Month: February 2017

The Oconee — Struck by Gods

The Oconee — Struck by Gods

Some golf courses are finessed into the earth, simply revealed or even discovered, as it were. Such is the mantra of naturalism and minimalism. The Oconee at the Reynolds Lake Oconee development on the other hand, screams, “I want land!” and goes and takes what it wants. The corridors of this behemoth are forged from the property’s…

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The Tease of Brazell’s Creek

The Tease of Brazell’s Creek

Brazell’s Creek, part of the Georgia State Parks Golf Course system, is really two separate venues. Located in a hinterland roughly between Macon and Savannah, the original nine holes (of unknown origin, at least to me) rotate peacefully through the oaks and pines near the campgrounds of the modest Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park. The second nine, opened in…

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A Proper Jones: Stone Mountain’s Stonemont Course

A Proper Jones: Stone Mountain’s Stonemont Course

The Stonemont Course at Stone Mountain Golf Club outside of Atlanta is what you expect from stock, mid-century Robert Trent Jones: a straight-forward, thick-waisted course full of tree-lined doglegs, big elevated greens pinched in front by bunkers and, yes, some runway tees. There’s a welcome what-you-see-is-what-you-get simplicity to the course as many of the holes play…

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No Good Choices at Stone Mountain Lakemont Course

No Good Choices at Stone Mountain Lakemont Course

I’d love to be able to give the Lakemont Course at Stone Mountain Golf Club a higher score — parts of the property, in Georgia Stone Mountain Park, are quite beautiful, including five of the first six holes along Stone Mountain Lake with views of the big granite rock’s famous Confederate carving. There’s also no housing, and Marriott’s involvement has…

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The Dulcet Tones of Harbor Club on Lake Oconee

The Dulcet Tones of Harbor Club on Lake Oconee

The question of how to shape courses in mountains or heavily wooded properties is an interesting one. Beyond engineering issues like cuts and fills that all courses of this variety share, every architect since golf courses moved inland has had to make decisions about how to present unnatural sites, including what the shapes and depths…

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Sky Blue Sky Valley

Sky Blue Sky Valley

The original designer of this resort course tucked up in the canyons of the Blue Ridge Mountains just south of the North Carolina border was not a golf course architect and, as of a few years ago at least, purportedly still lived on the property. He actually did a great job of routing the course…

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High Aspirations at Chateau Elan Legends

High Aspirations at Chateau Elan Legends

Most people in the North Georgia/metro Atlanta area are quite familiar with Chateau Elan, a popular wedding and conference destination with pleasant golf and mediocre wine. The two resort courses, Chateau and Woodlands, both designed by local architect Denis Griffiths, represent the ubiquitous style of hilly residential and development golf found throughout the region. The resort’s third course, Legends, also designed by Griffiths, is private,…

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Jumping to Play The Frog

Jumping to Play The Frog

  The Frog was easily one of the top two or three public venues in the greater Atlanta area until a few years ago when a large multi-club organization acquired it and put into mostly private rotation. I haven’t met too many people who enjoy driving long distances through heavy traffic to play disjointed, real…

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Mystery Valley’s Iconic Georgia Look

Mystery Valley’s Iconic Georgia Look

The design at Mystery Valley, near Stone Mountain about 30 minutes east of Atlanta, is attributed to Dick Wilson but I suspect his then-associate Joe Lee is responsible for pretty much all of this course. After a struggle with his health and alcoholism, Wilson died in 1965, a year before Mystery Valley officially opened, and Lee and Robert Von Hagge…

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