MD/DC/VA Golfers - Twelve Monkeys Mental Divergence

[tungstenplug]

+1 on the great tasting, less filling, Miller latte

[TheCityGame]

I'd replace whatever that bourbon is with Old Heaven Hill and replace that beer with something that's at least quaffable but far from transcendent.

[dcmidnight]

Hey his username isnt HeavenHill1997....

(I'll see myself out)

[Ocgolfrick]

Day 1 Tobacco Road

Subtitle: "A round to remember with Rando Bob"

ShoreEngineer and I worked a full day, then I left straight from work to pick him up in Salisbury and head south. We had dinner at Sting-Rays, a Cape Charles VA institution that serves an excellent meal, and is part of a truck stop gas station. Drove across the Tunnel and through the wilds of Virginia on Rt 58 (Hey Speed Limit is 55! Now 45! Now 35! Back to 55! Now 35!) For whatever reason, by number of retail outlets counted, the residents along Rt 58 appear to subsist on a diet of Ham and Fireworks. Stayed the night in Roanoke Rapids NC at a HIlton Garden Inn, which has an fantastic breakfast complete with made to order omelette station, and the phrase "Are those Grits?" must be repeated by everyone visiting from north of the Mason-Dixon line at least once upon entering the restaurant.

We had a 12:50 tee time with DT15 at Tobacco , so we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, finished the drive to Tobacco, and got some swings in and a sandwich at the bar. DT15 had finished his adoption proceeding (Congratulations!) at 9ish and was currently driving at 90mph to meet us. In the midst of ShoreEngineer and I goofing off on the putting green, I noticed the starter having a discussion with a twosome. The starter had a single, and wanted to pair him with a twosome. The twosome said no, we didn't come all this way to get our round ruined by some rando. It was getting a little animated, so I stepped over and volunteered to take the single as we had a 3some. The starter came in to the clubhouse later to thank us.

No sign of DT15 at 12:50, but he did call and say to go and he'd catch up. We three tee off, with Rando Bob choosing to play the women's tees. Bad sign. DT15 shows up just after we tee off, so we did get to play together as planned. Rando Bob is your guy who loves golf, knows he isn't good at it, doesn't care and just wants to have fun. So I loved his attitude, but....

4th? hole at Tobacco Road is the hole is where you have the option to attempt to drive the green over a massive sand waste area uphill or play safe to the right fairway. DT15, being DT15, chooses to take a crack at it. DT15 begins to take a mighty rip at it, and.....

"MAN, WHAT A HOLE HUH? GORGEOUS!"

DT15 dumps the ball short right in the waste area. "Thanks, Rando Bob"

DT15 gets to his ball, and begins to setup. He pulls the club back, and....

"WOW, LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THESE BUNKERS HUH? UNBELIEVABLE!"

DT15 hits ball further up the bunker. Trudges forward. Get to his ball, sets up, gets in his backswing, and...

"HEY DT15, WAS I TALKING IN YOUR BACKSWING BACK THERE? SORRY ABOUT THAT!"

Amazingly the ball stops on the green, and DT15 has a look at saving par, about a 13 footer. "Its OK Bob, just be more careful."

"I SURE WILL BUDDY, I SURE WILL!"

DT15 sets up over his putt. Looks straight. He gives it a final look, pulls the putter back, and...

The bell to clear the fairway on the hole next to us goes off. I had to turn away and walk off I was laughing so hard.

On the 16th both DT15 and ShoreEngineer putt their ball off the green, down the hill. Both take another 4 shots to get back up to the green. ShoreEngineer hit the 2nd level! of the green and it STILL rolled back to his feet.

Round finishes, Rando Bob wants to buy us all a beer and we say sure. As the bar was closing up, the head pro serves us. It was a great conversation. Turns out Tobacco Road is running 13 on the stimpmeter. He's best friends with the pro in our area at Baywood Greens, so we talked about that. He has played all the Strantz designs save the two in California, and he says the best design is actually Royal New Kent.

I couldn't imagine going to Pinehurst and NOT playing Tobacco Road. Getting to experience it (somewhat) dry and seeing the ball release the way it should really improved its standing with me. Last year in the muck just watching the ball stick and not move was awful. 1-6 were really muddy, but it got better after that. Just an awesome day and experience.

 

 

 

 

[ALTSean]

Sounds like we need to setup a blind taste test between Eagle Rare and Old Heaven Hill. My money is on Eagle Rare. And monkey squirrels.

[ALTSean]

Why is the word "monkey" blocked?

[ALTSean]

Mon*key

[TheCityGame]

Having to think it through gives me much worse thoughts than I EVER would have had if I'd just seen the word on the forums. Way to go censors. You've censored so much, you've actually reversed the intent.

[dsc123]

I didn't play yesterday, but my HC did revise downward by 0.7. Go figure.

 

Totally agree with OCGolfrick that I can't imagine going to the Pinehurst area and not squeezing in a round at Tobacco Road. What a cool course.

Bandondunes was the only one in our group that made the fairway just short of the green on 4. Eagle reached, but rolled off into the sand. I came about 3 feet short of reaching, took a few tries to get out, and then a few more to get up to the green. I also skulled one up and over that hill on 16 and CBass said "oh, you're going to like this its coming back to the hole...oh...wait...stop...oh no..." as it rolled back down to my feet.

 

The DC sports betting app is supposed to be released soon. I think they want it out before March Madness starts.

 

 

 

[thechief16]

Skimming through the pics of the PH trip, a couple things popped into my mind:

(1) I can remember the routing and recognize every hole of #4. Can't say the same of #2.

(2) I could watch Sterling swing driver all day and not get bored.

(3) CJ with the strong selfie game

(4) When I left PH resort after my maiden trip last May, I wasn't sure it was all that. Seeing the pictures reminds me of how wrong I was to think that.

[ceejay81]

I also skulled one up and over that hill on 16 and CBass said "oh, you're going to like this its coming back to the hole...oh...wait...stop...oh no..." as it rolled back down to my feet.

 

You definitely got all ball and when it came up on the right side of the green, it bounced twice and into the fringe/fairway - there was so much spin that it started slowly rolling back towards the green. Then it started going towards the hole. Then it started gaining more speed. And more. And then you know the rest. Every emotion that people can possibly have in life all came out on that one shot.

[ALTSean]

#16 at Tobacco Road was a killer. I hit two good, or what I thought were good, 60* wedges from ~50 yards just past the stick only to watch them both came back down to my feet about 2 minutes after I hit them. @aiyyer got a good video of my third shot that held the green, but the first two shots were struck well, but you just had to leave the ball short of the pin or at the pin because anything long caught the top tier of the green and picked up speed and came rolling back to you.

[Sterling_247]

I just watched a TXG video on flighting wedges into the wind. Everyone needs to watch it. I've been doing it wrong for a long long time and now I've got some new things to go try out

[TheCityGame]

In the video where Siegel is talking about a guy who tested the wind 3 times, then missed the green, then walked up to the green to get the break for his chip, then walked around the hole to see the putt from every angle. . .is he talking about Eagle?

[dcmidnight]

...then walked up to the green to get the break for his chip, then walked around the hole to see the putt from every angle. . .is he talking about Eagle?

At least a 75% chance....

[ALTSean]

The single played through so slowly that our foursome had to ask him if we could play through.

[dsc123]

Driving into work today I was trying to count my strokes lost just on balls coming back to me, or failing to get out of a waste area at Tobacco Road.

#4, from the sand short of green/fairway, it took me maybe 4 shots to get up to the green.

#6, a par 3, I shanked the tee shot into the waste area, hit my second maybe halfway out of the waste area, and my third into a bunker past the green.

#13, the par 5 with the green hidden in a circle of hills. My approach fell short and I fatted the easy pitch twice before getting up and down on the third try.

#15, hit my approach into the waste area. Got out on the second try (but still not on the green).

#16, my approach hit the front edge and came back. Then it took me 3 more tries to get up there.

#17, a par 3, shanked a pw off the tee into a waste area, took two tries to get back onto grass.

So that's about 11 shots. I'm not talking about the crappy approach shots that put me into the hazard, or the shots that got me out of the hazard but not near the hole. 10 shots that did not appreciably advance the ball. Somehow it was still really fun. But perhaps I'll work on my short game.

