Back in the mid-70’s I convinced my wife that we should go see this new movie that was opening that weekend. We would end up seeing it five times in the next three weeks, convincing ourselves that we were doing so because we needed to show our friends what we had “discovered.” The movie was Star Wars and we all know what it became.
I had the privilege of enjoying a round with Mike Young yesterday at his newest creation in Madison, Georgia. I want to be among the first to put into print that this is going to be a very special golf course, and I do so with the front nine is just now ready for play and the back nine being months away from opening as it was just sodded a few weeks back.
I can’t wait to bring friends out to this course and to see what it will become in the future. It is really that special.
Here is a course in a very quaint, slow-paced (once you get off of I-20) area of Georgia. It is what small-town America should be. I got there a bit early and so headed into town just for a look and found myself parking the car and walking a few of the tree-lined streets and wandering into a true antique store before heading back to my car, and here was my first that I was about to have a special day – standing at a street corner waiting for the traffic to clear so that I could cross, drivers in both directions came to a stop and waved to me to cross!
The course itself, and Mike showed it off with all the pride of a new father of quintuplets, is laid out over gently rolling land and meanders naturally to it; there is no feeling of fitting holes into a future housing development even though there is an entire community planned for the site. Mike had no constraints put upon him by the owner as to where the course must be and each hole very naturally fits into what came before and what comes next.
It will be a course that is playable by any golfer no matter talent, ability or age. It is very walk-able, yet the cart paths for those who choose to ride, are limited to green and tee sites and the sandy color of the cement where they do exist, fit into the areas unobtrusively.
Each hole has multiple tees, five to be exact, all carefully placed to create individual challenges with hazards built into the hole specific to these. The length of the course is as follows:
• Gold – 7472
• Blue – 6971
• White – 6505
• Green – 5961
• Red – 5305
There is a wonderful balance to the various holes. From the Gold’s, and these were put in at the insistence of the owner for the course is a wonderful enough challenge from the whites and can be brutal from the blue’s, the fives and threes are:
568, 490, 583 & 569. 238, 171, 156 & 247.
The greens range from mid to massive in size and each appears to gently sweep over its site. They are gently flat to look at while in reality, unless your putt is less than two feet, and sometimes even then, there isn’t a single straight putt out there. From a couple of inches this or that way to places where, with the right pin positions, twenty feet and more breaks are reality. These are greens that can’t be short-sided or up & downs are an impossibility.
Mike definitely enjoys false fronts that are quite visible yet many times unnoticeable. The greenside bunkers aren’t; they are 4-6 feet away from the putting surface and on a number of holes, sit back twenty to thirty feet ala Augusta.
Speaking of the bunkers, there is no scheme so to speak, they appear where they should and no where else. Some are there to aim at while others are to punish; all should be avoided yet can be played out of with care. There is a feeling of Ireland links to many of the holes as so many of the fairways roll and undulate on to the green. One is going to be tempted to play a ground game into holes that seemingly invite this type of play and yet the greens entrances will prove this as a mistaken strategy, while other holes are best played in this fashion. Yet despite this dichotomy of hole natures, each one is a natural creation to its own environment. Contrived is never felt.
The back nine, especially holes 13 on in, have a potential to become monumentally grand, especially if & when the course can play host to tournaments, and it is definitely championship worthy in design and scope.
How can a 100 yard wide fairway seem to be only 25 from a tee? That is #16. How many players have ever walked off a par three and swear they just saw the closest thing to the 12th hole at Augusta as they will ever experience? That is #13. Can you picture a 10,000+ sq. ft. punchbowl green at the end of a 247 yard par-three? That is #17. A finishing hole that invites you to go for it in two at 569 yards uphill yet unless the approach is perfect the player will be left with a 30 to 70 yard pitch shot depending upon where the ball rolls out to off the green? The 18th.
Add in a huge lake recently stocked for thiose who enjoy the idea of closing out a summer's day of golf with a relaxing bit of fishing and heaven is a bit closer to earth.
And I must also mention Wilson. He must be experienced on his own and is a delight.
I’m telling all right now, starting next spring, though if you want to go out now and play the front nine do so, its well worth it, people will be talking about a very special golf course down in Madison, Georgia.