Jawbone Creek Country Club photo tour

[Garland Bayley]

Photobucket  has decided to not display our pictures as we use them for 3rd party storage. I have converted this tour to flickr 

Taking a page from Anthony Gray's (remember him?) playbook, I decided to post a thread on the course I learned to play the game on, as he did quite a long time ago.


It has probably been at least 10 years since I have been back to play the course I learned to play on in high school. At that time they were using a cow skull as their emblem with tee markers fashioned from the shape of the skull. This was not necessarily a choice consistent with the name of the course, which is Jawbone Creek Country Club. This year when I played the course again, I was pleased to see their adoption of an emblem that reflected the name. The first place you see this emblem is on the gate fence on the way to the club house from the parking lot.





Another place you see it is as a sign on top of the hill where the ninth tee resides that can be seen from the road to the airport. Since this is a small Montana town the road to the airport is a gravel road leading to an airport used by private propeller driven planes.





Searching GCA.com I was surprised to find an architectural attribution for the course at http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,58599.msg1376232.html#msg1376232


The course is in Harlowton, MT, county seat of Wheatland County where the wind blows a lot, so much so that they gave up maintaining the windows on the windward side of the court house and boarded them over.


As a testament to the wind, this much zoomed in picture is what you can see from the clubhouse parking lot.





On my previous visit, I quickly stopped by early in the morning on my way home from a visit to my brothers place in Billings, MT. I played the course alone and when I was leaving people began to arrive in droves to play. This time I was told that the locals don't like to play much in the morning, as the wind blows too much then. Playing in the morning comes naturally to me there, as when I was in high school, I would rather play golf in morning, and swim at the local pool in the afternoon with the teenage girls.


This time I played the Harlowton High School alumni scramble tournament on July 3, and then played early in the morning of the 4th, when I took all the pictures of an empty course.

[Garland Bayley]

The course has been reconfigured and grassed since high school, so where the first hole used to be a par three, and the second hole a par four, there is now a par five opener with separate tees to give separate looks.





One tee is to the side of the clubhouse giving a look at the fairway leading down to Jawbone Creek about half way to the hole. The hole turns left at the creek and plays uphill along the side of the graveyard to the green, which along with the graveyard can be seen above the resevior in the picture.





The other tee provides a sharper dogleg to the left and offering the risk of trying to carry the resevior on the drive. A partner in the scramble with a laser said the trees at the small gap on the right side of the resevior were 200 yards away. After the team having a ball in play, my attempt to make that carry lefty sliced off into the pond.





Not being a bomber in my old age, I don't challenge Jawbone Creek when playing for score and the second shot can be seen to generally need to play off a downhill lie.





For the third shot, two greenside bunkers are in play at the first green.





The bunkers are now grassed as they found they couldn't keep sand in them in such a windy location. The original course had sand greens that had to be heavily oiled to keep the sand from blowing away.

[Garland Bayley]

One unfortunate thing about the course rebuilt in an era before any resurgence of walking golf is that the green to tee transitions can be more than they should be. On my way to the second tee, I could not help but notice that a better hole could have been built for the second across the heaving terrain in the picture with Jawbone Creek providing a lateral hazard on the right.





The par four second hole is in much the same location that I remember the third hole being in the course's original incarnation.





The picture from the second tee shows how the prevalence of golf carts has led to a hole with a tee at the high point playing down across a swale that should be carried on the tee shot and continuing straight away up to the green.





From the walk to the fairway of the second hole you can see more of the varied terrain a minimalist approach could have left in place for the second hole located closer to Jawbone Creek.





Noticing the Crazy Mountains in the southwest background, I zoomed in to capture a view of the graveyard that I used to slice into from the second, fifth, and sixth holes as a teenager, and the Crazy Mountains in the heavy haze from Montana and Canadian forest fires.





The second hole also features a 150 yard marker using the jawbone emblem.





