http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/chechessee-creek/While working with the obstinate
Jay Mickle on the 4th hole at Mid Pines thread/debate, I started thinking about courses with a variety of green sizes and where trees enhance the playing experience (i.e. the kind of course not written about today). Chechessee Creek sprang to mind - its magnificent trees bestow an enduring character to the property, course and club.
I rang Franklin Newell, the only Director of Golf that the club has known, and inquired if I could come down July 4th weekend to re-photograph the course. Chechessee is never exactly overrun by the masses and July is off-season in the Lowcountry. Franklin, whose drawl would make the late great James Stewart jealous, was most welcoming. Once there, I learned about the slew of refinements triggered by the new owner Dave Proctor (who acquired the club in 2012) in consultation with Bill Coore. Green Keeper Bill Kennedy, who also has been there since the start and knows the property better than anyone, oversaw much of the work, save for Jeff Bradley who touched all the bunkers.
A few points:
1. I went without my clubs. It is one of those places where you are just happy to be. My fiancé, an interior designer, was captivated by the place and immediately commented on how the landscaping broke up the member parking area before her feet had even touched the ground. She also pounced on the club's logo, a flag inside a notched eagle’s feather. Franklin explained that the Indians from the area wore a single feather in their hair and would cut a notch out of it when they had performed an act of bravery.
2. When I first read on GolfClubAtlas last year that this 15-year-old course was being shut down for re-grassing, I was surprised. I wouldn't have thought that room existed for the course to edge up a notch but it did. The transformational results detailed in the profile speak for themselves.
3. Bill Coore is a master router over landforms but that isn’t what happened here; this isn't rollicking golf played through massive dunes. This course is a different expression of Coore & Crenshaw’s talent and therefore offers a very interesting glimpse. You need to see it to appreciate how and what they utilized to make the golf of a certain, high standard.
Chechessee reflects/embraces its Lowcountry roots, as one would hope. An upside is you aren't huffing and puffing up and down dunes. Its tight, counterclockwise loop of the 18th green, clubhouse porch, practice field, and 1st tee, practically begs for 36 holes, especially since the club makes trolleys available (proof-positive of how well run the place is!). If you told me they allowed dogs, I would swoon as a certain British golf mentality already prevails here.
Put another way, for those whose music tastes drift toward Miles Davis' Kind of Blue versus something louder/brasher, Chechessee will resonate. For a flat course to burrow into one's heart, all the detail work needs to be right. Happily, it is now. Better yet, with a great team in place, I only see good things ahead (including my besting Craig Disher there in early September!).
Best,