Didn’t take any photos because it was so damn cold, but played 54 holes Friday-Saturday at Mules National in Warrensburg, MO. Second time there and reminded again why I need to see that place when it isn’t miserable out.
It feels like the perfect TFE accessible architecture course. So many cool holes that offer risk/reward based off what you do on the tee and a ton of character in the greens. Plus, it was $22 to walk on Friday, and $40 with a cart Saturday and a $18 replay rate. Something else I noticed this time around was that it does not repeat par until 16-17, so you are getting variety pretty much throughout the round.
A little bit of a “gimmick” finish with 18 being a replica of 17 at Sawgrass (turned 90*) but still a fun way to end the round.
Sounds like it should host a lower tier tour event too!
Lakeland Golf Club in Memphis (formerly Stonebridge GC). Shot my first 83 
Technically last week I suppose but I was able to pull some strings and get on the highly exclusive, ultra posh White River Country Club for a round. And by highly exclusive I mean it’s in a small village in NE South Africa and ultra posh due to the 505 rand (~$27 USD) I paid as an unaccompanied non-member.
Was it the best course I’ve ever played? Of course not. Was it the first/only course on the continent of Africa I’ve played? Yup. Really fun experience and honestly it was probably better than I thought it would be.
Bonus pic of my t shirt from everyone’s favorite Oregon 9 holer along with a new friend I met on my travels:
I can’t tell where the fairway is, but I do know that that ball was about to find it…
Looks like there are a couple of different fairway options there. Love the versatility of the hole.
Nice to see someone got a picture of @KC_Badger exactly one half second after he addressed the ball.
Had myself a weekend
Peachtree (no pics)
And
Have about a million more pics from Ohoopee. It was an incredible experience.
Buddy and I stepped out of the office for a lunchtime nine on the recently renovated Ryder golf course on Liberty. They redid most of the bunkers and expanded the greens to what was probably their original size. While not a Ross design, it was clearly inspired (possibly to the extreme) by his Stryker course nearby. Even though I’m now questioning everything about my short game, I’m looking forward to playing it again.
Is this a dogleg left par 5? If yes, they straight copy and pasted that hole down here at Ft. Jackson. Either way, they copied the green it looks like
Two rounds at nearby private courses courtesy of the VSGA card.
I went 46-38 at Greene Hills on Tuesday which was highlighted by a 2 on the par 3 18th.
Yesterday was my first good round of the year (79) which was lowlighted by a quick sleeve off the tee on 13 which produced a 9.
Was out in AZ for a friends bachelor party and a small group of us got in early for some extra golf. Played Renegade and Chiricahua which are two of the courses at Desert Mountain, an awesome club north of Scottsdale.
Renegade is really cool as 14/18 holes have two different green complexes, as far as 100 yards apart and the other four have two pins, which allows you to play the course multiple different ways.
Of the two courses I preferred Chiricahua which is set all the way at the top of the mountain with great views of the valley and a ton of picturesque holes.
Forgot to take any photos of Renegade but here are some from Chiricahua.
The executive 9 at the Shangri La Yanuca Island. A Peter Thompson design routed through the middle of the island with some surprisingly wild green complexes. Highlighted by an eagle 2 on the driveable par 4 6th hole in front of a dozen onlookers on a horse tour.
As the divot shows, conditties were SOFT.
A couple weeks ago I played Napa Valley CC, a guest of my dentist, who is fellow sicko and NLU listener.
Napa Valley CC is probably a mile south of Silverado, where they play the Fortinet. The property is hilly and rocky, with lots of live oaks, exactly as you’d expect on the edges of Napa Valley.
The course was originally just 9 holes (front 9) and years later the back 9 was built on a more severe piece of property. The front 9 is more subtle, it makes it’s way counter clockwise around a hill that sits in the middle of the property. The back 9 starts at the top of a ridge and has to eventually find a way down it to get to lower, foldable land. It does so by having a 100ft + drop from tee to fairway on the Par 5 12th, pretty radical.
Overall I really enjoyed the course. I walked it but one guy in the group took a cart, which ultimately was helpful for hitching a ride on certain parts of the property that had a ton of elevation change. This was my first round of 2024 and I started off very sloppy, with a triple and two doubles in the first 5 holes, but was able to right the ship reasonably well and get it in the clubhouse with an 85.
The big drop on 12. It was probably playing 15 yards down wind, it turned what would have been a 250 yard drive into 360 yards.
Beautiful rocky terrain, not necessarily the best for golf but a beautiful backdrop
A couple days later I finally got to play the new Golden Gate Park 9 hole par 3 course, which was just recently remodeled by Jay Blasi. I say finally because it had been open for a month and I had been searching for tee times for weeks but they were extremely tough to come by, especially because they were limiting play given the recent grow in.
I’d played Golden Gate Park a couple times before, a cute little 9 hole course with lots of wet rough and small greens. It was certainly charming but the course was about as basic as it gets.
The new course is truly fantastic. The routing is the same but it’s a completely different course. The greens are massive and extremely fun to putt on and play into. The course is covered in short grass, gone is the long and thick, wet, rough, which makes it much more friendly to the beginning golfer still trying to learn to get the ball in the air.
Western San Francisco is naturally sand soil and this course sits on a dune site, however the original course was covered in 5ft of top soil, crazy. They got rid of all the excess dirt and exposed the sand in many places via sand scrapes/waste bunkers. They did so in a way that enhanced the course aesthetically without being too much in play, because after all this is a muni that will see many beginners.
They also did a ton of tree removal and it really opened up the little property. Previously the course felt crowded and restricted by the massive trees. Further, you’re only a few hundred yards from the ocean, but previously you couldn’t see it, now you can see it clearly from the high spots, it really gives you a good sense of place.
Bravo, I’m going to try to play a quick 9 here on my way to the office a couple of times a month, what a great project.
Note, the course is still a bit rough on the edges because it’s still finishing grow in and we’ve dealt with a ton of rain in the Bay Area this winter, but it played very well.
Greene Hills is a great course I get reciprocity there from my course. Cant beat playing it for 25 dollars .
Got out on PH #3 today. Didn’t take many pictures (my daughter had me take a few of her and her bf).
Suffice to say I fared a bit better than the bois on Tourist Sauce. The weather was just a wee bit different, though, too.
