Emoweeh

For this year's Labor Day, my Father-in-Law and I decided to return to Legacy on Lanier for the first time in about 2 years. Upon arrival, the cart staff greeted me in the parking lot and took our bags while giving us directions to check in and the driving range. We enjoyed our complimentary food and drink before heading to the range. Once we made it to the course we remembered how great of a layout was in front of us. Nearly 3/4 of the 18 holes had excellent lake views, unfortunately that meant wind became a huge factor. The course conditions were excellent: the tee boxes and fairways were closely mowed, the greens rolled fast and true, and the rough was thick enough to be a true hazard. Once on the back nine around the more scenic holes, pace slowed a bit, but with such beautiful views I completely understand. All in all, Legacy on Lanier is an excellent resort course to visit, I certainly recommend it!

When I booked the a tee time at The Preserve at Verdae I did not know what to expect, however, I will surely return to play this course. The greens were in excellent shape, they rolled fast and true. The fairways and rough were kept up very well, I was amazed at how green everything was that deep into the summer. A few of the tee boxes were in bad shape, but they did not detract from the enjoyment. A few of the holes were a little wacky; having never played it before certainly made it more difficult. As far as refreshments go, the pro shop had a great selection of craft beer to enjoy at the turn or to grab from the beverage cart. All in all, The Preserve at Verdae was a great golfing experience!

This was certainly not my first time playing at The Providence Club, however it was my first time playing there on a weekend morning which I most likely will not do again anytime soon. Upon pulling up to the first tee we realized there was no starter on duty and the tee times had already fallen at only 8:45AM. Once we finally got out on to the course things picked up for a while until about hole 5, then it was relatively slow for the rest of the round. One issue which probably caused the slow play was the course being cart path only, though most of the holes were fine for carts to travel on the grass (some wet areas could have been simply staked off). We also only saw a ranger once during the entire round; if they had a ranger continuously traveling the course, I think that would've alleviated some of the pace issues.
Now on to the course itself. The greens at Providence were ok, but left a bit to be desired. They rolled fast but tended to bounce a lot, and they looked very thin in some areas. The fairways and rough were in excellent shape with tall pine trees lining many of the fairways. Some of the bunkers had a bit of wash out, but with the rain in the earlier weeks, that is to be expected.
All in all, Providence is a very enjoyable course to play during the week when the course is not packed. With a little more attention to pace of play, it would be a great weekend stop for the causal golfer.

Once my father-in-law had booked our Okaloosa Island vaction, he decided we would play one of his favorite Destin courses, Regatta Bay. From his great words about the course I was certainly excited! Upon arrival we were informed the course had been aerated and we were initially disappointed, however, the greens had recovered quite well and rolled very true. The fairways were in "ok" condition, a little dry and not quite as lush as pictures online show. All in all though we enjoyed the fun layout which contains plenty of sand traps, water hazards, and narrow target lines. I would love to play the course in peak conditions and see its full potential; it is definitely one I will play again when I return to Destin.

Upon arrival our group was greeted by friendly cart attendants who took our bags and directed us to the golf house where the shop attendant checked us in very promptly. After hitting some range balls we headed to the putting green which is very we should have spent the majority of our warm up. While the greens had been punched about 2 weeks ago, they were extremely fast! Once we began playing we noticed the true beauty of the layout before us. The Ridge and the Bluffs nines had rolling fairways and beautiful bunker placements. The rough was very thick and provided a stiff penalty for missing any fairway. While the two nines did not offer many lake views (except for the par 3 #4 on The Bluffs which was beautiful) the course was gorgeous nonetheless and an absolute joy to play.

Our day at Athens Country Club began in the early afternoon when we ate a late lunch at the grill inside the historic clubhouse. The iconic building is beautiful inside and out and the delicious food was the perfect start to our time at ACC.
Once our host arrived we headed to our golf carts and made our way to the first tee. The moment I stepped on to the well manicured tee box, I knew it was going to be an enjoyable round. Every hole was pristine from tee to green, with towering pines and lush magnolias surrounding you on every side (The course had recently lost over 80 trees due to a storm only a week earlier, but the maintenance staff did an excellent job preserving all of the green space). The most impressive thing to me was how great of attention the maintenance staff gave to the little details of the course: the collars seamlessly blended into the greens, every cart path was edged to perfection, and I never saw any red clay erosion spots around trees and cart paths, every detail was well manicured. The greens had some tough undulations and false fronts, but they rolled true on every putt. When we finished the first 18 on the Ross Course, we planned to play an extra 9 on their North Course, however it was closed for maintenance. Instead we replayed the back 9 of the Ross Course to finish off our day.
All in all, our day at ACC was one of my favorite rounds of golf to date, and I certainly hope to have a chance at returning again soon.

I read excellent reviews of Willbrook Plantation before I played the neighborhood course, and the Pawleys Island track did not disappoint. Upon arrival the starter and bag drop attendant gave us clear directions of where to check in and how to proceed to the first tee. My one small complaint of the day (besides the weather, though that is out of the course's control) was our tee time at 8:17 A.M. was delayed till about 8:35 A.M. due to some slow play. However, once we teed off, we rarely had to wait on the group in front of us. The course was in excellent shape; thick, green rough, crisp fairways, true rolling greens, etc, it was all spectacular considering we paid less than $50.00 for the round. While some thunderstorms just after the turn did slow our round down, they did not hinder our group's overall enjoyment of Willbrook Plantation.

Chimneys is a great layout with lots of elevation changes and beautiful rock mounding. The tee boxes, fairways, rough, and bunkers are all in great shape (Especially during such a brutal summer). However, the greens were very slow. They were very thick and difficult to putt on unless you hit your ball with a sledge hammer. Playing in the morning they're a little better because of just being cut, but during twilight hours they're similar to shag carpet. Overall, Chimneys is a great, fun course to play, and I'm sure its perfect during cooler temperatures in the fall.

Looking at the PD Arthur Hills course online it looked spectacular. It was less so when we arrived. *Disclaimer* They had just aerated so take what I say with a grain of salt.
First off, the staff was not happy when we arrived, I understand you don't expect a lot of people to play a course after being aerated, but hey, we're on vacation and in a vacation destination so you should treat everyone like its a five star resort.
Second, the course was in between average and poor shape; some holes were better than others but overall it was disappointing. Again I know they had aerated, but it wasn't just the greens (which were 90% sand 10% grass). The tees boxes hardly had any grass on them, and the fairways had dead spot after dead spot. Luckily, we paid a discounted green fee ($60) because of the aeration, but the course would have to be a thousand times better for me to want to pay the standard $90 fee.
Overall, I loved the track, lots of pretty water holes, and interesting, quirky holes. But for me to want to play the PD Arthur Hills course again I would need proof the conditions had greatly improved.