can be a little confusing playing blind.  However, the course is not unfair.  It is simply a demanding layout and having any uncertainty over the ball can lead to disaster.  

I'm a fan of lush, parkland style courses, and Blackwolf did not disappoint.  I'd definitely take another trip to Kohler to play this one, especially with so many great courses nearby.   

The Valley Club of Montecito

Rankings

Golf Digest:  #80
Golfweek:  #38 Classic

The Valley Club clubhouse sits on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean near Santa Barbara, CA.  I played the course a couple times in U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifiers.  The first time I birdied the last three holes to shoot even and missed qualifying by a shot or two when the last group on the course had two guys break 70.  Tough luck.  

Despite my near miss, the course is incredible.  There are two distinct sides to VC.  The 1st, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th are on one side of the street situated in a meadow-like area.  The other side of the course winds through trees and runs along a creek.  Both sides are a great experience, although I enjoy the meadow holes more.  The clubhouse is old-school with lockers that seem to be a throwback to a simpler time.  They don't feel dated, they feel vintage.  Is that the same thing?  

Regardless, the Alister MacKenzie design is pure.  The greens complexes have a lot going on and I enjoy the mounding and closely shaved areas where you need to decide to putt or chip.  And boy are they fast.  This is definitely a must-play if you can pull off an invite.  I could play it daily and not tire of the layout.