I’ve always relished the drive from Atlanta to Augusta. About 40 miles down I-20 the Piedmont starts in earnest, and you can’t help but marvel at the rising and tumbling of the pastureland on either side of the highway. Atypically for Georgia it seems like an almost pine-free zone, although you do start to see more conifers as you cross Lake Oconee and head toward Augusta.
At Madison, just before the lake, two-lane Route 441 crosses north and south and offers a magnified view of the odd beauty you can see from I-20. As one further point of reference, the magazine Progressive Farmer ranks two of the counties in this nexus in the top 200 for places to live in America (Oconee #3 and Putnam #141 )
Whenever I get out on these roads I’m always looking out the window and imagining golf holes, or perhaps more accurately wishing for golf holes. Mike Young’s Long Shadow is 2 miles south of I-20 on 441, just past the cows.
As you may have read the front-9 is open for play, with the back-9 to come after spring grow-in. Long Shadow is vast with no rough to speak of. It will get very windy. Getting off the fairway makes you really think. The greens are such that if you want to make par you need to hit them.
Here are some pictures
Up to the third green. Par 5, 540 Gold (Black is all the way back)
Several pictures of the par 5 #5, perhaps the most dramatic hole on a course that doesn't over-emphasize drama.
From the tee:
From the fairway:
From a hill to the left:
From behind the green, looking back up the fairway:
#7 green looking back up the fairway:
From the tee at the par 3 #8
Wedge to the green at the par 4 #9; past the chain is a very steep drop. The shot is very touchy:
I played the front nine and had a great time. The back nine looks as though it could be spectacular. #10:
Two pictures of #12:
Green at the par 3 #13
Looking up to the green at par 4 #14:
From behind #14 green:
#15 green par 4
#16 tee with a forced carry over a finger of the lake dipping in from the right:
#16 green, which looks to be a very tough shot:
I missed Mike's monstrous punchbowl green at the par 3 #17.
Here's the 18th green, viewed from behind:
By the way, Mike looks a little like Dean Smith.