I get to play Sherwood CC

[Ben]

Former home of the Shark Shootout, and now home to the Tiger Target Challenge in sunny, beautiful Thousand Oaks. I'll be playing with my boss, the GM of the course, and a coworker of mine (who was on UCLAs 2004 Girls National Champion Golf Team). Really looking forward to this. I'm playing pretty alright right now too.

http://www.sherwoodcc.com/

[muskegman]

Wow... from what I could see, it looks like a beautiful course. I hope you get out there and enjoy yourself. That looks like a pretty unique opportunity.

[jeffgladchun]

Wow, Sherwood. I hear in order to get a membership there you have to own a one thousand foot yacht. Have fun!

[Ben]

  jeffgladchun said:

Wow, Sherwood. I hear in order to get a membership there you have to own a one thousand foot yacht. Have fun!

Pretty close: $250K initiation and $1300/month in dues. My practice session today didn't go too hot, but, I'm not sweatin it.

[Tech]

Wow! That's a beautiful course. I remember thinking how beautiful it was while watching the target world challenge.

sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity, but then again, if your boss is the GM, then maybe not!

  Ben said:

My practice session today didn't go too hot, but, I'm not sweatin it.

Yeah, I wouldn't sweat it either, mr. +0.4 handicap!

[Ben]

So I pulled up to the course yesterday, checked my outside temp meter in my car, 79*. Not bad. Got to the driving range with about 50 minutes before our time and had a good warm-up session. At the putting green, was rolling everything close or in.

First hole. Nice little 4wood and left myself 130. Took out me PW and took a 4/5ths shot, insteah of full. The ball hit the edge off the bunker just a foot from being perfect where it got kicked down in a deep pot bunker. And the round went downhill from there. HAHAHAHAA. 8over on the front, 2 on the back. Man, that totally sucked. What a waste of the chance of a lifetime to play this course.

I literally hit one decent drive. A nice 3-iron tee shot. A halfway decent PW on 10. One nice bunker shot, and one alright putt. Other than that, just couldn't get my swing working. I think I let the awesomeness of the place, and that the pros play here, freak me out.

In my defense I'd have to rate this course the toughest I've ever played, and being my first time I guess I did sorta not bad?!?! At least on the back. The course played 7008 with a slope of 142. Pinpoint accuracy was quite necessary, as if you didn't get your tee shot to the correct part of the fairway, more than likely your approach would be blocked by a large oak tree. They were all over this place.

Oh well, a blow to my golf ego. But, I spent 2 hours down on the range today and think everything is worked out.

[iacas]

How wide were the fairways, on average? What made the course so difficult (a list if you'd like)?

[Ben]

The fairways were fair, not too tight. I'd guess the landing areas were never tighter than 25 yards across in most spots. It's a Jack Nicklaus design. I played Bear's Best last month, which is 18 of his best holes on one course. I thought Sherwood was harder to play, moreso than the majority of the BB holes.

I don't think course is tricked up hard. The toughest part of the place, as I mentioned earlier, would be making sure your tee shot is placed correctly. There are large oak trees on every hole, and more often than not they are protecting the greens. If you want to shoot well, you must hit every shot to an exact spot on every hole every single time. If you don't, you are staring down bogey at the least. I guess that kind of eliminates the friendliness of the fairways. They look wide, but your true landing area is much smaller than the boundries of the fairway. The rough around the greens is a tad sticky too. You can't shortside yourself.

So that's where I screwed myself, I just wasn't swinging well, and that lead to me not hitting my spots...

[jeffgladchun]

Ben, any idea what the slope and USGA ratings are?

[Ben]

Sure thing, 142 and 74.3 from the back tees. 7008 yards.

[Ben]

To ease my mind even more. Our caddy told us that the pins were in Sunday tournament positions.

[jeffgladchun]

Awesome. I love Sherwood. I play it everyday... on Tiger Woods '05. Hmm interesting though. The USGA rates Sherwood at 74.3 and 142 slope, but here at Oakland Hills, we're a 75+ and only 135 slope. Hmm i'll have to look slope up a bit more.

[aceadair]

WOW! I wish I could go! Hope you have fun and hit'em straight!