Nationwide this week- The Scarlet Course at OSU

[David Stamm]

If no one has mentioned it recently, the Nationwide Tour event will be taking place this week at MacKenzie's Scarlet course at Ohio State. Below is a quote from a golf blog:

"The Golden Bear will serve as the Honorary Chair Person and you can bet that Jack is wondering how his newly redesigned Scarlet Course will hold up to the Nationwide Tour’s top players.  The course was redesigned to be the best test of college golf in the country. Jack Nicklaus is an Ohio State Alumni and he grew up not all that far from the Scarlet Course. It would seem a no-brainer that his course design group was chosen to completely renovate this classic, mid 1930’s Alister MacKenzie designed golf course.  According to Eugene Smith, Ohio State’s athletic director, this is the first professional golf event to be held at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course."


A no brainer? Hmmm. I guess we can judge this week.

[Brian Laurent]

Here's an interesting article from the Columbus Dispatch with some former Buckeye opinions on the redesign...

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2008/07/24/nationwide24.ART_ART_07-24-08_C1_01AR4IF.html?sid=101

[Andy Troeger]

Interesting to read John Cook's comments. I played Scarlet over July 4 weekend and played Northstar, a John Cook design north of town, the following day. Talk about different courses.

I had never played Scarlet before the renovation and only once total. I would guess it was more fun prior; its really difficult now and not much fun. Its a good tournament course I suppose for the college guys that can bomb it, but its very championship oriented with everything in front of you and lots of deep bunkers front left and front right on almost every hole.

[Tim Copeland]

Refer to my signature.  I worked for the company that did the renovation work.

Lots to be told.......but not here

[Mark Bourgeois]

David

Thanks for the heads up. FYI the GCA.com Manual of Style preferred usage is not OSU but TOSU.

This is a tough one for me too - like Black Mesa! which I often mistakenly write as Black Mesa.

Mark

[Kyle Harris]

I still prefer tO$U

[Billsteele]

Maybe I am crazy or there has been a disturbance in the time-space continuum  but didn't the Nationwide Tour play the newly renovated Scarlet LAST YEAR?  So, this is actually the second professional tournament held at the Scarlet. It seems as if the news release was recycled without being updated...or I hit a time warp.

[David Stamm]

Maybe I am crazy or there has been a disturbance in the time-space continuum  but didn't the Nationwide Tour play the newly renovated Scarlet LAST YEAR?  So, this is actually the second professional tournament held at the Scarlet. It seems as if the news release was recycled without being updated...or I hit a time warp.

Bill, you're probably right, I just didn't notice last year.

[David Whitmer]

The tournament WAS played at Scarlet last year...the winning score was 6-under, I believe.

I played Scarlet last summer, and it was my first time playing the renovated course after playing the original many times. I am a 3-handicap who can hit the ball a long way, and I found it to be very, very difficult. It seems like every par 4 or par 5 has deep fairway bunkers, from which you can't reach the green. Almost all the greens are elevated, and they have some serious contouring. My point is, it's a chore to reach the putting surfaces, and it's no picnic getting the ball in the hole. The course will certainly test the best college and pro players. As an amateur who plays once or twice a week, would I want to play it every week? I don't think so. When I walked off the 18th green last year, I felt like I had just received a thorough beating.

[JLahrman]

I have not played the Scarlet in probably eight years, but before Nicklaus's work it was already quite a difficult course (I was playing to a 6 handicap at this time).  The greens especially, when they wanted to tuck pins there was just no getting to them, especially when they were playing fast.  I remember playing the course the day before a tournament, maybe a US Open sectional or something, and they had the course playing extremely difficult.  I played reasonably well and shot a good ten shots higher than normal.  To me, the course was already something that could be made tournament-tough pretty easily (maybe not for the Nationwide Tour, but still quite difficult).  If the course has been made significantly harder since then...I'm sure it's a real bear (no pun intended).