Georgia Golf Trip — Reynold's Plantation

There’s always a touch of melancholy when the autumn leaves begin to fall (isn’t that a song?), signaling the demise of the golf season.

But there are few better ways to transition to winter than a late fall golf trip down South. I recently returned from a nine-day trip to Greensboro, Georgia with my cousin Mike and my friend Alan for a week’s stay at Reynold’s Plantation, a huge residential-golf complex about an hour east of Atlanta.

The genesis of the trip started in the summer of 2010 when my wife Betsy and I were on a golf vacation at Sugarloaf, Maine, one of the great golf courses in New England. We were joined by a French-Canadian gentleman named Sylvain, who was, I believe, the subject of the Carly Simon song. (“You’re Sylvain, you probably think this song is about you.” — hey, it’s possible.) He planned a lot of corporate golf outings for his company and we spent much of the round discussing different golf courses we’d played and some of our favorite destinations in the U.S. He was very high on Reynold’s Plantation. After doing a bit of research, I decided to give it a whirl. It had a lot going for it — five championship courses on site, another highly rated course nearby, beautiful accommodations and, though a stretch, was within driving distance.

Alan and I left early on a Sunday morning. Our first stop — the Royce Brook Golf Club in Hillsborough, NJ. Located near Princeton, Royce Brook is rated the 10th best public access course in the state by Golf Magazine and was not too far off our intended route to Georgia. We made great time, arriving by 10:20 a.m., three hours before our scheduled tee time. Luckily, we were able to get on the course within 20 minutes of our arrival and had a wonderful time on this Steve Smyers designed course. The facility has two courses, the private West Course and the public East Course. The East is a faux links layout with a smattering of trees but is mainly rolling pastureland. We were joined by two young men from NYC and thoroughly enjoyed our round on this challenging, though pricey ($110) layout. We headed out after the round, and even with my GPS, it took us an embarrassing 20 minutes to figure out which exit to take on the nearby rotary. We drove until nearly 11 p.m. before finding a Day’s Inn off the highway for a good night’s sleep.

Monday was driving day and we plowed ahead on beautiful I-81 through the easternmost part of West Virginia and through several hundred miles of Virginia. The scenery was spectacular and we made great time before stopping for a few hours in South Carolina to visit a friend of Alan’s. We continued on to Atlanta, bogged down in heavy traffic through the city, before arriving at the airport to pick up Mike. Adding his luggage and clubs to our already loaded car, we set out due east for Greensboro, arriving late in the evening. The guard at the gate gave us our maps and keys and we drove up to our “cottage” — a handsome three-bedroom home on a quiet street. We each picked out our beautifully appointed bedrooms and sacked out.

The daily golf routine began the next morning as we drove to another section of Reynold’s Plantation for the breakfast part of our package. The bountiful breakfast buffet (yes, I like alliteration) was served in one of the many clubhouses that are part of the Plantation and proved a great way to start each day. Fresh OJ, cereals, eggs, bacon, grits, pastries and made-to-order omelets were all available with an attentive wait staff in attendance. 

Another short drive brought us to The National Course, a 27-hole Tom Fazio design. On the first tee, we encountered the three most dreaded words in golf — Cart Path Only. That dictum was to haunt us throughout the entire week. Despite drizzling conditions, we set off on the first tee and discovered we were the first group out. Heaven!

The course was beautiful with generous fairways and large, fast greens. Being a residential community, most of the holes are lined with discreetly placed million dollar plus homes. Pretty impressive. We had a wonderful time on this enjoyable resort layout.

A word about Reynold’s. The Plantation is huge, covering several thousand acres and stretching across two counties. Each of the five public courses has its own clubhouse and innumerable residential neighborhoods dot the acreage. The community is centered around Lake Oconee, a 32-mile long, and mile wide man-made lake with innumerable inlets affording many homeowner’s lake front property. Myriad piers dot the scenic shoreline with many pleasure boats tied up to the docks, with lush lawns leading up to the architecturally impressive homes. Not a bad place to live.

Wednesday brought our first 36-hole day at The Oconee Course, a Rees Jones design. We were again the first group out on this splendid layout. This design was more inventive and varied than The National and shooting a solid 40 on the front side certainly helped my mood after a poor first round. We played from the “three” tees (they have five sets of tees which they designate by number) at nearly 6300 yards and had a blast. I blew up to a 48 on the back nine but loved the course. After lunch, we went out again and I decided to change things up by moving forward to the “four” tees at only 5700 yards. I shot 40-42 and had a marvelous time on this beautiful layout, rated the fourth best public access course in Georgia.

We took a break from the Plantation on Thursday as I had scheduled a new course for us — The Golf Club at Cuscowilla. This relatively recent facility was designed by the highly regarded team of Bill Coor and Ben Crenshaw and was located in nearby Eatonton, just five miles down the road. Rated as the second best layout in Georgia, I was eager to take on this course. Despite predictions of rain in the afternoon, we had a generally sunny day on a pristine layout with some wonderful features. Routed over hundreds of acres of farmland, along small ponds, around woodlands, this was a visually beautifully course.

