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Unless you've been hiding under a tee marker the past few years, you're probably well aware of the influx of new, high-end golf course builds in and around Aiken, South Carolina. The secret is out and everyone is seemingly itching to leave their mark in the sandy soil that lies beneath the forests of towering pines and fields of native grasses. Some (okay, maybe just us?) have even dubbed it The New Pinehurst*. Yes, that asterisk is there on purpose. No need to ask why, that's kind of the entire point of the story you're about to read. First the similarities. There is nothing 'new' about either city. Pinehurst and Aiken can both trace their roots back to wealthy Northeasterners who desired an escape from the cold and unpleasantness that lingers for a good part of the year. Both of these 'winter colonies' were built atop the same ancient sand belt that runs down the ancient shoreline where the oceans once reached. Railroads easily shipped people by the trainload up and down the coast. Of course, both had large resorts to house their seasonal visitors on holiday. All the same characteristics? Yes. Yet, the asterisk has to be included because of one (and the most important) factor. Despite all the new and mind-blowing builds (and renderings of things to come) in Aiken, all of the known projects are of the private variety. This is where Pinehurst - one of the United States' purest/oldest golf Meccas - shines. The Cradle of American Golf remains almost exclusively public. Being open to the public certainly doesn't mean it comes cheap, but if you know what you're doing, it won't lead to a divorce hearing every time you plan a trip there! Still, Aiken used to have its own resort back in the day and while the course remains, the resort has long been gone. With groundwork laid, let's beg the question of the day in very general terms... Can you consider an area a 'golf destination' when you can't get on any of the courses (because they're private)? Would you consider Long Island or Westchester County a golf destination? Anyone planning a golf trip to Los Angeles or San Francisco? Who has Philly pegged to visit this year? No one would deny the quality and quantity of courses those 5 regions possess are among the best in the world (50% of the top 18 courses and 25% of Golf Digest's latest Top 100 list). Herein lies the rub... Unless you've got the hookups, you aren't planning trips to any of those destinations. So where does Aiken fall on this scale? You may not know the courses here like the ones in the aforementioned markets, so here's the Aiken golf menu... (NOTE: we draw the line at the state line (Savannah River) and use that distance from downtown Aiken as the approximate radius. Courses appear in each section in chronological order from when they were built). THE OLD GUARD (Golden Age - pre-WWII) Palmetto Golf Club (private*) - Dr. Alister MacKenzie's "other" course in the region. A top 100 mainstay and a course about which we've never heard one negative thing whispered. Bucket List invite. Aiken Golf Club (public) - One of public golf's national treasures. Perhaps the greatest value play in the country and arguably the most fun that 5700 yards has ever produced! MID-CENTURY to MODERN (WWII to 1999) Midland Valley (public) - New ownership is breathing life into an Ellis Maples design Houndslake CC (private*) - Mid-70s Joe Lee design in the heart of town. Cedar Creek (public) - Early-90s Arthur Hills layout reworked in the same style by the same guy (Jim McNair, Jr.) as it's sister course, Aiken GC. The River (going private in June '24*) - This low-lying Jim Fazio course sits along the Savannah River in North Augusta, SC is one of only in area with on-site lodging. MILLENIUM MADE (2000 - 2020) Sage Valley (private) - Tom Fazio's ode to Augusta National. Top 100 retreat. Elite club also features its own 9-hole, stadium lit par-3 course. Same category at Palmetto. Woodside CC (private*) - 36 holes by Rees Jones and Bob Cupp on Aiken's southside. The Reserve Club (private*) - 36 holes by Nicklaus Design and Clyde Johnston/Fuzzy Zoeller adjacently southwest of, but not a part of Woodside CC. Mount Vintage (public) - 27-hole Tom Jackson outpost just a few minutes to the NW in North Augusta NEW GOLDEN AGE (2021 - NEAR FUTURE) The Chalkmine (private*) - This magical 9-hole short course & practice facility, built by Jim McNair, Jr. in an abandoned mining site, is the golf playground for the USC Aiken Golf Team and The First Tee of Aiken. Playing opportunities for donors exist. Old Barnwell (private*) - Brian Schneider & Blake Conant's first project is out of this world. Playing it this winter felt shockingly similar to how it felt to play our first Mike Strantz course in the early 2000s - it challenges what a golf course COULD BE!?! Its that good. A kids' course is under construction now for a late '24/early '25 debut, with another championship 18 planned before the end of the decade. The Tree Farm (private*) - PGA TOUR pro Zac Blair's dreamchild, built with Tom Doak, is what The Buck Club turned into. Early returns of the easternmost course on this roster are glorious! Cypress Shoals - A planned 36-hole private destination club in North Augusta, SC. The first course, designed by Tom Watson, is planned, though highly debated on when (or even if) it will break ground. 21 Golf Club - Another planned 36-hole private club. King-Collins of Sweetens Cove fame drop "The Hammer" course first, with plans for a lost MacKenzie design to be built afterward (a la The Lido at Sand Valley). The renderings are ridiculously cool! If we put an asterisk on The New Pinehurst* label as a whole, we've added a * to all but one of the private* courses in the list above. Why? Because all of the *'d courses do allow for public play in some form - most famously on Masters Week. Remember how we said Pinehurst also wasn't cheap? Masters Week tee times down in Aiken can cost you a percentage of your annual earnings. If you really have to scratch the itch, make sure you pack a healthy line of credit with your clubs. As far as Old Barnwell and The Tree Farm are concerned, there have been a number of opportunities for non-member play. The Broken Tee Society and The Fried Egg have/will soon again visit OB, while TTF was built with community in mind through event's like "The Ringer", Blair's initial golf Kickstarter for what this club became. Both clubs have unique membership models, so be on the lookout for the chance. Now that we have the data and the knowledge, let's ask the controlling question again: Is Aiken, South Carolina a golf destination or is it simply a burgeoning private course paradise? This may sound lame - but the answer right now is probably someplace in between. If you have a deep enough wallet, you can probably go now and have the time of your life for 4-5 days at a time. If you don't, do your homework and be patient. It may require a perfect storm to come around, but it's there if you're a savvy golf trip planner. If you're neither of those two, we certainly appreciate you reading this far down the page (...or you're one of our moms). Aiken Golf Club's quirky greens & sandy expanses are reason enough to make the trip here! All we know is this: it can be done really well right now on a short run (3 days/2 night variety seems right). Inside of 48 hours, we were fortunate enough to play Aiken Golf Club, The Chalkmine (3 times around), Old Barnwell and The First Tee of Augusta's 6-hole short course. We had planned to play Augusta State University's Forest Hills course as well (to feature along with The Chalkmine in our College Golf Landscape piece), but severe weather ran us out of town early. When you go is also important. We went in mid-January. It's not exactly peak season in Aiken that time of year. Yes, the courses are in dormancy (for our Northern friends that's when the Bermuda Grass turns a whitish-brown for the winter). Shorter days meant less time to play as well (69 holes total). When we did our Pinehurst 100 trip back in 2018 - we went right after the 4th of July. Not their peak time either, as it's often near triple digits that time of year in the Sandhills. If you're willing to embrace the elements that you encounter, fate may reward you accordingly! Or... you might tee off at Aiken GC in 38 degree weather after a severe winter storm that left 25+ MPH sustained winds behind and no power in the pro shop. #PlayGolf & may the Golf Gods shine upon thee. They're sure shining upon Aiken right now. If someone saw fit to give the resort concept another go down there - something with an Inn, 36 championship holes and a short course - Aiken might just become The New Pinehurst after all... without the *. Sincerely Fores, The Golf Crusade P.S. If you see this guy walking around the property, please thank him & Blake Conant for building such a groundbreaking tribute to the game. MORE FROM OLD BARNWELL MORE FROM THE AIKEN GOLF CLUB

Whether you're a teenager about to embark on the best (four?) years of your life, an aspiring collegiate golfer, or you'd like a mulligan on your whole college experience, we've got the tool for you! If you'd be thinking of working on your game while you're in school, it would be a pretty good idea to look for a college that has its own golf course! Good thing for you... There's a lot of choices out there! We've discovered more than 100 colleges have at least one golf course. The options are aplenty, all the way from par-3 and executive courses to elite thirty-six championship facilities, complete with Professional Golf Management (PGM) programs to keep them looking like a [semester's worth of full-boat tuition payments coming through the bursar's office]! We set out to capture those courses on an interactive map. Then we discovered and were subsequently sucked down the rabbit hole of college golf practice facilities. My goodness!!! The stuff that's out there is absolutely astounding! So much we've added more than 150 different practice ranges, indoor facilities or short game areas - many of which are housed right on campus! We invite you to take a look for yourself! We highly recommend using a desktop/laptop/tablet to navigate this map! If you're on a mobile phone, hop down to the bottom of the page to find a more mobile friendly version of this same map. MAP KEY Orange Flag = Golf Course at a Division 1 School Light Blue Golfer = Division 1 Team Facility Red Flag = Golf Course at a School from D2, D3, NAIA or JUCO Royal Blue Golfer = D2, D3, NAIA or JUCO Team Facility Maroon Icons = College has PGM Program Navy Blue Icons = Announced or Under Construction Open Book = no course or facility, but it's on there for a reason! NOTE: This map is limited by the width of the page in which we're allowed to populate. If you really want to follow the White Rabbit, click the broken rectangle in the upper right corner of the map below to kick out to Google Maps! THE COURSES Just like the rest of our beloved great green pastures, not all college golf courses are created equally. There are generally two main types of college courses you'll encounter in your search. True, some courses may could fall into both categories, but more often than not you can place it in one of these two classifications: The Campus Course - These golf courses are firmly embedded within or directly adjacent to the campus proper and are an essential part of the landscape and ambiance of the school. You won't find many of these that are new builds, as most of them have been around for decades, some since (or relatively soon after) the college was founded. While you'll perhaps find an 18-hole course here or there, a lot of these are of the 9-hole variety, either by initial intent or due to loss of a nine for campus expansion. Examples of the traditional campus course would include quaint, 9-hole tracks at St. Bonaventure (NY), Emory & Henry (VA) and The College of Wooster (OH). Larger universities have them too. Virginia Tech has a 9-hole campus loop on the northwest end of campus. It used to be an 18-hole layout, but half of it was closed years ago for construction of an on-campus hotel and conference center. Fear not - you'll soon find VT students have it good (spoiler)! Unfortunately for us golfers, the campus courses are the most at-risk for closure. Most of them are not revenue positive enterprises and is most likely the most obvious target for new development/campus expansion. Thankfully, VT kept a portion of the course alive. Others, like St. John Fisher College and Hamilton College in Upstate New York, have repurposed their former golf courses into athletic fields for other sports. Delta State (MS) was forced to permanently close their campus course during COVID due to budget constraints. Winthrop University's Golf Course is 'temporarily closed' while decided if their 9-hole campus course would be better suited for other purposes. It's not just the courses at small schools that are at risk either. Even the Ivy League can't dodge it, as Dartmouth College closed Hanover Country Club in 2020. The historic 18-hole campus course traced its roots back to the 1890s! Some places just won't let the game pass them by, however! Wellesley College, an all women's school outside of Boston, got into the golf business in 1890s and has kept the 9-hole Nehoiden Golf Club (completed around 1900) a part of their fabric ever since! The Championship Course - These courses were built as athletic fields for the university's golf teams. Most are not contiguous with the main campus, such as the famed Yale Golf Course, widely considered to be the best college course in America. The celebrated C.B. McDonald/Seth Raynor design has finally been given the new life it needed and is expected to break ground on their long-anticipated restoration (speared by Gil Hanse) in early 2024 (reopening in Spring 2026). While Yale's course sits a few miles off campus on the outskirts of town, others have championship courses that encroach on parts of their respective campus. The University of Michigan Golf Course was designed by Alister MacKenzie in 1936 and was built across the street from 'The Big House'. While now part of the athletics campus on the south side of Ann Arbor, the main academic campus sits a mile or two to the north, depending on where you are on the course. You could argue it belongs to the Campus Course silo, but it undoubtedly was built for competition. More contemporary examples of these courses can be found at Universities of Arkansas, Louisville, Washington or Wisconsin, among many others. The term "Two-a-Days" is synonymous with the multiple daily sessions that preseason football practice brings with it. It appears - on a few campuses at least - morning and afternoon sessions aren't exclusive to football anymore! In the Big Ten alone, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Purdue all boast two championship courses! The University of Illinois takes it to a whole new level with 54 holes to choose from if you fall in the correct bucket (not to mention one of the best team facilities in the country!). Double dippers aren't just in the B1G though. The Vanderbilt Legends boasts two 18-hole loops as well as a 9-hole short course. SEC brethren Kentucky, LSU & Texas A&M claim two big courses each, while Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Virginia have a championship and a short offering. Virginia Tech, Notre Dame & the University of New Mexico each have a championship course off campus and a 9-hole loop on campus. If you thought you have to be a Power 5 school or a state-university to have a couple courses, you might be surprised to learn that Oakland University in suburban Detroit owns 36 holes, a 3-hole short course and the OU Golf & Learning Center. Through our research, we've discovered a couple other small categories that should be considered, just to make sure we're not overlooking anything... The Gift Course - This is a golf course or club, typically but not always near a college campus that has been donated (by a family or company) to a school through their Foundation. Unlike the saying with the horse, you should definitely look a gift course in the mouth! You might be surprised to learn this happens at every kind, size and stature of school from a 2-year community college and NAIA, all the way up through Division I. Some these charitable contributions were made a long time ago, but the recent trend is on the upswing. Immergrun GC at St. Francis (PA) University, which dates its 9-hole Donald Ross design back to 1917, was built on the summer estate of St. Francis Alumnus Charles Schwab (Yes, that Charles Schwab). After his passing, he gifted his 44-room house to the church and the course to the university. D-I SFU has run it ever since. The University of Illinois has received arguably the nicest course ever gifted to a school. The former Stone Crest Golf Club was donated by the Atkins Family and subsequently renamed the Atkins GC at the University of Illinois. When combined the practice facility they've built for the teams, you'll see why the Fighting Illini have it so good for golf! Division II athletics powerhouse Wingate (NC) University has been the recipient of multiple course gifts in the Charlotte area. The first, Larkin GC (formerly Fox Den GC) in Statesville, was accepted, stewarded and eventually resold. It's location more than an hour from campus didn't make it an ideal fit for team use or university functions. Stonebridge GC however, just outside of Monroe, NC, made for a perfect fit. It's one of the closest courses to campus (about 20 minutes), ideally suited for both the aforementioned uses. Denison University (OH), a Division III institution just east of Columbus, was the recent beneficiary of a gift course - a 1924 Donald Ross course less than a par-5 away from campus! The Denison Club at Granville will now make a great recruiting tool and potential revenue stream from the University. And when we said it happens at all levels of size and stature, we meant it! NAIA member Point University (AL), as well as JUCOs like Muskegon CC (MI), Wor-Wic CC (MD) and Buena Vista University (TX) all now can join Phi Golfa Lotta. The Practice Course - These have become more prevalent as more colleges build high-end practice facilities for their teams. Chances are good that - unless you're a member of their golf teams - you're not going to ever play these. We did set some rules for this though, in that it has to have a defined routing of at least three holes (this is what qualifies the Jimmie Austin Short Course at Oklahoma and the 3-hole loop at Tennessee's Day Practice Facility). Practice Courses also exist at Georgia Tech, UT-Chattanooga, Troy University and Oregon State. Mary Hardin-Baylor (D3) has a 4-hole short course under construction in Texas while Pepperdine is about to put everyone to shame with its Pacific Ocean clifftop facility that invokes visions of Torrey Pines. It's worth mentioning that the 'defined routing rule' would rule out places like Iowa State, Washington and Clemson that - while wildly imaginative in their design and purpose - lack a defined routing that could count it as a course. Is it subjective or nitpicky? Sure it is. But... For a course to count in our tally towards The Golf Crusade's goal of playing 1000 courses, that's a must have. We're sticking to our guns on that one. That said, we'd love to spend a couple hours at Iowa State's golf version of Field of Dreams. They have multiple fairways and nine target greens, inspired by many five different architectural styles their teams may encounter during competition (FYI - they even have a Biarritz!). Check it out for yourself: Now, if any of those places can produce a scorecard or provide a defined routing (or even invite us over to hit a few balls one day down the line?), we'll happily update the map! If there was one practice course we'd put about all others, it would be one we built a golf trip around in an effort to see it ourselves! USC Aiken, a perennial power from the D2 ranks, has a course/facility that would make most PGA Tour pros green with envy. The Chalkmine is a 9-hole short course designed by Jim McNair (the man behind Aiken Golf Club's success). It exists solely for the use of the USC Aiken Golf Team and The First Tee. The course magically blends into the abandoned mining site as if the course was the what they mining all along. Innovative. Creative. Functional. Challenging. Exceptional. We were incredibly fortunate to get a tour of this incredible facility on our recent trip to Aiken. We were blown away. See for yourself how much of each of those aforementioned attributes The Chalkmine exudes (and then some!)