If that quirky thread title doesn't make you inquisitive, nothing will. In fact, Sassafras is the new Coore & Crenshaw slated to begin construction late this fall. I was there last September for a cocktail party and it has several key ingredients going for it as a private club.
First, it is within a couple hour drive of ~14 million people. That helps! Also, climate wise, I am not joining a place where the playing season is less than half the year as something just rubs me wrong about that, especially in a recession. Located on the eastern shore of Maryland, I imagine golf will be played at least nine months of the year here. Third, there is already an extensive furnished manor house (which becomes the clubhouse) on the property. All the roads, sewage, power, etc. are set for the main club facility. Too many poorly funded private clubs opened from a makeshift structure with the clubhouse still not built years later. Not having a clubhouse is a poor omen, given the known stresses that private clubs are under. Fourth, (and those of us in the Pinehurst area really appreciate this), Sassafras is being developed by someone with a track record of success. Junior varsity time is over and experience is needed to make the many ticklish decisions that go into a successful private club, starting with an intelligent land acquisition basis from which to work.
From this perspective, the first hole is to the right of the entrance drive and the fifteenth hole is on the left. Then you cross in front of the clubhouse to play the finally three holes on its other side. Making both nines return to the clubhouse would have been a routing disaster and give the developer credit for not making Coore do so.
Regarding the golf, if I'm 50 years old and thinking about joining a place, I need to know how well I can age there. Given that golf is a walking sport, can I still walk the course in fifteen years or does it become a bit too hilly? Twenty years ago, I would have said that you were nuts if you preferred Garden City played on the Hempstead PLAIN over Yale with its rollicking landscape but my perspective has now changed/softened/wimped out/matured. Though having endured plantar fasciitis last year, I still jog ~20 miles a week but climbing a flight a stairs in the evening (and especially descending in the morning) involves more and more circus maneuvers
(whomever invented the banister deserves an award).
Also, as you gracefully age with martini in hand, the need for forced carries and greens that only accept a high soft fade dissipates. Give me something fun with broad slopes and open greens and my children and I will be just fine, thanks. While a Coore & Crenshaw diagram doesn't mean much as the real work occurs once they get in the field, my one walk around the routing on display at the manor house made me think that the holes work well for all ages. Afterall, the high to low point on the property is just 30 feet. The photographs above and below gives you an indication of some of the rolls and broad slopes with which Coore & Crenshaw have to work.
Here is the view from the manor house back terrace to the final three holes that will play along a finger of the Chesapeake Bay, more accurately referred to as the Sassafras River. I was told it is a deep natural tributary, great for boating, but I'm not a yachtsman so I don't know.
I am a big fan of pure golf clubs ala the kind found throughout England. Your dog and you head off, play a sub-three hour round and return home to do your newly assigned chores. For doomed
married guys (or girls!), that's about as good as can be hoped. Conceivably that's still possible in the U.S. but in general, if you are going to join a new club, how can you possibly do so unless it offers things for your wife and kids as well? In part, that's what the founders of The Country Club in Brookline thought 120 years ago, that golf could be one of many offerings out in the country that the whole family could enjoy. Set on over 550 acres, I don't readily recall the full menu of what Sassafras will offer but I know tennis, swimming, boating, fishing and hunting are among them. A true club in the country, courtesy in part by finding the right infrastructure and then building a course around it.
Anyway, I have no vested interest in Sassafras and I am typing this rambling post out of appreciation for the fact that some people are still trying to do things the right way despite the economic headwinds.
Few places seem to have the right ingredients for long term success and I think this is one on them for the reasons stated above. What do you think?
Cheers,