Have you ever during a memorable round of golf had that feeling of disbelief that it was actually nearing its end?
I've felt that a time or two on the golf course, a feeling of not wanting the round to actually be over. That, of course, was because of the experience itself and the unlikelihood of ever playing that particular course again. Definitely not because I was playing that well.
I always realize it way late in the round, once it's almost too late, and do whatever I can to make it last longer – that means even walking slower to get to the golf ball. If you know me and my thoughts on pace of play, you'll understand how good of a day that had to be.
I can safely say this is the first time I've felt such a way about a fictional round of golf, which before now was limited almost entirely to the Tiger Woods video games.
But here we are, in the home stretch of our Greens of Dreams series. Over the last five weeks, I've taken nominations and grouped them together based on some similarity. You might remember last week's trio, three brutal par 4s that rank among the most difficult holes on their respective courses.
This stretch? They're just really cool golf holes, and they feel like they belong at the end of an epic round of golf.
So take your time over these last three. After all, this is the last Thursday we get to do this.
Hole No. 16 — the seventh hole on the Dogwood nine at Houndslake Country Club
I'll go ahead and get this out of the way right now – I would've included this hole even if no one had nominated it, because it's my absolute favorite. But, as I've known for a long time, I'm not alone in really enjoying No. 7 on Houndslake's Dogwood nine, a downhill par 5 that measures 509 yards from the back tees.
"Love the risk-reward where you can hit driver down the right, but you've got to pump one and you've got to hit it really good," explained pro golfer Matt NeSmith, who doesn't hit the ball any other way but "really good". "I also like the fact that if you hit it dead straight, you're hitting a 5-iron off a downslope to a green that's not really deep. You've got to hit two good shots, and it looks really cool from the top of the hill."
There were high hopes for this hole from day one. Designer Joe Lee, as quoted in the Nov. 1, 1974 issue of the Aiken Standard, said it was "truly destined to become known as one of the finest par fives anywhere."
It's a signature design type of Lee, according to Houndslake pro Daniel Seawell, and it's got an elevation change you don't find very often in the Aiken area. The back tee is situated about 40 yards higher than the green, and the hole is very clearly laid out – true to Lee's style.
But you don't always have to follow that path. Most will favor the right side off the tee and have a straight shot coming in that doesn't challenge much of the 10-acre lake to the left. So a good drive leaves a mid-iron in.
Or you can play it the way I – usually unintentionally – do and play the tee shot down the left edge of the fairway. For years, the go-to play was 7-wood, 6-iron, then a blown opportunity on the putting surface. Just like the pros do it.
It's possible to hit it too good, too straight off the tee. A favorite memory from my days working at Houndslake is of a beloved coworker, left-handed regular-flex rental Top-Flite driver in hand, flying one into the drink from all the way back. It's still talked about all these years later, and that's my favorite kind of lasting impression in golf.
Hole No. 17 — the sixteenth hole at Palmetto Golf Club
Hopefully the last hole yielded a birdie, because this one isn't going to. The 16th at Palmetto Golf Club, a 212-yard par 3 named Berrie, is a tough par. But you won't mind, because it gives you a good first impression of the course – it's situated right next to the parking lot – in addition to a good memory to take with you.
There isn't much in the way of trouble around the hole; all of it's on a green that's so difficult to hold with a long iron.
"That's just a good – there's nothing crazy to it. I mean, the green's hard. But it's just a good, hard par 3," said Florida State junior Jake Carter, twice a winner of the Southern Cross at Palmetto.
"Great par 3. I mean, when you know the play is to hit it short of the green – guys want to hit the green, but that's not necessarily the ultimate goal," said Palmetto director of golf Brooks Blackburn. "The ultimate goal, obviously, is to make 3 and go to 17.
"To stand up on that tee box and think, 'Well, gosh, if I don't fly this perfect.' Another one you don't want to be over, because if you hit it long that's dead, because everything slopes away from you back down to the front again. But leaving it short of that green, you're like, 'OK, I hit a pretty good shot. I just missed the green, and I'm in great shape.'"
Of course, the history at Palmetto can't be ignored, and there's an especially cool slice of it here. The original four holes Thomas Hitchcock laid out in 1892 were where Nos. 16, 17, 18 and the driving range are now located.
The list of famous visitors is a mile long, and one who saw the club at its early stages was William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States. President-elect Taft reportedly "expressed his delight in playing on the famous Palmetto links" in the Dec. 29, 1908 The Aiken Journal and Review.
Unfortunately, there's no report of how he played No. 16.
Hole No. 18 — the seventeenth hole at Sage Valley Golf Club
Our final hole in the series takes us back to Sage Valley to play the beautiful-but-deadly par-4 17th.
"No. 17's a bear," said USC Aiken golf coach Michael Carlisle. "It's long, and it's got all kinds of trouble. That's a tough hole."
The 17th, named Tea Olive, wasn't always the most difficult hole at Sage Valley. In fact, it was fairly easy – a driver and a wedge for the players at the inaugural Junior Invitational at Sage Valley. The redesign that followed, though, changed everything.
"From all the way back, it's like 495 (yards) and you have to hit the fairway," said Ryan Carpenter, who recently turned pro after playing collegiately at Coastal Carolina. "You have to."
The fairway is narrow, and the tee shot should be played down the right for the best angle into the green. The second shot is slightly downhill to the green with a bunker on the left and water on the right. Certain pin positions can make this hole so much harder, and it takes a well-hit second shot to even hold the green.
"That is, like, one of the most Tour golf holes – It's the most PGA Tour finishing hole in the area," said NeSmith, who finished fourth in the inaugural Junior Invitational in 2011. "It's a driver and a 6-iron, 5-iron to water all surrounding the front right part of the green and not the biggest green and not really a bailout where it's an easy up and down.
"If you're coming in there 4-, 5-under, you're not cruising to the house like you used to be. ... The reward coming in makes you feel a lot better; it makes dinner taste better, that's for sure."
That's really all we can ask for at the end of a round. Hopefully this experience, this six-week celebration of golf in the Aiken area, is just as rewarding.
