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In the fall, the views from the tee on the par 3 16th hole at Hop Meadow CC are impressive, and golfers run the risk of being distracted by the view of the par 5 17th beyond. (Note designer Geoffrey Cornish's conceit with the first bunker on #17, an arrow pointing the way toward the green.)

 

    The leaves have not quite reached their peak colors in Connecticut yet, but even one week short of peak is impressive.  I snuck out yesterday, two days before they are going to aerate the greens at my home course, Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury, CT.  I had the back nine to myself and took advantage of the opportunity to capture with my camera the great contast between the still-green course and the orange/red/browns of the leaves.  (The white sand doesn't look bad either, although after a few days of modest rain, I plugged a few in the damp stuff.)  It seems that, in recent years, rain has ruined leaf peeping, but not so far this year.  Quite a treat.

    In the Charleston area in South Carolina, autumn brings no such change of color in the leaves, but the marsh along the fairways of the excellent courses in the Mt. Pleasant provide their own impressive display, especially in contrast with the water at high tide.  The latest issue of HomeOnTheCourse is jam-packed with information about the communities and courses in and near Mt. Pleasant, including the Ginn Company-developed Rivertowne Country Club, which features a nice Arnold Palmer course, and the Wild Dunes Resort, which sadly just lost its ocean green on the finishing hole of the sporty Tom Fazio layout but has plans to start rebuilding it soon.  We feature other fine community golf courses by Rees Jones, Arthur Hills and George Cobb, as well as helpful information about life in the Mt. Pleasant area.

    Don't miss out on this loaded, full-color 13-page issue.  A subscription is just $39 annually for six informative issues, and subscribing is easy and secure.  Next up in December is Austin, TX.  Order today.

 

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It takes three shots, and a bridge, to get to the green on the par 5 11th hole at Rivertowne CC's fine and challenging Arnold Palmer course, site of a women's PGA tournament.   It is just one of many fine options in the Mt. Pleasant, SC area.

 

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    An ad for golf packages at Kiawah Island, SC, in the Wall Street Journal today had the following simple sentences above a wonderful photo of a hole at the famed Ocean Course:

 

"There is epic golf.  Then there is Kiawah."

 

    Wha?  Isn't "epic" a great thing, as in the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Godfather series?  "Epic" means beyond imposing and surpassing the ordinary (especially in size).  How much better than that could golf get?  What the Kiawah copywriters appear to be saying is, "There is epic...and then there is pretentious."

 

   

Speaking of pretentious copy, I am working on article to be published here

Speaking of pretentious copy, I am working on article to be published here in the next day or two that will describe how golf course communities are trying to outdo each other with outrageous claims in their marketing copy.  This is a bit of pot calling the kettle black; I am a former advertising copywriter.  It should be fun.