Jones Creek G.C.

[Jim Johnson]

Gary Daughters' thread on "Palmer" and "Cherokee Run" got me reflecting tonight on a trip to the Monday practice round of this year's Masters. During the trip we managed to squeeze in 3.75 rounds of golf, 12 holes of which were played at "Cherokee Run". Very enjoyable, I thought. Although we had to bail after finishing the 12th hole in order to catch our flights back home out of the Atlanta airport.

Anyway, another course we played during the trip was "Jones Creek", just north of Augusta. Designed by Rees Jones in the 1980's, it's set in beautiful rolling terrain through a housing development. I'd be interested in hearing comments from others who have played this course, including your likes and dislikes.

For your interest, below are some pics taken during our round...

Par-4 on the front nine, fairway bunker is about 235 from this tee, green has a wicked back-to-front slope



Par-5 on the front nine, hit my wedge to the green and it rolled back to the fringe, but from the fairway I thought I was pin high



View from behind the 10th tee, a gentle dogleg right par-4



My bro on the back nine, here a par-4 with the creek definitely in play



With a big drive, and/or the wind behind, this par-5 on the back nine could be reachable in two.



Killer bunker just in front of this green, plugged my approach shot into it about 3 inches below the top lip, took two to extricate myself.


FYI, the other two courses we played were "The River Club" just across the river from Augusta, and "Arrowhead Pointe", about 90 miles north of where we stayed in Thomson, Georgia.

Comments from anyone who's played "Jones Creek"?

JJ

[Gary Daughters]

JJ..

Thanks for the pictures of Jones Creek.  I've been wanting to check get over there, just not enough to drag my lazy bones down I-20.

I'd be interested to know what you thought about Arrowhead Pointe.  The local press gives it rave reviews, but the local press is the local press.

Thanks,
Gary  

[Jim Johnson]

Gary,

Do be honest, I don't recall a lot about Arrowhead Pointe. The one thing that really surprised us, coming from western Canada, and golfing in Georgia when it was 85 degrees everyday that we were there, was the dormancy of the grass, and the lack of foliage in the trees, other than those beautiful tall Georgia pines. But, in talking with people in the various pro shops and on the beverage carts, it sounded like it was their first bit of warm weather [at least to them anyway!].

It was laid out on some nice terrain, although I thought the land at Jones Creek was nicer to work with. The greens were mostly quite large, with some movement. Views on the holes laid out along the lake [reservoir?] were nice. Overall, it was a very decent value for the price, as compared to, say, Jones Creek or Cherokee Run. We'd heard that during the week of the Masters the rate at Jones Creek was being raised to $1100 or $1200 [can't recall which] per foursome; we paid $125 each on the Saturday morning before the Masters.

One thing that clearly sticks in my mind is a triangle of 3 holes jutting out onto a peninsula, with the guy in the photos below almost beaning somebody on the tee of the par-4 returning from "the peninsula", even though his tee shot wasn't that bad. Just the layout of the 3 holes there dictated that you'd better keep your eye on the other foursome's ball in that area.

The bottom photo shows him on the tee of the short par-3 on the end of the peninsula.

Some sample photos of Arrowhead Pointe...





I think we would have really enjoyed all of the courses even more if we'd played about a month later [about now], if we really wanted to see the foliage and the grass in all its splendour. Still, we enjoyed every course we played [we all thought that the River Club wasn't anything to write home about, but felt that it was a good "warmup" course to play for the first round of "the season" for us].

Would I play "Arrowhead Pointe" again? Probably not. But only because if we're flying down there from where we live, we'd want to try other courses which we didn't play on that trip. I'm sure there are some pretty good courses elsewhere in that Augusta area!

For you, living in that area, sure, give it a try. I think you'd like it. If you do play, be sure to let us know what you think!

JJ

[Gary Daughters]

JJ,

Thanks for the great info.  That Jones Creek/Masters rate sounds like some serious gouging, which counts against them severely in my book.  Played CR yesterday for $33.

You missed the explosion of the grass and foliage by about 1 week.  And I do mean explosion.  I'd say our best months here are late April, all of May, September and October with a bias toward September and October.  Hope you make it back sometime.

Gary

[Glenn Spencer]

$1200 for a foursome. It is time to get out the cards, what a joke. I don't really think the places looked worth $125, unless they were charging a nickel a divot based on that one par 3 shown. I know that there is a lot of money out there these days, but $300 a man, golf is just not that fun, I am sorry but I would rather stand on my head.

[Jim Johnson]

Yeah guys, I would say there was some serious price gouging that week. We'd heard that The River Club was charging about the same thing [$1100 or $1200 per foursome] during Masters week...we played it for about $55 each on the Friday before the Masters week.

Cherokee Run charged $100 on the Tuesday of Masters week; this included a logoed cap, bag tag, yardage book, breakfast [which we missed, we ate at our hotel in Thomson before checking out], and lunch at the turn...barbequed burger and all the trimmings, bags of chips & snacks. Certainly not cheap, but the course was packed that day, and s-l-o-w...we teed off at 9:20am, and at 1:20pm, we had just arrived at the 12th green, so we quit, changed in the parking lot, and drove into the Atlanta airport.

Arrowhead Pointe was "value". It was around $50. And the rate never changed that week, as far as I could tell. It's in a state park, so that probably is the reason.

JJ

[Gary Daughters]

JJ..

It distresses me to hear all that.  So much for southern hospitality.  

Funny, though, that you stayed in Thomson, which I will always remember as the place my Toyota broke down on the way to the Masters.  But, hell, we were only 4 hrs. late, met some wonderfully kind people along the way, including a man at a truck stop who offered to have his daughter drive us to Augusta.. and we have nice stories to tell.

So it's not all about gouging.

[Jim Johnson]

Played CR yesterday for $33.

Gary, was that for 12 holes?  

JJ

[Gary Daughters]

Dude,

Try 26.  Only quit cause I could barely see the ball at my feet.  I'm good with finding a struck ball in the dark by "feel," but when I can't see to hit it that's pretty much it.

Too bad that you missed the very tough 15/16/17/18 stretch.  Give you a reason to come back.