by Tim Gavrich

        Each private club takes on a different atmosphere, its own separate character.  Some are strict golf clubs and are demure, out-of-the-way operations that the outside world barely knows exist.  I think of Palmetto Golf Club in Aiken, SC, as emblematic of this type of club.  Other clubs are larger in scope, with deep membership rolls and lavish clubhouses; they add tennis, swimming, and other sides to the club experience for their members.  Wynlakes Golf and Country Club on the outskirts of Montgomery, AL, which certainly falls into this latter category, does an excellent job of balancing the needs of a family for a rounded communal experience with the needs of a golfer for a challenging layout.

        [Editor’s Note:  The community that surrounds Wynlakes Golf & CC features single-family homes that range in price from the high $200s to $1 million.  If you would like more information about properties for sale in the community or about other golf properties in the Montgomery area, please contact me.]

        Opened in 1986, the course at Wynlakes was designed by Joe Lee, who produced such well-known American venues as the Blue Monster at the Doral Resort and Pine Tree Golf Club, both in Florida, as well as the original Dubsdread course at Cog Hill Golf Club outside of Chicago.  Cog Hill and Doral are annual stops on the PGA Tour schedule.  These Lee designs are known for being solid tests of golf with large, undulating greens and sprawling, many-fingered bunkers.  Wynlakes exhibits these hallmarks of Lee’s architectural style as well.

Scary prospects along the right side of the par 4 5th hole at Wynlakes sends most drives well left.  The green is well guarded and elevated, making approaches from the safer left side especially challenging.  Photos by Larry Gavrich

        As golf courses go, Wynlakes is not particularly difficult from any set of tees.  The tips, at 6,979 yards, play to a rating of 73.3 and a slope of 126.  Although houses sit along one or both sides of most fairways, they are well back, leaving ample room for recovery shots or pitch outs in most cases.

        Wynlakes begins somewhat awkwardly, with a 583-yard par five that doglegs hard to the left around two fairway bunkers.  Even a straight drive may force players to curl their lay-up shot around trees that line the left side of the fairway.  This is Wynlakes' only strange hole, and its transgressions are by no means horrible.

        After two slight dogleg-left par fours, the player encounters the first of four stout par threes.  The fourth hole weighs in at 183 yards from the tips and 158 yards from the middle “Member” tees.  The shot plays slightly downhill, all carry over a corner of A.W. Dale Lake to a deep rectangular green surrounded by grass hollows and bunkers.  A green in regulation on this hole is well earned.

Trees along the left side and near the green at the par 5 starting hole at Wynlakes make a layup down the right side of the fairway mandatory.

        Wynlakes features a good amount of water, but in all but three cases, the player has options to go around or play over the hazards.  Oftentimes, this allows the aggressive players to put their scores at risk in pursuit of an easier next shot.  The sixth hole is an excellent example of this choice.  It is a hard dogleg left around a pond where the player can choose to play to the right of the pond, leaving a mid-iron shot to the green, or directly over it, leaving as little as a half-wedge.  Taking the short route requires a drive that carries at least 250 yards from the back tees.  A ball hit too far left will definitely find the hazard, but a well-executed shot will create a great birdie opportunity.

        Wynlakes’ front nine is long and challenging, but the back nine is more charming and dramatic.  Hole 11 is the longest of Wynlakes’ four par threes and is also the only hole on the course without a bunker, but by no means is it a pushover.  At 202 yards from the back tee box, the long iron plays to one of Wynlakes' largest greens and the one with the boldest contours of any putting surface on the course.  Various ridges and slopes separate the green into three distinct sections.  Playing the hole on consecutive days could demand different club selections, especially if the wind is kicking up, and even different shapes to the shot.  Such variability of play on a particular hole day to day is often what separates the thoughtful designer's work from the mundane.

Bunkering around the 12th green is indicative of the protection designer Joe Lee provides for many of the putting surfaces at Wynlakes.

        The back nine exposes an interesting quirk of the routing at Wynlakes.  After holing out on the par four 15^th, players must walk (or ride, as is most often the case) about 350 yards to the 16^th tee — a journey past the putting green, driving range and clubhouse.  The final three holes are laid out in a triangle — used, no doubt, by members wishing to test out what they’ve been practicing on the range late in the afternoon and evening.  This is the finest three-hole stretch on the golf course.  It begins with a 548-yard par five, a straightaway hole that invites a big swing off the tee.  Trouble awaits on the second and third shots.  The green sits hard by a pond, with bunkers protecting its outer edges.  Depending on wind (which is abundant at Wynlakes) and firmness of the fairways, one might be tempted to try for the green in two, making a wide range of scores (from 3 to 8) a distinct possibility.

        The 17^th changes the pace beautifully at a crucial point in the round.  Many golf courses’ penultimate tests are long par threes with abundant trouble, ready to extract bogeys and worse while making players work hard to save par.  The 17^th at Wynlakes, by contrast, is a mere 136 yards from the back tees — a late birdie opportunity.  But this is not a smart place to relax:  Water bordering the entire left side of the sloping green and a bunker on the right mean a careless swing could easily lead to a big score late in the round.

