NC Golf Adventure: Part One

There comes a time in every road trip when you have to get in the car and start driving. That is what @GLENBURNZ and I did at 3:30pm on Friday the 12th of April. We were destined for Southern Pines, NC, and the GPS told us we had about 15 hours to go. We planned to stop somewhere south of NYC to rest our weary bones, but sometimes plans change.

We flew through southern Maine, New Hampshire, and Mass. We stopped at a Chipotle Mexican Grill outside of Hartford, CT. It was late in their hours of operation and the man behind the counter lamented that they only had rice, meat, cheese, and hot sauce available for sale. We happily shoveled those ingredients down our gullets. Glen had done the driving thus far, so I took over for the meanest stretch of the trip.

The highways of the greater NYC area are a shit sandwich. It was creeping up on 11 PM by the time we saw the bright lights, but the cars were still out and about. I cruised through New Jersey while Glen slept, then he took over and brought us through Delaware, and Maryland. We stopped at a sleepy 7/11 to switch again. The food looked good, but I had no idea if I was hungry.

As we approached what looked like another city, I wondered aloud about which one it was. “Baltimore? No, we just passed that. Richmond? No, we haven’t seen DC yet. Oh, it’s DC. Look, there’s the monument!” Stupid idiot.

I switched on one of Theo Vonn’s podcast episodes, he was interviewing Famous Jameis Winston of the Cleveland Browns. It was insane. These two belong together. They mostly spoke the same language, and Theo asked some great questions. I only lasted about 20 minutes, but one thing I do remember is the names of Jameis’s childhood dogs. Bagdhad and Ice. Do with that what you will.

Next thing I knew, we were passing a place called McGeorges RV and the sun looked like it was close to peeking out.

Glen snatched the wheel for the last stretch through the great state of North Carolina. We started to see the pines appear along the narrow highways. The eta was within an hour. Then, we were at Waffle House.

What a special spot. Do you see that blue sky? This place was different than your run of the mill chain. They cared. They hopefully cared about the food they put out, but it seemed like they cared about each other behind the counter. Glen and I sat at the diner bar and took it all in. The waffles were good, and I think there is still one in a to-go box in Glen’s car. whoops

Then, we ventured over to Knollwood Driving Range for our first swings. It was delightful. The sun was hot, we wore shorts pants and shirts, and we got to hit golf balls off of grass.

We each took our time hitting a bag of balls, then made use of the putting green. Once again, excited to see grass.

After Knollwood, we made out customary trip to Harris Teeter’s, just to see how they were doing. They are doing just fine, thanks for asking. We perused the aisles, grabbed some grub, and settled down at the bar to eat. Yes, Harris Teeter’s (the grocery store) has a bar. We chatted with Dee, who had served us the year before, and she remembered us!

Then, it was time for a real live round of golf. We had booked a 1:30 at Longleaf Golf and Family Club. A spot we had sampled several times in years past, a perfect warm up. We hit some balls on the range and met our pairing on the first tee. They were two guys from Saskatchewan, Canada. They were both as jovial to be out on the golf course as us, and we made for a lovely group.

Longleaf is a fun enough course. The front 9 falls short of the back, but the grass was green, the actual greens were challenging enough for our first round, we saw live balls in the air and did our best to chase them down. I made a mess of the par 3 4th hole, unable to secure my ball a spot on the green after a few failed attempts that ended up back at my feet.

Glen and I both found our stride on the back. We found a swing that worked and continued to enjoy the simple act of playing golf in the mid 70 degrees (Fahrenheit).

We chatted with our partners about our various homelands. My biggest takeaways on their reviews of all things Canada: Winnepeg is a shit city, Calgary is worth the trip, and the beer is too expensive in Saskatoon.

Glen and I both shot in the low 90’s, but the score didn’t matter much. We met my cousin who played the role of our host for the week, and then made our way to The Sly Fox. The Sly Fox is a British style pub that offered perfectly poured Guinness, and The Masters on the TV. We were in bed by 10. What a first day in paradise.

