A. G. , please share your thoughts on Aiken. The other course in Aiken is pretty good too!
Bill,
Aiken was just terrific; great call.
I drove in a few minutes before 9 am, paid $25 (Friday walking rate) and was back in the car by 12:30. Got paired up (instantly!) with two really nice guys and had a great time in every respect. Except the part where I got my butt kicked at 5800 yds...
Great golf course; I see why so many of you have always been so high on it. My friend Bill Bergin, a great GCA, told me once that he wanted everybody that came off of one of his golf courses, be they scratch or a 20 handicapper, to say "That was really fun! And NEXT time, I'll shoot a much better score!" That was Aiken.
A particular favorite was the 15th green; I've never seen anything quite like it. Probably 20-25 yds. deep and not especially wide, but with a shelf that runs vertically to the line of play down the middle of the green over to the right edge until about 10' from the back. Just cool...
I learned early on in the round that when the guys I was with said something like "Keep it to the left here" (as they did and I didn't on #2) to listen carefully. If you don't know where to hit the ball, or if you can't hit it where you are looking that day, it'll eat you up.
One final note: If you start at the clubhouse and end at the clubhouse, the uphill walks have to equal the downhill walks, right? And so they do at Aiken, except that you get ALL of the downhill on two holes, especially #17. Other than that, I've never walked up so many steep hills to so many greens in my life, even in the mountains, which Aiken decidedly isn't!
Just a blast to play; thanks again for the recommendation.
(And btw, the round before Aiken was at Arrowhead Pointe in GA, now the #6 muni in the country. My next two rounds are at Pinehurst #2, which I've never played, and Peachtree, which I've only played once. Not a bad run, right?)