Thursday, January 8, 2015

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)


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