LinksLover
Member
- Messages
- 309
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Myrtle Beach, SC
Finally crossed Sawgrass off the list last month. Stayed two nights at the Marriott just to get a tee time, which is basically the only way in unless you know somebody. All in with the room, the round, caddie and tip I was around $1,100. My wife thinks I've lost my mind. She's not wrong.
The thing nobody tells you about the Stadium course is that the front nine is genuinely good and almost nobody talks about it. Everyone shows up for 16, 17, 18 and treats the first 12 holes like a warmup. Hole 4 is a beast, dogleg right with water down the whole right side, and I made a 7 there and didn't even care because the setting is so good. Hole 9 is a nasty little par 5 too.
17 is... look, you've seen it a thousand times on TV. Standing on that tee is different. Wind was maybe 12 mph left to right, pin back right. I hit a 9 iron that felt pure and watched it land 8 feet short and roll back into the water. Second ball I aimed 25 feet left of the flag and made par. Caddie said that's the move, always. So the island green is really a par 3 where the miss is a 20 footer. Cool and cruel at the same time.
18 is honestly the better hole. Water left the whole way, bunkers right, and you have to hit a real golf shot with people watching from the clubhouse. I blocked mine into the right bunker and made bogey. Fine.
Conditions were pure. Fairways tight, greens rolling maybe 11.5, rough was up because they were prepping for something. Bunkers are Dye bunkers so obviously I was in about nine of them.
Would I play it again at $600? Probably not. Once was enough. But I'd pay $200 to play the front nine again tomorrow.
Anyone else feel like the front gets slept on, or am I just rationalizing the fact that I shot 94?