Tobacco Road was not on our original itinerary but a good friend of Donna’s recommended we play and I am so thankful she did because I had so much fun at Tobacco Road. When you pull into the course it is not fancy, the club house feels like a cabin with all the natural wood and it houses the pro shop and grill. It’s not “upscale” like Pinehurst so the price to play may surprise some golfers but it is worth it once you are on the course. It is just visually stunning in every direction on every hole. I had a blast playing it because at 4269 yards (from the forward tees, “Cultivator”) it is a fair test of golf. In other words with good play you can get on greens in regulation. And the fairways are much bigger than they appear from the tee boxes. I believe it has been stated that the course has over seven acres of sand.

We played with two very nice guys. They were long hitters but even they did not play from the “tips” at over 6500 yards. They played the “Disc” Tees at 6317 yards. The “Cultivator” tees were just under 4300. The first tee shot from the Cultivator tees was intimidating because the next narrowing of the fairway had to be considered. I hit a perfect drive right at the throat of the narrowing and had a straight shot into the opening to the next section of fairway (see images below). I was on in regulation (Par 5 so three shots). The birdie putt was over 20 feet and the odds of making a one-putt were fairly low but I tried and then had about 7 feet for par and left it on the edge of the cup (a theme I repeat all week). So I had one of my four three-putts that day to miss my par on the opening hole. I will chalk it up to first hole excitement.

I love to collect yardage books as souvenirs and when I asked for one, the Pro Shop attendant said flippantly, “We only have player books” (it was too early in the morning to make a comment and put the young man on notice that women are “players” LOL). I purchased the “player book” and it came in very handy; especially with many blind shots off tees and into the greens — the book had a full page of the hole and a full page of just the greens with tons of data.

If you read my other posts about my Pinehurst trip you know I played well and had my best score at Tobacco Road; but I also had some crazy bounces and shots on the course. First was the long drive I hit on hole 10 that almost ran off the fairway into a massive and deep waste area. Standing over the ball to hit my approach shot was a bit unnerving because over the ball all I saw was the edge of the waste area (which dropped off at least 10 feet). My friend called it my “Jordan Speith hole (search Speith and Pebble Beach if you don’t get the reference). Below are the photos of the ball on the edge and a diagram from the yardage book showing where it came to rest. I am happy to report I did par this hole.

Hole 13 is elevated and almost a bowl since you have to hit over large bunkers and hills (unless you have a good angle into the narrow opening to the green (image below). It was memorable because I, unfortunately landed in the left green-side “bunker” guarding the front. Photos below are of the approach to hole 13 and me walking onto the green.

Hole 9 was long and the green was elevated. I wish I had taken a photo of the stairs but the photo below gives a good sense of the elevation. Of course, I thought Hole 9 was very cool (e.g., the flag pole was the longest I’ve seen, the steep stairs in the waste area to reach the green) and it didn’t hurt my opinion that I parred it to finish up the front nine with a score of 44.

My other crazy moments – I hit two sprinkler heads. The first one was off a great drive and the ball bounced at least 60 feet straight up in the air which was lucky because it stayed in the fairway. The second sprinkler head was on the Par 3 17th. The flag was at the front of the green (maybe 4 feet on) and so I know I had to land it in the fringe, between the sand and the flag. My ball was heading right at the pin and one of the guys said “this looks great” and it hit the fringe and bounced backwards in the sand. When we went up to the hole, his ball was sitting on the fringe a foot right of the sprinkler head and my ball was directly inline with the sprinkler (and flag, by the way) flag in the sand. And about only 6 inches from the edge of the rough so now I was short-sided for my sand shot. The weird bounce was, of course, funny after I parred the hole.

The other weird bounce was on the 14th Par 3 over the lake. I hit a short iron great (again, I heard one of the guys say “it’s heading right at the flag”) but when it landed on the green just a foot right of the flag it bounced sideways into the right fringe. Again, I felt “robbed” but made my par, laughed about it and moved on. Maybe the guys saying my hits were good (while in flight) was a curse on those holes. LOL Below are two sets of images (1) 14th hole yardage book and photo and (2) 17th hole yardage book image and photo.

As I mentioned earlier there were a lot of blind shots and on holes 1, 7, 13, 15, and 18 you were to ring a bell to let the group behind know it was clear to hit. The group in front of us seemed to not grasp this concept. Anyway, when we came to 18, it was the scariest ending hole I’ve seen – a huge waste area up to an elevated fairway. At first we could not see the Cultivator tees any where so we drove through the waste area and up the hill to find the tees on on the left beyond the trees (what a relief). Of course we could see the group in front and were able to waive our playing partners up (since the group did not ring the bell). They both hit great drives (280+ yards) clearing the waste area onto the fairway. As the guys said, “It is visually intimidating (again, a blind tee shot) but actually its only a 197 yard carry to clear the waste area from the Disc tee box onto a fairly wide fairway.”

So I think the key to the course is to know that many shots are visually intimidating but actually if you hit where the course designer is “guiding you” then it really isn’t as hard as it appears.

It is worth mentioning the golf course designer was Mike Strantz, who was viewed as a maverick in his time because he was an artist “who looked at courses as a picture.” He was in his prime when other course designers were creating courses where distance was the only defense of the course. Unfortunately, he died of cancer at the age of 50 in 2005. He only designed seven courses but they include Caledonia and True Blue (two courses on Pawley’s Island, SC that are considered “must play” by most golfers). Many course designers believe he was a visionary when you consider course design work today, like Bandon Dunes, by Coore & Crenshaw.

Final thoughts on my game at Tobacco Road – I came to Tobacco Road with confidence in my game after playing well at Pinehurst #4 and could not be more pleased with a score of 86, with eight pars, and six one-putt. Even the four three-putts didn’t destroy my mood because the putts were from distances (over 30 feet) that statistically, if you two-putt that’s a win; and most of the three putts were tap-ins within inches of the hole.

Photo Gallery of Tobacco Road – There were so many memorable views and I didn’t take enough photos. Click on an image in the gallery to enlarge photos.