TPC Southwind (Memphis, TN on 06/15/18)

I’ve commented a couple times in my posts that Instagram has allowed me to connect with other golfers. Pretty neat how that happens! Myself and some Instagram friends won a charity voucher at TPC Southwind and ultimately we wanted to play around the time the PGA Tour stops there. So, we ended up scheduling our trip for the weekend after the tour was in Memphis. We added some other courses on the way home over the three days, too.

Normally I’ll throw in a few comments about the drive, but since this was such a long one I’ll leave those out. Lots and lots of pavement that I’d care not to remember! I guess a long drive is part of the sacrifice for a golf trip. Even though it was a long ride we arrived plenty early at TPC Southwind. We checked in, took some pictures and warmed up. Thankfully it was a warm day and I loosened up quickly!

We headed over to the 1st tee and began our round on this recent stop for the pros. Obviously, I’m a golf nerd as evidenced by all my course pictures and my site! I do also follow the PGA Tour and made sure to watch TV coverage of the FedEx St. Jude Classic last weekend. I’ve also watched the tournament on TV in recent years so I’m probably more familiar with the individual holes than I should be!

When I think of TPC Southwind and the PGA Tour I think of an endless number of golf balls in the water. Over the years I’m pretty sure that Southwind holds the distinction for the most golf balls dunked in the water! It was one of those places where I was expecting to lose a lot of golf balls.

The course starts out with two par-4’s without any water in play. Then, you get a couple holes with water before a lull and things pick back up again with the water. All in all the water comes into play on half the holes. There are some small creeks that you can find with a stinker, but I’m talking about hazards that come into play with an average shot. All those hazards lurking mean that you’ll have to be precise or bail out to the dry side.

If you watch any of the telecast you’ll know the water holes that I’m going to mention! The 3rd, 4th and 9th holes on the front nine are the ones where you can splash a few while on the back nine, water comes into play on the 10th, 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th. So there are lots of chances to rinse some golf balls.

We played from the tournament tees and from there it is 6,748 yards. The rating is 73.4, the slope is 140 and it plays as a par-71. In comparison, the tour tees are about 500 yards longer and play as a par-70. Ron Prichard designed the course and this was my first experience with his courses.

The par-3 4th kicks off the nice par-3’s at TPC Southwind! Anything left of the green will find the water but if you fan one right you might be able to get it up and down from a chipping area. It is a pretty green complex because of a rock wall that separates the water and the grass.

The 9th was one of those holes that I thought would be super tough after watching the pros play it! It is a 425 yard par-4 and the #1 handicap. Water again guards the green and you don’t want to come up short. All the pros layup off the tee but I ended up hitting driver and an 8 iron. It was one of my better drives on the day but I didn’t come close to where the tour players were hitting it.

On the back nine the par-3’s are also sweet! The 11th is 141 yards with an island green and the 14th is 195 yards with water short and right. I hit the island green but donated a ball on the 14th! There is a large risk if you try to access the right half of the 14th green.

The final hole was my proudest moment of the day. The 18th is a long par-4 with water all down the left. It doglegs hard left so driver may not be needed, even if you hit it an average distance like me. I’m a fade player when playing well and was extremely uncomfortable standing over the tee shot. I ended up blitzing a 3-wood and had just an 8 iron into the green. Happy to report I made a par on that tough closing hole!

Really, the water holes are the most memorable holes on the course. In all honesty I walked away from TPC Southwind a little surprised that there are so many golf balls in the water. I didn’t play well and managed quite a few pars on those holes. A couple wayward drives cost me elsewhere but thousands of golf balls in the water here by the pros seems a bit excessive. Most of the time there was ample room on the non-water side, it just requires some scrambling brilliance.

I won’t go on much longer with my review, however I’ll share some other parting observations. First, while there is plenty of room to find your golf ball if you avoid the water, the fairways and greens are smaller than I would have guessed for a tour course. Second, the setting is very vanilla. The front nine is in a business park while the back nine winds through some upscale homes. It felt like one of those courses that could be found anywhere in the country.

As you’d expect the course was in awesome shape! There isn’t much else to say besides everything was beautiful. The greens were fast so it took me a while to adjust, as I blew my share of putts by the hole. The fairways were pristine, even after the tour players took plenty of swings from them in the prior week. You really have to be careful around the greens because the zoysia fairways would grab the club and stop it. The rough was no joke and very strange to figure out. It was thick bermuda rough where the ball nestled down, resulting in almost fried egg sort of look. What was odd is that the ball shot out of there even with a mid iron. It tempted me just enough to give it a try, but it turned out to be the wrong day for me to hit just three fairways!

I won’t go on record and say that TPC Southwind is the most memorable course out there, because it isn’t. However, that seems to be the case with many of the tour course’s that I’ve played. What made Southwind so special to me is that we played it a week after the PGA Tour was there! I certainly think that the course is more dramatic when the pros are playing it with a championship on the line, however I thought it was a fair test without being over the top. For me the experience exceeded the hype and I’ll look back on my round here with fond memories.

#1 (405 yard par 4):