The approach shot to the green shows that they are doing what I think is a mistake. Clearly they are planting trees on the course, which can ruin the windy links quality of the course. Fortunately, this is the only area I noticed such a planting. If they insist on this type of development, I hope they don't continue to engage in the totally boring and unnatural planting trees in a line bordering the holes.





Looking at the green from the left (east) side.

[Garland Bayley]

The third hole lies where I remember the original fourth hole to lie, running up the east side of the property with OB to the right.








The approach to the third hole has to deal with a sharp rise up from the fairway to the green. For the bombers that fly their approaches onto the green, this presents no problem. However, it does unnecessarily penalize the shorter hitter that needs to land his longer iron short and get the ball to bounce onto the green. Furthermore, playing shots under the wind have less chance to run up the slope onto the putting surface.

[Garland Bayley]

The original course had a par five next running westward into the teeth of the wind near the northern boundary of the course. This has been replaced by a par three followed by a short par four, as the original hole probably was obsoleted by equipment advances.





Once again we see bunkers that have been grassed in since the wind would blow the sand out.

[Garland Bayley]

The fifth hole has been turned into a nice short par four.




From the tee, you have the option of playing approximately 200 yards to the top of the hill seen here from the tee, and gaining a flat lie for your approach shot. Or, you could try to bomb it across the hill to get a flat lie in the intervening swale. Finally, you could try cutting the dogleg to gain a position somewhat up the slope to the green.





Playing with the biggest hitter in our group the day of the scramble, who has played the course often, I found his choice was to lay up to the top of the hill so I chose to do likewise on my own, giving this view of the approach shot.





It also affords a view to the Little Belt Mountains to the northwest, across the range where there were two antelope playing. Given the forest fire smoke, the Little Belts are hard to see, and given they are stationary in a still photo, the antelope are difficult to pick out in the picture.





The green for the fifth hole lies on top of the hill as is shown below.

[Garland Bayley]

The sixth hole was one of my favorites on the original course, being a drop shot par three of 200 some yards to a green lying just over Jawbone Creek. It is now a par four continuing up the hill to return to the clubhouse for a nice six hole loop.





This hole also has been set up with two tees, each giving quite different looks for the tee shot. Leaving the fifth green to the left gives a tee for 15th hole with this view.





Leaving the fifth green over the back gives a tee for the sixth hole with this view.





Although the tee shot for the sixth looks awkward, it is the more comfortable shot for me as I simply aim down the cart path and let my cut carry the ball into fine position in the fairway for the approach.





The green is a bit of a crowned affair that can shed balls hit to the edges off to the sides.

[Garland Bayley]

The seventh hole is a par five with the tee moved up the hill and to the left of where it was for the original course, making it dogleg instead of being straight away as before.





The hole is an alps hole. E.g., http://www.bandondunesgolf.com/golf/golf-courses/old-macdonald (click on hole 16). The original is at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland where Young Tom Morris made a two in one of the original "British" Open Championships. The hill providing the blind approach shot can be seen from the tee.





The green lies to the right of the cottonwood tree, who's top can be seen poking above the hill on the approach. You need to be 20 to 30 yards right of that.





Most typically an alps hole has a hazard in front of the green. The original course had a simple berm in front of the green, which I was pleased to see has been dressed up and preserved for the modern incarnation of the hole.

[Garland Bayley]

The eigth hole used to be a short par four, but since the sixth was extended from par three to four, the eigth has been shortened to par three.





There is a water hazard to the right of the green that cannot be seen from the tee.





One possible play is to bounce the ball onto the green from the left side of the fairway, as the ground slopes towards the water hazard on the right.

[Garland Bayley]

The final hole used to play over a pond before a flood constrol dike was put in between the eigth and ninth holes. Now the tee has been moved to the hill to the left of the pond, making the hole a dogleg left back to the clubhouse.








Not having an island green in a pond, the club has created and island tee in the pond on the hole for the short tees.

[John Kavanaugh]

My favorite picture on the best golf tour I've seen in quite a while. I'd like to kiss shadows with you on what looks like a fine course some day.

