Tot Hill Farm Golf Golf Club-Asheville, NC

Tot Hill Farm is another Mike Strantz creation. Given that it is part of a housing development, it would seem as though this course was intended to be more of a member's course opposed to Tobacco Road being a resort course. As such, the course lacks some of the extreme features seen at Tobacco Road. It also lacks some of the quality architecture that Tobacco Road has. But this course is certainly above average and has enough design quality to keep even the snobbiest of golfers entertained.

Ranking

Variety of Design: Fair. Among the par 3's, the course lacks a very short hole and also lacks more than a mid-iron hole. The par 4's are all approached with short irons and the par 5's are all reachable in two shots, though in at least one case that is highly dangerous (to the golfer's scorecard). Directional variety is very good with 6 holes going left, 5 holes going straight, and 8 holes playing straight (18 can be played as dogleg left or a straight hole). 6 1/2 out of 10

Flow of the Course: Given the lack of variety, the course lacks the ability to really build to a climax. The 5th, 12th and possibly 18th holes provide high points to the round, but overall, the flow is closer to a flat line rather than a roller coaster. 6 out of 10

Conditioning: This course is among the mid to high level of courses in the Pinehurst area (though geographically it is on the far reaches, it shares a strong partnership with Tobacco Road) and conditioning is fitting. 7 out of 10

Ease of Walking: The hilly nature of the course make walking difficult and some long green to tee transitions make it more difficult still. 3 1/2 out of 10

Atmosphere: Being designed by Mike Strantz likely adds some thrill and anticipation to the course but beyond that, nothing more than the "course up the street." 3 out of 10

Total: 58

Holes to Note

Hole #1: Par 4, 448 yards

This is no easy opening hole...a Strantz feature. The playable portion of the fairway is blind from the tee, indeed the player may want to walk forward 50 yards or so in order to get a good view of the fairway. The hole is a hard dogleg left and the best play will be close down the tree line. Once in the fairway, the player can play directly over a depression short of the green or run the ball up from the right side. Solid, but potentially difficult, opening hole.

The best play hugs the tree line. The fairway on the hill in the distance is about 375 yards from the tee.

This is the view from around 180 yards. The player can either go directly over the depression and risk a pulled shot going in the creek or play a shot out to the right with a draw and roll it up on the green.

Hole #5: Par 5, 535 yards

This is a fantastic and very scenic par 5. This one fits the Macdonald template of a Cape hole. The player can play out to the left and take the safe route or aim out towards the hill/mountain in the distance and possibly left with a much shorter shot to the green. Given the yardage, the player might be within his range to go for the green in two shots, but that is very difficult. The green is surrounded with rocks and has two very distinct tiers. While being within range of long irons, the hole is clearly better approached with a very short iron.

From the tee, the scrubby depression is visible. Players can play out to the left or towards the mountain.

This is the view from the left side of the fairway after a play out to the left. The longest players can play over the larger trees to the left of the fairway from the tee.

This view of the green shows the disaster waiting on all sides. The tier is around 6 feet high. The green is surrounded with rocks and there is a sharp fall off behind the green. Approach this green with a long iron at your own risk.

Hole #9: Par 4, 371 yards

This hole is very difficult from the tee if the player uses a driver. Driver from the tee would require the player to play up the far right side and hit a fade around the corner in order to find the fairway (for the longer players). The best play is a fairway wood out to the wide part of the fairway where the signs are visible. From there, the player should be left with a short iron to a highly elevated green. 

From the tee, the player can see the fairway and is able to make his choice from there.

From position up near the forward tees, the uphill nature of the hole is clear. Players choosing to hit a driver off the tee will be left with a shot off the severe upslope. The best play from the tee is a fairway wood to position near the signs. That will give the player a mostly flat lie to the skyline green in the distance. The false front of the green is also visible.

This is the view from the fairway. The bottom of the flagstick is not visible to the player. As seen in the previous image, being long enough is critical as shots left short will roll back a significant distance off the green.

Hole #12: Par 4, 392 yards

This hole fits the Strantz template of the Fishhook (my term), but this is the only one that is a par 4. The best play is down the left near the water. From there, the player is left with a simple shot to the green.

This hole has a lot of built up rocks near the water. The best play is down the left near the water.

The green is located out on a peninsula and again surrounded by rocks. This hole is very scenic, if a bit overdone.

Hole #15: Par 3, 143 yards

This short hole is played sharply downhill to a green located in a bowl. There is also a creek fronting the green. Again, this hole is rather scenic, though a bit "busy" and perhaps a little overdone.

