I showed up tonight with a half set of clubs after 7 hours of travel, looking for a driving range to fill a little time on a work trip. Since the course was virtually empty, I went out to walk a few holes at twilight instead. Over the next two hours I played all but 5 and 6 (I caught a twosome and decided to skip ahead to 7 after putting out on 4).
I saw a wonderful property with broad corridors and few places to lose a ball. I saw a wide variety of par fours, with holes like the delicately tactical 2nd leading to the monstrous 3rd. I saw par 3s that all required a different club even with the wider gaps that come when the even-numbered irons are absent from the bag. I saw par 5s that crescendo in their final 100 yards, with landmines lurking for misplayed shots. And I saw a wonderful set of greens with some really surprising shapes and internal contours that distract the player from the general slope of the surroundings, leading to plenty of uphill breaks.
Playing conditions were better than expected on a $40 public course. The facility as a whole has everything a golfer could need. It's tucked a few miles from the most famous course in the US, and tens of thousands of golfers make the pilgrimage to Augusta every year, so I assume it's been played by plenty of tourists. Surely dozens - if not hundreds - of GCAers have played it. It carries the Ross name and Bobby Jones won one of his 1930 Grand Slam events here. So why doesn't it get more love? This is exactly the type of course that every community should have, and that very few actually do.