Just had to explain to a few coworkers in the shop that even though they see me here, I am in fact not here. My mind is already on a golf course somewhere near Jax. In other words, if you need something done I’m not your gui.
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@OffTheDole you still playing yellow golf balls?
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I present “The Unabridged History of Palatka Golf Club”.Hope y’all enjoy and it provides a little more color on the course prior to playing. Included are the reason 15 green slopes from back to front, John Daly stories, and the time I shit myself in the second fairway and lost a Cleveland wedge in the process.
1925 - Course Opens as a par 72. Possibly designed by Donald Ross? Who can say?
Late 1920s - Babe Ruth plays the course while spending his winters living in Palatka.
1930’s - WPA creates award-winning “Ravine Gardens State Park” on land to the right of holes 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Lovely 2-mile walking loop with an artesian spring at the bottom and a suspension bridge.
1941-1945 - Course closes during World War 2. The railroad straightens the curve wrapping the Par-5 15th and Par-4 16th. When the course reopens both holes have to be shortened resulting in a Par-4 and a Par-3. The Par-4 15th becomes the only green that isn’t original and the only one that slopes from back to front. The Par-3 16th green becomes much tougher to hit as it was designed to be shot at from a different angle.
1958 - The Florida Azalea Amateur is held for the first time as a two-man team event.
1950s - Hearsay, but Tommy Bolt calls it “the toughest little sandbox he’s ever seen”.
1982 - Local Amateur Billy Tuten wins the first of two US Amateur Public Links titles
1983 - Billy Tuten repeats as US Amateur Public Links champion
1986-1989 - Local junior Sean Pacetti attends Alabama to play golf, where he has a solid career. More on him later.
Early 1988 - Legendary Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist and author Lewis Grizzard visits Palatka and the golf course. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1988-03-24-0030000297-story.html
He has the following to write: “I played golf in Palatka at the Municipal Course, the only one in town. It was packed. “It’s the Yankees," a local explained to me. “They come down this time of year. We get the poor ones. The rich ones go on down to Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach.”
The course was charming. So was my partner, who at one point in the match made five straight birdies.
“They take golf real seriously in Palatka,” the pro was saying…So many of us sprang from origins like Palatka, only to be gobbled by the urban monster. But you can go back. And I will someday. To my Palatka Sidenote: This article catches me in the feels to this day. A copy of it hangs on a wall in my home in Tampa.
November 1988 - @Nolayovers is born
December 1989 - Nolayovers’ dad is awarded the “Most Improved Golfer Of The Year” award by the Palatka Men’s Golf Association. I will never understand how my dad managed to take up golf the year I was born, and stay married.
Early 90s - Sean Pacetti spends a few years on mini tours where he befriends John Daly. Daly visits Palatka and falls in love the place and the people. Daly commits to playing in an annual pro-am during the Florida swing and gets others to attend. David Toms, Tom Lehman, and Greg Norman among them. The proceeds from the pro-am’s are used to make junior golf free at Palatka GC and fund college scholarships. I did not spend a single penny to walk Palatka GC until I turned 18. There’s still an autographed John Daly Wilson Staff bag in the clubhouse. It’s said that Daly would party to the wee hours and hit drivers off of the tops of beer cans over the green of the uphill, 310-yard first hole.
1997 - Ryuji Imada wins the Florida Azalea Amateur. He’ll go on to win on tour.
1998 - Pacetti’s mini tour career doesn’t work out, but his childhood friend Brent Everson follows him on tour and sticks around. Wins ‘98 Doral on Michael Bradley’s bag.
August 1999 - With no chance in hell at winning, I decide to enter the junior flight of the Club Championship to get some tournament experience. I tee off shortly after lunch around 1PM. The mini burgers I ate feel weird on the first tee. By the middle of the second fairway I’m in a bad way and planning to walk in. My older playing partner convinces me to hold it and go in the woods right of the 3rd tee. At that moment, I held it no longer. I shit my pants in the middle of the 2nd fairway. I walk in. It is, a tough scene. It gets worse the next day when I go back to the course and realize that I left a 60-degree wedge chrome-plated Cleveland wedge my dad’s friend let me borrow on the first green. Somebody found it and they never returned it. Gone. I lost it. On your drive to Palatka this Saturday you will undoubtedly see an “ELECT TERRY TURNER FOR COUNTY COMMISSION” sign. Know that this man is going through life with one less Cleveland wedge than he would otherwise have because I lost it.
September 26, 1999 - Rains like hell this afternoon at Palatka Golf Club. Everyone crowds into the clubhouse to watch the Ryder Cup final. I can still see a hat flying across the dining room just as Justin Leonard’s putt goes in.
June 2000 - Local standout Rob Litsey commits to the University of Florida where he ends up winning a national championship as a 4th-stringer on a team with Camilo Villegas and Bubba Dickerson.
