Photos of The Old White Course at The Greenbrier (CB Macdonald ~> Lester George)

[Tim Gavrich]

To cap off as good a golfing weekend as I've had, I played the Old White the day after playing the Cascades.  The folks at both resorts have always been really accommodating to our team, and we're really fortunate to get to play such great courses every year.

I know this is going to shock and annoy some people, but I preferred the Old White to the Cascades by a little bit.  Don't get me wrong--the Cascades is really good--but I put the Old White firmly in the "fantastic" category.  I thought it was much better off the tee, with wider corridors that encouraged assertive play but properly punish reckless driving.  The Cascades was a little too narrow; I often felt defensive.  Also, while the Cascades' greens are certainly interesting and challenging, the drama to be found at the Old White gripped me even more.

Without further ado, pictures:

1--Stern beginning to the round; a par will make you feel like you've gotten off on the right foot, but even if you start with a bogey, you know there's plenty of time to recover.



2--Neat hogback fairway and dramatic green with a Valley of Sin of sorts on the left side.



3--The Biarritz.



4--Straightaway par 4; beautiful mountain backdrop.



5--Interesting short 4, delicate approach over stream; first look at "dragon's teeth" (as Mr. George calls them) in fourth picture.





6--Stout par 4 where you want to skirt the fairway bunkers in order to leave yourself a sensible approach.



7--Medium par 4 with a fantastic green.



8--The Redan; more dragon's teeth and drama...really cool-looking, I think.



9--Solid 4 to finish the nine; negotiate the well-placed fairway bunkers.



10--A beautiful schnoz.



11--Sweeping-left par 4



12--First par 5; perfect pair of Spectacles.



13--The Alps-Punchbowl; I forgot to take a picture from the tee, but calls for a confident left-to-righter.


14--Sahara; deceptive look off the tee...makes you want to aim too far left and too close to the bunker.



15--Eden.


16--Cape; first pic looks back at tee boxes from landing area...classic risk-reward opportunity.



17--Short par 5 with a Cape-ish tee shot; forgot to take picture of approach to green flanked by bunkers


18--The Short, complete with excellent horseshoe contouring.  Good little finishing hole that I found satisfying even though it's a par 3.



I absolutely love this golf course.  Yale is my favorite golf course, and I love that look (same with Pete Dye as well--I can't wait to play more of his courses), so I guess that's what gives it the edge over Flynn's Cascades.

Cheers.

--Tim Gavrich

[Jay Flemma]

wow!  Great biarritz there.  Nice photos Tim, nice restoration work Lester.  Well done.

[Chip Gaskins]

That might be the coolest looking Redan I have ever seen.  Wow. 

[Jay Flemma]

You're right chip, and that horseshoe in the 18th is so old school...amazing.  Simply amazing on all counts.

[Ray Cross]

Tim,
Very nice work on pix and comments with this and the Cascades item you posted yesterday.

It has been several years since I played Old White (always one of my favorites) and I would not have recognized some of the holes (changes) w/o your comments. The bigest surprise for me came at #3...wow!   That had not been a Biarritz before in my 15 plus rounds there.

Lester...really looks like an outstanding job.  Wasn't there supposed to be a lot of Raynor in this course or was that the Greenbrier course before Jack came in prior to the Ryder Cup?  There was/is a Biarritz hole on that course, too.

Thanks again for the nice work....Tim (for pix) and Lester (for restoration)

Ray

[BCrosby]

Thanks Tim. Great job. The Old White wasn't on my radar screen. It is now.

Bob

[Richard Boult]

This joins Scott Burroughs photo tour at http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas/West%2BVirginia

[ChipOat]

Excellent pictures and even better commentary - well done!

I started a thread on the Old White in January, 2002 while Lester George's resoration work was still in progress - specifically 17 and 18 were still mostly mud.  I don't know how to find old threads, but it was probably titled "Report From The Greenbriar" or something close to that.  I'm sure there's been several other good threads since then, so maybe they can be resurrected, too.

The gist of my thread was that I was disappointed in the course as being pretty diluted Macdonald (perhaps because it's a resort).  Specifically, Redan isn't nearly as severe as his other creations, Alps/Punchbowl has no Alps resemblance that I could see, the Cape hole isn't really a Cape (see below) and there were a few other classic Macdonald holes that were pretty watered down.

I'm glad LG's work has been so successful, and he made several contributions to my original  thread that were excellent.  The course still looks like CBM was taking a lot of Valium when he designed the green complexes - perhaps at the orders of resort management.

Two other things:

1) I hope those houses going up in back of #3 and #7 are already pre-sold.

2) Tim Gavrich: As George Bahto will point out if asked, a true Cape hole has nothing to do with the tee shot and everything to do with part of the GREEN protruding into a hazard.  The tee shot happens to have been (and continues to be) such an integral part of NGLA's Cape that it has (inaccurately)superceded the green complex in most people's minds as the major part of CBM's intent.  Thus, the Old White's Cape is not, in fact, a Cape.  Please contact George or find the 2-3 past threads we've done on that subject.