Tobacco Road Golf Club (Sanford, NC)

Tobacco Road made Michael Strantz a superstar in golf course design. Sure he had several well publicized courses, but Tobacco is just that much better! Everything that an architect could ever want in a piece of property is here, and Strantz designed an instant classic. 

When you get on the first tee, you immediately know you're in for something special! 

It's such an intimidating tee shot! Many people love it. And many people hate it. But everyone remembers it! When I played here, I hit hybrid three times to keep the ball in play. The longer player can carry the hill with no problem. There's a second hill that needs carried too. The green slopes away and to the back right. It all adds up to an over the top hole, but it serves it purposes as it announces to everyone they're in for a great round of golf! 

The second is a more classic hole. It's a beautiful tee shot across the sandy scrub and the approach is just a short iron. 

As shown above, a scar bunker fronts the green, but no reason to be in it. The corners are tipped so a quality shot will funnel to the middle and leave a good opportunity for birdie. 

The third is then a short par three. If there's a weakness at Tobacco, it's the par threes. The same club is being hit on three of the five. For this particular hole, a barritz green makes the shot interesting. A pin on the front tier is crazy wild. It's a very small target. Same goes for the back pin position, tho there's more room for a shot. Now the middle, or sunken tier, is very easy. We had three birdies in our foursome. The ball naturally funnels there, per the design of a barritz. Fun hole. Then we see one of Strantz favorite templates, the buttonhook par five. I've seen it at Royal New Kent, at Tot Hill Farm, and I'm not sure why he has one of these at every course. The player who challenges the sandy scrub can shave off yardage and reach this par five in two. A kickplate short of the green will gather the ball down onto the putting surface. The question in my mind, is the hazard left of the green tough enough to inflict pain if the player fails to make the carry? I kinda think it isn't. 

The fifth is one of my favorite holes and really one of the best ones here. It's a driveable uphill par four with the green straightaway, but the fairway out to right for those playing conservative. I feel that those who've had success on the previous hole, the reachable par five, kinda get goated into trying the difficult aggressive approach. The conservative approach leaves a difficult pitch across a corner of the sandy waste area.

It's a wonderful hole and birdie is well deserved! 

Six follows with a short par three. Yes it has a similar yardage to the previous one-shotter, but Strantz tried something different here. He rotated a group of tee boxes, so the green can eithe be wide or very narrow. It's a solid hole and a good birdie hole. 

The seventh begins a stretch of eight holes that are the key to a good round at Tobacco Road. This mid to long par four has a wonderfully situated green located in the sandy hillside. 

A ridge cuts across the green dividing the back from the front. It's imperative to use the slope to ones advantage when attacking the flag. 

The eighth follows with a stiff par three to another green in the hillside. 

Another slope in the middle of the green separates the pin positions. A back right flag really gets the blood flowing as it's all carry with the sandy scrub closely over the back of the green. 

The front nine ends with a strong par four. I'm hesitant however to say it's a great hole. The green is too small for the length of shot required to hit it. And the bunker guarding the right is possibly the most imposing hazard on the course. 

The pic above doesn't accurately portray just how steep the bunker is. I played a hybrid just short of the green and left myself a simple chip. The only upside... Little greens usually mean shorter birdie putts when you hit them in regulation. 

The tenth follows with a long par four that plays downhill while bending to the right around the sandy scrub. The hillside on the left usually propels the ball to the right side of the fairway. This design feature sets up a cape style shot to a green flushed against the scrub. This produces a dilemma, especially for the short hitter, whether to take on the carry or to bailout left to the short grass.

Strantz designed a great hole here! 

Eleven follows with a great par five that is somewhat the mirror image of the fourth. This do or die par five works in my opinion because the hazard fronting the green is so dangerous. 

It's over thirty feet deep and being in it means having a blind recovery shot. There's some wicked spots one can find themselves too such as being close to lip or in the long grass that borders the bunker. It's an awesome hole!! 

Twelve follows with a great par four that slides left around the sandy scrub. The aggressive line is all carry over the hazard. Strantz rewards the player willing to take the risk with a short iron approach.

Such an aggressive line is also the narrowest part of the fairway. It's a beautiful hole. Seven thru twelve is the best part of the golf course. These are classic golf holes in a great setting. 

