[Sean_A]

I had the good fortune to play Old Town last Friday.  I didn't know what to expect because the club flies under the radar to some degree.  One gets the sense that the course is HILLY just by the views from the parking lot.  Man, I am impressed that someone could route and build such a coherent course on such extreme land.  However, no matter how impressed I was with the course, I was far more impressed with the folks at Old Town.  Everybody went out of their way to make sure we were taken care of.  The pro, Jim Holt, was a class act and GCAer Dunlop White III came out to meet us on the 16th.  Old Town is special!

I am sorry about the quality of the pix, but thats life.

The opening tee shot.  The game is on immediately because there is a hidden creek which is reachable with a driver.  I found a few more of these little treasures dotted here and there.


The short 2nd.  


The approach to #3.  This hole demonstrates much of the uphill nature of the approaches at Old Town.  I don't know if balls kick up in the summer, but I was constantly caught out by the brownish look and automatically thinking "kick the ball in" when in fact balls died in the fronts.


The 4th took me for a ride because I had no idea the fairway tucked severely to the right.  Its a reachable par 5, but dangerous.  


A closer look at the approach after a layup.  There is a hidden creek at the bottom of the dip.  Even from this distance the Maxwell Rolls can be viewed.  I would be easy to say the greens make this course, but that would be simplistic because the entire course has a natural flow that I found appealing depite the severity of slopes in places.


Tee shot of the slinging left 5th.  It is remarkable that Maxwell squeezed the previous green and this hole into the routing.


The approach to #5.


The short 6th.


Tee shot at #7.  It is here that the course visually begins to unfold and the character of the land is fully revealed.  This hole lulls one into smash mouth golf, but the approach is very clever.


The plateau green is slightly angled from left to right.  Missing on the high side requires a very deft touch to get up and down.  I really like the sharp upslope just left of the right bunker - this is the route to the heart of the green.


A closer look at the green.


After another of the many blind drives, this is the view of the 8th green to the left of this double green.


A closer look at the green from the 8th hole end.


I was just telling Remy how length wasn't a factor thus far even with the course not at all keen.  Then the monster 9th is encountered.  The hole is maybe 425 from the daily tee but turns sharply right and goes straight up the hill to the house.  It must play at least 40 yards longer.


The approach is to another plateau green.  I should say now that the greens are not easy targets.  They tend to be smallish and sectioned.  If you miss the proper section then two putting is an accomplishment.  The task is made more difficult by little lips leading to many of the greens.  These must be cleared in approaching.  Generally speaking, it is better to be just a bit short rather than long in approaching.


I will post the back nine later.  Hockey beckons!  

Ciao

[Chris_Clouser]

Sean,

Glad you were able to play at OTC.  When I visited the course with Dunlop a couple of years ago I was really amazed at the routing as well.  The greens really floored me.  I think the course is among the top five by Maxwell and is the equal to some other courses around the country that receive much more recognition.  I think what I loved the most is that there wasn't one hole (except the 7th to me) that stood out above the others but the entire course seemed to flow so well and was much better than the sum of its parts.    

Even comparing it to the recently released top 100 courses, it blows Sycamore Hills in Indiana out of the water and that made the top 100 this time somehow.

[KBanks]

What grass types are used at Old Town? The fairways look like bermuda beginning to emerge, but what results in the contrasting, dormant look of the bunker faces?

Some of those greens look fearsome.

Ken

[CHrisB]

The front-center pin position on the par-3 6th is one of my all-time favorites--it is the high point of the green, with fall-offs left, right and behind. I wish there were more like it.

The 5th is really a super hole the way it falls across those competing hills.

I haven't played there in a while but those pictures remind me that there really are no weak holes there. I agree that Old Town deserves much more recognition than it gets.

[Joe Hancock]

I agree that Old Town deserves much more recognition than it deserves.

I need to drink more.....

Joe

[CHrisB]

I agree that Old Town deserves much more recognition than it deserves.

I need to drink more.....

Joe

Oops... Typed faster than I could think there. Corrected now.

Yogi Berra

[Doug Braunsdorf]

I realize I'm sticking my neck out here, Old Town and Maxwell are sacred cows, but tell me--the bunkers on the par 3 2nd, to me, in their placement, don't look a heck of a lot different than something Rees Jones would do.  

Actually, is most of the bunkering original/typical of Maxwell, or has it been redone?  Some of the shapes look out of place.  

This may be inflammatory, but it's only an opinion, and that's why we're here.  For discussion.  

[Dunlop_White]

Sean,

Doug - Good eye! As for our cookie-cutter bunkers, surrounded by zoysia bermuda, we hope to restore Maxwell's original bunker style at our next opportunity.

[Doug Braunsdorf]

Dunlop-

  Thanks!  I'm not meaning to be offensive here--it's just that the Maxwell courses I've seen have a different bunker appearance.  

I can see from the photos that this is a great course; a lot of the approaches look very difficult, and the features seem to be well integrated with their surrounds.  

#5, in particular, looks to be a lot of fun.  It must be testing; it appears one must draw the ball on the tee shot and then cut the approach into a green off a hook lie.  

[Dunlop_White]

Hole 14 .... 1939

Tall stalks of broom sedge and other native grasses encase Maxwell's original bunker scheme on Hole 14 at Old Town as captured in this 12 x 16 inch oil painting by Michael G. Miller. Maxwell had a penchant for bold, rugged looking bunkers with jagged edges and unkempt surroundings, a style he likely adopted during his partnership with MacKenzie.

Doug - Our bunker style is - in fact - far from original! Most everyone agrees - that a bunker restoration would set our course apart. We have tons of old black-and-whites as evidence.

However, to be fair - our current look is strikingly similar to Southern Hills - little round saucers!

[Anthony_Nysse]

KBanks,
  I'm going to guess that the bunker faces might be zoysiagrass-low growing resulting in less maintenance.

Tony Nysse
Sr. Asst. Supt.
Long Cove Club
HHI, SC

[Chris_Clouser]

Dunlop,

I agree that a bunker restoration would set the course apart.  Unfortunately, many think the round saucers were a hallmark of Maxwell's career.  That would hardly be the case.  If people could see some photos of the original work at places like Dornick Hills, Oklahoma City and others from his early work that myth would quickly be dispelled.  All of that was prior to his association with Mackenzie as well.

[Dunlop_White]

Chris,

I read a Bobby Weed report once that described Maxwell bunkers at Southern Hills as "little round saucers". The round shapes of our present day bunkers do resemble those of Southern Hills; however, my point is that Maxwell's original bunkers at Old Town were far from simple round saucers. Many originally were sprawling in size and charismatic in shape. Aerials and old ground photos serve as evidence. Where he adopted this style, I don't know? Doak thinks MacKenzie. You obviously have found otherwise.

Sean,

Maxwell tended to use little plateaus in the land for greensites. Chris found this at many of his designs...with little "Valleys of Sin" located short.  (Check out his book!) For example, look what he did to the greens at hole 7 and 10 at Augusta when he redsigned them in 1937 and '38. They too are perched on little knolls. As such, it's hard to play the ground game into these formations. And yes, they have been exaggerated over time, because in softening green contours, architects  must either raise green fronts or lower green backs - or a combination of both - and grade out and reintegrate it with the surrounding approaches, sometime using a false front to accomplish this.

[Geoffrey Childs]

Sean

Thanks for the tour.  OT looks to be a really fine golf course and I look forward to the back nine.

[Scott_Burroughs]

....I look forward to the back nine.

Geoff,

Sean's back nine pics were posted last night and are in a thread near the bottom of the page.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=28619

[Dunlop_White]

Sean,

Undulation is the soul of the golf course at Old Town. Sharply pitched fairways and rolling greens provide the interest and mystery. You have to experience its charm to become a believer. Thanks for the photos!

As for recognition, I think it will come in time. We are ranked 7th in North Carolina in "Golf Digest's" 2007 state rankings, and we are ranked 114th in the country in "Golfweek's" Classic designs. That's all I know!

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