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Played Any Quirky Courses? Name and Details!


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On 2/19/2019 at 12:01 PM, imsys0042 said:

The golf course in Moon Township, PA is one of the craziest courses I've played.   I played it with my father-in-law, so that just adds to the hilarity.   He has a nice slow burn until he's had it and then just collapses in a pile of pity, anger and overall pathetic-ness.

Anyway, the first hole is a "short par 4" that reads 250ish on the card and I hit a 5-iron right near the green.   It also is tight to a road (quite a theme on this course).   So one shot in, I almost beaned someone when the starter said "go ahead, it's farther than it looks".   Hint:  It's not!

There is a par three where you hit over a road.   Not a dirt road.  A paved road.  With telephone and power lines running across as well, for good measure.   One of us hit over an old Honda Accord IIRC.

The whole course is a shooting gallery.   We almost got hit several times because the fairways are narrow and about as adjacent as two people making out.   And if you are looking to feel like you are playing an old. traditional course then look not further!  It has several double greens that host two holes.   Yes, huge greens so that you can have two physical golf holes on the same green.   Which is great when you are playing with a bunch of hicks who have lousy distance control.   Yes, we almost got hit on the greens as well.

Finally, the last thing that I remember is that one of the holes on the back nine has a huge downhill slope to the green, but then shoot back up almost 90 degrees.   The thing is, the slope is quite lot of the length of the hole, fairly steep to hit a golf ball off of, and when we played it, the grass was long.  So no chance of rolling to the flat.   Fortunately there was enough clover to give me a fluffy lie to a hideously elevated green.

Granted it was not the Western PA course where I was mooned by the people in front of me, that one was actually a somewhat saner layout.

 

I have not played this course, but I thank you sir for painting such a vivid verbal picture of what must have been a Twilight Zone of a golf course.  As I read your post I found myself not only laughing, but actively wanting to play this course.  Maybe my sense of humor is darker than I realize but I can't help but feel a need to experience that moment when I say to myself "is this for real?" which this course seems to provide at a near constant pace.  Hats off to you.

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Speaking of The Pit, I just read that Pinehurst purchased the land several years ago. Apparently, they've had Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore look at building a course (Pinehurst #10) on that old site. They own some additional acreage adjacent to The Pit's footprint. The article said that since they have completed the re-building of #4 , this might be their next project. Here's hoping if they do it, they'll finish before I'm too old the break an egg.

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4 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

For those who like the work of Mike Strantz, I just got an email today saying that Royal New Kent, east of Richmond VA, will be re-opening in late March.  Royal New Kent has suffered from financial issues for a while, and closed a year ago or a little more.

If it's wacky like Tot Hill, count me out.  If it's some of his earlier work or in the style like Caledonia or True Blue, I'm interested.

Fairways and Greens.

Dave
 

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Hope Valley Golf Course in Maryland.  It's a short course with a mix of par 4's and 3's and it's very tight with lots of trees and weird elevation changes.  I had fun being aggressive some times and one hole I hit driver way right and hit a tree.  Ball shot laterally back into the fairway and even still I only had a PW into the green.  Some holes will have a gradual decline, then a sudden drop off so your approach is basically downhill to a blind green.  More than once did I wonder if the cart was going to be able to get up the hill. 

One par 3 has basically half of the green covered by a large tree, so depending on the pin placement you could almost consider it a dogleg left par 3 and if you can't hit a high draw, you won't be getting close.

I think the 8th is a pretty big dogleg right, and a few paces off the right side of the fairway is the cart path, then a few paces right of that is OB.  But if you haven't played there, you wouldn't know that as the trees obscure it all from the elevated teebox.  I hit what I thought was the right shot as I was hitting a fade at the time, it was fading just a little more than I would have liked but I figured it would leave me close.  LOL nope, OB.  That course was wacky but it was fun.

Diego’s Gear
Driver: Callaway Great Big Bertha at 11.5*
5W: Taylormade Jetspeed 19*
Hybrid: Ping G5 22*
Irons: Mizuno MX-23 4-PW
Wedges: Cleveland RTX 2.0 50*, 54*, 58*
Putter: Ping Ketsch 33”
My Swing: https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/93417-my-swing-foot-wedge/

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31 minutes ago, NCGolfer said:

If it's wacky like Tot Hill, count me out.  If it's some of his earlier work or in the style like Caledonia or True Blue, I'm interested.

The property isn't nearly as severe as Tot Hill, but there are still lots of blind shots, severe greens, and optical illusions, typical of Strantz' later work.

Dave

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5 hours ago, Foot Wedge said:

I have not played this course, but I thank you sir for painting such a vivid verbal picture of what must have been a Twilight Zone of a golf course.  As I read your post I found myself not only laughing, but actively wanting to play this course.  Maybe my sense of humor is darker than I realize but I can't help but feel a need to experience that moment when I say to myself "is this for real?" which this course seems to provide at a near constant pace.  Hats off to you.

I remember it distinctly because it was one of those "I cannot I am not scoring well on a course like this".   One of the double greens was also very close to the edge of a runway on the adjacent airport, so putting was fun when it looked like a plane was going to land on you...or potentially dump it's chemical toilet.   Of course, that might have improved the course.

I might do a write up on my  old home course in the area.   It was a very challenging course with some design decisions that made me wonder if Arnold Palmer had a secret evil streak in him.  It was unlike any other course of his that I played.  This exchange sums it up, it was with someone I played with a lot there:

Jim: It's hilarious, when I travel I tell people that I play on a 27 hole Arnold Palmer golf course, they tell me "That must be great", and then I tell them "NO!  It sucks!"

Me:  I agree with that.

—Adam

 

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  • 1 year later...

I think the course I played the other day qualifies as quirky for a few of the holes.  The first two holes are really nice designs; the first is a short par 5 dogleg left, and the second is a longish par 4 that seems really tight off the tee, but opens up as you get closer to the green. 

The third is the first of the quirky holes.  It is a short par 4 with a severely sloping fairway that plays uphill to the green.  Great drive, piped almost to the green?  Your ball is going to roll to the right and back down the hill.  Barely get a hybrid into the fairway?  You may wind up in the same spot.  Normally, I'm not a fan of mounds for the sake of mounds, but in this case it would be nice to be rewarded for a great drive - or even a decent one - by having your ball collect in the area you hit it, instead of rolling back down the hill.

The eighth is the next quirky hole because it flat-out punishes a good drive.  It is 570 from the tips, and the blind tee shot plays severely uphill.  The problem is, if you pipe your drive, you may be rewarded with a ball in the creek.  The course guide/yardage book shows the creek, and notes that it is 384 yards from the tee, but it does not mention that the fairway slopes severely downhill, and that it can be reached from the tee.  I was playing from the green tees - 540 yards/354 from the tee - and hit my drive right where the guide said to, which based on the yardages for the red tees, means the drive probably carried a little over 240 yards, and caromed down the 45° slope into the creek.  The sweet little couple teeing off on number two let me know they saw it go in.

The other quirk comes from the lack of maintenance and poor drainage.  There are many areas where hard packed clay and granite that has been exposed in the fairways can result in some incredibly bad bounces.  It's like hitting a cart path... but often in the middle of the fairway.

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Note: This thread is 1380 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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