grovey31I stumbled across this on youtube whilst looking for Christmas covers the other day by seeing that Ben had a playthrough posted. You secret hand shaking members only jacket wearing secret stonecutter cult worshipping fraternity insiders bug me sometimes, so I didn't watch the video (still haven't) because I like to form my own opinions no matter how flawed or radical they could be. But you had me at fishers and grovey and I wanted to play it first myself.
Grovey, if you don't mind, I'd like to call you Grooveyman if that's okay, cause I dig your style man. You work seems classy and understated and subtle and Nassau was a crazy good course. I'd say you are in the discussion of which designers consistantly build the best greens from what I've seen. Don't know if you have a reputation of an average planter or don't enjoy planting but lately, that is evaporating. You seem to be a substance > style kinda guy. You have seen the real Shinnecock and might be from the long island area. I don't question your architectural knowledge, but I like to debate you on it and learn from it.
A couple years ago, when I ragged on Fisher's and Shinnecock and an NGLA version that wasn't the beamtown version, and ranked them lower than the Kairos Balter's of the world, you explained to me why. I don't mind eating crow or wiping egg from my face, a balanced diet is important and desired.
I remember going through the World top 100 list back when I first got '19 and being amazed I could find Cypress and PV and all these ultra exclusive courses and then being disappointed in Fisher's cause I didn't like geometric bunkers and having 80 yard pitches in on every hole. Brian's lidar version was very well executed but it just left me wanting more. Having to play it with 5 woods on maxed out conditions sucked. I still think Fisher's may be a little overrated but we are splitting hairs here and it may Raynor's crown jewel or Magnum Opus, an architect who I have a much better appreciation for, due to Ben's awesome template series and a little more research and hearing your opinions.
I played 2 rounds earlier on default settings with medium, than high winds and this is a playthrough for round 3. (How does a guy stream on PS4, just get twitch??)
Bumping up fairways to VF, greens to fast and wind to Very High because I think it would be usually quite windy here.
We are rocking our new "Live, Laugh, Golf" hat which we like but are a little bitter we had to pay for, but we try to practice what we preach, we wear our heart on our sleeve and it is a fitting theme for this course. Oh ya, and a windbreaker pullover to obviously break wind and for easy removal when we utilize the 3 strikes and your out no shirt rule. We are playing with an invisible member so we have a little pull and I don't think this lovely island has marshalls with superiority complexes, real or imagined.
1 - Does a guy get as far down as he can and play for a pitch to a tight pin or does he plan a long iron in and try to roll it through the valley? Don't know if you can call this a Biarritz but the approach can sure play like one at times. 16mph downwind, I'm hitting a 3 iron off the tee and opting for style points and a lower trajectory on the 2nd shot. 175 in and this is the dilemma: A poor punch could shuck me back off the mound in front, leaving a roller coaster chip over it and then down in the valley where the pin is. Left or long is death, short right seems like a nice bailout. Fun kick up onto the green and it settles just before the halfpipe. Shoot I needed one more club if I wanted to be Tony Hawk. Par. Private houses behind the hole look great, as does the fence and road taking you there.
2 - Turn right around into the teeth of the wind. Subtle caambaah to the right but then the green banks more to the left. Love how the green seems to just emerge from the hill of wildgrasses along the right but has it's own little private spot to lookout on the beach. And the clubhouse gets to see it all. Still too early and risky to use up one of our three warnings so the shirt stays on. Don't know if this is a switchback but the pin is tucked back left on its own little hill and this looks like a tricky hole. Happy with par here. Low drive ends up left center, need to hit a long iron off a nasty side hill with the green running away from us and the wind taking off a good 25 yards of distance. 5 iron in the air forever, left fringe chipping uphill. Take par, that's all we asked. Lovely hole.
3 - Turn around again, par 5 wind at our back, playing through some trees to an uphill fairway that looks like it would be great for cross country skiing if you are into that bizarre activity. Trying to get to the low spot over the hills and far away like Robert Plant likes to say. The pin is short left and we are not gonna be greedy and play high backspin like a tool. Use you big muscles and mother nature and gravity from the big ball to get the little ball to go. (I love watching any ball bounce and roll on any surface, it always takes the path of least resistance, same as water.) Our ball flight looks great cresting the hill with the treeline as its backdrop. Gotta start a 6 iron well left of the green to contend with this lie and we fast it into the bunker. This green is great, there are like 5 or 6 pin placements I can see just by looking at it, that would all be fun and challenging. Duff a bunker shot, miss the slider putt and par it squandering our opportunity. Still quite haven't figured out or executed this hole yet.
