A huge day of golf, fundraising and Southern Hospitality

Posted by Michael on 16 June 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: Champions Retreat, The First Tee, Aiken, Augusta,

Day 162 was such a long day that I need a contents page for this blog.  Seriously. Part one will feature our golf for the day at Champions Retreat.  The second part, our fundraising tournament with The First Tee of Aiken, and the grand finale, a must read, about our dinner at the Sage Valley Club.  

Waking at 530am in Aiken at the Brewer residence, we were due to meet our hosts Nick Carter and Gary McMahan at Champions Retreat by 745am.  Champions Retreat is a new golf development North West of Augusta, Georgia.  What we hadnâ??t accounted for in our planning was the 75 minute drive to get there from Aiken (after our now customary wrong turn or two) so even with the red eye start we were still a couple of minutes late.  

Champions Retreat?  Good track where the developer managed to convince Palmer, Player and Nicklaus to all build 9 holes each of Great Golf.  He must have had some diplomacy skills - itâ??s not often big names will share in their design of a golf course.  But with a plot of land nestled next to the Savannah River, some nearby low lying lakes and huge Augusta National esque pine trees the three past champions must have been licking their lips to get out on their diggers and create another masterpiece.  And developments here are nothing like down under. This place looks like it's been here an eternity and the Augusta pines and classical architecture make it feel very mature.

(Below is the strong par four 5th hole at Champions Retreat, on the Arnold Palmer 9)

 

Unfortunately it took me about 5 holes to see the course because I was plagued by a certain block cut that will not be mentioned again today. Or for the rest of the year. Ugly. Not a great day to pull out a new sleeve of golf balls which by the 5^th hole all been gifted to the golfing gods, the last sculled out of the greenside bunker into the steaming Savannah River (the water is coming out of a deepwater hyrdo lake and when exposed to the 100 degree humidity there is a fair bit of steam).

The course is like many weâ??ve played in the USA, in that it is very long off the tips with no roll and that you simply take driver without thinking on every tee.  A bombers course.  I was craving some roll and to be able to hit a stinging 2 iron by the end of the round, and it got to the stage where I had to revert to such shot to keep the ball in play.  As an example, however, I hit a low one out on the 18^th hole pretty flush, but it rolled no more than 2 feet. This is in the middle of summer.   Best holes? I loved the par five 5^th on the Player nine: a tee shot over a marsh to a fairway that is VERY wide, but then a second shot resembling the 13^th at Augusta. It had a creek short that meandered across the fairway short of the green and away and along the right hand side of the green.  My three wood followed its path all the way: lesson of the day Lay Up more often.   Palmers best was probably a par 5 as well, the third and pictured below. Water right all the way along and bunkers left. Of Course.  Risk and reward to take on the lake short of the green with bunkers left for the bail out. I made a DNF, JP a solid par rolling one in from 25 feet. 

Nick, in my cart, took on Jamie and Gary in a best ball.  Gary and the two of us gave Nick 6 shots so when Nick started knocking his pitch shots within a putter length I knew I was onto a winner. Unfortunately Nickâ??s shoulders grew tired of carrying me and we were 1 down at the turn.   Nick is a champion of a man.  Iâ??m getting used to saying that a lot, but believe me when I say that Mr Carter was a real Southern Gentleman.   When he wasnâ??t sinking clutch putts to keep us in the match he was sharing stories about life in these parts (where he owns an electrical business) and how he would love to have us stay when we make it back here another time.  Gary Mac is in the timber gig and it looks like he gets a bit of time to play golf as he had it on a string.  The two snap hookers (Gary and JP) managed to sneak the win on the 18^th â?? a monstrous par four played around a lake, courtesy of JPâ??s 2 iron to 15 feet for a par, and my three putt.  In fact most people would describe my missed 8 footer on the last for the half as a choke.  Fortunately we were playing for nothing but pride so Nick didnâ??t chase me off the course.

Instead we headed to the clubhouse for a spot of lunch where we met one of the Principals and the General Manager, ate a burger (of course) and drank about 7 Arnold Palmers.  Buzzing after a great morning, and from the sugar, we set sail to episode two of our day back at Aiken.

 

The First Tee of Aiken had reached out to us a few weeks back and we had arranged for a joint fundraising 9 hole tournament.  Elizabeth Smith, the executive director of this newly formed First Tee chapter was awesome. She is enthusiastic, clearly very switched on and a huge asset for the local chapter.  This chapter was set up by Mr Wyatt, a local businessman who also owns the Houndslake Country Club where the First Tee is based.

Elizabeth had arranged a field of around 40 players for this 9 hole scramble (or captains choice as it is known in the USA) as well as seemingly every media agency to come along for the ride.

(Above: Jamie's team, Carol Spencer and Todd - who by the way shot 6 under 30 to come second)

I was joined by Clark and Judy, a local couple who have retired down here from New Jersey and volunteer for the local First Tee chapter, and also a young budding golfer, Brett.  We knocked it around with a couple of photographers in tow, including a good lad by the name of Corey who was an interesting character â?? could relate to doing â??long distanceâ?? something that was particularly hard this day for me as it was Grettaâ??s 25^th birthday back in NZ.  The four of us ended up with 4 under 32 for the nine, which was never going to take the spoils.

After the round Jamie and I shared a few stories and chatted away with the locals.  All up we raised a few hundred dollars for The First Tee chapters of both NZ and Aiken which was great.  Huge thanks to Elizabeth, Kenny and Lindsey for welcoming us and bringing the day together.

Lastly, our evening at the Sage Valley Golf Club.  Elizabeth Smith had arranged for us to go to the seafood buffet at the club and was kind enough to give us 15 minutes after the First Tee event to get changed and ready to go.  Formal dress. Scrambling to iron our suits after they have not had not much (zero) use all year, Jamie realized he had left his dinner jacket in the wardrobe of the Gardners way back in San Francisco. Bugger.  He managed to borrow one from the Houndslake Country Club so we were all set to go.

The Sage Valley Club is private club in Aiken owned by the founder of the local First Tee, Mr Wyatt.  We were hosted by his son Tom Wyatt and his lovely wife Leslie who were great people and made us feel very welcome.  This was some true Southern Hospitality - we were welcomed like old friends and Tom told us about their course which was designed by Fazio and weâ??re gutted that we didnâ??t fit it into our schedule as I think it is a must play.   The dining hall was all class and something unlike anything we would experience in NZ.  Members wore their green club jackets, waiters made sure everything was in order and old friends buzzed around telling lies and sharing stories.   We sat with Elizabeth, Tom and Lesley and also another couple called Chad and Kadii. Both Chad and Kadi were good golfers - Chad has been the club champion at Palmetto a number of times  (Palmetto is a course in Aiken which MacKenzie ran his eye over when he was designing Augusta National).  Kadi has been the national champion of Estonia twice! Great story.

The grub?  Seafood at its finest. Who said food in the US wasnâ??t any goodâ?¦ Just try the lobster â?? which I ate courtesy of some lessons from Tom on cracking it open  - or the Southern famous dish the fried catfish.  Of course, no seafood buffet would be complete in this part of the world without the Shrimp and Grits.  For those down-under Grits is a cornmeal type substance, similar to porridge in texture but tastes more like corn.  Google it for a recipe.

So as the time ticked by on what was a huge day we found ourselves sitting around the table explaining why we are called kiwiâ??s â??  the shy, flightless, nocturnal and defenseless bird which is the national bird of NZ.  A scotch later and the eyes started to glaze over and whilst the conversation kept flowing it was time to get some rest. A day for the memory banks and one part of the world I canâ??t wait to return to. Thanks to everyone for the day!