At the invitation of the generous, hard-noised and all around good guy “Cool Hand” Luke Evans, Team USA stalwarts Mark Skiba and Jim Hartsell competed in a 1 day Best Ball tournament at the legendary Shoal Creek Golf Club, as partners with Luke and European Captain Brian W. Burnett. This course was designed by the greatest golfer of all time and 18 time major championship winner*, Jack William Nicklaus. Before I discuss the course and the overall experience, let me dispense with the formalities. Luke shot about 80. Skiba had an 84. Brian had a mercy 90 and I shot a smooth 96. My plan to be a Home Course 22 at the Kiva Cup is right on track. The team finished with a net 61, which was only 3 strokes out of 1st place. If we had not gone brain dead as a team about 4 times, we would have easily won the event. Shoal Creek is a tough golf course.
The Par 3 8th at Shoal Creek, home of the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championships
In many respects, Shoal Creek remains virtually unchanged since my last playing visit in 1982 with the Tarrant HS golf team to compete in the now defunct Birmingham News Co-Cola Prep Classic. It exists almost outside of time, much like courses I have visited and/or played over the years such as Augusta or Muirfield and Turnberry in Scotland. On the practice tee, we were greeted by our 2 caddies Tip and Willie. Luke assured us they were knowledgeable caddies and he was right. Both have been out at Shoal since 1976. They were masters of reading the tricky Shoal Creek greens. In fact, the green complexes are what give Shoal it’s extremely high slope rating. (136 for the 3-star tees) In most cases, almost anywhere you miss a green leaves you with a virtually impossible flop shot. Of course, it’s your own fault for missing the green and Jack makes you pay for the mistake. That being said, the course is a fair and exacting test, the mighty Jack Nicklaus’ best design outside of Muirfield Village, in this writer’s opinion.
The course was in beautiful condition, as was to be expected. Holes that stand out to me as excellent: #3, 8, 9, 11, 14, 17, 18. There is not a bad hole on the course. What I love the most about Shoal Creek is that the focus is strictly on the game of golf. You walk at Shoal Creek, with a caddy. This is a dying part of golf, yet still exists in certain places where the traditions of the game are valued. I would be remiss not to mention the excellent cheeseburger or the ice cold Corona after the round, but these are secondary to the experience. The game itself is what matters at Shoal Creek. The great man himself, Jack W. Nicklaus, should be proud of his legacy at Shoal Creek. Thanks to Luke for allowing us to experience this wonderful place in the game of golf.
*Jack Nicklaus’ Major Championship victories include: 6 Masters, 5 PGA Championships, 4 US Opens and 3 Open Championships.
No comments:
Post a Comment