PIN HIGH
what they’re in store for over the next 4+ hours. Maybe I’m building it up too much, especially since it’s just one shot in a round that can conclude drastically differently than it began. My initial tee shot on the par-5, 558-yard first hole was certainly one to forget, and yet, here I am writing about it months later. Slicing my drive onto a massive, man-made fescue-filled sandhill on the right side of the fairway, I worried I was in for a long day after this early misfire. As I stood on the hill trying to find an anchored stance that would prevent me from falling down on my follow through, I realized the tone this shot set wasn’t one of regardless of course, but especially at Tobacco Road because if you miss your target, you’re more than likely sunk in the sand somewhere. But with no out of bounds and sand areas played like waste areas throughout the entire course, Tobacco Road put me in predicaments I had never faced before on a golf course. negativity, but of appreciation. Golf is a target-oriented game
And I loved every second of it! I’m not sure I’d be singing the same tune if I was trapped in the expansive 30-foot bunker on the 11th hole, but I avoided that obstacle. A rare win on the day. Tobacco Road is how golf should be played: man vs. nature. The course doesn’t boast gimmicky holes or a super fancy clubhouse, just Strantz’s creativity crafted into the North Carolina sandhills. Sure, it might not be for everyone, but if you appreciate the course for what it is, then you’ll enjoy it a lot more. I know I certainly did. Oitavos Dunes Golf Course Cascais, Portugal Awaiting the arrival of our seafood lunch before an early afternoon round, we can’t help but soak in the scenery. Situated on Portugal’s Atlantic Coast, Oitavos Dunes Golf Course is the gem golf course of Cascais, a popular seaside municipality once favored by King Luís I of Portugal and other European nobility in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
"With sweeping views of the Sintra Mountains, Atlantic Ocean and Cabo da Roca, you can’t blame him [Cristiano Ronaldo] for building here. "
38
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker