(03-24-2018, 05:57 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: Bent Creek and Hyde Park are good cheap courses.   Those are the ones I play the most often, mainly because they're both near my house.  

Hyde Park is an old course, designed by the famed Donald Ross back in the 30s.   I think it has a lot of character.   It used to host professional tournaments back in the 40s and 50s.   Hole #6, a shortish par 3, is where Ben Hogan made an 11 in a professional tournament.   They have a little sign on the tee pointing that out.   If you play from the member tees, which in this case are the white tees, it's about 6,100 yards.   It's closed on Thursdays.   I think I've played Hyde Park hundreds of times, dating back to when I was a teenager.   It's the course I grew up on.  

https://www.hydepark.golf/

Bent Creek is one I also play a lot.  They have the best practice facility I've seen anywhere.  Driving range, putting green, chipping green, practice bunker.  And it's cheap.   If you play Bent Creek at 5,400 yards, in my opinion that would be about equal in difficulty to Hyde Park at 6,100 yards.   Bent Creek has a lot more hazards than Hyde Park.   I've seen some real good golfers on the range at Bent Creek.   I think it's because of the cheap monthly rate on range balls, and the great practice facilities.   If my back would hold up, I could spend hours out there, just hitting balls, chipping around, putting around...   Unfortunately, you get to a certain age when you have to slack off or else you could get some kind of chronic injury. 

Last time I played Jax Beach it was absolute garbage.   The fairways were full of dollarweeds and some of the greens didn't have any grass at all, just dirt.   But that was a couple of years ago.

When I was younger there was a Fort George golf course.   It's gone now, but I remember it as very scenic, lots of old oak trees lining the fairways.   It used to frustrate us, because those old oak tree branches had grown to the point where the fairways were very tight.  But I did love that course.  

Decades ago we also used to play Fernandina.  That was always a fun little expedition.   They had 27 holes, and each 9 holes was different.

That's good info. I like Donald Ross courses and look forward to seeing HP. The course in Palatka is a Ross, designed in 1925 and played by such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Walter Hagen and John Daly amongst others. I would look forward to HP's #6 and seeing if I can beat Hogan's 11.

Your story of Fort George saddens me as do all stories of courses closing. We have one nearby in Lynnfield, MA- I played it several times when I was young and it closed about 25 years ago so they could build...a mall. Turns out they ruined only the front 9 and then re-opened the back 9 with a couple of modifications about a year ago.

I've gotten over there 3 times now, absolutely love it and wish I had appreciated all 18 holes back in the day. The 7  untouched original holes are each unique and have "a feature" to deal with. All have the Nicklaus (and original Augusta National) design of an open fairway for a tee shot and then a choice of second shots.

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