Tarheel Oldfield
I finished 13th this week in the Tarheel Tour’s event at Oldfield Golf Club in Bluffton, SC. It was a decent week, but just didn’t have much spark. I hit it and putted it well but had trouble getting on a roll. I felt like it could have been much better. I’m very encouraged by how my game is progressing.
The event was one of four walking events on the Tarheel Tour this year. For me, it was a great way to warmup my walking legs for the coming Nationwide Tour qualifiers. Four days in a row walking has not been the norm for me over the last two years. I was a bit sore after the practice round, but after that had no problems.
The tour needs to figure out how to get the pace of play moving in these walking events. One of the things players appreciate about this tour is the historically great pace of play. This week, however, was slower than normal. It was faster for the second round when we teed off in the morning.
One of the other things that players note about this tour is the quality of conditioning of the courses they play. Unfortunately, I feel like the three events I’ve played so far have been below Tarheel standards for their greens. For some reason, Rivertowne and Oldfield’s greens were very sparse. They were quick, but there simply wasn’t enough turf coverage on the greens so the ball was wobbling quite a bit. Last year (played in the early spring as well) these courses were immaculate…perhaps the best conditioned greens we played all season. So, for some reason these two lost a lot of their quality this year. Old South had better turf coverage on their greens, but they were very slow. I’m sure the rest of the courses will be better.
I head up to the Tarheel Tour’s event next week in Davidson, NC at River Run Golf Club.