Anyone have any recs for Georgetown area? Heading down for a wedding and playing with a buddy while my wife and his fiance do bridal party activities. Not sure he wants to drop Caledonia/True Blue $ ($195 / $171 respectively)
Edit: Founders Club and Pawleys Plantation look reasonable- anyone played either?
Pawleys Plantation by a mile over Founders Club. Heritage Club is strong too down that way and should be less coin than Caledonia/True Blue. That being said, both of those courses are absolute knockouts and must-plays.
I’d definitely agree with all of this. It is a very nice course, but not super memorable and definitely not worth $250. I played it as part of a deal, so we got a night at the Sanctuary, 2 rounds of golf, and dinner for $300 ish(in January). The clubhouse at Cougar is brand new and extremely nice. I’ve only played the Ocean course once, and it was also heavily discounted. It would be a tough pill to swallow to pay full price($300-400?) for getting your teeth kicked in all day. We played on a day with no wind, so it was pretty awesome. My one piece of advice for everyone visiting Kiawah is to get a drink/meal at the Ryder Cup bar(especially around sunset). The views are incredible and the food is solid
I am guessing you are talking about this winter deal that Kiawah offers which I am certainly going to take advantage of this year. Not sure what the upcharge for the Ocean Course is, but I plan on finding out.
I’m always interested. Headed to TR/Pinehurst next weekend, but will do what I can to play if I’m in town. Could also probably do the weekend after Masters.
Update on my Columbia / Spring Valley / Camden conundrum.
I went Friday afternoon and played all 27 holes at Columbia. A few thoughts:
Pros:
Course was busy, but finished 18 in 3.5 hours…even behind a threesome playing two different tees. I don’t think pace of play will ever be much slower than that, and I can live with 3.5 hours.
Cully(?) in the pro shop was super friendly and helpful. Good vibes all over the place.
Course is in great shape, really like that even the most wayward Big Right Miss is usually findable in the pinestraw
Ridge and Tall were busy, but Lakeside was wide open. I jumped in front of a foursome early on and never saw anybody again.
Cons:
Took me 27 minutes to get there from Shandon, but almost an hour to get home. This is a function of timing and traffic on Killian / 77, but Friday afternoon is my most consistently available time to play
Course beat the hell out of me. Easily my worst round in 3 years. I left a little depressed, but I’m now actually more excited, because I can’t stop thinking about all the shots I dropped just by not knowing the greens, knowing where to be, etc. I think I’d play it much better the second time around, but that was brutal.
Seems like the large groups may dominate the tee sheet a good bit. I’m one of those people who likes to get away from work and be alone for a few hours, so I probably won’t play in the groups very often. I’ll have to learn how to dodge those blocks.
I called Spring Valley last week and got some membership info, and I think my next move will be to go play out there as a prospective member in the next week or two before I decide. Spring Valley is 10-ish minutes closer to downtown, and I feel like that would help me make use of it more often.
Felt the exact same way when I lived downtown, but now that I’ve moved up 77 I’m within 10 minutes of both and Cobblestone so I’m just trying to weigh out all the other variables.
I feel similar… don’t get me wrong enjoy Playing in a group but most of my time would be spent on my own in the off times I could get away. So having the ability to get out and play nine and a decent practice area ranks higher than groupings for me.
If Orangeburg CC were closer it would be my choice.
Yeah, when I asked about the upcharge the reservation specialist read a scripted response about how “Kiawah has been honored to host the 2021 PGA Championship…” as reasoning.
Going to Hilton Head in 3 weeks and need 1 good public course for Friday. Playing HT and another Sea pines course on Saturday.
Have played old south a few times and we’ve always enjoyed it. Solid value. Was thinking of mixing it up a little. Any other recs for some 14-20 handicappers? Was looking at Hilton Head national next door.
I went and played Spring Valley last week. Tee to green, the conditions were pretty similar to Columbia. The greens in particular were in fantastic shape.
The main difference to me was the vibe and the little things.
Columbia seems a lot more active and vibrant. Spring Valley seems a little past its prime. The people were nice and professional, but it didn’t have the same energy as CCC.
Also, the little stuff…ball washers, bridges (#infrastructure), cart paths, were all in pretty rough shape. It seems like they may be closer to a financial turning point than CCC, as those things are usually the first things to go before a club either has to commit itself to higher dues/more money or lower their expectations.
I hope not, because Spring Valley was good enough to make the decision a difficult one. But CCC felt more like home.