Aiken Golf Club - photos of a no-longer hidden gem

[Kalen Braley]

Good job Bill.

Way to.....

[Bill_McBride]

Good job Bill.

Way to.....

 

[Tom MacWood]

I believe this course was originally called Highland Park and was affiliated with the Highland Park Hotel. Early on it was listed as having 11 holes, then in the early 20s nine holes and was eventually made into an 18-hole course, it was listed that way in 1930.

[Eric Smith]

When looking for it on Saturday morning using google maps on my i-phone it came up as Highland Park GC

[Doug Spets]

I assume they still have the stymie ruler on the scorecard.

Did Mike Whitaker go old school at the Dixie Cup?

[John Mayhugh]

The course name changed in the late 90s I think.

Seventh hole is an uphill par 4 of 405 yards.  I didn't do a good job of photos here either.




Eighth hole is a 355 yard par four.  Waste areas like this were added as part of an in-house renovation in the last ten years or so.


The approach shot is downhill to a green with a steep drop to the bunker on the right.




A look back at the hole from the ninth tee.



The ninth hole is a long, uphill par three.  202 yards.  Tough tee shot.  Of the five par three holes, from the tips four of them are 194 or longer.

[john_stiles]

John,

Thanks for the great photos.


bits and pieces regarding Aiken Golf Club.........

In Byrdy's book and in the AGC clubhouse,  the name change to Aiken Golf Club was 'sometime' in 1939. There is a photo of a  ' Aiken Golf Club'  1940 receipt in Stan Byrdy's book 'Augusta and Aiken in Golf's Golden Age'

A second fire in 1939 consumed the Highland Park Hotel.    After this fire,   the City of Aiken purchased the golf course for $15k and changed its name to Aiken Golf Club as detailed in the book.

Highland Park Hotel dated back to the early 1870s.

[Mark Pritchett]

Great post and pics.  Aiken has always been one of my all time favorite courses, just pure fun.  I am amazed how often I talk to golfers here in Augusta and they have never even heard of Aiken GC.  

Am I the only one who loves the fact that the course does not have a "driving range"?

[Tim Taylor]

Great pics! Some fun things from Aiken - four putting #4 from 12 feet then following it up with a 90+' bomb on #5. Ken and I trading kick in birdies on the long par 3s #11 and #13. Our foursome going collectively +8 on the back to back short par 4s #14 and #15. No birdies and only one par on those two "easy" holes.

I'll never judge another 6,000 yard course solely by it's length again!

Tim

[George Freeman]

Thanks for the pictures, John.  I inexplicably left my camera in the car for this round.  A serious regret. 

I have no problem being one of the blasphemous few that is willing to say I liked this course the most of the 3 we played.  Palmetto is phenomenal, no doubt about it, but Aiken does it for me.

please expound!

[Tom MacWood]

Here are a few articles from 1912 to 1915, hopefully they're readable:

[John Mayhugh]

Great post and pics.  Aiken has always been one of my all time favorite courses, just pure fun.  I am amazed how often I talk to golfers here in Augusta and they have never even heard of Aiken GC.  

Am I the only one who loves the fact that the course does not have a "driving range"?

I wish I had taken a couple of photos of their alternative to the range.  A two person net.

[John Mayhugh]

The tenth is a 520 yard par five.  The tee shot plays a little downhill.  More room than there looks like from the photos.






The right side of the green is tough to get to unless you're on the left side of the fairway.  The green is wide with a nice lower tier on the right.


The tenth green from the eleventh tee.



The eleventh is another long par three, 215 yards and a little uphill.  Tough shot through the trees. 


Here's what the green looks like from the trees short left.  For some reason I stopped over there to take a photo.



The twelth is a 357 yard par four. The back tee is tucked back and left.  OB along the left side.  I didn't mention it before, but there is OB on a lot of the holes.  Fortunately the trees make it tough to actually hit the ball out. 


Big uphill approach shot.  Take enough club or end up in that little front left bunker.

[JC Jones]

Tom MacWood,

The second article you posted would seem to suggest that the golf course pre-dates the Hotel.  Or am I reading that wrong?

Thanks

[JC Jones]

Thanks for the pictures, John.  I inexplicably left my camera in the car for this round.  A serious regret. 

I have no problem being one of the blasphemous few that is willing to say I liked this course the most of the 3 we played.  Palmetto is phenomenal, no doubt about it, but Aiken does it for me.

please expound!

First of all, the green complexes at Palmetto are phenomenal and classic MacKenzie.

That being said, I found the greens and their surrounds at Aiken to be nearly as exciting.  What Aiken has going for it more than Palmetto, in my opinion, is a better use of the land and a requirement for more variety of shots.  At Palmetto, a majority of the approach shots were up hill and there was a certain sense of redundancy that took away from the awesome greens.  At Aiken, there were up hill approaches, down hill approaches and level approaches and each of the corresponding greens worked well with the approach.  Whomever did the routing made great use of the land (and the property is awkward with roads criss-crossing, etc.) and each hole seemed to flow to the next. 