Wynlakes' massive clubhouse frames and dwarfs the finishing hole while a lake dominates most of the front of the green.

        Like many courses, Wynlakes saves on of its stiffest challenges for its closing hole.  At just under 440 yards from the back tees, it boasts a narrow fairway guarded by bunkers and water with a green that follows through on the theme of protection.  The putting surface is huge but, as at number 11, the bold internal contouring forces the player pressing to end the round on a high note to consider much more than merely finding the green in regulation in order to avoid a crushing three-putt.  The 18^th at Wynlakes provides a solid ending note to a solid golf course.

Winlakes golf by the numbers:

Championship tees: 6,979 yards/73.3 rating/126 slope

Chairman: 6,575/71.1/124

Member: 6,347/69.9/123

Founders: 5,625/66.4/111

Forward: 4,826/68.7/120 (women’s)

        Anyone who has played golf for a long time knows the game will find cruel and unusual ways to crush high expectations.  And one good round does not always beget another.  I was reminded of this over the course of 18 holes at Pine Needles Golf Club on March 11.

        My humiliation started with a triumph on March 1 when my college golf team, the Division III Washington & Lee Generals, completed our second spring tournament, the Pine Needles Invitational in Southern Pines, NC.  The team finished seventh out of 10 at the event, but I was able to put together solid rounds of 76 and 72 to take the top spot in the event individually.  I mention this because my solid play 10 days earlier helped push my expectations to Icarian heights for my March 11 round.

        About a week ago I read a tweet from Golf Digest Senior Travel Editor Matt Ginella containing a link to a short article advertising an upcoming magazine-sponsored tournament, the W I D E Open at Pine Needles, the Donald Ross gem in the sandhills of central North Carolina.  The article raised the question, “Ever wonder what you’d shoot if the golf hole were a lot larger?”

        The W I D E Open Championship was billed as a normal romp around Pine Needles, save for cups that, instead of the standard four and a half inches, were to be 15 inches in diameter, just three inches smaller than a basketball hoop.  (In other words, enormous.)

        Can’t miss, right?  That’s what I thought too.

        I was able to recruit my friend and former teammate Nathaniel, a student at W&L School of Law.  We set out from Lexington, VA, excited and expectant about how the enlarged targets would affect our rounds — how many strokes it would shave off of our typical scores, what length of putt would be a gimme, etc.  As we speculated, my heartbeat quickened at the idea of shooting a seriously low score.  Something in the mid-50s even, I thought.

        When we arrived at Pine Needles, we were greeted with a crater-like hole on the practice green.  Nathaniel and I cackled at the size of it.  Visions of a sub-60 score continued to dance through my head.  They only grew when I noticed the scoreboard bearing a 58 from a player in one of the first groups.

        I was further heartened as I stood about five yards short of the green at the par-five first hole, having hit a long drive and good five iron.  Peering up the green at the absurdly wide hole, I was already imagining marking myself down for an opening eagle.

        Most golfers would agree that this is where I doomed myself, of course.  In my excitement, I played an aggressive pitch shot into the back fringe some 20 feet long and then I missed the putt, turning a three into a five and my excitement to private rage.

        Most of my fellow golfers recognize the trap that anger can set for you on the golf course.  In my tizzy over the missed opportunity and size of the holes, I proceeded to make a parade of bad swings.  I managed only one birdie — from my lone green in regulation — in the first nine holes while Nathaniel, who has always had an enviably even keel, made five birdies, chipping in a few times along the way to a 67 that included only 15(!) putts.

        I righted the ship somewhat on the back nine, managing a few birdies against yet more maddening disappointments.  In the end, I was faced with a 40-footer on 18 to climb all the way back to even-par 71, but I left the putt an inch short of the massive cup.  Naturally, the 72 I shot matched my score in the “real” competition a couple of weeks earlier.

        Despite my foul mood at having gotten so far ahead of myself, I could only laugh as I filled out the questionnaire on the back of the Golf Digest-produced scorecard.  It asked how much fun we had.  I could not remember laughing more on the golf course during a crummy round.  The sheer size of each hole lent an air of absurdity and humor to every sand shot, chip and putt.  This made the round fun in its own way, and Nathaniel and I agreed it was a day well spent.

        But it was certainly not the type of golf I would want to play very often, as the huge cups sapped the Pine Needles greens of their nuances and devalued skillful putting.  If one bashed a putt at the hole, it was going in.  Virtues such as reading breaks and lagging putts were deemphasized to the point of being unnecessary.  Even so, the event was something even the most tradition-oriented golfers ought to put on their bucket lists, if for no other reason than to try to channel the anticipation of a low score into, well, a low score.  Good luck.

        For more photos of the Pine Needles event, click here.  For our previous article on the W I D E Open event, click here.

Can't Miss Opportunity?  The basketball-hoop sized hole at the 18th at Pine Needles, and all the other holes, seemd like a slam dunk for birdie.  Photo by Tim Gavrich.