Question:
Has anyone else played Tobacco Road yet?? This has to be the toughest but most fun course I have ever played. There are no sand bunkers, rather waste areas that run the entire course. You have to hit between, over, and around huge mounds. The first hole starts out with your tee shot that has to go between 2 hugh mounds and onto a fairway you can hardly see, then it is about 160 yards between two smaller mounds that have about 20 yards of fairway between the mounds, then it opens up to about 135 yards to the green. The rest of the course gets even harder with forced carries, hidden fairways, hidden greens. On 18 the tee box is down in a hole, looks like a rock quary, you have to hit up into the face of the hole, you can not see the fairway, there is only a smoke stack on top of the quary that the score card tells you to hit over. You have no idea where your drive went until you get there. It ate my lunch that day, but I still had a good time. The course is in really good shape and fun to play. Try to bring your "A" game…. — John Jones Senior Oracle DBA Duke University OIT
Response:
Yeah, I played there last year. Once I got well above 100 I had to stop counting. I got down in that waste area to the right side of the #9 green, I had to pick up after about 4 or 5 attempts to get out. I came down from Ohio on vacation, and got paired up with some guys from Greensboro. Definitely a unique golfing experience.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Has anyone else played Tobacco Road yet?? This has to be the toughest but most fun course I have ever played. There are no sand bunkers, rather waste areas that run the entire course. You have to hit between, over, and around huge mounds. The first hole starts out with your tee shot that has to go between 2 hugh mounds and onto a fairway you can hardly see, then it is about 160 yards between two smaller mounds that have about 20 yards of fairway between the mounds, then it opens up to about 135 yards to the green. The rest of the course gets even harder with forced carries, hidden fairways, hidden greens. On 18 the tee box is down in a hole, looks like a rock quary, you have to hit up into the face of the hole, you can not see the fairway, there is only a smoke stack on top of the quary that the score card tells you to hit over. You have no idea where your drive went until you get there. It ate my lunch that day, but I still had a good time. The course is in really good shape and fun to play. Try to bring your "A" game…. — John Jones Senior Oracle DBA Duke University OIT
Response:
An absolutely masterful design. Mike Strantz has designed some of the most beautiful courses IMHO. If you get the chance to play this one, don’t pass it up. Played from the back tees it is one of the hardest on the east coast. He also designed Trueblue and Caledonia down in Myrtle Beach, don’t miss Caledonia if you get the chance either. Another new course designed by him also, just recently opened in Asheboro, NC. I think the name of that one is Tot Hill Farm. I haven’t had the chance to play that one yet, but I will. His designs make the game of golf even more exhilarating than it already is. If you want to visit Tobacco Road I think their web address is www.tobaccoroadgolf.com I don’t know if the other courses have websites or not. All I am saying is, if you get a chance to play a Strantz designed course do not pass it up. Steve
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Has anyone else played Tobacco Road yet?? This has to be the toughest but most fun course I have ever played. There are no sand bunkers, rather waste areas that run the entire course. You have to hit between, over, and around huge mounds. The first hole starts out with your tee shot that has to go between 2 hugh mounds and onto a fairway you can hardly see, then it is about 160 yards between two smaller mounds that have about 20 yards of fairway between the mounds, then it opens up to about 135 yards to the green. The rest of the course gets even harder with forced carries, hidden fairways, hidden greens. On 18 the tee box is down in a hole, looks like a rock quary, you have to hit up into the face of the hole, you can not see the fairway, there is only a smoke stack on top of the quary that the score card tells you to hit over. You have no idea where your drive went until you get there. It ate my lunch that day, but I still had a good time. The course is in really good shape and fun to play. Try to bring your "A" game…. — John Jones Senior Oracle DBA Duke University OIT
Response:
I and a friend played Tobacco Road last Spring and I thought I had found the hardest course of my life. Until… we played Tot Hill Farm last weekend. Holly $%^*, that course is insane. The greens are all slopped beyond Stimp metering and hard as a sidewalk. There are boulders in the sand traps and stone walls in the fairways. We cursed and shot terrible rounds. We loved it. If you get the chance and want to be humbled, play it. I have a 2.2 handicap and I shot an 85. Bring lots of balls to either of these courses. Brian
