This past weekend, I made a quick down south with my bride for a work conference she had in Atlanta and so we could visit the Braves' new SunTrust Park. Instead of flying, I chose to drive so I could visit a few nine-hole courses that I have had some interest in seeing:
Bobby Jones in Atlanta,
Sweetens Cove in Tennessee, and
Schoolhouse Nine in Virginia. I have included a few brief thoughts and photos from each course below (and a bonus on the ballpark).
Bobby JonesBobby Jones is a municipal golf course in Atlanta. It has a long history; Mike Cirba passed along information to me that the course first opened in 1932 and was built by John Van Kleek and Wayne Stiles. Garrett Gill and George Williams did some work in 1986. However, Bob Cupp was brought in to change the course after the facility had fallen into disrepair. The new nine-hole course is reversible and opened in 2018. I only played the course in one direction, but was careful to look for the opposite routing while I played.
This is everything a municipal course should be, in my opinion: an easy walk, little to no rough, strategic interest, and easy access. I was pleased to discover that in the evenings on Fridays, they offer only walking rounds first-come, first-served for $25…a great value!
The round was an absolute blast. As I mentioned, the course has very little rough, and is fairly wide open, offering golfers plenty of shot options as well as recovery options. There is wonderful movement in the ground, some natural, some manmade I assume, but it looks very natural. The routing is also strong and uses the natural landforms well.
As a bonus, there is a "warning" sign near the clubhouse, a la Bethpage Black, but this sign encourages golfers to have fun.
For more information,
Golf Range Magazine recently profiled the facility:
http://www.golfrangemagazinedigital.com/i/1094584-mar-2019/30Sweetens CoveI won't go into the history of this Rob Collins layout as I know it's been talked about a fair amount on this site before, but I very much enjoyed my round here. I read that the course featured bold greens and seen a few pictures, but they were even more bold in person than I assumed! It was a very fun course because it gives golfers a ton of shot options, particularly around the greens. For example, I sadly didn't hit that many greens in regulation (you need to precise) and hit a variety of shots from off the green and used my lofted wedges, irons, hybrid and putter. Ultimately, more so do to the current state of my short game, I determined the putter presented me the best chance to get up and down from off the green, plus it was fun to play long putts. The course was a blast to play, and I think it would become even more fun with multiple rounds…I hope to get back sometime soon.
Schoolhouse NineSchoolhouse Nine opened in 2015 and was laid out by Michael McCartin. The facility is big on conservation and has a lot of charm. There are several ground-level greens, which I love. While I'd consider most of the greens "tame" by some standards, there are a few with some fairly bold movement in sections of the putting surfaces. There's even a principal's nose on the course. I also enjoyed the routing as there are a couple of "crossovers" and several greens fairly close to each other so you can observe other players on the course. It is also a tremendous value: $15 all you can play.
SunTrust ParkOverall, I liked this new ballpark (but it wasn't needed as Turner Field was ~20 years old). The view from the seats was quite nice and keeps fans focused on baseball. It was also nice that the entire upper deck was covered, rather than just a portion. The only downside we saw were the logistics. For a new ballpark (and little community to be built around it), transportation was lacking (parking, ride share, crowd control). This was the ninth (still active) MLB park I've visited, and if I had to rank them, this would probably be fifth or sixth out of nine.
