Tom,
Bonus question: are there any good alligator stories from the construction of Streamsong?
Jim:
Not that I know of. I do remember that when Bill and I were out there, we were particularly concerned about walking through the area which is now #8 fairway of the Blue course, because there were some low wet areas with a lot of bush around them. Sure enough, when we cleared it out, we found the little pond that's to the right of #8 about 100-150 yards short of the green, and there was a resident alligator there who has never wanted to move out.
My best alligator story is from the third hole at Long Cove. The hole has a lagoon 60 yards in front of the tee and all along the left side, and when we were building it (in 1981), we only had a tape measure to measure the holes. P.B. Dye asked me to measure that one and we measured it around on dry land and added 60 yards for the tee shot, and I reported back that it was 570 yards. He said that was impossible, and I said it was probably quite a bit shorter on the bee line over the water for your second shot. P.B. had designed it so that some people could get home in two, so he wanted to know for sure how long it was.
So, he ordered us to go out and measure the direct line, by swimming with the tape measure across the lagoon. One of my roommates from the mountains of S.C., Dan-O, was the designated swimmer. I was the guy who stayed upstream and threw dirt clods at the resident alligator to keep him from bothering Dan-O.
I was bummed that I missed out in your auction for a round of golf with P.B., just because I wanted to laugh about stuff like that with him.
Yikes, Not sure the "good old days" were that good.
There were definitely alligators on that hole in my time there.
I think I might've just had to pull out the geometry on that measurement. (then guessed
)
Didn't see many balls on that green in two in 3 years there