February 2002 - Adam Schupak writes a great Golfweek piece on Palatka: https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2002/02/26/case-study-palatka-golf-club/
July 2003 - Playing as a 14-year old in the 13-14 division of the Don McNab Junior Invitational, I’m the local favorite and playing well. 12-year old Julian Suri, playing up a division, kicks my teeth in and beats me by 8 (152 to 144). He cries on the 13th tee the second day because he’s so disgusted with his play while leading by 8. It’s at this moment I realize I’m probably not going to be a professional golfer.
April 2004 - Head pro and close family friend Greg Bacon gives me a set of Titleist 990’s I’m still playing to this day. The other juniors are filled with rage.
June 2004 - I make a hole-in-one on number 3. This will always be one of my proudest achievements.
August 2004 - Me and two other freshman make the varsity golf team. This was a foregone conclusion but I’m really pumped I’ll be able to get a letter jacket early to help with getting girls. This did not help me with getting girls. Neither of the two other kids that made the team are playing by senior year. One is currently in prison on a 5-year stint, if not longer.
July 2005 - In an innovative but extremely anti-woke move, close family friend and Head Pro Greg Bacon convinces the City of Palatka to pipe reclaimed water to the golf course, and dig a pond for a floating driving range between the 7th and 8th fairways. It’s really nice to have a driving range instead of a shag range, but damn these holes are so much tougher with the pond.
August 2005 - My dad looks me in the eye and tells me I should probably decide between golf and baseball. Baseball was much more intense and I derived a ton of work ethic from it, but damn this hurt. I decide on baseball because I can play golf the rest of my life and girls liked baseball more. This did not help me with getting girls.
May 2007 - As soon as my senior year of baseball is over I return to the golf course. I make a hole-in-one on number 6 and shoot 68 within a month of returning.
March 2008 - Peter Uihlein wins the Florida Azalea Amateur. Figuratively and literally, he is a longggg way from Acushnet HQ.
2010-2015 - With the threat of closure looming as the course is posting a loss and financial pressures abound for the city, @Tron’s boy Sticky Bobby Weed steps up to the plate and convinces the city to let him take over management of the course, stating he doesn’t want to see it go the way of a Ross track that was closed in St. Augustine, Ponce De Leon Golf Resort. Weed golf manages the course for 5 years and leaves it in much better shape than they found it. As of 2020, the course is turning a profit for the city, and rounds are up from 13,000 to 26,000 annually. Will the place ever be a taj mahal? Probably not. Is it a welcoming, playable golf course thats thankful you chose to spend your dollars there because every one counts? Absolutely.
May 2015 - Geoff Shackelford writes another awesome article on Palatka: https://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/5/5/great-places-in-the-game-files-palatka-golf-club.html
2018 Adam Scott hires former UNF standout John Limanti as his full-time caddie. John grew up playing his early junior golf at Palatka before moving to Jacksonville and playing at Mandarin High then UNF.
March 2020 - Chris “@Soly“ Solomon hits a palm to the right of the 18th tee trying to cut the corner in the Florida Azalea Amateur. The tree will go on to be known as “The Sollenberger Palm”.
July 6, 2020 - NoLayingUp “Crash Course” video of Palatka Golf Club is published. 22,000 views and counting. I’m forever grateful.
August 1, 2020 - NIT Qualifier is held!
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As it should be.
Also, beautifully written!
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I am!
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Amazing.
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One of those posts that makes me wish I could smash the like button 10 times. Crack On Sir!
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Made me LOL…good stuff
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What ball will you be playing?
Pro V1 with a line and my name backwards on it.
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Thank God you’re not playing a Bridgestone, two guys having to mark a yellow ball only because they play in the same group would be one hot take.
Leave it to the guy that started to golf ball discussion on here to continually change golf balls.
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I started on the varsity tennis team in 8th grade and faced the same harsh reality
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@NoLayovers got to get you over to the right coast for some golf ASAP.
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What if I told you there’s now another that swears by yellow balls … @JCO
I’m aware that he’s in a completely different pairing but Palatka is a tight piece of property and sometimes the best line is someone else fairway, tee box or green.
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I’ve been dabbling… It helps since I’m legally blind.
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@OffTheDole You shave yet?
Seriously by now I bet your beard could pass as a face mask.
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Someone actually asked me yesterday if my beard was real. Apparently when wearing a mask it looks like one of those Ian Poulter visors with the stupid hair coming out of the top. “No ma’am, this is my real facial hair, I swear.”
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Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you ask my wife), the 3.5-month beard is gone. I was proud of it, but even with regular grooming eating food started becoming a bit of an issue.
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Are people riding or walking or a mix of both on Saturday?
I’ll be pushing a trolley.
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