MOJO GATOR GOLF - MARCH 2002
We left Taylorsville at 6:30am on Friday, March 1. The temperature was 26 degrees. The plan was to drive south toward South Carolina until the outside temperature reached 50 degrees. Then we would stop and golf. The temperature hit 50 degrees just as we crossed the South Carolina state line and we teed off at 1:30pm at the Willow Creek G.C. located between Spartanburg and Greenville.
The course is a very nice subdivision course designed by Tom Jackson in 1995. The course was in good shape for early March and the greens were smooth and very fast. We had a GPS yardage system on the cart, but I still couldn't hit the greens. Joyce shot 109 and beat me 6 &4.
We overnighted in Newberry, SC and had a nice dinner at Steven W's Downtown Bistro. The name is way too long and I had the worst waiter I can ever remember having, but Steven W is the chef and he did everything right.
We drove on through the rain to Fripp Island, SC on Saturday and spent several days visiting with Joe and Nancy. On Tuesday and Wednesday Joe and I drove over toward Hilton Head to try a couple of courses we haven't played before. Eagle's Pointe G.C. is a Davis Love III course completed in 1998 in Bluffton, which is located on the highway (278) that takes you to Hilton Head. There are by now over 10 courses along this stretch of highway and we haven't played a bad one yet. We usually play whichever one offers the best deal at the time we're staying at Fripp.
For our round at Eagle's Pointe, Joe and I were paired with Allistair and his brother Bob. They were Scottish golfers wintering on Hilton Head and very enjoyable to play with. The course was in great shape with green fairways, brown Bermuda rough and fast smooth greens. I had a great round going until I took a 9 on #16. Then I had to hang on for an 85 to just beat Joe. I don't think he cared since he was busy making plans to meet Allistair in Scotland for a round at his course called Links Montrose. He is also ½ hour from St. Andrews.
The next day we drove all the way onto Hilton Head Island to play the Arthur Hills course @ Palmetto Dunes (1986). It was my first Art Hills design for this trip and I wasn't up to the task. We started off badly by under estimating our drive time and missing our tee time by 10 minutes. It was no problem getting worked into the crowd, but it was a bad omen. We couldn't hit the ball straight on a course that demanded such accuracy. I had two 9's on the front side but could still have broken 100 if I hadn't taken an 8 on #18. It was my first triple digit score in over two years and Joe barely beat me with a 98. He cursed Art more than I did. There were several design features we encountered that I will include in my pending complaint letter to my favorite golf course architect.
Actually the drive off the island during the 4:30 PM rush hour was even worse than our round of golf. I may have trouble getting Joe to go back to play the other Art Hills course on the island.
On Thursday, Joyce and I departed after a relaxing stay at Fripp and played the Art Hills designed (1990) Windsor Park G.C. Windsor Park is a subdivision course in the southern part of Jacksonville, Florida. The land is flat so Arthur must have felt it necessary to push dirt around to make many uneven lies. It had a lot of water with the slope toward the water making holes difficult. The worst use of the bulldozer appeared on #10 in the form of a two-tiered fairway. When you hit a drive 220 yards right down the middle you shouldn't end up with a side hill lie. Perhaps 1986 to 1990 Art had some problems in his life that he took out on golfers. Moguls on fairways and greens don't appear on more recent designs I have played. During this period he seems to have reached a little too far in his effort for diverse holes.
I actually birdied the 1st hole and was even par after 4 holes. After that I had 6 double bogies and a triple to card a 92 for the day. Joyce beat me 6&4 for the second time and shot 108. Her handicap may go down!
On Friday we drove across to the west side of Florida to the Dunes G.C. @ Seville. The Art Hills (1988) course is part of a development in the middle of nowhere south of Ocala, but 75 miles north of Tampa. The development has not prospered, but the course is well worth the trouble of finding it. Although this course was built in the middle of Art's sadistic period, he seems to have been satisfied in this case to let the natural hazards on this site be enough. And there are natural hazards! Some people would call this part of Florida ugly. It is pretty rough country but I liked it.
Of course I played a little better by shooting 85 and finished all-square with my wife who had 103 for her best round of this trip. She was about to crack that 100 barrier but finished 9-8 on 17 and 18 to ruin her day. I finished with an 8 myself on the 521 yard 18th so we were both ready for happy hour. We drove back up to Ocala that night for dinner at Bella Luna.
On Saturday we got an early tee time at El Diablo Country Club, about 15 miles southwest of Ocala. This is a 1998 Jim Fazio design and was Joyce's favorite course for this trip. Since we were playing on a Saturday we tried to be the first ones out, but through confusion with the pro shop guy we started out 3rd at 8:20am and finished up in 3rd place 4 ½ hours later. Those backwoods Florida golfers just would not let us through! The course however was very nice, beautiful as well as a fair test of golf. Like the Dunes @ Seville, El Diablo was cut out of the piney forest of northern Florida. Unlike the Dunes which remains very close to its natural state, at El Diable Jim Fazio added many areas of formal plantings including ornamental grasses, azaleas, small trees, etc. that made it more scenic. Several traps were too deep for Joyce to get out of so she shot 123 on her favorite course and I got my first win of the trip. The greens were nice and medium speed. Overall course condition was good.