... We were so impressed by The Chalkmine, we had BMAC speed golf a round while Dooner flew the drone behind him capturing every shot. Here's the sped up result in a ninety second tour of Jim McNair's magical golf playground (be sure to set the video quality to 1080p if it defaults you to something less!): The Aiken region itself - situated less than a half hour from Augusta National - has rapidly become a hotbed of golf course architectural brilliance (Palmetto GC, Sage Valley, Aiken have been there awhile, but Old Barnwell, The Tree Farm and the recently announced 21 Club have the golf nerds circling like vultures). The more places golf can create like The Chalkmine, the better place it will be for all of us! NOTE: One thing we did not do is list or pin every school's 'home course' that each uses for team practice or competition. That just seemed like too tall a task and didn't want to muddy the waters. After all, this is solely about what a each school owns or controls. TEAM PRACTICE FACILITIES When you start diving into the practice facilities, the first thing we noticed was the innovation and creativity was off the charts! The resources differ WILDLY between the haves and have nots, but in this game just having is winning. Now, that's not to say there isn't a huge difference between taking an old racquetball court, laying down some artificial turf for a putting green, then throwing a hitting net or even a simulator up on the end of it versus a stand-alone building with locker rooms, Trackman tech, indoor/outdoor hitting areas, a 400-yard range and a practice course. You saw the photo from Iowa State above, right? We try not to get into the habit of 'ranking stuff'. Lord knows enough people do that already. Our aim is simply to make you aware of the existence of these options and to highlight some incredible ingenuity, be it on the course or in these facilities. We can give you a few to search out in the map and dive a little deeper for photos. Most of the icons are linked to Google Maps, so photos 'should' display within the map for you (although keep in mind, they're user submitted and usually with a cell phone camera). Simply click on the main photo then scroll through them. A friendly reminder that this feature is difficult on mobile devices and better experienced through a larger screen/format. Please note that in most cases, if a college had a golf course - we typically only marked it on the map with a flag icon (only exception being if the practice facility and course were at different locations, i.e. Iowa State, Georgia Southern, Mississippi State, etc.). Click on an icon and it will tell you which amenities each college has. Arizona State Ball State Bowling Green Chattanooga Clemson ETSU Furman Georgia Southern Georgia Tech Henderson State Illinois Iowa State Liberty Mississippi State Missouri Oklahoma Palm Beach State San Diego Stanford Stetson SMU Tennessee Utah Xavier There are dozens more - explore them all! It wouldn't be a waste of time - we thoroughly enjoyed learning about all that's out there! If you find more, or have photos you'd like to submit of any facility, please use the contact us form below and/or send us an email to thegolfcrusade@gmail.com. We know there are more out there - help us improve this tool! We'll continue mining the landscape until we've got them all! We hope you enjoy the result as much as we did putting it together! Sincerely Fores, Your Golf Crusade Number of Colleges with Golf Courses by State 9 - Michigan, New York 7 - North Carolina, Indiana 6 - Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas 5 - Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi 4 - MA, MD, FL, IA, OH, NM 3 - PA, LA, MO, CO, IL 2 - CT, NJ, KS, MT, OK, WI, WA, CA 1 - AR, MN, ND, ID, VT, WY, AZ, OR (BC & ON in Canada) 0 - RI, ME, NH, DE, WV, SD, NE, UT, NV, AK, HI MOBILE FREINDLY(ER) MAP

We were yet again shined on by the Golf Gods - adding nearly thirty more courses to the Crusade, while revisiting another baker's dozen, many of which had some exciting updates. The golf industry continues to add speed to its upswing, and we're just fine with that! Of the thirty-six different clubs we visited this year (if you're checking the arithmetic, consider some clubs had more than one course!), a third of them have had major renovations in the past three years. That is the highest percentage we've seen since we formally began The Golf Crusade (2018). Of course, some of those are replays that we intentionally sought out to play because of said upgrades, but that's the point, isn't it? We feel like we've heard something like that in a movie before... "People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come." While we've not played any 'new new' courses lately, playing a course that has invested in itself to make the experience better for its guests automatically goes to the top of our to-do list, especially when its close to home. In all honesty, we saw so many great places this year across the board that it's made our fake end of year awards choices extremely difficult. It also happens that the course that is probably most responsible for The Golf Crusade becoming what it has, received new life - and that we were in a position to help re-release it into the wild via our Iron Maverick event - made it all the more special. PSA: If you're new here, we are big Mike Strantz guys. If you need a primer on who that is and what kind of courses he created, please check out our Strantz page after you're done with this story. Even if you're not new here, go check out the Ciriculum Vitae project we posted this year - which includes every course 'The Maverick' ever worked on! When we found out Tot Hill Farm was for sale a few years ago, we hoped it would fall into the hands of someone that would steward the course back into incredible place it was when we first discovered it back in the very early 2000s. We told anyone that would listen how great it COULD be. Sadly, most anyone that had played it in the past 10+ years never got to see what the place SHOULD have looked like. Thankfully, we no longer have to live in the 'should-a/could-a' world. Gratefully, the course fell into the hands of just the right people. Thanks to the efforts of new ownership, Strantz's mountain masterpiece in Asheboro, NC is back and we're happy to report, it's BETTER than its ever been! We've already writen up (in granular detail) all the work they've completed to date, so head over to the Iron Maverick III Recap for more tasty pics and tidbits on the restoration at Tot Hill Farm. , Dy With that primer behind us, let's get into our traditional year-end fake awards show! Per usual, we have our featured categories as well as a superlative round which lists the best of the year that was in a number of different ways (keep reading, you'll see). Best New Public Course Best New Private Course Best Alternative Golf Facility Macho Man 180 Award Best Replay Rapid Fire Round The two 'Best New' & the 'Best Alternative Golf Facility' (catch-all for executive, range, mini, indoor, par 3, short, etc) categories are only open to the courses we played in 2023 that were 'New to Us'. We typically add a category to fit the theme of the year - this year being about the amount of reinvestment in courses. We thought a "Most Improved" would fit the bill, but a couple courses did a complete 180. You'll see why the Macho Man gets involved below. Best Replay speaks for itself we hope. When it comes to the Rapid Fire Round, we open that up to any course we played this year, not just new courses. Some of those superlatives get one winner, some we each pick one, some we list a bunch if so many were worthy. After all, the whole point of this is to share the best - even if there was a lot of it to go around! Lastly, a photo viewing note: you may click on any photo for a full screen view. It will also scroll through them all from there. While any one of our stories can be viewed on a phone, it's best consumed on a larger screen! So, in the words of the late, great & honorable Mills Lane... "Let's get it on!" Best New Public Course George Wright | Sequoyah National | Dye Course at Barefoot Resort A very rare triple-header here, and it's warranted because the courses are as different in their nature as they are high in quality of design. When we say nature, we mean it. George Wright Golf Course is the famed (and rightfully celebrated) Donald Ross municipal course in Boston. The terrain is so extreme, Ross famously said you'd need "either a million dollars or an earthquake" to build a golf course on it. Thankfully, enough dynamite and a little over a cool million bucks were available to eventually build this treasure of a golf course. Boston residents are one lucky bunch to get a course like this! On even more extreme topography - deep in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, lies Sequoyah National. Why this RTJ2 course is an amenity of Harrah's Cherokee Casino, you don't need luck to hit the jackpot here. This course is the best truly public offering between North Central Georgia and the Pinehurst area. Bring. A. Camera. Lastly, the master of moving dirt, Pete Dye, took a flat(ish) piece of property near the beach and created one of Myrtle Beach's best layouts. Boasts four full 18-hole loops, The Dye Course at Barefoot Resort is arguably the most celebrated of thelot. While the conditions weren't all that should be expected for the green fee tag, the layout is too good to ignore. other nominees: Canaan Valley, Olde Homeplace Best New Private Course Nicklaus Course at Colleton River | Haig Point (Calibogue Course) HOT TAKE: While we expected the Dye Course at Colleton River to steal the show - after all, along with the Ocean Course at Kiawah - it's kind of the star of the movie in The Legend of Bagger Vance. Turns out - and its possible the weather we played in (warm, but cloudy) tamped down the high expectations. Day two took us on a journey (by ferry!) over to Daufuskie Island for an all-time great day at Haig Point (gallery below). After that was followed up on getaway day with the Nicklaus Course at Colleton River (shown in gallery above), we all looked at each other and decided the 'rank' would be the reverse order of play. Never thought we'd rank a Nicklaus or a Rees Jones track ahead of a Dye, but we did. A quick look through these photos and maybe you'd agree too!? other nominees: The International, Colleton River (Dye), The Dunes Golf & Beach Club Macho Man 180 Award Waynesville Inn & Golf Club | Tot Hill Farm other nominees: Johnson City CC, Holston Hills (VA) In honor of the greatest wrestling promo/interview of all-time, we've named the 'Most Improved Course/Club' nod after the Macho Man Randy Savage. If you've not seen this cocaine/steroid induced rollercoaster, click here before continuing! Holston Hills (Marion, VA) and Johnson City CC (TN) deserve mention here. JCCC has been an annual improver the past 2-3 years as it continues its throwback to its 1919 Tillinghast course roots. Meanwhile, Holston Hills underwent a bunker reno that made it feel and play like new. Sometimes its the simple things that delight - and both of these courses would be winners in any other year. However, this was not any other year when it came to reclamation projects. Waynesville Inn & Golf Club was on its last breath of life support when Raines Co. stepped up in 2021 and unveiled plans for a COMPLETE overhaul of course, club, resort and real estate. The results that Raines Co. turned in on the resort - combined with the artistic flair of Bobby Weed's resto/reno of the golf course - resulted in a must-play and must-stay experience. We profiled this property in great detail a couple months ago - discover it now while you can! And as you'd expect, we've got three words for ya... Tot. Hill. Farm. In nine months, the entire place has turned around a full 180 degrees (AND THEN ANOTHER 360 for those that have seen the full interview from which the GIF of Macho Man & Mean Gene comes)! To view some of the mid-reno photos and throwbacks to the early 2000s on our Iron Maverick III release story, but also just go see both of these places as soon as possible! Best New Alternative Golf Facility Stone Meadow Golf | The Iron Maverick Course at Tot Hill Farm In what has become one of our favorite pleasures, we love to look for short courses, high-end par-3 tracks and otherwise overlooked alternatives to the traditional 18-hole round. It also helps in the course collection department, as these 'golf snacks' can be consumed in much less than four hours! Our first winner is Stone Meadow Golf - home to a character-filled, stand alone 9-hole short course in the greater Boston area. It was a delight to pop off the interstate during rush hour and spend that time here versus the bumper-2-bumper crowd on the evening commute. It's got an expansive range with it to work on the full game, but this shorty steals the show! The other winner was one we had been pining to uncover for the past five years. After playing the El Camino routing at Tobacco Road in 2018, we immediately began planning a similar, yet far more unconventional routing for the other NC Strantz course. Over the years, we figured it'd only be a dream, but thanks to the incredible restoration (see above), we were able to piece together 21 holes of mostly half-par holes (see scorecard in Rapid Fire Round below) for our third installment of The Iron Maverick. We went through many ideas for names for this routing, but decided to name it after the event that was created to celebrate the man who made it all possible. As you can see - if you're familiar with the course - there are some wild tee locations on The Iron Maverick Course at Tot Hill Farm! They even yielded a couple of Aces! Best Replay Grandfather Golf & Country Club | Tot Hill Farm other nominees: The Cradle, The Muni, Johnson City CC Tot Hill was an obvious choice here and is our first ever 3-category winner. Waynesville Inn, while incredible, had a large amount of newness with the renovation, so it's not entirely a replay. That paved with way for the venerable Grandfather Golf & Country Club to pick up a prime category. Another Bobby Weed-stewarded property, the Ellis Maples design really REALLY shined. Updates to the world class 8th and 13th par fours, plus the addition of new tee boxes on 16 and the tree removal on 17 and 18, the latter also receiving other upgrades, make the closing stretch one of the most intriguing in golf. The grounds and professional staff at GGCC have an incredible legacy of excellence - validated yet again on our late October visit (and then some). RAPID FIRE ROUND Best Opening Hole Canaan Valley | Tot Hill Farm Best Par 3 Seabrook 13th | Barefoot Dye 6th | Colleton River Dye 6th Best Collection of Par 3s Tot Hill Farm | George Wright Best Par 4 Grandfather 13th | Colleton River Nicklaus 16th Best Short Par 4 Waynesville Inn 2nd | Colleton River Dye 12th Best Par 5 12th Waynesville Inn | 13th at Dunes Golf & Beach Club Worst Golf Hole 14th at Lake Junaluska Best Tee Shot Tot Hill Farm 5th | Sequoyah National 5th | Colleton River Dye 9th Best Clubhouse (view of) Colleton River (Nicklaus) | George Wright Best Clubhouse (view from) Canaan Valley | Grandfather Best Food Haig Point | Pig Pickin' at IM3 by Black Powder Smokehouse Best @GolfBarns Pics coming soon! Best Bunkering (modern) Colleton River Dye Best Bunkering (classic) George Wright | Waynesville Inn | Johnson City CC Biggest Surprise SRS Links - a 6-hole private short course at the Shaker Road School in Concord, NH Best @GolfBridges Pics coming soon! Best Overall Course Conditions Grandfather Best Hole Signs Waynesville Inn | Tot Hill Farm | The Cradle Best Tee Markers Iron Maverick Course | Tot Hill Farm (Bourbon Barrel Staves) | Haig Point Best Flags Waynesville Inn | Haig Point | Tot Hill Farm | IM3 Best Scorecard The Iron Maverick Course at Tot Hill Farm (Yeah ok, so we're a little biased on this one. But as part of IM3, we gifted a few hundred of these cards, along with the tees we made, so Tot Hill could use this routing again if they so choose! Thank you to Robbie Wooten & Impact Golf Marketing for making a dream reality!) Most Unique Experience Ferry Ride to Haig Point | Dave Baysden's Live Painting at IM3 Best Quirk First Tee on the Event Lawn at Waynesville Inn Best Stay & Play Destination (on-site lodging) Waynesville Inn Best Hazard Calibogue Sound/Atlantic Ocean at Haig Point | "Pit of Doom" at Holston Hills (VA) Best Golf Stairs (pics coming soon) Best Mascot/Logo on Course Bear Paw Bunker on 18th at Sequoyah National Waynesville Inn (Mountains silhouette in logo on bear's back) Olde Homeplace Silo/Barn Weirdest Thing on a Course Fountain in middle of 1 Fairway at Cedar Hill (Blind from the tee no less!) Best Risk/Reward Hole Hole 19 on Iron Maverick Course at THF Coolest Thing on a Course Waterfall hole at Tot Hill Farm Most Difficult Course Haig Point | Colleton River Nicklaus Best Value Olde Homeplace $32 | Santee National $45 Best Golf Purchase Our Aerial Squadron - DJI Air 3 (left) & DJI Mini SE Best Driving Range Sequoyah National Best Practice Area Colleton River Nicklaus Best "Golf Snacks" Waynesville Inn (Himalayas putting course w/ lights & 5-hole Wedge Park) Best Sign Iron Maverick III Barn Sign | Warning Colleton River Nicklaus Best Course Wildlife Swan at Ruggles Ferry | Turkeys at George Wright Dinosaur at Haig Point Best Non-Golf Photos - Banff, NWS, JC NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Tannery Knobs & Downtown Johnson City, TN Banff, Alberta, Canada - an entire site is needed for that place! Best Closing Stretch (min 3 holes) Grandfather (16-18) | Colleton River Nicklaus (15-18) Colleton River Nicklaus (15-18) Best Finishing Hole The International | Colleton River Nicklaus Our sincerest gratitude goes out to all who we welcomed into the Crusade this year, as well as a special thank you to those who keep coming back! We keep saying every year, "we're not sure how we can top that one?" Well, it's true again this year. To have the opportunity to run The Iron Maverick at Tot Hill - and to meet/work with the new leadership there to make it as amazing as it was - was not just a highlight to the year, but one of the very top few of our respective golf careers. We're really not sure how all that gets topped, but if it can be done - we will give it a try. We can't wait to see what 2024 holds for golf and all of us! We hope to see you on the course! Sincerely Fores, BMAC & Dooner Your Golf Crusaders As a very special Post Script, we're honored to share the videos the guys at Chasing Fowl Photography put together as a 'trailers' of the highlights at Iron Maverick III. Huge thanks to our friends at Tot Hill Farm for hosting our 170+ guests and for featuring the focus on fun! (the video starts out on a black screen - hence the black box only. Follow them on IG at @chasingfowlphotography)

