mountaintop golf club cashiers

[james soper]

any word on mountaintop golf club in cashiers, north carolina? i understand tom fazio relocated there to devote alot of time to that project and one at lake toxaway. looking at the course tour on their website, it reminds me of wade hampton. in fact, wade hampton is only a few miles down the road.
     
www.mountaintopgolfclub.com

[Tom_Doak]

Tom Fazio has lived in that part of the woods for ten years now, so the course should benefit from his proximity, but he didn't relocate just to do the project.

[james soper]

tom d, i had heard that tom f moved from hendersonville, nc (champion hills) to cashiers because he wanted to be on site for these projects. the commute is close to two hours each way due to the mountain roads. plus i understand he wanted to downsize from his spacious manse (10 rooms?) at champion hills because all the kids were out of the house.

[Doug Ralston]

Is Fazio intending that this be a Tour course or somesuch? 508 uphill par-4's seem a little over-the-top for a 'Members Course', no?

Course looks good, though nothing all THAT special, from the pix.

Doug

[Andy Troeger]

One fellow I played with that was pretty well travelled and seemed to know his stuff said it was as good or better than Wade Hampton, and he seemed to think highly of Wade Hampton.

Not much detail unfortunately, but for that's worth. He highly recommended it.

[wsmorrison]

Adam Messix lives in Cashiers.  Hopefully he will chime in.  I'll give him a call to see what he knows.  That shouldn't take too long  

[Doug Ralston]

Well OK;

Here is the best I can do to provide pix from a REAL Mountain Top Course.

http://parks.ky.gov/golftrail/18hole/yl/gallery/

Sadly, the drought and the local town refusing to honor it's water commitment, has really destroyed those magnificent fairways, probably until next Spring.

But if you do not play this tract, I think you miss the best $42 [max] course imaginable. Of course, Dale Hollow Lake in the same State Park Trail would be a sweet alternative.

I warned you. I shall not give up till I entice some of you.

Doug

[David_Madison]

I played Mountaintop and Wade Hampton back-to-back in early July. Mountaintop is absolutely the real thing, and if it doesn't get lost in Wade Hampton's shadow it might in time gain recognition as one of if not the best course in the southwest corner of NC. It's certainly visually amazing, both within the holes themselves as well as the mountain surrounds. Wade is a softer, more natural course, but again a visual beauty both within the holes and the surrounding mountains and other terrain. Mountaintop and Wade Hampton are two very different clubs, with the former being a far more lavish full-scale country club and residential community while Wade Hampton is more of a golf club.

The two courses are similar is total overall yardage from the tips, with similar slopes and course ratings, but Mountaintop is a par-70 while Wade Hampton is a par-72 course. The former clearly is a more challenging test from the tips, as I had a far greater variety of clubs into the greens than I did at Wade Hampton. Our host informed me that Wade was going to be adding some new tees on a number of holes, restoring some of the longer approaches that were originally intended by Tom Fazio.

[Adam_Messix]

Wayne--

Thanks very much once again for your vote of confidence in my (lack) of knowledge.  

I've played both Mountaintop and Wade Hampton many times and they are totally different, Moutaintop is a mountain course and Wade Hampton is a valley course.  Mountaintop was built on an extremely difficult piece of property and no expense was spared in making it playable, a remarkable achievement by itself.  There are a number of excellent golf holes, notably the 2nd, 11th, 12th, 16th, and 18th.  Also the course is in remarkable condition thanks to the talents of Superintendent Eric Shoemaker (formerly at Highlands CC).  Many people get caught up in the service aspect of Mountaintop which is deserved because it's fantastic, but the golf course is true engineering achievement.

Wade Hampton has been talked about on this site and I don't have too much to add.  However, the one thing that gets missed on that golf course in all the beauty is the way Fazio used angles of play beautifully and quite subtly.  In this I mean that taking different lines on tee shots (within the fairway lines) will dramatically alter the approach to the green.  David is correct in stating that there are going to be changes made to Wade Hampton over the next few years and it should bring back some longer approach shots to the greens.