4 - Now it is really starting to feel like Fishers with the hole winding towards the coast and the little inlets and ponds of water. We are still downwind and are going to try to keep this high up the right side and stay away from that nasty Raynor style bunker 10 or 12 feet below the back left pin. Easier said than done cause everything banks hard left. 110 in with a 18mph head wind. Pitch a gap wedge I guess, not thrilled about it, fun kick off a slope and a fringe two putt par. Coastline looks great as does the lighthouse acting as an aiming marker earlier for us and a helpful flashlight later tonight for someone else. Infinity green with the hidden bunker behind is a nice touch, and the perfect spot to use it.
5. Finally a side wind hole. Can't really see what's up there but that's cool, we have treelines and bushes and scout cam to help. This is how designers pull off effective blind tee shots in the absence of stakes and scout cams. Stripe a low stinger down the left and now this is hilarious, we are aiming our 6 iron 30 yards left of the pin. The conditions are fierce and I wish it was raining too cause we are sickos. Good shot but maybe 30 yards left was overkill. The reveal behind the green is worth the 275 bucks we spent on this round. Wow. Everything is layered great. Bushes, trees, beaches, hills, houses, more lighthouses. Incredible spot. The wind is killing us on this perched up green but we don't care. Three putt bogey cause we have tears of joy in our eyes.
6. Shorter par 4 now. Another blindish tee shot but this time with some drama over some bushy water, which you wouldn't know the result of till later. We are thinking about switching up the game plan and playing punches, pitches and chips exclusively and just generally trying to keep the ball really low. But the greens are rolling pure and fast and true and the pins, are hard to get to. Awesome how the front of the green starts gradually emerging from the fairway but then all around it, is quite a bit lower. This is maybe a Cape. Low draw into a nasty diagonal wind and it gets hung up in the rough saving us from the moat bunker of Alligators and Electric Eels below. We are proud of our up and down, it was an awkward couple of shots.
7. Here we have a Short and it follows the rule of "find the prettiest spot on the property." Something that is hard to do here because everywhere I look is pretty, but it is pulled off to perfection. 360 degrees of goodness all around and we really like the sculpting around the entire green complex. Electing to punch a 6 iron into the wind here on a Short (lol) and end up deep left, in a bush, saving us from water. Oh boy. Chipping from bushes uphill with bunkers in between is never a good spot. We just chop out a flop shot being happy with anywhere on the green and it ends up at 5 feet away. Ya, this game is too easy and my club would have got tangled in all sorts of schrubbery but sure 2K, let's just go with it and par it is, I guess.
8. Another uphill blind par 4, something that is getting a little repetitive, same cross wind direction. Don't have as much to aim at but it is framed with a bunker edge and a patch of trees so can't complain too much. Hang the drive out left and accept our first cut lie, with a great angle in, but a nasty spine running through the green to contend with. More infinity green stuff and we make par after a well struck 3 iron in.
9. Ending on a par 3, bonus marks, halfway house, bonus marks. We are here for golf, not phone numbers from birdies and/or snacks. We snuck some beer in cause the prices these days are getting outta control. I got the inflation blues but this feels like an Eden, so all is good in the world. Threading the needle up the hill with a punch shot with a helping wind to a mid right pin, is the clear play here. It wants to make it up there and almost does. The chip from the fringe also almost goes in and we par. I have really liked this par 3.
10. Little bit of island hoppin here to start the back which is a nice change up. Not a handshake opener if you're starting on the back nine and/or you are weak at heart, or flimsy of whip. Mega cut, and it does the awesome rise one way and then fall the other with a great backdrop (we have ball tracer on cause we use the power of visualization and Entropy is catching up with us and we can't see as great as we used to,) and then it takes a sweet kick, short of the pond. Amazing green. Punch a PW up there with some helping wind, on but well short, and we crush our uphill snake putt and make the testy comeback for par.
