Post by InThisStyle on May 26, 2023 10:31:29 GMT -5
A recent trip to Pinehurst, NC afforded us the opportunity to play Tobacco Road, something I've had on my bucket list for years. What an absolute wild ride, and a gem of a golf course. Talking to some of the locals the consensus was that it's a polarizing layout with folks either hating it, or loving it. While it is definitely quirky, and at time just plain bizarre, it is most definitely enormous fun to play. That said I wanted to share a few photos which were eye-openers for me in a couple ways:
1) Not having ever played a sand belt course (aside from Pinehurst #2 the previous day), it was visually striking. The scale and depth of the "bunkers" and dunes was unbelievable, and the natural grasses and bushes were literally wild.
2) Blind shots are everywhere—without GPS or local knowledge this would have made for a few nightmarish holes, fortunately they did have GPS which made a few blind tee shots, as well as some severe uphill approaches, a ton of fun.
3) The slopes on the greens were the most severe I've ever seen, we're talking 3-4ft rises and dips. That said, they played pretty fair simply because the slopes were generally placed to help the ball to the hole assuming you hit the general area you're aiming for... that whole concept of hitting it further away to get it closer to the hole. On the flip side, if you hit the wrong spot, a 3-putt is inevitable.
In any event, I understand this is an outlier of a golf course, but I still took away some things which I'm looking forward to trying in my next couple designs.
** SCALE & DUNES **
An example of the quirkiness that may put some off was this hole—a very short par 4, you can either layup short right of that dune with the stairs (about 150 yds) which will leave an uphill (blind) 2nd shot of about 160yds (i think). I chose to hit the shot through the gap at that bunker (and the aiming post) which is about 220 so you have to hit a 180 - 210 shot which leaves a sub 100yd (still very uphill) shot into the green (which I neglected to take a photo of). You can also carry that dune on the right, about 170ish and there's a bunch of fairway back there.
This hole was particularly fun—From the tee you actually can't see the left side of the fairway as there's a massive 50-60ft shoot blocking that side of the fairway. The first picture was taken about 150 yards from the tee (which is back left), at the top of another 60ft hill running down the right side. (A fun cart ride down that slope!) If you hit that perfect draw and end up left you can see the green through the pass of those 2 dunes, otherwise it's just a blind carry (those 2 left/right bunkers must be at least 15-20 feet deep), which is fine, it's a par 5 with tons of fairway on the other side.
We saw this green when we drove in and were just shocked. It's basically sunk into a 20 ft high bowl, and the green is tiny. The uphill approach with the little opening and silos in the back is a stunner.
A really lovely par 3 over water, any miss other than a small area on the left is absolute trouble.
** SLOPES ** Just some wild green slopes here.
In any event, apologies for the giant post but thought it was worth sharing some of these pics, it really was just a ton of fun and a an amazing experience.
1) Not having ever played a sand belt course (aside from Pinehurst #2 the previous day), it was visually striking. The scale and depth of the "bunkers" and dunes was unbelievable, and the natural grasses and bushes were literally wild.
2) Blind shots are everywhere—without GPS or local knowledge this would have made for a few nightmarish holes, fortunately they did have GPS which made a few blind tee shots, as well as some severe uphill approaches, a ton of fun.
3) The slopes on the greens were the most severe I've ever seen, we're talking 3-4ft rises and dips. That said, they played pretty fair simply because the slopes were generally placed to help the ball to the hole assuming you hit the general area you're aiming for... that whole concept of hitting it further away to get it closer to the hole. On the flip side, if you hit the wrong spot, a 3-putt is inevitable.
In any event, I understand this is an outlier of a golf course, but I still took away some things which I'm looking forward to trying in my next couple designs.
** SCALE & DUNES **
An example of the quirkiness that may put some off was this hole—a very short par 4, you can either layup short right of that dune with the stairs (about 150 yds) which will leave an uphill (blind) 2nd shot of about 160yds (i think). I chose to hit the shot through the gap at that bunker (and the aiming post) which is about 220 so you have to hit a 180 - 210 shot which leaves a sub 100yd (still very uphill) shot into the green (which I neglected to take a photo of). You can also carry that dune on the right, about 170ish and there's a bunch of fairway back there.
This hole was particularly fun—From the tee you actually can't see the left side of the fairway as there's a massive 50-60ft shoot blocking that side of the fairway. The first picture was taken about 150 yards from the tee (which is back left), at the top of another 60ft hill running down the right side. (A fun cart ride down that slope!) If you hit that perfect draw and end up left you can see the green through the pass of those 2 dunes, otherwise it's just a blind carry (those 2 left/right bunkers must be at least 15-20 feet deep), which is fine, it's a par 5 with tons of fairway on the other side.
We saw this green when we drove in and were just shocked. It's basically sunk into a 20 ft high bowl, and the green is tiny. The uphill approach with the little opening and silos in the back is a stunner.
A really lovely par 3 over water, any miss other than a small area on the left is absolute trouble.
** SLOPES ** Just some wild green slopes here.
In any event, apologies for the giant post but thought it was worth sharing some of these pics, it really was just a ton of fun and a an amazing experience.