[Garland Bayley]

My favorite picture on the best golf tour I've seen in quite a while. I'd like to kiss shadows with you on what looks like a fine course some day.

Interesting! When I read this

Make people work to post their pics, that way they just might post their best instead of 50 for an 18 hole course. If it is work to take a golf picture you shouldn't have to give it away. I would like to see Ran eliminate a vowel so people would have to think longer and try harder when they write. How about no a Monday's?

I assumed you would hate the thread since I posted 50 pictures for a nine hole course.

[John Kavanaugh]

Your pictures were just so damn honest that they didn't bother me. I hope to see more shadow pics in the future.

[Thomas Dai]

Thank you for posting Garland.

Just shows that golf can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

No sand bunkers? So what, there's a good reason and the upright logs seem almost Rye like. In one of the photos I initially thought I spotted some sheep, on closer review I think they're rocks!

How many months of the year is the course open?

atb

[Garland Bayley]

Dai,


I suppose the course is open for play when the weather permits. Perhaps they play to temporaries until the maintenance is done to open the greens. The snow problem is a matter of drifting. So much of the course can be snow free, but there will still be some large drifts on course. When I was i high school, it was always fun to get out and play as soon as most of the course was free of snow. If you hit it into a drift, all you had to do was find the entrance hole, and you could find your ball. The high school golf season was and I suppose still is in the spring (if it were in the fall, some early weather fronts could shut down things like the end of season state championships). I noticed that they have at least three state championships in recent years. As a matter of fact, the high school alumni scramble tournament that I played in was won by a team that had at least one of those championship team members.


Their website is http://www.jawbonecreek.com/
Their facebook is https://www.facebook.com/Jawbone-Creek-Country-Club-448017061954371/


I am not a facebook member, so I can't do a like, or perhaps post something to their site as I suppose members can.

[Jason Topp]

Looks like venue for another big match!

[Garland Bayley]

So Jason, shall we organize the sixth major there?

[Garland Bayley]

My favorite picture on the best golf tour I've seen in quite a while. I'd like to kiss shadows with you on what looks like a fine course some day.

[Garland Bayley]

Bump for 2nd tour anniversary.

[Jim_Kennedy]

We should all be so lucky to have a Jawbone Creek in our neighborhood.


Thanks for the tour!

[Jim_Kennedy]

Garland,
Is this an homage to Vivian Maier? 

[Garland Bayley]

Garland,
Is this an homage to Vivian Maier? 

Nope. Just an amateur photographer snapping a pic. Sun just happened to cast shadow.

[Kalen Braley]

http://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/public-golf-course/jawbone-creek-golf-course.html


The all day rate looks to be a bargain, and with a bunker called "Devils Dungeon" its gotta be good.


Too bad its in BFE!!

[Garland Bayley]

http://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/public-golf-course/jawbone-creek-golf-course.html


The all day rate looks to be a bargain, and with a bunker called "Devils Dungeon" its gotta be good.


Too bad its in BFE!!

Come on Kalen. You have been to Rock Creek Cattle Company. By Montana standards, that is next door.

Too bad that nonsense about only cemetery enclosed course keeps getting propagated. They used to have that on their website until I clued them in.

20% inflation on the green fees in 2 years time. Wow. Perhaps I should not have given them so much press.

[Kalen Braley]

http://www.visitmt.com/listings/general/public-golf-course/jawbone-creek-golf-course.html


The all day rate looks to be a bargain, and with a bunker called "Devils Dungeon" its gotta be good.


Too bad its in BFE!!

Come on Kalen. You have been to Rock Creek Cattle Company. By Montana standards, that is next door.

Too bad that nonsense about only cemetery enclosed course keeps getting propagated. They used to have that on their website until I clued them in.

20% inflation on the green fees in 2 years time. Wow. Perhaps I should not have given them so much press.

That may be, but I'm not a Montanian...thats a haul!


The website in that link isn't valid anymore, it goes to some Asian site, so that green fee may even be more $$$ now.