KIAWAH ISLAND-THE PGA

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for those of us who consider Kiawah a gem and Charleston a mansion, time is here for the Ocean Course to step forward again as it did in '91 at the Ryder Cup. have been watching coverage on the GOLF CHANNEL all week and enjoying the views and wishing i was there on the beach. look forward to how cbs covers it and hopefully they will give us some great shots of the island and Charleston over the next four days.

 

[tarrantula]

The greatest golf course I've ever seen. Now, to make it real, we've got to have an amateur who is a shell shocked war veteran come from out of nowhere to beat Tiger and Phil in a three man battle for the trophy and Charlise Theron hugging him on the eighteenth green.!

 

[GKiller]

I really want to see the wind kick in. When I was there last month Ocean was still open to public it was closing the following week for final PGA prep alas I couldnt talk my father in law into playing it this year even though all he does is play golf. The last 2 days I was there the wind was ridiculous at beach with a storm not in sight. I'm riding on beach trying to put my youngest to sleep in one of those carriers and riding 1 way with wind at my back I'm waving at everyone look at me super dad, coming back I could barely pedal, I literally had to stand up & pedal to get any leverage and it was a completely miserable experience making me wonder how my wife convinced me to go for #3. I guess the wind kicked in a little bit yesterday but I want to see the pga pros get some of what I felt which was basically unplayable. Its really a links course up & back so making those guys switch how they play in same round depending on wind is what I want to see.

 

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Killer, have experienced that wind at back and wind in face while riding on the beach there though without the carrier. usually took the next beach access up and rode through the neighborhoods on the way back to avoid what i knew was a very tough task. the wind seems to be up this morning and scoring is a tad higher. what were they charging for greens fees on the ocean course when you were there, if you know or remember.

 

[GKiller]

$217 if staying on island but you also have the caddie tip since that is required. usually you have 1 caddie per 2 players. I think that was afternoon rate which is cheaper cant remember if they do that at Ocean but probably since all other Kiawah courses have the morning & afternoon rates.

 

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i know that the pga really required Bill Goodwin to make a ton of changes and improvements in order to secure the championship, most not on the course itself but all over, new clubhouse, for example. have not played golf for a while due to back issues and not sure how $217 looks to other elite courses but remember one summer they were running fees of $80 if you played in the afternoon, think that was before the automobile.....

 

[CarolinaSpider]

None of the Kiawah courses are cheap. Never played courses with so many alligators including chasing our cart for 50 feet.

 

[tarrantula]

I played in a tournament called the Beaufort Charities which was held at Fripp Island, just a few clicks down the coast from Kiawah. My chance to experience the ocean wind. They had a par 3 on the tip of the island that was only about 140 yards, but you had to hit 2 clubs more than your normal club and aim out over the water about 40 yards to the left of the green to have any chance to hit dry land. On another hole, I hit my tee shot about 8 feet from a very large gator. We held up play for a half hour trying to find the rule in that situation. That was about 15 years ago..I think that they called it an "unplayable lie". To me, The Ocean Course is the most beautiful site in the world. I got rained out last year in my only opportunity to play, but did go to a nice dinner dance at the Beach Club over by #17. Have played Fripp(Ocean Point), Dataw(Cotton Dike) , Secession and a couple courses at Calliwassie. Also have played several of the Charleston courses..including The Ocean Course at Isle of Palms before the huricane wiped out the 18th hole. Yeaman's Hall was my favorite there. Any of you guys who haven't played golf in the Low Country need to make that your next road trip. Very special place.

 

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T, ran out of books, so picked up SOUTH OF BROAD and reread it over the past few days, maybe a salute to the PGA being in the area. like finding an old friend, enjoyed it as much, or more, this time as the first and realized i had forgotten a ton but the words of pat conroy are amazing and for one who has been around charleston a lot, just a true pleasure and hated for it to end, once again.

 

[tarrantula]

Spinner, Conroy has a place at Fripp Island and spends a lot of time there. He can be found many days sitting in a rocking chair in a general store on the outer end of the island. He has the same problem Thomas Wolfe had and needs his own Maxwell Perkins, but the first 100 pages of Prince of Tides is brilliant...a reader who has never been south of Philly can fall in love with the low country. Unfortunately, the book is about 100 pages too long. Somehow, Barbara Streisand found the extra 100 pages enchanting and made a movie which didn't even include the character who was "The Prince of Tides". The house that was "The Great Santini's home is in Beaufort.It was also the house where "The Big Chill" was filmed.

 

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have been all over that area, including beaufort and THE HOUSE, over the years, a special setting. to me the only thing that should have been eliminated in SOUTH OF BROAD, not that i pretend to fine-tune mr. conroy, is the twins' father character. feel he could have made them just as dysfunctional without that implausible piece running throughout the otherwise wonderful story line. just reading some of my favorite authors' ( pat conroy, nelson demille, for example) own words, they all agree that ending books is their most difficult task. there are a couple of bookstores in old charleston that pat hangs around sometimes as well and have seen him more than once. getting back to the PGA, jim nantz said yesterday that a big alligator came out of a lagoon and ate their microphone on the 17th tee. nick faldo was saying that when all of the players departed the ocean course in 1991 after the ryder cup, they all said that the course was not playable with a scorecard in their hands, in other words match play, OK but stroke play, never happen. the course has been altered a ton since that time and is still a good test but not impossible as it was first designed by dye. friday's second round is the highest overall score, 77+ ever in the event, the winds, they were a blowing that day.

 

[tarrantula]

Yeah, like you I have read all the Conroy and DeMille books. I also like Tom Wolfe, John LeCarre, Larry McMurtry, Tony Hillerman, Stephen Ambrose and all those book a year guys like John Lescroart, John Sanford, Steve Martini, Lee Child. One of my all time favorites is Jim Webb's(Senator Webb) A Sense of Honor. His novel Fields of Fire is one of the best I have read about the Viet Nam war. Recently discovered Gus Lee and enjoyed reading his autobiographical novels about West Point and service in Viet Nam. Us old folks gotta have something to do and reading, golf , playing cards and this board are my fall backs for days I'm not working. Looking forward this afternoon to the final round at Kiawah. I envy GKiller his opportunities to visit there on a regular basis.

 

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found the mini-series, LONESOME DOVE, on netflicks so then got the book and now have read about half of larry mcmurtry's novels and find them a wonderful read, especially since i am in tejas now. read a lot of the same authors you list above, use the library, second hand bookstores and amazon to keep myself and the bride in reading material. by the way the mini-series, LONESOME DOVE, was as close as i have seen a film track a novel and love tommy lee jones and robert duval in those roles, perfect. there are a lot of guys lurking today and the last nine holes could be some tense, great golf around 7pm or so.

 

[tarrantula]

Agree that the Lonesome Dove TV series is a classic. My working partner got so caught up by the book and the film that when he retired, he sold his 200 year old home here and moved to Montana. I have alsways had an interest in Western
history and Indians. The Tony Hillerman novels set on the Navajo reservation are modern time, but great stories that combine the whodunit interest with great stories of that Indian culture.