[Steve_Roths]

A couple buddies went up and played opening day.


Here are there thoughts:


Great course, not an easy walk.


Fascinating greens and surrounds.  Fun factor very high.  Lots of great thought provoking holes.


Thought the course was very fair from tee to greens.  Did not feel like a sub 6000 yard course in any way.


Just the only consistent comment was the hills/walkability.

[PCCraig]

Looking forward to getting over there to see the course eventually. Looks like my kind of golf course.

[John Mayhugh]

Steve,
I was fortunate to play 36 at Sedge Valley last October. I don't understand how someone could describe it as a tough walk. Greens and tees are close by and it's the kind of lightly rolling terrain that is great for golf. And it's only 6000 yards. There's a big climb up to the 18th green, but I struggle to think of the course even being as hilly as Sand Valley (though it's been a few years).

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Thought the course was very fair from tee to greens.  Did not feel like a sub 6000 yard course in any way.

Isn't that just because it's a par 68? It still has a 464-yard par four, a 238-yard par three, a 569-yard par five…

6159 yard tees, par 68… equivalent to at at least about 6800 yard par 72. Maybe a bit more, as that's only 4 shots that add less than 175 yards per shot: I imagine you could add about 200 yards to make a par three into a par four, like 157 to 357, and at least 150 to make a par four into a par five, like 412 to 562.

[Tom_Doak]

Thought the course was very fair from tee to greens.  Did not feel like a sub 6000 yard course in any way.

Isn't that just because it's a par 68? It still has a 464-yard par four, a 238-yard par three, a 569-yard par five…

6159 yard tees, par 68… equivalent to at at least about 6800 yard par 72. Maybe a bit more, as that's only 4 shots that add less than 175 yards per shot: I imagine you could add about 200 yards to make a par three into a par four, like 157 to 357, and at least 150 to make a par four into a par five, like 412 to 562.

This is correct.  There are more short par-4's because there are no short par-5's, but there are also several tough holes.  It's the same as Rye or The Addington.  Relative to par, it might be the hardest course at the resort, Lido excepted . . . all of my crew thought it would be.  But it might be as easy to break 90 as Mammoth Dunes, because you have four shots in hand.


The "tough walk" is partly due to the sandy ground from tee to fairway, and not the elevation changes.  It's moderately hilly, but not more than High Pointe or Friars Head, I think.  You'll feel it a lot more if you carry your own bag.

[Jerry Kluger]

Last year I played The Lido in the morning and the preview Sedge Valley in the afternoon and was not extremely tired and at 77 at the time I never saw the difficulty of the walk at Sedge to be an issue.  I don't remember the sequence of the holes but I felt that a lot were designed for fun and they certainly were.  There was a par 3 that I remember which had a wide green with a dip in the middle and what was cool was that to the left of the green was the tee box for a short par 4 with a slight dogleg to the right playing in the opposite direction and I could just see an interaction between the holes which would be great fun if groups who knew each other were playing the holes.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Got to play it June 28 in a preview round and simply loved it.  The holes sit on the ground as naturally as any course I have ever played.  Fairways are generous but you have real issues if you are on the wrong side of the fairway for that day's pin position...and just like Lido, Old Barnwell, and TOC, local knowledge will be a requirement for playing it well.  I think you need several rounds under your belt to just start to understand the nuances of the fairway and green shaping.


I played from the middle tees (4800 yards) and rarely if ever thought about the "power game " I long ago lost...but at the same time it seemed to me that today's power hitters will have some real decisions to make as there are at minimum three par fours that are drivable from the tips with real risk/reward trade offs...and for the Rory/Bryson types there may be as many as 5.  In that sense discipline and course management...the mental side of the game... will be paramount.


Greens are very interesting...very large and with tough slopes but little interior mounding on early holes, and then gradually building up to lots of interior movement as the holes continue to progress.  There are a healthy number of really brutal pin positions available for an evil pin placer!  Loved holes 2, 5, 16-18...but not an ordinary hole out there.


IMO, in running for new course of the year (along w Lido and Old Barnwell)...depending on "opening date definitions".

[Ronald Montesano]

Roths, was it the second 18 for your buds, by chance?

Who shaped the Sedge greens? One person or a team?

What grass in fairways and elsewhere?

[Steve_Roths]

No their first round of the day.  One carried and one took a push cart.


I do think Tom D. likely isolated the issue in the tee to fairway walk through the sand likely wore them down.  But they did say they grew tired of 'another hill' throughout the round.


Perhaps they need to be in better shape but they did not sound like that it took away from what they thought was a fantastic course.  Just another observation on their day.

