Pa Jayhawk
Well-Known Member
- Nov 15, 2005
- 7,196
- 62
- Country
- United States
On our recent trip to Pinehurst, we managed to play Tobacco Road in Sanford, NC. Which is listed as the 10th hardest course in the US by Golf Digest. Pinehurst Area Golf | Tobacco Road Golf Club - A Mike Strantz Design
They say the following.
It is nothing short of an incredible course for beauty. The layout includes alot of blind shots, a few of the holes are just ridiculous on how they are set up (not meaning the difficulty). I was looking forward to this because our home course is what I still consider one of the more difficult courses I have ever played for the length. So we tend to try and play the 50 hardest any chance we get. While we didn't play off the tips, the slope of this course from the two forward tees relate to the Blue and White tees at our home course (slightly easier), but with more distance.
It was really deceiving at first because the view is wide open, but most of the difficulty is in the Waste bunkers that cover the entire course. Where our home course is mainly tough due to treelined fairways and target golf. So I started the round really rough in finding about 2 bunkers on each of the first 3 holes and logging a double, triple, triple, and wondering what I got myself into and being fairly miserable. Although I then started to see where the trouble lied and followed the tip from the guy in the pro shop in just picking your gaps and hit there. So I finished well on the back and shot a 90, which at a 13.3 index the first time on this course, and being 8 over after 3, this was good for me based on the difficulty of the course.
The course is beautiful, and one everyone should play if they want a scenic and fun day. It felt identical to how I felt the first time I played my home course. First wondering what the heck I got myself into, then settling down, then want to go back to play it the way it should be played. Some of the holes are just downright wacked out. The green role true and were extremely fast. You would hit a lot of shots and have no idea where you were hitting to or if you would find your ball even when hitting where you wanted too.
Below are some pictures. Kinda hard getting used to driving your cart through all the sand traps to get around.
They say the following.
10. TOBACCO ROAD GOLF CLUB
SANFORD / N.C. / 6,554 YARDS / PAR 71
This is Mike Strantz's version of Pine Valley, as seen through a funhouse mirror. Bunkers become craters, greens become sinkholes. The sand hills are taller and more eroded, the pits are steeper and deeper. Some greens are three times as wide as they are deep, and others are twice as long as they are wide. What's not distorted is that there are five blind shots at Tobacco Road. That makes it cotton-pickin' hard.
It is nothing short of an incredible course for beauty. The layout includes alot of blind shots, a few of the holes are just ridiculous on how they are set up (not meaning the difficulty). I was looking forward to this because our home course is what I still consider one of the more difficult courses I have ever played for the length. So we tend to try and play the 50 hardest any chance we get. While we didn't play off the tips, the slope of this course from the two forward tees relate to the Blue and White tees at our home course (slightly easier), but with more distance.
It was really deceiving at first because the view is wide open, but most of the difficulty is in the Waste bunkers that cover the entire course. Where our home course is mainly tough due to treelined fairways and target golf. So I started the round really rough in finding about 2 bunkers on each of the first 3 holes and logging a double, triple, triple, and wondering what I got myself into and being fairly miserable. Although I then started to see where the trouble lied and followed the tip from the guy in the pro shop in just picking your gaps and hit there. So I finished well on the back and shot a 90, which at a 13.3 index the first time on this course, and being 8 over after 3, this was good for me based on the difficulty of the course.
The course is beautiful, and one everyone should play if they want a scenic and fun day. It felt identical to how I felt the first time I played my home course. First wondering what the heck I got myself into, then settling down, then want to go back to play it the way it should be played. Some of the holes are just downright wacked out. The green role true and were extremely fast. You would hit a lot of shots and have no idea where you were hitting to or if you would find your ball even when hitting where you wanted too.
Below are some pictures. Kinda hard getting used to driving your cart through all the sand traps to get around.