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – An absolutely masterful design. Mike Strantz has designed some of the most beautiful courses IMHO. If you get the chance to play this one, don’t pass it up. Played from the back tees it is one of the hardest on the east coast. He also designed Trueblue and Caledonia down in Myrtle Beach, don’t miss Caledonia if you get the chance either. Another new course designed by him also, just recently opened in Asheboro, NC. I think the name of that one is Tot Hill Farm. I haven’t had the chance to play that one yet, but I will. His designs make the game of golf even more exhilarating than it already is. If you want to visit Tobacco Road I think their web address is www.tobaccoroadgolf.com I don’t know if the other courses have websites or not. All I am saying is, if you get a chance to play a Strantz designed course do not pass it up. Steve Has anyone else played Tobacco Road yet?? This has to be the toughest but most fun course I have ever played. There are no sand bunkers, rather waste areas that run the entire course. You have to hit between, over, and around huge mounds. The first hole starts out with your tee shot that has to go between 2 hugh mounds and onto a fairway you can hardly see, then it is about 160 yards between two smaller mounds that have about 20 yards of fairway between the mounds, then it opens up to about 135 yards to the green. The rest of the course gets even harder with forced carries, hidden fairways, hidden greens. On 18 the tee box is down in a hole, looks like a rock quary, you have to hit up into the face of the hole, you can not see the fairway, there is only a smoke stack on top of the quary that the score card tells you to hit over. You have no idea where your drive went until you get there. It ate my lunch that day, but I still had a good time. The course is in really good shape and fun to play. Try to bring your "A" game…. — John Jones Senior Oracle DBA Duke University OIT
Response:
Once in a while I’ll ‘indulge’ myself by playing a very difficult course, but…I used to live in southern NH and played league golf at the Atkinson Country Club. It’s has a 139 slope from the regular men’s tees and 141 from the tips. Keep all drives straight, putt with the touch of an angel and be lucky and you might play to your index. {My course index there was 6 strokes more than at another course of 6000 yds from the medium men’s tees I played regularly!} Don’t invite me to Tot Hill Farm unless you’re buying…:-)
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I and a friend played Tobacco Road last Spring and I thought I had found the hardest course of my life. Until… we played Tot Hill Farm last weekend. Holly $%^*, that course is insane. The greens are all slopped beyond Stimp metering and hard as a sidewalk. There are boulders in the sand traps and stone walls in the fairways. We cursed and shot terrible rounds. We loved it. If you get the chance and want to be humbled, play it. I have a 2.2 handicap and I shot an 85. Bring lots of balls to either of these courses.
Response:
Once in a while I’ll ‘indulge’ myself by playing a very difficult course, but…I used to live in southern NH and played league golf at the Atkinson Country Club. It’s has a 139 slope from the regular men’s tees and 141 from the tips. Keep all drives straight, putt with the touch of an angel and be lucky and you might play to your index. {My course index there was 6 strokes more than at another course of 6000 yds from the medium men’s tees I played regularly!} Don’t invite me to Tot Hill Farm unless you’re buying…:-)
Hey Bruce, have you ever played a course in Jaffrey, NH called The Shattuck? It was a slope rating of 148 from the blues. I have not played there (although I love to in the future), but I have heard many horror stories (it is supposedly target golf to the max). Hit ‘em Good!!! JB – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I and a friend played Tobacco Road last Spring and I thought I had found the hardest course of my life. Until… we played Tot Hill Farm last weekend. Holly $%^*, that course is insane. The greens are all slopped beyond Stimp metering and hard as a sidewalk. There are boulders in the sand traps and stone walls in the fairways. We cursed and shot terrible rounds. We loved it. If you get the chance and want to be humbled, play it. I have a 2.2 handicap and I shot an 85. Bring lots of balls to either of these courses.
Response:
Another new course designed by him also, just recently opened in Asheboro, NC. I think the name of that one is Tot Hill Farm. I haven’t had the chance to play that one yet, but I will.
I think it’s well worth it…played twice already and playing twice again next week. Not too awful long but the holes are much prettier and intimidating than the ones at Tobacco Road. A lot of rapid elevation changes making yardage markers useless.