Great idea for a thread. I'm a golf freak who doesn't have the time to play nearly as much as I'd like to.
Recently I had a week off. My wife and I were set to go to Miami but Hurricane Matthew changed our plans. We ended up in Richmond and Williamsburg (we live in Chesapeake, so it wasn't far). While in the Williamsburg area, I had a chance to play a golf course called Royal New Kent, which is about 25 miles north of Williamsburg. It's a Mike Strantz design, and is meant to make you feel like you took a trip to Scotland or Ireland. True "links golf" in America, they say. It's also one of the most difficult courses in the country, ranked #16 on the list of hardest courses by Golf Digest. From the tips the course rating is 75.9 and the slope is over 150! I chose to play what they call the "member's tees," which brought the beast down to a rating/slope of 69-ish/135-ish, a lot more to my liking.
The day I went there was a dense fog when I teed off, which only heightened the feeling that I was in Scotland or Ireland. The first hole has a dramatic drop for the tee shot and then dogs left hard with a steep uphill climb to the green (at least an extra club). The second hole was one of the coolest holes I've ever played. It's a par 5 that dogs right MORE than 90 degrees; it actually almost turns around! The beauty is that you can cut off as much as you dare, but you're hitting over a seemingly bottomless ravine. The shorter you try to make the hole, the longer the carry to get over the ravine. Spectacular!
The back nine brings in a lot more water and some holes that feel more conventional, but it's still beautiful. The front nine is truly like being on another continent. To score on this course you really have to golf your ball, even from the member's tees. Placement is everything. Some holes require 7-iron off the tee in order to avoid trouble. So you have to think your way around the course, which I like a lot. Highly recommended, but three pieces of advice: 1) bring a lot of balls, 2) choose your set of tees very carefully, and 3) golf your ball!
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust