When in Georgia for the Masters, you’ll of course bring your sticks to play. While the normal option of Wednesday golf is out because of the par-3 tournament, Tuesday and Saturday morning are good choices;you won’t miss any serious action.
Even though it’s a little rough around the edges in spring conditions, there is no better option for public golfers visiting the Masters than Long Shadow G.C. in Madison, just an hour west of Augusta.
Golf architect Mike Young is starting to be known outside of Georgia as a rising star of an architect who roiutinely comes in on time, under budget, with a course that’s both pretty and smart. Long Shadow may be his best original work to date.  Every hole shows you something different, and while every view is pretty, more importantly, every hole gives you something to think about before swinging away.
Showing his love for the design elements of the great UK links courses, Young said “I was trying to build a treeless course on rolling Georgia land that was walkable and affordable. I’m thrilled with the way the builders and shapers finished the job…we kept the course affordable, but we also were able to put great strategy on the ground.”
Young is right, strategy is the soul of golf, and undulating fairways and greens add an extra dimension to shot-making to make the golfer not only puzzle out what to do on any given shot, but also swing solidly and smoothly to execute the plan.  The par-5 fifth is an example. “I love five, a dog-leg par-5 that makes you play a diagonal carry over the hazard on the first shot, then avoid the water on the side on the second. The green is small, as it should be on a par-5. It’s short, but it’s also high risk-reward.”
My personal favorite is two: a long, but bunkerless par-4 with a slightly pushed up green with shaved chipping areas all around. My threesome all saved par from off the green with three different recovery shots – one putted, one hit a bump-and-run, and the third hit a lob wedge. That’s great golf architecture – options.
“I also like 10,” Young continued. “It’s a 350-yard par-4 to a fall away green, but with an interesting strategy. The angle from the fairway will affect which way you can play the hole; you can hold the green from the right, but not from the left because it falls away from you on that side.”
Many players like 15 as well, a slight dogleg that tumbles through towering dunes and a rumpled fairway to a green sitting on the edge of a lake. It looks like 16 at Hazeltine or 11 at Arcadia Bluffs. “We built a 32-acre pond,” said Young, “and while I’m not a fan of water as a hazards, but we only cross it once and run parallel to it twice, so we did a good job of making it not be overly penal.”
Course owner Paul Donnelly did a great job not only of getting Young to design a strategic course, but he also should be praised for keeping great public golf affordable. At a high season rate of $64, the course is a bargain all the time. Get in a round while your at the Masters.
We’ll review Reynolds Plantation and their great Creek Club course later this weekend.
