The rub of the green
1 Like
Yup used to be a member there. Perfect conditions year round and a growing member base. More of a players/golf club than a country club. Majority of the members are single digits it seems like. Check it and get a tour.
2 Likes
The Smoke Rise $35 deal is back for those wanting to see was all the discussion is about. $35 All summer at Smoke Rise Country Club valid into September! Stock up Now!
Last call if you want to join on a last minute Sweetens day trip this Saturday. Have 2 extra passes right now, will cancel those by EOD without a response.
2 Likes
I’m shocked these are unclaimed.
1 Like
I agree… sadly not in the cards for me this weekend due to returning from vacation.
I would take them but have a trifecta this weekend. My daughters pre-k graduation and birthday party, and my anniversary. Wife would literally kill me lol
2 Likes
I played Old Toccoa and have thoughts. Should I post them in this thread? I’m new here, thanks.
7 Likes
Lets hear em!
1 Like
Hell yeah!
I’m planning to play it sometime between July 4th and 11th, so speak up.
Got up to Barnsley Gardens on Memorial Day. Greens were exceptional and I thought there were some very good holes and solid use of closely mown areas. Don’t know if it’s worth the weekend rate, but definitely the best conditioned course I’ve seen in quite some time.
4 Likes
Played Old Toccoa for the first time, and while I’ve been intrigued by the positivity lavished in its direction, the experience made me wonder about mountain golf as a kind of golf that requires so many adjustments as to seem not dissimilar to firm-and-fast seaside links golf, or golf at altitude. It’s carnivalesque, and strikes me as being more about one’s ability to do the math of extreme up/down elevation calculations than on the ability to hit the right shot at the right time.
The 2nd hole is an odd brute; so downhill that both tee-shot and approach are nearly blind, and it feels like the designers were doing the best they could with such a downhill site. What feels (initially) challenging, upon reflection seems kind of silly, as the sloping fairway swoops left-to-right so hard that landing high on the left isn’t a guarantee your ball will end-up anywhere vaguely predictable. (I know all you RH’ers have the skillz to play draws into left-to-right slopes to get yer ball to stick.)
While this yields an aroma of unpredictable fun, in practice it promotes a kind of nullified target golf, where the most treasured lies for approach shots can be achieved by the simplest, most unadventurous angles off the tee. I played with a member who recommended lines/shots off nearly every tee-box (a win for me?) but without being able to accurately predict yardage because of elevation gain/decline, nearly every shot – however well executed, had the air of hit and hope.
I dig this (conceptually)! There needs to be more luck in the game, and more unpredictable roll, but I wonder if most who play Old Toccoa are romanced by the visual accoutrements of what resembles good, expensive golf (wispy tall grass defining bunker edges; impressive entry gate where they already know your name & tee-time) rather than asking the larger question about whether or not it’s the best solution for land that required the routing of residential homes and streets as much (or more?) as a golf course.
Is this the kind of land that cried out for golf?
There’s wonkiness out there. The 9th is odd - a dogleg par-4 with a forced layup that requires two target-based shots devoid of imagination. Hit it exactly here, then exactly here. The 17th has a similar vibe: here’s this cramped dog-legged parcel – let’s force two shots in here.
The river holes offer inspiring contrast to courses in and around Atlanta (both public & private) who’ve failed to create imaginative, challenging holes on similar land. At Old Toccoa, they’re visually exciting and play even better (width! angles!) with large, sloping greens that are in vogue for a reason. They feel like four holes at a different course, one in which the architects could showcase their talents in creating something memorable out of flat nothingness, rather than fit an idea of golf into a landscape better suited to elevated homes that demand elevated views.
None of this is to say you shouldn’t check it out. I’m glad I did and will probably return, too. But it’s interesting how on the river holes, the course has its own built-in example of how architects can create great golf without the cart-brake-screaming constraints of elevation, and the general difficulty of engineering an unwalkable course around, through and over all those ups-and-downs.
Your mileage will vary!
6 Likes
It truly hugs the line between incredibly fun / weird and almost unplayable, and which side of the line you find yourself on is based on which version of your golf-self you bring that day.
3 Likes
When you have mountains, you either create mountain golf or you don’t have golf. There’s positives and negatives with that. I’m looking forward to seeing Old Toccoa Farm in July- we’re renting a cabin up in the area for a vacation week.
Meanwhile, I’m on a crazy run lately. A couple of weeks ago I got to play Capital City Club’s Crabapple course for the first time. Then I got to go back and play Dunwoody Country Club for the first time in 10 years or so. Now I just got an invite to play in a charity scramble at TPC Sugarloaf on Monday. I’ve seen so many fantastic courses I’m overwhelmed right now.
If you ever get a chance to play Dunwoody, jump at it. It’s amazing.
6 Likes
Sad news spreading that The Oaks out in Covington is being sold and turned into this garbage. Take a peek at this provocative 9-hole design they’re incorporating.
2 Likes
Interesting…
So sad. A course from the 1930’s with alleged Bobby Jones involvement on the original design. Now going to be a grocery store with a pitch & putt 
Heartbreaking. Back in the 90’s The Oaks was my favorite slumpbuster course, to start to turn things around if I was struggling. It was always in good shape, greens rolling good, and room to make mistakes.