![\"Profiles\"](\"\/b\/imgs\/profiles\/pf_title.gif\")
In the past six months, I’ve had the opportunity to play one third of architect Mike Strantz’s golf courses. That may sound like an impressive total, but because he died much too early, at age 50, his portfolio is limited to nine courses. But if the three I’ve played are representative of his work, Mike Strantz was indeed an artist of golf course design.<\/p>\n
Mike Strantz was raised in Toledo, OH, and attended Michigan State University. After graduating in 1978, he returned to Toledo to work for Tom Fazio, who was then preparing the Inverness Club to host the 1979 U.S. Open. Strantz continued to work for Fazio for the next eight years, honing his skills on courses like Moss Creek Plantation in Hilton Head, the Links and Harbor courses at Wild Dunes near Charleston, Lake Nona in Orlando, Osprey Point on Kiawah Island, and Black Diamond Ranch in Florida.
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\nStrantz left Fazio’s company in 1987 to work as on-site supervisor for the reconstruction of Wild Dunes and for the construction of Dunes West in Mt. Pleasant. Once Dunes West was completed, Myrtle Beach’s Legends Group hired Strantz as Director of Golf Design for their Parkland course. After the success that project, Strantz was able to form his own course design company, which is where the real fun began.<\/p>\n
Strantz’s first solo effort was the Caledonia Golf and Fish Club on Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. I first played Caledonia on a day several years ago that featured 40° temperatures and gale warnings for boaters in the area. It was still<\/em> a pleasant experience.<\/p>\n Caledonia is just a beautiful golf course. From the drive to the clubhouse through a virtual tunnel of live oak and spanish moss to the views out over the salt marsh bordering the course to the rolling design of the holes themselves. A few azaleas were just starting to bloom on my recent visit there. I took a 10 on a par five, and really didn’t mind much.<\/p>\n Caledonia was the product of a more restrained Strantz than we see in some of his creations. There are just a few forced carries and the mounding, while present, is generally more subdued than even what can be found just down the road at True Blue. In fact, in 2000, Strantz said<\/a> that they moved the least amount of soil at Caledonia of any of his (then five) courses, estimating that they moved less than 100,000 cubic yards. (The most was for Bull’s Bay, at 1 to 1.5 million cubic yards).<\/p>\n Still Caledonia has that “Strantz” feel – bold, challenging, but all the while artistic. There’s a gentle sculpting of the natural terrain, with an occasional flair added to accentuate the setting. The final hole is one to remember. With the marsh off to your right, it’s a fairway wood or hybrid to a landing area, and then a short to mid iron over water to a sloping green with water on two sides. It doesn’t look difficult on paper, but it plays over its head (especially when the pin is back).<\/p>\n Caledonia is built on the same plantations that its neighbor, True Blue, lies on. True Blue takes its name from the indigo that was originally grown on the plantations. True Blue is a slightly more exuberant design. Mounds grow to sometimes impressive heights. Bunkers abound, and all of them are waste bunkers by local rule. The par threes tend to be extreme, with sprawling, but narrow and undulating greens surrounded by water and sand. Number seven features a two-tier green where the upper tier is about five feet over the lower. I made what I thought was a nice sand shot out of a very deep bunker, the slope got it, and I was left with a 40 foot putt way<\/em> uphill.<\/p>\n Like Caledonia, True Blue features a great eighteenth, but don’t get lulled by the beauty of it. The fairway slopes to the water left, which cuts back in at about 270 from the next-to-way-back tee box. You then play over the corner of the lake to a huge green. Try not to think of all the people in the clubhouse enjoying their lunch while watching you putt out.<\/p>\n The third Strantz course that I’ve played is the one that people either love or swear they’ll never play it again. Tobacco Road<\/a> is a different kind of animal. You might end up with something like this course if you took a Magic Mountain putt-putt course and blew it up to 7,000 yards.<\/p>\n Tobacco Road is built in an old sand quarry, and much of it looks like it hasn’t been touched since the quarry closed. One gets the sense that Strantz didn’t have to create waste bunkers on golf holes; instead he created golf holes in one huge waste area. Depending on the tees you play, you might face 200 yard carries over waste areas and drives off elevated tees to blind landing areas. The opening drive must split two huge dunes to find the landing area beyond. The number one green features the first bell on the course (to let the group behind know when it’s safe to hit), but it’s far from the last bell on the course.<\/p>\n I’ve played Tobacco Road twice now. I thought it was a blast the first time I played, but it had lost some of its luster the last time. I think the front nine is pretty good, but blind shot after blind shot on the back kind of take their toll. Would I play it again? Absolutely… provided I was there with friends who had never played it before. But if it was just up to me, I’d rather head farther south to play the Caledonia\/True Blue tandem.<\/p>\n Each of these courses feature Strantz’s hallmarks: undulating greens, well positioned and diabolical bunkers, forced carries that both reward and punish risk taking. I think of Strantz designs as being Dye-esque in terms of the challenges he throws down, but with much more aesthetically pleasing lines. Strantz was indeed an artist with dirt, sand, sod, and water. His designs are memorable but playable, challenging yet accessible.<\/p>\n Mike Strantz lost his four-year battle with cancer in June 2005, just a month after his 50th birthday. An agressive cancer attacked his tongue and lymph nodes, and despite being twice declared cancer free, the cancer came back a third time.<\/p>\n In just 10 years as a named architect, Strantz created quite a legacy. His courses routinely won awards<\/a> as they opened, and in 2000, Golfweek<\/em> named him one of the “Top Ten Greatest Golf Architects of All Time.”<\/p>\n Mike Strantz Designs<\/strong> Golf’s maverick designer passed in 2005, but his courses live on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-profiles"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"The](\"\/b\/imgs\/courses\/tobacco_road_14th.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nCaledonia Golf and Fish Club<\/a>, Pawleys Island, South Carolina
\nStonehouse<\/a>, Williamsburg, Virginia
\nTrue Blue<\/a>, Pawleys Island, South Carolina
\nTobacco Road<\/a>, Sanford, North Carolina
\nRoyal New Kent<\/a> Richmond\/Williamsburg, Virginia
\nTot Hill Farm<\/a>, Asheboro, North Carolina
\nBull’s Bay Golf Club<\/a>, Awendaw, South Carolina
\nSilver Creek Valley Country Club<\/a>, San Jose, California
\nMonterey Peninsula Country Club<\/a>, Shore Course, Monterey, California<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"