Mossy Oak Golf Club – Photo Tour

[Mike Hendren]

The Other Senior Tour just returned from celebrating its 20th anniversary at Old Waverly and played two rounds at Mossy Oak.  Given Christian's fantastic tour I'll limit my comments to some generalities.

The good:  As firm and fast a golf course as I've played anywhere stateside - perfectly accentuated by the architecture with room off the tee and plenty of room around most greens.  Both fairway and greenside bunkers gobble up any ball in their vicinity.  Excellent variety in the shapes and sizes of the greens with a massive false front at the par five 12th which frustrates the big hitters.  The 17th is a very clever par 5 alps hole playing at 465 from the blue tees.  Very difficult to gauge a long second as there is a good 40 yards of wide fairway behind the ridgetop feeding into the green that is easily accessible from the front but fallaway death on the other three sides. 

The (not that) bad:  The two 5 pars on the front require a lay-up from the blue markers despite weighing in at 509 and 566 yards.  Another ditch crosses the fairway 220 yards out on the par four 8th.  These must be blue-line ditches or otherwise should be covered.

The quirky: Two very quirky short par fours played at 253 (3rd)  and 282 yards (10th) from the penultimate/blue markers - the devilish tiny 3rd green is a treat but very difficult to hold from anywhere.  It's driver or 5-iron off the tee due to an expansive bunker encroaching into the fairway from the right.  The hole could do without that big boy in my book.   The 10th is almost a pitch-back hole and shaped more like a shepherd's crook than a dogleg.   I love fairway tie-ins but the course gets a little congested between holes 2, 3, 5 and 13.  Not quite hard hat stuff but more like ships passing in the night. 

The course is thankfully exposed to the wind which is needed as an additional defense.  Another Nashville group was in town and one of its members carded a 9-birdie 64 from the blue markers playing at 6400 yards. 

I like this course - a lot, as it requires thought and unlimited options around the greens.  It will be a real beauty when the native areas are grown in.  The folks at Old Waverly and Mossy Oak are genuine and on-site food is top notch.  The new cabins along the 10th fairway will be impressive and a nice update from those at Old Waverly which are adequate but a little dated.

Barney, the value is good for a buddy trip.  Anthony's in town is byob and dollar for dollar as good a meal as you will get in the South.  I recommend the creole ribeye with shrimp and a side of pepperjack cheese grits.  As for a the two courses, I'd likely go 8/2 in favor of Mossy Oak. 

Christian nailed it - not warranting a fly-in but for a four hour drive we'll likely return next year. 

[Tom_Doak]

Going by the photos alone my reaction was the same as Jon's. Why so much sand?

My guess:  more guys out there shaping bunkers than he used to have.

[Mike Hendren]

Going by the photos alone my reaction was the same as Jon's. Why so much sand?

My guess:  more guys out there shaping bunkers than he used to have.

Insightful - there were a couple of bunkers that I was asked about:  "Why are those there?"  While my boys think I'm an architectural savant (please - no guffaws) I could not even make up an answer, other than perhaps somebody was getting in some practice. 

Bogey

[John Kavanaugh]

Camouflage bunkers.

[Sean_A]

There are some rather odd bunkers.  For instance, on the 11th, the three wing bunkers actually take the eye away from the prettier section of the hole (water and green) and direct attention to the cart path. There are a few other incidents of bunker grouping which simply looks odd and contrived. 

Ciao

[Christian Newton]

Sean,


I think you're spot-on about the 11th. It was the hole I liked least. It perhaps drew a difficult location on the property, especially since historic satellite photos suggest the pond wasn't modified when the course was built. Perhaps with time the cart path will vanish behind vegetation. I can image a version with no sand playing better—only the water and a narrow green should have been sufficiently challenging.


-Christian

[Sean_A]

Christian

I am surprised the bunker bank wasn't used to hide the path...seems like a no brainer.

Ciao

[Josh Tarble]

Reviving this topic as I haven't seen too much conversation about Mossy Oak.  In general, I feel like outside of Oohoopee, that seems to be Hanse's course.  A lot of chatter early and then they fall from the discourse.  I don't know why that is, but his recent courses of Mossy Oak, Pinehurst #4, Streamsong Black have all followed the same trend.  Open to a lot of fanfair and then quietly settle in without much mention after the fact.  This is my first Hanse course, and while I enjoyed it, I thought they maybe tried a little too hard in spots.


In specific to Mossy Oak.  It's a great routing, some really fun holes and a variety of half par holes.  A few really unique, really fun holes, but overall I couldn't help feeling like a few missed the mark.  Specifically the par 5 7th I did not understand why they'd have the blind tee shot with a creek at the bottom.  All 4 of our tee balls found the water the first go around, the second go around we knew it was there and still 2 of the 4 found it because of the slope feeding down to it.  Just very strange.  The par 4 8th, is also a little funky because of where the creek is too.  The carry isn't bad at all, but if you want to lay up it leaves a pretty lengthy shot into the green.  Then add in the short par 3 9th and it just seemed like that stretch of holes wasn't fit together very nicely.  The par 4 13th also seems decent at first, but after the first play, we all decided the best play was blowing it way left into the 5th's fairway.  The angle is best into the green over there and takes any trouble out of the tee shot.  There's no bridge back near the green so it's definitely not meant to play that way.  The way it's routed, the 5th fairway could actually be the fairway for 3 holes (3, 5 and 13).  So just a little strange all in all.


That being said, Old Waverly and Mossy Oak are a great destination, the two courses are polar opposite of each other and make for a great combination of classic vs. modern architecture.  Can't recommend the place enough

[Richard Hetzel]

I played Mossy Oak on Saturday, I liked it, but it came across as overhyped to me. Hated the bunkering. I would like to play it not the day after a huge rainstorm. I skipped Old Waverly. Played MSU course instead.