Day 168 among the pines at Forest Creek

Posted by Jamie on 21 June 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: Forest Creek, Pinehurst, Fazio, North Carolina

Golf amplifies your emotions.  When you hit a shank into the ice plant at Spyglass, there is no sharper sense of frustration imaginable.  If you are lucky enough to drain a 40 footer for eagle on the 18th to beat your opponent by one stroke, life couldn�??t be any better.  As a paradigm for �??real life�?� it�??s a rollercoaster ride.  And we�??re riding it!  What brought me to this reflection was this: this morning we were late for our tee time.  Now, being late is bad enough under any circumstances, but when you�??re a guest and there are people lining up to get going, suffice to say, well, you�??re not flavour of the month.  Thankfully Stuart �?? our host �?? and his pal / protégé Gary were very gracious.  But (1) we were embarassed; and (2) we didn�??t get the chance to hit a few balls before what promised to be a stern test of our ineptitude / patience at Forest Creek.

The club lies just outside of Pinehurst proper.  About a 15 minute drive through the pines, past about 15 other courses.  As we�??ve foreshadowed in recent days, this be golf country.  (Dam good golf country).  Forest Creek has 2 courses: the north and the south.  Before our visit they were described to us thus: one�??s like Pine Valley; the other�??s like Augusta.  �??God,�?� I thought, �??I hope we don�??t get the Augusta one...that�??d be awful�?�.  In the end we did and it was a treat.

Stuart Taylor is a man who has a few stories; just the kind of man you�??d love to spend a few hours walking round a golf course with.  He�??s a PGA professional and has taught around these parts for longer than we�??ve been alive.  Quite simply he knows everyone and everything about the area.  Stuart was the man responsible for putting us onto the lovely ladies at The Pinecrest Inn �?? so on that count we owe him a huge debt of gratitude.  The fact that he also arranged a game for us out at Forest Creek, well, makes him a saint.  One of the better saints at that, like St. Andrew.  (Being Scottish I�??m biased).

Like a good few other places around here your name has to be on the gate if the Gestapo are going to let you in (unless you�??re a member).  We reported for duty about 4 minutes to 9, 4 minutes before our tee time.  On the spot it was decided The Yankees would take on The Kiwis in the best ball match.  No shots would be given �?? a travesty, really, given we were up against two pros (Gary used to play the mini tours and now works with Stuart teaching).  But we like a challenge.

A challenge it was: 4 down after 4.  The sods kept rolling in birdie putts and we kept missing �??em.  Even when I stuck a sand wedge dead on the 5th Stuart did the same to snatch a half.  Things got better thank goodness though and we pulled it back to about 2 early in the back nine.  More on that note shortly.

The South Course?  (The one more like Augusta than Pine Valley).  Very good.  A Fazio.  Set in the sand hills area, it�??s built on the perfect soil for golf.  Drainage obviously isn�??t a problem �??round here �?? although apparently just up the road clay soils make things a little trickier.  Normally they have the greens running about about 26 on the stimp meter, but today they were a milder pace.  Aeration and all.  

Bunkers cut among the pine needles were a memorable feature.  Fortunately none of us visited any, but they look pretty all the same.  With this soil I guess it�??s just a case of clear away a few needles and you have yourself a bunker?  Maybe I�??m oversimplifying...

There are a few short par 4s you can attack, and if you get a good tee shot away on the par 5s, you�??re in the money (save for the 11th, which is 600 yards).  On 11 Mike smoked one 340 yards and could�??ve got there had it not been for the downhill lie he had in the fairway.  My heart bleeds.

I�??d love to play the course in tournament shape, to see how much carnage the greens can really cause.  Even today some putts were rolling straight sideways.  During Member / Guest week they must be treacherous.  This Fazio fella�??s a bit of a masochist...

Stuart being an old pro was interested only in pars and birdies �?? if he�??d already had one more than par, he�??d pick up (safe in the knowledge, almost without exception, that his buddy would have his back).  Gary�??s a good player.  And a helluva nice guy too.  They were both a pleasure to play with �?? a couple of the more light hearted sharp shooters we�??ve come across; my kinda folks.  In fact we enjoyed our golf so much that we even played 19 holes.

The 18th green finishes several hundred yards short of the clubhouse.  To get there you have to trudge / drive past the 19th, playoff hole.  This appears to be a peculiarity of some courses in these southern parts: if there�??s unfinished business, the 19th hole (not of the bar ilk) is the place to settle it.  So y�??er man has built a 19th hole befitting of any good golf course.  An all carry par 3 over water to a green sunk beneath the statuesque new hut.  Stuart declared we�??d play a Captain�??s Pick, meaning we�??d all hit and putt from the closest one.  Putting wasn�??t necessary, because he stuck it �?? quite literally �?? within a foot.  Bumped gently into the pin, from about 210 or so, and ricocheted painfully off to the right.  5 seconds before he struck the ball I said to Gary, �??this would be a terrible place to have a hole-in-one, wouldn�??t it?�?�.  I�??m sure Stuart wouldn�??t have been too perturbed had it dropped.

Yesterday Jonathan nearly wet himself talking about the men�??s locker room at Forest Creek.  Better than Sea Island, he said.  (That�??s a big statement, by the way �?? the locker room and showers down there to date had been firmly in the #1 spot out of 167).  The anticipation was killing me as we stepped out of our carts and up the steps to a barn-like structure of colossal proportions.  

There�??s a front desk 30 yards ahead of you as you walk in, with lockers lining either side.  I guess you check in there?  Beyond the desk are more lockers; a pretty sensational shower / sauna / etc setup; a towering fireplace; and a grill bar.  Popcorn and nuts and everything you could possibly care for are on offer.  A full time barman stands poised waiting to satisfy your every thirst.  If I�??m not speaking out of turn, this gentleman was poised with an inconvenienced air about him �?? perhaps we shouldn�??t have been in there without a member (Stuart had arranged the game through a friend, who�??s the Pro / Director of Golf)?  Either way, I felt a little bit like I did as a nipper when I stepped nervously into the Big Boys Bar at Lundin Links back home where I played with my dad.  Disapproving stares all round.  Maybe they knew I was trouble even back then?

Better than Sea Island?  I think not.  It�??ll take something extraordinary to snatch that honour from the folks down at St. Simons �?? Davis Love and his cronies.  Very impressive nonetheless �?? to go with a quality golf course.  Apparently Michael Jordan has some land by the 16th.  Being the curious punter I am, I hit a block cut into his property in the hope of spotting the man (there�??s nothing built there, but he might�??ve been out surveying his estate?).  No sign.

Thanks Stuart & Gary for a cracker.  Sorry we couldn�??t take you down the 18th... (we lost 2&1).

JP

P.S. If you play at Forest Creek, watch out for the fire ants.  They attacked me on 17 tee.  My shirt was off quicker than you can say "fire ant", revealing my rather impressive golf tan.