The 9th at Trillium is straight downhill with a friendly bank on the left and death on the right. The green is one of the two most narrow I have played in 50 years of golf.
Senior pro golfer Morris Hatalsky has designed one 18-hole golf course to date, the up and down Trillium Links in Cashiers, NC, and he may have borrowed a little inspiration from an obscure nine hole course in the middle of nowhere Tennessee. Trillium is notable for its dramatic changes in elevation, inlcuding its unique 8th hole, a par four that calls for a 160-yard drive to the top of a hill for a short wedge approach to a green at the edge of a cliff. I'll have more to say about the course
and golf community in the coming days, but one hole, as Yogi Berra might say, was déjà vu all over again for me.
The 9th at Trillium, a downhill par 3, features a green I had seen before at the par 3 4th hole at Sewanee Golf Club in Tennessee, a remote little nine hole layout that was designed in the mid 20th Century by faculty and students from the nearby University of the South. At its most narrow, the Sewanee green was perhaps four steps across the front and no more than five or six at its widest part. The putting surface stretched about 110 feet from front to back.
The Trillium green is a virtual duplicate, maybe 20 feet deeper but almost the same shape as the one at Sewanee. The betting here is that Hatalsky has seen the Sewanee green, either live or in a photo. I have asked Trillium golf professional Tim Laverty to ask Hatalsky, who lives with his wife in the Trillium community, about his inspiration for the 9th green. I will let you know when I hear back from Mr. Laverty.
The 9th at Trillium from behind the green. The narrowest part, just about 15 feet, is at the front, where the pin was placed on Thursday. When I played Sewanee a few years ago, the pin was also up front.