Pictures of The Cascades (Flynn) at The Homestead...Hot Springs, VA

[Tim Gavrich]

Better late than never!

I've had lots of work the last couple weeks (midterms and all) and not so much time to upload and post my pictures from my birthday at the Cascades.

Apologies for less-than-stellar quality on a good number of them; we played late in the afternoon and it's tough to shoot from shade, into sunlight, back into shade, etc.

Anyhoo...

1



2



3




4


5



6



7



8


9


10


11


12




13



14



15


16


I didn't get pictures of 17 or 18 because we basically finished in the dark.

What a golf course.  Really demanding off the tee, but a lot of fun when you put it in play.  The back nine is fantastic, and I don't think the 3-5-5-3 finish is off-putting in the least.  It's a fantastic way to end a match, I'd say.

Cheers.

--Tim

[TEPaul]

Tim:

Thanks for those shots. The bunkers and particularly their grass surrounds sure look a whole lot better than they did and I'm glad to see that those funky bunkers before the 12th green were pretty accurately restored.

[rboyce]

Thanks for the nice pics. 2-5 are so interesting to me - and lots of folks don't consider them the better holes on the course.

That last pic of 2 really shows how angled the fairway is. 3 is that short but challenging uphill par four. 4 is one of my fav par threes ever because it is a drop shot to what feels like a tiny target from the tee. And, finally, 5 is the most confusing tee shot i've experienced. Where am I supposed to hit the ball again?? 

10 might be my fav on the course. It's like two holes for the price of one.

Fun stuff and *beautiful* country.

[Chip Gaskins]

looks fun, but it needs a little shave (tree removal program)

I love the funky bunkers

[scott_wood]

GO GENERALS!!

[Mike_Cirba]

BZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

(that's the sound of me wet-dreaming with a chainsaw in my hand!)


Holy cow...there's some terrific architecture in there, no question, but how good wood it be if about half of those tall weeds on the property were sent to a wood-burning energy plant somewhere?? 

I'd start with 90% of the conifers and work my way down from there...

BZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Michael Whitaker]

I agree about the conifers. Need to go!

Tim, did you find the fairways to be artificially narrowed by mowing? When I last played there (several years ago) the fairways were maintained very narrow which made the course play difficult off the tee. It seemed to me that they were being maintained that way to protect their "resistance to scoring" numbers in an effort to maintain some ranking. Did you feel the fairways were sufficiently wide for average amateur play? They seem overly narrow in some of your pixs.

[Ed Oden]

Holy cow...there's some terrific architecture in there, no question, but how good WOOD it be if about half of those tall weeds on the property were sent to a wood-burning energy plant somewhere?? 

Mike, was this an intentional pun, Freudian slip or both?

[Tim Gavrich]

I agree about the conifers. Need to go!

Tim, did you find the fairways to be artificially narrowed by mowing? When I last played there (several years ago) the fairways were maintained very narrow which made the course play difficult off the tee. It seemed to me that they were being maintained that way to protect their "resistance to scoring" numbers in an effort to maintain some ranking. Did you feel the fairways were sufficiently wide for average amateur play? They seem overly narrow in some of your pixs.

Michael--

Granted, I wasn't driving the ball too well that day, but the fairways seemed quite narrow.  The rough was pretty healthy, so recovery from it was pretty tough.  I don't object to that, but I think that a big defense for the Cascades on a lot of holes is sidehill lies.  Wider fairways would better expose that strength of the golf course, I believe.
~
RBoyce--

I liked 2, 4, and 5, but I found 3 to be the most disappointing hole on the course.  There's really no gain to be had from trying for the green with a driver, and on a 285 yard hole, I always find that to be a little bit of a flaw.  It's an exacting wedge shot, though, for sure.
~
As for the tree issue, it would be nice to see things thinned out.  But trees serve as essential barriers between some holes at the Cascades.  The site itself is funny-shaped and pretty cramped, but you never feel like you're on top of a hole other than the one you're playing.  If someone more or less denuded the site, I personally believe it would be to the detriment of the course.

[TEPaul]

Tim:

I hear you about #3. We talked it over with them down there a lot about that hole but noone could really come up with anything to make it better or more interesting for a high risk drive. Of course the idea of just mowing it out into fairway all the way was discussed (even if that may've been something of a maintenance problem) but I'm not sure what exactly that would've accomplished in play. It guess sometimes you just have to realize some holes just are what they are.

[Mike_Cirba]

Holy cow...there's some terrific architecture in there, no question, but how good WOOD it be if about half of those tall weeds on the property were sent to a wood-burning energy plant somewhere?? 

Mike, was this an intentional pun, Freudian slip or both?

Ed,

What do you think? 

[Richard Boult]

added to http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas/Virginia

[CJ Carder]

Granted, I wasn't driving the ball too well that day, but the fairways seemed quite narrow.  The rough was pretty healthy, so recovery from it was pretty tough.  I don't object to that, but I think that a big defense for the Cascades on a lot of holes is sidehill lies.  Wider fairways would better expose that strength of the golf course, I believe.

Not to mention bring a lot of shotmaking requirements back into the equation.  Particularly if the fairways were quick and the ball would run off them if placed in the incorrect spot or with the incorrect shot shape.

[Michael Whitaker]

Granted, I wasn't driving the ball too well that day, but the fairways seemed quite narrow.  The rough was pretty healthy, so recovery from it was pretty tough.  I don't object to that, but I think that a big defense for the Cascades on a lot of holes is sidehill lies.  Wider fairways would better expose that strength of the golf course, I believe.

Tim - That was my thought as well. The fairways just seemed too narrow for an average amateur. The rough was lush & thick, and it was difficult to advance the ball very far out of it. I remember asking the staff about the fairway width when we finished our round and was told (with a rye smile) that it was to make the course tough to score. But, I also remember thinking that day that a LOT of courses could make themselves artificially difficult by growing thick rough and narrowing the fairways. I felt it took away options on a lot of holes and required you to play the course in one set way. That sort of thing might work at the US Open, but I don't enjoy it much when it's forced on my puny game.

[Tim Gavrich]

Tim:

I hear you about #3. We talked it over with them down there a lot about that hole but noone could really come up with anything to make it better or more interesting for a high risk drive. Of course the idea of just mowing it out into fairway all the way was discussed (even if that may've been something of a maintenance problem) but I'm not sure what exactly that would've accomplished in play. It guess sometimes you just have to realize some holes just are what they are.

I was thinking about that, and it is tough because the slope up to the green is quite abrupt, so run-up shots aren't going to be fruitful.  But, if some of those right-side trees were taken out and the view of the green from the tee made clearer, I think it would be more enticing.  But I do understand that those trees probably serve to separate holes 3 and 4...