[Marty Bonnar]

Has Sedge Valley been around long enough for it to be shortened to ‘Sedge’ already?
I mean it’s not as if we say just ‘Pine’ is it?
F.

[Jeff Schley]

Has Sedge Valley been around long enough for it to be shortened to ‘Sedge’ already?
I mean it’s not as if we say just ‘Pine’ is it?
F.

Good one Marty, I had to think for a second it must mean the new Doak course in Wisconsin.  Very few outside of local nicknames are shortened, I guess Pebble, Cypress, Shinny, National, Augusta, TPC (maybe), etc.

[Tim_Weiman]

Got to play it June 28 in a preview round and simply loved it.  The holes sit on the ground as naturally as any course I have ever played.  Fairways are generous but you have real issues if you are on the wrong side of the fairway for that day's pin position...and just like Lido, Old Barnwell, and TOC, local knowledge will be a requirement for playing it well.  I think you need several rounds under your belt to just start to understand the nuances of the fairway and green shaping.


I played from the middle tees (4800 yards) and rarely if ever thought about the "power game " I long ago lost...but at the same time it seemed to me that today's power hitters will have some real decisions to make as there are at minimum three par fours that are drivable from the tips with real risk/reward trade offs...and for the Rory/Bryson types there may be as many as 5.  In that sense discipline and course management...the mental side of the game... will be paramount.


Greens are very interesting...very large and with tough slopes but little interior mounding on early holes, and then gradually building up to lots of interior movement as the holes continue to progress.  There are a healthy number of really brutal pin positions available for an evil pin placer!  Loved holes 2, 5, 16-18...but not an ordinary hole out there.


IMO, in running for new course of the year (along w Lido and Old Barnwell)...depending on "opening date definitions".

Paul,


Nice to see your review. Sedge Valley along with Te Aria North are probably the two new courses I most want to see and play.


By the way, the rehabilitation of my golf game is progressing, albeit slowly. I’ve reach the point of “flashes”, demonstrations that I can hit some pretty good shots, just not consistently.


I’d prefer to play Sedge and Te Aria when my game is a little further along.


Hope you are well.


Tim

[Ronald Montesano]

I often confuse the Irish Bono with all those other Bonos, just as I confuse the USA Cher with all those other Cherz.

So, since no other golf course has the word "Sedge" in it, I don't see a problem with abbreviation.

atb

[Tim Martin]

I often confuse the Irish Bono with all those other Bonos, just as I confuse the USA Cher with all those other Cherz.

So, since no other golf course has the word "Sedge" in it, I don't see a problem with abbreviation.

atb

Sedgefield CC

[Tom_Doak]

Who shaped the Sedge greens? One person or a team?

What grass in fairways and elsewhere?

It’s bent grass greens and fine fescue otherwise, just like every other course at Sand Valley.


My greens are always a team effort, but Eric Iverson ran the project and shaped the majority of them, since Schneider and Slawnik were mostly off doing other things.  Our friend Jonathan Reisetter took some time off from his job in St Paul to come down and shape the 7th and 11th for old times’ sake, and Parker Anderson worked on a couple as well.  The only one where I spent time on the dozer was the par-3 15th.

[Michael George]

Kudos to Tom for making a par 68.  I have long thought that the American addiction to par 70-72 golf courses was stupid and limited the ability to make great golf courses.

Good to see someone following the wonderful path from some of the best golf in the world in the London Heathlands.

[Paul Jones]

I played it last week (day before the official opening) and loved it...  However, the caddies did not have pin sheets.  I did not find it a difficult walk at all (I did take a caddie) and thought it was an easier walk than Sand Valley and Mammoth Dunes.


I love that Tom did not take the driver out of your hands on the short par 4s, but playing the course a 3rd, 4th, 5th time I would pay much attention of the pin location before hitting my tee shot.


I loved the 18th hole, I played up the right side and had a very difficult chip as the flag was in the front and I could not run it up or even putt it and keep it on the bottom tier.  My friend played down the left side and had a longer, but much easier approach shot.


I thought it was fantastic and cannot wait to go back and play all the courses again.

[Tim Fitz]

I was wowed by the 18th hole.  I thought it was fantastic and but for the setting sun would have walked right back to the tee to try a different route.


In my one play, I went left and had a clear view of what appeared to be a relatively long green (pin was tucked up front from my position), though the green was way above my head.  A flip shot worked.  On of my group played right, which was the tougher tee shot, but put him on the same level as the green.  Unfortunately, his approach ran up the hill side behind the pin and failed to come all the way back down!  That left him with the softest attempt at a putt I have ever seen, which still went flying by the hole.


What a great golf hole.  Really enjoyed the entire course as well.  Another win for Sand Valley!

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