 

[Ocgolfrick]

Day 2 #4 and The Cradle

Subtitle : "We make a caddy quit Pinehurst, and let's play as a 15some."

After the breakfast buffet, ShoreEngineer and I catch the shuttle to the clubhouse to warm up and meet the caddy. We get Sam- who takes us to the range, and promptly says, "I'm going to get something to eat, see you in a bit." which evoked shades of the caddy last year, again, not a good sign.

As it turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong. Eagle1997 and TheRealSneek elected to play blues at 6900 and ShoreEngineer and I take it on from Whites at 6400. Sam WAS SO GOOD. He read putts for everyone, and was rooting for all of us to shoot our best score. Even if I had a 15 footer for double bogey, he's going as hard as he would as if I was putting for birdie. (Yes, I know he's paid to do that.) I last played #4 in rainy terrible conditions, and this year it really shone through. It's such a good course. ShoreEngineer, who may have the world's worst chipping game, was encouraged by Sam to putt from just about everywhere, and played well enough to shoot a great 82 on a course he'd never seen before. I struggled with my putting all day, but made it around in 97, with my highlight being parring the par 5 17th, which from the tee box looks like its 5 miles long. As it turns out, it was Sam's last day- he was headed to Charlotte to caddy at Quail Hollow and start working at Enterprise Rent a Car. I would've asked for Sam back everytime I went.

We move to the Cradle. I tell ShoreEngineer to grab me a hot dog, as I want to get to the Cradle shack and make sure we're ready to go for the Skins Game. I head down, introduce myself to the starter, and tell him I've got custom scorecards to hand out. He then says," And how will you be paying for today's round?"

WHAT?????????????

"Its on my bag tag that I'm playing here sir, it's included in my fee."

"Oh, you've got the tee time yes, but its not paid for."

Cue Panicked OCGolfRick. Luckily Eagle1997 is the first to arrive, and he's got our reservations contacts phone number. Reservation guy says don't worry, just charge it to the room and he'll take care of it. CUE RESERVATION GUY:

So everything's going pretty smooth for the first round, I was with Sneek, ShoreEngineer, Aiyyer and Siegel. I make birdie on #3, but ButteryCut did behind me, so that cancelled out. Guys are shouting back and forth who made birdie, its fun, its going like I planned it.

Annnndddddd then we go for the second round and the starter comes out.

"Sorry boys, a private event is about to start, I'll have to kick you off soon."

WHAT???????????

Turns out genius reservation contact neglected to tell us that , and assumed we would only play one round at the Cradle. Who does that?

So we plead our case, and starter let's us go, with the caveat that if he tells us we come in. We go a group of 7 and group of 8. If you don't make birdie, pick up. CTP changed to the 1st hole to decide any unused skins, won amazingly by Sterling 247. Interviewed later, he said it was a real fluke thing, that he thought he would be competing against some decent golfers. Boy was he wrong.

We combine into a 15some on the 4th hole. As a foursome is holding up a group of 15 guys. That hurt just writing that out. DSC123 pointed out that we are hitting 30 shots per hole, and we waited everyhole for the foursome!

Highlight was Endless almost hitting a nice Honda Civic on #4, never found the ball. I hit right after and could barely pull the club back, made a nice shank into one of the hidden speakers. Dom won #4, and then it was just awesome with 15 balls in play. On #8, I stick a shot with a 54 wedge to six feet, with Endless a foot behind me. CeeJay attempted to steal my glory by chipping in, but ricochets off the stick. Endless misses, but gives me a great look what it does. Left edge and in. $60 richer. Sorry Sterling!

Push the 9th so Sterling got 1 skin with his CTP- some guys head to Thistle Dhu. One good thing about the private event was they gave out whiskey samples to us, the Clover brand? The rye was good. As the temperature was dropping rapidly, bro and I headed to the Deuce for the house Cherry Vanilla Bourbon. Quite good. All in all, an excellent day. Some guys headed to the Brewery for a nice 90 minute wait before they were seated, while other wolfed down Papa John's in the Library.

