So Mom and Dad sat through a whole week of dismal weather at Hilton Head last week, but things cleared starting wed, when they went up for a few days in Myrtle Beach. For those of you keeping score, dad is 84 and mom is 73…Mr. and Mrs. Havekamp…only with some game:) ..and instead of “That’s a peach hun” it’s “will you stop blinking on my backswing?”…”yes, dear.”
They loved it. To my surprise, they liked it more than Caledonia, but they gave a good reason for it, they liked the greater variety of the natural setting and hazards.
Mom: “Phenomenal. You must play it more than once because there is so much going on – both in terms of where to hit the ball to best be positioned for your next shot, and in terms of how pretty it is, you don’t want to miss anything and there is so much to see on every shot, not just every hole.”
On Strategy and design:
“Huge greens that rolled very fast, but true. They had good internal contours so you had to pay attention and carefully line up every putt. They were interesting. There’s tons of waste bunkers and a nice mix of water hazards, waste bunkers, and rough. The variety from hole to hole was nice too.
We started on the back and 10 was my favorite hole. It’s a huge par-5 and when you get out into the fairway you see this wide expansive view and it’s just this one huge hole [the whole view she means]. The size was staggering. We played with another couple, up from Florida and they were playing it for the first time to and we had to look at the yardage book to make sure we knew where we were going. But it was a great feeling getting out there and not feeling like we had the whole course to ourselves, but the whole world.”
Nice sentiment mom! Anyway, she continued:
“I like how the architect made the fairways wide and gave you the chance to play around the hazard if you liked instead of just right over it. Your father liked that too, he’s been going on about the fourth hole all day (and 18 as well), and this time I agree with him.”
Wow:)Â anyway, moving on…
“You get choices here and I like that. If you want to go for the pin, you can. If you want to go for the middle of the green, you can, and if you want to play to the side and bounce or roll it on to the front, you can. I think it was harder than Caledonia, and longer, but I liked it more, even though Caledonia is great too. This was more interesting because it had more variety. It was also interesting playing golf and occasionally not knowing where I was going. But I didn’t mind it because even though all four of us were confused, we found where we were going eventually. I also liked the optical illusions. hazards would look close to greens then they actually were. Or on some holes, they curved so you had to carefully pick to much to try to carry. You had to play smart. It has a little of everything here.”
Dad: “It was murder. It’s a great course, and I like it more than Caledonia even though it’s harder. I like them both a lot, I see why everyone likes them and yes, it’s completely different from caledonia. It’s huge and it’s long. I played the whites and it’s the first time I’ve ever wanted to play the set one up towards mom.
You had a different problem to solve on every hole. Wow! This guy [Strantz] must have really been something, he shows you something different and interesting every single hole. You need to be a good player and a good thinker to score well here.
My favorite hole was 4, the big par-5 that curves around. Guys that try to bomb it out there may find the water or have a shot at eagle, but it’s big and beautiful, it makes you think, and its got a chance to give you 3 or 8 every time you play it.
The holes are also very wide, there’s tons of room out there, so you can play away from trouble, even if that’s the long way around.
18 is tremendous. I also liked 10 and 15. He [Strantz again] builds great par-5s, they are so big and wide, and there’s so many ways to play them.
Even though it’s hard and long, it’s also beautiful and makes you think. I wish I’d seen this when I was younger and could hit the ball. Guys who think here could clean up against guys trying to bomb it.
I’d play this one again. Both course are worth playing, and worth playing over and over again.”
