olde liberty

well it's a rainy day here in the downeast portion of nc, so thought i would let you guys know about the round from yesterday. this was one of those hey it's going to be a nice day lets play rounds.

the marine sent me his weekend schedule and listed a few options of when he could play, thank goodness we went with yesterday, otherwise we would have ended up sitting in a clubhouse somewhere drinking cold ones...which may have been a better scenario than yesterday.

after we decided on yesterday i sent the cow farmer a text to see if he could play and since he is membered up with the fred smith courses we chose olde liberty. after some back and forth got a 0920 tee time. i totally forgot that i would be up the night before late working with my west coast clients, so not much sleep for me; while working i get a text from the cow farmer...he is sick...not his normal mental sickness, a real physical sickness. he was hoping to be better the next day but i had some concerns. unfortunately he was unable to attend this round, due to not being able to be more than about 25 - 30 feet away from a bathroom...gross details will be withheld due to some of you probably have weak stomachs and might not find it as funny as i do.

so we arrive at olde liberty, this being my first round there, found it to be like numerous courses in eastern nc. built with great plans of having a golfing community, large houses and all the amenities...but seems like the course got built and then the housing market collapsed. i can think of few others that are in the exact same situation: formerly known as fords colony...golf club of rocky mount, formerly know as innsbrook...scotch hall preserve and one of every one's favorites cutter creek.

the marine was on the practice tee whacking away at range balls when i pulled up,  he told me the clubhouse had informed him that we could go when ready...i think there were 5 cars in the lot. so i hit a small $5 bag of balls and off to #1...the marine mentioned that the group of 6 gentlemen who were heading for the #1 tee box as i went into the clubhouse to get checked in were not going to let us play through and would be slow...or at least that is what the pro told him.

we pull up to the #1 tee box and 4 of the six are about 180 yards from the tee and  the remaining two have not even teed off yet? seriously that was like 25 minutes from when they got to the box? after another 10 minutes of waiting we went back to the house to get permission to start on #10...permission granted...off we go again.

those of you who are familiar with this course and know its history...closed, reopened and all that mess, heard bad things, heard good things...well the layout is awesome, it is l...o...n...g! some really nice scenic holes, just enough sand to make you cuss and a little less water, did notice one interesting thing...since i did spend quite a bit of time "at the beach" there was at least 3 different types of sand? first one i was in was a red coarse sand...and plenty of it in the bunker, the second one was a white sugar like sand...like you find in florida and yet another had some nasty brown sand and was a bit scarce, nevertheless it was interesting. the marine found the bunker on the first hole (#10) and found it again and yet another time and one more time for good luck...all in the same bunker. i think he said he got a 14 on that hole, but we only play trip max, so not too bad.

fairways were in pretty good shape for this time of year, the rough was iffy. in some places the rough was just thick bermuda (dormant) and in others it was wet red clay, the later was horrible to play from.

greens were in very nice shape, again for this time of the year, apparently they had spray painted them? not sure but nice and green. the ball rolled well, no hopping or bouncing and they were not too fast and not too slow.

overall a great time on a nice course, i will certainly go back, especially since the cow farmer handled the greens fees! he is such a good guy...nothing better than free golf!

just one word of caution if you do decide to go play olde liberty, there is a square parking area behind the clubhouse (single wide trailer), well it is not a parking area, the marine got chewed out by the super for parking his cart there...apparently that is their grand ball room, you know the area for events and wine tastings...not very regular.

don't forget to check out the upcoming events, next scheduled event is at lonnie poole, but there is now an events calendar on the right side of the blog. until next time, don't forget to golf your balls!