More than 170 Iron Mavericks converged at the meticulously restored Mike Strantz Gem in the Uwharrie Mountains of Central North Carolina "When I was younger, I was hard to hold Seem like I's always goin', whichever way the wind was blowin' Now that travelin' feelin', It calls me back again Callin' me Back Where It All Begins" -Dickey Betts The Golf Crusade officially launched in Spring of 2018. In truth, we were already on the road to what Golf Crusade was, we just didn't know it yet. If we had to date it back to a starting point, we can pretty much point towards 2003 and the first time each of us played Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro, North Carolina. It was a round of golf. Yet it wasn't. It was the idea of what a round of golf or a golf course COULD be. We each instantly became fans of it's architect, Mike Strantz. Tragically, less than two years later, Mike was gone. His legend, however, was only beginning to grow. Fast forward to 2019, the creation the @StrantzFantzClub and subsequently, the birth of our signature event, The Iron Maverick. Billed as equal parts Strantz Tribute, Golf Ironman and Fun, we strolled into Royal New Kent with nearly fifty guys in tow for a picture perfect fall day on Strantz's tribute to Irish Links golf. Further ahead still, in 2021, this time with a sold out field of eighty-eight Strantz superfans, we feasted on the buffet of Lowcountry Strantz gems Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, True Blue and Bulls Bay. Incredible times were consumed. Yet, there was still more of the story to tell. The four previous host courses for the Iron Maverick: (clockwise from top left) Royal New Kent, True Blue, Bulls Bay, Caledonia Finally, after years of waiting for someone with the right vision to come along, Tot Hill Farm was getting its long overdue makeover in 2023. The stars could not have aligned straighter - though they maybe could have done so a month earlier so we could have had more daylight! The trilogy of Iron Mavericks wrapped up with a mighty crescendo this past October 23rd and 24th - selling out the first day in just over 30 seconds before popular demand REQUIRED we open up a second day. Within two minutes, day two had more commitments than could be filled. All told, more than 100 groups threw their names in the hat to try to secure a spot in Strantz's Farmland Funhouse. All told, more than 170 players would fill out the two day event that we aren't quite sure how we're going to top. How come? Great question! Each day was to follow the same formula. Aside from (perhaps) trying to cram too much fun into the shorter days this time of year, we'd say, based on the response on social media during & after each day... MISSION: Accomplished! Each day began with a few bombs from the ridge that forms THF's driving range, a few chips on the Redan style practice green and some putts rolled on the putting green (with their fresh new Prizm Zoysia surfaces and surrounds). Gone is the old double-wide pro shop trailer and replaced by a freshly restored 1800s farmhouse that sits only a few feet below the highest point on the entire property. Anyone who sets foot on this property hereto that doesn't feel transported to some other plane of existence simply being within eye-shot of the farmhouse & barns within the idyllic shaded plateau, just isn't doing it right. Thankfully, we think everyone was on the correct plane at Iron Maverick III! Once sunlight hit the golf course, so did the field for a shotgun start on the Mike Strantz Signature Course. We traversed the course on its freshly paved cart paths to try to get to meet everyone that came. Is it weird to go on a golf trip and not play golf at what is likely your favorite golf course? Yeah, a bit. As weird as that may be, was it conversely just as awesome getting to see the smiles on everyone's faces? You bet! As the temperatures warmed up, so too did the appetites! Thankfully, our new friends from Black Powder Smokehouse knocked it out of the park with their buffet setup! If you're ever in Jamestown or Asheboro, swing in and see them. Of course the meats are all great, but if you don't get try the Gouda Mac & Cheese, you're missing out on one of life's great creations! Players also enjoyed a rotating selection of draft beer from the old Ford F100 turned beer truck! The famed Four Saints Brewing Company (right up the street from BPS's Asheboro location!) flowed like the salmon of Capistrano, if you know what we mean... To ensure we completed the full golf menu we had planned, we bumped some games to the end of the day as daylight allowed. Day 1 wrapped up with our traditional day capper - the 'Firing Squad Finish'. Unfortunately, some of the field finished their PM round a little late or else this line of players would have stretched all the way around the famed cape hole (aka the 'Audacity' Strantzlate)! READY - AIM - FIRE!!! Once the command is given, every player fires their best shot at the tucked pin to the far left of the stone-faced peninsula green! The results are equally entertaining and hilarious! We think this one set a record for most water-logged shots at one time! Our winner, Matt T, took home a framed art creation courtesy of Blind Squirrel Golf. Meanwhile Day 2 saw the Iron Maverick Long Drive champion crowned. Our longest drive competition starts out like any other one you've played. Except, there are three chances to win on three different holes. Those winners took home a hat from The King Kollective, but also qualified to advance to the 'SMASH OFF' in front of all that wanted to watch! In the end, Dalton Hummer took home the Louisville Slugger persimmon driver trophy after he bombed his final drive of three attempts from the barn at 18 green back down the fairway! While we would have loved to have held both games both days, we just didn't have enough daylight. The sacrifice was necessary in order to complete the main entrée of the golf buffet. If you had paid attention during the lead up to IM3, you were probably aware that we had cooked up a little something of our own for the afternoon course... A little creation we've been dreaming up for about the past five years. THE IRON MAVERICK COURSE at TOT HILL FARM In 2018, right after launching Golfcrusade.com, we took a golf trip to the Pinehurst area to play our 400th course together. There was one replay scheduled on that trip: Tobacco Road. BMAC had never played it and it had been nearly fifteen years since Dooner had been humbled by the Sandy Soils of Sanford. Along with that round, TR had just released a new way to play the course called El Camino - a short, fun alternative way to play the front nine. You can read more about El Camino here. Because we are gigantic golf nerds, we immediately started dreaming up different ways to play some of our favorite courses - first among them, naturally, was Tot Hill Farm. One major problem (ok, maybe more than one) stood in our way: TREES. Some of the angles that we felt might make cool short holes were engulfed by trees (or lacked enough aerial space to make them realistic). It remained an idea, tweaked here and there over the years, but obviously never put into use. Until, that is, word came of potential sale and a planned restoration - featuring the eventual removal of more than 1200 trees. Once we pitched the new management the idea and drove around the property to see if it was possible, we were given the green light to do it! That idea is now real thing! The idea now goes by the moniker of The Iron Maverick Course at Tot Hill Farm. It is a reverse routing, playing primarily backwards from the 18th green (hole 1) to 1 green (hole 21). If you are checking our arithmetic, you'll need to know that it also incorporates the 13th green twice (top and bottom tiers play from different directions) and the chipping and putting greens near the farmhouse. There's your twenty-one. We read a few articles about the new Cabot Citrus Farms (former World Woods Resort in Florida), that their planned alternative course, 'The 21' would become the first twenty-one hole course in the US. Better change that 'would be' to 'would have been'. Is the IMC going to be played everyday the way that one will? No, it's just not possible (or safe). Will The Iron Maverick Course ever going to be used again? We sure hope so! To (at least) give the idea a fighting chance, we created it's own set of tee markers - made with branding irons produced by Seabiscuit Metal Designs - along with its own professionally designed scorecard (courtesy of Impact Golf Marketing). We also created wayfinding signage to help navigate the property in the unnatural order you must do so. As a token of our gratitude for allowing us to do this, we've gifted the tee markers, scorecards and signage to the club so that if they choose, it's theirs to do it again! Mike Strantz designed his courses as living works of art. They were built to consumed by the eye in a 360 degree field of view in mind - looking as attractive in reverse from green to tee as it does forward. In that regard, we certainly think The Iron Maverick Course passed the eye test. You'll have to ask the rest of the IM3 players if it passed their test too! Typically, you wouldn't get a detailed description of each hole from us. Since we were the one's who discovered the routing though, today is your lucky day... Here's the inside of the scorecard, followed by a description of what each hole looks like and a photo or nine of the course itself. Fun Facts about the scorecard: as a nod to the backwards nature of the course, the Strantz on Horseback logo is pointed in the opposite direction from the same image used on the new THF scorecard. The same image is the predominate mark on the tee markers as well. You'll also notice the lack of par listed on the card. This was intentional since the majority of the holes are half par in nature (cheers to Ohoopee Match Club for that one!). Lastly, you'll find the hole number and the green it plays to to help you find your way around a bit easier. OUTWARD ELEVEN #1 "Barn" - The journey begins from the ridge between 10 tee & High Meadow Drive, this short pitch and putt pulls its name from perhaps the most famous of all the @golfbarns at Tot Hill Farm. #2 "Autobahn" - The longest hole on the course, Autobahn tees off from the barn next to 18 green and putts out on 17 green, 633 yards away. The first of a few 'Strantzlate' holes on the IMC Scorecard. #3 "Dam" - the most forward tee on hole 17 plays back across the marsh to 16 green (with ruins of the old stone dam framing the hole). A true par three at 133 yards, don't hit it 130 or you're dropping three. #4 "Chute" & #7 "Apollo" - both holes play in the 50-55 yard range, both play into the (top & bottom tiers of the) 13th green, but from different directions. Chute, as its name suggests, plays up through one from the fringe of 16 green, over Betty McGee Creek to the top tier of 13 green. Apollo takes its name from the Strantzlate of the same name, given to a hole that resembles something more like the surface of the moon versus a green site. Don't go long in either place. (photo note: Chute played to middle tier due to what appeared to be gopher damage on the restored upper/third section. Can't make this stuff up!) #5 "Cascade" - you may never hit a more memorable 55 yard tee shot. Why? It plays straight downhill from atop the restored waterfall behind the 15th green. #6 "3 Putt Max" - a sign used to adorn this green (14) back in the early days - mandating a 3 Putt Max when the hole was cut in a certain position. Maybe the most difficult tee shot on the course as it must clear the rock wall facings of 15 tee. #8 "Money" - this hole plays from the 13 tee back to 12 green, a tribute to the temporary routing used after the flood of 2003 that destroyed greens 11, 13 & 16. #9 "Island" - another Strantzlate hole, this time playing into the 11th green from atop the ruins of the old dam on the bottom of 12 fairway. Won't find that opportunity many places (if any!) #10 "Cave" - during construction, the crew called the area 10th green 'The Cave Hole' due to the tunnel constructed underneath it. This dastardly shot plays about C-note inward from 12 fairway to the bottom tier of 10 green. #11 "Fishbowl" - As the regular 10th hole plays over the road from the tips, conversely, this hole plays up and over Tot Hill Farm Road to the lower part of 9 green, from which the hole takes its name. INWARD TEN #12 "The Gambler" - the start of a two-hole walking loop around the clubhouse. This one tees off just in front of the front porch, over the entry road and down to the chipping green. You might have the added difficulty of a gallery giving you advice (and grief if not followed). Site of one of the two holes-in-one at IM3! #13 "Volcano" - teeing off from the driving range tee, get your number right or you risk hitting the hardened surfaces around the putting green summit (i.e. road and parking lot). Pause after holing your putt to enjoy the setting of amidst the farmhouse and barnyard. Pure bliss. #14 "Backboard" - after the scenic drive over to 8 green, tee it up and use one of two backboards to try for an ace on this 80 yard shot! #15 "Albatross" - one of the three longer half-par holes, fire away at 7 green from atop the highest point of the 8th hole. As its name suggests, this 288-yard hole is accessible for big hitters in a single swing (plays more like 265 with elevation drop). The creek punishes over eager big bird hunters! #16 "Funnel" - The shortest hole on The Iron Maverick Course is by no means the easiest thanks to a diabolical pin placement on 6 green. Funnel your shot down by ground game or air, but there is no backboard to save you here. Take the off-road path through the woods from 7 fairway right to the tee! #17 "Rhino" - tee it up from the 'Rhino Nose' bunkers in front of 6 green and fire back into the top tier of 5 green. Super serene setting for this spectacular shot. Notice the old IM2 tee markers in the photo. This was the first tee we placed when we visited in July to scout the tee locations! #18 "Skipper" - Skip your tee shot out of the woods from the cart path (mat provided). Players have the entire green to work with, making a 2 an expected score for good short games. You'll need it with the big dog on deck. #19 "Westminster" - In our Strantzlate series, a blue ribbon was awarded to the biggest (and baddest) dog(leg) in the park. This 476-yard monster tees off from adjacent 4 green and putts out on the back corner of the world class 3rd green. With the elevation drop, it becomes a half-par hole worthy of a Westminster Ribbon. #20 "Holler" - approximately 100 yards stands between the tee (which is hidden between two boulders) and 2 green. Strategy varies greatly on shot selection thanks to the removal off 100s of trees around the green. #21 "Three Sixty" - One of the holes that appeared thanks to tree removal between 1 green and 2 tee. The hole plays 69 yards, one more yard than observant players will notice listed on the sprinkler cover just left of the tee box (that notes the 68 yards playing backwards to 1 green as the video below shot in July '23 shows). By the end of the weekend, we had celebrated (at great length) the return of a diamond in the rough that finally got its polish. We rejoiced over a pair of aces on the new Iron Maverick Course. The owners of those moments earned a personalized painting courtesy of Claire Nilan Art to capture the memory in a frame. We were honored that Claire joined us to play on Day 1 having been fans of her work for many years! Speaking of artists and paintings, the talented Dave Baysden returned Tuesday after playing Monday to do a live painting in the 12th fairway. The process was a marvel to watch - enjoyed by nearly every participant - but the end result was nothing short of perfection. We imagine it will soon find a place of honor in the restored farmhouse turned clubhouse - if it hasn't already! Who knows, maybe one day soon you'll be able to take home a print of that painting through the future THF online store or Dave's website (we'll let you know when that happens!). We'd also like to thank some of the incredible collaborators who got into the field that reached out to lend their talents! Ryan Parsons worked his ass off on Day 1 while Ryan Barnett of Barntt Media helmed the lenses on Day 2. Both captured some incredible moments from the land and sky, while Zachary & Andy Pessagno - better known as the guys behind Chasing Fowl Photography - put together some incredible vignettes and video recaps that will be released in the coming weeks. We even had bagpipes playing over a bourbon toast to close our the first night! For those that were there that heard the story that accompanied the tradition from the old country, its likely not one they'll soon forget. Once we saw who was coming to play, we knew we had a chance to create in impact that would last far beyond a day or two of golf. Claire, Dave, the Ryans' (no relation) and the Pessagnos' (brothers) helped make that a reality! So too did guys like Kameron Kelly of The King Kollective and Jameson France from Blind Squirrel Golf. Those guys volunteered their time and talent to create some keepsakes for our Longest Drive SMASH OFF and Firing Squad Finish contests, respectively. Thank you all for your support! We suggest you follow all these accounts on Instagram to see what they saw at Iron Maverick III as well as see some of the captivating content they all produce in their own ways! Lastly, whether you were one of the more than 170 Iron Mavericks who played in it, one of the unlucky ones who didn't have their name called in the lottery or just followed along with curious intent, we thank you for pestering us to the point we had to do this again! When people like the folks now running Tot Hill Farm start throwing around words like 'family' to those that were there, it makes it all worth it. We've said it before, but we're not a business. The idea of us doing events has not been to turn some huge profit or make a career of this. It's just something we enjoy doing because we enjoy the community aspect of the sport. The mission of The Iron Maverick has been to bring people together to partake in something that is of equal parts fun, golf Ironman and tribute to the man who composed seven original works of art in the dirt. We hope our efforts lived up to this mission. If this was our last Iron Maverick, we couldn't think of a better way to wrap up the story. If it isn't - and there are certainly a couple more chapters to tell in that book - then we'd be honored to run it back again in the future. We also owe a huge debt to Tot Hill Farm's staff for their belief and trust (in a couple of golf dorks they had never met mind you) to go on this ride WITH us! Their partnership in creating this event and The Iron Maverick Course is something we'll always cherish. We may never get the chance to build a golf course, but discovering one at our favorite course might be even better! We hope to see it in use again - and we promise we'll come back & actually PLAY next time! We hope you'll continue to find our little hobby interesting enough to keep following along. In the mean time, GO PLAY TOT HILL! Yeah, we're biased. But don't take our word for it... Go see it for yourself. It's back, Baby!!! And it's special. Sincerely Fores, Dooner & BMAC Your Golf Crusade Enjoy more of the fun & a few of our favorite moments from Iron Maverick III