Hole #17: Par 4, 411 yards

As described before, this is the Template Road hole. The hole plays mid-length from the tee, likely approached with a wedge. The green butts up tight against the road in the background and has a fronting hazard. Very solid hole to bring the round to the final hole.

From the tee, the player will have the best angle to the green from the right side of the fairway. The utility pole in the distance, centered on the fairway, provides the best aiming point.

The green is shaped to deflect shots in all directions. Short shots will roll back, shots too far left will be deflected farther left, possibly down into the hazard. This is one of the best greens on the course.

Overall, this course is good, but not excellent. As seen in the images, the course gets a bit busy with rocks and other features in certain spots. 5 out of 10

Mike Strantz & the C.B. Macdonald Template Holes

Mike Strantz is viewed by many in the golf community as a revolutionary designer. Some of the things he produced on golf courses were visually stunning and unlike little that had been seen before. But once you start digging a bit, get past the shock value visual features, there seem to be some definite old style golf features and even some of the Macdonald School template holes. Now, to be sure, these holes do not look like the simple, yet elegant, templates that Macdonald, Raynor and Banks crafted, but the visual features and playing features are there and show up far too often to be simple coincidence.

The most well known of the Macdonald School holes are the Biarritz, Redan, Punchbowl, Sahara, Cape, Road, and Alps. All of these holes show up at least once on Strantz courses, some of them more. Certainly Strantz went and put his own unique touch on these holes, but the strategic features are still there.

All images, with exception of Bulls Bay images, taken by and used with permission from The Buffalo Golfer: http://www.buffalogolfer.com

Bulls Bay images taken by and used with permission from S. R. Arble.

Biarritz
This is a hole that Strantz created twice. The basic feature of the biarritz hole has been described here before, but generally the hole is defined by a large depression in the middle of the green running side to side. The player is given the opportunity to bring the ball in low, landing it on the front of the green, and rolling to the back.

Tobacco Road, Hole #3, 152 yards

Here, the green starts just beyond the front bunkers, dips down, and rises sharply to the back level. Perhaps not a true Biarritz given that the back level is above that of the front, but the depression and two tiered green is there.

Royal New Kent, Hole #7, 197 yards

This hole is a biarritz/redan hybrid. The depression with two tiers is there, but so is the right-to-left angle and the front kick slope. Strantz used the creek bed in lieu of a bunker as the fronting hazard and put the two pot bunkers in as the rear hazard. The bunkers short of the kick slope are traditional redan features.

Redan

Strantz also crafted this hole twice. The standard Redan has a green that is angled roughly forty-five degrees right-to-left away from the player. Traditionally, the hole has a deep bunker fronting the green and another bunker behind the green to catch shots going long. The hole is also marked by the front to back slope, allowing the players to roll the ball to the back of the green, and the bunkers that are typically short of the front kick slope, bringing distance control more into focus for the player.

Royal New Kent, Hole #7, 197 yards

--Profiled above

Bulls Bay, Hole #7, 180 yards

This hole features the standard Redan shape and the front slope into the opening, However, it lacks the cross bunkers and rear bunker.

Punchbowl

This is a hole that Strantz used a number of times. The basic idea of the Punchbowl is that the green is located in a natural bowl or depression. The slopes of the depression can either be part of the green or part of the surrounding area.

Tobacco Road, Hole #13, 573 yards

This green is most certainly located in a bowl. Much of the green is obscured from view when approaching from the fairway. Options could be incredible if the bowl walls were maintained with shorter turf rather than high love grass.

Bulls Bay, Hole #14, 190 yards

Here, you can see the entire rear and both sides of the green sloping down towards the center of the green. In this case, a portion of the surround is maintained as short turf. This gives the player the chance to use the slope to get a shot closer to the hole...or might improve the positioning of a poorly played shot as well.

Stonehouse, Hole #5, 431 yards

The features are fairly obvious here. Slopes coming into the center from all directions. This might be the most traditional of the punchbowls shown.

Cape

This hole has become something different than it originally was. The original Cape played as a dogleg but the green was located on a peninsula surrounded by water. The original hole has since been altered and today the Cape is typically defined as a dogleg hole where the player is given the option of picking a more or less aggressive line off the tee, typically cutting over some type of hazard. This hole concept is possibly the most copied hole in golf and Strantz made good use of the concept himself.

Tobacco Road, Hole #12, 419 yards

This hole bends significantly to the left around the bunker. The green is farther around the corner, not in the image. The player is able to play the tee shot as far out to the left as he dares.

Tot Hill Farm, Hole #5, 535 yards

While difficult to see in the image, the fairway here runs from right to left, away from the player. Inside the dogleg is a deep depression filled with small trees and shrubs. The most agressive line on this hole is towards the peak of the hill/mountain in the distance.