So for me, I like the variety and the greens at Aiken were great (not as great as Palmetto) so the total package was there at Aiken GC.

[Jason Topp]

The tenth is a 520 yard par five.  The tee shot plays a little downhill.  More room than there looks like from the photos.

The right side of the green is tough to get to unless you're on the left side of the fairway.  The green is wide with a nice lower tier on the right.


The tenth green from the eleventh tee.

I wonder if that back portion of the green gets any use.  We did not notice any cup marks.  I'm not sure if it would be goofy or not back there.

[JC Jones]

Jason,

We had the same discussion in our group and I also had the discussion with Joe Hancock.  I wonder if the tree(s) in the 80 yard range have grown such that the back portion cant be used as well.  I dont see any reason why, from 80 yards a golf couldn't choose to either go at the pin back there and risk being short or falling off back, or playing it safe to the middle and walking off with a good two-putt.

[Brent Hutto]

I wonder if that back portion of the green gets any use.  We did not notice any cup marks.  I'm not sure if it would be goofy or not back there.

I tried a putt from the "main" green surface down to the back-right mini-green and it would not stop. At the speed they were putting on Saturday, maybe with a really dainty touch (i.e. bringing the ball to a near stop at the precipice) you could keep it on the green.

So my point being with the hole back there you could not manufacture any shot that lands on the main portion of the green and rolls there, you most likely can't hit your approach onto the main tier and putt it down (keeping it on the green) and so the only option would be a high shot with spin from the far, far left edge of the fairway.

How many people play Aiken GC on a typical day who can perfectly place the ball on the very edge of the short grass and then hit a couple hundred square foot blind tier with a high spinner? I think it would turn into a "wasted" shot in which everything runs off the back of the green. That said, with the grass speed maybe half a foot slower than last Saturday it might be playable back there.

[Tom MacWood]

Tom MacWood,

The second article you posted would seem to suggest that the golf course pre-dates the Hotel.  Or am I reading that wrong?

Thanks

The golf course predates the new hotel. The old hotel burned down around the turn of the century. There was another hotel - Park-in-the-Pines hotel - nearby when the course was built. That hotel was destroyed as well, which resulted in the new hotel being built at the site of the old hotel.

[J Sadowsky]

Someone stole your cart!.   

Sorry, that one was for Melvyn

[John Shimp]

Aiken is a great place and I'm really sorry I missed it after seeing the photos and knowing what the weather and conditions were like. 

The other big contrast with Palmetto and Aiken in my mind is that Palmetto is just a lot harder (5-7 shots?).  The piece of property is much more severe leading to many big uphill shots and several down hill ones (I don't understand the earlier comment made about monotony of uphill shots though?  ), the greens are often raised much more,  the bunkers are more penal and creative, and the greens are wild, firm, and small.  Despite its relatively short length, Palmetto can leave you feeling a bit beaten up sometimes or at least feeling as if you played a good bit better than you scored.  One of the fascinating things about the place though is that there are days where you can get a feel/mindset for the golf course and sink into a rythm where scoring feels quite easy. 

How do you all that have now played at sandy Aiken and sandy Pinehurst compare they way they play?  I've always favored the way the turf feels and ball runs at Aiken personally.

[JC Jones]

I said redundant, John, not monotonous

I am certainly not knocking Palmetto, per se, just giving reasons why, if given a 10 round split I would go 6-4 in favor of Aiken.  Both are phenomenal courses.

[Jamey Bryan]

John, I think we were also unfortunately in the "early overseeded" season where the green surrounds were unusually sticky.  I found myself "shortsided" several times where I needed to chip sideways, but the chip wouldn't run out (it stayed in the wet/sticky rye).  Not a criticism of the course, but a fact of life of the timing.

Jamey

[Brent Hutto]

My experiences at Pinehurst are Tobacco Road (OK turf in spots but too wet and too sticky overall), Pine Needles, Mid-Pines and Southern Pines. Of the latter three I found only Pine Needles superior to the turf we played on Aiken GC and Palmetto. And I'm not sure averaging Pine Needles over a couple different visits I would even say its turf (in winter) is superior to Palmetto but both are quite nice ground for golf. Mid-Pines is too wet with lots of thin, soft lies and Southern Pines has fairways that have been a bit cuppy when I was there.

I would say the overall ground environment in Aiken is comparable to that in the Pinehurst area with differences among courses having to do more with choice of presentation and seasonal variation than the underlying soil. For a course in its price range, very few places I've played can match the playability of Aiken GC from fairway to apron to green. If only the public-course denizens could bring themselves to rake bunkers like the members at Palmetto and Camden.

[John Shimp]

Jamey,
Totally agree re overseed.  Fairways/green surrounds were long too which was a shame.  You really need to be able to bump it up there to get around Palmetto and you couldn't do it with the sticky rye.