Strantz then takes his biggest risk since the opening hole, and this too is a par five. Interestingly enough, one and thirteen are the two most photographed holes on the golf course. 

Affectionately known as "the dell" hole, the green is located in a natural bowl found between the dunes. The controversy is players can't see the green. Hitting it in two is a poor play, so many of the longer hitters don't see the point. The landing areas are wide so it all boils down to the pitch over the dunes. I think it's a cool hole. 

Fourteen is my favorite par three at Tobacco Road. 

It's a gorgeous shot over water! The green is laid out diagonally and several pin positions are wonderfully defended! Hard to see in the pic but a red barn backdrops the vista completing a mental image one remembers well after the round. 

The final four holes. At Royal New Kent and Tot Hill Farm, these were the holes that critics pointed out as being the weakest. I feel that Strantz almost falls into that same habit here too. Fifteen is very strange. It's supposed to be a split fairway with a very wide green that can be attacked from different angles. However, from the tee you can't even see the right fairway. All you see are the trees and scrub. It's a short par four too, so laying up from the tee eliminates the strategy of playing to a specific spot. 

Then at sixteen, you see a little bit of fairway and a large hill with traps cut into the base. If you've never played here then you're in for a surprise. Yes you drive the ball over the hill!! And yes you can't see the fairway!! The approach is then uphill. 

If you look at Strantz watercolors artwork, one of them is this hole. A sure indication of his love for the hole. 

Seventeen is the last of the par threes. It's another short iron shot and I would say it's the weakest one on the course. The green is sixty yards wide but it's not enough to make it that interesting. I almost think he sacrificed seventeen to take advantage of the sand quarry for the eighteenth. 

The eighteenth salvages the finish with an excellent ending hole. 

Look at that tee shot!! It's a two hundred yard carry up over the quarry wall. Just fantastic! Then the approach is between a couple sand dunes to an elevated green below the clubhouse. It's a great way to end the round on one of best public courses in the country! 

Tobacco Road is on my radar to play again. Besides being a course chocked full of adventure and great shots, it's also surprisingly affordable. That's one reason why the course is on every public golfers "must play" list. A few holes keeps it from being one of my highest rated courses but it's still a high 7 (great). 

Tanglewood Park (Clemmons, NC)

The Championship course at Tanglewood Park was designed in the 1954 by Robert Trent Jones Sr. during arguably his best years as an architect. The USGA was using his services to update the us open courses and this made him very well known. The story after the 1951 us open at Oakland Hills had Ben Hogan telling RTJ's wife "If your husband had to make a living on the courses he designed, you'd be on the bread line." 

Easy bogey, hard par was always Jones strategy. He wanted the player to drive the ball straight, and then be able to control his iron shot with distance and trajectory. He really was the first architect to focus on the aerial game and his sectioned greens with distinct bowls in them was like having two or three greens in one. When you show up at Tanglewood Park, you're playing a classic RTJ sr course. 

A few years ago Ron Whiten wrote an article about Tanglewood Park citing how the PGA of America was the first to take a major, the PGA Championship, to a true public course. Lee Trevino edged out Jack Nicklaus in 1974, with a winning score of 276 (-4). 

I played Tanglewood a few years ago, and it is an absolute brute. From the back tees, it's 7100 yards par 70. The next tee up is still 6650 range. The course just never let's up. Long par fours abound on both nines, and when there's only two par fives, well birdie opportunities are not very plentiful. 

One of the things I noticed us how many of the fairways have a cant to them. The high side usually had bunkers protecting it so the player has to be confident in his line off the tee.

Then as you can see in the next pic, every green is well bunkered, especially at the corners. And this is EVERY green!

So yes the course is a very exacting test. I don't remember many of the holes but I do recall hitting plenty of long irons and hybrids. 

I give the course a 5 (good) rating. It can hold it's own even today against the best players. For the average player, it can get monotonous and repetitive. In the clubhouse they have all the old photos and memorabilia of the senior tour tournament it held for many years. 

Asheville Municipal (Asheville, NC)

I played Asheville a few years ago. I'm pretty much a sucker for old municipal golf courses, especially when they're designed by Donald Ross. This one is western NC oldest municipal course.