"Please allow Me to reintroduce Myself..." The Carolinas are an embarrassment of riches when it comes to both the sheer quantity of golf destinations and the quality of courses in which to play when you get there. We've played over 175 of them on either side of the state line, many of which you'd think would be on a 'best in state' list. However, due to the sheer quantity of quality, it's impossible to rank all of these "hidden gems" or "best kept secrets". There are so many great courses, you can even cut them up by region (Coastal, Sandhills, Midlands, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Smokies, etc.) and still produce a 'Top 25' from each section that would make many entire states jealous. Then when you consider that a lot of the best golf resorts in the world - which take into account the entire experience of staying and playing - you've got another set of places that every golfer has on their own personal short lists of places to play. Not everyone can drop the many hundreds of dollars it costs (per night and in most cases these days, per round of golf too) to stay & play at one of the 5-star resorts. It's a good thing for this crowd - of which we are firmly entrenched - there are lots of other incredible experiences out there for less cash, but not any less exciting! As a couple guys who pride themselves on finding places just like this, allow us to (re)introduce you to The Waynesville Inn & Golf Club. We say 'reintroduce' because they've been around since 1926. We'd even been there to play maybe seven or eight years ago. When we visited Waynesville that first time, it was a pretty outdated, run down hotel with a much too compact 27-hole course (on just 165 acres!) with entirely too many trees choking the life out of its very scenic property. We figured it had seen its best days and likely wouldn't be back. It was certainly was not on anyone's places to play list. Most would have considered it to be a cheap local option, much less a golf destination. Yet, in the summer of 2021, word made it's way around that a hospitality group out of South Carolina was purchasing the whole property - just 30 minutes West of Downtown Asheville. Their plans were to fix up the Inn and that they had retained Bobby Weed Golf Design to restore/reinvent the golf course. We took notice immediately. We had grown to love Bobby Weed's golf courses very much over the past decade. His original design at The Olde Farm (Bristol, VA) is a consensus Top-2 course in Virginia and has been on every 'Best Modern Courses' list you'll find for the past twenty years. Weed's complete redo of Linville Ridge (Linville, NC) is an absolute thriller, while his firm's consulting work at the neighboring Linville GC and Grandfather Golf & CC speak to his ability to blend modern techniques with the delicacies of preserving classical or Golden Age architecture. (Clockwise from top left of) Weed's work at The Olde Farm, Linville Ridge, Linville GC & Grandfather Golf & CC So when Raines Co. (Florence/Charleston, SC) needed someone to restore the nine holes that Donald Ross designed back in the mid-1920s, Weed's services would most certainly be at the top of the short list of desired architects to handle the job. As fate would have it, Bobby's wife Leslie, grew up just down the road from the course. They still own the generational family farm today. Upon hearing how the project took on a personal meaning for Weed beyond restoring a few Ross holes, it made Raines Co.'s looming decision a easy one. Ok, it probably wasn't an easy decision. We can say, having visited the property a few times during the past couple of years - including just a few days ago as of this writing - it was clearly the right decision. If it wasn't much to write home about back then... It sure is now! Raines Co. completely updated every lodging option on property. We're not interior decorators, but we can tell you the charm of the old world style was retained while the modern conveniences were enhanced. But that's not all... They also moved the resort's pool to improve the infrastructure, parking and navigation around property. They've added a fitness center, created a new golf pro shop that doubles as the Inn's front desk, locker rooms, renovated the restaurants upstairs (The Grille) and downstairs (The Watershed), added multiple common areas and group spaces, built new cottages, and so much more! How much more? Good question! The centerpiece of The Waynesville Inn experience is the new Event Lawn (above) that was created in the intimate space that connects the Inn to the golf course. In addition to the off-the-charts ambiance and vibe it creates with its charm, it also doubles as the first tee (similar in cool factor to our favorite 'shared first tee/practice green' quirk)! It's as cool for guests to enjoy during the day casually as it is for a evening retreat, event or wedding! As if that weren't enough (no, we're not done), the cart path winds through the area to the turn shack, which is also flushed with its own covered seating area. What lies just beyond it however is the straw that stirs our drink! #ShortCourse The five-hole 'Wedge Park' is an out-and-back, drop and hit design featuring small, undulating greens, seven grass-faced bunkers and a creek that runs to your left heading out and right on the return. It's a great representation of the conditions you'll face on the actual course, so a quick run through prior to the round can be a smart tune-up. Of course, a post-round pass through the Park to see who buys drinks at The Grille would also be a common use! Around the corner from the Wedge Park and adjacent to the Inn lies an 18-hole Himalayan putting course. The course comes with the seemingly standard drink cupholder on each hole and is adorned with lanterns for night time play, like this: Beyond that still is a short game area and a full scale practice range with grass and artificial teeing areas. The Wedge Park, putting course and practice area are included with your stay and play package, along with overnight accommodations for two, breakfast at The Grille and of course, a round of golf for each of you. Oh yeah, the actual golf course itself might be worth mentioning... Weed's first task was to restore the Ross 9 (the original 'Carolina' loop which now will be your front nine) back to the original design intention. It's short in yardage by today's standards, but it would be a mistake to assume this valley floor layout lacks a challenge. The greens protect par, as do their surrounds. Next, since the former course was too cramped, Weed was given free reign with the rest of the golf property to create the best nine holes he could for the Weed 9 (back). Most of the holes follow original corridors, though a few green sites may have changed, some fairways were doubled up, yet all of them play and look far different (in a massively good way!) than they did previously. Playing this course allows each player the chance to experience a progression of the last 100 years of golf architecture in about four hours. You'll begin with a Donald Ross Golden Age design, complete with green-to-tee fringe cut transitions and sloping greens. Weed then winds you up the mountain with his modern take on old school elements, such as the connected fairways and billowing grassed-faced pot bunkers, before wowing you on the home stretch. The 17th (above) is a long, majestic par-3 that you'd swear Weed's mentor, Pete Dye, designed himself. It's as beautiful to look at as it is demanding a late-round test. After putting out on the penultimate hole and one final walk from green to tee through the fringe, the home hole brings you back down the other side of the shared double fairway on the right, a glimmering creek all the way on the left with the Inn's signature orangish roof welcoming you back. It's as memorable a finish to cap off a dramatic round as you'll find in these here hills! What's the price for all of that you ask? We are pleased to convey to you that all of that can be yours for under $250 per person! That's right, the starting rate, including taxes and fees, is $493.61. That's for a weeknight during the peak fall season (if you haven't been to the NC mountains in the Fall, you haven't really experienced Fall before!). If you go Penthouse (which is available BTW) or stay on a weekend, it'll be more. If you go in at a non-peak time, it'll be less. If you've read this far though, we don't really need to explain that, right? You know how golf works. To recap, that's a room for two, a round of golf for each of you, breakfast at The Grille, use of the Wedge Park, putting course, golf practice area, pool, fitness center and endless great times! Split two ways, that amounts to $246.81, rounding up to the nearest cent. Trust us when we say, it is... Worth. Every. Penny. It seems unlikely you'll need more convincing, but we submit to the court of public opinion exhibits A through ZZZ. Aerial Photography Boots on the Ground Around The Inn & Grounds The Waynesville Inn & Golf Club is classified as 'Resort Private', meaning you can play it if you're a member or if you're a resort guest. Since golf memberships are already on a waitlist, that means you'd better get there soon before the secret starts to break. This place is only going to get better! For a course that opened in June, for it to play the way it did already was a remarkable feat! For two guys that have a goal to play 1000 courses, it's rare we play the same course - especially ones we have to travel to - more than once. However, when it's this good, you make exceptions! Is the fact that we are already looking forward to another visit is a sign that WIGC is going to be the next big thing? That's not for us to decide - we leave that to you! But, if you need a 3rd and/or a 4th? Sincerely Fores, Your Golf Crusade

Why let the fun stop when the sun goes down? We're sure you've had a busy week at work and wished you could sneak in a round sometime. Perhaps you're just in a busy season of life, but that itch to break out the sticks never gets scratched. Maybe you've even been on a golf trip and wished the good times could continue to roll after sunset? We get it. There just isn't enough time in the day to make it happen, right? What if you could add some time back on the clock? What if you could play at night? Would you venture out and get in that quick nine you've been longing for if you could tee it up after the kids go down? We know what you're saying... "That sounds all well and good, but there just aren't that many options for that. Are there???" Well, look for yourselves: DESKTOP VERSION MOBILE FRIENDLY VERSION The rise of TopGolf as an legitimate entertainment option is one avenue you could go down. But they're just in the bigger markets and cities. They're expensive to build and it's not the cheapest option to hit a bucket of balls with rental clubs... Unless you're that guy that brings his own clubs to TopGolf? You're not THAT guy are you? So let's assume for a minute Jeremy Piven is right - you're not that guy (even if THAT guy in the bad dreads went on to direct Iron Man, Iron Man 2, executive produce Avengers: Endgame and write The Mandalorian). What other options exist? "Glow Golf" has come a long way since the days of the glow stick in the ball. We can't say first hand, because we haven't played it in a long time, but their seems to be a market for it. The down side is that it's typically of the special event nature and not a consistent source of golf after dark. Lots of mini-golf courses are lit for night play. That's all well and good, but we want to play, not just putt. So what about lighting up a golf course? It's been done in the US since the 1960s. One of the first to do it was Manor Valley Golf Club in the Pittsburgh suburb of Export, PA. It's been successful enough for them that they're still playing golf under the lights 60 years later. Archival photos from manorvalleygc.com So if the idea has been around that long, why don't we see more of them? You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to figure out it is a pretty large added expense - not just during initial construction, but on the monthly power bill and weekly payroll too, since you've got to have folks around to run the place! It's still more of a novelty today it seems, but could those times be changing? Solar power is becoming more efficient. COVID happened. If you hadn't heard, some more people started playing. Are we predicting the next great golf course building boom? No. We don't have the data on it, but there are likely still more courses in this country closing on an annual basis than there are being built. The ones that are being built are at high-end resorts & private clubs (or so it seems). One trend we see, however, gives us great hope. Lots of those places are building short courses as an added amenity. Some public courses and even municipalities are following suit in a lovely trickle down effect. Organizations like The First Tee have benefited greatly through these practices and now have top notch facilities to help grow the game. Could a few more of those - most likely in densely populated areas - start to wire themselves for electrification and nighttime play? In November 2022, it was announced that 3's Greenville - a (now) 12-hole par 3 & 18-hole putting course with lights, bar & grill - entered into a partnership with 8AM Golf to franchise the concept. We've been there during the day, but we know (second hand) that it comes alive at night! You may have also heard Justin Timberlake, an investor in 8AM Golf, is also involved - meaning lots of eyeballs and high profile visibility! We're all in for bringing this kind of sexy back... While most of the courses with lights are of the par-3, short or even Pitch-n-Putt variety there are a few 'regulation courses' that are lit. The aforementioned Manor Valley has 9 holes of regulation golf whereas Beacon Lakes, located just south of Houston, is a full 18 hole championship course featuring over 6700 yards of floodlit fairways! Of course, having lights in Texas and California makes sense. Scorching daylight temps in the summer makes night golf more palatable for most and the arid climates provide more opportunities to run the lights without inclement interruptions. Golf destinations like Myrtle Beach also have year-round golf, thus leading to three courses with lights. However, other golf meccas, such as Pinehurst, Hilton Head Island or even the famed Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail have as many lit courses combined as we do in our backyards... zero. Speaking of destination golf, when planning a golf trip, one of the first things we look for in the region we're headed to is look for a course with lights. For a couple guys on a quest to conquer 1000 courses, every little bit helps! However, when we start said search for a course with lights, we discovered they're really hard to find. A simple Google search produced an article with as few as nineteen courses with lights in the US. Another site listed around fifty such courses, but more than a handful from that list had since closed or turned their lights off for good. One day, a co-worker - knowing our obsession for list making - wondered aloud to us where the closest course with lights might be. He was shocked to learn there was one a little more than an hour away. Thanks Drew - you drove us down the rabbit hole! Well, after a few weeks of research, we've discovered more than EIGHTY (80+) golf courses in North America that have lights for night time play! We have attempted to verify all of them through a either recent photos, an active website or course Facebook page. For your convenience, we've pinned all of those courses to the maps below (one for desktop and one sized for your phone). DESKTOP VERSION MOBILE FRIENDLY VERSION What it does not include are courses that have lights but are no longer in use (Crosswinds GC in Savannah, GA comes to mind) or that we have confirmed have closed (Peachtree Golf Center in Duluth, GA still pops on a lot of lists or searches, but was bulldozed in favor of housing years ago). We'd love your help in maintaining these maps! If you know of a course with lights either in your area or that you've played, let us know using the floating CONTACT US bubble in the bottom right corner of your screen (or scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page to find a similar form). Conversely, if you see a course listed that no longer turns the lights on (or they've closed), let us know and we'll remove it. Remember, change only happens because people demand it or market conditions call for it. If you're older than 35 years of age, you have been alive longer than the Cubs have played under the lights at Wrigley. Where will the game be in another 35 years? Brighter?!? (we hope) We hope this helps your pursuit of the game beyond the normal boundaries! Keep it in the light path! Sincerely Fores, Your Golf Crusade

