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Matt Wharton

  • Karma: +1/-0
Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« on: July 10, 2017, 09:42:54 PM »

As a two-time graduate of Va Tech I spent many a weekday afternoon trekking up and down the scenic 9-hole Blacksburg Municipal Golf Course.  From my recollections it was always a little rugged but had a classic feel about it, and I enjoyed the fact a driver wasn't required on all par 4's. If I recall correctly the fourth measured less than 300 yards and played steeply downhill.  I will be excited to hear what Mr. George has in store for the charming 9-holes overlooking the town and campus... very scenic views.


http://www.roanoke.com/news/local/blacksburg/blacksburg-golf-course-getting-extreme-makeover/article_c71ca58b-dd3f-5ab4-957d-1ad8b468d02c.html


Cheers,
Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG
Idle Hour CC
Lexington, KY

MCirba

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2017, 11:07:15 AM »
The existing course started as Cohee Country Club and was there as early as 1925, designer unknown.
"Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent" - Calvin Coolidge

https://cobbscreek.org/

Wade Whitehead

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2017, 03:57:16 PM »
The existing course started as Cohee Country Club and was there as early as 1925, designer unknown.

If I'm not mistaken, Blacksburg Country Club (outside of town) was the site of Cohee.

WW

Brian Ross

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2017, 06:09:40 PM »
The existing course started as Cohee Country Club and was there as early as 1925, designer unknown.

If I'm not mistaken, Blacksburg Country Club (outside of town) was the site of Cohee.

WW


You're both correct. The Blacksburg Municipal Course was the original Cohee Country Club. Blacksburg Golf Club formed in 1956 and bought the club and 9 hole course before changing their name to Blacksburg Country Club and moving to their present day site in the Ellett Valley in 1969. As a Hokie, I'm excited to see what Lester can do out there.
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

http://www.rossgolfarchitects.com

Greg Smith

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2017, 08:54:24 PM »
Whoa!  I had NO idea there were other Hokies here in the treehouse.  This is exciting news.  Heck, I've turned that piece of land over and over in my own head a few times wondering what could be done.  I bet Lester George can wring the most out of it.  IIRC, it's actually a pretty neat little routing:

1st:  340 yd, teeing off from the very top of the hill.  Gratifying drive for an opener, it sails forever.

2nd:  320 yd, right back up the hill, the total inverse of the 1st.  Skyline green.

3rd:  150 yd, a knob-to-knob par 3 across the high end of the property.  Could be a nice looking hole.

4th:  240 yd (par 4!), drive is across the face of the slope, then bending left and sharply downhill.  You could tee off with a 5-iron, and if you hit the right spot the ball will dribble down onto a blind shelf-like green.  Weirdest hole on the course, but it's kind of a cool gimmick.

5th:  285 yd, sidehill, high left to low right.  Green and tee at about the same elevation.  There are two cross bunkers maybe 230 from the tee -- can you carry them to have a go at the green?

6th:  170 vd, slightly downhill par three.  Both one-shotters sit on fairly pretty sites, they could both be good.

7th:  250 yd, slightly uphill, bending left at the last minute.  If you can carry the left bunker you can make it on, but space is tight.  If not, a ticklish pitch remains.  7th tee is at the bottom of the property.

8th:  475 yd, slightly downhill to the opposite corner of the site.  Could be a wonderful hole if one added some old-style bunkering to present strategy.  A surprisingly big par 5 for such a diminutive course.

9th:  320 yd, straight uphill back to the house, alongside the 1st. 

The site is on a really steep hillside -- hence the new name "The Hill".  However, only two holes are uphill!  The 2nd and 9th are quite the climb and therefore not enjoyable, but all the others have potential.  If LG can get those uphill holes to be something viable, it's gonna be a great course.

It will be the perfect place for students and townies, a nice community golf course.  We need more places like that to ensure the game's survival.  VT has a fine Pete Dye course down on the New River, but that place is meant for flat bellies.  It's too expensive and too far from the university -- and it'll just whip your butt anyway.
O fools!  who drudge from morn til night
And dream your way of life is wise,
Come hither!  prove a happier plight,
The golfer lives in Paradise!                      

