Chechessee Creek Golf Club--Okatie, SC
Rankings as of the last time I played it (2/21/2010)
-Ranked the 23rd best course in SC (Golf Digest)
This golf club is perhaps one of the truly great getaway/golf clubs in the world. The clubhouse is truly understated
class. It oozes golf history and it is simply wonderful to be in the clubhouse. The property the club and course is on
is wonderful. True Lowcountry excellence. Once you go there, you will want to stay and hang out for quite some
time.
As for the course itself, it is true to the Coore/Crenshaw style. Minimalistic and natural in feel, rough natural looking
bunkers, and a very long third cut of rough. The holes themselves have great variety...some dogleg right, some
left...some holes are long, while others are short.
However, one aspect of the course that I could not get over was the greens. Now taken in isolation, the greens are
great. They tilt severely back to front with very high and steep drop offs to the back and sides. This makes long
and/or approaches that miss right or left hell to recover from. Even if you hit the green, but you are above the hole
(long in this instance) you have very little chance to make the putt as the green is so severely sloped back to front.
Additionally, the green have excellent undulations and slopes within them. Again, taken in isolation...this is excellent.
BUT...18 out of 18 of these greens slope back to front. And 16 out of 18 of those greens slope severely back to
front. Also, 14 out of 18 greens have dimensions within close vicinity to 30 feet by 20 feet. This type of redundancy
got old...at least to me. After the first four holes, I felt like I played the same hole 4 times...and that feeling didn't
stop there. 18 out of 18 greens sloped back to front.. No sunken greens, no redan style greens, nothing but back
to front.
Now Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are supposed to be great golf course architects, so I am sure there is some
amazing reason why they did this...but it is quite simply beyond me...I didn't like that aspect of the course at all. But
that is just me...I am sure others feel differently.
I played the black tees which measure 6,606 yards, And this par 70 course is rated 71.8/126.
Rankings as of the last time I played it (2/21/2010)
-Ranked the 23rd best course in SC (Golf Digest)
This golf club is perhaps one of the truly great getaway/golf clubs in the world. The clubhouse is truly understated
class. It oozes golf history and it is simply wonderful to be in the clubhouse. The property the club and course is on
is wonderful. True Lowcountry excellence. Once you go there, you will want to stay and hang out for quite some
time.
As for the course itself, it is true to the Coore/Crenshaw style. Minimalistic and natural in feel, rough natural looking
bunkers, and a very long third cut of rough. The holes themselves have great variety...some dogleg right, some
left...some holes are long, while others are short.
However, one aspect of the course that I could not get over was the greens. Now taken in isolation, the greens are
great. They tilt severely back to front with very high and steep drop offs to the back and sides. This makes long
and/or approaches that miss right or left hell to recover from. Even if you hit the green, but you are above the hole
(long in this instance) you have very little chance to make the putt as the green is so severely sloped back to front.
Additionally, the green have excellent undulations and slopes within them. Again, taken in isolation...this is excellent.
BUT...18 out of 18 of these greens slope back to front. And 16 out of 18 of those greens slope severely back to
front. Also, 14 out of 18 greens have dimensions within close vicinity to 30 feet by 20 feet. This type of redundancy
got old...at least to me. After the first four holes, I felt like I played the same hole 4 times...and that feeling didn't
stop there. 18 out of 18 greens sloped back to front.. No sunken greens, no redan style greens, nothing but back
to front.
Now Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are supposed to be great golf course architects, so I am sure there is some
amazing reason why they did this...but it is quite simply beyond me...I didn't like that aspect of the course at all. But
that is just me...I am sure others feel differently.
I played the black tees which measure 6,606 yards, And this par 70 course is rated 71.8/126.
