2014 MoGolf Mementos

[Ronald Montesano]

Around 1999, when I started BuffaloGolfer.Com, I decided I wanted everyone to write under a pseudonym. We had Travelin' Duff, The Scrambler (Kevin Lynch), The Mouth That Roars and some others. I'll baptize my annual awards, a la Sean Arble's Yank Awards, as the MoGolf Mementos, as much for alliteration as anything else.

It wasn't much of a travel year for me, sadly. The big trip to the Adirondacks was pretty much it. Oh, and the courses in N.C. in February.

Golf Course In Need Of Tree Removal: Saranac Inn in Saranac, NY (the Adirondack mountains.) I'm trying to recall how many times The Scrambler remarked that this golf course needed a chain saw assault. If you know him, you know that once he gets a hold of something, he shakes it until he snaps its neck.

Best Green I Didn't Play: 9th at Thendara (NY). It's an inverted bath tub and we saw it the day we traveled from Teugega to Saranac. There's an amusement park nearby, so Kevin made plans to bring his lad up that way for some park and putting.

Best Course of Year Ending On A Par Three: Glens Falls (NY).

Best Course of Year Ending On A Par Four: Merion East (PA). This is unfair, as it is a top ten course in the world. Of course it makes the list.

Best Course of Year Ending On A Par Five: Teugega (NY)

Best Nine-Hole Course: Dunes Club (MI)

Course That You Should Play To Help Save A Community: Pine Crest in Lumberton, N.C. If you're traveling south along I-95, just prior to the confluence of it and I-74 is Pine Crest (also listed as Lumberton Golf Club on google maps.) Lumberton is not what it used to be, but Pine Crest is Donald J. Ross or Dick Wilson for Ross or both, and it's enjoyable, challenging, thought-provoking and friendly. Play it, pump some money into a weak community and make a memory.

Best Course to Play After A Snowfall: Tobacco Road (N.C.) The orange sand, the fescue and other native grasses, the way the light bounces off the snow, it's amazing.

Best Course to Play After Pinehurst #2 Beats You Up: Pinehurst #3. It has all the same shots, but at 2/3 the distance. It has awesome green placement and neat putting surfaces to putt. Lots of vertical movement but none of the beat-you-up that big sibling has.

Favorite Golf Course In Pinehurst: Mid Pines. And I've never played it in-season! I've only played it in February, with snow on the ground. I cannot imagine it running fast and firm in the spring or summer. Wow.

[Matt Frey, PGA]

Saranac Inn or Saranac Lake for tree removal? I haven't played Saranac Lake, but I don't recall seeing a ton of trees driving past it on Sara-Placid Road.

[Ronald Montesano]

Thanks for catching that, Matt. It is the Saranac Inn course. Great layout, currently choked by arbor.

[Matt Frey, PGA]

Here's a picture of the early days at Saranac Inn from "Adirondack Golf Courses...Past and Present" (notice the lack of pines):

[Ronald Montesano]

I've seen photos like those. Zero trees between fairways. You have to see the 18th. That might be my next photo tour. I have plenty of images from this summer.

[Matt Frey, PGA]

I've seen photos like those. Zero trees between fairways. You have to see the 18th. That might be my next photo tour. I have plenty of images from this summer.

I'd be very interested in such a photo tour!

[John Kavanaugh]

I've seen photos like those. Zero trees between fairways. You have to see the 18th. That might be my next photo tour. I have plenty of images from this summer.

I'd be very interested in such a photo tour!

An MPT no less!!!

[Ronald Montesano]

No less! and hopefully, much more.

[Mark Bourgeois]

These are not mementos. You could call it a memo if you're completely hung up on alliteration.

[Ed Homsey]

I can recall the planting of those trees at Saranac Inn back in the early '80s when my wife and me made a regular 2-3 day stay there.  Lots of trees--mostly evergreens, as I recall-- planted in rows.  Haven't been back to see them in full bloom, but can attest to the enjoyment of that course when it0 was a wide-open expanse. 

[Ed Homsey]

One other thought:  you mention the "bathtub" green on the 9th hole at Thendara.  I think that this green really qualifies for the description of "buried elephants".  Bathtub does not quite do it.  It is a ridiculous green, but usually helps you end the front nine with a good laugh, and in good spirits heading to the tight 10th and 11th holes.

[Ronald Montesano]

I can recall the planting of those trees at Saranac Inn back in the early '80s when my wife and me made a regular 2-3 day stay there.  Lots of trees--mostly evergreens, as I recall-- planted in rows.  Haven't been back to see them in full bloom, but can attest to the enjoyment of that course when it0 was a wide-open expanse. 

Kevin Lynch and I had to restrain ourselves. We can only imagine how open it must have been.