UPDATE (8/11/23): Iron Maverick III is officially SOLD OUT! Our sincerest thanks for turning this into a 2-day event and lining up around the corner for more! In 2019, The Iron Maverick was born out of a spirit of celebration. A joyous gathering of like-minded golf-obsessed folks that marked the return of a living work of art. Mike Strantz's ode to Irish Links golf - Royal New Kent Golf Club - had closed a couple years prior. Having never played it, we immediately made plans to do so once it was sold, restored and reopened. We invited some friends from our fairly new (at the time) Instagram accounts @GolfCrusade and the @StrantzFantzClub to join us if they wanted. Not knowing what to expect, about fifty golfers from eight different states showed up and put in 96 rounds of golf in a day. A successful event indeed, but what about a series of events, eventually covering all Strantz's courses? COVID shut us down in 2020, but only temporarily. In the fall of 2021, Iron Maverick II hit the holy trinity of South Carolina Strantz designs - covering Caledonia, True Blue and Bulls Bay in a 36-hour stretch that ruined golf for many for months after the fact. Life laughed at us when we tried to plan the third installment in 2022, but is it we who might laugh last? To look at what's next, we have to look first at when and where our affinity for Mike Strantz's work began. When is the early 2000s. Where? Asheboro, North Carolina and a little course called Tot Hill Farm Golf Club. Literally carved out from what would seem to be a combination of rock and pasture, Tot Hill Farm opened in 2000. We heard rumors - of almost mythical proportion - that the course was either the coolest or the cruelest one anyone had ever seen. In case you couldn't tell, we thought it was the latter. A golf sicko's version love at first sight if you will. If you've stood on that first tee box, you know how lucky you are to be there. Lady Luck, however, was not on the course's side very long. A flood destroyed multiple greens in 2003-04. A management company hired to run the course tucked tail and bailed in the middle of the night, leaving the original owners to pick up the pieces. The course continued to deteriorate over the years. Many feared a closure was imminent in January 2022 after a fire destroyed the maintenance barn, taking with it the much of the necessary equipment needed to keep up the place. But the night is darkest before the dawn. And what a new day it is for Tot Hill Farm! A little less than a year after the fire, a new ownership group led by Pat Barber (Charleston, SC) took the reigns. After a massive influx of cash for a full-scale course restoration, Tot Hill is not only back, but it is on its way back to being better than ever! Don't believe us? Come play with us... this October 23rd... UPDATE (8/4/23): Due to extraordinary demand, WE HAVE ADDED A SECOND DAY. IM3 will now have two days with two different fields of teams/players! This is our Graceland. Come EXPERIENCE it with us. WHAT'S INCLUDED IN IRON MAVERICK III? What you'll get in your sun up to (after the) sun down experience... Morning Round - 18-Hole Shotgun on the Championship Course - play your own ball - play whatever tees you desire. Want to play the tips (which go back across Tot Hill Farm Road on the 10th Hole, or maybe even the designed, shaped, but never opened Championship Tee on the 14th hole)? Have at it! Want to bounce around based on the hole to find the best shot value? Go ahead! Play the course the way you want! You'll get a SMOKIN' hot lunch catered by Black Powder Smokehouse of Asheboro! Each player will receive a $20 pro shop credit to use as desired on the new merch line with all new, Mike Strantz hand-drawn logo discovered during the restoration! Afternoon Round - 21-Hole Round on the 'Crusade Course'! Mike Strantz designed his courses with a 360-degree view in mind. In that light, we've created a never-before-played reverse routing that will feature holes anywhere between 56 and 606 yards in length! All new angles, options and chances for glory. And... as the first to ever play this newly discovered loop, a course record will up for grabs! After the afternoon round has finished, we'll have open play on the course til' dark (for those that just need a few more holes or photos)! Pick a hole or three and head back out if you want... You might want to tackle the legendary 825-yard Par-SEVEN finisher the course once employed (tee off on 16, putt out on 18)! When the golf is done, we've got a Post-round Pig Pickin' with all the fixins! Black Powder Smokehouse will be cooking an entire hog ON-SITE! Just imagine that smoky goodness filling the cool fall air each time you pass by the Farmhouse!?! Beer, water & soda are included (in a responsible amount!) & will be available at refreshment stations on course throughout the day. Custom Iron Maverick III branded Tee Gifts As the sun sets, the fire pits get lit to gather near & recap the days' favorite moments. Who knows, there perhaps may even be a Gambler's Hole after dark? How much will this experience cost you? If you know us, you know we're all about bringing you great experiences and opportunities at a great value. Thanks to our friends at Tot Hill Farm and Black Power Smokehouse, we're able to bring you The Iron Maverick III - the first major event at THF post-restoration mind you - for the price of just $250 per person! And that's just the stuff we're telling you about today! If you've followed us for awhile, you know we love to add partners and value as we go. There will be more to come in the three months before the big day! COURSE & CLUB IMPROVEMENTS Come see first hand what has us so excited... new Prism Zoysia greens & surrounds restored original green size & shape to most every hole (including the top tier of #13) restored championship tees (including 10, 12 & the shaped but never completed 14th) new/restored Strantz's original bunkering tree removal (more than 1000 to date!) restoring/exceeding original width and shot options less trees + irrigation & drainage fixes = incredibly improved turf conditions added bailout areas (thanks to tree removal) around the greens restoration of the 1800s farmhouse and its transformation into the new clubhouse which includes a pro shop, grab & go concessions, "Strantz Room" & more! clubhouse area will also feature community spaces, such as front and side porches, fireplaces inside and out, fire pits as well as enhanced putting and practice greens. It is important to note that with all this investment, the rates at the new Tot Hill will not be what they once were. You get what you pay for in golf. What you paid for in the old days of THF was sadly what you got. Most people would agree in recent years, conditions had deteriorated to the point of disrepair. This infusion of vision and capital is exactly what the course needed. Thankfully, those recent old days are gone! The dawn has finally arrived! You're going to pay more for the experience going forward, but we don't think you'll be disappointed! REGISTRATION Start getting your teams together! Teams? Yes. Traditionally we have kept this event to foursomes, but we will open a limited amount of twosomes since their will be little formal competition this go 'round. We will post an update to our social channels a few days before we will start taking formal registrations (payments). For now, SAVE THE DATE!!! When the time comes, all payments will be made through the course on their new revamped website (that will be launched on or about July 20th) at www.tothillfarm.com. Please DO NOT call the course to try to register. They are still closed for renovations. If you have questions, hit us up via the chat button on this page (it will send us an email and we'll get back to you). You may also email us direct at thegolfcrusade@gmail.com or reach us via DM on Instagram @golfcrusade. One person will register and pay for the entire team for simplicity's sake. Once the event sells out, a waiting list will be established. Just like last time, we will likely draw a couple teams from the waitlist right out of the gate to give everyone a chance if they're not fast enough on the click. Lastly, please remember we are not a business. We are just a couple of guys that enjoy doing this. We each have jobs doing other things, not to mention families. We wish we could do this every day for a week (or longer!) to accommodate everyone that wanted to play. So long as this remains a fun thing for us, we'll keep doing it. We are humbled by the amount of folks that keep on us, asking us to do 'another Iron Maverick'. You're the reason we're back here again today! For that, we thank YOU! TRAVEL & LODGING As with previous Iron Mavericks, travel and lodging are on your own. However, we have have secured a block of rooms at two hotels in Asheboro (about 8 miles from the course). Hotel info will be shared with participants post-registration. VRBO options in town are limited, but we expect some folks may try to piggy back this trip with a few rounds in the Pinehurst area as well. PARNTERS & SPONSORS As mentioned a number of times already, none of this would be possible without the help of our friends at the new Tot Hill Farm Golf Club! We're excited to bring you some of the best BBQ we've ever tasted (and we've sampled our share through the years) from Black Powder Smokehouse! We love to feature other friends, businesses, artists, etc. that we enjoy ourselves. If you've got a talent or product you'd be interested in having us showcase that for you in the lead up to and at the event, please reach out and let us know at thegolfcrusade@gmail.com. As an example, our supremely talented friend Claire W is already back as our 'Hole in One' Partner - providing a hand-painted, personalized keepsake if anyone make an Ace! We actually commissioned Claire a couple years ago to paint the routing for Tot Hill too! Want to partner up? Giddy up and let's go! FAQ When will registration begin? Soon. We won't keep it a secret. Make sure you 'star' @golfcrusade & @strantzfantzclub on Instagram so you get the notifications of new posts! Can I register as a single? Due to the expected demand, we don't anticipate singles being available (at least not initially). In past Iron Mavs, singles have commented on social posts and paired up with others needing partners to make a team. We suggest trying that first. We will try to connect you with others if we see your post and notice a match. Do you accept bribes? That depends... Are you a member at Augusta National? :) I played in a previous Iron Maverick, can I pre-register somehow? The only team getting an automatic bid is the winning team from the most recent event. Like we said, we wish we could do more of these, but we like the 'open' nature to them allowing anyone in the golf community the chance to participate. We're honored you'd even ask! NEXT STEPS Get your team ready! Save the Date! Put in for vacation from work! Stay tuned for the registration on-sale announcement on our social channels. We are PUMPED! We hope you are too! Until then, enjoy some looks of the course from a recent visit we took July 1st! With a few more months to go, this place should be DIALED in for an unbelievable day for all of us! Sincerely Fores, BMAC & Dooner Your Golf Crusade & Strantz Fantz Club

For year's we've read - at great length - praise about Donald Ross's Municipal Beantown gem. We figured we'd get there eventually, but Boston hadn't been in our regular orbit... until now. Not to assume it was THE place to go, we threw out the poll to our @golfcrusade channel in an IG story: "If you had one day to play in Boston, where would you go?" The Country Club answers aside, the overwhelming choice was George Wright Golf Course. So naturally, with just a few hours to spare before a flight home, nabbed a 6:30am tee time and were the first (and just about only) one on the course. A tee party for one? Might have been the best party in town at that hour! So does it live up to the lofty perch it's been anointed in many a national municipal course ranking? You betcha! We've played our fair share of Ross courses on the road to 1000 courses (550+ as of this writing). After a few holes, one starts to compare each of those previously laid down by The Donald. After a few more holes, we started to wonder if this is one of the best (if not the best, then perhaps the most fun) Ross layout we'd every played. We don't really rank our roster, but by the time the ball found the bottom of the cup on the eighteenth, it was a legitimate question we'd have to soon wrestle with. We'll get to it in a minute, but the proof is in the photos. Yet there are a few things to digest if you're a Ross fan or aficionado before we get to that. The first thing you notice is the ambiance and old-world charm. It is everywhere, even in the walk from parking lot! Most muni courses have a modest pro shop, maybe a snack shack and a detached cart barn some where else. Not here. The clubhouse must win the award for the largest muni digs ever. It's as beautiful as it is a presence over the first tee and final green. Once you're out there on the course, the transitions from green to tee are sublime and short. So short that in at least three, arguably four cases the next tee box is connected to the previous green - one of our favorite features on a golf course. Below you'll see what we mean as the 14th green smoothly gives way to the 15th tee. The next focal point is the par threes. The entire set is one of - if not the best - set of Ross single shotters we've ever played. They each offer a different challenge from intense bunkering, elevation (gain and fall), full carry, yardage variation and more. Click each of the images to unlock some of the tasty goodness... The first three really grab your attention and focus - especially the fourth hole (pictured first above, followed by the 8th, 14th and 17th, respectively). Likewise, the 17th is the cherry on the sundae. The whip cream the cherry sits atop is the connected walk from the 16th green to the tee box perched on a granite landform. The last big takeaway is the year of the design: 1938. According to the Donald Ross Society, that makes George Wright one of the last fifteen original designs the ol' Scot drew up. By that time, he had about 400 other designs from which to draw upon. If you've played enough Ross courses, you'd certainly recognize some similarities. The first one that stood out was the long, par-4 ninth hole. Playing forward as a very short two-shotter thanks to some tee box work, the initial shot is blind over a mild ridge. After cresting the hill, the hole opens up into a magnificently wide fairway with a more severe downhill grade to a green wedged into a natural amphitheater. The sister hole that immediately came to mind was the par-5 fifth at Southern Pines (NC). Having played it before its very recent restoration, the same fairway turn, massive width, dive down into the bottle and green placement were evident. Here's a side-by-side: Another memorable hole was the 16th. This great driving hole plays uphill the last 150 yards, getting steeper the closer you get to the plateaued green. Upon seeing the uphill slope from the tee, it instantly brought to mind the 7th at Inverness Club. Now granted, the IC version's fairway twists and turns up the hill, but let's be realistic. IC has hosted multiple US Opens and PGA Championships, two NCAA Championships, a US Amateur (with another one in the near future) a Solheim Cup. George Wright is for the people. Inverness is for the pros. That said, if you take out the twisting fairway at Inverness and replaced it with a similar mowing pattern at GW, they're stunningly similar. Yes, its a muni. The course was in great shape on the whole. Sure the bunkers could have been raked a little more religiously and the green speeds are probably a little slower than the ones over at Charles River CC or The Country Club, but they do the job and roll smooth. One final fact remains... If this were our local muni, we'd be frequent visitors. As for the rest of the course, enjoy some of the best of the bunch at George Wright below! Sincerely Fores, Dooner

At some point on your way to play a new course, the anticipation of seeing the course itself often makes the drive - no matter how long - seem shorter. Your adrenal glands start to pump more and more of that intoxicating juice as you creep ever closer to the smell of fresh cut grass seeping in through the window, that of course you expertly cracked open as the GPS begins to tell you the mileage to the course in fractions. You might even turn the volume down if you've been pumping up the jams so that all your senses can tune in to what's just around the bend. Getting to Capon Springs & Farms isn't easy, but it's not as hard as you might think either. That said, if you play into the cliché of playing New York State of Mind while cruising next to a train on the Hudson River Line - or more appropriately, Country Roads while driving through West Virginia - then this place is for you! Only when you turn off WV Highway 259 onto Capon Springs Road, the last thing you're eventually going to see - or at least you think you'll see - is a golf course. Trust us... the payoff is worth the wait. Upon pulling past the resort entrance - marked by a stone column on one side and a small dam/waterfall/bridge combo on the other - you are almost immediately greeted by the main building at the resort. The three-level main house contains your 'front desk', but also a dining hall and guest quarters on the upper floors. A dining hall you say? That's right! The entire resort dines together at a single sitting for each of your three hots (see photo immediately below). That sounds pretty old-fashioned doesn't it! Don't worry, your cots are private! Immediately past the main house, Capon Springs opens up to a large courtyard - flush with stages, gazebos, beach volleyball and other welcoming gathering spaces - surrounded by the two-lane road you arrived on with handfuls of white-washed guest houses of varying styles and sizes. My mind immediately called up scenes from Dirty Dancing and the famed Catskills escapes of the 50s and 60s (yes, we're old enough to have seen the movie as youngsters but not old enough to have lived through a similar experience!). We arrived right at noon. Upon parking the car, we opened the doors to the sounds of music playing throughout the entire property. Speakers were cleverly hidden in lamp posts and affixed to trees. Can't picture it? This video will help... What a setting!?! The foliage in the courtyard was nothing short of peak. In a rare twist of fate, we arrived at Capon Springs without researching exactly what to do and where to go. Since my brother (Doughboy) and I (Dooner) had played an early 18 at Cacapon State Park about an hour up the road, we thankfully had to swing right by our mother's place (who we were in town visiting) on our way to Capon. She packed a cooler with some subs for her boys, so we quasi-tailgated with the music playing and enjoyed every second of the journey back in time! If you heard the commentary on the video, you can tell that Ma agrees with the Catskills and Dirty Dancing takes! Enjoy a few more shots of the lower portion of Capon Springs & Farms. After we pounded a couple of subs, made our way back to the main house to find out what where we needed to pay for golf (it was there if you go), we made our way up the hill to the golf course(s). More on the plural noun in a moment. Since it's so far from just about everything, you can imagine that unless the resort guests are playing, the course isn't used all that much. