some pictures from Lookout Mountain

[PThomas]

got to play this terrific golf course recently..some of the most challenging greens to putt i have ever played!!!

the uphill 2nd



approach to the 2nd



3rd tee



2nd to the 3rd



some/most? of the bunkers are REALLY deep!



more tomorrow...

[Mac Plumart]

Couldn't agree more on those greens.  They are awesome!!

[Anthony Gray]

  This course has many difficult up and downs if you miss the green. Not many flat lies much like Pebble Beach.

  Anthony

[Kenny Baer]

Played here yesterday; those greens are just plain nasty; you have to be incredibly careful with every putt.  They have very very little internal contour but tons of tilt; above the hole chipping screams double bogey every time.

I find greens with that kind of tilt tougher to putt then ones with large undulations; with undulation you can typically putt to a spot and let the ball trickle out, with the greens at LM both line and pace had to be perfect; not unusual to have a 30 footer with 7 feet of break that if you ran it 6 ft by you felt you hit a pretty good putt.  For a 6600 yd course from the tips with a 73.1 rating and 141 slope, no water, very little OB, tough to lose a ball.  Good stuff.

The pro Adam is a great guy as well.

[Steve Okula]

Where is it?

Who designed it?

When was it built?

[Steve Kline]

Chattanooga

I believe Raynor

Don't know when

[PThomas]

Played here yesterday; those greens are just plain nasty; you have to be incredibly careful with every putt.  They have very very little internal contour but tons of tilt; above the hole chipping screams double bogey every time.

I find greens with that kind of tilt tougher to putt then ones with large undulations; with undulation you can typically putt to a spot and let the ball trickle out, with the greens at LM both line and pace had to be perfect; not unusual to have a 30 footer with 7 feet of break that if you ran it 6 ft by you felt you hit a pretty good putt.  For a 6600 yd course from the tips with a 73.1 rating and 141 slope, no water, very little OB, tough to lose a ball.  Good stuff.

The head pro Adam is a great guy as well.

good comments Kenny...i had a 40 footer from the back of number 4 that i left pin high...20 feet left!  talk about local knowledge being important..

and Adam is a very nice guy, as is the Director of Golf Operations/Super., Mark ...the same Mark in Ran's writeup fo the course

[Mac Plumart]

Yep, Chattanooga, Raynor/Banks, 1925

[PThomas]

you got it in the wrong state folks!

its in Georgia

[Mac Plumart]

Oops...right on the border...my bad.

[PThomas]

Oops...right on the border...my bad.

reminds me that I had to take 3 geography courses for my science requirement in college Mac...took them pass fail..and still came uncomfortably close to failing at least 1 of them!

[Anthony Gray]

  I believe Raynor died just prior to completion.

  Anthony

[PThomas]

as promised...

tee shot on 5 is blind...you later find out the fairway tilts right



uphill 2nd to par 5 7th...bunker is in the center of the fairway



rock outcroppings on right side of 9



tee shot at dogleg left par 5 10th



2nd to Alps/11th hole...thats a flagpole to guide your shot




fabulous Double Plateau 17th



uphill 2nd from left side of 18..flag is towards the white tent



a course that one would never tire of playing...seemed like great place to be a member- you driver up the mountain on a NARROW 2 lane road...that road is the only thing between the parking lot and the range...

a course worthy of serious consideration for GW's Top 100 CLassic list...hard to believer it doesnt make GD's list of the top 20 in GA

[Phil McDade]

Paul:

Great pics -- are those fairways as wide as they look? Interesting comments about tilt vs. contour -- just visited a Raynor with more contouring than tilt for the greens.

[Ben Sims]

Paul,

I enjoyed Lookout immensely the one time I played it.  I found it to be a nice mixture of tough and fun.  I stand by my assessment of the greens being just as flummoxing as those I witnessed at Yale and Pasa, if short of the challenge presented by Oakmont and Crystal Downs.  Some of the holes--namely 7, 9, 11, 17--are truly memorable and stand pat with the best holes in the South.   I think you're right to place it as highly as you did on some of those lists.

Were Gil Hanse's individual hole drawings for the proposed renovation still hanging in the Men's Grille?  I thought there were some very cool ideas on them.  Except for the reclamation of the Prestwick style front bunker on #11 Alps.  I like the idea of trying to blindly run up a shot on that hole. 

[PThomas]

Phil- yea the fairways were plenty wide i thought...

Ben, i didnt notice Gil's drawings...and those greens must present a great home field advantage when a member brings in a  guest for a game!

[Mike Hendren]

I do not recall this bunker.  Is it new?



Mike

[PThomas]

I do not recall this bunker.  Is it new?



Mike

I dont know Mike, sorry