Golf Winter ’21/’22

The Masters is behind us, no more snow, no more cold… right y’all? All Most of us at DRH are Midwesterners, and hate that we have to (mostly) put our sticks into hibernation for a couple months every year. It’s the worst! Some of us like to take the break and focus on other sports, but it drives me nuts. I’m pretty lucky that I can sneak out of town and fit in a few fun golf adventures if needed. As we’ve unthawed and courses are opening up again, I thought it’d be a good time to chat about the spots I hit up this past winter. There were a few doozies, that’s for sure!

Florida

All the fun spots in town started to close shop in November, plus I needed to go see Mom & Pop, so I headed down to Tampa and hit up the Innisbrook Copperhead course. Check my in depth comments and fancy pics HERE but the long and short of it is that it’s super fun spot, and I look forward to shooting a million there again.

Texas

So, I’ve been heading down to Dallas for over a decade, often to visit family. I really like the golf in the DFW area, there’s some really solid tracks, but it’s such a huge golf-style culture shock. Add all the wind, the dirt/super sticky mud, it’s pretty wild. Plus, you go get brisket after. Happy life.

There’s a course out in eastern Texas, about 100 miles out of the way that’s been on my radar that whole time. I probably googled “what’s the best course in Texas” – and I’d often see Pine Dunes pop up. It’s a 2002 Jay & Carter Morrish design that always got tons of good press, and the pics looked very different from the typical DFW track. I had to play it, but to commit the whole day to drive out there never worked out. During this Christmas break, I made the trek.

WORTH IT. This place is fantastic. It reminded me of a mix of Bandon Trails and Up North Michigan public, but also distinctly East Texas. They had a pretty slow, laid back vibe, and while nice – they definitely were curious why this nerd in shorts and an Illinois license plate pulled into the parking lot. (Shorts – of course – it was 60° – duh.)

I really loved Pine Dunes. It was fun, fair, walkable, and interesting. They had two really, really goofy holes (The par-5 6th with a split fairway blocked by a ridge of trees and the 90°+ dogleg 18th. That one’s a mess.) Hopefully it works out that I can get back here. Did get brisket later.

Hilton Head Island

In early January, DRH-famous Kris B and DRH-not-yet-famous Jaime (the dingus pictured above) zipped down to Hilton Head Island to play in one of those regional Am tours. Always good to see these guys, they’re very strong Golf Trip Professionals. We hit up Shipyard Golf Club’s Brigantine course as a warm up, and I posted this Psycho Scorecard:

The first round of the tournament was at the RTJ course at Palmetto Dunes. Really solid track that played extremely hard. It was cold and the wind was raging. It routes pretty back and forth, so the front nine for me was downwind, the back was straight into it. Tell you what, it was the best ball striking round for me in years. I literally miss hit five shots, and took triple on all of them. Brutal.

We headed over to the big guy – Harbour Town Golf Links for the final round. I’d heard many people that have played it and enjoyed it, but I was always thinking “it’s probably just ok.” Maybe I was a bit dismissive… Harbour Town is awesome. Love it. Sure, it’s flat, pretty tight, and only has 2.5 ocean holes, but it’s such a brilliant vibe. We all loved it. Especially Jaime, after I hit one OOB on the 18th – the widest single fairway on the PGA Tour. I’ll hear about it forever.

San Francisco

I had a big birthday get together in the Bay Area in February, and it’s, in my opinion, one of the best areas anywhere for golf and food. We started off at The Meadow Club – one of my favorite golf courses of all time. We had a bit of a frost delay, but then pretty much had the place to ourselves. It’s a brilliant walk, weaves back and forth through the hills, and was in fabulous condition. When people say “I could play this course every day” – this is the course.

To ramp this trip up to an even higher level (don’t get me talking about the pizza, burritos, and dim sum we had), we hit up another MacKenzie masterpiece – Pasatiempo. There’s a ton that’s been written about this place already, but there were a few things that stood out to me. It’s so laid back, but the golf history oozes out of this place more than I would have imagined. It’s a MacKenzie, everyone famous in the game has played there (and still plays there), it’s gorgeous, and unbelievably fun. This course is HARD too.

My favorites on the front included the “go ahead and get it” drop shot first hole, the epic and absurdly long par-3 third (floated an easy driver on to the green, no big deal). I’d been able to play a handful of the Doctor’s courses, these par threes really gave me the same vibe as the excellent one shotters at the University of Michigan course that I used to play a ton.

On the back, I liked the short, flowing par-4 hole twelfth, and obviously the finish of 15, 16, and 18 are off the charts good. Pasa’s amazing. It’s pretty pricey, but I’d have zero hesitation on whipping out the credit card any time to play this place again.

Then St. Andrews? Golf Winter is Over

Well, not that one, the St. Andrews in West Chicago. It’s a long time favorite for the DRH crew, and it was 36° and snowed a bit. Happy to be back in Chicago, but needs to pick up the pace to match the lineup from these past few months. Golf is back!