 

 

 

[TheCityGame]

Look at these pictures of what they're doing to Llanerch up near Philly. . .https://www.instagram.com/p/B9R_QbwlB5z/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

[TheCityGame]

Great write-ups, Rick. Ham and fireworks!

I can not even FATHOM arguing with a starter to not get paired with a guy who is standing right there. That blows my mind.

People wrongly state, "that's not golf" about a lot of things (fast greens, divots, uneven tee boxes, match play), but refusing to pair up with a rando is most definitely "not golf".

[Sterling_247]

@Ocgolfrick conveniently left out my winning of the first two skins of the day with a birdie on the cradle. It was a bit of a contested point....mainly by Eagle, who insisted that Ocgolfrick had also made birdie on #2 which turned out to be just a weee bit off ;)

[Ocgolfrick]

Yeah, it was not cool on those two guys part. "Look, we just drove 6 hours here, this a special round for us, blah blah blah." Gimme a break guys. We've all been the rando before, traveling though, on a trip, etc. Show the same courtesy that you would like if you were in poor Rando Bob's place.

Now whatever you've pictured Bob to be in your mind, that's exactly what he was: Short, retired lawyer who's a golf nut who's read about Tobacco Road in Golf Digest and is excited to tell his friends back at the Milwaukee Pitch n' Putt that he played it. And he won't shut up. The three of us are walking on a transfer, and Bob pulls up in his cart after we play the Par 3 hole with the cabin over the water (14?) and Bob starts talking about how its awesome there is no Out Of Bounds anywhere on Tobacco Road. "And I mean, what happens if I hit it over there?" and he points to the gravel pit mine there with the trucks behind a chainlink fence. "Um, well, seeing as its nowhere in play, that's pretty unlikely, but you could play it Bob." And that seemed to make him so happy- that he had found a course with no Out of Bounds that he could report back to the fellow retired lawyers. He was harmless. Let the guy have his fun.

[FAbb]

On the rando thing.

Sure I would prefer to do it with a foursome, but I went to Bandon just me and the FIL. We played every single round with randos. It was such a cool experience. One day we actually ended up playing with the same rando both rounds. He was a super nice guy from Wisconsin, that had made the trip solo. We played with a father-son pairing one round. We played with some really nice guys from Portland, that drive down and play every year together, and had lunch with them after the round. We played with two VERY funny Canadian guys, one of which was an 827/CityGame mash-up spirit animal, that gangster dropped his ball on the tee to hit driver off the deck all day long. Playing with randos 100000% enhanced the experience, versus if we were to somehow be allowed to play just the two of us.

 

EDIT: I had actually forgotten this, until typing up to post about it. The rando we played with twice wasn't even supposed to play with us that first round of the day. He had gotten paired with a group behind us, that was apparently making him feel unwelcome, and playing dog slow. He got a hold of the marshal to see if there was anything to be done about it, who then came up to us (we were actually off just two of us, because the other two supposed to be in our group no-showed) and asked if he could get the rando to join with us. We gladly obliged, and spent the next 30 holes of the day playing together.

[vtnerf]

Rando Bob on 16 as Shore Engineer is trying to hit it out of the 20' deep bunker: MAN, THERE'S 27 STEPS COMING OUT OF THAT BUNKER!!!!!!!!!

[SullGolf]

Tobacco Road is by far the most fun golf experience I've ever had with a group. I'm sure I'd have fun playing as a single there, but I got more enjoyment out of watching other people hit shots. And with multiple groups it was even better. Some of the tee boxes have fantastic views of the previous green.

[dcmidnight]

 

[ALTSean]

Link Soul has Buy 1 Get 1 Free t-shirts today with code "LSDAY"

This link / code will not stack, but if you want $25 off $100, you can use this code for other stuff:http://rwrd.io/wp8dh3j

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[misplacedtexan83]

Agree brother .

Never thought it was a walkable course till a couple of years ago. It’s a fun and enjoyable walk

[ALTSean]

Alan Shipnuck must have heard that The Hive was playing Tobacco Road so he published a story today about Mike Strantz’s and his courses: https://www.golf.com/features/2020/03/03/mike-strantz-artist-golf-course-architect/

[SullGolf]

I said I liked watching OTHER people play it.