[Chris Buie]

A good friend has been uncharacteristically enthusiastic about this very private club he joined on the edge of Pinehurst for quite a while now. Almost nobody knows about it - not even the people who live right around it.
He's been going on about it for a year now. I never asked to visit. Bad form. There are only 15 members. And they more or less own the town - or a lot of it anyway. As the main guy finds the prattle of the wives something which detracts from the ambiance, its all men - although a few exceptions have been made for the occasional visit recently.
So I was having dinner with this guy - whose family has for about a century been one of the pillars of a northeast club that occasionally hosts the U.S. Open. And on a whim he decides it is time for me to have a look at the place. I knew generally where it was but you have to take lots of twists and turns on the roads - some paved, some not.
Well, we finally pull through this long tunnel of pines and immediately I can barely stand it. Huge open expanses with a lone pine here and there on the mesmerically rolling and turning sandy loam. Exquisite legato contouring of a nature I don't recall seeing in the area before. Somehow I'd expected it to be kind of flat. It isn't. But neither is it too sharply pitched. Ideal golfing land.
So he rides me around the whole place (which is about 200 acres) pointing out various aspects and it is just extraordinary. He said "there is always a breeze here" - and since it is slightly elevated and not forested he is right. It feels very much like you are by the ocean. The appeal of that in the middle of another broiling central Carolina summer is not something easy to articulate. It's just about the only place like that I know of in the general area.
All in all...truly phenomenal.
We go up to the modest but charming clubhouse to get a drink - and at the right time in the right way I get to address the one caveat I see.
It's a hunting club.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Grass it flag it: Carthage Club.

[Scott Sander]

Well told!

[Ronald Montesano]

thought you had found a few extra yards off the tee and were bragging about your new distance club...

[Adam Clayman]

Sounds like these guys need some enlightenment? Add 10 to the name and maybe the will find it.   

Timothy Learys dead. La didy da, da da.

[Bart Bradley]

Hunting, as in shooting things or hunting as in horse riding with hounds?

My wife always sees golf courses as potential places to gallop her horse...at least golf courses with good routings  .

Chris, Happy 4th.  Hope you are well and we can get together soon.

Bart

[Bill Gayne]

Quail with a 410 shotgun.

[Chris Buie]

Yeah, it's a hunting with shotguns thing - hence the name. I can't remember what kind of birds they are mainly after - probably quail like Bill said but I seem to remember him mentioning some other kind as well. Mainly it's just a place for they guys to hang out and relax.
My friend is absolutely smitten with the place and takes his beloved dog out there about every morning for a walk.
And it really is as good as I said - remarkable contouring. Not exactly sure how to describe it - it goes in long slopes mainly - somewhat like a sail that's picking up wind - sort of. Overhills has a similarity but the hills there move a little quicker with a striking variance and it took me a while to pick up how Ross incorporated that into ingeniously rendered playability. Someone with more knowledge would have picked up the logic he was following there quicker than I did. It was a perfect storm there with Ross + 3500 acres of perfect land + a blank check.
Rambling off track as usual. Well I'll just ramble sideways a bit more.
Considering what day it is this would be a fitting design for you to contemplate here...he designed quite a few things.
http://www.poplarforest.org/
Thanks very much for the comments guys.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

The Vicmead Hunt Club outside of Wilmington, DE offers membership in  nearby Bidermann GC, an excellent Dick Wilson design.

http://www.vicmead.com

[Bill Gayne]

Chris, he may have also mentioned dove.

For the combo golf and hunt club (I'm referring to bird hunting) such as Ballyneal or Sutton Bay are there many members who actively do both and does the hunting provide economic value to the club?

[Chris Buie]

I dabbled a bit with Google Earth last night to try to illustrate what I what babbling about. Of course, it doesn't have the impact of actually being there - and let me tell you being there is impressive - but never the less it might convey something. I tried to do it in a way that wouldn't compromise their privacy. I don't think it will.

Classic Ross high point to high point 3-par - about 180 yards.


This is what I meant by legato (rather than staccato). The contours mainly turn slowly - one gently segueing into another.


But there is enough spice out there to where it turns more dramatically. So you've got a nice level of variations going on which would be required to make a properly compelling course.


Here is an aerial of a corner of the property which I included just so you could see the authentic Pine Valley type area on the right. I don't think that's part of the property but it just goes to show that you've got some pretty ideal land for golf. This also shows how the land has just a few trees here and there. And as Ross said, trees are great but they have little place on a golf course.


It wouldn't be for sale for a while - those old boys are having too good a time. But it will one day. It would be rather criminal for it not to be made into a golf course - but I'm always saying things like that.

[PCCraig]

Chris,

Awesome opening post. My brother-in-law is a member of a hunt club just over the river from the Twin Cities in Wisconsin. Their "clubhouse" is everything I wish a golf clubhouse could be...dark, covered in animal pelts, big leather couches, a monstrous fireplace, a few "help yourself" grills and patio tables out back overlooking the property, and a huge TV that plays football games in the fall. Hunters are certainly more low maintenance than golfers.

[Chris Buie]

That sound exactly right Pat. I'm amazed how off the mark most clubhouses are. Understated rustic is a great way to go. Understated elegant as you see at some of the English places (and Old Town in Winston-Salem) is another great way to go. Even the unassuming, rag tag places at munis you see have more appeal than those huge flashy places. Sharply angular clubhouses are also not what is best for a golf course.

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