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and it was GLORIOUS! Perfect weather aside, it was just a privilege to have been able to experience this golf course. Some may scoff at it being only nine holes, but you shouldn't. We wouldn't steer you wrong! On Instagram, the Sugarloaf Social Club guys call the place 'The Last of The Hidden Gems'. On their map of hidden gems, they actually refer to it as "THIS IS THE ONE - GO". We're here to confirm. And you need not go past the opening hole to understand why. Upon summitting the hill on the road from the resort's main house to the cart barn, head on inside the upper level and you'll find what you could only describe as a sandlot locker room. Grab a pull-cart if you want, or a rental set if you left your clubs at home. They're on the house. In fact, you play all day for $35 as a resort guest. After you lace'em up, you can roll a few putts on the practice green below the first tee. Just below that, it's the first tee to the 'other course' at Capon Springs, the 'Prep Course'. The Prep Course is a nine hole par-3 course that allows you to 'practice shots you'll hit on the traditional course. The Prep is walking-only, but carts are permitted on the regulation nine. We chose the main entrée to kick things off. If you recall a couple paragraphs ago, we said you need not go past the opening hole to understand the magic of this place. The hole, named 'Hilltop', plays up the hill from tee to green, the latter of which sits on the highest point on the property. That's all soaked in as you ascend the hilltop, yet the opening tee is where the spell is cast. We mentioned the cart barn (lower level) doubled as a locker room (upper level). Did we not mention the third floor feature? Well, it has an observation deck on the roof overlooking the first tee and ninth green, presumably for guests to enjoy a cocktail or coffee while giving the players of the day a cheer or jeer based on their level of success. I mean, how great is this... While we had the course to ourselves this day, one can't help but notice everything at Capon Springs is designed to encourage community. We can imagine that the families that come here every year have friends who are only friends while they're here! It's a lot like the campgrounds at a NASCAR race. Everyone here is your friend. They all look out for one another. Finishing the first hole atop the hill provides a vantage point of at least half the big course and all of the little course. Do yourself another favor - have a match. Don't count strokes - play a match against your buddy or group. Since it's only nine holes, you can easily switch it up every couple of hours and play everyone in your party by day's end. It's not a long course (par 34 over 2913 yards), but don't assume its a pushover. The strategy and restraint (or lack of it) you show is what makes this place oh so much fun to play. You can bomb it in places, but you have to be perfect. You can play safe for par, but birdies are definitely available in the right spots. Enjoy some of the best looks at the Capon Springs course! Last note here from us, is that this might be one of the first courses we've encountered where the White Tees (second furthest option) actually play from behind the Blue Tees (tips) on at least one occasion! At nearly fifty yards between blue and white tees on the final hole, that's a game changer given what lies in front of you! We've often wondered why more nine-hole courses don't do this in order to add variety for multi-round players. This hole does it very well! Also, with four tee boxes to choose from, it again adds a some great options for same day match play! Imagine a Red Tee round late in the day with only 271 to the green. If a match makes it to nine, I wouldn't want the honor on the tee! As for the Prep Course, it's a great secondary option to throw into your day or, if you're with the family, a low-pressure option for everyone to get out and enjoy a game. We love short courses, so it's no surprise we enjoyed it, but you won't hate it if you make it here. Also, don't be surprised if just your group and few deer grazing in between holes out there! Some of the best shots from the Prep Course! In short, Capon Springs exceeds expectations by much further than the country mile you drive to get to it! The amount of quirk is plentiful, but not unfair. You have to deal with hazards - plain and simple - but if you negotiate them safely, you'll likely feel the same way we do about this Country Roads Resort from yesteryear! Check out more from this ALL-INCLUSIVE resort at https://www.caponsprings.net/. Tell them The Golf Crusade sent you! Sincerely Fores, Dooner

It's that most wonderful time of year again! It's a time for memories to be made - just likely not on golf course unless you're really, really lucky. Thankfully, The Golf Crusade never sleeps (though it isn't afraid to hibernate!). Regardless of the state of consciousness you find yourself in at present, it's time to unwrap the presents and reveal the best fake awards column around - the Golf Crusade's Annual Best of Lists for 2022! As compulsive list makers, we are compelled by constantly creating spreadsheets of courses we want to play, ones we've already played, future event ideas, storyboards, movie scripts, etc. Ok maybe not the last one, but you get the idea. While we're not playing 100 courses a year or anything crazy like that, we probably get to play more than most folks in respective stages of life. While we each count our lucky stars for our wives in that A) we outkicked the coverage and B) they understand the obsession and support the ridiculous dream we possess! We didn't hit a ton of 'brand name' courses this year, which if you frequent this site you know we don't care one bit about that. However, we unearthed quite a few themes in 2022... Get it done! We added a Crusade-best 38 new courses this year. When we shoot for one new course per guy, per month, we went way above and beyond to grab this new mark. Add that tally to dozen of courses that we replayed, and you get a nice round 50 as the total for 2022. Quite a year indeed! Less is more. We love short courses, but found more of them than usual this year. We also rediscovered the underrated value of a good nine-holer. Hit the road! We added some new territories to the map (Kentucky & Indiana) and filled in some others that were heavily travelled yet lightly golfed (Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, south central South Carolina). SURPRISE! It was the year of the surprise course for us - can't wait to show you why! Alright, let's get into this! Here are the categories... Best New Public Best New Private Best Alternative Golf Facility Best Nine Hole Course (NEW) Best Replay Rapid Fire Round - Superlative Excellence Uncovered! The two 'Best New' & the 'Best Alternative Golf Facility' (catch-all for executive, range, mini, indoor, par 3, short, etc) categories are only open to the courses we played in 2022 that were 'New to Us'. We added a new category for nine hole courses since we played enough of them (and good ones) that it felt like it needed its own fake trophy. Best Replay should be simple enough to comprehend. When it comes to the Rapid Fire Round, we open that up to any course we played this year, not just new courses. Some of those superlatives get one winner, some we each pick one, some we list a bunch. Sorry, Dooner is notorious for making up rules as he goes. After all, the whole point of this is to share the best - even if there was a lot of it to go around! So, in the words of the late, great & honorable Mills Lane... "Let's get it on!" [Photo Viewing Note: Click on any image to expand. Mobile photo viewing experience can vary based on phone, so tablet/laptop/desktop recommended for optimum pleasure] BEST NEW PUBLIC BMAC: Springdale | Dooner: Chariot Run Springdale Resort in Cruso, NC was one of the two courses we actually got to play together this year - and we spun it three times around during the 10th edition of The Battle of the Smokies media tournament. We stayed, we played, we ate and we conquered! This property has received over $15 million in upgrades in the past two years... and it shows! Whether you're day-tripping into Western NC or looking for a stay and play option, Springdale is on the list of affordable places you should consider. While the course is really fun, the new clubhouse complex has everything you need (pool, restaurant, pro shop, fitness center and more!), yet it's people are its best asset. It truly feels like your home course away from home. Chariot Run Golf Club (Laconia, IN) was a delight in every way. It's equestrian motif carries from tee (horseshoe tee markers) to green (pin flags) and everywhere in between (silos on the range, white perimeter fence and horse barn cart barn. The omnipresent water tower (also with logo) is visible from nearly every hole and the aggressive bunkering gives the place a mean look in contrast to the forgiving fairways. All in all this place just rocks and is a hell of a bargain. The course uses dynamic pricing for their tee times, so we can't tell you how much you'll pay, but you can schedule 120 days out and have your pick of the sheet with proper planning. Well worth the drive from nearby Louisville, KY to play an everyman's version of Ballyhack Golf Club (Roanoke, VA). Also considered: Stonehaven (WV), Heritage Hill (KY) BEST NEW PRIVATE BMAC: Biltmore Forest | Dooner: The Cliffs at Glassy Biltmore Forest Country Club (Asheville, NC) is about as golden age as it gets. This Donald Ross mountain retreat celebrated its centennial in 2022 and was awarded a USGA Senior Amateur (2025) as a birthday present. It also secured Gil Hanse to steward the golf course and was in the progress of adding a mammoth addition adjacent to its iconic clubhouse. There isn't much not to like here - including the tour of the firm and fast fairways and greens! The Cliffs at Glassy (Landrum, SC) has been on the bucket list as along as any course I can remember - going back twenty years at least. Most of that lustful wishing was due to the cliffhanging and breathtaking 13th hole (above and in story cover photo). While some of the layout itself might not have lived up to the setting, but the terrain is so extreme that we're not sure what else Tom Jackson could have done with it. It's as good as it'll ever be and was well worth the wait to soak in those views and play the highest course above sea level in South Carolina! Also considered: The Reserve at Lake Keowee (SC), Lynch Country Club (KY) BEST ALTERNATIVE GOLF FACILITY BMAC: 3's Greenville | Dooner: (tie) Lynch Country Club & The Patch 3s Greenville made some headlines this fall when Justin Timberlake invested in the golf entertainment facility in one of the South's fastest growing cities. The 12-hole par-3 course also features a putting course and bar/restaurant area, all it lit up for night play! The investment group wants to franchise the idea and take to other major cities, so keep an eye on them! Also of note is the design of the course. While local GCA John LaFoy built the course, he asked 17 of his other friends (it was formerly 18 holes and called Crosswinds) to design a hole a piece, so you've got some nice variety for a par-3 track! Conversely, picking between Lynch CC - a 90+ year old private 7-hole par three course buried deep within Kentucky Coal Country - and The Patch (brand new 12-hole short course just a few miles from I-40 in Oak Ridge, TN) could not have been an exercise in greater contrast... So we just chose both. The Patch (below) frolics up and over a ridge in a new housing development. Among its bowl of eye candy are multi-hole looks, concrete cart paths, 20+ mile long-range mountain & adjacent lake views. It's signature quarry hole took home a couple Rapid Fire Round categories as well. Bill Bergin did great work here on some extreme topo! Meanwhile, Lynch Country Club (Lynch, KY) is just hands down one of the coolest places I've ever encountered on the road to 1000 courses. It is also a place we literally did not know existed before August of this year. It can't be summed up in a line or two, but if you have fifteen or twenty minutes to kill away from family members, then we've got you covered. As a matter of fact, if you haven't read our stories on either of these two courses, you won't waste your time by doing so. Click here for the Lynch story and here for the one on The Patch. Both of these courses are about two hours away and we'd drive that far to spend an entire day at either. BEST NINE HOLE COURSE BMAC: Tupelo Bay | Dooner: Capon Springs Farm & Resort Got an hour to kill waiting for your buddy's flight to come in? Need a quick tune up before the golf weekend tees off? Tupelo Bay Par 3 course will not disappoint because nothing gets you to tempo faster than a par 3 course! The greens will even give you a leg up on your competition with their smooth/quick roll. Must play if its your thing when in Myrtle Beach! Personally speaking, it is really boring to call a course a hidden gem these days. It's an overused term, but there isn't an accepted well-known synonym that's popped up to take its place. We love making up words, so hopefully by next year we'll have that figured out. Until then, Capon Springs Farm & Resort's 9-hole layout is a freaking gem of a golden age course and yes, it is in fact very hidden. Tucked on the side of the mountain just west of the WV/VA line in the norther reaches of the latter, this entire property is a time capsule. There are event some hints of template work and the conditions are incredible. We're going to do a full write-up on it eventually, but if your travels ever bring you into orbit of this dynamo, make sure to use the gravity assist and land for a few hours (or days maybe)! NOTE: They also have a 9-hole 'prep course' that is fun as well, but we're grading just the regulation 9-holer for this category. BEST REPLAY BMAC: Lane Tree | Dooner: The Olde Farm Sometimes a course you play a few times grows on you. Other times, it's who you play it with that makes your admiration grow. Lane Tree (Goldesboro, NC) is a little bit of both for me. I've ventured up to play it each of the past 3-4 years for a member-guest, but the course has continued to be in solid shape with a solid design. It won't show up on best in state lists, but it's reliable and fun. Win-win-win in my book. Yeah, I went the other way. Johnson City CC was going to be the runaway winner here thanks to the ongoing renovation/restoration/reimagination of Tillinghast's only remaining original Tennessee design. That is until the invite to The Olde Farm (Bristol, VA) came and became about as automatic as any pick I've ever had in this space. The Bobby Weed course is exceeded only by the attention given to EVERY detail. To put it lightly, it's just an incredible experience, not to mention a @golfbarns Hall of Fame course! RAPID FIRE ROUND BEST OPENING HOLE The Reserve (big view/drop par-4) | Oakwoods CC (cliffhanger par-3) BEST PAR 3 Biltmore Forest #3 | Cliffs at Glassy #13 | The Patch #6 BEST PAR 4 Pine Lakes CC #15 | Biltmore Forest #6 BEST PAR 5 The Reserve #5 | Stonehaven #16 BEST TEE SHOT Springdale #15 | Shenvalee (Olde #8) BEST @GOLFBARNS, Farms & Silos Pictured top to bottom: The Olde Farm (first 8), Graysburg Hills (9-11), Blue Ridge CC (12-13), Jim Beam/Four Roses/My Old KY Home (14-16), Sweetbrier (17), Steele Creek Park (18), Shenvalee (19-21), McDonald Hills (22), Johnson City CC (23), Waynesboro G&G (24), The Reserve at Lake Keowee (25), Springdale (26), Heritage Oaks (27), Bright Leaf (28), Silver Creek (29), Chariot Run (last 2) BEST BUNKERING (MODERN) The Reserve | Chariot Run BEST BUNKERING (CLASSIC) Biltmore Forest | Capon Springs BEST GREENS (ARCHITECTURE) Biltmore Forest | Lynch CC BIGGEST SURPRISE Lynch CC, The Patch, Capon Springs, Wyboo, Shenvalee, Springdale, Sleepy Hollow, the invites to play Biltmore, Glassy & Olde Farm, new bunkers at Johnson City CC, Crockett Ridge's improvement, Waynesboro Golf & Games... It was THE YEAR of the Surprise! BEST @GOLFBRIDGES Blue Ridge CC | Oakwoods CC | Lynch CC SCARIEST #GOLFBRIDGES Harlan CC | Sterns Heritage (2) BEST OVERALL COURSE CONDITIONS Biltmore | Glassy | Olde Farm BEST TEE MARKERS Silver Creek | Chariot Run | Lynch CC BEST @GOLFCLUBHOUSES (view of the clubhouse) Biltmore Forest | Springdale (view from the clubhouse) Springdale (amenities in the clubhouse) Biltmore Forest COOLEST MINIMALIST LOCKER ROOM Capon Springs & Farms *Capon's locker room also wins BEST QUIRK with the outside doubling as an observation deck & party platform for resort guests to enjoy scenery or taunt fellow players! BEST 19th HOLE Rocky Fork Tavern at Springdale CRAZIEST CART PATH Cliffs at Glassy BEST STAY & PLAY (on-site) Treehouses at Springdale MOST UNIQUE STAY & PLAY OPTION Capon Springs & Farms (all-inclusive resort except golf - $35/day add) MOST IMPROVED COURSE Crockett Ridge (2012 vs 2022) BEST RENOVATION Johnson City Country Club Check out our 4-year documentation project on JCCC here! RENOVATIONS WE'RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT Tot Hill Farm Golf Club | Waynesville Inn | Woodlake Country Club BEST HAZARD Gulch on #5 at The Reserve | Quarry on #6 at The Patch WORST HAZARD The entire 'Springdale Spasm' (13th hole) BEST FLAGS Sergeant Jasper | Wyboo BEST LOGO ON COURSE Chariot Run MOST DIFFICULT COURSE The Reserve | Cliffs at Glassy BEST VALUE Pine Forest (always <$50) | Heritage Hill ($45) | Sandy Bottom ($5) BEST GOLF PURCHASE MNML Golf Bag | Plastic Mini Tees BEST PRACTICE GREEN Cacapon State Park BEST RANGE Chariot Run BEST SIGN Middlesboro | Waynesboro Golf & Games BEST WILDLIFE Woodpecker & Bald Eagle at Springdale COOLEST POST-ROUND ACTIVITY Hand-dip bottles at Maker's Mark Distillery See Dale Earnhardt, Jr. race at a sold-out North Wilkesboro Speedway BEST NON-GOLF PHOTOS Shots from September/October events at Bristol Motor Speedway & View from Summit of Black Mountain - Kentucky's highest peak Shot from 'The Chapel' at Cliffs at Glassy of SC Blue Ridge Mountains BEST FINISHING HOLE Heritage Hill Our sincerest gratitude goes out to all who we welcomed into the Crusade this year, as well as a special thank you to those who keep coming back! We can't wait to see what 2023 holds for us and others. We hope to see you on the course! Sincerely Fores, BMAC & Dooner Your Golf Crusaders

