Course Review: Tobacco Road
I recently completed mapping all the golf courses that I’ve played in my life. I found that I’ve played approximately 100 different courses. At first blush, I thought, wow - that’s a lot of courses. Then I realized that there are over 17,000 golf courses in the United States - so I’ve played less than one percent of all of the golf courses in the US. My pedigree of golf courses played is not overly impressive either. I’ve played a few really good courses, but none in the top 50 in the US. Now, I’ve walked a few of the top 50 courses - including Augusta, Pinehurst, Oakland Hills and Whistling Straits.
This past weekend I got the chance to play Tobacco Road in Sanford, North Carolina. I was blown away by the course - the strategic elements were everywhere. Having only played it once, I can’t even begin to fathom what I missed, which is scary. The course is better and far more interesting than Pinehurst and Oakland Hills.
The day started out finding the place, which is seemingly in the middle of nowhere, which adds to the adventure. Driving between the asphalt mixing plant and other industrial businesses, it’s a sign of the rough and ragged course that’s about to unfold. Arriving at the clubhouse, it’s minimalist - like everything at Tobacco Road. You get a free yardage book in exchange for your address and e-mail. Take them up on the offer - or pay the $4 for it if you’re one of those overly sensitive people handing over some personal information (Or simply lie about your address…) . It’s, to make an understatement, absolutely necessary.
The first hole is among the best - it’s a purely psychological game that architect Mike Stranz is playing. The best thing to do is to take the driver and pound it since the fairway is incredibly wide beyond the mounds. It’s an incredible par 5 - tons of strategic elements. A good drive leaves even more decisions - layup or go for it? Layup isn’t simple because there’s another set of mounds that pinch the fairway at 100 yards. Miss the green right and the up and down is really difficult. And that’s just the first hole.
It’s tempting to write about every single hole - and perhaps that would be a good set of blog entries in the future. Let me speak a little “generically” about the course. The par fives are all really good - incredible risk/reward elements on each one. Heroic elements and strategic elements. The par threes are shortish, but the greens on all of them are either 75 yards (or more…) wide or 50 yards deep. Meaning that they’ll be completely different holes for each of the three pin positions that they use.
Stranz’s mix of strategic elements and routing ability reminds me a lot of Pete Dye. The most obvious are “the shoves” - where a fairway starts out in one direction for a stretch, then is shoved between 20 and 40 yards over. His greens are huge and undulating, but totally fair.
There are no sand traps on the course, which when the starter tells you this, just suppress a laugh. There is LOTS of sand - but it’s all played as a waste area. They play a local rule that you can lift and improve your lie in them. The reason they allow you to do this is because there are no rakes - you walk and even drive through a lot of them.
The course does have some weaknesses, however. It is mostly an aerial game a Tobacco Road - it’s strategic, but it’s also a lot of target golf. You need to be able to carry a lot of hazards - the ground game opens up a little around some of the greens, but most of the greens do not allow for a shot to land short. Many of the greens play uphill too, which is somewhat repetitive. The day I played, it was soggy - really soggy. It had rained the day prior, but around the greens, it was ridiculous. I could (and probably should) have played casual water on five shots around the green. It appears they may have some drainage problems in some areas that keep these places wet. There are a lot of low area where balls tend to collect, leading to some pretty worn out areas. The tees on several holes are too small for the amount of play this course get. It takes at least 5 hours to play because of the difficulty - it can take a decent amount of time to find a golf ball even struck slightly offline because of the number of blind shots and waste areas with love grass. There are a lot of places for a golf ball to hide on this course.
Those are really minor quibbles in the grand scheme of it. The cliche is that this is a love/hate golf course - and it appears that a lot of people love it. I really feel sorry for those who hate this golf course. They are really missing some truly brilliant golf because they think the course is unfair. Yes, there are a number of blind shots, but so what? No, the course isn’t “all right in front of you”. You actually have to use your brain, and anybody with half a brain and even a small funny bone will find this course to be not only fun, but a great mental test.
I debate how to compliment Mike Stranz because he died at such a young age and left too few courses for us to enjoy. Obviously, the loss to his family is immeasurable. I think that the best way to compliment him, though, is to say that his loss to golf, while on a totally different level, is immeasurable. I can’t wait to play his other courses because he was quite clearly a genius of golf course architecture.
(Image credit - skeevo)
