2022 Year in Review

The year 2022 was my first full year as a resident of the Charleston area.  The area has grown on me and this year I was able to take full advantage of our two multi-week closures at work during the summer.  In July I did a solo trip to Oregon and joined my wife for a week in Nebraska and Kansas.  In September we made a bucket list trip to the Big Island of Hawaii where I played one of the best courses I have ever seen.  

Nanea, my favorite course of 2022

Another highlight of the year was playing my 2000th course in May.  The course wasn't the one I had hoped or planned for the milestone, but it was still a very cool place to celebrate the occasion.   Several people tried very hard to make my 2000th the best course in the US I had yet to play, Augusta National, but ultimately it didn't work out.

Everglades Club, Golf Course #2000

Trips to Florida, New York, and Washington D.C. were also highlights of 2022, as well as almost a hundred rounds at the best course in the Charleston area!

8th hole.  97 rounds at work this year!

FLORIDA WINTER TRIP

Indian Creek Club

I began 2022, as I do most years, with a trip to Florida.  Indian Creek and Gulfstream were the reasons for the trip, but I also enjoyed rounds in Orlando and Palm Beach Gardens. Trip profile is here: Florida Winter Trip

Gulfstream Club

2000TH COURSE TRIP

Everglades Club, course #2000

I returned to Florida in May to play my 2000th golf course, The Everglades Club.  Everglades is a very exclusive club in South Florida that sits on the site of an old Seth Raynor course.  Brian Silva designed the current course in a Raynor theme and it was a wonderful course to celebrate #2000.   Trip profile here: 2000th course trip

Floridian National Golf Club

OREGON TRIP

Old MacDonald

After a twenty-one year absence, I finally returned to Oregon in 2022.  Bandon Dunes resort was my main destination but I also played some amazing courses in Portland, the Northern Coast of Oregon, as well as Eastern Oregon.  Read about my long awaited return to Oregon here: Oregon Trip  

Waverley Country Club

WORK PHOTOS

Bright moon the 1st green

It wouldn't be a year in review without a couple photos from work.  As of this writing I have played 97 rounds at work this year and yes I do work full time!  I am fortunate to be able to sneak out before or after work on days we are not busy.  I get to work before dawn most days so I was able to get some interesting photos of the course waking up in the morning.  The above photo was on a day where the moon was particularly bright and in a location I had never seen it.  The photo below is sunrise behind the 8th green, something I enjoy seeing every day.

Sunrise on the 8th green

In January we were treated to some brief snow flurries at work.  I was not amused!

MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS

New Courses Played:       123

States Played in:               20

9 Hole Courses played:    15

Top 10 Courses by Architect

9     Arnold Palmer

6     Dan Hixon

6     Tom Fazio

5     George Cobb

4     Donald Ross

4     Joe Lee
3     Coore/Crenshaw

3     Robert Trent Jones

3     Seth Raynor

3     Ault/Clark

 

Top 10 Courses by State

21    South Carolina

20    Oregon

19    Florida

11    Nebraska

8      Hawaii

7      Georgia

7      Virginia

5      Kansas

4     California

4     Conneticut

Milestones Reached

1.  2000 golf courses played

2.  State #49 played in  

Favorite Course:                 Nanea
Least Favorite Course:      Indian River
Most Overrated:                 Mauna Kea
Most Underrated:               Omaha/Waverley

Favorite Par 3:  12th Hole-Indian Creek Club
Favorite Par 4:  7th Hole-Old MacDonald
Favorite Par 5:  13th Hole-Waverley Country Club

What's in a name

A fun breakdown of golf course names from 2022

(46)Landforms: Crossing, Dune, Farm, Field, Fort, Glen, Harbor, Hill, Hollow, Island, Park, Peak, Plantation, Pointe, Preserve, Ranch, Ridge, Trail, Valley

(19)Water: Beach, Brook, Burn, Creek, Falls, Gulf, Lake, River, Run, Stream, Water

(8)Colors: Black, Blue, Emerald, Gold, Green, Red, Silver

(7)Directions: East, North, South, West

(7)Trees: Magnolia, Oak, Palm, Pine

(6)Object/Man Made: Bar,Cotton, Match, Rock, Sand, School

(5)The word "National"

(5)The word "Links"

(4)Animals: Crow, Heron, Sailfish, Sheep

(2)Food: Pumpkin

(2)States: Georgia, Kansas

(2)The word "Old"

Best Scores

66-Bar Run, Yeamans Hall

67-Pocono Manor, Yeamans Hall
68-Black Creek, Bulls Bay, Champions Run, East Potomac, Hotchkiss, Yeamans Hall