During the coal boom of the early 20th century, boom towns appeared around mines. Since coal wasn't as sexy as gold, movies weren't made about the trials and tribulations surrounding the quest for its riches. One man couldn't dig into the earth and strike it rich on coal the way you can the shinier things. It took a village to extract it, a train to ship it to a city and another tribe to refine it. Yes, gold is far more romantic. Coal, on the other hand, typically borders on the wrong side of tragic. After all, if you went after gold, you were a 'prospector'. If you were after coal, you were likely after a job and a roof over your (or your family's) head. Coal didn't just appear in places like San Francisco either. It's buried far underground in some of the most unforgiving and least navigable terrain in our country. The towns that emerged around the mines shared the same rugged characteristics as the landscape around them. Coal towns were different from their California Gold brethern. For one, most were owned by the coal company itself. There was no mayor or elected local government. The company owned all the buildings - including the houses. If you lived there, someone in your home had to work for the company. Each company paid their employees in their towns in their own currency (script) that forced their workers to "owe their soul to the company store". It's a chapter of American History that appears to have been told just enough so future generations don't repeat it, but is whispered as to not wake the ghosts of the past. However, some companies did invest in their town's infrastructures more than others. Perhaps the gold standard of coal company towns of the era was built in remote valley in extreme southeastern Kentucky. What started as a remote outpost in Harlan County in 1917 became the largest unincorporated city in the United States and the largest coal camp in the world with over 10,000 residents (by the 1940s). Welcome to Lynch, Kentucky. In its hey day, it was known as the 'Cadillac' of coal towns. Named after the 'father of mining safety' & US Coal & Coke Co. head, Thomas Lynch, the town had all the things you needed: a hospital, schools, department store, post office, police force (company owned of course), running water, a bathhouse, massive hotel and jobs. Lynch also had the largest coal tipple in the world at the time of its construction. In addition, it had a lot of wants too: a theatre, semi-pro baseball team and stadium, semi-pro basketball team and even passenger rail. All paid for, built and owned by the United States Coal & Coke Company, a subsidy of US Steel. After World War II, the coal industry shifted and many jobs left town as a result. When the passenger train - which ran twice daily from 1923 until WWII - departed Lynch on January 1, 1956, it never came back. The jobs didn't either. US Steel began selling off the houses in the early 1960s. The high school closed in 1981. The mine was sold in 1984. By 1980, the population was down to about 1600. Today, there are only 635. Why the history lesson though? We're getting there. Did you find out that Bruce Willis was one of the dead people in the first act of The Sixth Sense? No. You have to build to that. When you're trying to play 1000 courses and you don't move around a lot, you have to get creative and you have to drive... a lot... to play new places. One of those new unexplored places for me was the Kentucky coal country. I'd had on the radar a daytrip to Harlan County (Justified fans please stand up!) to knock out a couple nine-hole tracts to make the four hour round trip (minimum) worth the effort. Since I was going to be up that way, I was on the hunt for a third course (that I hadn't yet played), yet Google Maps was not offering much assistance (no, Putt-Putt doesn't count)... For scale, Harlan CC & Sleepy Hollow (no, not THAT Sleepy Hollow) are 30 miles apart. It appeared that it was just going to be an eighteen hole day. After the Sleepy Hollow round, I had decided I'd take the curvy road from hell up and over Black Mountain - Kentucky's highest point above sea level). To make sure it wasn't a gravel road, I began to zoom in on the Google Earth view and found something that didn't pop when I simply searched 'golf courses'... "What the hell?" was probably my first reaction, but seeing the knife & fork icon probably meant I was going to find a roadside diner ironically calling itself a country club. Upon taking the bait and zooming in for a closer look... "WHAT THE #@%!?!?!" What was I seeing? I started counting greens. 1, 2 ... 7. Seven? Were two hiding in the shadows? What in God's Name is this place? If it was 10:00pm when I found it, Google was about to work overtime for the next three hours as I obsessively searched for ANY info I could find on what appeared to be a seven hole short course out in the middle of nowhere. All I could dig up was a seldom used Facebook group page for the pool at Lynch Country Club. My heart was resigned to the fact the course was probably no longer in existence, but I sent a detailed probe over to the group leader via email and a simple DM to the group on FB to see what they could tell me about the course (if it was still there) and simply asked, 'what are your golf rates?' A few days I waited without a response, but I couldn't get Lynch out of my head. How could this be? First, we LOVE short courses. Second, how could it not have shown up on of the endless searches I'd done to find new places to play (close to home) in the last ten years? Third, how does a course like this even exist out here in a place like this: All of my common sense told me this was just not going to happen. I'd done some light reading about the town's history and pretty much resigned all hope as days turned into weeks without a reply. Until... Was I more excited when I got the invite to attend The Masters or to find out Lynch Country Club was indeed a golf course I could play? I'm honestly not sure. I had no idea what I was going to find when I got there, but I was just excited I now found a third course to play on that day-trip and what might be the most well hidden golf course in America! The only bad news was I was going to have to wait until October to make the trip up there. The leaves hadn't quite turned, but I didn't care (colorblind people only get so much enjoyment out of leaf peeping anyway). September was a grueling (yet quite successful) month in the office, which also meant I was overdue to play. It'd been almost two full months since my last round, so it was time to make up for lost time. A triple-header was just what the doctor ordered. Harlan Country Club was first up. It was perhaps a little less tough to get to than I first imagined. After a ninety minute car ride with no answer to calls on the way to make sure they were open, I arrived to see a closed sign on the window and no cars in the parking lot. I backtracked the winding entrance road where I had waved to a man blowing freshly fallen leaves back into the forest from which they came. He instructed me to grab a cart and settle up afterwards. I happily obliged and rolled through it's rugged (and freshly aerated) nine holes as the fog literally burning off the fairways. It had some fun aspects and a couple nice shots to play, but the sub-2500 yard course has probably already seen its best days. It has a place here though and we're sure a loyal follow from locals. It's got the intent, just needs the capital to help it along. < use the arrows on either side of the photos to navigate throw the slideshow > Upon telling the gentleman who'd retreated from leaf blowing to the pro shop my next stop was Sleepy Hollow, he said, "you should check out Lynch too, par 3 course. You'll really like that one". My heart fluttered a bit with anticipation. After a drive behind a string of dump trucks loaded with stone, I arrived at Sleepy Hollow Golf Course in Cumberland to find only a couple of cars in the parking lot - another welcome sign. Speaking of welcome signs, this one said the course was constructed in 1922 by the International Harvester Company. The gentlemen behind the counter kindly rattled off a pretty detailed version of the course's history, which included numerous changes to the routing and ownership. As coal seams were discovered in the hills, business naturally took precedence over leisure. Certain holes would come and go as the mining operation moved around the mountain for many years. It became a Kentucky State Park course for a number of years before the state sold it to the county. By its current appearance, it looks to have been professionally renovated (architect unknown) sometime in the last twenty years. Aside from the greens recovering from a summer bout with a fungus, the course was in great shape considering the catastrophic rainfall throughout the region the entire season. < use the arrows on either side of the photos to navigate throw the slideshow > Wanting to hear my thoughts, my new friend from the pro shop grabbed me on the way out. I told him it was a blast and that I hoped to return when the greens were healed up. I also mentioned I was heading to Lynch next to which he replied, "Oh, you're going to love that place!" I couldn't plug Lynch Country Club in the GPS fast enough... 5.7 miles to go. Driving over from Cumberland, KY to Lynch, you pass through Benham, another former coal company town, home to the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum and not much else. About three miles from my destination, I came upon a golf cart heading my direction. He was moving pretty well I thought, but probably just an easy way to go from place to place that's better on gas mileage. Then I saw the Sunday bag affixed to the back and the gentleman's attire was acceptable for golf. Then I said aloud in the car... "Son of a... he's driving that thing to the course!" I politely waited for a dashed center line to pass and nod. I was so damn excited by this time I could hardly wait to get to the course, then I drove into town and began to see this story unfolding before my eyes. I'll admit, I didn't know what a tipple was before researching this story. I do now. It smacks you in the face as your round the first bend into Lynch. Then you see something that resembles a power plant. Why? Because it actually was one! The area was so remote they had to build their own power supply when they got there. Like the tipple, it has long been out of commission. Then the train station, the bathhouse, the company store, a post office, buildings that were probably once a school or corporate offices. Most of them boarded up and left to rot, though some had certainly received some preservation efforts. I drove through slowly, but after debating with myself for half a mile, I knew I needed to go back and take at least a few minutes to absorb the moment. While doing that, my golf cart friend retook the lead on the race to the course. I could not have cared less. My father loved American History. It's certainly a trait he passed down to me from a very young age. He passed away earlier this year. Perhaps in some ways, he was at the wheel that turned me around. It was time well spent - standing IN history for a few moments, maybe even with him on my shoulder. As I rolled out of the last corner of town, I appeared to be heading back into the wilderness when suddenly the course just appears out of the woods. A quick glance in the mirrors found no tail, so I disconnected the phone GPS to capture that first impression... I almost didn't believe it was real until this point. I also had probably set myself up for a huge letdown by building this course up WAAAAAAY too much in my own mind and anticipation. Yet, as I made my way down the highway which bisected the course, to the driveway which bisected another part, past the pool to the parking lot which bisected it from the last part, all I could think of was this... If Indiana Jones played golf, Lynch Country Club would have been the MacGuffin in the fourth movie instead of the ridiculous Crystal Skull storyline. Better yet, I hear Mr. Ford is passing the fedora in the next installment. Just saying... I was greeted by a member in the parking lot who gave me the lay of the land and even offered to pay for my round. I took in a few stories and tips about the course and strolled all the more gratefully past the Dog House and over to the first tee. The first tee is rather large and nearly adjoins with the second green - which apparently also serves as an informal practice green. I pegged a tee in the ground and snapped a few pics. Through the viewfinder I saw a familiar outfit on the green next to me - the golf cart pilot from the drive in! Walking in his direction I inquired if it was indeed the man I raced on the way here. After confirming, he extended his hand and introduced himself... "Rainbo Johnson. Welcome to Lynch!" With a smile and a sincere thank you, we continued the conversation I'd started with my other new friend in the parking lot, as if Rainbo had already heard every word. Turns out, Rainbo lived back by Sleepy Hollow, meaning his golf cart ran the 10-mile round trip on (presumably) a near daily basis. If I was that close to this place, I'd darn sure be here every day too! Walking around the second/practice green, it was impossible not to notice the turtleback humps in and around it. But not a Donald Ross turtleback. No, we're talking Morla from The Neverending Story turtlebacks! Ok, maybe not that big, but they're bold and they're beautiful. The stimpmeter doesn't need to go off the charts with curves like these, so you'll find them a little slower than they look, yet likely far more enjoyable for the user. Heartbroken, I had to decline the offer to join their upcoming afternoon game so I could be home for dinner (fact check: really so my wife keeps allowing me to do this stuff and not leave me). I returned to my tee ball and proceeded to thin one that was surely headed for an honored place down in the holler behind the first green. However, I struck it poorly enough that the ball hit the green and somehow died pin high, as if the Golf God's reached down and muttered, "WE GOT YOU!" < click any photo to expand to full screen > Turns out, it was just one of the signature humps catching the skulled wedge like a first baseman scooping a low throw out of the dirt. A couple of putts brought me home with a par and the great feels just kept flowing. The second hole played off the highest point on the course back towards the pool. A good bailout left me just left of the green, but the up and down attempt scuttled. I could not have cared less about the scores. The rest of Rainbo's group was starting to assemble. It wasn't going to take much for them to talk me into starting over with them if they tried, so I scurried across the parking lot to the third tee to stay on track to be home by dinner! Second hole above | Third hole below The third hole was the exact same distance, so I pretty much followed the same script on number three that I failed with on the second. After that second straight bogey, it was on to the forth at two-over for the round. If you had to pick a signature hole at Lynch, most people would probably choose this one. You've got 133 yards - all carry over the creek, the flat beyond it and inside the bend in the highway running the entire right side - up to a plateau seemingly cut right from the mountain. It's one thing to get it up on the level, it's another to find the green. Miss it anywhere and it's likely the happiest bogey you'll ever make. I would wager that this hole has few up and downs than any in Kentucky. Thankfully, I found the green from the tee and the bottom of the cup between the falling leaves in par. It's also cool to take the tee to green walk on the highway! Once you retrace your steps down the stone staircase, hop over the road and back towards the 5th tee. Without a scorecard nearby, my parking lot friend thankfully gave me a run down of yardages - including a tee shot from 190+ yards. I contemplated loading the Sunday Bag, but upon hearing this opted for the regular setup (minus the lumber) for the maiden voyage. Glad I did, because the 194 yard shot from the 5th tee above Looney Creek was all of that. Were the Golf Gods honestly watching out for me this round? Sign number two appeared in the form of a Praying Mantis on the tee marker at the fifth! In some cultures (golf being one of them of course), they can be a sign of good luck or fortune. Tucked back in the far Western corner of the valley, the 5th green is the first one you saw on the way in. Not that you'd remember it from that first glance, but its one of the smaller but flatter greens out there. The 4 iron hit flush and true. After a couple of putts and back-to-back pars, I was heating up, still down two to par but still with two to play. The sixth is likely the easiest hole at Lynch. Teeing off above the 5th green and directly adjacent the highway, you can hear vehicles coming down the road through the trees. With one approaching, I chose to swing away rather than pause for it to go by. As soon as it left the club, my heart rate picked up. I've never had an ace in my 42 years on this Earth. One of my greatest fears is finally getting one and not having a witness. As the truck emerged from the bend behind me, I extended my PW out from head to handle in line with the flagstick. The shot fell to the ground on the front of the green as the driver was passing me. We quickly locked eyes and without a word, he understood my ask - which was to attest anything that might or might not be about to happen on the green. As I quickly returned my gaze to towards the flagstick, the ball had taken a big hop forward, still right on line. It seemed like it rolled for an hour towards the hole. A las, it painfully rolled right passed the cup, by what had to be two inches or less given the ball's final position. It was close enough for the driver to scream in agony out his open window as he passed by, slowing to poke his head out to shout 'ALMOST HAD IT' back at me. The Golf Gods shunned me yet again as if to say, 'let's not be greedy, Pal, we brought you here already'. Be that as it may, a tap in birdie gave me a chance at even par on my way to the final hole. Skipping back across the highway and in front of the 4th green, where Rainbo's group had nearly reached. He shouted an inquiry about an Ace occurring, which left me wondering if the driver of the car was in on the gag. I replied with regret but optimistic about my chances to seal the deal on par (which if you visit us often, you know never happens). I'm not sure if I was sure if it was anticipation, the beauty of the surrounds of the moment or perhaps the thought it was about to be over, but the tee shot was less than good enough for a chance at birdie. Bogey showed its moderately ugly face again and I finished back at two over, but not before marveling at the final green and it's 3-foot drop from Morla to front fringe. The front was wide enough you could put the pin down there too, making it a completely different experience. Speaking of experience, Lynch Country Club turned out to be one of the best I've ever had on a golf course. Would everyone else have the same? No, probably not. Why does it mean so much then? It's the whole point of why things like our own Golf Crusade, Sugarloaf Social Club, The Broken-Tee Society & The Golfer's Journal exist... The pursuit of something greater or unknown in this world - let alone the world of golf - is becoming harder and harder to come by. How can it be that a place this incredible can go virtually undetected in the social-centric world we live in today? We certainly weren't the first ones to discover it, but we aim to help others experience something they never knew existed. The town of Lynch is still on the map. They've turned one of the mines, Portal 31, into an exhibition coal mine. If you ever wondered what it was like to work in the mines, you can now see it for yourself first hand. The houses there were built to last, as were the stone buildings the company once used. Many of them are just shells of themselves now, but stand as a historical marker of a widely by-gone era. If the town of Lynch, Kentucky - or any number of towns like it - can be forgotten by Time, it makes it all the more amazing that Time has never caught up to the likes Lynch Country Club. Sincerely Fores, Your Golf Crusade P.S. We submitted an edit to Google Maps - the knife and fork are no more! If you would like to learn more about the history of Lynch, please visit this 2017 story by Ann Schmidt for DailyMail.com. Many of the historical photos used in this story came from hers and there are LOADS more where those came from.

