Pictorial: Tobacco Road Golf Club (Mike Strantz) - All 18 posted

[Frank M]

It's over the top against convention. It was some of the most fun I've had on a golf course and I couldn't wait to see what's next. If that doesn't make a good course I don't know what does.

Hole 1










Hole 2








Hole 3






Hole 4








Hole 5








Hole 6






Hole 7








Hole 8




Hole 9








Hole 10








Hole 11








Hole 12






Hole 13






Hole 14




Hole 15








Hole 16








Hole 17




That's more green on the other side of the waste bunker


Hole 18

[Kalen Braley]

Frank,

Awesome stuff, I've always loved the look of this course...

I wonder if Engh got/gets his inspiration from Stranz....I can see some similarities there.

P.S.  The gunch sure looks pretty severe in these pics...was it as bad in person?

[Frank M]

Hey Kalen,

I did not play very well that day and I was able to avoid the long stuff. I'm not sure if you've played the course, but on my one time play, I found it to be very wide and forgiving off the tee.

Although I didn't play out of it, it did seem VERY severe, but the areas that were in play seemed to be a lot more thinned out than lets say around the tee.

[Mark McKeever]

I never realized how many greens are so incredibly shallow??  Better be selecting the right clubs hitting into the greens.

Mark

[Chris DeNigris]

Mark,

The pics are a little deceiving...only 6(depending on the tee position), 13 and 15 are really shallow.

Frank- Thanks for the photos..the Road never gets old.

[Tom_Doak]

I never realized how many greens are so incredibly shallow??  Better be selecting the right clubs hitting into the greens.

Mark

Mark:

That's the one thing I really didn't like about the course.  Some of those shots are just beyond a lot of golfers' abilities.

Frank:

Thanks for the tour.  I had forgotten just how severe the course was, even on the less memorable holes.

[Tim Gavrich]

You got some pretty tasty-looking pins on the day you played, it appears.

TR also looks like it's in fantastic shape.  It has seemed to struggle, the couple times I've been.

[Frank M]

Chris: Hmm...I didn't think 15 was very shallow.

I think 6, 13, 14, and 17 are shallow. Also, there are some narrow greens (i.e. 9).  

Tom: TR is definitely either of severe or over the top almost all the time...but that is what I feel makes it so intriguing.

[Andy Troeger]

Love to see photos of Tobacco Road. Its about as much fun as I can remember having playing golf, even if I'll admit that I've seen courses that are technically superior. I'd go back in a heartbeat. I understand its not for everybody, including one of my playing partners, but its wild yet really pretty playable especially if you're willing to play safe around the hazards.

#13 green is probably too shallow for the shot required. Its admittedly a very odd hole, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit liking the guts it took to build that green there.

[Sean_A]

Is it me or are there more waste areas than five or so years ago.  I also don't recall the front right sand on #1 being three bunkers.  The course definitely looks more severe than I remember it. 

I agree with TD, just a tad too many shallow greens for my taste and the odd hitch #s12&17 which really hold back The Road.  Still, I admire the course very much because Strantz got so much right.  Being so out of the box he was bound to have a few whiffs here and there.  Even so, for me, this is the number 1 course I want to play when in the Pinehurst area - well except that I want to see Dormie Club - tee hee.

Thanks Frank.

Ciao

[JC Jones]

Tobacco Road is incredibly bold and incredibly fun.  Every shot requires careful consideration of strategy and where you want to be for your next shot.  I call courses like this and the Ocean Course, the billiards of golf.  Not only must you execute your current shot, but you must be thinking about your next.

[Chris DeNigris]

As discussed a lot here TR looks severe but plays very user friendly after after a couple of trips. The waste is very functional at saving strokes...since it borders a lot of the holes it prevents a bunch of balls from finding much worse fate. I rarely hit it straight and I hardly ever find the woods or gunch. Since you can ground your club it's often only a marginal penalty if any at all. There are a couple of demanding tee shots (1, 9, 12 and 18) but even some of those are more mental than physical. The pictures don't always reflect it but there is substantial width in most of the driving areas. If you play it more frequently you realize that the truly shallow greens are few in number and are all typically approached with a very lofted club. And some of the "shallow" greens seem more shallow because of the enormous width-17 in particular.