We slept in a bit and then made our first trip to Biscuitville. Biscuitville is a fast food spot that sounded like they served biscuits, and maybe coffee too. Apparently, one family owns all 82 locations. The joint also had previous nomenclatures such as “Pizzaville” and “Mountainville Fresh Bread and Milk”. That topic may be deep enough to warrant a separate blog. We both got SEC’s on a biscuit. The biscuit was awesome but the sausage showed evidence of interesting spice choices. We meandered through many traffic lights to Knollwood Driving Range. This was the site of the inciting incident which led to my ultimate demise. (foreshadowing)

I kept shanking my irons and wedges. I had the shanks. ShankyMcShankerson indeed. I felt pretty good with the driver and I felt really good with my 3 hybrid, but the rest were shite. I grinded for a while, trying to find something. But once Glen had smacked all his allotment of balls, I hastily snookered mine away and out of site down the range.

We had to make another trip to Harris Teeter’s before our afternoon tee time at Pine Needles.

Pine Needles was a special spot from the moment we parked our car. You turn off a fairly busy road (Mid Pines golf club is just across the street) and it feels like you are entering a vacation oasis. The world slowed down for a little bit among the pines.

We arrived about an hour before our tee time so we had time to enjoy ourselves. We got ourselves organized and paid the piper in the pro shop (I bought a sweet hat too). Then we headed out to the practice range. There were a few bros out there talking about clients they had hosted at so and so club, and they did so while hitting some mediocre golf shots. I was hitting the ball at a mediocre level as well and slowed myself down to try and get a swing feel. It worked well enough. The putting green is massive and I was the only one out there for several minutes, just enjoying the cornucopia of golfyness I found myself in.

We heard our names announced over a speaker and made our way to the first tee. We met our partners, and once again, they were Canadian! They were too middle aged gents from Toronto who had just flown down that morning. They were in NC for a few days to compete in an event put on by The Golfers Journal. I had seen that this event was going on, but the all inclusive price tag was a little steep for my taste. We opted for the guest room at my cousins house instead.

The first tee at Pine Needles makes you feel a lil something. There were people milling about, and you tee off from a few yards behind the starters shack on the right. I had visions of block shanking my tee shot right through its ornate windows. Luckily, I wiped a fade out into the fairway and we were off.

Pine Needles was a stern test, but not too stern to make it unenjoyable. I was in awe of the green complexes, bunkering, and thanked the rest of the group that we were not playing from the tips.

My favorite part of the course got started on the green of the par 5 10th. I somehow got my ball up on the green first, which gave me the chance to take it the view. I didn’t know it yet, but I had views of the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th holes.

Check out the little triangle those holes create in the top right corner.

I didn’t know what was ahead of us, but I got one of those feelings you sometimes get on a golf course. I felt transported. I didn’t know where the clubhouse was or where we parked our car. I didn’t know which was was North. We didn’t see any other groups, the wind was rustling the leaves, and the sun washed over the green grass and speckled the ground through the shade of the pines and blooming trees.

The view from the right of the 10th green

View from the tee box on the par 3 13th. (I hit the green and two putted :) #par)

Like almost every course I have played, I liked the back nine more than the front. My game is usually warmed up, but I also think that great back nines tend to bring you farther away from where you started, and then all of a sudden you are hitting your approach on the 18th green. If you look at the routing map above, that is exactly what this course does to you. You go out, wind around a bit, then go back.

Glen was starting to show some serious form and I had a lot of catching up to do if I wanted to stay in our daily matches. We wrapped up our delightful round, shook our playing mates hands, and hustled to our car. After all, it was Masters Sunday! Yeah yeah yeah. What kind of “golfer” books a tee time on Masters Sunday afternoon. Well, this “golfer” did. And I have no regrets. We caught Scottie’s last 4 holes at the Sly Fox (and I recorded it for viewing at a later date).

The first two days of our trip were in the books. Our skin was confused and beginning to become alarmed, we were hitting golf shots, and we hadn’t worn a pair of pants since New Jersey.

Monday offered a simple agenda, we had a 9:00am tee time at Southern Pines, and that was about it. Stay tuned for more.