Jim K,
I ended up playing with my nephew who had to get back to Walterboro quite early in the afternoon to get ready for a wedding. The course was apparently more crowded than usual so even though we were right on a 4-hourish pace we had to leave after playing the first 13 holes. My nephew says he and his friends usually play in about 2:45 (in carts). So anyway, I can comment on how the first 13 holes play in mid-summer.
The greens were in great shape. I don't know grass but they seemed to play like Common Bermuda. They looked shaggy compared to the TifDwarf I usually play on but actually rolled quite true and at a reasonable pace as long as you put a good roll on the ball. But they were super grainy and a glancing stroke with the putter produced a putt that might veer off any old way.
Every time I missed a green I was short-sided. It's because the greens are smaller than they look. Many of them have a lot of contour rather than being the basic round turtleback shape that you typically see on tiny push-up greens. Little ridges and multiple swales result in holes being cut just a couple of paces from the edge with no flat spot nearby to land a little pitch or chip shot. The 1-1/2" Bermuda rough runs to within a foot or two of the putting surface so the short-game challenges are surprisingly tricky.
That said, there were a few greens that were pretty darned flat. Penny Branch does not have a "style", per se. Other than mostly being low-profile and small in area the greens are a grab-bag of outlines and contours. And the routing of the course is just one darned thing after another. Forced-layup holes, wide open unbunkered holes, long narrow Par 4's cut through a chute of trees, water hazards unusually placed. As previously mentioned, there are back-to-back Par 3's on the seventh and eighth holes and a total of five Par 3's, five Par 5's and only eight Par 4's.
There are several holes that I really, really like mixed in with a bunch of plain ones that you could find at any pasture-land public course in this part of the country. For starters, the first hole is notable for its perfectly placed centerline bunker. There are far more elaborate, difficult and strategic courses in the world but when you realize how few of them are fairway bunkered this effectively you're tempted to ask
"Why, Why, Why?" after seeing the first at Penny Branch.
From the first tee, this is a dead-straight 479-yard Par 5 with a 50-yard wide fairway bordered by trees on the left and waist-high unmaintained rough on the right. But right smack dab in the center is a round, low-profile, flat-bottomed fairway bunker. My nephew hit an absolutely "perfect" opening tee shot. It was a high draw that started down the right center and carried 230 yards before taking two hops and then rolling into the middle of the bunker. The last time he played this hole he hit the same tee shot but it skirted the right side of the bunker, allowing him to run a 5-wood onto the green and two-putt for birdie. This time he had to play a mid-iron out of the bunker short of the green because that little draw put him in the sand.
He is probably the prototype of the player that plays at Penny Branch. Hits his good shots long but not ridiculously so, gains a little distance from the firm fairways and his short game isn't good enough for him to really go low if he's missing those small greens. So for him, that bunker is absolutely perfect. If he wants to play to one side or another there's 20 yards of fairway and 10 more yards of rough on each side. Not brutal but it takes a precise shot. If he lays up short of the bunker he'll have 240 yards to a green which is open in front but quite small with a greenside bunker. To hit it over the bunker he'd have to carry the drive 270 yards or so which is out of his range. And finally, when he does get in the bunker the floor is flat and the front lip is only a foot and a half high so he can hit most any club off the firm brown sand (no fluffy bunkers at Penny Branch). A plain-Jane opening hole turned into a fine one by the placement of that bunker.
Fourth hole, 278 yard. The tee boxes are practically in a drainage ditch and there's a tiny "pond" (really just a widened-out drainage area) that juts out from the right side about 180 yards off the tee and comes to the mid-line of the fairway. Then on the left there's a flat "waste area" style fairway bunker, leaving just enough room to walk or ride between the water and the bunker. So either lay up short of 180 yards to a flat, scruffy fairway or hit it at least 210 yards and land it on a fairly narrow bit of short grass beyond the hazards. Then it's either a short iron from the layup or some kind of partial wedge if you hit driver to another green that seems pretty good sized but is really small to medium with some movement in it. Behind the green is a large stand of Loblolly pine trees, planted in rows reminscent of that course in the desert with the date trees.
A fine little hole.