The funnest golf course I've ever played and not by a little. If you're within 300 miles you shouldn't miss it.

[David Stewart]

I just moved from NC but only lived about an hour away and could not get down there enough. If you live close make sure you sign up for their email group because they will run specials in the $50-60 range even during the busy season.

13 is fairly controversial because of the green depth, but I think it is fair considering it is a 3 shot hole that is not overly long. A decent player can hit 3 wood, 5 iron and leave himself a wedge into the green. Big hitters can even drive over the trees and leave about a 160-170 yard second shot. It would be a really cool punchbowl-like green if they shaved the whole inside of the bowl to fairway height or at least got rid of the gunch so you had a shot if you missed the green short or long. The green depth isn't really the issue, just that slightly missing the green can lead to a lost ball.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

that is the first time  i have evr seen that many pictures iof the course.
I am surprised to see the generosity off the tee, not what I expected at all.
Certainly somewhere that looks like a fun place to play, and somewhere that has jumpred higher onto my play list after these photographs.
Thank you for posting

[Carl Nichols]

Where are all the golfers?

[Frank M]

Where are all the golfers?

It was a very late afternoon/early evening tee time and they were all approximately 1.5 hrs ahead of me.

[Matt Bosela]

Excellent tour Frank, with the best set of pictures I've ever seen of Tobacco Road.

I'll have to get back to the Carolinas soon to see this course in person.  Looks like a blast to play.

[Frank M]

Thanks

[Kyle Henderson]

Tobacco Road is completely over the top. The greens and many of the hazards are severly bold in contour. It features a great number of uneccessarily blind shots. It defies time-tested conventions followed by all of the great golf course architects. Yet, somehow, it does this in an almost uniformly endearing manner.

Some GCAers may not like it, but all should play it

[George Pazin]

I never realized how many greens are so incredibly shallow??  Better be selecting the right clubs hitting into the greens.

Mark

That's been my most consistent criticism of this course, which I really enjoyed otherwise. That precise distance control is just a skill almost singularly suited to very good golfers. It makes things very easy for them, yet unduly hard for the rest of us. Drop and stop golf at its least fine... (distance controlled elements in general, not just at TR). A few of the other criticisms I had were eliminated, according to someone on site awhile ago (stupid trees, mostly).

Chris N's observations are a little too kind, imho (he's probably one of those better players I cite above). I found 17 to be too shallow, also, along with the others mentioned. Heck, even 1 seemed too shallow to me. 9 was the exception, where it was very deep, but made up for that by only being about 5 feet wide.

Still, a very fun course to play, at a very reasonable rate, too. Thanks for the tour, Frank, it brought back some very pleasant memories.

TR is the only golf course my wife has actually played. Not bad for a one-off.

[Tim Martin]

Frank-Stunning pictures as usual. Man that looks fun!

[Bruce Wellmon]

Tobacco Road is completely over the top. The greens and many of the hazards are severly bold in contour. It features a great number of uneccessarily blind shots. It defies time-tested conventions followed by all of the great golf course architects. Yet, somehow, it does this in an almost uniformly endearing manner.

Some GCAers may not like it, but all should play it

Agreed.
Has anyone in this group actually gone for the green on #5 and made it?

[David Stewart]

Tobacco Road is completely over the top. The greens and many of the hazards are severly bold in contour. It features a great number of uneccessarily blind shots. It defies time-tested conventions followed by all of the great golf course architects. Yet, somehow, it does this in an almost uniformly endearing manner.

Some GCAers may not like it, but all should play it

Agreed.
Has anyone in this group actually gone for the green on #5 and made it?

I've played it about 10 times and usually go for it. I have only made it on the green once. I usually end up in the collection area short or the sand to the right of that.

[JC Jones]

Bruce,

In my one play, I went for #5 and reached.  The play is about 30-ish yards short of the green with a runner.  It will feed down onto the green. 

[Steve_Lovett]

My first play at TR I hit driver and 2-iron to #13 - not completely sure what I was aiming at. Turned out my second shot was literally sitting next to the lip of the cup. I only wish I knew the journey it took to get there...

My last play at TR I made a hole in one on #6 - backed it into the hole with a PW.

It's a wild ride with many fun holes. I thought 9 and 16 were conspicuously weak amongst the rest.