One of the more notable features are the bunkers — large, shaggy edged and filled with sand that has the appearance of light brown powdered sugar. It’s definitely an upscale course with an ultramodern clubhouse. There is a bit of an affectation in that the holes are not numbered but since forecaddies are required, that was not a problem. We had a fun time on this terrific layout though my golf game, after a par, bogey, par start quickly went awry, and unfortunately stayed that way for the remainder of the trip. The green fee was a reasonable $80 (plus $30 suggested for the caddie) but in a more accessible location, a round at Cuscowilla would easily go for twice that.

On Friday, we were back at Reynold’s for another 36-hole day at the Jack Nicklaus designed Great Waters. I’ve played a fair number of Nicklaus’ public courses and always loved his layouts. Great Water was no exception. With many holes playing along (and over) Lake Oconee, this is a visually beautiful course, encompassing all the challenge one expects from the Golden Bear. With a lot of elevation changes, inventive routing, two par threes requiring forced carries over inlets, and the challenging final hole with a daunting shot over the water, this course was a gem. I was struggling all day and though I again moved up a set of tees for our afternoon session, didn’t score appreciably better. Both Mike and Alan loved the layout as well.

Our final round at Reynold’s took place early Saturday morning as I had again, insanely, scheduled another 36-hole day on The Landing course. Designed by Bob Cupp, this was the first course ever laid out at Reynold’s and I was anticipating a mediocre, run-of-the-mill layout. Au contraire, mes ami. What a revelation. The Landing was great — a collection of inventive, challenging holes in a nearly pristine setting rambling over hills, through woods and along the inlets of the Oconee River. We were the first group off and had a blast on this terrific layout. Though I had really enjoyed the four previous courses, The Landing was the gem I had secretly anticipated finding to top off the week. The apex of our trip, I was sure. As usual, I was wrong!

The next morning, Sunday, while Mike awaited his ride to the airport, Alan and I headed east for home, with a planned detour at one last course. A six-hour drive brought us to Mt. Airy, North Carolina where we stayed in a low end Best Western just outside the city limits. After checking in, I immediately collapsed into bed — this was two in the afternoon — and napped while Alan unbelievably went to find a nearby muni to play. (Evidently eight rounds in the past five days weren’t enough.) Mt. Airy, we learned, was the model for The Andy Griffith Show’s town of Mayberry and there was even a restaurant named Aunt Bee’s. After a good night’s sleep, we left before sunrise for our last round at the Highland Course at Primland in Meadows of Dan, Virginia. (Great name. I don’t know who Dan is, but he has great meadows.)

The circuitous route took us onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of the more scenic roads in America. We were virtually the only car on the road as the sun rose, exposing an unending vista of beautiful hills, valleys and meadows rolling away in the distance. I could barely keep my eyes on the road. After 20 miles, we reached the main gate, were let through and amazingly, had another six miles of twisting, hairpin turns before we reached the impressive hotel at Primland. Checking in, we found we had the first tee time at 8:30 a.m. with the next tee time being 10 a.m.

Primland has received a number of accolades since its opening — One of the Ten Best New Courses for 2006 (Travel & Leisure Golf Magazine), rated Second Best Public Access Course in Virginia (Golf Week) and Best New Public Course $75 and Over (Golf Digest). Over is right! The green fee was $200! And, I am quick to add, worth every penny. This was my 420th different course and it takes a special course to move into my top 10. Primland made it easily. Located at an altitude of 3,000 feet in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this is a magnificent golf course. Designed by renowned (in Europe) architect Donald Steel, this is a superb layout in an Eden-like setting. I am trying not to go overboard here but this was one of those died-and-gone-to-heaven courses that justifies my existence here on earth. (Okay, I might have actually gone overboard there.)

Does it get any better? We teed off on an absolutely perfect morning, on a stunningly beautiful golf course in the mist of endless forests of trees showing off their autumn hues and had the entire place to ourselves.

Par three’s requiring shots over deep valleys, wide double cut fairways that rolled up and down over ridge tops, massive, lightning-fast greens with bumps and swales — it was fantastic. For me, this is as good as golf gets. We had an absolute blast on this phenomenal course, the only fly in the ointment being the knowledge that we had 700 miles to drive after we finished the round. My favorite part of the course were the greens. I’ve played on some challenging greens in my day but the combination of size and subtlety at Primland was unparalleled. I shot a pedestrian 46 on the front side with some liberal scoring. On 10, a 361-yard par four, my third shot ran to the back of the green, some 80 feet from the pin. As Alan tended the flag, I stroked a solid putt that just kept tracking toward the flag  before finally dying into the hole for par. Wow!

A two-putt from 60 feet on 11 gave me another par and another two-putt from 40 feet gave me my third par in a row at 12. What fun — until my three-putt bogey from 15 feet on 13.

I ended up with a 44 on the final nine (triple bogey seven on the final hole!) and will have fond memories of this course as long as I can play golf. I can die happy now.

We were back on the road by 1 p.m. and, as you can imagine, the rest of the day was an agony of endless driving as we ticked off  the miles and hours, arriving home just before 2 a.m. I’m getting too old for this. Still, a great finish to the golf season and a very memorable golf trip to add to my scrapbook.

I hope to do one more column before stopping for the off-season, recapping the year in golf. Take care, everyone.