11. I'm just going to accept that this course might be predominately uphill blindish drives and infinity greens and stop commenting on it. Safe high fade with the hickory/not a hickory 3 wood at the bushel of trees and here we go. This might be an alps punchbowl and we can't wait to see where we end up as we walk towards a coast. Land movement is awesome and we can just see the top of the marker over the hill birthing an incredible greensite. Punch a wedge well short of the green off the hill in front and it kicks and rolls its way towards the pin. I could play that shot on loop all damn day. Pars are in abundance, birdies are not, we don't care, we are just happy to be here. This hole is incredible.
12. Similar length par 3 to the last one and we are hoping for a 220+ before we have to leave. Love how the golfer is immediately teeing off as soon as he is done the last hole. This is kinda Redanish, we are not going to call it one but we are going to play it like one. Punch a 5, end up high right, carefully lag it down the hill and par.
13. Long par 5 into the teeth. Lets ignore eagle and play for birdie. We Mr. Burns it and it doesn't even make it to the fairway and we wish this game had mullies sometimes. Front right pin and we still have 3 wood in after a longish layup lol. Fun approach and it is very close to being great but par it is. I love the narrowness of the green. It's the right amount for a challenging crack at it in two but still has a nice spine running vertically through it to give a 3 shotter a challenge as well.
14. Speaking of spines, we have a hogsback type here or maybe even a double hogsback. Whoa. It's been tough to hold the high right fairway on this hole and valley it is, with the angle we don't really want. Our lag putting is holding us together today and, par. Great hole, fairway essentially turns into 3 fairways and the angle and contours of the green ties it all together.
15. This might be a Prize Dogleg. Either way, heroic carry over some beach shrubbidge and the theme of "reveals" for the walking patron is starting to get louder. I don't mind the noise at all. Power fade fighting the cross wind and I think we got a glimpse of us in the fairway up there. Awesome greensite by the two houses and the trees, that lot probably costs 2.5 million dollars but how do they get their groceries? Must be a cabin. Par again.
16. One gripe about this course is 3 of it's par threes play a similar yardage and it has no really long one. Don't know if there was room to move a tee back and design a different type of green but no one says you have to follow a formula. We need to carve a fade over the beach with the wind and green slope going the other way to get at that right pin and predictably it ends up left. Fun shot value and still a very nice par 3. Lag and tap.
17. Sightline off the tee here is incredible. Wind at our back, the hole is 504 yards. Height and distance and hoping for an eagle to carry us all the way to the hole is the play here and we roll down the hill nicely, 377 yards away, from where we just were. Thanks Grovey, that was great. We somehow teleport and realize we are now standing downhill, but need to keep it short of the hole, but just over the bunker in front, to the right pin. We take a bit off a sandwedge and it takes a big kick off the mound just over the bunker and shoots us high right. That's unlucky. Haven't seen any wildlife yet. Seems like this place would be a natural hangout for some water diving fishing bird types. I can hear them, I just can't see them.
18. Alright, shirt is coming off. What are they gonna do kick us out? We check to see if they left the keys in the boats so we can leave 5 bucks in the glove box along with a thank you note, after we "borrow them." "Sorry, I thought they were for the golfers!" But of course not. This hole's rule of thumb appears to be: Back left pin = play towards the beach, front right pin = play towards the baked out grass. Clubhouse nicely off in the distance overlooking it all. We end up in the middle and really want to go for it because in previous rounds carving it over the beach and have it roll up in there, is great fun. But 19mph winds in your smiling face giving you chapped lips and blowing your hat off is dicey. Well, now we need to hug the beach to have a good look at the front left pin, but the beach cuts into our hole and it only gets worse the closer you get to the hole, destroying our angle. Wind is ripping off the beach too, making it difficult. This is good designing right here. 6 iron at the clubhouse it is. Then a Gap wedge into the wind settling in the pocket we want and our flat stick, which is behaving more like a banana today ("Excuse me Sir, is that a banana in your pocket!?" "Why yes! I use it for my putting!") fails us (30 putts lol) and we finish +1. Proximity to hole was 37 feet lol. Very high winds are very hard and very fun. And I have never been the best iron player. Seven for seven on scrambling we are proud of though.
I don't know what else to say man, I think this might be one of my favorite courses to come out in years. Gives me a better appreciation for Fishers and the added length which translates better for the digital space is much appreciated. I like your Golden Age style. Thanks again.
