Post by Richie3Jack on May 19, 2010 11:51:04 GMT -5
Cateeched is a Mike Young designed course out in the middle of nowhere right next to the South Carolina and Georgia border, near Lake Hartwell. It's a resort course that Canongate does not own, but manages and it's still open to the public. IMO, if you're anywhere near that area or even in Atlanta and looking for some good golf at a decent price, Cateechee is well worth the 90 minute drive.
Cateechee plays about 7,000 yards from the back tees and has a 143 slope as well. It's quite hilly and the course is always in immaculate condition. In fact, they may have the best greens in the state outside of Augusta National. Everything there is pristine from the course to the range to the bathroom sinks in the clubhouse. There's also no houses on the course.
Usually the front side plays a little easier than the back side, but there's plenty of tough shots on the front 9. It's fairly wide open off the tee and that does favor the bomber a bit, but it's still a course where precision iron shots are needed because you're looking at greens that are rolling about a 12-13 on the stimpmeter and they have huge swales and hills. The great thing is if you avoid the undulations and are withing 20 feet, you'll probably make quite a few putts more than normal because the greens are so smooth. OTOH, you can hit 18 greens and shoot above par if you don't avoid the undulations on the green.
I would highly recommend that you try and get somebody who has played the course before along with one of their fantastic yardage books (I think they are still free) to play the course because while it's a great design, some holes are deceiving off the tee, like #3, #10, #14 and #17 (which is deceiving on the 2nd shot).
The great holes are #1, #8, #10, #13, #14, #17.
There's really no bad holes outside of #10 if you really don't know where you are going or if you hit a poor drive. It's a good hole by my standards though.
The weaker holes are #3, #6, and #16. Only 16 is somewhat of a goofy hole, but none of them are bad holes.
#13 is my favorite. It's pictured above and is a par-3 about 200 yards long teeing of a giant cliff with a hazard in front. Just a picturesque golf hole. They probably should make it a little shorter because the green is pretty shallow and if you're long, the green slopes downhill and can make for an almost impossible putt.
Overall, just a very fun golf course that is always in supreme condition and well worth the time and money to play there.
3JACK