The Patriot GC at Grand Harbor SC...and Barefoot Love GC...

[paul cowley]

...are two courses I designed with Davis and Mark Love that incorporated architectural features...an Ante Bellum ruin and a Civil War era earthen fortress. I haven't been to either in 7 or 8 years and was wondering how they were holding up...playability, conditions, changes etc?

No comment too bad! Thx

[Michael Whitaker]

Paul,

I have not played the Barefoot course in a while, but the Grand Harbor course is hanging in there. As you may know, the whole place was a real estate play and when the economy tanked the course nearly closed... but, it didn't.

It is one of my favorite places to play in SC. They did away with the tall grass in short order, but keep the course playing firm and fast for the most part. The mini verdae greens are some of the best anywhere around. The green on #3 is still fearsome with its massive false front!!! And, 4 is one of my favorite Redan-ish greens anywhere. Everyone has truly embraced the ruins on 18 and most of today's players think they are original to the property.    I still think creating the earthen fort and using it for tee boxes was inspired.

You did a fine job there and it is one of the very few courses in SC that offers some truly old school golf.

[Bill_McBride]

You didn't ask, but the carries on a couple of holes at Shell Landing are still beyond the average female golfer.   

[Sam Morrow]

You didn't ask, but the carries on a couple of holes at Shell Landing are still beyond the average female golfer.   

Which holes?

[paul cowley]

Thanks Michael - the Patriot was a special course for many reasons and I'm pleased to hear it's still there. It seems to have had a name change though...Google Earth search didn't work for the Patriot GC but instead for the Patriot GC at Grand Harbor...which got me there, fort and all. A big one by golly, just measured and the its 800' diagonally across the rampart tips...a large fort for its day  . Actually I modeled it after the Casitilllo de San Marcos in St Augustine for its classic military design lines. Need to get there sometime and play a round...you game if I do?

[paul cowley]

...oh BTW...are Hootie and his wife still members? Just changed the threads title to reflect its new name.

[Michael Whitaker]

...oh BTW...are Hootie and his wife still members? Just changed the threads title to reflect its new name.

Not sure about Hootie. If I'm in town when you visit im in,,, let's play!

I still have fond memories of you firing your black powder rifle into the brick of the ruins to give them "battle scars." Loudest firearm I've ever heard!

[paul cowley]

 

[Tim Gavrich]

I played Barefoot Love probably a year ago and found it in good order. I was perplexed by the two-green par three on the back, the 11th. I recall both greens being quite similar in size and flatness to the point where I wasn't sure of the point of there being two greens in the first place. Perhaps the hole has lost some of that internal distinctiveness in recent years.

Paul, did you work on the Retreat Course at Sea Island as well? I played there last week and thought the greens particularly were really well-done. Would be particularly fun to play a number of different hole locations on 6, 7, 12 and 14.

[Bill_McBride]

You didn't ask, but the carries on a couple of holes at Shell Landing are still beyond the average female golfer.   

Which holes?

Par 3 #17 and par 4 maybe #4.   Only forced carries I can remember except the pitch at the first par 5.

[Sam Morrow]

How far is it from the ladies tees?

[Bill_McBride]

How far is it from the ladies tees?

125 IIRC. 

Sorry for the thread jack. 

[Ian Larson]

I haven't been there since working as a turf student at Horry-Georgetown during the construction and grow-in....but cracking open a beer one evening in 1999 and taking shots at the ruin with a shotgun to make it look more "ruined" was something I'll never forget.

[paul cowley]

Tim - 11 was a great concept that wasn't fully actualized...we were lamenting that a true postage stamp green...2500 sq' thereabouts was hard to design today because of wear and lack of pins. We decided to build two 2500 sq' greens separated by bunkers that could be played alternately. The idea was good but we didn't build either with enough interest...chickened out...too flattish as you have described. Needs a remodel!

Michael and Ian - both your posts included shooting guns physically AT at golf course to improve it...probably not PC but appropriate to their design. At the Patriot I was shooting a revolutionary musket into the barracks of a civil war era fort that was modeled after Fort McAllister...an earthen fort designed to secure Savannah...but its bones were from the Castillo San Marcos built much earlier in St Augustine.

The ante bellum ruins built at the Barefoot course have some interesting stories to tell...which i will but not now...too late...manana!

[Bruce Wellmon]

Here is the ruins in 2011 during a SC Golf Course Ratings Panel outing.

[Joe Hancock]

Reminds me of some "faux ruins" Don Mahaffey and I were a part of in Centreville, Michigan. I wish we could have shot something(or someone) on that project.