A 6.30am start sees me turning up at our coach blurry eyed and thankfully my hangover cure works after consuming quite a few alcoholic beverages yesterday.
But after a warm up on the course’s great practice facilities with its wonderful chipping green, I tee it up on the 437-yard 1st hole and with the morning sun’s perfect light beaming down the fairway and through the trees I manage to hit the fairway.
It’s a tough starting hole with trees left and right of the landing area and if you miss too far right you could be going down a slope. I miss the green to the right but manage an up and down par.
The second is the first of some great par 3s with the 5th being the stand out one with water down the left hand side and plays to a long narrow green from an elevated tee.
Water comes into play on a lot of the holes on this Robert Trent Jones Sr designed course that meanders through what is basically an upscale housing estate. Now the houses are million dollar houses so don’t get me wrong and on most of the holes they don’t really come into play unless you are having a nightmare of a day.
But for me I am not a big fan, I do understand that to build these courses they need to sell homes and home owners want to be able to see the golf course, but for me if this was a tree lined course where you couldn’t see the houses it would be a stunning test of golf as the RTJ Snr design is wonderful. There are some beautifully designed holes on the course and if you asked me to name a weak hole I couldn’t it really is a great golf course, with the back nine slightly edging the front and a truly great finishing hole.
It’s just a shame its property and not tree lined. That is just a personal preference and shouldn’t take away from what is a wonderfully designed golf course and one that you should make sure is on your itinerary when you come out to play in Louisiana, that way you can draw your own conclusions as I am reviewing the course with a European eye as it is something I am not used to.
Looking back down the 3rd The 13th water down the left Water again at the 15th
4th green with the par 3, 5th hole in the background