Review: Tobacco Road Golf Club (Part 2)

It's time to take a look at the back nine at Tobacco Road, go here to see the front.

The tenth hole is 440 yards and plays downhill to a gently rolling fairway with a long waste bunker right and tall grass left. The hole plays left to right, but it's actually best to favor the left side on the drive. The green is angled from left to right, with the same waste bunker that runs down the entire right side curling around the back, and is also subtly sloped from front to back, favoring a running approach that flirts with the back bunker before coming back down. This is a very low-key sort of hole, and it's good that Tobacco Road throws a couple holes like this out there. It makes you appreciate the wild holes all the more. Speaking of ...

The tenth hole.

Approaching the tenth green.

The tenth green.

With all due respect to the fourth hole, the average golfer is only going to remember one of Tobacco Road's two fish-hook par 5s, and it's going to be the eleventh. The fairway here is incredibly wide, but if one wishes to go for the green on this 530-yard hole, you'll have to flirt with the cavernous waste bunker right. Do that, and you get yourself within 200 yards of the green. 

Ultimately, it's the second shot that you'll remember. The green is semiblind and perched up on a hill, and between you and it is nothing but sand. The pit is incredibly deep — at least 20 feet — which naturally puts you in quite a predicament if you should fall short. There's nothing quite like a 30-yard bunker shot to an invisible target 25 feet above you. I would know (and I'm still upset that I hit the best shot of the week to within 10 feet, then missed the birdie putt). Of course, for those not brave enough (or too smart) to go for the green in two, fairway curls around the left side, and you could easily secure par (or even birdie) by playing this hole the methodical way. The green is medium sized and pretty tame, so once you're aboard, things should be fine. 

The eleventh hole.

Approaching the eleventh green.

The eleventh green.

The twelfth hole, while not bad by any stretch of the imagination, is hardly Tobacco Road's most compelling offering. This 420-yard par 4 is initially extremely wide, it narrows drastically as the fairway bends left and is squeezed between two waste bunkers about 250 yards out from the tee. You can choose to lay back, leaving yourself a full mid iron second, or challenge the bunkers to give yourself a shorter approach. However, the green here is set in a small valley; shots that miss slightly to either side will bounce back in, and the green itself is pretty simple. It's a green that can be approached from a long way out, which means the reward for challenging the hazards on the tee shot is relatively minimal. It's just not the most exciting hole in the world, though it does have its place. I just wish it didn't come so soon after the tenth, another comparatively quiet hole.

The twelfth hole.

Approaching the twelfth green.

The twelfth green.

The thirteenth hole is the final par 5 at Tobacco Road, and while nothing can quite match the enormous sand pit on the eleventh, this 575-yard hole is plenty wild. The tee shot is downhill to a wide fairway that swings hard right around a waste bunker. It's best to stick close to that bunker to set up the best second shot; stray too far left and go too far and you'll be forced to lay up very far back, thanks to the trees on the far side coming in toward the fairway about 200 yards from the green. 

After getting past that pinch point, where sand and trees reduce the fairway to about 10 yards wide, things widen out again. Since the green isn't hittable in two (we'll get there in a second), the second shot is all about setting up the optimal approach. If you've favored the right side on your tee shot, you're able to get quite close, though a large bunker right of the fairway (about 50 yards short of the green) will give you something to think about. If your tee shot was less than optimal, you'll be approaching the green with a full wedge in hand.

In terms of wildness, the thirteenth green in and of itself isn't anything special; rather, it's the location that makes it stand out. This small, shallow green is blind from the fairway, nestled down in a small dell that is apparently natural. The approach is guarded by deep bunkers, with the hillocks around covered in tall grass. The green is bisected by a ridge to add some additional interest, which obviously makes putts from one side of the green to the other tough. 

Obviously, this hole has a lot going on. Every shot is interesting and you're always having to think. This should be a great hole. However, I do think that the thirteenth suffers from being a little too complicated, as well as not being incredibly cohesive. The green site in particular is so arresting and demanding of attention that it almost renders what comes before irrelevant. It doesn't matter what you do on the first couple shots, because the third shot still has to deal with that green, whether you're 50 or 150 yards out, and neither length offers much advantage over the other. The eleventh hole (somehow) is a lot simpler — everything revolves around the gigantic sand pit — which works heavily in its favor. 

The thirteenth hole.

Approaching the thirteenth green.

The thirteenth green.

It takes a lot for a hole at Tobacco Road to stand out in the player's mind, but the fourteenth hole deftly manages it. This 180-yard par 3 plays downhill over the course's only water hazard to a narrow green, angled from left to right, huddled close to the pond. Bunkers guard the green elsewhere, and I can tell you from experience that, while the left bunkers appear to be a safe bailout, the green (especially the front half) angles away from you. This makes it incredibly tough, if not downright impossible for non-professionals, to keep a bunker shot from rolling through the green into the water. That's what happened to me, and I literally hit the best bunker shot I possibly could. Not a fun experience. So, for those front hole locations at least, you're better off just being aggressive and going for the hole. Either you'll pull it off and make par or birdie, or you won't. It's just one of those sorts of holes, with the water making the options far more stark and binary. I only wish I'd had a better time with it.

The fourteenth hole. Back hole locations, thanks to the bunker right acting as a buffer, likely end up being far easier despite the hole being longer.

The fifteenth hole is a 365-yard par 4 that plays to a mostly blind fairway framed by trees on both sides. It's a little disconcerting, standing on the tee for the first time, as there is precious little guidance on the proper course of action. The fairway is initially wide open, though a long, narrow bunker does split it in two about 250 yards out. The hole is short, so a long iron to the wide portion of the fairway will still leave you with a wedge in hand. The second shot is where things get really interesting, as this green is shallow but enormously wide — at least 50 yards. It also meanders around, twisting and turning between various bunkers, and the strategy for your approach (and the tee shot) will vary greatly depending on where the hole is cut. Right-hand hole locations like the one you see below are actually quite easy; you're encouraged to favor the left side on the tee shot, and there's a corridor between bunkers to run up an approach (which is necessary, as the green here is sloped from front to back). Left-hand and even central hole locations, on the other hand, require an aerial approach and are best approached from the right side of the fairway, which is hidden away on the tee by small pines and a ridge.

The fifteenth hole.

Approaching the fifteenth green.

The fifteenth green.

We've come to the sixteenth hole, which is one I'm going to struggle to treat without bias. The landing area on this 325-yard, uphill par 4 (it's not a long hole) is blind, with a jagged waste bunker carved into the top of a ridge acting as an intimidation factor more than an actual hazard. Driver isn't much of an option, as the direct line to the green is blocked by trees — also, the green is heavily elevated, meaning shots will roll back down the hill. Plus, the fairway's quite narrow once it turns about 225 yards out; it's not a practical aiming point for a driver. The only real play from the tee is a lay-up with a long iron or wood, leaving you with an full wedge uphill past wild bunkering to a two-tiered green. 

Now, it doesn't sound so bad, but this green is monstrously punishing. If you touch that tier in anyway, your ball will run down off the green entirely, and then proceed down the hill in front about 50 yards or so. And when that happens to you after an approach you thought was decent (if not spectacular), it's more than a little infuriating. An easy par or potential birdie was turned into an X on the scorecard (oh, and everyone else playing with me had kick-in birdies, which did not help my mood). Yeah, short game is the weakest part of my game, but I can get myself around. This hole gave me nothing. No options for creativity or workarounds, just abject misery and torture because I had the misfortune of coming up three feet short of the top tier. If that tier didn't make your golf ball run the ENTIRE way down the hill, it would be fine. But it does. Missing long isn't really an option either, as the green slopes away from you the entire way. I tried that, and I even tried purposely playing away from the hole to give myself more space. Didn't work. I'll freely admit that was an execution error, but the fact remains that the only way to potentially recover from an approach (or more) missed long is to purposely play away from the hole. And that's not very fun.

I don't want to say this hole ruined the entire round for me, but it left a very, very sour taste in my mouth. Tobacco Road was difficult but fair for the first 15 holes. I even ended up in the 25-foot-deep bunker on 11, and I have no problem with that hole. That was my fault for ending up down there; I bit off way more than I could chew. Even if I hadn't gotten out in one shot, I still would have been okay with that hole. That hole punishes large mistakes in judgement and execution. This hole punishes tiny mistakes with equal mercilessness. A few feet shorter or longer, and I would have been fine. Plus, the fix is pretty easy; either make the tier a little smaller and less severe so that golf balls don't fully run off the front of the green, or give more space in front of the green so that golf balls can't run all the way down the hill. It's both of those elements combined that make this hole miserable.

The sixteenth hole.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is a Strantz staple — the oddly routed par 3 with a ridiculously wide, shallow green (the eighteenth tee is actually closer to the sixteenth green than this tee, so once you play this hole, you have to come right back to where you just played to tee off again). In isolation, this hole is fun, as it's quite short (at 140 yards, the shortest on the course, though not by much), and the width of the green means you could end up with an extremely long putt. However, this is a trick Tobacco Road has employed before (the fifteenth and potentially the sixth, if the tee is to the left). That makes the seventeenth feel less special than you'd like for the penultimate hole. 

The seventeenth hole, with the green in its entirety. 

A more focused view of the seventeenth hole.

The eighteenth hole, happily, is the best finisher Strantz has managed, at least when it comes to the courses I've played. The tee shot on this 430-yard par 4 is blind, as there's a giant sand pit in front of you, bounded on the far side by a ridge covered in sand and high grass. But the fairway on the far side is wide open and devoid of hidden hazards, so it's easy to give yourself a reasonable approach. The green here, however, is quite challenging; it's mostly hidden by numerous bunkers carved into a pair of hills jutting up about 25 yards short. The green itself is propped up, falling off 5 feet or so to a chipping area, and the surface features several waves (not exactly tiers) rippling across. It requires a precise iron shot (particularly the front hole location that we saw), but because there's no water involved, this hole still feels doable.

The eighteenth hole.

Approaching the eighteenth green.

The eighteenth green.

With Tobacco Road out of the way, I have now played and reviewed a majority of Mike Strantz's work. There is one more of his courses I could reasonably play, Stonehouse (of the remaining three, one is super-private and the other two are in California), which is pretty widely regarded as the weakest of Strantz's original designs. Monterey Peninisula - Shore is quite well known, but beyond its seaside location I don't think it's anything truly spectacular. The point here being, I think Tobacco Road is pretty safely Strantz's best work. It's his magnum opus, the course that — for better and for worse — embodies his design philosophy. Royal New Kent and True Blue both suffer from out-of-character closing stretches, Caledonia — while a great course — lacks the Strantz touch in some places, and Tot Hill Farm is just too wild to be anything other than a curiosity.

Tobacco Road is different. Strantz's strengths are omnipresent — Tobacco Road embraces wild drama with subtle playability in a way few could hope to match. Holes like the eleventh are obviously dramatic, heroic, and challenging, but there are also holes like the fifteenth, which reward regular golfers who have seen the hole time and time again, and know exactly where and how to play the hole. Local knowledge is important here; Tobacco Road is more than a pretty face. But at the same time, his weaknesses also come through — for the life of him, Mike Strantz could not route his par 3s properly. Three times we're presented with a par 3 jutting out into nowhere, with the tee on the next hole closer to the green we just played (the third, the sixth, and the seventeenth). Design concepts are rehashed within the round. And sometimes difficulty gives way to torture. 

It is only natural for someone with his design philosophy — Mike Strantz is a natural evolution of what Pete Dye was doing 30 years prior. And when you're pushing every hole to the edge, sometimes you're bound to step over the line. Every Strantz hole is interesting and worth talking about, but not every hole is great. Sometimes, they're just bad. And what that means is that, while I think I've talked more about Tobacco Road than any other golf course, it decidedly is not one of my favorite golf courses. I respect it greatly, I appreciate what it does, and I'd happily play it again, but I didn't love it.