John Somerville, The Ballade of the Links at Rye (1898)

Matt Wharton

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #5 on: July 11, 2017, 09:57:56 PM »
Greg,


Thanks for the hole-by-hole recap and Go Hokies!  You're correct in the two one-shotters were pretty solid and have loads of potential.  I remember driving over the 4th green with an iron one dry summer.  Tough place to be over the back of that shelf green.  Such a fun course, golf as it should be.


Cheers,
Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG
Idle Hour CC
Lexington, KY

Greg Smith

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2017, 10:02:05 AM »
It's like B'Burg's very own little Kington or Cleeve Cloud.  We should get S. Arble over here to give it a go!
O fools!  who drudge from morn til night
And dream your way of life is wise,
Come hither!  prove a happier plight,
The golfer lives in Paradise!                      

John Somerville, The Ballade of the Links at Rye (1898)

Jonathan Mallard

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2017, 01:17:50 PM »
Yep. There's a few of us Hokies on here.


I only played Blacksburg Municipal (as it was back in my time) once. The on campus course was 18 holes before the conference center was built, and even hosted the younger age brackets for the State Junior tournament about 1995.


Student yearly membership rates were $150 per year.


Made more sense to me to play a 6400 yard course every chance I could for a rate of lest that $0.50/day.

Matt Wharton

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2017, 01:50:57 PM »
It's like B'Burg's very own little Kington or Cleeve Cloud.  We should get S. Arble over here to give it a go!
I too enjoyed the 18-hole campus course.  Walked many a round there during both stints in school.  First eagle I ever recorded was on the 15th when I holed a 56 degree sand wedge from the right rough in the summer of '92.  In the spring of '99 Andrew Green (Golf Architect renovating Inverness and Oak Hill) and I made it to the semifinals of the Intramural Best Ball (what could have been).  Definitely have a soft spot in my heart for both courses.  Back in our day my friends and I also ventured to Castle Rock in Pembroke if the wait was too long at the first tee of the campus course and Draper Valley just down I81 was considered a real treat to play (IIRC they offered a twilight rate of $20 after 3:00 pm the first year they opened in '92).


When I returned to graduate school in 1997 my wife and I joined Round Meadow CC in Christiansburg.  Definitely had some fun times playing on that little course.  I understood several years ago the facility became a public course known as The Meadows and I now understand it is being sold and will most likely cease to exist unless a stay of execution comes in at the last minute.


Fond memories,
Matthew Wharton, CGCS, MG
Idle Hour CC
Lexington, KY

JC Jones

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #9 on: July 12, 2017, 09:03:11 PM »
Did they have a football team back then?
I get it, you are mad at the world because you are an adult caddie and few people take you seriously.

Excellent spellers usually lack any vision or common sense.

I know plenty of courses that are in the red, and they are killing it.

Jonathan Mallard

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2017, 10:16:11 AM »
Did they have a football team back then?


Sure enough.


1997 saw the 5th of our current 24 consecutive bowl appearances. 3 years later, we would have the lead entering the 4th quarter of the National Title game.

Carl Rogers

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #11 on: July 17, 2017, 07:28:50 PM »
Very good Lester, need more of these kinds of courses .... or else you get Top Golf.
I decline to accept the end of man. ... William Faulkner

Scott Weersing

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2017, 10:23:26 AM »
Could this be Sweeten's Cove of Virginia?


Is there space or room for big greens?



I wonder how much Lester can stretch 750,000.




Greg Smith

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2017, 10:33:35 AM »
Well, the yardage will have to be real short.  There's space for larger greens, I think -- but the earthwork for big greens and their surrounds might blow the budget.

Most of all though, it's a steeply sloping property.  Coping with the slope on such small acreage leads to some weird holes/quirk (vis-à-vis the present 4th hole).   I think that's a good thing, but the property is what it is.  So it'll never be a "full-size" normal-type 9-holer like Culver or Sweetens, but it could definitely be really cool.

I think an important factor for LG will be designing for reasonable maintenance concerns.
O fools!  who drudge from morn til night
And dream your way of life is wise,
Come hither!  prove a happier plight,
The golfer lives in Paradise!                      

John Somerville, The Ballade of the Links at Rye (1898)

Scott Weersing

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Lester George to Lead 9-Hole Makeover
« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2017, 10:59:35 AM »
Thanks for the reply. Lester did a great job with a strange piece of land with Lambert's Point GC in Norfolk.


http://www.golfcourseindustry.com/article/gci-032006-builders-excellence-awards-lamberts-point/

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