Larry Nelson seemed a rather mellow fellow during his playing days on the PGA Tour, before he graduated to the senior circuit.  But there is nothing mellow about the 27 holes he designed 10 years ago at The Centennial Golf Club, a challenging but somewhat exhausting track.
    I played the Lakes and Fairways nines with a friend yesterday.  He's a single-digit handicap and I'm, well, something a little north of that but able to hit a seven-iron typically 150 yards or so.  We both came away from Centennial believing that, regardless of the tees you play - we played the blues at 6,500 yards - the approaches to some of the elevated greens were just too tough.  And this was on a day of fairly steady drizzle, when the greens were not nearly as fast as they will be in the coming weeks.  I don't think of myself as a golf masochist, and neither does my friend Bill, but we agreed we'd love to take another shot at Centennial in a month or two.  That says something about the quality of a layout where neither of us broke 85.
    We were a little taken aback by the first hole we played, #1 on the Lakes hole.  I love starting with warm-up par 5s, but this was not exactly a hole on which to loosen up (click on schematic for larger view).  Don't overcook a draw off the tee or you will find the water on the left.  Assuming you negotiate your drive over 200 yards to a safe spot on the right side of the fairway, your lay-up with a mid to long iron will need to fly a narrow isthmus between the lakes to short wedge range from the green.  A pulled approach sends you over the embankments and cart path on the left, and a push will have you swimming with the fishes before your day has begun.  The first on the Lakes would be a much better hole if it were, say, the 5th; as the starter, it is a little brusque.
    The rest of Centennial forces consistently accurate shots as well, and on a day when the air was heavy with a consistent mist, approach shots required a club longer than usual.  Add another club for the green elevations and we found ourselves with a few head-scratchers from the fairways.  The deep bunkers - I thought they had too much sand in them - and severe slopes at greenside made us contemplate our approaches even longer.  When pins were toward the front sides of the firm, large and sloping greens, as they often were, it was difficult to keep shots from rolling to the back fringes.  
    After the Lakes nine, we thought we would get something of a reprieve on the Fairways.  The course ranger described the Fairways as a "flat, more traditional" layout than the Lakes and the Meadows (we did not get to play the Meadows).  The Fairways is indeed flatter, but by no means flat, with greens that were as significantly sloped as those on the Lakes.  Looking back on our day at Centennial, I can hardly recall a green that was not multi-tiered or a tee that was anything but elevated.
    For this time of the year in New York State, the course was in terrific shape, the greens smooth except for those lazy slobs who refuse to bend over to fix their pitch marks.  Although we spotted a few oddly placed out of bounds stakes, the few homes we saw were nowhere near the course's boundary lines.  Workers were all over the place, cutting grass and dragging a hose extended between two carts to "remove the mushrooms," as one explained to us. 

    The clubhouse and practice facilities at Centennial are of the private club type and, indeed, the club does offer annual memberships.  (Note:  The locker room is small.) The "premier" membership is a robust $5,500 annually.  Good as the course is, you would have to play a couple of rounds per week on average during the seven-month season to justify the costs, and I just don't know if most golfers would want to put themselves through such a frequent challenge of having to bear down mentally on virtually every shot.  Centennial, about 90 minutes north of New York City and convenient to I-84, is a wonderful golf course, especially in small doses.
    Centennial Golf Club, 185 John Simpson Road, Carmel, NY.  845-225-5700.  www.centennialgolf.com.  Green fees:  $100 weekdays, $135 weekend, cart with GPS included.

The par 3 14th hole at True Blue is indicative of many of the other holes on the Mike Strantz course, with sand, and lots of it.  Photo by Elliot deBear. 

    The vaunted Caledonia Golf & Fish Club is arguably the best golf course between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, although members at Bull's Bay in Awendaw might argue about that.  But since Bull's Bay is essentially unaccessible to the mere mortals willing to pony up as much as $180 to play at the daily fee Caledonia, we will amend the title to read "best daily fee course" between Myrtle Beach and Charleston.  Always in impeccable condition, Caledonis's tee sheet is typically filled a month or two in advance.
    But for those who might get shut out at Caledonia, its partner course, True Blue, is just a drive and seven-iron across the road.  True Blue, which most believe is tougher than Caledonia, is dramatically tamer than when it first opened over a decade ago.  Any but the lowest-single-digit players threw up their hands after their initial experience at the course and vowed never to return.  The fairways were narrow, the waste bunkers were constantly in play and the greens were too severely undulated, speedy and overall penal.  The package golfers, down for a weekend or a week, were threatening never to return (oh, and the conditions of the greens were none too great either).
    But after a renovation, True Blue became truly playable, and I have returned a number of times in recent years to enjoy the generous fairways and big and brawny greens.  And if driving a cart through expanses of waste sand has lost its kitschiness over the years, those compact surfaces seem a lot easier to hit from than they once did.
    Comparisons of True Blue to the Pinehurst area's Tobacco Road are not unfair.  Tobacco Road and the much tamer Caledonia were both designed by the late Mike Strantz.  Indeed, Strantz must have been feeling incredibly mellow when he laid down the blueprint for Caledonia, which is the fairest maiden in the designer's small (10 course) but distinctive oeuvre.  (Note:  Strantz's last course before he passed away at 50 was the aforementioned Bull's Bay, near his former office just north of Charleston.)  Much as I have come to tolerate Tobacco Road's idiosyncrasies, I find True Blue a fairer, less bizarre test, and one whose consistency of elements (the generous fairways, big greens and wide waste areas) challenge without being unnerving the way Tobacco Road can.

    The vistas at True Blue are marred only by some rather mundane condos off to the side of a few holes.  But what those units lack in design they make up for in price; as a second home and launching point for great golf in the Pawleys Island area, you could do worse than the $159,000 some of the 2 bedroom, 2 bath units are fetching in the current slow market.  Owners of these condos can generate a little extra income by renting to the package golfers.
    In a three-mile radius that includes Caledonia, the new Founders Club (remade from the former Sea Gull Golf Club), the classic Heritage Golf Club and the Jack Nicklaus Signature Pawleys Plantation, True Blue is an anachronism.  Play it if you are in the area, and vive la difference.

Caledonia has its share of sand but it also has a much more genteel side than does True Blue, as indicated by the flowing 13th hole at Mike Strantz' most "classic" course.