Worst Scores

79-Palos Verdes
78-Yeamans Hall

77-Old Tabby, Royal Oaks

                          NEBRASKA TRIP

CapRock Club

Immediately after my trip to Oregon, I hopped on a plane and flew to Omaha to join my wife for a week driving around Nebraska with stops in the Kansas City area as well as some great golf in Omaha.  Read all about it here: Nebraska Trip

Omaha Country Club

 DC TRIP

Burning Tree Club

I didn't do a blog post about it, but I did want to mention my September trip to the Washington D.C. area.  The main reason for the trip was to play Burning Tree Club.  This was very much a bucket list course for me as I grew up in the D.C. area and heard a lot about it growing up.  Thanks to some help from my dad, who met a member on a trip to New Mexico, I was finally able to play one of the most private courses in the Mid-Atlantic.  I also played two of the courses at East Potomac and stopped in the Smith Mountain Lake area of Virginia to play Water's Edge Country Club.  It was a very good quick road trip.

Water's Edge Country Club

 NY ROAD TRIP

North Jersey

Chipping away at the vast amount of great courses I haven't played in the New York City area is a priority of mine, so I made time to take a road trip to New York in September.  I managed to knock off a few Ross courses in Pennsylvania, as well as play some really great courses in Westchester County, New Jersey and Connecticut.  Check out my NY trip here: NY Road Trip

Sunningdale Country Club

HAWAII TRIP

Nanea

A random encounter during my 2021 trip to Lake Tahoe was the geneses of our final trip of 2022.  My wife and I traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii to play Nanea, a course I knew was good, but turned out to be one of the best experiences I've had on the golf course.  Stops in LA on the way to and from made the flights easier and the trip even better.  Read about the beauty of the Big Island here: Hawaii Trip

Mauna Kea

9 HOLE COURSES

Hotchkiss School Golf Course

I played fifteen new nine hole courses this year.  The highlight of which was the wonderful Seth Raynor designed Hotchkiss School course in Connecticut.  Frederick Peaks in Valentine, Nebraska, actually a ten hole course, was another strong showing for these non-regulation courses.

Frederick Peaks

ECLECTIC EIGHTEENS

                                             Par 3's 1 to 9

Par 3's 1 to 9 from Top Left to Right: Palm Beach Par 3, Pumpkin Ridge Witch Hollow, Omaha, Palos Verdes, Old MacDonald, Kansas City, Sheep Ranch, Everglades, Bandon Preserve

Par 3's 10 to 18

Par 3's 10 to 18, from Top Left to Right: Astoria, Mauna Kea, Indian Creek, North Jersey, Burning Tree, Mauna Lani South, Waverley, Bandon Trails, CapRock Ranch

Par 4's 1 to 9

Par 4's 1 to 9, from Top Left to Right: Century, Rolling Hills, Astoria, Happy Hollow, Mauna Kea, Silvies Valley Ranch McVeighs, Old MacDonald, Stoney Point, Round Hill

Par 4's 10 to 18

Par 4's 10 to 18, from Top Left to  Right: Everglades, Hillcrest, Sheep Ranch, Omaha, Bandon Trails, Tatanka, Nanea, Floridian National, Gulfstream

Par 5's 1 to 9

Par 5's 1 to 9, from Top Left to Right, Banyan, Royal Oaks, Reserve Vineyards South, Pumpkin Ridge Witch Hollow, Bandon Crossings, Old MacDonald, Sunningdale, Kukio, Awarii Dunes

Par 5's 10 to 18

Par 5's 10 to 18, from Top Left to Right, Omaha, Sheep Ranch, CapRock Ranch, Waverley, Congressional Gold, Riverton Pointe, Everglades, Gulfstream, Patriot at Grand Harbor

BALL MARKERS

We started a ball marker collection at work which I wrote about here: A Collection is Born I, of course, started picking up ball markers from every course I played this year that had them available so here are the ball markers from courses I played this year.

As usual when I try to do anything around the house, I had a helper

SCORECARDS

This year one of the cats actually respected the process and didn't walk all over the cards, the other one, not so much.

FLAGS

White

Red

Yellow

Blue

Checkerboard

Miscellaneous

2023

A couple things are definitive for 2023.  One is a two week trip to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New England to check out Cabot Links and some other great courses.  The other is a trip to Dallas to check out Brook Hollow and maybe PGA Frisco if it's open when I go down.   I am still looking at options for my September break.  Right now I'm thinking Detroit area, but if I can arrange some of the big name courses in the Hamptons I might try to do that.  We're going to start the year with a trip to Alabama to play some new RTJ Trail courses.  I'm sure I'll make it to Florida at some point this winter, and I'd love to get back to the New York area again.