The Greenbrier: Old White TPC (White Sulphur Springs, WV on 04/30/18)

A friend’s buddy volunteered at The Greenbrier Classic last year and ran shotlink on one of the holes. As a result he was rewarded with a free round on the Old White course for him and a guest plus a two night stay at the resort! He also was able to round out the foursome with two others for a reduced rate and I was all too happy to take a spot!

I live two hours away from The Greenbrier and just headed up for the day. I’ve never stayed at the resort but I’ve visited previously, taking a bunker tour and walking around the grounds with my family. It is a bit upscale for my tastes, but a place worth checking out if you are in the area!

After a bit of a rushed drive (long story), I found my group in the parking lot. We took at a peek at the first tee as we walked over to the pro shop, where I paid my $225 green fee for admittance to this historic course. In case you are curious, that is the most I’ve ever spent on a round! And it was as good of a deal as you’ll find, too. I think the normal rate is about $400 plus a tip for the caddie. Because we played early in the year we didn’t need to use a caddie.

So, I’ll need to admit that the PGA Tour playing here was the main reason I wanted to play Old White TPC! I don’t think of myself as a golf course architecture nerd, so my review will be light on that perspective. Thankfully there is a ton more information out there than what I’ll cover, if that is your thing. If you enjoy the history of course design then you’ll want to make a stop here!

My friend and I attended The Greenbrier Classic in 2013 so we had a basic idea of the course’s routing. While we were there we walked the first couple holes, cut over to the 8th and then walked the entire back nine. Both my friend and I commented about how strange the course looked without all the grandstands! I’ve played a few other courses that host the PGA Tour and Old White fits the profile, a semi-compact layout that is good for the golfers to walk and for the fans and media to get around. Besides a bit of elevation change in the middle of the front nine, the course is flatter than you’d expect, given the nearby mountains!

The reason the course is so flat is that it, and just about all of the resort I believe, is in a small valley. Howard’s Creek is the low point of that valley and it runs through much of The Greenbrier, as well as the city of White Sulphur Springs. That creek probably sounds familiar because of the flooding from 2016. Crazy to think that something so peaceful washed away homes and damaged so much of the area! If you ask me, it is pretty amazing that the area recovered so quickly.

Besides the 13th and 17th tee shots, Howard’s Creek shouldn’t come into play on the Old White course. I suppose if you hit a real stinker you could find the creek on the on the 1st or the 18th, though! The only other major water hazard is on the par-4 16th, which is one of the best driving holes on Old White. There are a few smaller creeks too, but I found there to be very little lost ball trouble on the course. That’s probably why Old White wasn’t as difficult to play as I expected. After playing here, I can understand how Stuart Appleby hung up a 59!

I played the championship tees, which are one set of tees up from where the pros play. The championship tees are 74.1/137/6894. Old White is a par 70 with just two par 5’s, so keep that in mind when picking your tees. Surprisingly, I had a mix of almost everything from wedges to a 3-wood into the greens. It is a fairly benign driving course and that always allows me to enjoy the day a bit more! The biggest difficulties around Old White are going to be the tough approach shots and trying to scramble from below green level if you miss the green. I shorted sided my share of approaches and everything seemed to bounce into the bunkers. The bunkers are flat, but they have steep banks that are covered in longer rough.

It would probably be a crime if I didn’t at least mention a little about the architecture at Old White, since that is one of the most impressive things about the course! The course was originally design by Charles Blair Macdonald back in 1914 and Seth Raynor, another famous architect, did some work with Macdonald. What is unique is that some of the holes at Old White are modeled after famous holes in Europe. For example, the par-3 3rd has a biarritz green. Basically, it is a super deep green with a large valley in the middle! My tee shot ended up in that valley and my birdie putt came back to my feet. The only other biarritz green I can remember playing was at Mountain Lake Country Club in Florida. Another notable hole is the par-3 8th, which is a redan. In short, a redan allows a golfer to access the left side of the green by utilizing the large amount of slope in the green.

As far as the conditions, they were good. The course told us they were aerating the greens about a week before we arrived, but that they should roll fine. In all honesty, the greens rolled just like normal greens, even after the aeration! Maybe they were a touch on the slow side, but I made my share of putts and only had one putt get caught in the aeration grooves. Some of the fairways were aerated, but that didn’t affect play. I was in bunker after bunker and always had a nice, firmer lie. My only frustration was that the rough was thick and deep. For a resort course, I would have guessed that it would have been much more playable! We spent a lot of time looking for golf balls in the rough!

I guess the final thing to try to determine is if Old White TPC is worth playing! If you force me rank it among my favorites, it would probably be somewhere around 15th on my favorites list. The high price certainly knocks it down some spots, but I’d say that playing Old White TPC once is worth it!

Pictures of the resort: