Kinloch

Posted by Michael on 25 June 2010 | 0 Comments | Tags: Kinloch, Vinny Giles, wow, New Zealand

Kinloch Golf Club just north of Richmond Virginia was the venue for our latest golfing adventure.  But firstly it was our grandstand to watch the Mighty Mighty All Whites take on some random footballing country that goes by the name of Italy.  Supposedly these I-talians can play a bit, but to me it looked like they were far better at falling over, holding their faces and generally acting like wusses.  Holed up in the sweet confines of the Kinloch club house we were rooting on our boys from down under, those famous footballers whose combined transfer value is around $250 kiwi pesos.  When â??that goalâ?? went in circa 10^th minute of the match we stopped, mid conversation with one of the staff, and jumped out of our seats with delight and surprise and complete disbelief.  This first Hour Or So in Kinloch had nothing to do with golf but it was a good Hour Or So.  The staff at Kinloch were as friendly as the All Whites were staunch â?? they all came by to say Gâ??day to the visiting kiwis and to welcome us to their club.  The bar staff even started cheering on the All Whites with us.   But weâ??d left our caddy waiting on the range so at half time, with the scores locked up at 1-1 (note to ref: youâ??re a disgrace for awarding that penalty), we wished the boys our best and went to take on Kinloch.

Kinloch, like itâ??s kiwi namesake borders a serious lake (hence the name), although this lake in Virginia at about 72 acres large is dwarfed by Lake Taupo in our native homeland of New Zealand.  We met our caddy, Jeff, and were welcomed by the Director of Operations, Phil Owenby.  It was a tad warmer than it gets back home so after we hit a few balls on the range it was time for rotation number one of the sweat sodden glove, a couple of bottles of water and then we were off to the first tee.

First impressions once out on the course were that this place is bliss. We had the course to ourselves and before us lay a huge, perfectly manicured golf lovers paradise.  And to top it off we were blessed with the services of our caddy Jeff who had a real skill for reading putts.  And for being a good punter.  Jeff has previously looped at Caves Valley where his brother is the caddy master and we might see him again there in a couple days time.  The whole caddying scene is very different to NZ â?? a caddy master organizes the whole rigmarole putting the caddies together with the players.  The caddies generally wait in the caddy shack until they â??get a bagâ?? for the day.  I guess you could say weâ??ve got a little used to taking caddies over our 7 weeks here in the US but I donâ??t particularly think it is a trend that would catch on in New Zealand or Australia with our downunder DIY (do-it-yourself) attitude.  Nevertheless Iâ??d say Jeff saved me a few shots today so perhaps there is some sense to it all.  The caddy master here, and generally boss of everything that goes on outdoors was a chap called Kevin Cook.  Kevin made us feel completely at home at Kinloch, despite not playing with a member, which is normally the rule of thumb here.

Back to the golf course.  Two words describe this Kinloch (which is a parkland course as opposed to the Links on steriods that Jack Nicklaus built by Lake Taupo). Those words? Risk Reward. All of the par fives fit this description: the 3^rd a short one enticing you to hit your second over water, and then both the 9^th (pictured below) and 11^th which have split fairways and hazards going everywhere but if you take it on the right line you can get on in two no worries.  Split fairways suit both JP and I perfectly â?? we aim it straight and either (1) hit a draw and land on the left fairway, or (2) hit a block and hit the fairway on the right.   Fingers crossed that it doesnâ??t go straight down the middle into the hazard like what happened on the 8^th at Riviera. Yes I can remember that far backâ?¦Â  Kinloch also has a couple of short par fours â?? the first of which suckered me right in. 

The 4^th hole, at 330 yards and downhill, is always going to be a driver. I didnâ??t even need to use the ridiculous justification that 'jeez weâ??re only going to play the hole once' to hit driver here.  The green angles to the right and there is a hazard running along short / right of the green. The creek is only 5 yards wide so there was a strong element of the 'sheâ??ll be right' philosophy.  But the play is NOT to try and hit a high cut to land the ball softly on this shallow green and make a tap in 2 as if you knock it out left, the fairway actually slopes down sharply to the right and the ball will roll right down to the front edge of the green. Jeff told me to do this on the tee, but I still hit the high cut â?? straight into the hazard â?? bogey 5.  A great hole. (And of course there is a huge lay up area to play it as a 4 iron wedge if you are that way inclined). The 4th is pictured below:

7^th tee and JP and I were fading.  Amidst the excitement of the footy, we hadnâ??t had much to eat. But, or course, there was a half way house between 7 tee and 9 green with, of course, a chef right there ready to rock and roll and fry up a burger or whatever else may tickle your fancy.  Burgers all round and what a burger it was â?? even by the Supremely High Standards of burgers that are set here in the US. Away we went again. 