Royal New Kent, Hole #9, 407 yards

Here, the player is given the chance to pick his line over the creek that is just shy if the fairway. In prior years, the creek also served to separate the fairway on the left from a second fairway on the right. The bunkers await through the fairway to catch golfers getting a little too greedy on the conservative line.

Bulls Bay, Hole #5, 406 yards

This is the first of the Cape holes that really play over a water feature. The marshland must be carried here in order to reach the fairway and the player is able to play as far out right as he feels comfortable doing.

Road
As the name suggests, this hole is patterned after the Road hole 17th at The Old Course. The green typically is narrow and angles right to left. There is also normally a bunker short of the green, ideally a pot bunker to mimick the Road Hole Bunker and some type of hazard long of the green to represent the road itself.

This hole bears more than a passing resemblance to the Road Hole, even if it lacks the bunker short. The tall grass short provides the Road Hole Bunker feature and the wall long, there to keep balls from going onto the public road located about 10 yards beyond the hazard, provides the Road feature.

Alps
The idea here is typically to have some type of large hill feature obscuring the view of the green. Sometimes the player is given the chance to play to a disadvantaged side of the fairway in order to avoid it, other times that is not the case.

Tobacco Road, Hole #1, 558 yards

This from about 210 yards from the green, no sight of the green. The green sits about 75 yards beyond the mound in the center of the picture.

Royal New Kent, Hole #14, 344 yards

This hole allows the golfer the chance to see the green when playing to a proper location. Golfers who play tee shots to the flanks of the fairway will likely not be able to see the flag. This green is also located in a punchbowl.

Sahara

This hole plays up and over a dune or some type of sand feature that also prevents the player from seeing the ball come to rest in the fairway.

Tobacco Road, Hole #18, 432 yards

From the tee, this is what the player sees. The fairway begins directly over top of the hill but the vast majority of it is out of the player's view.

There are other examples that could be used for these hole type, certainly the Alps feature is one that Strantz uses with semi-regularity. Same with the Punchbowl. Also, you may note that no holes from True Blue and Caledonia, Strantz originals, or Monterey Peninsula (Shore) and Silver Creek Valley, Strantz redesigns, are mentioned here. I simply lack familiarity with those courses and am unable to determine if any of those holes fit into the template mold.

If you think I've missed any, and I probably have, feel free to let me know.

What is Target Golf

People often wonder how to define target golf. Many will define it as golf that is played from point to point, hitting only high shots to a given yardage to a specific target.
This hole, the 15th at Mike Strantz's Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro, NC is a prime example of this definition.

There are no options or various plays to be had here. Of course the player could hit a draw or fade, possible higher or lower than usual, but this can be said for every shot on every golf course in the world. What does not exist on this hole is the ability to land a ball short of the green and have it roll onto the putting surface, such as on a biarritz hole, or hit a nice draw and have it kick off a slope and roll to the right down to the flag, such as seen on a redan hole. This hole really is a perfect example of the standard idea as to define Target Golf.

However, I tend to take a different view on Target Golf. I consider all golf to be Target Golf. Allow me to use a picture of a biarritz hole to illustrate what I mean.

On this hole, for those not familiar with the hole, allow us to assume the pin is in the position marked by the RED dot. The green is then broken into three distinctive segments, the front and rear portions are relatively flat, while the middle section, marked by a rough rectangle formed with the four GREEN points, will have a significant dip, very much resembling a half-pipe like that used by skaters and snow boarders. If the front run-up area is firm and maintained at fairway height, which it should be, the player has multiple options. He can aim some 60-70 yards short of the pin, by the PINK dot, and hit the shot with some speed, allowing it to roll all the way back, through the dip, to the pin. If he wants to get the ball in the air a bit more, but still run is a significant distance, he can aim at the front of the green, for the YELLOW dot, and once again, allow it to roll to the back. He can also play it to the BLUE dot or, if feeling very adventurous, can carry the ball all the way onto the back section, landing his shot where the ORANGE dot is located.

These shots all have one thing in common: in each case, the golfer must select a yardage to carry the ball, then pick a TARGET and hit the shot. As such, even though it has an abundance of options, the hole still amounts to picking a target and hitting the ball to that target, just like the hole at Tot Hill Farm.

I have a rare view of this situation, I know. But the truth is, with every shot in golf, the player has to pick a yardage and a target and hit the ball to that target in order for the shot to work out, or so he hopes. Therefore, I do break with the common definition of Target Golf and just go about saying that all golf is Target Golf. So, have fun, pick your targets, and go play golf.