 

Munis have a special place in my heart because that's where people learn to play golf, where the game grows. Asheville is really a tale of two nines. The front is on a flatter piece of land where you an see nearly every hole from the first tee. The back nine is hilly and proves that no matter who designs a golf course, bad land is going to produce bad golf. 

Now when I played Asheville, I played with an older couple who told me they only play the front nine. It's walkable, it's playable, and only takes a few hours. How great is that?! 

The front nine starts off with some easy holes. I liked the first hole. It has a great view from the tee, and the it's challenges are demanding yet simple. Three is a short par four with a cross bunker obscuring the putting surface, making the approach a tricky shot. Seven is a dogleg right with OB on the left. A drive down this side opens the green up. Eight is a difficult long uphill par three. Then nine ends the front with a good solid par four. The hill on the left allows the player to favor that side on the drive but a few Ross bunkers have to be accounted for. 

I am not a big fan of the back nine. Ten is weird. No real landing area off the tee. Eleven plays straight uphill. Just a slog of a hole. I do like fifteen and sixteen. Fifteen is a solid par three across a shallow valley. Sixteen is a short par four played at a diagonal.

The key is keeping it in play off the tee to setup a short iron approach. While driver is a tempting choice, it has to be absolutely perfect otherwise the ball will be in one of the gullies on the sides of the diagonal. Very good hole!! Finally the course ends with a long par three. The view of the mountains backdropping the shot. 

Not every Donald Ross course is special. I guess Asheville proves that. But for people, just like that old couple I played with, it's a chance to play golf. And it does have some good holes too. 

3 (average rating)

 (Photos from golfholes.com)

Hillandale Golf Course (Durham, NC)

I played Hillandale the same year I played The Neuse in 1998, nearly seventeen years ago. Honestly I don't remember the golf course all that well, but I remember it had one of the coolest features I've ever seen. On the back nine, there were three holes in a row that had double greens. These greens were separated by several yards with ground features and hazards of their own. The holes changed dramatically depending on which green was in play. I really like the idea and I could envision a superb piece of land that's small in nature where double greens make eighteen holes while only using seven or less fairways. 

Hillandale was designed by Donald Ross in 1911, and what really caught my eye at the time was the reference it was tweeked by Perry Maxwell. I read recently that George Cobb tweeked it, so I'm unsure. Nonetheless, it's a cool little muni in Durham and it hosts several local tournaments throughout the year. When I played it, my friends were beginners and it accommodated them handily. 3 (average) rating. 

The Neuse (Clayton, NC)

I played The Neuse in 1998, and it amazes me just how much of it I still remember. John LaFoy designed it and it had bigger, deeper, longer features than most courses I had seen up to that point. It had won "Best New Public Course" in North Carolina and one publication I read said it was modern golf on steroids. 

The Neuse was on a hilly piece of property and LaFoy did a good job at routing it. The par fives really stood out in my mind, mainly because they challenged my second shot. While the longer hitter was trying to find a way to access the greens in two, I was trying to find the best way to setup my third. This is the key to a good par five...make the average player think on his second shot. 

This is the tenth. The options are land it in the valley short of everything, carry it past the traps for a short iron third, or hit it at the ramp tween the green side bunkers. The gull-winged green made all these plays more interesting. Cool right?! 

The par threes which were proclaimed a great set, never stood out except for the fourteenth. 

Pretty cool hole, and at the time, one that was very bold in look and style. The rear left pin position was semi-blind from the tee. (Just think Tot Hill Farms and Tabacco Road both have one shotters that make this hole look tame!!) 

The par fours were solid and the amoeba greens gave The Neuse the flexibility it needed to pull off the wide fairways LaFoy used in the design. The deep grass bunkers and steep falloffs could make some flag locations intimidating from one side of the fairway but very accessible from the other side.  There's plenty of different yardages too so the player is hitting a variety of approach shots. 

Like I said, I played here nearly 18 years ago and I can fairly remember many of the holes. That almost makes me want to give it a high rating but I feel if I was playing it today it would fall into the 5 (good) rating. In fact, The Neuse may ultimately become a period piece known for its brawny, target-style approach design. A friend of mine who recently moved to Raleigh told me he stumbled upon a cool golf course called The Neuse. I think it's going to be a fixture in the triangle golf scene for a while. 

(Photos from golfholes.com)