There are some strong par fours here, one of which we encountered on the 8^th hole. 470 yards or so, with a huge lake short left. JP hit two cracking shots and two putted for par. I hit a snap slice, a thin 2 iron, and then the most flukey hack from the trees to 6 feet to make my par.  News only got better as Kevin was there to ask how we were going, and tell us the All Whites had drawn with Italy.  Boom.  NZ drawing with the World Champions â?? thatâ??s like the two of us both shooting 67 at Bethpage Black off the tips.  It just doesnâ??t happen.

The heat was pretty immense and we made the call to use a cart for the back nine. (picture sweat covered shirts like that fine picture JP painted for you all from yesterday). The back nine started with some strong par fours (10 and 12) and the two par fives (11 and 13) and so by this stage we were both thinking a cart was a good option.  My minor gripe of the course was that a couple of these par fours, in particular 10, could have had more of a shute off the tee to a narrow fairway.  The 10th hole has the most amazing shaped fairway which snakes to the hole, and to me I would have flagged the fairway bunkers here, brought the trees in a bit tighter and give the hole the 'understated by I'm going to really grab you when you miss the fairway and try and roll it up out of the rough' character.

The finish here is awesome as the closing holes flow around the lake â?? 13 a par five down to the lake, 14 a gorgeous par three surrounded by water, 15 a risk reward par four where driver actually paid dividends, 16 an almighty par four that wraps around the lake and climbs up to the green and that JP would quite happily never see again; 17 is a strong par three across a creek, and then 18 is 18.  Picturesque. Where JP made birdie. He has a knack of doing that.

The course was in perfect nick. Greens pure. Fairways carpet. Youâ??ve heard it all before, but this course, well itâ??s the shiz.   The greens were rolling at around 13 on the stint meter â?? so you need to be on form with the short stick and not putting like Ed.

As we shook hands and thanked Jeff we saw another hole nestled under the clubhouse.  The story behind this is that the owner and designer of this place â?? Vinny Giles â?? is not only a quality golfer (last year he was the Senior United States Amateur Champion at the age of 66 much older than his competitors) but he is also a gambling man.  And such the genesis of the 19^th a par three over water that is there to settle all bets Once and For All.  We had no such bets to settle because we are povo and play simply for pride. Pride claimed by Jamie courtesy of his one shot victory with the aforementioned 18th hole birdie.  Oh yeah, and check out the clubhouse behind the 19th green below:

Kinloch is a place Iâ??d love to come back to and Kevin assured us weâ??d be welcome any time. Itâ??s a place of First Class service, a world class golf course and where everything is just done right.  Dotted around Kinloch were the rankings from a magazine called â??Golfworldâ?? which somehow rated the top 50 private clubs over a number of categories: the golf course, service, food, caddie programme, how-much-scotch-and-cigars-you-can-consume, etc and you can see why Kinloch are proud about their course filtering very much towards the top of this illustrious pile. 

Once done at Kinloch, we scooted up to Washington DC. Actually a place called Alexandria which I think is in the Northern tip of Virginia but is effectively part of DC.  We had a dinner party with our host Keith Mathews and a few friends heâ??d invited around to meet a couple of unusual species that go by the name of kiwiâ??s.  We ate too much steak, drank some wine and some of Keithâ??s Bushmills 1608 and stayed up Far Far Too Late talking about what makes the world go round. Golf. Tomorrow weâ??re taking Keithâ??s nephew, Kevin out for the day at RTJ where I think weâ??re also playing with an Aussie.

P.S JP liked the benches by the tees at Kinloch, but we don't have any pictures of them so you'll have to take his word for it that thhey were good