After golf we drove on down through Tampa and out to Madeira Bach to meet and visit with Lew and Donna at their condo on the beach. The Gulf water was too cold for swimming but the weather was beautiful and warm enough for beach walking and out-door dining. On Monday Lew took us to Bradenton for an exhibition baseball game where my Pirates whipped Joyce's Minnesota Twins 4-2. The down side of Grapefruit league baseball was the $4.50 Bud Lights. I shudder to think what a beer must cost at a REAL major league baseball game. That night we took them to our only 4-star dinner of the trip at the Maritana Grill at Don Cesar Resort in St. Petersburg Beach. The restaurant is highly recommended and it was a fine finish to a fine visit.
Tuesday morning we left Madeira Beach on our way to another encounter with Art Hills. Miromar Lakes Beach and G.C. is a new (2001) course and development about 30 miles south of Ft. Myers. They don't have any beach at all, but Art has designed them a pretty nice golf course. The only negative is that they are using the course as a buffer for their development next to I-75, so you've got that constant roar as you play. Like the real estate lady said in L.A., "If you close you eyes, it almost sounds like the ocean." Maybe that's where they get the "beach" in the name of the place.
I liked the course, but I hit the last of my Pro-V1 golf balls into too many of the lakes and ponds and scored a 7 on 5 holes to shoot 91. I almost had a par or a 7 on every hole on this course. Joyce had 111 and once again we finished all-square. We finally played a Florida course in less than 4 hours so we liked that too.
Wednesday we had an afternoon tee-time at Iron Horse C.C. in West Palm Beach. Due to travel adjustments we arrived 2 ½ hours early and they were unable to get us out in the morning. We drove away from this beautiful course and ended up at Gator Trace C.C. in Ft. Pierce, Fl. This 1983 Art Hills subdivision course is not among his best. It starts off with 2 lay-up holes where strangers (like us) have no idea how far to hit the ball. And because he has several short par 4 holes, he has to get the 6000 yard distance with 3 par 4 holes over 420 yards long. Too long for me and when the strong wind was in my face it was a tough bogey. Joyce beat me again with a 104 to my 95. How can I give 22 strokes to someone I only beat by 9strokes? Answer: I must play better or lose. We're on the way home now, so maybe Georgia will suit me better.
Thursday we drove up into Georgia and stopped for afternoon golf at Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park just west of Cordele. Dennis Griffiths designed this course in 1990. I've never heard of him but he designed a nice course. We played behind several groups of Bozo golfers (4 drives out of 4 in the woods almost every hole), but luckily they were playing a Bozo scramble so we actually got finished in just a little over 4 hours and before dark. A bozo scramble would be where no team has an A player. Four D players per team. We passed our wait time taking pictures and researching dinner choices. I must have stayed calm because I shot my best round of the trip (81) and beat Joyce (111) for only the second time this trip.
The course was cut out of the piney woods so every fairway was tree lined. The underbrush was cleared so you could be in the woods but still have a shot. There was water or swamp on about half the holes. The course is worth a play if you ever need to overnight in Cordele, GA. Almost across the road from the park entrance you can eat at the Old Inn Restaurant. It's not fine dining but very good southern cooking which is pretty damn fine in my book.
We got to Macon, Georgia on Friday to spend the weekend with Bobbie and Bill. They live in the red clay of south central Georgia and love it. They took us to golf at their club. It used to be called River North, but has recently changed its name to Healy Point. The course was designed in 1974 by Gary Player and is the second course I've played on this trip so far that has more elevation changes than I can handle successfully.
My 88 was the low score for our group but I got that mostly due to a string of 6 straight pars to start the back side. The greens were not in their best shape, so none of us made any putts. It's a course I'd like to try again after the Bermuda grass begins growing.
Saturday morning Bill got another old co-worker of mine named Steve and we loaded up on beer and backwoods cigars and headed out to Meansville, Georgia for a round on Steve's favorite course, Hickory Ridge (706-648-2955). Steve is somewhat of a masochist to claim this as his favorite since he hits so many shots into the deep woods that grows on the mountain that is Hickory Ridge.
Robert Trent Jones, Jr. designed Hickory Ridge in 1995 and I already know what a sadistic bastard he is since I played his Alabama golf trail a couple of years ago. There are no easy holes at Hickory Ridge and I believe every hole goes either up, down, or around the mountain. I believe it's Steve's favorite because he has a photographer's eye and it is scenic. I had a 95 on Hickory Ridge and I can only think of 3 holes where I could do better if I did them over. It's a tough course in the middle of nowhere that Steve told me not to tell you about. It's too tough for you anyway, so don't go.
Sunday morning we got up and drove home. The gator golf trip took 2,818 miles, and I lost all 6 of the Pro V1 golf balls I took. The weather was great, but March in Florida is too crowded for this old geezer. I'm glad to be back here in Spencer County even if it is raining and cold. We'll be golfing here soon.
