Crosswinds Golf Club (Savannah, GA on 11/21/12)

I never really had plans to head out of town for Thanksgiving as I figured that I would be working on Black Friday. Well, come to find out we got Thanksgiving and Black Friday off. I had a personal day that I had to use before the end of the year so a trip started to come together about a month ago. I have friends and family in Florida and have not been there since 2009 so I thought that it would be the perfect chance to ditch the jacket for a few days and play some golf. My plan was to split up the 13 hour drive, spend Thanksgiving with my grandmother, and meet up with some old friends. I left Charlottesville on Tuesday after work and for the most part the drive was not too bad, except through Richmond where it slowed down. While I am not a big fan of driving on I-95 because of all the folks from the Northeast driving fast and cutting in and out of traffic, it worked out okay because I could go my 5 to 10 mph over the speed limit and have no worries about being pulled over. I decided that I would stop in Florence, SC for the night as it seemed like a halfway point and sure enough, I got there around 11pm. I waited for an what must have been 15 or 20 minutes to check in at the hotel even though there was only one other person checking in besides me. I was up early on Wednesday around 4am to make my early morning tee time in Savannah, GA which was about 2.5 hours down the road. I saw a tee time on Golfnow for $21 for Crosswinds Golf Club in Savannah around 8am. Normally the times there go for $40+ so I saw an opportunity to get a deal and in addition, I would get to Florida early that afternoon. I entertained the idea of stopping at nearby Harbour Town Golf Links on Wednesday, but I cheaped out as it was going to be $150 to play. Maybe one day I will get there, who knows. I got to Florida uneventfully and managed to avoid all the Georgia State Patrol officers lighting up traffic on the interstate. I squeaked in a round of golf on Thanksgiving morning with a friend and then spent the afternoon with grandma. Friday was more of the same and then Saturday afternoon I headed to St. Augustine to meet up with another friend. I got off I-95 a few exits early and drove along U.S. Route 1 for a few miles with the windows down. I love the Florida coast, the vacation feeling, the sand off the side of the road, and the smell of the water are something that I think I could live with some day. While it was a little cool for Florida it felt great considering that it has been 50 to 60 degrees for the high for the last month and in the high 20s and low 30s in the mornings. The drive back was pretty bad as I left St. Augustine around 7:30am and did not get back to Charlottesville until 9pm because of the Thanksgiving traffic. It was all stop and go on the interstate and the last 250 miles which ended up taking about 5.5 hours. I tried taking a different way back thinking that I would avoid the traffic but that did not work.

Anyway, onto the course review. The Florida courses will be posted separately.

I played at Crosswinds Golf Club on 11/21/12. I have played one other course in the Savannah area and while I do not recall the specifics, I remember that I loved the area and especially all the moss covered trees. I was looking for a course with easy access to I-95 and that was not going to cost a bunch. I had seen Crosswinds going for ~$40 on Golfnow, but I found an early morning time for around $20 which made it even sweeter. There were only a couple cars in the parking lot when I arrived so I pretty much had the place to myself with the exception of a couple other singles. I had to drive the cart over a large wooden bridge through the woods to get to the first hole so I naturally I thought that the course would be heavily wooded. I got to the first hole and was shocked to see that most of the course would be an open layout with a few of the holes being routed through the woods. From the first tee I could see #2, #3, #9, #10, and #18. Like most courses I suppose in the area it was flat and turned out to be a course that would be a good walking course. I had a calm feeling standing on the first tee as I knew I could probably get away with a few poor drives. This turned out to the be case as five of the seven driving holes on the front had wide fairways. The back tightened up on some holes, but it was a very pleasant place to try to hit a tee shot. I ended up playing the back tees at 72.2/133/6748 so the distance was not the main challenge. The difficulty was on the approaches and putting the treacherous greens. For example, on #1 I needed to hit it my approach to the proper level, #2 brought a water hazard and false front into play on the approach, and #3 was a mid length par 3 that forced me to fire at the pin on a sliver of green or challenge a bunker to play to the fat of the green. The tough approaches continued throughout the round and turned out to be what I thought was the most challenging part of the course. Even though the course was flat the designer did a good job of using mounding, hazards, and doglegs to keep it interesting to play. I thought a couple of the opening holes were a little boring mentally to play but then it got interesting. The 5th is a long par 4 that moved just enough left that I had to pick one of the fairway bunkers and swing at it off the tee. The 6th had a water hazard short and left of the green that I did not see and the 7th required either a long tee shot to the right of a tree or a layup short and left of it to allow a clear shot at the green. The 11th is a mid length par 3 over water that required a solid shot and the 14th was a long par 3 over bunkers with water right. Even though I hit it in the water and made double on #14 I still thought that it was a very fair hole as it had a bail out left and long. Plus, the green sloped from left to right so it still allowed a chance to get it close without challenging the water. I did not like a couple holes on the course and those where #12, a long par 5 and #13, a mid length par 4. The 12th pinched the layup from 150 and in so it would probably be best to have a longer 3rd shot in and the 13th had a hazard cutting across the fairway diagonally with no option to layup. I thought the layout was good with the back being the tougher side and requiring more precision. The conditioning of the greens was outstanding and they were a pleasure to putt on. The greens were very fast and there was not a blemish on any one of them. The greens could have easily passed for a $100+ course. The condition of the rest of the course was good with the exception of a couple burnt out patches in a couple the fairways. I also liked the five par 5’s and five par 3’s. The only negative about this course is that it is quite noisy. It is very close to I-95 with a couple holes running parallel to it and the airport is nearby so there are distractions. I would highly recommend this course and it easily could command a higher rate.

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