FOREWORD: Johnson City Country Club holds the distinction of being the only original A.W. Tillinghast design that still exists in the state of Tennessee. Over the past few years, a passionate few led an effort to revitalize the course in the spirit of it's original architect's design principles. The Golf Crusade has had the great privilege to be a fly on the wall during the process; assisting them in documenting the past four years of the grassroots effort by club leadership to get to this point. It is with great pride and a humble keyboard that we share with you the reimagining of this 100+ year old club. Due to the length of this this story and the large amount of visual content within it, it is recommended you view this piece on a computer (or a screen larger than a mobile device). We have been fortunate enough to call Johnson City home for the past decade. It has exceeded every expectation we could have had prior to moving here. We'd never been here before, but knew of the region for only a few reasons: racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, East Tennessee State had a really good basketball tradition, Johnson City was mentioned in a couple songs I liked, and golf. Golf? The Tri-Cities (now commonly referred to as the Appalachian Highlands) of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia is home to around half a million people. It's a predominately rural area, anchored by three main cities: Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City. Believe it or not, there is some pretty darn good golf here. In fact, Golf Digest once named it the second best metro region for golf in the United States (August 2005)! The public golf is a bit spread out due to the fact that finding suitable land for 18 holes can be a slight challenge. It's not all mountain golf however, as a few golden age courses still exist today. Furthermore, people have been golfing in the region since the late 1800s. Each of the three main cities has what most consider to be a 'local' country club, i.e. the type of place you can afford to join and play because you live close by. Bristol was first to tee it up in the state of Tennessee, founding the (now named) Golf Club of Bristol in 1894. That club - as many others have had to do over the years - moved it's course to the outskirts of town as cities expanded. The same can be said for Kingsport. In 1919, they too hired Tillinghast to build a 9-hole course. It remained until 1953 when it was plowed under in the name of housing needs (the Green Acres neighborhood sits atop the site today). On a different site, Donald Ross designed The Ridgefields in the late 1940s, though there isn't much Ross left in it today, aside from the routing. Johnson City Country Club was built in 1913 on a knoll just east of downtown in what is now known as the Gump Addition (a neighborhood for you out-of-towners). Similarly, it's members hired Tillinghast while he was in the area working on Kingsport CC to design them a new 18-hole course only a couple of miles east of their original site. Nine holes were built immediately (what is now the back) and the new JCCC opened for play in 1919. The other holes were not added until much later - three more holes in late 1940s (current holes one, two and three) with the final six (current four through nine) coming in the 1950s courtesy of Tennessee architect Lon Mills, who used much of Tilly's planned routing through the western portion of the property. Upon completion of the full eighteen holes, the course was rerouted. The original opening trio of holes became sixteen, seventeen and eighteen, creating a memorable 'Amen Corner-esque' finish. Old holes four through nine became ten to fifteen and the 'new nine' became the front nine. Each side opens with parallel par fours from adjacent elevated tee boxes, found just a few steps outside the golf professional's shop. The addition gave the course its three distinct sections over its compact 117 acre tract: Holes 1-3 and 10-15 play in a basin to the North & East of the clubhouse Holes 4 through 9 group together on the most severe topographical section of the property to the West of the clubhouse, where a few blind shots come into play Holes 16, 17 & 18 sit to the South of the clubhouse with mountain vistas from the (drivable par four) 16th tee and 18th green Tipped out, the course plays to about 6400 yards. Despite a few modest hills, is extremely walkable thanks to its short green to tee distances and compact parkland routing. One could imagine the walk you embark on today would have been exactly the way Tilly had envisioned it over one hundred years ago. Though the walk may be the same, the course had evolved (or de-evolved in some cases) over the years. It went through phases - as so many board member led courses do - that mirrored the trends of the day. In World War II, budgets were strapped, so bunkers disappeared. When times rebounded, so did the club. Pools were added, as were tennis courts and grander ballrooms in the clubhouse. Priorities shifted over time, as did improvements in technology. It's amazing to think that the advent of Color TV finally allowed the viewing public to see how truly amazing PGA Tour courses were versus how they appeared in black and white! Most namely among them, of course: Augusta National. Green Jacket envy led to a lot of clubs abandoning their original character they'd spent decades accruing in favor of high-flashed white walls of sand like they'd seen on the tube. JCCC was no different. The club hired GCA John LaFoy (Greenville, SC) in the 1980s to renovate the course with new bunkers and greens. John was kind enough to speak to us a couple years back. The work had been so long ago and he's since retired, but he clearly recalled to us the time period where the 'everyone wanted to be Augusta' phase was alive and well. LaFoy's work turned out to be the last major construction undertaken on the course for more than 30 years. If you're familiar with bunker lifespans, you would note the course was approaching forty years of wear, tear and washouts on the gigantic sandy hazards. If you played the course, you'd notice very clearly that - at a minimum - a bunker rehabilitation was long past due. So if a bunker renovation (at the very least) was in order, what do you do on a limited budget? A look at the 3rd green complex pre-LaFoy reno (1981 scorecard that was printed with the photo inverted horizontally (thus the weird lines in the text at the bottom that we flipped around the correct way) vs. thrity-one years later. Tillinghast certainly had a couple of different styles depending on the cash with which he was given to work. On one hand, there is the world-class, all-time great bunkering you see at places like Bethpage, Winged Foot, Philly Cricket and Baltusrol. Don't forget, ol' A-Dub has design credit at Pine Valley too! On the other hand, you've got Tilly's "local" courses like Niagara Falls CC and Johnson City CC where the bunkering was more restrained. Check out the side-by-side between the two of what NFCC has today that is quite similar to a historical aerial of what is now JCCC's 13th hole that was discovered during this process. While such a practice today would be almost unfathomable, based on the oldest course maps available, it was clear that LaFoy was not plowing under Bethpage Black. Tilly's local layout was indicative of a smaller budget and frankly speaking, wouldn't necessarily be worth restoring to what could be only in theory be traced back to an original plan drawn by the man (one which was never and probably will never be found). That said, the club certainly has great value as Tennessee's only surviving original Tillinghast design, a healthy membership that deserves to see this hidden gem polished and the timing and commitment to make it happen. So, if you don't have original plans (like ones drawn by Tilly himself) and what you can find in the archives is cool, but maybe lacking a wow factor that makes you say, "let's put it back just like this", what do you do? You can look to some of Tillinghast's other designs for inspiration! Take the first hole at Johnson City CC for example. Here's a look at an aerial view from the late 1960s... Now, let's look at one of AW's most famous courses, Philadelphia Cricket Club's 9th hole... one he designed AFTER Johnson City Country Club! The layout is nearly identical, sans bunkers. So what if we added some? Same design. Same architect. Simply 'finished' by adding Tillinghast features! Since the 10th is right next door to #1, let's consider that hole next. In our research, we found it 'could' look and certainly sounds a lot like the 11th hole at the West Course at Winged Foot. Here's the description of the hole from Winged Foot's website: "This is a straightforward hole of moderate length, with a relatively manageable green. The appeal of this hole is in the terrain. The view from the tee, which sits well above the fairway, is as beautiful as a parkland course can offer. Here is the poetic yet hyperbolic description in the 1923 Opening Program, “The 11th,” it said, “is a no-man’s-land hole where something volcanic has happened to the terrain.” The golfer, it continues, looks down “on a fairway humped and ridged at all angles.” The vista includes “a deep gully midway about which criss-cross rolls play like mid-ocean waves.” Aside from being a longer hole (was originally a par-5), Winged Foot's description could have very well been written for the 10th hole at Johnson City! Again, keep in mind Winged Foot came along four years after JCCC. If we put Philly Cricket 9 next to Winged Foot West 11, here's what we'd have: Now, here is a recap of the work done to date at Johnson City CC for Holes 1 & 10: Exact replicas? No, but clearly the same DNA. Inspiration > Restoration Before we get to rest the trees and bunkers though, you might be wondering how 'this process' actually started. Even if you weren't wondering (FYI it's a big part of the story!), we're going to tell you anyway! January 6th, 2019 - probably just a typical winter day in Johnson City. The Golf Crusade hadn't yet had it's first birthday and - since Instagram didn't make so challenging to find things relevant to your interests yet - you could actually find neat stuff in your scroll. During one of those nightly scrolls, something caught my attention. I retreated back up a few posts to see if my brain was correct to fire a signal to my right thumb to pause. Sure enough, the double take was worth it. Immediately after picking my jaw up off the floor, I sent @brianmnc - aka Brian Marion - a DM introducing myself and hoping to hear about what was planned at the course I'd consider my home course, which is to say it's in my city and I usually play it a few times a year. (No, I'm not a member, but when you want to play 1000 courses, you can't play the same course all the time! Right?!). We decided it was best if we just met at the course for a little stroll down Tillinghast Lane. Brian worked in the golf business at the time and he just so happened to be new(ish) in town. Needless to say, our golf archi-nerd powers formed an alliance that endures to this day. From the very beginning it was very apparent, Brian was going to get this thing done! He knew the road was going to be long, but the prize at the end was there for the taking. We set out that first evening in January with a coring tool and scouted for potential former bunker sites. We pulled cores to see what might be hiding under decades of well-intended, if not over-eager greens committee agendas. What did it reveal? That the course is old, had way too many trees, plenty of massive decaying bunkers and that original greens were gone. That said, through the correct lens and focus, through all the trees, washed out bunkers and dormant Bermudagrass, there could be a rose beneath. The difference between potential realized or wasted can simply be a matter of focus. CRUSADER NOTE: Let me throw a footnote in here real quick. I'm a "we" guy. When I say "we" in regards to Brian and I digging through old aerials, obsessively scouring Google Earth for peer examples of what may be hidden underneath decades of soil and grass, texting pics & ideas at all hours of the night when we discover something new... Brian is the WE. All I did was take notes, provide a sounding board and appreciate the journey he allowed me to take with him so that I could help share the story he was creating. I'm just the pen. Brian is the author. In the first year, things started slow - cutting down a dead tree here or there type stuff. Brian was on the greens committee, but there was a lack of vision from the club as a whole. New leadership eventually arrived, but not for a couple years that could impact major spending, like a bunker renovation. The first significant project came after Brian moved up to chair the golf committee in 2020. The votes came in 'Yea' to redo the practice facility. Since it came in a little under budget, it also included greenside renovations (a bunker redo, mounding reduction and introduction of a chipping area) to the 15th hole. A practice facility renovation by Bergin Golf Designs doubled the square footage of the practice green, remade the chipping green and saw the installation of a new all-weather tee strip. That year also saw the arrival of a new Head Golf Professional in Tyler Deaver. Tyler came to Johnson City from Athens Country Club in Georgia, a highly regarded Donald Ross course that, like JCCC, underwent a restoration/revitalization project. It was there he met one of their members, golf course architect and Athens resident Mike Young (The Fields in LaGrange, GA among many other projects). By 2021, with Deaver a year into his tenure and Marion now the elected Club President, the two brought in Young to renovate the 18th hole at JCCC. The idea was simple: show the membership what a proper Tillinghast course COULD look and play like. Playing adjacent to the entrance road, the 18th has the opportunity to make a strong first impression for visitors turning into the club from East Unaka Avenue. Since the road winds up the hill to the right of the closing hole (over which is out of bounds), Tilly's "Boundary Hole" was an obvious choice to 'reimagine' the hole with his philosophy instead of the original design (which was either lost to Father Time or not interesting enough to recreate - perhaps both). Young broke out the chainsaw on a few trees that had encroached too much into the fairway from the righthand set of tees and replaced them with rough covered mounds, something that Tilly employed to keep slightly off-kilt shots in play versus those that were long gone. Three bunkers replaced one massive one on the right approach, while two smaller bunkers - one greenside and one fairway - guarded the safer left side. The floor of the bunkers were raised to eliminate the drastic flop shots & blasts that were needed to remove your ball from a sandy purgatory. Capillary concrete liners were installed for the bunkers - which if you've heard of but never seen before, allow us to show you! "CUT! Reposition the truck and the camera. Quiet on the set! Marker... and ACTION!" The finished product accomplished many things. First, the new greenside bunkering is stunning to the eye - especially to those making the drive up the entrance road. Next, it reduced the amount of sand square footage to maintain and eliminated washouts in even the largest of rain events. From a playing perspective, it opened up a plethora of strategic options from both teeing grounds, adding variety to a hole that had become strangled by tree growth and limited pin locations. Before & After looks at the 18th hole (click on each pair to enlarge) Lastly, and easily most importantly, it accomplished it's mission to show the membership what this course SHOULD be. To that end, planning began to do the rest of the bunkers the following year. Young would draw up the plans, but not before the fourth key member of the team came aboard. After all, you can renovate as many bunkers as you want, but if no one is there to care for them, you're wasting your time, effort and precious capital. Steve Foster was brought in as the new golf course superintendent in the summer of 2021, giving the course a trained professional on the maintenance side. A California native, Foster previously stewarded the grounds for RedTail Mountain Golf Resort in Mountain City, TN, a local favorite of ours sadly lost to recession and economic factors far beyond a remedy a golf course could provide. With the full squad assembled, the economy rebounding and COVID beginning to relinquish its grip, all the signs of the times pointed towards go. Votes were tallied, capital was committed and crew was ready to break ground as soon as Spring sprang. However... just as you think you've got it all figured out, life has a way to put you back in check. After all, trying times test even the hardiest hearts and minds. Sadly, that was more true than anyone cared to know. Young, a man seemingly more youthful than his pure white hair and 70 years would indicate, rode in to the doctor's office one day for a routine check-up. He rode out with news of a triple blockage in his heart and a major surgery in his very near future. Marion, a of couple weeks shy of his 53rd birthday, was having a routine February night at home. Out of nowhere, he started having seizures, despite no history of ever having them. A week and a lot of tests later, both he and his wife, Sarah, a cancer survivor herself, hear the words 'large, malignant brain tumor' all in the same sentence. Needless to say, the joy for the impending project was replaced with frightening uncertainty. We hurt for our friends and their families knowing the challenging courses that lay ahead. Neither of the two men is one to put the spotlight on himself. Quite the opposite in fact. Since everything was in place to start moving Earth, the show went on without two of it's key pieces, yet provided even more resolve to those ready to go. Since Young was unable to travel up from Georgia, up and coming course shaper Ben Malach (whose already impressive resume includes work on Cabot Cliffs, The Nest at Cabot and the South Course at Olympia Fields) jumped in the excavator to do the heavy work. Mike's son, Ashley, whom has spent twenty years working with his father, pinch hit for him, making the drive up weekly. Finally, with Foster and crew handling the finer details around the edges, the project was off to the races. While Young and Marion were on the mend, the Spring phase of the project began with the 9th green, another first impression opportunity from the back entrance and parking lot. This phase would also include bunker work on 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16 and 17. Additional tree work (removal or pruning) was also completed on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 13. To get an idea of the amount of work that was necessary, you can see the side-by-side views from Google Earth of the before and completed work (which we added to the best of our ability). See for yourself the actual results of the work as the course sits today (early October 2022). As work continues, we will update this section of the story. Enjoy a few before and after comparisons. HOLE 1 HOLE 2 HOLE 3 HOLE 4 While its difficult to see just how enormous those two trees are/were that choked the approach, look at the view from behind the green with an open background behind the two behemoth hardwoods! In the image of the crosscut log, the camera was at eye level (I'm about 6 feet tall). Needless to say, the tree was a danger with no core left. HOLE 5 HOLE 7 HOLE 8 I mean... come on!!! This is so good! HOLE 9 CRUSADER NOTE: During this process, we realized that old 9 was so uninteresting that we'd only ever taken one photo of it in ten plus years of playing it. Truth be told, the above 'before' photo was more about the White Dogwoods than that hole itself. You can also see how how the mounding was behind the green previously and is one of the more dramatic transformations on the property. HOLE 10 The 10th went from two bunkers to six, yet still reduced the square footage of the sand and added fairway width on the right side around the bunkers where rough-covered mounding formerly dominated the landscape. HOLE 13 HOLE 15 HOLE 16 HOLE 17 HOLE 18 Finally, a before from the patio above 18 with old 15 in the background followed by the after shot looking the opposite way. Pivot to the present (Fall 2022) and it's a happier time. Both Marion and Young are recovering, managing their respective battles, and are back to work! Deaver was recently promoted to General Manager at the club and Foster has the course itself looking like its two years post-renovation, not two months! Ground was broken the last week in September 2022 on the Fall phase of the bunker project. Holes 11, 12 & 14 are on the menu with additional touch-ups to 2, 4, 5 & 6. After getting his feet wet on Phase I, Foster will be piloting the excavator this time, saving the club even more on the budget than they already have (Spring phase came in well under budget yet the results look as if no expense were spared)! Speaking of budget, the project is currently about 30% under budget and, with the majority of the Phase 1.1 and the rest of Phase 1.2 being handled in-house, is expected to come in even further under the cap. It's also important to note that the course remained open throughout the project. Of course, the two to three holes that were under construction on a daily basis were skipped for safety precautions and to aid in the speed of recovery/grow-in (which was remarkably fast!). Construction was paused during the summer months while the club held its large events, i.e. The Tillinghast Invitational (regional amateur tourney moved to August from its traditional June date) and tent-pole member tournaments. If you haven't played it before and you get an invite, take it. If you haven't played it in quite some time and have the chance to do so soon, seize it. Aside from the big brands in Bristol, Virginia (two consensus state top 10 courses The Virginian and The Olde Farm, of which the latter was ranked #1 in Commonwealth on Golf.com's 2020/21 list), it is of our opinion that Johnson City Country Club will own the best golf course between Knoxville, TN and Blacksburg, VA. Last September - coming on the heels of a trip down to the beach for The Golf Crusade's signature event, The Iron Maverick - I finally had the chance with my brother in town to play a round together at JCCC, his first. No slouch at the course collecting himself (he's played nearly 150 courses), what the course looked like is still pretty fresh in his mind. Nearly a year to the day after playing the course, I sent him a gallery of a some photos of the completed holes in the slideshow below (use arrows on sides to navigate). His response (below that) confirmed our assertation... Well said, Brother. Well said! As much fun as it is to see how far the course has come in the past couple years, there is still a lot of work left to do. There are still way too many trees - many of the dreaded white pine variety. This phase also primarily focused on bunkers near the greens. A couple of fairway bunkers were removed, even a fewer number replaced. It's quite easy to see that instead of maintaining or building bunkers, trees were simply planted as hazards in their stead. Once the trees are out of the way (or at the very least managed), more bunkers can return to the fold. The greens are not original and approaching 40 years of age, though thanks to Foster they are running as smooth as ever. There is some size and shape to recapture on the outskirts of the green pads, which will allow for some pin positions to return as well. Perhaps we'll even see Tillinghast's greatest calling card - The Great Hazard - make an appearance in the near future? Another exciting find in the investigative process was an alternate tee and bunker configuration on the second hole. As it sits now, it's about a 160 yard shot to a bunkerless green, surrounded by mounding that kicks off any less than perfect shot. However, aeriels from the 1950s and 60s, as well as an irrigation map found in the maintenance shed, revealed an alternate tee playing a shade over 100 yards. The tee box is still there, under deep fescue and overgrow limbs, but it's there nonetheless. You can see the lines very clearly in the 1968 aerial photo below, as well as a few from the hidden tee box in 2020. The ultimate success of the project may not be known for a few years. That said, if the early returns on the golf course are any indication of what that future success may be (retaining current members & recruiting new ones), then perhaps the reimagination of The Tennessee Tilly is all it took for Johnson City Country Club to go from the little club that 'should' be great to be the club that (finally) 'could' be just that. To learn more about The Golf Crusade, just dig around the site! You're already here, might as well stay awhile! If you like your stories shorter, FOLLOW US @GolfCrusade on Instagram and Facebook! You can also follow our Mike Strantz and Golf Barns themed channels on Instagram. Thank you for visiting & exploring the history of Johnson City Country Club! Sincerely Fores, Your Golf Crusade